At a forum Monday, Berkeley High School students said their new principal’s proposals for dealing with truancy will harm the kids most in need of help. 

“We need to come up with some service-based solutions, even before enforcement,” said Niles Xi’an Lichtenstein, student director on the Berkeley Board of Education, and a coordinator for the student group Youth Together, which sponsored the forum. 

Principal Frank Lynch said the school had to put something in place by next year to impact a truancy problem that’s costing the school district nearly $1 million a year in state education dollars forfeited due to lack of attendance. 

“If it’s love that will do it, wonderful. If it’s fear that will do it, wonderful, for right now,” Lynch said. 

In an interview Tuesday, Lynch said the school’s budget is based largely on state funding, which is determined by the average daily attendance rate. That rate currently stands at 94 percent at Berkeley High, Lynch said.  

In other words, the money the state gives the Berkeley Unified School District assumes a high school enrollment of roughly 3,000, when the school’s actual enrollment is 3,200. 

Lynch said Monday the problem is that the district hires teachers, buys education materials and so forth based on the 3,200 number. 

Lynch has proposed that students with nine unexcused absences in any one class be dropped from the class with an automatic “F.” After six unexcused absence, the students’ parents would be called in for a conference with the teacher, who would work to create a “plan of action” to get the student to attend class. 

Lynch has said repeatedly that he is not wedded to the number of unexcused absences that trigger intervention or a failing grade, just so long as the school puts a formal system in place to guarantee consequences for students who miss class frequently. 

“We’re in a position right now where we’ve got students hanging around just doing absolutely nothing,” Lynch said Tuesday. “We’ll do something. We just have to. It’s a big problem.” 

But several students at the forum said a crack down on attendance of the type proposed by Lynch fails to address the root causes of the problem. 

“If we’re not in school, then there is something that is missing in this education,” said Berkeley High student Eddy James. 

“If you’re going to hold the students accountable for being in class, you need to hold the teacher accountable for teaching,” said student Amani Carey-Simms, who alleged that one of his math teachers spends class time simply reading from the text book. 

Merle Fajans, a Berkeley High parent for six years up until this year, said both parents and teachers have complained about the quality of certain Berkeley High teachers for years to no avail. 

While her kids were at Berkeley High, Fajans said, they would come home some days and explain that they had not been in class that day because there was a substitute teacher who didn’t “know what they (were) doing,” or perhaps no substitute teacher at all on a day the teacher was absent.  

Fajans said some teachers were absent for more than a month of out of the 180-day school year. 

In a poll of 317 Berkeley High students conducted by Youth Together earlier this month, 82 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the statement: “The proposed truancy policy addresses the root causes of why students are not in class.” 

Seventy-two percent said the proposed policy would not encourage students to stay in class and improve their grades. “The root causes are going to be there still,” said student Maliah Coye Monday. “Kids are not going to go to class...making them get an ‘F.’” 

At the very least, students said, the school should not crack down on attendance until it has created some sort of alternative educational program for those students who will inevitably fail numerous classes under such a system. That way, instead of just being branded as failures and then left to their own devices, the students could be directed to specialized classes where they might feel more engaged. 

“Failure should never be an option,” said James. “How is failing somebody going to be for the better of their character?” 

The students also proposed the creation of a Peer Advocacy Program, where a group of Berkeley High students would be trained to act as intermediaries between the administration and their peers.  

The Peer Advocates could intervene with students before their absences become a discipline issue, the students suggested, showing them how to take advantage of tutoring, mentoring and health services available at the school and steering them into the “good classes” with “good teachers”. 

Lynch said Tuesday that he welcomes the idea of a peer advocacy type program as one component of any new policy for dealing with truancy, just so long as he has a specific proposal to take to the school board by next month. 

His own proposal, he said, calls for the creation of a School Attendance Review Team (SART), made up of students, teachers and staff. The SART would determine effective ways to intervene with frequently absent students.  

Lynch has also called for hiring a full-time truancy officer to track absent students and make sure the new truancy measures are being universally enforced. Many have criticized Berkeley High in the past for failing to address inconsistencies in the way different teachers enforce attendance. 

Wednesday, May 16

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. 644-6226 

Thursday, May 17

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 

“What is Queer Spirituality?” 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd Bldg., Room 100 

Bill Glenn, PSR alumni and leader of Spirit Group, will lead a panel discussion on the dynamic shape of queer spirituality today.  

849-8206 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue 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.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

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 meeting is the spring barbecue. 654-5486 

Solving Residential Drainage Problems 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

First day of two day seminar led by contractor/engineer Eric Burtt. Continues Tuesday May 22. $70 for both days. 525-7610 

John Muir May Fair 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

John Muir Elementary School 

2955 Claremont Ave 

Cake walk, face painting, games, food and student performances, quilt raffle. Free. 

644-6410 

Friday, May 18

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.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Saturday, May 19

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Annual strawberry tasting 

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

548-3333 

Get to Know Your Plants 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn what to look for and what and how to record it to more intimately know your plants.  

548-2220 

“Be Your Own Boss” 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

YWCA 

1515 Webster Street, Oakland 

Second Saturday of a two day workshop on starting up small businesses (see May 12). 

415-541-8580 

Community Summit on  

Smaller Learning  

Communities 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Alternative High School  

MLK Jr. Way (at Derby)  

All teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members are encouraged to attend this meeting on smaller learning communities at Berkeley High. Translation, childcare, and food will be provided.  

540-1252 to RSVP for services 

Campaign for Equality Benefit  

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club  

1650 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A comedy benefit with performances by Karen Ripley, Julia Jackson, Pippi Lovestocking, Darrick Richardson, and Nick Leonard. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Lesbian Gay Association Scholarship Fund for the 2001 ILGA Summit in Oakland.  

$15 - $20  

466-5050 

Finish Carpentry 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Carpenter/contractor Kevin Stamm leads workshop. $95. 

525-7610 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Seminar taught by structural engineer Tony DeMascole and seismic contractor Jim Gillett. $75. 

525-7610 

How to Prevent Home Owner Nightmares 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Dispute prevention and early resolution seminar taught by contractor/mediator Ron Kelly. $75. 

525-7610 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 and 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health (Lower Level) 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Program on physical and mental differences. Promotes acceptance and understanding. Free. 

549-1564  

Sunday, May 20

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 

Working with Awareness,  

Concentration, Energy 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Nyingma members discuss meditative awareness in everyday life. Free and open to the public. 

843-6812 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Kick up your heels and move your hips with professional instructors Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie. Plus Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices encouraged to attend and no partners are required.  

$12  

RSVP: 237-9874 

Mediterranean Herbs 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Tour of herbs. Learn myths and legends, ideas for planting in home gardens. 

643-1924 

—compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

Jazz on 4th Street Festival 

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

4th St. between Hearst and Virginia 

Performances by Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and two Berkeley High Jazz Combos, among others. Also 4th St. merchants, raffle prizes, arts and crafts. Free admission. Proceeds benefit Berkeley High Performing Arts.  

526-6294 

Jewish rights to Israel ‘pre-existing’ 

Editor: 

I write in response to a letter in the Friday, May 4 issue of The Berkeley Daily Planet, calling Israel’s settlements “immoral and illegal.” Even supporters of Israel often miss the point that the basic legal document governing the disposition of the territories in the League of Nations Mandate of 1921, which obliges the Jewish Agency or its successor, which today is Israel, to not only govern the land but to settle it. 

All other resolutions and agreements are not binding under International law. That is why, by the way, the United States calls the settlements nasty things at times, but it NEVER calls them illegal: it cannot. 

The Mandate did not “grant” the Jewish people the right to the Land of Palestine, as the British called it, it “recognized” the Jewish people’s ancient rights, meaning that Jewish rights are considered “pre-existing” rather than newly created. 

I have more detail concerning this subject, but though interesting and important, it may seem a little obscure to the general reader or the reader bent on attacking Israel. 

Carol Shivel 

Berkeley 

Parking minus ‘ing’ = transit 

Editor: 

What do you et if you take the “ing” out of Parking? You get a park. Does Berkeley need more parks or parking?  

At least a third of downtown Berkeley is paved in asphalt. Another 5/6 is committed to concrete. The last sliver is green. We can't afford to lose more land to automobiles. The BHS tennis courts were recently paved over for parking. Sounds like Martin Luther King Park is being considered for the next parking lot. Lovely. 

Downtown has enormous transit resources which could be better marketed, and marked. Though the bus schedules, which serve Berkeley, are the biggest mysteries in the universe, the busses actually run. The No. 51, for example, runs every ten minutes on weekdays. Amazing. There are a dozen more bus lines serving the downtown. 

If the political will in this community focused on public transit instead of automobiles, you'd have what's called a “win-win” situation.  

Deborah Green 

Berkeley  

Thanks for  

good works 

Editor,  

On behalf of Berkeley Youth Alternatives we would like thank Congregation Beth El for all the time and dedication that went into planning and carrying out the “Sukkot in April” project. They painted our building and it looks wonderful! We know how much work goes into putting together such an awesome community-building event, and we really appreciate all that they did in order to make it so successful.  

Our friends, families and children have all commented on how much more welcoming and brighter BYA looks. The effort and care that they put into helping BYA was a true Mitzvah! 

Niculia Williams, 

Executive Director, Berkeley Youth Alternatives 

New film brings out more than ‘mistrust’ 

Editor: 

That was an interesting article in the Monday Berkeley Daily Planet's Bay Briefs, “Asian Americans wary of movie's influence,” reporting on the apprehension of Bay Area Asian Americans over the new movie “Pearl Harbor.” However, the use of the sanitized word “mistrust” in describing the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans in “relocation camps” during World War II was disturbing. I think the correct word is racism. 

Asian Americans have every reason to be apprehensive of this latest glorification of past wars in preparation of future ones. Just look at the kneejerk anti-Chinese racism that spewed forth in so much of the American media after the recent U.S. spy plane incident, including the notorious Oliphant cartoon that revived anti-Asian stereotypes that one would have hoped had ended when World War II did.  

Steve Wagner 

Oakland 

FBI withholding evidence not uncommon as seen in Peltier case 

Editor: 

The withholding of evidence and obstruction of justice appear to be habitual FBI practices. In recent months, this pattern has become frightfully clear. 

Revelations of FBI misconduct in Boston are appalling. The FBI manufactured evidence, which put two innocent men in prison, while the real murderer were protected and allowed to kill with impunity. 

Evidence about FBI misconduct in the Birmingham bombings is no less disturbing. For years the FBI did nothing to pursue the racist murderers of the four young girls, all the while knowing who the culprits were. And now it has been revealed that the FBI illegally withheld evidence relating to the Oklahoma bombing. Somehow, the news comes as no surprise. 

Equally troublesome is the case of Leonard Peltier, the Indigenous rights activist considered by Amnesty International a “political prisoner” who should be “immediately and unconditionally released.” The FBI is also withholding evidence in his case. 

Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents after the FBI coerced witnesses, utilized false testimony, and intentionally withheld a ballistic test reflecting his innocence at trial. The ballistic test was later released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and it prompted the U.S. Prosecutor to admit, “we can’t prove who shot those agents.”  

Yet, Peltier has remained in prison for over 25 years and the FBI refuses to release the 6,000 documents still held in secret files today. 

Before another victim is allowed to languish one more year in prison, Congress should hold investigations into the FBI’s handling of the Peltier case and subpoena the remaining 6,000 documents. 

When the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country considers itself above the law, each of us becomes a potential victim of injustice. 

Marco Barrantes 

Berkeley 

Try transit first  

Editor: 

Each day I walk my dog. I often fiddle. Many times a week I am in Civic Center Park. I shop at the Saturday Farmers’ Market and participate in many festivals held in the Park. I am dismayed to hear and am opposed to the park being torn up and its many festivals and the Saturday Farmers’ Market being unavailable to us while the Park is dug up to create an underground parking garage. 

I don’t want to lose my park, even temporarily. Don’t dig up Civic Center Park. 

Building such a garage will not help my street (one block from Civic Center Park) as everyone who parks up street while working or shopping nearby will continue to park on the street where it’s free! If the Civic Center Garage is free too these cars might move off my street, but I’m sure the city would not give free parking when the spaces cost so much to build ($22 million is $45,000. for each space). 

Before we even think about whether or not to build a garage, we should offer employees and shoppers transit incentives (discounts) to use alternate transportation first. It’s so much cheaper to let someone have a transit pass discount than it is to build that person a parking space. Even UCB did the class pass.  

Can’t the City of Berkeley be the leader we claim to be and take the lead? It might turn out that we don’t need a garage at all if enough people use transit once in a while. Let’s be the transit first Berkeley we’ve been saying we are.  

Morgan Fichter 

Berkeley

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. “Ricky Swallow/Matrix 191,” Including new sculptures and drawings; Through May 27 $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  

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. “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. “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. All ages. May 18: Ensign, All Bets Off, Playing Enemy, Association Area, Blessing the Hogs; May 19: Punk Prom and benifit for India quake victims features Pansy Division, Plus Ones, Dave Hill, Iron Ass; May 25: Controlling Hand, Wormwood, Goats Blood, American Waste, Quick to Blame; May 26: Honor System, Divit, Enemy You, Eleventeen, Tragedy Andy; June 1: Alkaline Trio, Hotrod Circuit, No Motiv, Dashboard Confessional, Bluejacket; June 2 El Dopa, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Shadow People, Ludicra, Ballast. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 16: 9 p.m. Creole Belles; May 17: 10 p.m. Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave; May 18: 9:30 p.m. Reggae Angels with Mystic Roots; May 19: 9:30 Kotoja; May 20: 8:30 p.m. Jude Taylor and His Burning Flames 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 17: The Rincon Ramblers; May 18: Todd Snider; May 19: Oak, Ash and Thorn; May 20: KALW’s 60th Anniversary Concert featuring Paul Pena, Orla and the Gasmen, Kennelly Irish Dancers, Kathy Kallick and Nina Gerber. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Rythm Doctors; May 29: The Lost Trio; May 30: Zambambazo 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Peña Cultural Center May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane; May 20: 6 p.m. Venezuelan Music Recital 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

The Crowden School Annual Spring Concert May 16, 7:30 p.m. $5-$10 St. John’s Presbytarian Church at College and Garber 559-6910 

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 

Jazz Singers Collective May 17, 8 p.m. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

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 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

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  

“En Mouvement/In Motion” May 18, 19 7 p.m., May 19, 20 2 p.m. Part of the Berkeley Ballet Theater Spring Showcase, this production is a collection of works by student dancers/ $15. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 843-4689  

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“The Laramie Project” May 18 - July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members travelled to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepard. The play is about the community and the impact Shepard’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Sister, My Sister” May 20, 5 p.m. Poetry, photography and dramatic readings which give voice to women and children cuaght in homelessness. Admission is free, donations welcome. Live Oak Park Theatre1301 Shattuck Ave. 528-8198 

Pacific Film Archive May 18: 7:30 The Cloud-Capped Star; May 19: 3:30 Starewicz Puppet Films; May 20: 5:30 The New Gulliver Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Drowning in a Sea of Plastics” Video and Discussion Night May 16, 7 p.m. Join the Ecology Center’s Plastic Task Force for a viewing of “Trade Secrets” and “Synthetic Sea.” Free. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220 ext. 233 

“Scapes/Escapes” Ink, Acrylic, Mixed Media by Evelyn Glaubman Through June 1 Tuesday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Gallery of the Center for Psychological Studies 1398 Solano Ave. Albany 524-0291 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Meet the artists May 18, 19, 20 (call for times). Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“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 

“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 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

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) 

“Tropical Visions: Images of AfroCaribbean Women in the Quilt Tapestries of Cherrymae Golston” Through May 28, Tu-Th, 1-7 p.m., Sat 12-4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 16: Tim Flannery describes “The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples”; May 17: Lalita Tademy reads “Cane River”; May 18: Oscar London, M.D. copes with “From Voodoo to Viagra: The Magic of Medicine”; May 21: Ariel Dorfman reads “Blakes Therapy”  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted May 17: Jean Shinoda Bolen talks about “Goddesses In Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”; May 29, 7 - 9 p.m.: Travel Photo Workshop with Joan Bobkoff. $15 registration fee  

“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. May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo; May 31: Connie Post with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Adan David Miller and JoJo Doig May 20, 7 p.m. Poetry and spoken word. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo 548-3333 

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  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour 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 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 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 

Two nights a week about 11 p.m., UC Berkeley student Mike Barnes drops whatever he’s doing and walks the eight blocks from his fraternity to his second job. 

The job is simple. It rarely takes longer than an hour. In fact, much of his work time is spent watching the 11 o’clock news or discussing current events, new software programs, girlfriends. Though the job is simple, if Barnes doesn’t show up, it would drastically affect one  

person’s life. 

Barnes, a second-year political economy major, works as an attendant for Berkeley resident Scott Lupkin, a quadriplegic. After the two have socialized for a half-hour or so, Barnes prepares Lupkin for sleep. He helps Lupkin undress and then transfers him from his electric-powered wheelchair to bed. Barnes then plugs in the chair so it will be recharged the following day and heads back to Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. 

Barnes chose the fraternity in the fall of 1999 specifically because of its commitment to assist people with disabilities. Besides working as attendants, fraternity members raise over $300,000 each year through its coast-to-coast Journey of Hope Bike Ride. 

“When I heard that, the deal was sealed for me,” said Barnes, who also works 20 hours a week at the campus Recreational Sports Facility. “I was worried at first because it’s a big commitment but it has really helped to shape me as a person.” 

In addition to gaining satisfaction from helping someone, Barnes earns an extra $100 for the eight hours he works for Lupkin each month. “It’s very rewarding to meet an interesting person,” Barnes said. “And it makes you feel good to help someone.” 

Attendant work seems like it would be the ideal part-time job. It requires little or no experience. The hours are flexible and the work can be both financially and personally rewarding. But despite these advantages, Berkeley’s disabled community is having an increasingly difficult time finding attendants.  

According to Sean Reidy, the Personal Assistant Coordinator at the Center for Independent Living, fewer people are submitting applications for attendant work. “Two years ago we were getting about 25 applications a month, from which we would end up with four or five decent attendants,” Reidy said. “Now we get an average of four applications a month.” 

The attendant shortage became so bad last year that the Personal Assistant Crisis Team was formed. PACT is a collection of organizations and private individuals that includes the Center for Independent Living, Easy Does It, a provider of emergency services for the disabled, and the Disabled Students Union. PACT has designed an information campaign, called the Frequently Asked Questions About Attendant Work program, aimed at students and others who can benefit from attendant work.  

Lupkin, an individual PACT member, said there are a number of reasons why there are fewer attendants. One is the strong economy that has created plenty of high-paying jobs. Another is there is a lot of misinformation about attendant work.  

One misconception is an idea that the tasks attendants perform require training or experience. According to the FAQs information sheet “most disabled employers can teach a new attendant what they need to know.” 

Another misconception is that attendants are required to perform highly personal tasks such as assisting with bodily functions.  

“Each disabled person is different in the kinds of tasks which he or she needs done. The tasks can range from running errands, to light housekeeping, to cooking, to more personal care like dressing or grooming,” the FAQs sheet reads. 

The sheet goes on to say that most people who are thinking about attendant work usually start by doing simple tasks and take on additional responsibility if they feel comfortable. 

Barnes discounts the fear of performing personal tasks. “If you can’t help someone undress by the time you’re in college… I mean most people in college should have that capacity,” he said. 

Barnes said any preconceptions or nervousness he had prior to helping Lupkin disappeared by his third shift with the disabled man. “It just goes away because you’re helping someone,” he said.  

Barnes, who is from Thousand Oaks in southern California, said he was introduced to working with the disabled by his mother when he was very young. His mother worked with disabled children as an adaptive physical education teacher.  

“I would visit her at a very young age and have always been very comfortable with disabled people,” he said. “It’s really not a big deal at all, they just want to be treated like everybody else.” 

For more information about attendant work go to www.cilberkeley.org/attendant-faq.html or call the Center for Independent Living at 841-4776. 

Activists in the movement to save listener-sponsored radio took their message to the halls of Congress Tuesday, when “dissident” Pacifica Foundation board members, fired staffers and banned volunteers spoke to members of the Progressive Caucus, in an informal hearing. 

Opening the hearings which he had called, Rep. Major Owens, D-Brooklyn (N.Y.), told caucus members that the Pacifica stations “fill a community gap for a significant number of citizens who...are poorly served by the mass media.” He also pointed out that the stations are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and the Internal Revenue Service, and therefore ought to work “in accordance with their original government-approved purpose.” 

Those speaking out at the hearings, co-sponsored by  

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, alleged that the Pacifica  

Governing Board was no longer faithful to it’s stated mission. 

Pacifica radio, founded in Berkeley by pacifist Lew Hill in 1949, is a grouping of five listener-sponsored stations. Its governing board holds the stations’ licenses. Conflicts between Berkeley station KPFA and the board grew heated in March 1999 when Pacifica’s executive director terminated a popular station manager – activists alleged because she asked too many questions about finances – then fired or banned programmers who talked about the termination on the air. The board eventually shut down the Berkeley station, to which activists reacted with daily demonstrations, one as large as 10,000 people. 

At Christmas time, several staff at New York’s WBAI were similarly fired without warning; a number of other programmers and volunteers have since been banned from the New York station and a gag order has been enforced to varying degrees, prohibiting the staff from speaking about the situation. 

Pacifica spokesperson Angela Jones did not return calls. 

Owens had a personal reason for sponsoring the informal hearings: There was a March 5 incident at WBAI in which Owens, invited to participate in a WBAI talk show, had his microphone turned off by the station manager. 

In the following days, on the floor of Congress, Owens talked about the “weird and frightening experience of being gagged by a radio station manager in my own home city of New York.”  

Pacifica boardmembers had been asked to attend the session, but instead sent a person to read a brief statement. She was not authorized to respond to questions. Signed by Executive Director Bessie Wash, the statement asserted that the Pacifica Governing Board alone manages the stations. “It is ultimately responsible for essential station functions,” and not the Local Advisory Boards or local station personnel. 

Much of the impassioned testimony, broadcast over KPFA but not over any of the other Pacifica stations, got to the heart of the conflict within the governing board. 

Rob Robinson, board member from Washington, D.C.,’s station WPFW, asserted that the terms of Board Chair David Acosta and Vice Chair John Murdock expired and that the executive director has not been evaluated, even when she “permits harassment and incivilities occur to members of Congress.” 

Thomas Moran, who represents KPFA on the board, told the caucus that he had been unable to get Pacifica’s financial statements since October. And where he has seen the statements, he said he has been unable to get clarity on what the line items mean.  

“Money has been spent outside of Paciifca’s mission,” he said, naming “spin doctors, lawyers and armed guards.” 

Similarly, banned WBAI volunteer programmer Mimi Rosenberg talked about the Local Advisory Board’s attempt to find out how the station’s money was spent. “There was an infusion of capital from a trust of $2 million,” she said, but the board did not know from where the money had come. Further, it did not know where the station has invested its funds. “There’s not a line by line breakdown,” she said. 

Fired WBAI Program Director Bernard White talked about the numerous staff people who had been fired and the volunteer programmers who had been banned from the station. “Not only the people who work at the station have been victimized, so have the listeners,” he said. Calling on the caucus members, he said: “I hope you will raise your voice in opposition to this hostile takeover.” 

There was also a representative from the Houston Station who had once done a show geared to Native Americans, but had been taken off the air, along with other programmers whose shows were directed to the growing minority populations in Houston.  

Lee said the comments had shown her that the conflict between the governing board was not isolated to KPFA. “This is happening nation wide,” she said. 

Similarly programmer Larry Bensky, who now volunteers after having been fired from his paid public affairs post, agreed that taking the hearings to the national level was critical. 

In a phone interview, after his on-air anchoring of the hearings, Bensky pointed to the cumulative effect of several events: these hearings, the hearings last year before the State Joint Audit Committee and subsequent rulings by the Attorney General’s office permitting a lawsuit naming the Pacifica Foundation to move forward. 

“It’s not the end; (the Progressive Caucus) intends to investigate,” he said.  

Pacifica Foundation Board member Michael Palmer resigned Monday. Local KPFA staff and supporters showed no regrets. 

An e-mail Palmer accidentally sent to a KPFA activist during the summer of 1999, intended for a fellow board member, discussed the possible sale of Pacifica stations KPFA and WBAI and heightened the tensions already at boiling point between the board, and the staff and volunteers at the stations. 

“I’m sorry that his tenure has caused so much damage,” said Local Advisory Board Chair Sherry Gendelman. “I’m happy that he has taken this course of action.” 

In his resignation letter to Board Chair David Acosta, Palmer wrote: “I also offer encouragement to other board members to protect themselves from the tactics employed by a small number of individuals and groups in opposition to the progressive message of the Pacifica Foundation.” 

The real estate offices where Palmer works have been the target of pickets who oppose his role on the board. 

In his resignation letter, Palmer praised the board for its work: “Early results indicate that the foundation is on the cusp of financial health and that the listening audience is growing enough to fully fund all operations. I commend the stewardship of yourself (Acosta) and your predecessor (Mary Francis Berry).” 

Gendelman said she hoped the resignation signaled further departures from the board by those who had acted “contrary to the mission of Pacifica.” 

A alleged prostitute working on the 2800 block of San Pablo Avenue just after midnight Thursday was attacked and robbed by a suspected former pimp, police said. 

Berkeley Police Lt. Russell Lopes said a man driving a white Cadillac pulled up beside the alleged prostitute Thursday, got out of the car and began demanding that the woman turn over all her cash. The woman, who claimed to have been assaulted by the man before, took off running across San Pablo Avenue, Lopes said. 

But the alleged pimp caught her on the median dividing San Pablo’s southbound and northbound traffic, Lopes said. As he beat the woman, another woman came running from the Cadillac to help search the victim for money, Lopes said. 

Police responded to a cell phone call from someone who witnessed the attack while driving past on San Pablo. Minutes after the attack, they found the Cadillac driving west on University Avenue, Lopes said. 

Both suspects were charged with robbery and assault, Lopes said. 

••• 

A man released from San Quentin prison Friday morning was back in jail that evening after fighting with a parole officer and attempting to seize the officer’s gun, police said. 

About 3 p.m. Friday a man entered the Berkeley Parole Office on the 1900 block of University Avenue demanding to see a certain parole officer, Lt. Lopes said. 

The officer in questions was not in the office, but another officer, noticing that the suspect had a heavy scent of alcohol on his breath, asked him to remain in the office. The suspect shouted obscenities before running out of the office, Lopes said. 

When the parole officer attempted to detain the man in front of the parole office, a struggle ensued. The suspect allegedly reached for the parole officer’s pistol, concealed underneath his jacket, before other parole officers managed to pull the two apart. 

The suspect was charged with attempted robbery, resisting arrest and violation of parole, Lopes said.  

••• 

An angry SUV driver allegedly attempted to run a man down in his car after a verbal altercation at a gas station Friday. 

About 4:30 p.m. Friday a man filling up at the ARCO station at 833 University Avenue was startled by the sound of a large white SUV crunching into his car’s bumper. 

The driver of the SUV got out of his car and began to berate the man whose car he had damaged, accusing him of having parked incorrectly by the gas pump, Lt. Lopes said. 

An argument ensued, Lopes said, until the SUV driver allegedly grabbed the other man by the neck and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.  

“I’m gonna run your white ass over,” the man allegedly said, as the victim lay sprawled on the ground. 

The assailant returned to his car, did a hasty U-turn, and attempted to run down his victim, Lopes said. But the victim had managed to climb to his feet and leapt out of the way of the SUV, Lopes said. 

Police investigators are still searching for the SUV and its driver, Lopes said. The victim was not seriously injured and declined medical attention at the scene.

SAN DIEGO — “Monty Montezuma,” San Diego State’s red-faced, spear-throwing mascot, got the heave-ho Tuesday by the university president, who wants a more dignified portrayal of the Aztec leader. 

The most significant change announced by President Stephen Weber is eliminating Montezuma as a cheerleading mascot and using him as a historically accurate “ambassador.” 

So, gone are the days of Monty wearing a loincloth and headdress, emerging from a shroud of smoke, dancing around and flinging a flaming spear into the turf moments before kickoff of football games at Qualcomm Stadium. 

And the school plans to gradually phase out the logo of a red-faced, glaring Indian that adorns stationery, literature, uniforms and the basketball court at Cox Arena.  

The changes are expected to be completed by fall 2003. 

“If we are to employ the symbols of another culture, and portray a particular historical figure within that culture, we have an obligation to do so in an accurate and respectful way,” Weber said at a news conference. 

Monty’s performance at football games, for instance, doesn’t quite meet that standard, Weber said. 

“The Aztecs considered fire sacred. In a broad sense, I think what well-intended people inadvertently did was drift a little bit north toward Hollywood.  

“And I think we’re going to drift back down to Mesoamerica, where we belong.” 

The name “Monty” also will disappear in official references and campus business establishments using the name will be renamed, Weber said.  

The only exception will be an alumni association award named The Monty. 

Weber said the school plans to have the new Montezuma at sporting events, but it’s yet to be determined what he’ll do and look like. Experts on Aztec culture will have a say in the process, Weber said. 

“Remember, this is a person who was the head of state, the head of the religion and the head of the military.  

“If you’re going to take on that portrayal, you have to do it with behaviors that are appropriate to a person of that stature,” Weber said. 

Montezuma also will have broader responsibilities for educating the public on Aztec culture, Weber said. 

Times have changed since Monty made his debut in 1941 when, during a homecoming game, he emerged from a teepee and chased young coeds. 

The representation evolved over the years.  

In 1983, he sat atop a pyramid among his attendants on the sidelines at football games.  

The next season, he returned to his role of firing up the players and fans. 

American Indian and Latino students long have complained the Aztec identity is racist and disrespectful. 

In September, the Associated Students Council called on Weber to retire the Montezuma mascot.  

It later organized a student referendum in which 86 percent of voters opted to keep the current logos and Monty depictions. 

Recently, a panel of 20 students, faculty, alumni and community members, recommended the school keep its Aztec identity but do away with inaccurate depictions of the 16th-century ruler. 

Weber’s announcement Tuesday failed to please Ron Gochez, a leader of the Chicano student group MEChA, because Montezuma still will be used to represent the university. 

“We’re not going to stand for it,” he said. “We were calling for the abolishment of any human figure.” 

Freshman Randall Mack, however, said the school should have honored the student vote. 

“It’s not like it’s making fun of Indians or American Indians or anything. It’s just a mascot representing the school,” Mack said. “It’s something to proud of. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” 

On the Net: 

http://www.sdsu.edu/identity/

State power regulators finally decided Tuesday how to spread the pain of the biggest electric rate hikes in California history, boosting rates by as much as 80 percent for residential customers who use the most power. 

More than half of the residential ratepayers served by the state’s two largest utilities will see no increase at all in their rates if they don’t increase their use. 

But Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers who consume the most will see their rates jump from 14.3 cents per kilowatt hour to 25.8 cents per kilowatt hour, which translates into an average increase of $85 per month for electricity. 

The plan, approved 3-2 by the state Public Utilities Commission, affects about 9 million customers of PG&E and Southern California Edison Co. 

Even after the vote, there was confusion within the PUC over the new rates. The commission released three sets of figures throughout the day, each with dramatically different rate hikes. Spokesmen for both PG&E and Edison said it will take at least a day of number crunching to know precisely how the rate hikes will affect the dozens of different customer classes. 

The new rates, which will appear on June bills, were approved nearly seven weeks after the PUC mandated a $5 billion rate hike. The split vote came after a week of intense lobbying by industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential groups – all hoping to shift more of the increases onto each other. 

“This is probably the worst economic calamity the state has ever seen,” said David Marshall, chief financial officer at Gregg Industries, a 400-person iron foundry in El Monte. “It has got ramifications well beyond anything that we can begin to understand.” 

Gregg already has switched its production cycle from during the day to a night shift to save electricity, Marshall said, but he expects the rate hike plan approved Tuesday to cost Gregg at least $1 million this year. 

Paul Clanon, director of the PUC’s energy division, said rate hikes on industrial customers would be capped at 49 percent. Rate hikes for agricultural customers are capped at 25 to 30 percent. Rate hikes for commercial ratepayers, such as banks, hospitals and restaurants, were not immediately clear due to conflicting numbers. 

Commissioner Richard Bilas said too high a percent of the hikes had been shifted onto commercial ratepayers. 

“While something has been done to tone down the impact on industrial customers, it appears to have been done at the expense of small and medium businesses, which make up the majority of businesses in this state,” Bilas said as he urged his fellow commissioners to vote against the proposal. 

The 80 percent figure for the biggest electricity users came from a chart released by Clanon after the vote. 

Under state law, a portion of every residential customer’s electric use – called baseline, a percentage of the average amount of electricity use in an area based on climate, geography and season – is shielded from rate hikes. 

The PUC could only raise rates on power use beyond 130 percent of baseline. Clanon’s chart shows an average 60 percent rate hike on all electricity use that exceeds 130 percent of baseline. 

The biggest losers are the biggest users. 

Residential power use is divided into five tiers, and electricity used within PG&E’s top tier will jump by 80 percent. About 9 percent of PG&E’s households fall in that top tier. 

Those hikes for the top tier translate into an average increase of $85 – from $232 to $317 – on monthly bills for such customers. 

For Edison’s heaviest residential users, the rate hike in the top tier is 71 percent – or an average increase from $194 to $265 on monthly bills. 

Even top-tier customers will not pay more for electricity use that falls within that first 130 percent of baseline. 

However, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers will have to pay their rate hikes on every kilowatt. 

Steve Strong, a plum and nectarine grower in Visalia, was optimistic the rate hikes won’t bruise his business. But with unstable weather, fluctuating costs and now the potential for blackouts that could hit refrigerated packing houses and shut down water pumps, agriculture is becoming an even riskier business. 

“I don’t have to go to Vegas or Tahoe, I’ve got enough gambling going on here,” he said. 

The rate hikes, which will begin appearing on June bills, will be retroactive to March 27 – the day the record rate hikes were approved – though those retroactive charges will be spread over a 12-month period. 

Commissioners were forced to shout their votes over the din of jeering protesters, who wore tombstone-shaped placards that read: “R.I.P. Affordable Energy.” 

PUC Commissioner Jeff Brown bellowed back at protesters: “We cannot walk away from it. We cannot pretend that this is some sort of problem that we can walk away from.” 

The final rates were a revised version of a proposal released by PUC President Loretta Lynch last week. Lynch postponed a scheduled Monday vote to rework her plan after a massive outcry from businesses proclaiming the proposed rate hikes would doom California’s economy, a critical statement from Gov. Gray Davis and pressure from fellow commissioners to lessen the impact on businesses. 

Since it unanimously approved the rate hikes in March, the PUC has crammed a year’s worth of work into six weeks, struggling to fashion rates that simultaneously recoup the $5.2 billion the state has spent buying power for the customers of the state’s two largest utilities and trigger enough conservation to help fend off some of this summer’s expected rolling blackouts. 

Customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Co. and those who buy electricity directly from energy wholesalers, such as the California university system, are shielded from rate hikes. 

WHAT’S NEXT 

• No power alerts Tuesday as electricity reserves stay above 7 percent. 

• A major credit agency downgrades California’s credit, citing the energy crisis’ increasing drain on the state’s finances. Moody’s Investors Services dropped the credit rating on the state’s general obligation bonds from Aa3 to Aa2. The credit change comes a day after Gov. Gray Davis’ release of a revised budget that trims $3.2 billion from his January proposal. 

• The North American Electric Reliability Council releases a report estimating that California could have 260 hours of rolling blackouts this summer. The report says the Northwest should have enough power to meet its needs this summer, but won’t have any excess to send to California. NERC also warns that transmission problems in other regions, such as New England and New York, could surface this summer. The report says Texas should be closely watched when it opens its market to full retail access. 

• State power regulators finally decided Tuesday, after a flurry of changing proposals, how to spread the pain of the biggest electric rate hikes in California history. Residential customers who use the most power could see their bills jump by 80 percent according to Paul Clanon, director of the PUC energy division. More than half of residential ratepayers served by the state’s two largest utilities will see no increase at all on their bills. Clanon said rate hikes for industrial customers are capped at 49 percent. Rate hikes for commercial users and farmers were not immediately clear due to conflicting numbers. 

——— 

On the Net: 

California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov 

Gov. Gray Davis: http://www.governor.ca.gov 

LOS ANGELES — The rising cost of gas appears to be prompting many Southern California motorists to find alternative ways of getting around. 

Subway ridership rose 5 percent last month, with the number of passengers on the Red Line subway in Los Angeles jumping from 119,000 in March to 125,000 in April. 

“While we’ve been seeing increases of one or two thousand per month, an increase of) 6,000 people on a daily basis is significant,” said Ed Scannell, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “It’s clear that a significant portion of that ridership was due to those gas prices.” 

Since March 23, the average price of regular self-serve gasoline has gone from $1.58 to $1.90 cents per gallon in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, analyst Trilby Lundberg said. 

The MTA also has seen an increase in bus ridership. 

Ridership increased from 1,161,490 in March to 1,196,042 in April. However, Scannell is less inclined to attribute most of that increase to the cost of gas. 

“A significant number of our bus riders are dependent on us because they don’t have cars, and while many of those who ride the rails also do not have cars, there are more people who have a choice,” he said.  

“There are more discretionary riders on the Red Line.” 

On Monday, the MTA unveiled a proposed $2.7 billion budget that would put more buses on the streets and more rail cars on the tracks. The spending package calls for adding 117 more buses along with more cars along the Blue and Green light-rail lines. 

The new budget would increase MTA spending by 6.7 percent, or $183 million a year. It anticipates that significant numbers of commuters will continue to move from cars to trains or buses. 

This summer, the Blue Line between downtown and Long Beach will increase the length of each train to three cars. Plans also call for the Green Line, which now runs one-car trains between Norwalk and El Segundo, to add an extra car. 

Rising fuel prices are also included. In the new budget, the transit agency’s bill for fuel is expected to jump 169 percent — or $17.5 million. 

Still, MTA officials believe they can stay within the budget without increasing fares. 

The Dalai Lama expressed hope for a more peaceful 21st century Tuesday night, saying humanity seems to have learned something from the bloody and violent one that just ended. 

“In the 20th century, there was more bloodshed, more pain and suffering,” he told a sold-out crowd of about 10,000 at Memorial Coliseum, capping his three-day visit to Portland. He leaves for San Jose today. 

As technology advanced, he said, so did destructive power. “Material development did not make us more humane. What was lacking was human compassion. Humanity is actually too much mechanized.” 

The Dalai Lama, 65, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of Tibet’s exiled government, is on a three-week American visit. His audience paid from $25 to $100 to attend the lecture titled “Ethics for a new Millennium.” A portion of the ticket price will go toward construction of a Buddhist cultural center in Portland. 

In wars of the past, he said, heroes used their strength, swords and spears. “At least it was an honest war,” he lamented. 

Now, he said, with modern warfare, one side can’t see the suffering it imposes on others. “Mechanized war is much more serious, much more dangerous,” he said. 

“If we combine our brilliant brain with a warm heart, human beings will have the potential to overcome their problems,” he said. “I think there are many signs of hope because of our past experiences.” 

He cited South Africa’s progress, Mahatma Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King Jr. 

In both World Wars, he said, people supported the government without question. During Vietnam, they not only questioned policy but demonstrated against it. 

While the talk was mostly serious, the Buddhist leader also displayed his gentle sense of humor. He said people attending the lecture with great expectations would be disappointed. Some, he said, believed that he had healing powers. 

“I want to show you my skin problem here,” he said 

The red-and-saffron-robed Dalai Lama, the 14th, is considered the reincarnation of his predecessor. He fled to India as a teenager in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. 

He decried the wide gap between rich and poor. Too much emphasis on material wealth is immoral, he said, when hundreds of thousands of people struggle to survive. 

“We must think to reduce this gap,” he said. “We have to develop a more civil, more contented way of life.” 

He urged self-discipline and the foregoing of short-term pleasures for long-term results. “If I take a drug I may get satisfaction, but eventually it will ruin the body,” he said as an example. 

He said man’s intellect gives him access to all processes and emotions, but it also gets him into trouble. 

If we want peace, he said, “no disturbances, a trouble-free world, all human beings should go to heaven. There should be no human beings on this planet.” 

But he said that while humanity can be a troublemaker, it is uniquely capable of absolute altruism. “We have great potential,” he said. 

He urged his audience to implement some of what he said, if they found it of some interest. 

“If you feel these points are not of much interest, then forget it!” he said to close the speech.

VALLEJO — Cal OSHA is investigating an accident at Marine World this weekend in which a woman fell off a ride and had to be hospitalized. 

It happened Saturday afternoon on the park’s Starfish. Marine World spokesman Jeff Jouett said the woman suffered a two to three-inch cut to the back of her head after falling about six feet. 

She was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek where she was kept overnight for observation. Jouett said her injuries appear to be not serious. 

He said the ride was closed after the 4 p.m. accident Saturday and it won’t be reopened “until everyone is satisfied that it’s safe.” 

How the woman was injured isn’t clear. Safety lap restraints on the ride lock automatically and the ride won’t function if one of the restraints isn’t locked, Jouett said. 

“At this point, it’s not known whether it was mechanical design or passenger related, or a combination of those,” he said. 

In addition to Cal OSHA investigators, park engineers have inspected the ride. The ride is manufactured by Chance Rides in Kansas and a representative of that company is scheduled to be at the park Tuesday. 

Rides at the park are inspected on a daily basis, Jouett said. 

“And if there’s any cause for concern during the day, they’re reinspected.” 

The Starfish has been in the park since 1998 and Jouett said he doesn’t know of another accident involving the ride. 

The Starfish is a disc-shaped ride that goes in circles while tilting back and forth, much like a spinning plate. 

SACRAMENTO — Supporters of California’s proposed high-speed rail system hope lawmakers will provide some money to keep the project on track despite Gov. Gray Davis’ decision to cut off most funding. 

“I’m optimistic that we will be able to get something back in the budget, but it certainly will not be a very aggressive expansion in the next year or two,” Richard Silver, executive director of the Train Riders Association of California, said Tuesday. 

The current state budget includes $5 million to begin the three years of environmental reviews that are needed before the state could begin building the 700-mile, $26 billion system. 

High-speed rail planners had asked the governor for another $14 million to continue the studies during the fiscal year that starts July 1. 

But Davis included no money for the studies in the revised budget plan he unveiled Monday, although he left in place about $1 million to run the High-Speed Rail Authority, the agency overseeing the studies. 

The governor said a slowing economy had forced him to cut almost $3.2 billion in tax cuts and spending increases from the budget plan he initially proposed in January. 

“We were looking for areas to reduce rather than areas to expand,” said Sandy Harrison, a spokesman for Davis’ Department of Finance. 

Silver, whose group supports high-speed rail, said California has to develop the system to cope with population growth and that postponing the studies would cost the state more in the long run. 

By delaying the studies, the greater the chance the previous work will lose its value and force planners to start over again, Silver said. 

He said he hoped to convince lawmakers to add $5 million or $6 million to the budget to at least continue the environmental reviews on the route between Bakersfield and Los Angeles. 

“That’s probably the single most important development in high-speed rail,” he said.  

“It would benefit freight and passengers. If we can move forward on that there is some value to it.” 

The system would link Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego with trains running at speeds of up to 220 mph.  

Advocates say it could be built in stages, with the Los Angeles-to-Bakersfield stretch as an obvious starting point. 

There’s no direct passenger train service between the two cities now, and freight trains are forced to take a long, slow route over the mountains between the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles Basin. 

Medhi Morshed, the authority’s executive director, cut short a stay at a high-speed rail conference in Milwaukee and was hurrying back to Sacramento on Tuesday after learning of Davis’ decision. 

He said he was surprised the governor didn’t include any study funding in his revised budget plan. 

“They’ve known all along that the environmental work would cost (a total of) $25 million,” Morshed said. “We could have avoided spending $5 million for no good reason.” 

He said he didn’t have enough information to predict if lawmakers would include any money for the studies in the budget bill they will send to Davis this summer. 

The governor could veto or reduce whatever lawmakers appropriate. 

On the Net: Read the plan at www.cahighspeedrail

WASHINGTON — A Democratic proposal to finance the hiring of thousands of public school teachers went down to narrow defeat in the Senate as the administration and its Republican allies sought to assert control over debate on President Bush’s education bill. 

Tuesday’s vote was 50-48 against an amendment by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and marked the first time in several fitful weeks of debate that the Senate rejected a move to add spending to the legislation or to tighten federal controls over its use. 

Murray, a former school board member, said her amendment was designed to reduce class size in public schools nationwide. The head of the Democratic senatorial campaign committee, she also said Republicans “will find their opponents talking about this in the next election.” 

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican whose name will be on the ballot next year, voted against the proposal. “I want to give school districts local flexibility for spending the money,” she said. To set classroom size as the “only priority, when schools have different needs depending on where they are, strikes me as a mistake.” 

At the same time, conservatives and GOP leaders said they intend to seek removal of some earlier spending add-ons when it comes time to negotiate a House-Senate compromise. 

“I think it’s getting financially irresponsible, but hopefully we will get it cleaned up,” said Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the Senate GOP whip. 

The developments came as the Senate plodded through another day of debate over Bush’s top legislative priority. The measure would mandate annual state-run testing of all students in grades three through eight in math and reading. Schools where test scores fall short of standards would receive additional federal support to improve, and after three years, students would be allowed to use federal money for tutoring or transportation to different public schools. 

A companion measure is scheduled for a vote in the House this week, and sponsors have been scrambling to shore up the support of conservatives unhappy with changes voted in committee. 

“We need to do a better job” of promoting the legislation to the GOP rank and file, said White House education adviser Sandy Kress. The White House issued a formal statement of support, coupled with recommendations for changes to restore elements of the president’s program that were taken out in committee. 

As part of the effort to reassure conservatives, the House Education Committee has issued a steady stream of material in recent days, including a letter of support from the Home School Legal Defense Association, an organization that supports home schooling. 

In addition, though, the White House and GOP leaders are crafting amendments designed to placate conservatives, including one to restore Bush’s plan for private school vouchers for students in failing schools. For their part, some conservative and liberal lawmakers may offer an amendment to remove the annual testing provision from the bill. 

“Too many teachers are spending time on crowd control instead of spending time on curriculum,” said Murray as she advanced her amendment. She said it would allow continuation of former President Clinton’s proposal to hire 100,000 new teachers, rather than combine that program with one that pays for teacher training, as Bush favors. Her measure also would have called for an additional $2.4 billion above what is in the bill. 

The amendment failed on a party-line vote, as all 50 Republicans voting against it. All 48 votes in favor came from Democrats. 

Education consistently ranks high in importance with the public in polling, and the debate is unfolding in a changing political atmosphere. 

The issue has long favored Democrats in congressional and presidential elections, but recent polls have shown parity or even a slight GOP advantage. Bush stressed the issue heavily in his bid for the White House, and congressional Republicans abandoned their effort to abolish the Education Department. 

Murray’s amendment was in a series that Democrats have offered in an attempt to maneuver Republicans into voting against politically attractive measures as they labor to approve legislation in line with Bush’s request. Also expected to come to a vote is a proposal to increase money for school construction. 

In recent days, the Senate has voted to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the education bill, much of it targeted at helping disabled children or poor students. Some amendments included actual funding, and some specified that financing would depend on future voting. Some of the proposal were merely advisory. 

Some or most probably will be jettisoned in the attempt to forge a compromise between the House and Senate. 

On the Net: Web sites for House members, committees: http://www.house.gov/

FORT MEADE, Md. — Once, the National Security Agency insignia, a bald eagle perched on a skeleton key, surveyed a barren terrain of top-secret letterhead, its forbidding stare known only to a privileged few. 

Now, it spreads its wings over teddy bears, tie-dye shirts and nail-trimmers sold to tourists, part of an effort to let Americans get a glimpse of what the nation’s premier eavesdropping agency does. 

Competing with a dozen other agencies for intelligence dollars, the largest and most secretive of them wants to spread the word about itself. 

Most of its work is still plenty hush-hush. 

Its openness around the edges is a departure for the 49-year-old organization jokingly called “No Such Agency” and perhaps best known for efforts not to be known at all. 

“It’s changed all right,” said author James Bamford. Twenty years ago he faced threats of prosecution for publishing NSA-related documents; recently he faced a crowd of agents at his book launch on the NSA campus. 

“Instead of putting me in jail,” he said, “they’re throwing me a book party.” 

The NSA’s director, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, accelerated the change after his 1999 appointment, perhaps most dramatically by making public two lacerating reports on agency deficiencies. 

“There are some things that we can say, that we ought to say,” he commented in an unusual interview with the History Channel. 

The end of the Cold War led some to question the need for a national eavesdropper and subjected intelligence budgets generally to a harder look. 

“Like everyone else in the intelligence community, the NSA is being forced to reveal more than it wants to about itself,” said Norman Polmar, who wrote “Spy Plane: The U2 History,” an NSA-related exploit gone wrong. 

The internal NSA reports released by Hayden said that “ineffective leadership” and “our insular, somewhat arrogant culture and position” had led Congress to cut money to the agency, which gets the largest share of the $30 billion intelligence budget. 

Openness only goes so far. A European Union team angrily left the United States last week when NSA and CIA officials refused to meet with its members. The team is investigating whether the United States engages in economic espionage. 

NSA agents were once what snoops called “top secret famous” – nameless shadows celebrated only among the select few in the intelligence community. 

Their coups were legion: Agency eavesdropping allowed President Kennedy to learn Soviet bluff lines during the Cuban missile crisis, and the NSA’s Berber linguists linked Libyan agents to the 1986 bombing of a German discotheque that killed a U.S. soldier. 

In recent years, the progenitor of information technology in the 1950s has been lagging behind Silicon Valley. 

In January 2000, the NSA’s overtasked computers shut down for three days. 

Hayden slashed staff and hired outside contractors. Last year, Congress increased intelligence funding by 7 percent. 

To be sure, sleight-of-hand tics persist at the NSA. Gift shop purchases appear on credit card statements credited to a mysterious Civilian Welfare Fund. 

The NSA museum, vaunted as the hallmark of its new openness, concentrates on World War II codebreaking. 

“It’s an outstanding tool in helping people understand what the NSA is about without getting into some of the problematic issues,” said agency historian Patrick Weadon. 

“It’s too much about war,” complained Sandro Dallaturca, a Belgian banking encryptologist who had been looking forward to learning about encoding techniques. 

Missy Spiegl, 15, whose father works for the NSA, thought the museum might give her some family insights. 

“I’ve been trying for years to get out of my dad what he does, but I can’t,” she said. 

Inside the agency, change has been palpable. 

The NSA has farmed out some research, allowed an ex-agent to publish an account of how he redesigned an internal communications system and cooperated on Bamford’s book, a largely sympathetic history of the agency by an author who favors more spending on intelligence technology. 

That may have been an astute move on the NSA director’s part, Polmar said. “Honey catches more than a fly swatter.” 

Spreading suburbs have brought neighbors close to the agency’s long-isolated campus. After a few mishaps, the NSA reached out to the community. 

“They are the hidden powerhouse of the county,” said Janet Owens, Anne Arundel County leader. She’s thrilled the NSA recently enticed General Dynamics to build a local plant. 

Staffers once forbidden to say where they worked now lead one of the nation’s largest blood drives. NSA firemen train local volunteers in how to contain a chemical attack. 

There’s the after-school tutoring: Linguists monitor drug traffickers by day and teach Spanish by night; code-cracking mathematicians walk teens through logarithms. 

And there’s a 4-year-old park commemorating the 152 people who have died in service to the agency and country. 

“I am military intelligence and I am always out front ... always,” reads the plaque. 

——— 

On the Net: 

NSA website: http://www.nsa.gov 

WASHINGTON — The record-high prices at the nation’s gas pumps should start going down around Memorial Day – even in especially hard-hit California and the Midwest, a top federal energy official said Tuesday. 

Prices may rise another nickel a gallon over the next two weeks, but unless new problems develop, they will begin falling, John Cook, director of the Energy Information Administration’s petroleum division, told a House Energy subcommittee. 

Refineries are winding up maintenance and increasing production, allowing supplies to creep up. Wholesale prices have dropped in the last two weeks, foreshadowing retail drops that lag two to four weeks behind, Cook said. 

The news comes just as Americans are about to kick off the summer driving and vacationing season. 

Gas prices hit a record high Tuesday, averaging $1.72 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA. Drivers in the Midwest – especially Chicago – are getting the worst of it, followed closely by those in California. The average price in Chicago on Tuesday was $2.08 a gallon. 

The cycle appears similar to last year, when gas went well above $2 a gallon in June in Midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, then dropped. 

Cook dismissed recent talk of possible $3-a-gallon gas. Even if everything goes wrong in the nation’s gasoline supply and distribution system this summer, prices won’t go that high, he said. 

“We aren’t going to see $3-a-gallon gasoline anywhere this year,” he said. 

The factors to blame for this year’s increases are familiar, Cook said. They include a tight crude oil market, lower gas inventories than last year, a patchwork of different, cleaner-burning gasoline blends required in many smoggy cities, and limits on refining capacity. 

The problem is especially acute in the Midwest and West because of special requirements placed on “reformulated” gasoline sold there in summer. 

In addition, recent fires at Tosco refineries in Los Angeles and Wood River, Ill., threatened supplies and helped prices surge. The Chicago market has been further squeezed by the closing of the Premcor Inc. refinery in Blue Island. 

Cook emphasized that inventories remain tighter than normal for this time of year, leaving the nation vulnerable if a refinery goes down or a pipeline breaks. “Today little cushion exists to absorb changing conditions,” he said. 

Midwestern inventories are particularly low, ending last week 10 percent below their five-year average, he said. 

Various energy users – a national retailer, a farm fertilizer manufacturer, the American Association of Retired Persons and others – told lawmakers they are hurting from high fuel costs, for electricity and natural gas as well as gasoline. The situation is cutting into business profitability, contributing to higher product prices for consumers and endangering farmers, they said. 

“Motorists by the millions are suffering massive sticker shock every time they pull in to fill up,” said Lon Anderson, public affairs director for AAA Mid-Atlantic.  

“We all know that over the long term, high fuel prices will literally fuel higher costs for virtually everything else from food to clothes to services and thus, fuel inflation.” The hearing was held as Democrats and Republicans debate how to chart the nation’s energy future. Congressional Democrats unveiled an energy blueprint Tuesday meant to draw a contrast with a plan expected to be released Thursday by the White House. 

On the Net: 

Energy Information Administration: http://www.eia.doe.gov 

AAA: http://aaa.com/news12/prmain.html 

NEW YORK — Wall Street got the interest rate cut it had been hoping for Tuesday, but that wasn’t enough to put investors in a buying mood. 

Instead, the market ended the session virtually unchanged, with blue chips falling slightly and tech issues managing a small gain. Analysts attributed the lukewarm reaction to the fact the reduction was expected, as well as broader concerns about still-weak business conditions. 

“The market got what is was expecting, so this is basically a non-event,” said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust. “The good news is that with five interest rate cuts in four-and-a-half months, we’ve now got the wind at our back. The second quarter should still be weak but we’re very confident the economy will start to improve this fall.” 

The Fed indicated its decision Tuesday to lower interest rates by a half point was due to concerns about various drags on the economy, including a decline in business investment in new equipment. 

But the rate reduction failed to spark a strong rally on Wall Street, as many previous announcements have done. Although the major stock indexes did advance on the Fed’s move, those gains faded as the session wore on. In the technology sector, Microsoft fell 45 cents to $68.27, while Texas Instruments rose 24 cents to $37.03 after reiterating a second-quarter outlook that includes double-digit revenue losses. 

Retailing, manufacturing and other non-technology issues were also mixed. Wal-Mart slipped $2.35 to $52 after meeting previously reduced expectations for its first quarter but warning that double-digit growth won’t return until the second half of its fiscal year. 

The Fed’s move was closely watched because, in the absence of strong profits or other encouraging news, Wall Street has been increasingly looking to interest rate cuts as a catalyst on which to rally. As a result, the markets traded in a narrow range for much of the week leading up to the Fed’s announcement. Investors were also unnerved by speculation that the Fed would cut rates by less than a half percentage point. Now the market must look for other good news to advance on, but analysts say that might not come along for a while. 

— The Associated Press 

Pre-announcements for second-quarter results, which are expected to be weak, will start rolling in next month. And no one knows whether the Fed will cut rates again, although the statement issued Tuesday suggests that the action is not out of the question. 

The tone of and level of concern in the statement caught many off guard. 

“I thought their statement was surprisingly aggressive. They said that they may lower rates again if conditions continue to deteriorate,” said Bill Barker, investment strategy consultant at Dain Rauscher. “But we’ve got six weeks until their next meeting with the unlikely prospect of an intra-meeting cut before then.” 

Advancing issues led decliners 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.28 billion shares, compared with 1.02 billion Monday. 

The Russell 2000 index rose 2.99 to 489.63. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent. Germany’s DAX index advanced nearly 0.1 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 was up 2.7 percent, and France’s CAC-40 gained 1.0 percent.  

WASHINGTON — Zach Landau, 13, gets a weekly allowance of $6.50. He spends some on crickets and fleas as food for his menagerie of lizards, salamanders, tree frogs and other creatures. Some of it he saves. 

His parents don’t plan to give him or his siblings credit cards despite peer pressure. 

Nationwide, too many parents don’t make that decision, according to a survey of American parents.  

Drowning in credit card debt themselves, they set bad examples and fail to teach their children how to manage and save money, the survey said. 

Zach came with his father from Oak Hill, Va., to appear at a news conference where the survey results were released. The boy said he likes the idea of putting aside some of his allowance but admitted his approval is not total. 

By saving the money, Zach said, “You don’t really get the immediate gratification you’d like.” 

The survey by the American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefit Research Institute released showed that 51 percent of parents believe they understand financial matters very well. 

Yet 55 percent said they carry over credit card debt from month to month, which often inspires the same behavior in their children, said Dallas Salisbury, the savings council’s chairman. 

“You’re setting them up for a lifetime of distress,” he said. 

Young people are bombarded by tempting products and messages urging them to buy now and worry later. 

At the same time, the average savings rate of Americans has plunged to the lowest levels since the Depression, hitting minus 1.3 percent in February.  

The EBRI-ASEC “Choose to Save” coalition, the banking industry and other groups are trying to get through to children early about the importance of saving. 

An overwhelming number of young people say they turn to their parents for financial education and guidance. 

What are they receiving? According to the survey, 61 percent of parents include their children in discussions about family finances; 29 percent have provided educational materials to help teach their kids about financial responsibility; 52 percent have taught them how to make budgets; and 61 percent have shown them how to set financial goals. 

All those are recommended by the EBRI-ASEC coalition as ways parents can teach their children about good money management. 

The survey, conducted Jan. 4 through 30, covered 1,000 adults around the country with one or more children age 6-17. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Also at Thursday’s news conference were Lucinia Mundy and her daughter, Opal, a 10-year-old from Brandywine, Md., whose weekly allowance is $5. About half of that goes in the bank, and the other half is spent on video games and other goodies, she said. 

Before spending, “I think long and hard about it,” Opal said.  

“I need to know what is more important to me.” 

Lucinia Mundy said she requires her daughter to save at least 20 percent of her allowance and cash gifts she receives from relatives. 

Besides the other EBRI-ASEC recommendations, the coalition also suggests that parents encourage their children to learn from mass media about saving and handling of money.  

They also should explain about employment and pension and saving plans, the coalition says. 

On the Net: Survey at American Savings Education Council Web site: http://www.asec.org

SANTA CLARA — Applied Materials Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of chip-making equipment, reported Tuesday a “severe decline” in earnings during the second quarter and missed Wall Street expectations by a penny. 

For the three months ended April 29, the company’s net income was $269 million, or 32 cents per diluted share, excluding one-time items. That’s down 41 percent from $459 million, or 53 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. 

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call predicted earnings of 33 cents per share. 

In the first quarter, the Santa Clara-based company warned it was being pinched as the U.S. economic downturn hurt its customers.  

As part of a cost-cutting effort, the company said it would offer severance packages to up to 1,000 employees, reduce its temporary work force, defer raises and shut down for five days in the second quarter. 

“Our business continued to experience a severe decline during the second quarter as decreased demand for electronic goods resulted in reduced capital equipment investment by semiconductor manufacturers,” said James C. Morgan, Applied’s chairman and chief executive. 

Net sales were $1.91 billion, down 30 percent from $2.73 billion in the same period a year ago, the company said. 

Applied Materials closed Tuesday at $49.89, up 20 cents, on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It was at $49.95 in after-hours trading. 

http://www.appliedmaterials.com 

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. “Ricky Swallow/Matrix 191,” Including new sculptures and drawings; Through May 27 $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” 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. “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. “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. All ages. May 18: Ensign, All Bets Off, Playing Enemy, Association Area, Blessing the Hogs; May 19: Punk Prom and benefit for India quake victims features Pansy Division, Plus Ones, Dave Hill, Iron Ass; May 25: Controlling Hand, Wormwood, Goats Blood, American Waste, Quick to Blame; May 26: Honor System, Divit, Enemy You, Eleventeen, Tragedy Andy; June 1: Alkaline Trio, Hotrod Circuit, No Motiv, Dashboard Confessional, Bluejacket; June 2 El Dopa, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Shadow People, Ludicra, Ballast. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 15: 8 p.m. Edessa and Cascada de Flores; May 16: 9 p.m. Creole Belles; May 17: 10 p.m. Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave; May 18: 9:30 p.m. Reggae Angels with Mystic Roots; May 19: 9:30 Kotoja; May 20: 8:30 p.m. Jude Taylor and His Burning Flames 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 17: The Rincon Ramblers; May 18: Todd Snider; May 19: Oak, Ash and Thorn; May 20: KALW’s 60th Anniversary Concert featuring Paul Pena, Orla and the Gasmen, Kennelly Irish Dancers, Kathy Kallick and Nina Gerber. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 15: Chris Shot Group; May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Rythm Doctors; May 29: The Lost Trio; 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Peña Cultural Center May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane; May 20: 6 p.m. Venezuelan Music Recital 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

The Crowden School Annual Spring Concert May 16, 7:30 p.m. $5-$10 St. John’s Presbytarian Church at College and Garber 559-6910 

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 

Jazz Singers Collective May 17, 8 p.m. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

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 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

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  

“En Mouvement/In Motion” May 18, 19 7 p.m., May 19, 20 2 p.m. Part of the Berkeley Ballet Theater Spring Showcase, this production is a collection of works by student dancers/ $15. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 843-4689  

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“The Laramie Project” May 18 - July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members travelled to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepard. The play is about the community and the impact Shepard’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Sister, My Sister” May 20, 5 p.m. Poetry, photography and dramatic readings which give voice to women and children cuaght in homelessness. Admission is free, donations welcome. Live Oak Park Theatre1301 Shattuck Ave. 528-8198 

Pacific Film Archive May 18: 7:30 The Cloud-Capped Star; May 19: 3:30 Starewicz Puppet Films; May 20: 5:30 The New Gulliver Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Drowning in a Sea of Plastics” Video and Discussion Night May 16, 7 p.m. Join the Ecology Center’s Plastic Task Force for a viewing of “Trade Secrets” and “Synthetic Sea.” Free. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220 ext. 233 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 15: Kathleen Norris discusses “The Virgin of Bennington”; May 16: Tim Flannery describes “The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples”; May 17: Lalita Tademy reads “Cane River”; May 18: Oscar London, M.D. copes with “From Voodoo to Viagra: The Magic of Medicine” 

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted May 17: Jean Shinoda Bolen talks about “Goddesses In Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”;  

“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. 549-2970  

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Adan David Miller and JoJo Doig May 20, 7 p.m. Poetry and spoken word. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo 548-3333 

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  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour 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 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 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 

Are you happy now that we’ll be in the dark? 

Editor: 

Is everybody happy? Aren’t you glad your electric bill is going up? Aren’t you glad your gas bill is going up? Aren’t you glad to be paying more for gasoline than ever before? Aren’t you glad your stores and restaurants and elevators may soon be shut down by rolling blackouts? 

Aren’t you glad to see bus fares and airline tickets going up, up, and away because their fuel costs are increasing? Aren’t you glad to see your standard of living going down? Aren’t you glad to see homelessness, hunger, crime and violence increasing? 

Aren’t you glad you live under a system of production for profit, instead of a system of production for use? Aren’t you glad you live in a the “free world,” and enjoy a “market economy,” with “free enterprise,” under what is sometimes called “democracy?” Aren’t you glad you voted for those clever politicians of both parties who unanimously voted for deregulation and told us it would bring electricity prices down? 

Why would anyone choose to eat a nice hot meal when they can simply open up cold beans? 

Isn’t it nice to just lie in the sun and not have to worry about politics? 

Marion Syrek 

Oakland 

California is too late to save for our hero George  

Editor: 

George W. Bush — You Are the greatest! 

We Appreciate You President George W. Bush.  

If Gore had won, America would be on a fast track down the tubes.  

Thank God for George W.! We want you to win again in 2004. 

Here is my advice, don’t waiver on the threats from the environmental extremists. They and Clinton-Gore have set us back by at least 20 years. We need water, roads, oil, coal, and natural gas.  

We need these critical human necessities. We need them now. We have an over abundance of species habitat here in California and a minimum of human habitat. 

The environmental extremists are preaching their religious dogma, which is nothing but socialist lies. Our water, air, ecosystems, forests, etc. are just fine. 

My state of California is too late to save. The eco-extremists have devastated us. Don’t waste your time out here. These voters would vote for a monkey if there was a “D” after his or her name. 

My advice to you is write off California, New York, Massachusetts, and Hawaii and don’t spend a minute or one penny in these 4 states seeking re-election. It is a waste of time. You will never get any votes out here and we want you again in 2004.  

Please use all your effort in the other 46 states. We need you.  

Ella Jensen 

El Cerrito 

Down with the city council,  

up with cars! 

Editor: 

Michael Bauce (May 9) should be hunting for a time machine to take him back 100 years or so to a happier, pre-auto, pre-Mayor Shirley Dean Berkeley.  

His myopic rant against autos and parking in Berkeley really burned me up when I read it in the Daily Cal and the Planet. Mr. Bauce should realize that he and his particular views are in the very tiny minority (probably 3 percent) of what Berkeley REALLY wants for their city in the twenty-first century.  

The so-called “progressive” ding bats on the city council have, over the years, made Berkeley a living hell for the residents just trying to get around to go shopping, go to the movies, run errands, etc. These misguided miscreants and their anti-auto attitudes are the reason why there is no parking, concrete barriers everywhere, untimed signals, residential parking stickers and all the rest that drivers suffer through unnecessarily by living here.  

Wake up people! Times have changed! People want different things now than they wanted 20 or 30 years ago. The anti-auto council members should give up on their crusade to ban cars in town and realize that the horseless carriage is here to stay. None of us enjoy the abundance of cars (and people) around here, but we must cope with it or move away to rural Oregon.  

Berkeley must vote out ALL of the current council members when their terms are up (the good ones and bad ones) and start over with the best, living in the present, reasonable people, that we can elect. 

I look forward especially to seeing sub-moron Kriss Worthington voted out this fall. Look at the millions of tax payer dollars he was responsible for wasting on his worthless bicycle bridge over the freeway so a few bicyclists can peddle down to the Marina and get mugged. The guy is a first class cuckoo and really gives the city a bad name.  

I support Mayor Dean and applaud her for the great job she’s done in this difficult environment. (Much like Clinton trying to get things accomplished with a Republican congress and senate.)  

So, Mr. Bauce, if you don’t like Berkeley like it’s going to be in the near future, I suggest that you start looking around up north soon for a place to pitch your teepee. 

B. K. Wolfe 

Berkeley 

Beth El is not a supermarket, it’s a public asset  

Editor: 

It’s time to put to rest the repeated argument, raised once again in a letter to the Voice on May 4-5, that Congregation Beth El’s proposed new synagogue is “outsized” for its neighborhood. 

The truth is that this facility would occupy less of its site than homes in the area. And less of its site than virtually any other church in Berkeley. 

The synagogue is designed to match the style and height of buildings in the neighborhood. It fits within Berkeley’s demanding zoning regulations and requires NO “variances” or exceptions to the rules. 

Beth El is also not a supermarket with a steady stream of customers coming and going daily. It is a religious institution that is used on most weekdays only by children in a small nursery school and by children in after-school religious education. Adult committee meetings or classes involving small numbers of people occur on some week-day evenings. 

The larger gatherings at Beth El take place on weekends and religious holidays, and a series of expert studies has shown that there is adequate space and parking for these activities. 

If you want to observe an “outsized” facility for its neighborhood checkout Cragmont School, across the street from my home.  

What’s interesting about that project is that the neighbors treated its development with grace and acceptance. We did this because we recognized the public good that our schools do for our children. Why can't the opponents of the Beth El project have the good sense to do the same? 

David Tabb 

Berkeley

Tuesday, May 15

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 

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 

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 be about the effect of the media on our lives. 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 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

Dr. Kathryn Williams, former chairman for the department of rehabilitation, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, will discuss the current understanding of fibromyalgia.  

601-0550 

Business of Seeds 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

How seeds became a commodity and their journey from the fields to the lab to wall street and a discussion of our potential role as urban seed stewards in the global system.  

548-2220 

Basic Electrical Theory and  

National Electric Code  

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St.  

Instructed by author/retired City of Oakland building inspector Redwood Kardon.  

$35 

Silent Vigil Against Death  

Penalty 

8 - 9 a.m. 

Federal Building 

1301 Clay St, Oakland 

Sponsered by East Bay Women Against the Death Penalty is sponsoring a silent vigil in protest of the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the first federal execution in 38 years. Wear black, bring signs. 841-1896 

Bicycling Get Together 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Wesley Foundation 

2398 Bancroft Way 

Special presentation on bicycling in Germany. 

597-1235 

Wednesday, May 16

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 

Thursday, May 17

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 

“What is Queer Spirituality?” 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd Bldg., Room 100 

Bill Glenn, PSR alumni and leader of Spirit Group, will lead a panel discussion on the dynamic shape of queer spirituality today.  

849-8206 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue 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.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

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 meeting is the spring barbecue.  

654-5486 

Solving Residential Drainage Problems 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

First day of two day seminar led by contractor/engineer Eric Burtt. Continues Tuesday May 22. $70 for both days. 

525-7610 

John Muir May Fair 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

John Muir Elementary School 

2955 Claremont Ave 

Cake walk, face painting, games, food and student performances, quilt raffle. Free. 

644-6410 

Friday, May 18

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.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Saturday, May 19

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Annual strawberry tasting 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 548-3333 

Get to Know Your Plants 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn what to look for and what and how to record it to more intimately know your plants. 548-2220 

“Be Your Own Boss” 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

YWCA 

1515 Webster Street, Oakland 

Second Saturday of a two day workshop on starting up small businesses (see May 12). 

415-541-8580 

Community Summit on  

Smaller Learning  

Communities 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Alternative High School  

MLK Jr. Way (at Derby)  

All teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members are encouraged to attend this meeting on smaller learning communities at Berkeley High. Translation, childcare, and food will be provided.  

540-1252 to RSVP for services 

Campaign for Equality Benefit  

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club  

1650 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A comedy benefit with performances by Karen Ripley, Julia Jackson, Pippi Lovestocking, Darrick Richardson, and Nick Leonard. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Lesbian Gay Association Scholarship Fund for the 2001 ILGA Summit in Oakland.  

$15 - $20  

466-5050 

Finish Carpentry 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Carpenter/contractor Kevin Stamm leads workshop. $95. 

525-7610 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Seminar taught by structural engineer Tony DeMascole and seismic contractor Jim Gillett. $75. 

525-7610 

How to Prevent Home Owner Nightmares 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Dispute prevention and early resolution seminar taught by contractor/mediator Ron Kelly. $75. 

525-7610 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 and 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health (Lower Level) 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Program on physical and mental differences. Promotes acceptance and understanding. Free. 

549-1564  

Sunday, May 20

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 

Working with Awareness,  

Concentration, Energy 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Nyingma members discuss meditative awareness in everyday life. Free and open to the public. 

843-6812 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Kick up your heels and move your hips with professional instructors Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie. Plus Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices encouraged to attend and no partners are required.  

$12  

RSVP: 237-9874 

Mediterranean Herbs 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Tour of herbs. Learn myths and legends, ideas for planting in home gardens. 

643-1924 

Jazz on 4th Street Festival 

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

4th St. between Hearst and Virginia 

Performances by Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and two Berkeley High Jazz Combos, among others. Also 4th St. merchants, raffle prizes, arts and crafts. Free admission. Proceeds benefit Berkeley High Performing Arts.  

526-6294 

An aggressive public information campaign spurred by the recent hospitalization of a 19-year-old woman with bacterial meningitis seems to be working as hundreds of west Berkeley residents and scores of students attended clinics to be screened and treated. 

Over the weekend, Fred Medrano, director of Berkeley Health and Human Services, said more than 500 people attended neighborhood clinics to find out more about meningitis and see if they should receive a dose of the drugs Cipro or Rifanpin. The drugs kills all meningitis bacteria that may be in the body already, but does not protect the taker from picking up the bacteria again after 24 hours, said Stephanie Lopez, communications director for the city of Berkeley. 

“You can’t share a joint and think you are okay, you’re still at risk,” Lopez said. 

Kimi Sakashita, Berkeley High School associate health clinic director, said around 75  

students stopped by after a morning assembly described the types of behavior that could put them at risk for meningitis.  

“I’m hella nervous,” said one student as he lined up for a consultation with health clinic staff. 

Most students said they wanted to take the pill just to be on the safe side. 

“Everyone’s going around sharing drinks and French kissing and all that,” said Berkeley High student Shamiya Henesley. “I think everyone really needs to take responsibility and really get tested and screened.” 

Other students said the bathrooms at the high school are so unsanitary that they worried about picking up the bacteria that way. 

Sakashita said that is not the case and that meningitis can only be spread through direct contact of saliva, blood or other bodily fluid. The disease can be transmitted by shared cigarettes, pipes, drinks or food. It can also be transmitted through kissing and sex (including oral sex). 

Health officials have been trying to get information out since Friday’s incident. The woman, whose identity has not been officially released, was in critical condition over the weekend, but was listed in good condition yesterday, said Alta Bates Hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp.  

The case is the second in Berkeley this month. On May 1, 9-year-old Oxford School student Nambi Phelps died from an infection of bacterial meningitis. Although it was reported that Phelps and the woman hospitalized Friday knew each other, health officials say the cases are unrelated.  

Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal fluid. The infectious period is three to four days and symptoms can appear between two and 10 days of exposure. Early detection and treatment with antibiotics is key to preventing serious illness and death. Symptoms include sudden fever, headache and stiff neck sometimes accompanied by nausea and vomiting. 

There is a vaccine for meningitis but Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Poki Namkung said it does not take effect for two weeks and would only be used in an outbreak. An outbreak, Namkung said, is characterized as three cases in three months that translates to 10 cases per 100,000 people.  

Now, Medrano said that the health department is actively pursuing a group of 100 people associated with the young woman who engage in “high-risk” behavior.  

While the disease is spread through high-risk behavior like sex and drugs, Medrano said it’s hard to pigeon hole it since it is spread by more mundane ways as well. 

“Practices stem from regular family life like sharing a toothbrush to high-risk behaviors,” he said. “But we want to get good information to people, Now that we’ve had two cases, there’s a great deal of public information with the main message of prevention.” 

Now that the word is out about the disease, Berkeley PTA Council President Mark Copeland said there is little else to do. 

“Parents are ready to volunteer but there’s really nothing to do. It’s a foe that we can’t reach out and grab. It’s one of those things that we keep watching,” Copeland said, adding that he took his son to the doctor on Friday. “We’re watching our kids closely and taking them to the doctor if there is any question at all.”

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt medical marijuana users a blow Monday with a unanimous decision that a medical necessity defense can not be used against federal marijuana charges. 

The ruling should have little effect locally, as medical marijuana activists vowed to continue dispensing the drug, and city officials said they will not change their enforcement. 

Lt. Russell Lopes of the Berkeley Police Department verified that the decision will not effect current police policy toward medical marijuana users.  

“To us this is all just conversation,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned nothing changes.” 

The decision was a result of the United States vs. the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, which was instigated in 1998 when the cooperative refused to stop dispensing medical marijuana under federal orders. The cooperative fought the injunction using a medical necessity defense.  

The cooperative has since stopped operating and the founder, Jeff Jones, said it is uncertain if it will ever reopen. 

California, along with several other states including Oregon, Arizona and Hawaii, have adopted laws allowing the use of marijuana as treatment for a variety of illnesses including cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and migraine headaches. The state laws have been  

adopted despite the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law, which takes precedent.  

Since the passage of the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996, also known as Proposition 215, many counties and cities have adopted policies or ordinances allowing marijuana use for medical purposes. Berkeley adopted a Medical Marijuana Ordinance in March. The city also recently took steps to amend the Zoning Ordinance to provide guidelines for issuing permits and standards for medical marijuana cooperatives and collectives that distribute the drug. 

Currently city officials estimate there are five such cooperatives operating in Berkeley. 

Monday’s 8-0 Supreme Court decision that using marijuana for medical purposes is not an option under the federal Controlled Substances Act has caused uncertainty among patients who say they rely on marijuana to ease symptoms like lack of appetite, soreness of joints and involuntary muscle spasms. 

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said “In the case of the Controlled Substances Act, the statute reflects a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception (outside the confines of a government-approved research project).” 

It was also noted in the written decision that the act allows no legal use of marijuana. 

Justice Stephen Breyer, did not participate in the decision because his brother, a federal judge, ruled on the case in a lower court. 

Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said the ruling will not effect the newly adopted Medical Marijuana Ordinance. She said the same federal laws applied when the ordinance was adopted.  

“It has always been a problem in California that federal law prohibits the distribution cultivation and use of marijuana,” she said. 

Robert Rach, attorney for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, said the ruling is just the beginning of a long battle over medical marijuana.  

“There are a number of Constitutional issues the Supreme Court has not yet considered,” he said. “One is states’ rights under the Ninth and 10th amendments and another is that under the Commerce Clause, every American has the right to be free from pain.” 

Don Duncan, co-director of the Berkeley Patients Group, a marijuana cooperative that has dispensed medical marijuana for over a year, said they will continue to operate despite the Supreme Court decision.  

“The most important thing is to take care of the patients, not politicians,” he said.  

The City Council will consider amending the Berkeley Municipal Ordinance to require landlords, who are evicting tenants under the Ellis Act, to offer displaced tenants available units in other properties they own. 

In February the council asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would help protect tenants being evicted under the Ellis Act. The council requested the ordinance to protect tenants in three ways. It would require landlords to offer tenants available units in other residential property they owned, require that those units be offered at the same monthly rent as the “Ellised” unit and it would also require landlords own rental property for a specified amount of time before using the Ellis Act to evict tenants. 

The Ellis Act is a state law that allows landlords to evict tenants provided they take the property off the rental market for at least three years. 

But the city attorney wrote in her report to council that the city can only require landlords to offer tenants available space. According to the report, it would be illegal, under the Costa Hawkin’s Act, to require the monthly rent to stay the same if a tenant decided to take an available unit.  

Also requiring landlords to own a property for a specified time before evicting tenants would be unenforceable under the Ellis Act. 

Moratorium in the MULI 

Another issue will be a moratorium on new office development in west Berkeley. The Planning Commission recommended the council enact a one-year moratorium on office development in the Mixed Use-Light Industrial District, also known as the MULI, in west Berkeley. 

The staff report on the recommendation states the moratorium should remain in effect until the impact of the growing number of offices on blue-collar jobs and artists 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 about 349,000-square feet of office space has been developed in the MULI in the last three years. 

This item has been on the council’s agenda for the last three meetings.  

Sunshine Ordinance 

The Sunshine Ordinance is back on the agenda after being pulled from the consent calendar on March 27. The ordinance will make it easier for the public to obtain city government information. 

The recommendation, sponsored by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, would set a timeline to establish an index of city records on the Web. The records would include all public records, documents and digital files including e-mails. 

The ordinance would also encourage law enforcement agencies to make police logs and records available to the public and the press. 

The recommendation was pulled from the consent calendar by Councilmember Polly Armstrong because she wanted to make sure the ordinance was needed. She said implementing the ordinance could be an expensive project and provide services that already exist. 

Closed session meeting 

The council will also hold a closed session meeting at 5:30 p.m. at 2180 Milvia St. in the sixth floor conference room.  

City officials are negotiating a new contract with the police department that will include a “3 percent at 50” clause that will allow police officers to retire at 50 years old with a pension that adds up to 3 percent of their current salary for every year they have worked. 

Once the plan is approved, it is expected that nearly 40 percent of the current police department will retire, leaving Berkeley to compete with other cities in the state for qualified police officers.  

The city is also negotiating an improved health benefits package for all emergency workers.

With opening night nearing, things were a bit hectic at Willard Middle School’s Metal Shop Theater last week. 

Actors poured over the script, turned cartwheels and stuffed themselves with junk food. 

“I can’t act on an empty stomach,” groused seventh grader Daniel Krasnor (the cartwheel turner), who avoided the junk food and munched on a breast of chicken. 

The play, “The Talent Show,” opens Wednesday at 7:30 at the Metal Shop Theater. It is written, acted and largely directed by Willard students, with the help and guidance of Willard math and science teacher George Rose.  

Between scenes at the rushed lunchtime rehearsal, some student-actors chatted nervously about the big night ahead, others waxed nostalgic about the sweat and tears they’d given the project during the last two years. 

“At the beginning we weren’t really getting much done because everybody was running around, like talking about banana soda and stuff,” recalled Selena O’Conner. 

It was an uphill battle, others agreed, to get people to concentrate and remember their lines. Some actors even lost interest and had to be replaced. 

But it all worked out for the best in the end.  

“I really like that we were able to work as team,” said Phoebe Bryson-Cahn. 

“Because we did it, it’s our work, we actually feel really proud of what we did,” agreed Alison Dahlstrom.  

The play comes out of “mini-course” in creative writing that Rose has taught during lunch periods since February 2000. It is funded by the Berkeley school district’s Gifted and Talented program and the Berkeley Public Education Foundation. 

Rose came up with the idea of having students write their own play to help them master the basic elements of a successful narrative, and to give them a chance to explore some of the issues they face as middle school students. 

“It gives them a chance to experience a lot of creative ideas, and also work out a lot of issue that are peculiar to middle schools,” Rose said. “Who’s in and who’s out, what do you do when you’re blue, who do you go to.” 

Or as Dahlstrom put it: “It’s like taking your average school and turning it into a story.” 

With, of course, a hefty does of creative license. 

The play opens with a hilarious (and, parents will hope, much exaggerated) rendition of the student/teacher communication gap. As a timorous teacher drones on inaudibly at the head of the class, students talk loudly amongst themselves, climbing around their desks as though they were jungle gyms. 

“Does anybody have any questions?” the teacher asks after several minutes. Hearing none, he begins wrapping up class with an air of self-satisfaction. By the time he looks up to announce “Class dismissed,” the students, of course, have already gone. 

The are lots of other touches that the student-writers hope will capture the flavor of the middle school experience at Willard. 

“We can improvise sometimes because we wrote the lines ourselves,” explained Willard student Eric Olson. 

In the interests of verisimilitude, student-actor Carina Renner said she makes liberal use of the word “like”, as in: “It’s like, I’m like, ‘like, like, like, like, like’, like all the time.” 

But the play takes on some deeper issues at well. It portrays students preparing for a talent show in which the winner is guaranteed a acting contract with a Hollywood “talent scout” played with obvious relish by Ariadna Anisimov. 

In the effort to top each other’s “acts,” the students go to greater and greater extremes. But instead of improving in the heat of competition, they find themselves descending to the depths of mediocrity.  

Ultimately, it falls to a character played by Fay Scott to be the voice of reason. 

“What if we forgot about the script?” she asks. “What if we’re ourselves...” 

This climatic moment mirrors a moment the Willard students experienced themselves while writing the play, according to Rose, after some students demanded bigger and bigger roles. 

“To me that’s what’s really important,” Rose said. “This whole process of students coming together, making decisions and taking responsibility for some thing that’s their own.” 

The play will be the first production to appear in Willard’s Metal Shop Theater. With the help of school district bond measure funds and parent volunteers the former home to the now extinct school metal shop classes was converted to an alternative theater rehearsal and performance space last year. 

The are two showing of “The Talent Show,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Willard Middle School is located at 2425 Stuart Street. For more information call 644-6330.  

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is ordinarily filled with the sounds of hymns and prayers, but lately the rafters have been ringing with the sounds of saws and jackhammers. 

In anticipation of its centennial next year, the 99-year-old church on Bancroft Way is undergoing a much needed renovation and restoration.  

The project will restore some of the original Mission Revival architectural details, provide seismic reinforcement and create disabled access. 

That’s an important part of the church’s mission, said Pastor Robbin Clark.  

“We feel a moral responsibility to provide safety and access to all our parishioners. Part of our theological stance is inclusivity,” she explained.  

“That means being inclusive of people of diverse sexual orientation, different lifestyles and disabilities. But how inclusive are you being if people can’t get up to the second floor?” 

Long known for its liberal tradition, St. Mark’s played an important part in the free-speech movement of the 1960s. Under the leadership of pioneering minister George Tittmann, the church was a space where opposing sides could come together for discussion and mediation.  

Tittmann laid the ground for a congregation that today is a mixture of singles and couples, gays and straights.  

The church membership is comprised of 225 households.  

“It’s not your typical suburban congregation,” Clark said.  

But this nontraditional congregation does inhabit a historic building, with a handsome sanctuary whose fine acoustics and Flentrop organ make it a favorite concert space. St. Mark’s is the first Episcopal parish in Berkeley.  

It was one of the first local buildings and some believe it to be the very first built in the new Mission Revival style. Designed by William Curlett and built in 1902, the distinctive Spanish-style church features a prominent open belfry tower with a contrasting smaller second tower, large arched doorways, and a long arcade reminiscent of a cloister. 

It has several stained-glass Tiffany windows, including the focal rose window. 

Over the years, some features were lost or diminished in the wake of modern “improvements.” The towers were boarded up to discourage pigeons. 

Some decorative stucco details were stripped from the exterior.  

When a plaza was added on the north side in the early 1960s, a massive concrete wall went up around the old church entrance, hiding it from view.  

Now the wall has come down and the towers are being restored. As far as possible, the church building committee hopes to restore the look of the original church.  

But the project, originally budgeted for $1.7 million, has ballooned to over $3 million, and some wished-for architectural details have had to be sacrificed.  

Restoration of the decorative stucco quatrefoil around the rose window, wrought-iron stair railings, and replacing the roof with authentic tiles all have been axed. 

Unless, that is, more funds can be raised.  

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association has taken an interest in the restoration of St. Mark’s.  

A recent BAHA newsletter declares the church to be a landmark Mission Revival building, and BAHA is appealing to its members and the larger community for donations.  

Meanwhile, St. Mark’s continues its Sunday worship services a few blocks up the street, at the YMCA. If all goes according to schedule, the congregants will return in September to a building that meets modern safety and accessibility standards while enjoying its former pristine architectural glory. The original cornerstone has been uncovered, and church members hope to open the time capsule inside, which according to church records contains news clippings, documents, stamps, and coins dating from the beginning of the 20th century.  

And while renovations to the building are in progress, Clark thinks there may be some subtle changes taking place among the congregation as well. 

Although St. Mark’s is known as a liberal institution, she said, the worship service consists of, she said, “a fairly stately and classic liturgy, in line with the music.”  

Clark thinks it wouldn’t hurt to loosen up a bit. 

“Frankly, that’s happening now, with worship at the YMCA, which is a very plain, simple space,” she said. “It will be interesting to see how it carries over when we go back.”

SACRAMENTO — Blaming a plunging stock market and slipping economy, Gov. Gray Davis said Monday he will abandon almost $3.2 billion in new programs, tax cuts and spending increases he proposed in January. 

“We knew this day would come,” Davis said, unveiling a revised version of the $102.9 billion budget that is to take effect July 1. “Right now there’s just not enough money to meet every legitimate need.” 

The economy, rather than the yearlong energy crisis, is forcing the cutbacks, Davis said, although the budget plan includes new spending on energy-related items, such as $5.5 million for power plant inspections. 

Davis said his revised budget protects his two top priorities — education and public safety — but cuts back the state’s reserves and slashes funding for transportation projects, city governments and the clean beaches program. 

It scraps many of the governor’s tax cut proposals, including a three-day “holiday” from paying sales taxes designed to help parents buy school clothes and supplies. Also, the budget calls for all non-public safety state agencies to cut 2.5 percent of their budgets. 

The early months of 2001 indicate slowing in several areas of California’s economy, including personal income growth, employment and sales taxes, according to the budget. 

Planners also expect the high-tech sector – a major source of income over the past two years – to take more hits in upcoming months. 

The state’s income from taxes on stock options and capital gains — which pumped billions in unexpected dollars to the state treasury last May — sunk to 1999 levels, Davis said. 

“A declining NASDAQ, more than anything else, is responsible for the drop in revenues this year,” Davis said. 

The 83-page “May revise” comes after months of fears that the economy and energy crisis would force Davis to shave his spending plans for the first time since he took office. 

The budget assumes the state will be repaid by mid-August for at least $6.7 billion in energy buys on behalf of the beleaguered investor-owned utilities. Davis signed a bill last week authorizing the sale of revenue bonds to repay the general fund for the power buys. 

But he criticized Republicans for putting “ideological purity” over the state’s needs to issue bonds to pay back spending for electricity. Republicans opposed the bill, causing it to pass without the two-thirds majority needed for it to go into effect immediately. 

Davis said he will ask Republicans to “see the error of their ways” and approve an urgency measure to allow the state to issue the bonds immediately. Lawmakers launched a second emergency session Monday afternoon to address energy legislation. 

Still, the budget includes several energy-related changes. They include: 

•$540.8 million to assist school districts with energy-related costs and $183 million for the state’s universities and community colleges to pay rising natural gas bills. 

•$5.4 million more for a task force investigating allegations of price-fixing in the statewide power crisis, and $380,000 for the Department of Water Resources for energy-related legal bills. 

•$5.5 million for the development and enforcement of power plant standards and inspections. 

•$41 million more for this year and next for state agencies to pay utility bills. 

Now, a joint legislative committee will approve its own version of the budget that will be subject to approval by the full Legislature and the governor. 

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, an Arleta Democrat who chairs the joint budget committee, said to expect the Legislature to tinker with Davis’ budget. 

Republicans criticized the budget, saying it drains too much from the state’s emergency reserves. The revised budget would leave the state with about $1 billion in reserves in July 2002, while the budget for the current fiscal year includes $5.9 billion. 

“The governor took the grossly irresponsible step of looting our state’s prudent reserve to fund government growth,” said Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox in a written statement Monday. 

Davis defended his budget choices. 

“Reserves are for rainy days. It’s starting to rain,” Davis said. 

Other key changes in the revised proposal include: 

•A reduction in the state’s Clean Beaches Initiative funding by $90 million to $10 million. 

•$54 million in cuts to the Department of Corrections spending, which Davis said will be absorbed by a decrease in the state’s prison population due to a new drug treatment initiative 

•Cuts to the state’s transportation budget totaling $1.2 billion by postponing for two years a program that would divert all state gasoline tax revenues to transportation projects. 

•Reductions of $255 million discretionary funding for local governments and $50 million for technology grants for local law enforcement. 

SACRAMENTO — Slowing growth in the state’s inmate population due to a new drug treatment initiative allowed Gov. Gray Davis to cut $54 million in Department of Corrections spending in the revised budget proposal he released Monday. 

Nevertheless, Davis said, his budget protected law enforcement, one of what he called his two highest priorities, with public education. 

Davis’ highly touted “war on methamphetamine” initiative also took a hit, as he cut $10 million from the program he introduced in January. Despite the decrease, the budget proposes spending $30 million to fight meth production and distribution, particularly in the Central Valley. 

The prison population by the end of the fiscal year beginning July 1 is now projected to be nearly 9,000 inmates lower than was assumed in the budget Davis sent legislators in January. The number of parolees also is expected to shrink. 

Both changes are in large part due to voters’ approval in November of Proposition 36, which requires first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders to be sent to treatment programs instead of prison or jail. 

That reduction will save the state’s general fund an estimated $81 million, but Davis proposes to spend part of the savings on other programs, including: 

•$1.9 million to study the results of Proposition 36 and coordinate with other agencies the movement of inmates and parolees into treatment programs. 

•$12.1 million to simultaneously fight and comply with a lawsuit over inmate medical care. That includes $5.3 million for legal and medical experts to fight the suit, and $6.8 million to try to gain certification for the prison system’s health care facilities as the suit demands. 

•$12 million to increase staff at prison segregation units. 

• $4 million to improve backup electricity generators, in light of the state’s energy crunch. 

• $6.9 million to cover holiday pay for the state’s new Cesar Chavez Holiday. 

Along with the Corrections Department changes, the revised budget proposes to increase Department of Justice spending by a net $4.4 million after a series of cuts and additions. 

That includes an extra $5.4 million for the attorney general’s office to expand its investigation into whether energy suppliers illegally cut supply and drove up prices in California. 

Budget changes and additions also provide an additional $6.7 million for the attorney general to prosecute antitrust violations in the high technology industry. 

It also includes $877,000 for special legal consultants to assist in efforts to recover an estimated $16.5 million in repairs to the state Capitol after a truck driver rammed it with his 18-wheeler in January.  

The state is attempting to recover the money from the driver’s employer, Salt Lake City-based Dick Simon Trucking, or its insurance company. 

LONG BEACH — California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, is considering a sweeping alcohol policy for its 23 campuses following the drinking-related death of a student. 

The proposed policy, scheduled to be presented Tuesday at CSU’s governing board meeting, is believed to be the first in the nation to set systemwide policies – from controlling alcohol advertising on campus to enforcing existing drinking laws on and off campus. 

“It’s a time when young students for the first time in their lives feel more freedom than they every have. They want to go off and experiment with alcohol as if it were some college or university rite of passage,” CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Monday. “We need to do everything we can ... to promote healthy choices for students and try to overcome this culture” of college drinking. 

If approved, the policy would require CSU campuses, which enroll more than 350,000 students, to begin enforcing the policy in the fall. 

General recommendations include campuses developing treatment programs, regularly reviewing state alcohol laws and notifying students of changes, banning alcohol advertising and products at campus events, offering awards and incentives to student organizations that raise funds from sources other than alcohol companies. 

The proposed policy also calls for early intervention and treatment of alcohol-related problems for students. 

It also would provide $1.1 million in funding to help campuses implement the policy. Currently, there is no systemwide funding for alcohol education, prevention and enforcement policies. 

“Our approach is not to say we are going to ban alcohol and believe that will solve the problem. It won’t,” said John D. Welty, president of California State University, Fresno, and chair of the alcohol policies committee. “We have to look at changing the campus culture, developing a guide for each of our campuses to follow.” 

To help implement the policies, the proposal calls for the creation at each campus of an alcohol advisory council, which would include faculty, staff, administrators, students and members of the community, including law enforcement. 

“This problem is so big that everybody has to help work on it. The law says if you’re not 21, you shouldn’t be able to buy alcoholic beverages. We need to enforce that business owners aren’t selling to students under 21,” Reed said. 

The chancellor called for a review of the campuses alcohol policies after Adrian Heideman died Oct. 7 when he tried to drink a bottle of brandy during a Pi Kappa Phi fraternity party. The California State University, Chico, freshman from Palo Alto had a blood-alcohol content of .37 percent, more than four times the legal limit at which a driver is considered intoxicated. 

At CSU’s San Diego campus, two fraternity-related incidents last year left two students hospitalized for drinking too much. 

The biggest obstacle, Reed said, will be overcoming the pervasive culture of drinking. 

“We start with their parents and with them when they visit the campus the first time. You continuously bombard them with it,” he said. 

Although students generally agreed an alcohol policy was needed, many believed it would do little to end underage college drinking. 

“I don’t think it will stop it. But I think it will give us better knowledge about being safer,” said Brendan Wonnacott, a 20-year-old student at CSU Sacramento. 

Vivian Brassel, 20, agreed. 

“I think regardless of the rules and regulations, people are going to do what they want to do,” said the CSU Sacramento junior. “The college party experience is what a lot of us come here for. ... But it is a part of the overall experience.” 

PROPOSAL 

• Limit vendor advertising at campus events. 

•Limit alcohol industry funding of student-sponsored events. 

•Provide an education program to make students aware of the risks of illegal and irresponsible drinking. 

•Distribute campus alcohol-related regulations and policies to all students. 

•Enforce campus rules as well as state and local drinking laws. 

•Partner with local law enforcement agencies to enforce drinking laws. 

•Create an advisory council to examine issues of alcohol use by students. 

•Institute annual alcohol policy orientation program for campus organization advisers and student officers. 

•Institute alcohol policy training for all campus peer advisers and residential staff. 

•Adopt new student and parent orientation programs. 

•Adopt orientation programs for higher-risk students, such as fraternities, athletes and large residential campus populations. 

• Provide a systemwide grant writer to seek out possible funding to implement and maintain the policies

JERUSALEM — Israeli troops killed five Palestinian policemen in the West Bank and rocketed security targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday – part of an emerging strategy of taking the offensive against Palestinian security forces, rather than retaliating for specific attacks. 

The rocket attack in Gaza targeted a small armored force of the Palestinian police, and Palestinians said 10 vehicles were destroyed. 

In previous Gaza raids, Israeli troops razed dozens of Palestinian police buildings, including ammunitions depots, food warehouses, mosques and carpentry shops affiliated with the security forces. 

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said the Israeli attacks were aimed at demoralizing the Palestinians and insisted his people “cannot be shaken.” He denounced the killings of the policemen as “assassinations.” 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had implored Arafat in recent weeks to “act against the perpetrators of terror.” 

“If he doesn’t take these steps, then we will have to take these steps,” Sharon said. “We don’t have any other choice.” 

Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the Palestinian Authority has been warned repeatedly that Israel would not tolerate the involvement of Palestinian security forces in attacks on Israelis. 

“The Israeli Defense Forces has decided, with the approval of the government, to take initiated action ... against those targets from where such attacks are being conducted,” Gissin said. 

Over almost eight months of steadily escalating hostilities, Israel has wrestled with how harshly to hit back against the Palestinian forces it helped set up during the 1990s autonomy accords.  

Actions were generally described as reactions or retributions against specific militants. 

In the West Bank violence, the Palestinian officers, ages 17 to 29, were shot in the head and chest before dawn Monday while manning a small police outpost near the town of Ramallah, Palestinian officials said. Several bullets tore through the barrack walls. 

It was the bloodiest single incident since Feb. 14, when eight Israelis were killed by a Palestinian who crashed his bus into a crowd near Tel Aviv. 

Gissin said Israeli soldiers were responding to fire but admitted that the five Palestinian officers killed may not have been the ones shooting. “They could have remained alive if they had been the ones stopping terrorism instead of taking part in it,” he said. 

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli helicopters and navy gunboats shelled security installations, including a compound of the Force 17 security service, a police building and the offices of Arafat’s Fatah movement. Four people were injured by shrapnel and one suffered from shock, doctors said. 

Israeli hard-liners, including Sharon, had long argued that Israel erred in permitting the establishment of the Palestinian security forces. And Israel has charged that the forces are much larger than permitted by the agreements and are using weapons they are not allowed to have. 

Still, until the fighting erupted last fall, cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security was generally good and sometimes even comradely. 

In October, when Israel first attacked Palestinian installations – in retaliation for the lynching of two reserve soldiers in the West Bank town of Ramallah – it gave warning to avoid casualties. 

Since then, Palestinian forces have openly participated in shooting incidents and a militia affiliated with Arafat known as the Tanzim has been at the forefront of some. 

The Palestinian police “have to be attacked so we can protect our people,” Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat said Monday. 

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called the Israeli attack on the five policemen a “premeditated, cold-blooded murder” and said no gunfire came from the post, which he called a center for coordination with a nearby Israeli position. 

Later, about 2,000 Palestinians, some firing rifles in the air, marched alongside an ambulance carrying the bodies of the policemen. 

The Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces at a checkpoint and two Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire, hospital doctors said. 

In other developments Monday, two Palestinians were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers near Karara in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said.  

The Israeli military said soldiers fired at Palestinians who threw grenades and fired at an outpost. One was a suicide bomber, the military said. 

Palestinians said Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered Palestinian territory in three places, leveling farmland. 

Also, four Israelis were wounded, one seriously, when Palestinians fired on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, built on land that  

Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and declared a part of Jerusalem, but is claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. 

Police said the gunfire was apparently timed to coincide with observance Tuesday of “al-Nakba,” or “the catastrophe,” as Arabs refer to the creation of the state of Israel on May 15, 1948. 

An Israeli tank fired back at the gunmen in the Palestinian village of Beit Jalla, damaging a house, Palestinians said.

NEW YORK — Anxiety over interest rates made for a quiet Monday on Wall Street, with investors reluctant to make any big moves on the eve of an important Federal Reserve meeting. Blue chips rose moderately, while technology stocks drifted lower, giving the Nasdaq composite its fourth straight decline. 

Analysts said the market’s tentativeness resulted from doubts about how big a rate cut the Fed will make – if it makes one at all – on Tuesday. 

“It’s really been a non-event day,” said Stephen Carl, head of equity trading at The William Capital Group. “Everybody’s just on the sidelines waiting to see what the Fed does. The volume is so low that it’s hard to tell what, if anything, else is going on.” 

Trading activity was muted throughout the session, with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market experiencing their slowest day of the year. 

NYSE volume was 858.27 million shares, compared with 906.25 million Friday, the previous low this year. The Nasdaq recorded 1.30 billion shares trading hands, compared with its previous 2001 low of 1.43 billion recorded Friday. 

Although most analysts still expect the Fed to make its fifth interest rate cut of 2001 at its Tuesday meeting, there are doubts about whether the reduction will be as big as expected. 

The central bank has been lowering rates to stimulate the sluggish economy, but some recent data have indicated business may not be as weak as previously thought. If the economy shows signs of strength – as some better-than-expected retail and consumer sentiment reports suggested last week – many fear the Fed will be less inclined to cut aggressively. 

The problem for the market: In the absence of strong earnings, investors have become increasingly dependent on the Fed’s cuts for catalysts to rally stocks. Stocks spent most of last week in a narrow trading range in anticipation of the Fed’s next move. 

“Not having the 100 percent certainty that the Fed will lower interest rates as much as many want is what’s causing this,” said Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co. “But overall, the market remains on good footing.” 

The latest Fed report released Monday showed further evidence that the economy slowed during the spring. Industrial production fell in April by a bigger-than-expected 0.3 percent, the seventh straight monthly decline, according to the report. 

Technology stocks were especially weak, reflecting the gradual selling since April’s big advance. Cisco Systems fell 48 cents to $18.57, while Intel dropped 53 cents to $27.41. 

Non-technology issues fared better, including banker J.P. Morgan, up $1.20 at $47.64. 

Also Monday, SunTrust Banks fell $4.81 to $60 on news it made a $14.7 billion bid for Wachovia, a move that could derail First Union’s planned $12.5 billion purchase of the North Carolina bank.  

On the Net: http://www.nyse.com 

NEW YORK — If you have a decent memory, you will experience the sensation of reliving events, including such diverse public drives as conserving energy, saving for retirement and simplifying taxes. 

All these and many, many more educational efforts had rather short-term results, the problem being that most Americans, or so it seems from the evidence, are more inclined to forget rather than to remember. 

For example, saving for retirement? 

In newspapers three decades old you can find admonishments about the need of doing so. For years it was the smart thing to do. But now, amid constant reminders and great prosperity, the saving rate is below zero. But, you say, people are indeed saving through 401(k)s and similar tax-advantaged arrangements and by investing directly in stocks.Yes, but they’ve forgotten warnings about pushing prices to foolish heights. Buyers have treated warnings about risk as neurotic residue from the past. Forgotten also was the stockbroker’s requirement to “know your customer.” And the admonition to customers to know your broker. 

How about more fuel efficient cars? The first shock for gasoline consumers came three decades ago with the actions of a production-fixing cartel called the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries to withhold oil from the market. 

The resulting price shock forced conservation upon Americans. Fuel-efficient cars were created. Additional insulation was decreed for newly built homes, and solar heating even had its day in the sun. Conservation seemed permanent. 

But now, a few decades later, relatively more prosperous Americans show a robust desire for gas-hogging sport-utility vehicles that satisfy the desire for utility but not for fuel or price efficiency. And solar heating, once thought to be “in,” barely gets a peak inside. 

Do you recall the campaigns for simplifying taxes and for clear explanations in borrowing and savings terms? These too are not just decades old but often have been reviewed, resurrected and ignored. 

Most people, it seems reasonable to assume, would like to understand what they are doing when they confront a tax form or a credit-card truth-in-lending statement. It is unlikely that they do. Very unlikely. 

A report this month from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a survey that the Internal Revenue Service’s own tax assistants gave inappropriate answers 73 percent of the time. 

The sorry results of these programs raise questions about the ability of service providers such as lenders and IRS personnel to explain details without adding to rather than reducing the confusion. It’s also worth studying how a new generation seems unable to learn from the errors of the old. The latter question applies not just to ordinary Americans but to those who consider themselves experts – such as real estate developers. 

Those who risk huge amounts of money on developments often do so because of infinite trust in their egos and expertise. These, they assume, make them different from those who failed in the past. 

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press

The newly renovated and seismically upgraded Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building was dedicated Friday during a ceremony attended by 300 people and a slew of city and state dignitaries who praised the $37.7 million remodel. 

City Manager Weldon Rucker graciously hosted the ceremony in front of the Milvia Street building, which was closed between Center Street and Allston Way. Rucker introduced the mayor and councilmembers who, like good politicians, couldn’t refuse an opportunity to say a few words to a crowd.  

Mayor Shirley Dean thanked a long list of people who made the remodel possible and then praised the building.  

“This building will stand in a major earthquake and it will function afterwards,” she said. “This building is dedicated to the people of Berkeley.” 

The remodel was paid with $16.4 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $16.1 million from Bond Measure S and the remainder from the city’s general fund. 

The building, designed by architect James Plachek and built in 1940, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is corner stone to Berkeley’s Civic Center Historic District. It was the Farm Credit Administration Building until the city purchased it for $1.7 million in 1977 and made it the Civic Center.  

After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the building was deemed seismically unsafe.  

There was a chance the building was going to be demolished but Dean said the voters passed Measure S by a squeaking two thirds plus 87 votes. At the time, bond measures required a two-thirds vote to be approved. 

The major expense was installing the 74 state-of-the-art base isolators that will allow the building to move 30 inches in any direction in case of a major earthquake.  

The interior of the building was restored with new finishes, custom energy efficient light fixtures and exposed ceilings. The cubicles and tall filing cabinets that clogged the offices before the remodel were removed in favor of open office space. The result is work areas that are filled with natural light and a sense of airiness.  

The exterior was also restored and two meeting rooms were added to the sixth floor. 

After the elected officials addressed the crowd, Public Works Director Rene Cardinaux, who oversaw the remodel, took the podium.  

“The Civic Center is more than just bricks and mortar,” he said, “It’s a symbol of pride for the people who work here and the people of Berkeley.” 

After the speeches, the public was invited to an open house to have coffee and cake, tour the offices and listen to the Berkeley High School Jazz Band.

Monday, May 14

Seeing Into the Afterlife  

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Yossi Offenberg will discuss Judaism’s philosophy on what happens beyond this world.  

$10  

848-0237 

Tuesday, May 15

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 

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 

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 be about the effect of the media on our lives. 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 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

Dr. Kathryn Williams, former chairman for the department of rehabilitation, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, will discuss the current understanding of fibromyalgia.  

601-0550 

Business of Seeds 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

How seeds became a commodity and their journey from the fields to the lab to wall street and a discussion of our potential role as urban seed stewards in the global system.  

548-2220 

Basic Electrical Theory and  

National Electric Code  

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St.  

Instructed by author/retired City of Oakland building inspector Redwood Kardon.  

$35 

Silent Vigil Against Death  

Penalty 

8 - 9 a.m. 

Federal Building 

1301 Clay St, Oakland 

Sponsered by East Bay Women Against the Death Penalty is sponsoring a silent vigil in protest of the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the first federal execution in 38 years. Wear black, bring signs. 

841-1896 

Bicycling Get Together 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Wesley Foundation 

2398 Bancroft Way 

Special presentation on bicycling in Germany. 

597-1235 

Wednesday, May 16

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 

Thursday, May 17

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 

“What is Queer Spirituality?” 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd Bldg., Room 100 

Bill Glenn, PSR alumni and leader of Spirit Group, will lead a panel discussion on the dynamic shape of queer spirituality today.  

849-8206 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

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

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

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 meeting is the spring barbecue.  

654-5486 

Solving Residential Drainage Problems 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

First day of two day seminar led by contractor/engineer Eric Burtt. Continues Tuesday May 22. $70 for both days. 

525-7610 

John Muir May Fair 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

John Muir Elementary School 

2955 Claremont Ave 

Cake walk, face painting, games, food and student performances, quilt raffle. Free. 

644-6410 

Friday, May 18

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.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Saturday, May 19

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Annual strawberry tasting 

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

548-3333 

Get to Know Your Plants 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn what to look for and what and how to record it to more intimately know your plants.  

548-2220 

“Be Your Own Boss” 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

YWCA 

1515 Webster Street, Oakland 

Second Saturday of a two day workshop on starting up small businesses (see May 12). 

415-541-8580 

Community Summit on  

Smaller Learning  

Communities 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Alternative High School  

MLK Jr. Way (at Derby)  

All teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members are encouraged to attend this meeting on smaller learning communities at Berkeley High. Translation, childcare, and food will be provided.  

540-1252 to RSVP for services 

Campaign for Equality Benefit  

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club  

1650 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A comedy benefit with performances by Karen Ripley, Julia Jackson, Pippi Lovestocking, Darrick Richardson, and Nick Leonard. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Lesbian Gay Association Scholarship Fund for the 2001 ILGA Summit in Oakland.  

$15 - $20  

466-5050 

Finish Carpentry 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Carpenter/contractor Kevin Stamm leads workshop. $95. 

525-7610 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Seminar taught by structural engineer Tony DeMascole and seismic contractor Jim Gillett. $75. 

525-7610 

How to Prevent Home Owner Nightmares 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Dispute prevention and early resolution seminar taught by contractor/mediator Ron Kelly. $75. 

525-7610 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 and 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health (Lower Level) 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Program on physical and mental differences. Promotes acceptance and understanding. Free. 

549-1564  

Sunday, May 20

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 

Working with Awareness,  

Concentration, Energy 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Nyingma members discuss meditative awareness in everyday life. Free and open to the public. 

843-6812 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Kick up your heels and move your hips with professional instructors Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie. Plus Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices encouraged to attend and no partners are required.  

$12  

RSVP: 237-9874 

Mediterranean Herbs 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Tour of herbs. Learn myths and legends, ideas for planting in home gardens. 

643-1924 

Jazz on 4th Street Festival 

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

4th St. between Hearst and Virginia 

Performances by Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and two Berkeley High Jazz Combos, among others. Also 4th St. merchants, raffle prizes, arts and crafts. Free admission. Proceeds benefit Berkeley High Performing Arts.  

526-6294 

Comparison is ‘dishonest and disrespectful’ 

Editor: 

What is particularly disturbing to me in the letter from Alan Kay and Carole Norris about Congregation Beth El's building plans is the reference to parking at Safeway: “Count the number of parking spaces in Safeway’s lot, including the underground spaces.” 

The only reason to raise this suggestion is dishonest and disrespectful. Beth El's use of its property will be similar to that of other religious institutions. The use is nothing like that of an office building, a manufacturing plant, or a grocery store.  

The comparisons in the letter with parking at other religious institutions represented as "models" are equally dubious. Saint Mary Magdalene has three masses on Sunday morning, some of which are attended by 300 people, who park on a parking lot created by paving over Codornices Creek. Saint John's Presbyterian rents its sanctuary every weekend of the year; some of the performances attract as many as 500 people (the 400 seat sanctuary expands into an adjacent area). The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley is actually located in Kensington, an area with parking regulations very different from Berkeley’s. Virtually all other churches in Berkeley have less parking than Beth El is proposing.  

The proper comparison is Beth El now and Beth El at the new location. Both the on-site parking and the much larger availability of street parking make the new location much better for the neighborhood. 

James H. Samuels AIA  

Berkeley 

Creekside path ideas are not based in reality 

Editor: 

I read with interest and some disbelief Ted Vincent’s recent letter to the editor (“Create Creekside Path,” May 9, 2001) suggesting that a public path along Codornices Creek be created through our yard and some of our neighbors’ yards.  

Does this proposal include eliminating the culvert that currently runs under Spruce Street and much of my yard? I guess so, since a couple hundred feet or so in a low culvert hardly adds to the creek experience, at least for the lay observer. Personally, I think a little rustic wooden bridge over Codornices Creek where it crosses Spruce might be nice. In fairness, I’m not so sure all those people who drive their cars and ride their bikes up and down Spruce every day would like it, but it would sure slow things down. And maybe it would get some of them off Spruce and onto Oxford. And while we’re at it, we could use a little wooden bridge in our yard, to cross over the creek channel to what little would be left of our garden after the creek is daylighted.  

Of course Mr. Vincent’s idea would have a major significant adverse environmental impact on the environment. We would lose some on-street parking, and there would be a two-car increase in the demand (the culvert runs under my off-street parking area). I suppose this could be mitigated by putting an underground parking garage under our house. Unfortunately, we’re a little short of cash this month. Could we wait until next month?  

Mr. Vincent says that, “no houses would need to be eminent domained.” This may be true, since I suppose there are not too many houses over the creek (although I’m not to sure about that house on Glen). But the reader might want to consider that property would have to be "eminent domained.” I know, Mr. Vincent has assured us that it is only a “minimal bother,” but I figure that even minimal bothers like losing one’s garden and much of one’s property deserve at least some compensation-- if only as a matter of principle.  

It is fair to say that I don’t particularly appreciate Mr.Vincent’s somewhat cavalier attitude about others’ property (well, ours anyway; others can speak for themselves). I do appreciate Mr. Vincent’s concern for Codornices Creek and his interest in establishing a good long path along it and improving the path that does exist in some places.  

I just wish his solution was a little more reality-based. It would have a better chance of succeeding. 

Zach Cowan 

Berkeley 

Commendations for Beth El effort 

Editor: 

I am writing to commend Congregation Beth El for the wonderful volunteer effort that its Social Action Committee mounted to support our efforts at Chaparral House, a not-for-profit skilled nursing facility on Allston Way. As part of the “Rebuilding Together” national spring event, Beth El’s “Sukkot-in-April” brought over 30 volunteers to Chaparral for the last two weekends in April. These volunteers planned and organized, then painted our dining room a bright cheery white which increased the light capacity of our dining room a good 25 percent. Besides saving us the expense, their efforts help to make the space more livable for our elder, disabled residents, many of whom have diminished vision. The highlight of the last weekend was a wonderful community barbeque in Strawberry Creek Park which brought together the volunteers from our neighbor — the Berkeley Youth Alternatives — as well as residents, family, staff and the volunteers from Beth El. This endevor is just one more example of the community contributions which the Beth El congregation makes to Berkeley. 

Jim Johnson,  

Chaparral Foundation 

Berkeley 

Preparations should never slow down for  

‘The big one’ 

The Berkeley Daily Planet received a copy of this letter to the Berkeley City Council and Bekeley Union High School Directors: 

My “Thanks” to the City Council and School Board for work on seismic disaster planning preparations! 

The Disaster Council has lots of work to perfect Berkeley for a worst-case scenario. 

Fire resistance is low for redwoods, high for pine and eucalyptus, according to one source; I see a lot of the latter two about the area. 

Regarding food supply, nourishing: I cringe, thinking about the quality of food supposedly good for “ten years” or some such; seven year-old “food” was consumed by troops in the “gulf war,” and I needn’t remind you of the endless “mysterious” health problems suffered by our troops after that morass. 

South pool, BHS, is a warm place in winter; I’ve wondered if it might be suitable for cautious, sober users for sleeping in emergencies; dozens of cots could be stored in miscellaneous rooms; I’m optimistic about the toughness of that structure; (architects are qualified to design building structures, please remember; I’m especially interested in seismically good structural design). 

I was frightened by the last fire-storm more than the quake, even though flammable landscape material was not frequent in the neighborhood near Kensington where I was then living. The wood and timber structure had a bit of flexibility built-in which engineers like. I’d never been near a monster fire, and my legs were beginning to fail me. 

Terry Cochrell 

Berkeley 

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. “Ricky Swallow/Matrix 191,” Including new sculptures and drawings; Through May 27 $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  

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. “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. “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. All ages. May 18: Ensign, All Bets Off, Playing Enemy, Association Area, Blessing the Hogs; May 19: Punk Prom and benifit for India quake victims features Pansy Division, Plus Ones, Dave Hill, Iron Ass; May 25: Controlling Hand, Wormwood, Goats Blood, American Waste, Quick to Blame; May 26: Honor System, Divit, Enemy You, Eleventeen, Tragedy Andy; June 1: Alkaline Trio, Hotrod Circuit, No Motiv, Dashboard Confessional, Bluejacket; June 2 El Dopa, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Shadow People, Ludicra, Ballast. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 15: 8 p.m. Edessa and Cascada de Flores; May 16: 9 p.m. Creole Belles; May 17: 10 p.m. Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave; May 18: 9:30 p.m. Reggae Angels with Mystic Roots; May 19: 9:30 Kotoja; May 20: 8:30 p.m. Jude Taylor and His Burning Flames 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 14: Acoustic Guitar summit Quartet; May 17: The Rincon Ramblers; May 18: Todd Snider; May 19: Oak, Ash and Thorn; May 20: KALW’s 60th Anniversary Concert featuring Paul Pena, Orla and the Gasmen, Kennelly Irish Dancers, Kathy Kallick and Nina Gerber. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m.  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 15: Chris Shot Group; May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Rythm Doctors; May 29: The Lost Trio; May 30: Zambambazo 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Pena Cultural Center May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane; May 20: 6 p.m. Venezuelan Music Recital 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

The Crowden School Annual Spring Concert May 16, 7:30 p.m. $5-$10 St. John’s Presbytarian Church at College and Garber 559-6910 

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 

Jazz Singers Collective May 17, 8 p.m. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

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 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

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  

“En Mouvement/In Motion” May 18, 19 7 p.m., May 19, 20 2 p.m. Part of the Berkeley Ballet Theater Spring Showcase, this production is a collection of works by student dancers/ $15. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 843-4689  

Theater 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“The Laramie Project” May 18 - July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members travelled to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepard. The play is about the community and the impact Shepard’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Sister, My Sister” May 20, 5 p.m. Poetry, photography and dramatic readings which give voice to women and children cuaght in homelessness. Admission is free, donations welcome. Live Oak Park Theatre1301 Shattuck Ave. 528-8198 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive May 18: 7:30 The Cloud-Capped Star; May 19: 3:30 Starewicz Puppet Films; May 20: 5:30 The New Gulliver Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Drowning in a Sea of Plastics” Video and Discussion Night May 16, 7 p.m. Join the Ecology Center’s Plastic Task Force for a viewing of “Trade Secrets” and “Synthetic Sea.” Free. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220 ext. 233 

Exhibits 

“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  

“Scapes/Escapes” Ink, Acrylic, Mixed Media by Evelyn Glaubman Through June 1 Tuesday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Gallery of the Center for Psychological Studies 1398 Solano Ave. Albany 524-0291 

“Watercolors and Mixed Media” by Pamela Markmann Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. A retrospective of 30 years’ work at Markmann’s Berkeley studio. Red Oak Gallery 2983 College Ave. 526-4613  

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse. Meet the artists May 18, 19, 20 (call for times). Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“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 

“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 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

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) 

“Tropical Visions: Images of AfroCaribbean Women in the Quilt Tapestries of Cherrymae Golston” Through May 28, Tu-Th, 1-7 p.m., Sat 12-4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 14: Edie Meidav reads and signs “The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon”; May 15: Kathleen Norris discusses “The Virgin of Bennington”; May 16: Tim Flannery describes “The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples”; May 17: Lalita Tademy reads “Cane River”; May 18: Oscar London, M.D. copes with “From Voodoo to Viagra: The Magic of Medicine”; May 21: Ariel Dorfman reads “Blakes Therapy”  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted May 17: Jean Shinoda Bolen talks about “Goddesses In Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”; May 29, 7 - 9 p.m.: Travel Photo Workshop with Joan Bobkoff. $15 registration fee  

“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. May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo; May 31: Connie Post with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike May 12, 6:30 p.m. An ongoing open mike series, featuring poet/artist Anca Hariton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

Adan David Miller and JoJo Doig May 20, 7 p.m. Poetry and spoken word. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo 548-3333 

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  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour 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 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 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 

St. Mary’s girls win league meet in last race 

All year, it’s been pretty much a given that the St. Mary’s track & field team would win the BSAL. They just had too much firepower, and no opponent came close to knocking off the Panthers in any league meets. But their domination was threatened on Saturday at the league championships. 

The Piedmont girls’ team kept the score so close, in fact, that it all came down the final race of the day, the 4x400-meter relay. But the Panthers’ squad of Riana Shaw, Bridget Duffy, Parris Vega and Shameka Savage came through in the end, beating the Piedmont team by two seconds to claim the league title, 192-186. 

St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson pointed to the absence of the injured Tiffany Johnson as a major reason for the narrow win. 

“Not having Tiffany probablay cost us 36-38 points in the jumps and 100, and that made the meet a lot closer,” Lawson said. 

Johnson, one of the league’s best in three different events, will have a chance to qualify for the North Coast meet on Tuesday in a run-off against the fourth place finishers in each of her events, the 100-meter dash, long jump and triple jump. Also participating in the run-off will be St. Mary’s Chris Dunbar and Darnell Tolliver, who were both injured and did not compete on Saturday. 

The Panthers winning relay team was all also responsible for individual wins on the day. Savage won the 400, Vega the 800, and Duffy the 1,600 and 3,200. Shaw, who doesn’t usually run the relay, won the high jump by tying her personal best at 5 feet, 8 inches. 

With Johnson out, other girls had to make up for her absence. Shaw, for example, not only participated in the relay, but took second in the 100-meter hurdles and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles, which she hasn’t run in competition all season. 

“We scouted this meet out, and knowing it would be that close, we talked to the girls and had them do some events they aren’t used to, but we needed every single point,” Lawson said. “We have a lot of quality, but Piedmont had a lot of depth in some events. We each dominated certain events.” 

Also winning for the Panthers was Danielle Stokes, who won both hurdles races. The big shock of the day was Kamaiya Warren, northern California’s dominating thrower, fouled on all three attempts in the discus. Although she won the shot put easily, Warren will have to seek special dispensation to compete in the discus at the North Coast meet next weekend. Lawson said another St. Mary’s thrower who qualified for the meet has agreed to step aside, and Lawson will try to get permission for the switch this week. 

The Panthers had a considerably easier time on the boys’ side, winning the meet with 253 points and winning 10 of the 12 events. Piedmont finished second with 75 points. Courtney Brown won both the 200 and 400 races, while Halihl Guy won both hurdles events, and both took part in the Panthers’ winning relay teams, with Julian Keyes substituting for the injured Dunbar in both races. Phil Smith won the high jump with a personal best of 6 feet. 

Phil Weatheroy won both the shot put and discus competitions, but the Panthers got a suprise boost from sophomore Leon Drummer, just promoted from the junior varsity squad. Drummer came in fourth in both throwing events, qualifying for the North Coast meet. 

Lawson said the easy victory for the boys was expected. 

“On the boys side, we wanted to go in and run well and not have anything bad happen. A lot of our kids who don’t normally go to the big invitationals did very well,” he said. “We qualified everyone we wanted to qualify.”

It’s a bit like meeting your disapproving future in-laws, a bit like third-degree interrogation, and a bit like the Miss Universe Pageant.  

But instead of the questions like, “If you won the title, how would you promote world peace?” they are: “What’s your major?” “How quiet are you?” and “Where does your money come from?” 

Like many meetings, it’s all about first impressions. At this one, dozens of competitors (mostly students) take particular pains to appear responsible, studious, clean and quiet. They are jostling for the same prize: a clean two-bedroom apartment for $1,250, only one mile from the University campus.  

These competitions, known as open houses, thrive on summer season’s renter-heavy market. And despite the softening housing market caused by the dot-com crash, rentals near UC Berkeley are still a hot commodity. 

Landlords advertise in popular apartment listings that interested persons may come see the apartment at a certain day and time. If the place is attractive — close to campus, cheap, safe neighborhood — anywhere between 20 to as many as 100 applicants can show up. The apartment or house is showcased for a few hours.  

From this pool, landlords choose their winners.  

This time of year is when the stakes start getting high. The housing market can be both competitive and cruel. Students travel to open houses only to find out that the apartment is already taken. Or, if not, it only takes five minutes to go. 

Students can get desperate.  

Xiomara Ferrera and Shermaine Barlaan are looking for a “decent” place. That means a place free of stains on the walls and garbage on the sidewalks. It also means the stairway doesn’t smell like urine — much like other places they have seen. 

“I’m going to be homeless in two weeks,” Ferrera said.  

“I’m homeless in one week,” Barlaan said. 

Becky White, assistant director at Cal Rentals, the apartment service associated with UC Berkeley, said they are serving about 1,200 to 1,300 active clients. She said that they’re numbers will be “growing exponentially” every day from now until August.  

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. 

For the landlord, open houses can be a convenient method to deal with the high-demand market. They only need to show the apartment or house once. Many do not live in the area.  

But for renters, the situation can be impersonal, frustrating and almost demeaning. They are forced to jockey for the landlord’s favor and attention in a room swarming with college students, just like them. The whole process becomes more about selling their qualities to the landlord, rather than the landlord selling the qualities of the property to them.  

Two of 30 applicants at a West Berkeley open house Saturday, Rhea Muchow and Sara Vessal, think they know the game pretty well. They’ve been to enough open houses to know how to avoid amateur mistakes.  

They said successful candidates must arrive with a tenant resume, a credit check and an application already filled out. Also, they said all roommates must be present; they must be early; they should stand at the front of the line, talk first and repeat their names a lot. 

“At first we didn’t do these things,” Muchow said. “Now we wised up.”  

The short five to 10 minute conversation when the applicants actually meet the landlord is where they must project traits they sense landlords want. It’s important that they leave a good impression. 

Muchow and Vessal’s last comment to the landlord was, “OK, sounds great! We just want to find a quiet place to study near campus.”  

“You tell them what they want to hear,” said Vessal.  

However for students, it is difficult to gauge exactly what landlords want to hear.  

A common conception among students was that landlords want to know if the rent will come in on time. This caused some students to divulge information like that their parents always gave them money or that their father is the vice president of a successful company. 

“My parents are wealthy,” said Matt Mercier, who felt forced to convince her that he had enough money to pay rent regularly.  

“My parents pay. I have a checking account, but I get money from them.”  

Another creative strategy is to prove your responsibility by bringing your parents. 

Brannon, who has seen almost 60 places in the last three months said that those who bring their parents have an advantage if a landlord immediately wants the deposit and contract.  

But some found out that bringing others doesn’t always help. 

“I don’t think it was a plus,” said Sally Rogers who came with her husband, Phil, from Los Angeles. “It doesn’t matter if we pay our bills on time. They want to concentrate on who is living there.” 

There were other ways to stand out. Some students said landlords definitely value certain majors over others. If you have the right major, exploit it.  

“You must have done very well to get into computer science,” Jason Song and James Yang said a landlord told them.  

They were reminded to write their majors on the application when they turned it in.  

But others majors, like Jesse Dienner’s comparative literature, registered no worth or even recognition.  

“What’s that?” the landlord said. “I don’t know that.” 

“Uh-oh,” Dienner said. “This means this isn’t going well.” 

Most students were forced to use whatever they could to increase their chances. Some spoke Chinese with the landlord, others mentioned that they were graduate students and liked to study.  

But by the end of the open house, not one could say for certain that they were chosen. 

“It's luck,” said the landlord, who declined to give her name. “It depends. No one has a 100 percent chance.” 

The No. 7-ranked California Golden Bears (16-6), struggled early, yet managed to pull off a tough 4-1 victory over the No. 20-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels (16-7), Sunday at the Hellman Tennis Courts. 

The Bears got off to a sluggish start, losing the first doubles match at court No. 2, where Jieun Jacobs and Nicole Havlicek fell, 8-3, to UNC’s Marlene Mejia and Julie Rotondi. Cal evened the score when the duo of Christina Fusano and Catherine Lynch downed UNC’s tandem of Courtney Zalinski and Elina Bairos, 8-4, on the No. 3 court.  

All eyes were on the No. 1 court, where Anita Kurimay and Raquel Kops-Jones traded points the entire match with UNC’s Kendrick Bunn and Kate Pinchbeck. Neither team led by more than a point the entire match, before UNC took an 8-7 lead. Kops-Jones struggled with her serve as numerous double-faults hampered the duo’s chances to take an advantage. UNC’s duo would take the final game, and the first team point of the afternoon, defeating Cal, 9-7.  

Needing three singles victories to clinch the match, UNC gave the Bears a scare as singles competition got underway. The Tar Heels won the first set on three of six courts, forcing Cal to step up their level of play. Cal would find comfort in wins at courts No’s. 5 and 6, as Sekita Grant would tally the first point for the Bears with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 6, before Catherine Lynch tallied a 7-5, 6-2 victory at the No. 5 court.  

With a 2-1 lead, the Bears began to turn the tables. The three singles players who lost their first set at courts No.’s 2 through 4 began to make comebacks. At No. 3, Raquel Kops-Jones fought back from a 5-7 loss in the first set, to take the next two, 6-1, 6-2. The Bears would win the final point and take the match from UNC when Jieun Jacobs came back from a 6-7(6) first set loss, to defeat defeat UNC’s Kristin Koenig in the final two stanzas, 6-3, 6-1.  

Cal will travel to Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Georgia State University will host the final rounds of the NCAA championships, May 17-20.In addition to the team competition, Kurimay, Fusano and Kops-Jones will play for the singles title. 

Cal’s doubles team of Kurimay and Kops-Jones will also compete in the doubles portion of the championships. They will have big shoes to fill, as the Bears have produced the last three NCAA doubles champions.

Faced with escalating operating costs — and little hope that the now cash-starved state government would come up with extra education dollars at the final hour — the Berkeley Unified School District board cut millions of dollars from its budget earlier this month. 

Berkeley High School, by now accustomed to watching some of it fundings evaporate toward the end of budget planning season, lost the equivalent of 3.6 teachers in this latest round of cuts. 

But a local parcel tax measure originally passed in 1987 to provide extra support to Berkeley schools is, as in years past, helping to soften the blow at the high school.  

In fact, at the very moment the school board was preparing to finalize its budget cuts (which, in fact, won’t be completely finalized until this Wednesday), the high school’s Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Project (BSEP) Site Committee was figuring out how to distribute more than $400,000 to fund high school programs next year. 

These so-called “enrichment” funds come directly from Berkeley taxpayers, under the BSEP tax measure. Most of the millions raised each year under this measure go to teacher salaries, to help keep class sizes small. But a certain percentage is set aside for enrichment purposes, helping to pay for those extra activities and programs that would not otherwise make their way onto a public school budget. 

At Berkeley High, a committee of five parents, five staff (including the principal) and five students reviews proposals for how the money should be spent each year then votes on the final allocations. The BSEP Site Committee submits the plan to the Berkeley School Board for approval in June. 

The committee begins its work each year by completing a needs assessment study of the high school, said committee Chair Frances Cohen, a Berkeley High parent. It then studies programs already operating on campus and conducts interviews with students and staff to evaluate how they are meeting the needs of the school. 

This year the committee has tentatively awarded more than one third of the high schools’ $400,000 in enrichment funds to programs that support student learning in particular areas, Cohen said. 

After determining that BHS students need more one-on-one help in improving their writing skills, the committee chose to fund a program that brings writing tutors onto the campus to work with the students. 

To help Berkeley High students who are being asked to master high school level English curriculums when they barely know how to read, the BSEP committee will fund a reading teacher next year. 

“It’s something that hasn’t been done at the high school, and yet, it’s a need that gets mentioned over and over again,” Cohen said. 

In a similar vein, the BSEP committee chose to provide money for Check and Connect, a program aimed at tackling the schools notorious problems with truancy. The money would pay for a staff person to carefully track student absences, and for another person to dedicate a number of hours each day to the task of contacting parents of absent students. 

“It’s a constant complaint,” Cohen said. “You have students not going to class, and parents don’t know, and before you know it it’s the end of the semester and it’s a big problem.” 

As the school board continues to chip away at parts of its own budget, the BSEP committee sometimes takes up the slack. For example, the arguably indispensable position of the high school’s college advisor was cut from the regular school district budget some time ago. Ever since, the BSEP committee has stepped up to pay that person’s salary. 

Next year, the BSEP Committee plans to fund the salary of computer technician to keep the schools computers up and running. The school district, again, couldn’t come up with the cash. 

“The BSEP committee is supposed to fund enrichment activities, rather than things that are sort of basic,” Cohen said. “Our hope is that, in the future, the district would pick up some of this.” 

None of this is too say that the BSEP Committee has given up on funding more traditional enrichment activities, however. Next year the committee plans to pay for tutors in math and English as a second language; chemistry lab assistants; section instructors for the jazz lab band; a ballet teacher; peer health educators; visits to campus by musicians, poets and other artists; and student outings to inspirational performances in drama and music.  

Women finish eighth at regional, headed to championship 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – No. 25 California finished eighth Saturday at the NCAA Central Regional with a score of 940, earning the final bid out of the region to the NCAA Championship, May 23-26, in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.  

The Golden Bears shot a 319 in Saturday’s third and final round, which was high like the other 20 teams due to extremely windy conditions at the par 72, 6040-yard Kampen Golf Course. Cal finished four strokes ahead of ninth-place Oklahoma, which started the day in a tie for eighth with Baylor, which also didn’t advance.  

After standing in a tie for third after two rounds, Cal sophomore Vikki Laing fired an 81 Saturday to finish the tournament in a tie for eighth (226), which is the best a Cal women’s golfer has ever placed at regionals.  

Freshman Sarah Huarte posted Cal’s best round Saturday with a 76, finishing in a tie for 58th (242).  

Purdue’s Kari Damron took medalist honors with a 216, shooting an outstanding final round of 71, especially given the conditions. Tulsa’s Stacy Prammanasudh was second at 218.  

Tulsa shot a 313 in the final round to win the competition with a 54-hole score of 904. Host Purdue finished two strokes back in second at 906. Texas shot the best round of the day (302) to place third at 910. The other teams advancing out of the regional were New Mexico State (925), Oklahoma State (925), LSU (928) and Kent State 932.

A Berkeley inventor has started a company to harness the power in ocean waves to provide renewable energy to coastal communities. 

Mirko Previsic, chief executive officer of Sea Power and Associates, says the company's patented method uses a series of buoys that are driven up and down by the waves.  

That activity is then channeled through a hydraulic pump that converts the motion energy into electricity. 

Previsic says he's hopeful that each yard of coastline could power 20 homes, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in the process. 

Sanjay Wagle, who is chief financial officer at Sea Power, is also optimistic: “We've tested our prototype at half scale in the world's largest wave tank,” he said. “Now we're ready to put it into the ocean.” 

Their plan won top honors this weekend at the Haas Social Venture Competition, a national competition sponsored by the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. 

PROVO, UTAH - In the final match of men's regional tennis action at BYU, No. 1 seed Cal defeated No. 2 seeded Fresno State, 4-2, on Saturday afternoon at the BYU Outdoor Tennis Courts. 

California (16-8) started the match by winning an exciting doubles point. Fresno State's Peter Luczak and David Mullins defeated Scott Kintz and Adrian Barnes at the top spot, while Berkeley's Ben Miles and Balazs Veress won at the No. 3 spot. With doubles tied, 1-1, Cal's John Paul Fruttero and Robert Kowalczyk defeated Nick Fustar and Sean Cooper, 8-6 to take the point at the No. 2 court.  

"It really was the doubles point. The key was number two doubles," said Cal head coach Peter Wright. "It was exciting and it gave us momentum going into singles."  

In singles, Cal won at the No. 2 and 5 spots, while Fresno State won at the No. 1 and 3 courts, bringing the score to 3-2. The match was decided at the No. 6 spot, where Cal's Ben Miles defeated Alex Krohn, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, to give the Golden Bears the victory.  

"We had a great performance today from our singles, we fought so hard the whole way," said Wright. "Our seniors really came out and played great today to lead us to the victory."  

With the win, Cal advances to the Round of 16, held in Athens, Georgia on May 18-29.

SAN FRANCISCO — Much-anticipated new drugs intended to stop cancer by cutting off its blood supply show only slight benefit in early testing on terminally ill patients, although experts say the medicines still may prove useful. 

Whatever their eventual role, however, new data released Sunday suggest the drugs will not be the kind of across-the-board cancer cure that some had predicted. 

None of the drugs prompted the kind of dramatic tumor shrinkage or disappearance that doctors look for even in the first stages of human testing, which are largely intended to see if medicines are safe. Although the drugs had little effect overall, there were hints they might sometimes slow or even stop some tumor growth, at least temporarily. 

Reports on three of the drugs, all discovered in the lab of Dr. Judah Folkman, were presented at a meeting in San Francisco of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. 

Folkman, a surgeon at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, pioneered the field called angiogenesis, which involves trying to starve tumors with chemicals that stop them from building new blood vessels. 

Many angiogenesis drugs are being tested, but the two highest-profile candidates are endostatin and angiostatin, discovered in Folkman’s lab by Dr. Michael O’Reilly. A frenzy erupted over them in 1998 when an optimistically worded article in The New York Times quoted scientists predicting the drugs would soon provide a cancer cure. 

The latest data suggest this is unlikely. Doctors updated preliminary findings on endostatin research that were first released in November. Sunday’s presentations were the first on human testing of angiostatin and Panzem, another blood vessel blocker discovered by Folkman’s team. 

“The data are encouraging but not yet definitive,” O’Reilly said. “There is enough information to suggest that angiogenesis inhibitors will be used in the clinic. It’s just a question of which ones.” 

Doctors said that in some patients, the drug seems to halt cancer in some parts of the body while having little effect elsewhere. Overall, however, scans shows that the flow of blood to the patients’ tumors decreases. 

The next step will be to test these drugs in people with less advanced disease and to combine them with chemotherapy and radiation, as well as perhaps other medicines that block blood vessel growth. Some speculate that long-term use will hold cancer in check without curing it. 

Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center said many have wondered whether it will do any good to cut off new blood vessels to tumors that already have a blood supply. 

“In many ways, it was miraculous that there was any biological effect at all,” he said.

SAN JOSE – A federal judge has dramatically expanded a racial profiling lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol. 

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled Friday that a case alleging CHP officers on three occasions pulled over Hispanic and black men because of their race could become a class-action suit. 

As a result, the case now covers all Hispanic and black drivers stopped by the CHP since June 1998 in areas that stretch along Highway 101 and Interstate 5. 

Fogel did not find that the CHP has done anything wrong — rather, the judge believes if profiling does exist, it would not likely be limited to a handful of incidents. 

Lawyers who brought the case were elated with the judge’s ruling. 

“This makes it much more powerful as a tool to achieve meaningful change in policies that result in racial profiling,” said Jon Streeter, a San Francisco lawyer whose handling the suit with the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Staff at the CHP’s Sacramento offices said Commissioner D.O. Helmick would have no comment until at least Monday. 

A lawyer from the state attorney general’s office downplayed the decision. 

“All it really does is allow the plaintiffs (to continue) their claim that the Highway Patrol has policies and practices that discriminate against Latinos and African Americans,” said Tyler Pon, an attorney general’s office lawyer representing the CHP. “What remains to be seen is whether they can prove it.” 

Pon said the CHP does not discriminate against minority motorists. 

“If it is determined that the policies of the Highway Patrol discriminate against Latino and African American motorists, then they will be changed,” Pon said. 

Findings from the case have already prompted the CHP to change one policy. 

Last month, Helmick issued a six-month moratorium on “consent searches” — the kind that officers can conduct only if they receive permission from a driver. 

Helmick made that decision after reviewing traffic stop data he asked the CHP to collect from last July through March. Though he initiated the ban, Helmick said, “Our people clearly do not clearly racially profile. ... I think we treat people fairly. We’re just trying to be sure.” 

The ACLU countered that it analyzed similar data and concluded that after being stopped, Hispanics were nearly four times more likely to be searched than whites in the central coast region that includes Highway 101 — and that blacks were more than twice as likely to be searched. 

The ACLU said CHP data show similar rates in a Central Valley division that includes Interstate 5. 

The class-action originated in 1999 with a single plaintiff — San Jose attorney Curtis Rodriguez. 

Rodriguez alleges that in June 1998, he was driving on Highway 152 east of San Jose when he noticed CHP officers pulling over Hispanic drivers. 

Soon after, Rodriguez also was stopped and detained while a drug-sniffing dog checked the car, but found nothing. 

Rodriguez and plaintiffs from two similar incidents want a permanent ban on consent searches and reform in drug interdiction officer training. 

The ACLU has argued similar search cases against highway officers in states including Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. this week, police in New Mexico recently settled a class-action suit brought by the ACLU alleging discriminatory law enforcement.

Property owners going from powerful to desperate in economic downturn 

SAN FRANCISCO – During the height of the dot-com craze, some landlords here charged more than $100 a square foot for office space and demanded choice stock options in technology companies. Now, many of those options are worthless, and it’s the landlords’ turn to beg. 

Some desperate property owners are offering golf clubs, expensive tech gadgets and even luxury cars to brokers who can fill spaces suddenly vacated by technology companies that once paid Manhattan-style rents. 

Commercial real estate vacancies in San Francisco jumped more than doubled in the first quarter of 2001 compared to the previous quarter. Available space increased from 3.7 million to 8.7 million square feet, sending some companies scrambling to sublet space to help defray costs. 

Internet companies accounted for 77 percent of the space returned to the San Francisco office market between October 2000 and February 2001, according to CoStar Group Inc., which provides information services to the commercial real estate industry. 

The market flip-flop stands out in the city’s South-of-Market area. “For Rent” and “For Lease” signs are visible in every direction on blocks where dot-coms paid high prices for even low-grade warehouse space last year. 

“The market has dived, and I’ve seen a blood bath,” said Mike Mayeri of Cityfeet.com, a Web site that posts vacant commercial real estate for eight Northern California counties. “We’re running out of people to go broke. Sooner or later you flush it out of your system. I probably get 30 new e-mails every day with empty spaces.” 

Dan Mihalovich, of Mihalovich Partners commercial real estate services firm, says he regularly gets invited to open houses where prizes are raffled off. 

Some city residents couldn’t be happier. While the dot-com boom brought riches to landlords and companies, exploding rents forced many longtime tenants from their offices and work spaces. 

After receiving eviction notices, the 22 renters at the Grant Building on Market Street began a six-month campaign last fall to save their square footage. 

A collage of artists, writers and nonprofits took on Seligman & Associates, their Southfield, Mich., landlord, and eventually got what they wanted — new leases were signed in March. 

Seligman officials did not return a telephone call seeking comment. 

“The original plan was to raise rent about 350 percent,” said Chris Carlsson, executive director of Shaping San Francisco, writer/researcher multimedia producer of San Francisco history. “They thought it was just ‘Go, go, go frenzy’ and all these dot-coms were just dying to get in here, but it never materialized during the boom.” 

Although their rents did increase, the tenants were able to stay, an outcome they say is symbolic of a new beginning in the city. 

“We thought it would be the first victory or the last defeat,” said Jim Brook, a Grant Building poet, translator and editor. “Now I think it’s the first victory.” 

But Sharky Laguana, a singer and guitarist, said many musicians are still struggling to find practice space. 

“Even if (rents) were to drop like 50 percent, it’s still out of range of what musicians can pay,” he said. 

At $62 per square foot, San Francisco had the nation’s highest prime office rents in the first quarter, according to the nationwide commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield. New York’s midtown Manhattan market is the second most expensive at $57 per square foot, the report said. 

San Francisco’s vacancy rate is projected to hit 13.6 million square feet in the next year, a further increase of more than 50 percent, according to CoStar. March 2000 was the tightest market at about 2 million square feet of available space. 

Mayeri’s Cityfeet.com, which opened in San Francisco last June, has watched the market and its players go from shortage to surplus, and landlords post more ads every day. 

“It was the heyday,” Mayeri said. “It was the gold rush, but it seems as though the tides have changed.” 

Here’s a look at current vacancy rates in San Francisco’s commercial real estate market, and space expected to be open within the next year. 

—Office space currently vacant: 8.57 million square feet, up 232 percent from 3.69 million three months ago. 

—Expected office space available one year from now: 13.59 million square feet, up 69 percent from 8.03 million three months ago. 

Source: The CoStar Group, Inc. 

—Top five U.S. cities with the overall highest asking rents per square foot as of the first quarter 2001: 

1. San Francisco $62.04 

2. Midtown New York $56.98 

3. Boston $53.33 

4. San Jose $50.64 

5. Downtown New York $43.73 

—Top five U.S. cities with least amount of vacant office space as of the first quarter 2001: Numbers refer to percentage of available space. 

1. Downtown San Jose 2.4 percent 

2. Washington, D.C. 4.3 percent 

3. Downtown New York 4.8 percent 

4. Midtown New York 4.8 percent 

5. Boston 5.3 percent 

6. Midtown South New York 5.8 percent 

7. Portland, Ore. 6.1 percent 

8. San Francisco 6.7 percent 

Source: Cushman & Wakefield

SUNNYVALE – Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is introducing new chips in a move to catch up with rival Intel Corp. in the mobile computer market. 

AMD will announce Monday new Athlon and Duron mobile processors that are faster, more powerful and less of a battery drain than their earlier versions. The Sunnyvale-based chipmaker also claims the processors outperform those of Intel, which have dominated the laptop market. 

“AMD PowerNow! technology not only makes notebooks run cooler and quieter, it offers extended battery life and up to 50 percent more performance than the competition’s offering,” said Pat Moorhead, vice president of desktop and mobile marketing for AMD’s Computation Products Group. 

The debate over performance, however, rages constantly in the industry. 

Developing power-efficient microprocessors has become a high-stakes competition in the fast-growing segment of notebook computers, which is projected to triple to 30 million units in the United States by the year 2005. 

Intel introduced the first 1-gigahertz chip for mobile computers — a Pentium III with Intel’s so-called power-saving SpeedStep technology — in March. 

The top of AMD’s new mobile lineup is the Athlon 4, a 1-gigahertz chip, targeted for the high-performance market. The fastest of the new mobile Duron chips, which are billed as bargain alternatives to Athlon chips, runs at 850-megahertz.

Boy shot by cops could get $1 million 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A boy accidentally shot by San Francisco police would get more than $1 million under a proposed settlement recommended by the city attorney’s office. 

Max Castro, 12, was hit in the left knee last year after police responded to a 911 call the boy made. Authorities believe that a rookie officer was aiming at one of the Castro family’s dogs, which was biting his partner. The boy was hit by a bullet fragment that ricocheted off the floor. 

Max, his mother and grandmother filed the suit in December, asking unspecified damages for loss of future earning capacity, pain and suffering and medical bills. 

Police Commission records show that the Castro suit is on its Wednesday agenda. The commission still has to approve the settlement, as does the Board of Supervisors. 

Castro family attorney Angela Alioto said Max Castro had been through enough trauma without enduring a lengthy trial. The growth plate in his knee was hit, and he faces a series of risky or painful surgeries. He also faces the probability of severe arthritis in the joint. 

Max and his family would receive $925,000 under the settlement, plus $150,000 for future medical needs. 

Suspect gives himself up to police 

ANTIOCH – A man wanted in connection with the alleged strangling and dismemberment of an Antioch woman surrendered to police on separate charges this week, insisting he was not involved with the killing. 

Edward Lee Cunningham, 38, turned himself in Wednesday on two no-bail warrants stemming from recent probation violations, officials said. 

He was questioned for several hours by police about the April 13 disappearance of Margaret Bernard, 62, whose remains were found a week later in Solano and Sierra counties, officials said. 

Authorities already have filed murder charges against Bernard’s daughter, Kendra Bernard, 38, who officials say has been romantically involved with Cunningham. Police are not ruling out the possibility of other suspects. 

Court documents released last week indicate that Margaret Bernard was killed some time over the Easter weekend. Her body was found at the base of a hill in Sierra County, but her head, hands and feet were found in Solano County. Several knives, a machete and an ax were found at both sites, along with other evidence. 

Asian Americans wary of movie’s influence 

SAN FRANCISCO – Bay Area Asian Americans say they’re apprehensive the new movie “Pearl Harbor” could rekindle animosity and mistrust toward Japanese and other groups. 

The movie focuses on the events of December 7th, 1941, when Japanese bombers descended on American troops and warships in Hawaii. 

Mistrust caused the U.S. government to imprison people of Japanese descent, many of them U.S. citizens, in relocation camps during World War II. 

John Tateishi, president of the Japanese American Citizens League, was consulted by Disney studios and producer Jerry Bruckheimer on the movie’s script. Tateishi said the script is largely fair to Japanese characters, but he worries movie-goers will dwell on the attack and the attackers. 

The Organization of Chinese Americans and other Asian groups plans to launch an education campaign before the film’s Memorial Day release. 

‘Senioritis’ not students’ fault, professor says 

STANFORD – High school seniors guilty of slacking off after getting their college acceptance letter in the mail aren’t necessarily lazy. 

At least, so says Stanford education professor Michael Kirst. 

Kirst attributes the so-called senioritis to inadequate testing requirements and a college admissions schedule that doesn’t force students to work hard after the first semester of senior year. 

Kirst says that lack of work caused 66 percent of students admitted to the California State university system to fail at least one placement test. Many students require remedial classes when they start school. 

Kirst said colleges should set knowledge requirements and reject students who don’t pass those standards at year’s end. High school teachers should also gear curriculum throughout senior year toward subjects that will be revisited in college.

Ten days after the bacterial meningitis death of 9-year-old Nambi Phelps, Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Poki Namkung held a press conference Friday to announce a second case of the contagious disease.  

The second case has spurred the Health and Human Services Department to launch an aggressive information campaign that will include going door to door in west and south Berkeley neighborhoods.  

The city also held a screening clinic at Berkeley High School Friday and will hold two others at various locations during the weekend.  

“We are taking a very aggressive course of action because it is imperative we break the chain of transmissions,” Namkung said. 

A 19-year-old woman, who is a friend of Phelps’ family, was taken by ambulance to Alta Bates Hospital at 8 p.m. Thursday complaining of flu-like symptoms.  

The woman, who was not identified, is listed in serious condition. Doctors have made a tentative diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. Namkung said a definitive diagnosis will be made sometime today. 

Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal fluid.  

The germ is transmitted through saliva or droplets from the nose. Engaging in any activity where saliva is exchanged can transmit the disease.  

The infectious period is three to four days and symptoms can appear between two and 10 days of exposure. Early detection and treatment with antibiotics is key to preventing serious illness or death. 

Casual contact or simply breathing the same air as an infected person is not enough to transfer the disease.  

Symptoms include sudden fever, headache and stiff neck sometimes accompanied by nausea and vomiting. 

Despite the family connection, Namkung said she has ruled out direct transmission of the illness from Phelps to the most recent case because the incubation period of 10 days had passed. It is more likely that the two contracted the disease from two different sources. 

Namkung said a group of people, associated with Phelps’ family, has been identified as the likely source of the disease. She said there was not enough known about the group to say what the group connection is.  

“They are mostly teenagers and young adults that engage in high-risk behavior like sharing cigarettes, joints, drinks and food,” Namkung said. 

She said members of the group may be having unprotected sex and using drugs like crack cocaine, both of which can transmit the infection. 

Arrietta Chakos, the city manager’s office chief of staff, said Berkeley is in a good position to stop the spread of the disease because of the city’s Health and Human Services Department. Since it is local, Chakos said it has connections with the community.  

“Our staff knows some of these people and that will make it a lot easier to help them,” she said. 

A city hot line will be staffed by nurses who will answer questions about the infection from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and Sunday. The number is (510) 981-CITY (2489). 

There is also information on the city’s web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us.  

The screening clinics will be held at two locations at different times over the weekend. 

Saturday, May 12 at Fire Station #1 at 2442 Eighth St. at Dwight from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  

Sunday, May 13 at Francis Albrier Community Center at 2800 Park St. from 1 to 5 p.m. 

Saturday, May 12

Aquatic Park Playground (Dreamland for Kids) Work Party 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Bancroft Way at Bolivar Drive. 

Bring your wheelbarrow, shovel and garden rake. Work on the Ecology Garden. 

Kids and adults needed. Lunch will be served. 649-9874 

“Positive Knowledge” Jazz Trio 

8 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

“Positive Knowledge,” a first-rate avant-garde jazz trio, will appear in a free two-set concert sponsored by the Friends of the Library. 644-6860 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. (at San Pablo)  

Adair Lara, author of “Hold Me Close, Let Me Go,” Janis Newman, author of “The Russian Word for Snow,” Wavy Gravy, and Accoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet. 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Cordornices Creek  

Work Party 

10 a.m. 

Meet at 10th St. south of Harrison St. 

Join Friends of Five Creeks in removing ivy and reducing erosion as part of National River Cleanup Week. Learn to create creekside trail. Bring work gloves and clippers if possible. 

848-9358 

f5creeks@aol.com 

Bulbs of Southern Africa 

3 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Free, reservations required. 

643-1924 

Jefferson School PTA Mayfair 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Jefferson School 

Rose and Sacramento 

Music and entertainment, carnival games, book and plant sale, food, cakewalk and prizes including drawing for Jefferson Parent Quilt. Free admission. 

558-9096 

Mother’s Day Plant Sale 

Willard Middle School 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Flowers, vegetables, bouquets. Benefit for the Willard Greening Project. 549-9121 

Yard Sale 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

University Lutheran Chapel 

2425 Collage Ave. 

“Junk and Gems” of the members of Opus Q - The East Bay Men’s Chorale. Also seeking donations. 

664-0260 www.opus-q.com 

Sunday, May 13

Mother’s Day Concert 

3 - 4 p.m 

Environmental Education Center 

Tilden Regional Park  

Featuring Mary Mische singing children’s songs. Free 

525-2233 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to adjust the brakes on your bicycle from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Tapping Into Creativity 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Based on Tarthang Tulku’s “Knowledge of Freedom”, ideas and meditations to inspire creativity. Free and open to the public. 

843-6812 

Mother’s Day at the  

Rose Garden 

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Euclid at Eunice 

Bring mom to the Rose Garden to hear the Albany Big Band and Wine Country Brass. Food will be available from Classic Catering, or bring your own picnic from home. Roses should be in full bloom. 

525-3005 

Carpentry Basics for Women 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Second day of weekend hands-on workshop taught by Tracy Weir, professional carpenter. Build your own bookshelf unit. $195 for Saturday and Sunday. 525-7610 

Ceramic Tile Installation 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Second day of weekend hands-on workshop taught by tile-setting expert Rod Taylor. $195 for Saturday and Sunday. 

525-7610 

Monday, May 14

Seeing Into the Afterlife  

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Yossi Offenberg will discuss Judaism’s philosophy on what happens beyond this world.  

$10 848-0237 

Tuesday, May 15

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 531-8664 

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  

548-8283 www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

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 be about the effect of the media on our lives. 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 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

Dr. Kathryn Williams, former chairman for the department of rehabilitation, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, will discuss the current understanding of fibromyalgia.  

601-0550 

Business of Seeds 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

How seeds became a commodity and their journey from the fields to the lab to wall street and a discussion of our potential role as urban seed stewards in the global system.  

548-2220 

Basic Electrical Theory and  

National Electric Code  

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St.  

Instructed by author/retired City of Oakland building inspector Redwood Kardon. $35 

Silent Vigil Against  

Death Penalty 

8 - 9 a.m. 

Federal Building 

1301 Clay St, Oakland 

Sponsered by East Bay Women Against the Death Penalty is sponsoring a silent vigil in protest of the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the first federal execution in 38 years. Wear black, bring signs. 841-1896 

Bicycling Get Together 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Wesley Foundation 

2398 Bancroft Way 

Special presentation on bicycling in Germany. 

597-1235 

— compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

Wednesday, May 16

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 

Thursday, May 17

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 

“What is Queer Spirituality?” 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd Bldg., Room 100 

Bill Glenn, PSR alumni and leader of Spirit Group, will lead a panel discussion on the dynamic shape of queer spirituality today.  

849-8206 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

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

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

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 meeting is the spring barbecue.  

654-5486 

Solving Residential Drainage Problems 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

First day of two day seminar led by contractor/engineer Eric Burtt. Continues Tuesday May 22. $70 for both days. 

525-7610 

John Muir May Fair 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

John Muir Elementary School 

2955 Claremont Ave 

Cake walk, face painting, games, food and student performances, quilt raffle. Free. 

644-6410 

Berkeley needs to clean up  

contamination 

Editor: 

2700 San Pablo Ave. remains a contaminated property from petrochemical residuals, although leaking underground gasoline storage tanks were removed in the 80s and some contaminated soil was remediated in 1994.  

There is a deed notice attesting to the contamination. Because there has been no monitoring of the contamination since soil and water samples were recorded in 1997 (monitoring wells were ordered destroyed in1998 as a condition for closure of the site) there is no way of knowing if previously extraordinarily high levels of cancer causing chemicals have degraded. MTBE is known to be particularly recalcitrant. 

The West Berkeley Plan calls for cleanup of toxic contaminated sites before development. The Federal Clean Water Act encourages local agencies to take more proactive steps in protecting our precious resource, the San Francisco Bay water basin. Allowing residual contamination to remain in the soil where it continually recharges the water table and further migrates off site is a very irresponsible way to deal with the problem and it is antithetical to the Berkeley City Council’s resolution resisting state imposed efforts to simply “contain” contaminated landsites. 

It behooves the City Council to employ the “precautionary principle” in regard to the contamination problem of 2700 San Pablo Ave. A Phase II Environmental Assessment, which would entail further water and soil sampling and analysis, must be required- before a development permit is issued, as prescribed by CEQA. A health risk assessment must be done for whatever is the actual proposed project. The project before you is not the project that was reviewed by the Zoning Adjustments Board, and previous iterations of project were not adequately reviewed for their contamination related issues. Also the toxics contamination evaluation and “modeling” should not be left up to the developer or his hired contractor or consultant. That would be an inherent conflict of interest which goes against the letter and intention of CEQA. Impacted neighbors should have a right to participate in the selection of an independent testing company and to be full participants in the review of test results. 

Berkeley has dozens of similarly contaminated potential development sites, especially in West Berkeley. It’s time for Berkeley to set a good environmental example.  

Peter Teichner 

Berkeley 

We must seek peace in the Middle East 

Editor: 

For anyone who follows events in the Middle East, the past six months have been difficult. For Jewish and Arab Americans and especially students it’s been trying to see such awful violence occurring between their peoples; only months after true peace seemed to be just footsteps away. Unaffiliated others must have trouble picking through the rhetoric thrown by both sides to decide which “truth” to believe.  

The fact is however, that there is no "truth.” In this conflict there are two sides that see the same history and view it completely differently. While one side sees “orange,” the other sees “apple.” 

So, in a sense both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. There are flagrant violations of the Oslo accords on both the Palestinian and Israeli side, and while one may see one violation as worse than another, it no longer matters. One side may say that the other “discriminates,” or that the other “teaches hatred of us in their schools,” but if we truly are ready to sit down at the negotiating table once and for all, does name calling accomplish anything? 

What matters is where we go from here. Today we must decide to accept conditions as they are right now, and use them as a springboard for true change. Today, not tomorrow, is the day to find a solution, to talk peace. 

Today we must move from asking who did what and when, to what we’re going to do now. Israel supporters can site wrongs of the Palestinians in the current conflict, and vice-versa as well, but much of this is based on perspectives and biases. The bottom line is that Israel has offered peace, the most generous peace ever offered to resolve this conflict; the Palestinian authority rejected this peace and instead turned to violence as a means of achieving what they couldn’t achieve through negotiations.  

Today the violence must stop. The "occupation" of Wheeler Hall was an uncalled for event that moved this conflict onto another level from where it had previously been. This protest turned the conflict from political to just pure hatred. Event speakers called Jews "conniving", and a Star of David was equated with a swastika. Nothing could be more offensive to Jews and rational thinking people everywhere.  

In just the past few days too many children have been lost to both sides as well. Two 14-year-old Jewish boys (one a United States citizen) were stoned to death by Palestinians while hiking near their homes. A 4-month-old Palestinian girl was killed when her house collapsed on her after Israeli return-fire hit it. Must children suffer any longer? Must anyone from either side suffer any longer?  

It’s time that Palestinians accept that what they’ve lost was lost in a war that they initiated – it’s gone forever. Israel has offered much of it back however in return for peace. They must realize that Jews have every right returning to their ancient homeland, whatever negative consequences that may or may not have had. Israelis, for their part, need to accept that the creation of their state has, unfortunately, caused the suffering of another people (the extent of which can be hotly debated). Israelis must accept that Palestinians are a distinct people who too deserve their own state. Israelis cannot control the Palestinians any longer and will need to trust that all signed peace treaties will be upheld to the utmost extent. 

Today both sides need to understand and listen to the claims of the other. Resolution of this conflict will not come through violence, protests, divestment, hate or name-calling; it will only come through face-to-face dialogue and understanding, and a genuine desire to live in peace. The time to start is now.  

Daryl Kutzstein 

San Diego 

Working people need their own  

political party 

Editor: 

Governor Gray Davis tells us that the deregulation of the electric power industry has been a colossal disaster. On the contrary, as each day we learn of new and fascinating ways by which the power industry is robbing us blind, it’s clear that deregulation has been a stupendous success – for the power industry. This demonstrates that, in reality, we do not yet have a government of, by, and for the people, but rather a government of, by, and for the wealthy. 

Under our famous two-party system, if we don’t like what the people in our office have done, we can always turn the rascals out, and vote in the other set of rascals. 

The problem is, the vote in the the legislature in favor of deregulation was unanimous.  

Since nobody in either major party is capable of standing up against the power monopoly, we’d be fools to keep on voting for them. Maybe it’s time for working people to get together and organize a political party of our own.  

Marion Syrek 

Oakland 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “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. “Ricky Swallow/Matrix 191,” Including new sculptures and drawings; Through May 27 $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 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership. All ages. May 12: The Sick, Impalid, Creuvo, Tearing Down Standards; May 18: Ensign, All Bets Off, Playing Enemy, Association Area, Blessing the Hogs; May 19: Punk Prom and benefit for India quake victims features Pansy Division, Plus Ones, Dave Hill, Iron Ass; May 25: Controlling Hand, Wormwood, Goats Blood, American Waste, Quick to Blame; May 26: Honor System, Divit, Enemy You, Eleventeen, Tragedy Andy; June 1: Alkaline Trio, Hotrod Circuit, No Motiv, Dashboard Confessional, Bluejacket; June 2 El Dopa, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Shadow People, Ludicra, Ballast. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 12: 9 p.m.The Johnny Otis Show; May 13: 9:30 p.m. Toyes, The “Smoke Two Joints” Band; May 15: 8 p.m. Edessa and Cascada de Flores; May 16: 9 p.m. Creole Belles; May 17: 10 p.m. Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave; May 18: 9:30 p.m. Reggae Angels with Mystic Roots; May 19: 9:30 Kotoja; May 20: 8:30 p.m. Jude Taylor and His Burning Flames 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 12, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with authors Adair Lara and Janis Newman, and the Accoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet; May 12: Robin Flower and Libby McClaren; May 13, 1 p.m.: The Kathy Kallick Band; May 13, 8 p.m.: The Pine Valley Boy; May 14: Acoustic Guitar summit Quartet; May 17: The Rincon Ramblers; May 18: Todd Snider; May 19: Oak, Ash and Thorn; 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. May 13: Michael Zilber Group 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com 

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 12: Post Junk Trio; May 15: Chris Shot Group; May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Rhythm Doctors; May 29: The Lost Trio; May 30: Zambambazo 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Peña Cultural Center May 12, 10:30 a.m.: Colibri; May 13, 4 p.m.: In the Cafe La Pena - Community Juerga; May 13, 3 p.m.: Juanita Newland-Ulloa and Picante Ensemble; May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane; May 20: 6 p.m. Venezuelan Music Recital 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

“The Children’s Hour” May 12, 8 p.m. and May 13, 4 p.m. The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Arlene Sagan will perform Julian White’s piece along with Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia and selections from Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, poems of Robert Frost set to music. Free St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. 528-2145  

Berkeley Opera Gala Concert May 12, 7 p.m. Berkeley Opera singers and special guest artists will be joined by Music Director, Jonathan Khuner and members of the Berkeley Opera Orchestra to provide entertainment highlighting the 2001 theme, “Opera Uncensored.” Also a silent auction, balloon raffle, champagne and more. $15 - $40 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Juanita Newland-Ulloa & Picante Ensemble May 13, 3 p.m. Romantic songs from South America. Luncheon served at 1 p.m. at the Valparaiso Cafe. $13 - $15 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

Mother’s Day Celebration May 13, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Albany Big Band will play from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. followed at 2 p.m. by Wine Country Brass. Picnic fare will be available fom Classic Catering, or bring food from home. Flowers for sale. 525-3005 

The Crowden School Annual Spring Concert May 16, 7:30 p.m. $5-$10 St. John’s Presbytarian Church at College and Garber 559-6910 

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 

Jazz Singers Collective May 17, 8 p.m. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

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 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

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  

“En Mouvement/In Motion” May 18, 19 7 p.m., May 19, 20 2 p.m. Part of the Berkeley Ballet Theater Spring Showcase, this production is a collection of works by student dancers/ $15. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 843-4689  

“Grease” May 12, 8 p.m. and May 6, 2 p.m. By Berkeley High Performing Arts Department. Rock-musical set in late 1950’s explores teen issues. A classic. $6 Little Theater Allston Way between MLK and Milvia 524-9754  

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Musical Tree of India” May 13, 2 p.m. Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre present this legend from tribal India. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“The Laramie Project” May 18 - July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members travelled to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepard. The play is about the community and the impact Shepard’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Sister, My Sister” May 20, 5 p.m. Poetry, photography and dramatic readings which give voice to women and children cuaght in homelessness. Admission is free, donations welcome. Live Oak Park Theatre1301 Shattuck Ave. 528-8198 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive May 18: 7:30 The Cloud-Capped Star; May 19: 3:30 Starewicz Puppet Films; May 20: 5:30 The New Gulliver Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“A Ship with Painted Sails: The Fabulous Animation of Karel Zeman” May 12: 7 p.m. Baron Munchausen, 9:10 p.m. Kraba - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice May 13: 5:30 The Thousand and One Nights, 7:05 p.m. The Tale of John and Mary. Admission: $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Mirele Efros” May 13, 2 - 4:30 p.m. Jacob Gordin’s classic story set in turn-of the century Grodno. A classic study in family relations. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

“Drowning in a Sea of Plastics” Video and Discussion Night May 16, 7 p.m. Join the Ecology Center’s Plastic Task Force for a viewing of “Trade Secrets” and “Synthetic Sea.” Free. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220 ext. 233 

Exhibits 

Youth Arts Festival A citywide 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 Through May 12, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St.  

“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  

“Scapes/Escapes” Ink, Acrylic, Mixed Media by Evelyn Glaubman Through June 1 Tuesday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Gallery of the Center for Psychological Studies 1398 Solano Ave. Albany 524-0291 

“Watercolors and Mixed Media” by Pamela Markmann Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. A retrospective of 30 years’ work at Markmann’s Berkeley studio. Red Oak Gallery 2983 College Ave. 526-4613  

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show and Sale May 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 

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse. Meet the artists May 18, 19, 20 (call for times). Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“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 

“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 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

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) 

Quilt Show through May 12. M-Th, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri-Sat, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Twenty-second annual show displays over 60 quilts. Berkeley Public Library’s North Branch. 1170 The Alameda 644-6850 

“Tropical Visions: Images of AfroCaribbean Women in the Quilt Tapestries of Cherrymae Golston” Through May 28, Tu-Th, 1-7 p.m., Sat 12-4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 12: Ike Oguine reads “A Squatter’s Tale”; May 14: Edie Meidav reads and signs “The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon”; May 15: Kathleen Norris discusses “The Virgin of Bennington”; May 16: Tim Flannery describes “The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples”; May 17: Lalita Tademy reads “Cane River”; May 18: Oscar London, M.D. copes with “From Voodoo to Viagra: The Magic of Medicine”; May 21: Ariel Dorfman reads “Blakes Therapy”  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted May 17: Jean Shinoda Bolen talks about “Goddesses In Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 12: Krandall Kraus will read “Love’s Last Chance: A Nigel & Nicky Mystery”; May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”; May 29, 7 - 9 p.m.: Travel Photo Workshop with Joan Bobkoff. $15 registration fee  

“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. May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo; May 31: Connie Post with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike May 12, 6:30 p.m. An ongoing open mike series, featuring poet/artist Anca Hariton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

Adan David Miller and JoJo Doig May 20, 7 p.m. Poetry and spoken word. Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo 548-3333 

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  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour 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 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 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 

José-Luis Orozco, a long time Berkeley musician, is an expert in bilingual education through music and song.  

Ever since he was a child in Mexico City, he’s been singing for multi-cultural audiences. The second of eleven children, Jose-Luis learned old songs from his grandmother. His mother taught him to interpret the spirit of the song. 

“My mother, though not a professional, was very good at singing the feeling of the music, from a slow Bolero (love song) to Mexican polkas,” Orozco said. “I picked up the energy of the music from her, the feeling.” 

Last week, Orozco brought that musical tradition to Washington School. People in the audience were awed by the performance. 

“He had the whole audience, whole families, up dancing to children’s songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish and English. Nobody just sat. It was amazing!” said Pat Ungern, a teacher at the school.  

At 7, he and a brother were chosen to travel with the Mexico City Children’s Choir throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. They stayed with families – both rich and poor – and performed for heads of state and a diverse range of audiences.  

Traveling gave him opportunities that he could never have had at home. He learned church music in Latin, Mexican folk music, and sang world music including American folk songs like, “Home on the Range.” While in Spain, he was given a guitar as a gift and his father taught him to play once he arrived home.  

While touring, he also learned about politics. In Venezuela, the choir was turned back because of a coup. During the Bay of Pigs invasion, he was staying with Basque families in Spain.  

The families were progressive and sat up late at night listening for news about Cuba.  

The Cuban revolution was a very big thing, Orozco said, to people who lived whole lives under dictatorships.  

When his voice changed at 13, and he could no longer be part of the children’s choir, he formed a musical group with neighbors and played at various barrio gatherings. He attended evening music classes, but also worked to help his mother support the family. Life was not easy. 

In 1968, there was a student rebellion in Mexico City similar to rebellions around the world including the civil-rights movement and the anti-war movement in the United States. It ended in the massacre of many students, some of whom he knew, three blocks from his mother’s home.  

Jose-Luis’ father called him at work and told him not to go home because the army was searching for students and taking them from the neighborhood, even if they had not been part of the rebellion. He stayed away for three days. 

The sadness of that event coincided with a friend’s urging him to come to the United States. He and his mother decided it was something he should try. He moved to San Jose and mopped floors.  

After six months, lonely for music, he bought a cheap guitar and started singing at schools in the Bay Area. 

Quickly he discovered Berkeley. He went to Laney College and transferred to UC Berkeley to complete his Bachelor of Arts.  

Oscar Lewis’s book, “The Children of Sanchez,” was written about the barrio where his parents were born and raised and inspired Orozco’s strong interest in sociology.  

The University of San Francisco offered him a scholarship and he earned an Master of Arts in multi-cultural education. 

For several years in the 70s, he worked as a community liasion in Berkeley. He married and fathered three children – Jose-Luis, Maya, and Gabriel. He also co-founded a national Hispanic university and ran summer programs for the University in Gudalajara. 

In all of this mix, his interest in music became foremost and his ability to support himself through music was accomplished by the mid-80s. His politics, he said, is connected to his daily life education. He wrote a corrido, or ballad, for Cesar Chavez and for Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Worker’s Union. He will be performing them at La Peña Cultural Center on June 9.  

Orozco loves to sing to any age group, but the demand to sing to children is always the highest.  

“The most important thing about my music is the effect it has on the education of children,” Orozco said.  

“Seeing the joy in the children and then the joy in the teachers noticing the music’s impact on the children keeps me motivated. 

“Music brings down barriers between people, barriers of prejudice and racism. Music is a non-threatening tool. It brings people together, it makes people happy. All along, since I was very young, I’ve seen that music is magic,” he said. 

When Jose-Luis Orozco sings to children he is warm, engaging, and upbeat. He presents his music in a way that values children. He makes them feel important. They know, during his time with them, that they matter. He can take a dull classroom and fill it with color and light.  

He has been recording for years. The recordings for children are done simply with just his guitar and voice – a soothing combination, he’s been told.  

“They use my music to calm fussy babies, “ he said, laughing.  

One compact disc, “De Colores,” has sold over thirty thousand copies. There is a companion book with songs in Spanish with English translations. The illustrations by Elsia Kleven are richly conceived and whimsical. One song from this collection, “Paz y libertad,” has a life of its own. People have been dancing to it at circle dance gatherings for years never knowing that José-Luis Orozco wrote it. 

His oldest son, Luis, has been managing his business for him.  

“Luis is an excellent organizer,” Orozco said, bragging. “And he has great people skills. Even when he was twelve people would ask him questions and he would explain everything to them.” 

Dual immersion programs, the best model for dual language acquisiton, are flowering in schools throughout the United States. Three of Berkeley’s schools have programs; Orozco’s youngest son, Pablo, is at Cragmont’s. And because Orozco is emerging as the foremost educator in Spanish-English music for children, he is highly sought after. He has song recently in New York City, Houston, and Miami, and, unpredictably, a dual immersion school in Anchorage, Alaska. 

At 52, Orozco is realizing that the possibilites for his music are limitless. He wants to keep on creating and letting his music provide continuity across generations.  

He feels he’s reached two generations already, his and that of his children. He’s working on his third. His daughter’s new born son is one baby he’s singing to already. 

You can hear José-Luis Orozco in a Benefit Concert for Centro Vida-Bahai, a child care, at the Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison Street on June 2 at 11:00a.m. Call 524-7300 information.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – No. 25 Cal shot a 312 in the second round of the NCAA Central Regional Friday to drop from eighth to 10th place (621) with the final round of the 21-team tournament slated for Saturday. The Bears are only one stroke back of being one of eight teams to advance to the NCAA Championship, May 23-26, in Florida.  

The Tulsa Golden Hurricane turned in the best round of the day Friday, a three-over-par 291, and moved into first place with a two-day score of 591. Led by the regional’s individual leader, Stacy Prammanasudh, with a two-day, two-under-par total of 142, the Golden Hurricane blew into a four-stroke lead over first-day leader Purdue (595). The tournament host settled for a 12-over 300 on Friday, five strokes off their first-day total.  

Prammanasudh carded a 72 Friday after a 70 Thursday to hold a one-stroke lead over Heather Zielinski of Purdue, who fired a 71 Friday after a 72 Thursday for a two-day total of 143. California sophomore Vikki Laing (72-73=145) is part of a four-way tie for third place. If the tournament ended today, Laing would be one of two individuals earning bids from non-advancing teams to the NCAA Championship.  

The Bears next best golfer is sophomore Ria Quiazon, who is tied for 38th (156) after duplicating her opening round of 78.  

Moving into third place heading into the final 18 holes was Oklahoma State (599), followed by New Mexico State (602), Texas (608), Kent State (608), Louisiana State (610), Oklahoma (620), Baylor (620) and California (621), rounding out the top 10.

The huge galaxy of volunteer committees that serve Berkeley public schools give parents a chance to bring professional expertise to bear on a baffling range of problems.  

Computer gurus keep computer labs running, botanists help maintain school gardens, artists recruit talent for school assemblies, CPAs help oversee the district’s budgeting process.  

The PTA, the mightiest committee of all, dabbles a bit in everything. 

But where would the PTA committees be without the quilters – that small group of parents that come together at the beginning of each school year to choose fabric and patterns for a school quilt to be raffled off at a spring carnival. 

At Jefferson elementary school, where the quilting tradition goes back so far that 10-year veterans can’t recall its origins, a quilt whose raw materials cost about $5 helped raise more than $5,000 for the school’s PTA last year.  

Over the years, John Muir, Thousand Oaks and Cragmont and other Berkeley Schools have adopted the tradition of raffling quilts to raise money each spring as well.  

This year Jefferson PTA President Matthew Wong expects the school’s quilt to be one of the biggest enticements – right up there with the tickets to Disneyland – for people to snatch up the schools raffle tickets. 

But more than just a fund raising mechanism, the Jefferson quilt is literally part of the fabric of the school. It is a way for parents without the time or the taste for PTA meetings to come together, share ideas and demonstrate support for their children’s school. 

“PTA meetings are not as fun as the quilting circle,” said Melissa Quilter (yes, that’s her real name), a driving force behind the Jefferson quilt for the last nine years. “It builds community, allows for connections to get built.” 

Carrie Blake, a 10-year veteran of the Jefferson quilting effort until her youngest child moved on to middle school last year, agreed. 

“It’s low key,” Blake said. “It was kind of a way for me to introduce myself that didn’t require me to be on a big committee where I had to talk a lot.” 

At Jefferson, Quilter and other experienced quilters gather the various fabric pieces for the quilt into piles and assign one student responsibility for sewing each foot-wide square – usually with the help of a parent or grand parent. Later parents gather in the evening at Jefferson to complete the careful work of hand stitching all the squares together into a quilt. These are the members of the so-called “quilting circle.” 

Parents who pick their children up at school are, Quilter said, “invited to come early and stay late and really spend time at the school. It’s a forum to discuss school issue, neighborhood issues, etc.” 

“We kind of had our own PTA,” Blake said. “We’d assess teachers, swap stories, talk about what we thought students should be doing.” 

It was a fun and welcoming environment for parents, Blake said, with more than a hint of nostalgia in her voice. One of Blake’s children is a student at Berkeley High School today, a place where Blake said she has yet to figure out how to become involved in school activities.  

“My child is totally against me setting foot on campus,” she joked.  

The Jefferson quilts are typically finished in early April, in time to be part of annual exhibition of locally made quilts at the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library.  

For those interested in seeing the 60 quilts on display this year, today is your last chance. The quilts come down Monday. The North Branch library, located at 1170 The Alameda, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. 

But the quilts on display, to the dismay of many visitors, are not for sale. If you want a shot at winning one of the elementary school quilts, pick up a raffle ticket at the Jefferson May Fair, today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Jefferson School, 1400 Ada Street; or at Cragmont’s Spring Carnival Day, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, at Cragmont School, 830 Regal Road. 

The Cal women’s tennis team heads into the postseason today with two leaders: one senior and one freshman. 

The senior is Anita Kurimay, who was named second-team All-Pac-10 this week. Kurimay overcame leg surgery early in the season to post a 10-4 singles record. The team’s lone senior, she has provided a steadying influence for the team’s five freshman, regaining her top spot after her surgery. 

The freshman is Raquel Kops-Jones, who held down the No. 1 spot during Kurimay’s six-match absence. Kops-Jones was also named to the conference’s second team, as well as taking home the freshman of the year award. She compiled a 27-14 record and made it to the finals of the Pac-10 singles tournament. 

Cal head coach Jan Brogan said she was surprised how fast Kops-Jones adapted to the top spot. 

“Raquel has really been a fast learner,” Borgan said. “She has professional aspirations, so she works very hard on her game, puts in a lot of extra time. When she came in, we knew she had a lot of talent, but was inconsistent. I've tried to bring out the consistency and mental edge she didn't have before.” 

The two leaders, old and young, teamed up with their strong doubles teammates to earn the No. 9 seed in the country, and are the top seed in their regional this weekend. Cal takes on Loyola (Maryland) today at 2 p.m. at the Hellman Tennis Courts. The regional’s other matchup will be North Carolina against Iowa at 10 a.m., with the winners meeting Sunday at 10 a.m. 

Cal’s doubles team of Catherine Lynch and Christina Fusano come into the weekend on a roll, having advanced to the final of the Pac-10 doubles tournament. And they aren’t the only Bear doubles team that has played well this year. Cal’s other duo of Kristen Case and Morisa Yang made it to the semifinal match before falling to Lynch and Fusano. 

Case and Lynch are both freshmen, and Brogan has gone through the growing pains of playing five freshmen this year, along with Fusano and Yang being sophomores. All together, the Bears are the youngest team in the Pac-10. 

“Five freshman have played for us all year,” Brogan said. “I don't think any other team in the country can say that.”

It took Griffin Dix a year to get over the initial shock that his 15-year-old son Kenzo was shot and killed by a friend with a gun that the friend’s father left loaded and unlocked.  

The friend took a full clip out of his father’s Beretta and put in an empty one. What he didn’t know was that there was a bullet left in chamber. The shot went through Kenzo’s arm and entered his heart 

Kenzo died at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital that day. That was 1994.  

“The boy was tricked by the design of the gun but also his father was able to buy a gun without getting gun safety training,” he said. “He didn’t know how to minimize the risk of bringing a gun into the home.”  

Since 1995, Dix has been on a crusade to force gun manufacturers to install better safety mechanisms and to require that all gun owners get the proper training to ensure that tragedies like Dix’s do not happen again.  

He has worked with state and local legislators to tighten gun laws and helped the San Francisco General Hospital’s Bell campaign and trauma foundation’s effort against gun violence.  

That organization recently joined forces with the Million Mom March, a national organization dedicated to preventing gun death and trauma and supporting gun trauma victims and survivors. 

Once a professor of anthropology at Santa Clara University, Dix now spends much of his time organizing efforts to require personal gun locks. He also wants gun ownership to require safety testing similar to what motorists must undergo. 

“Guns and automobiles are very dangerous. If people are going to use them, they should know how,” he said.  

Today, Dix will be making signs and preparing for a train journey to Sacramento in which members of the Million Mom March will present letters and petitions to state legislators. His group will be leaving Jack London Square in Oakland at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday. 

Last year, the million mom march brought more than 750,000 people to Washington, D.C., and Dix hopes the number will be in even greater this year. He also expects that 5,000 people will show up in Sacramento.  

Dix, who is suing the Beretta gun manufacturer to get them to allow locks and chamber loader indicators on their guns. That battle has been uphill, Dix said, because the gun industry is resistant to putting changes in. Dix filed the lawsuit in 1997. While a jury ruled against him, a judge threw out the verdict because there was an indication that there was some jury misconduct. That decision is currently being appealed by Beretta, he said.  

Dix, 57, is a walking encyclopedia of gun-related knowledge and can regurgitate stats like the percentage increase in Oakland gun deaths last year (55 percent) and the percentage of guns that are unlocked with a child in the house (43 percent). While Dix does not advocate the abolition of guns in the home or handguns, he does support proposed legislation that would enact greater control. He is also working on a book on gun violence based on his experience. And although it often takes a tragedy like the shootings at Columbine and Santana high schools to bring attention to gun violence, Dix said he has hope that things will change. 

“People’s attention wanes, but we still have loopholes in gun laws. With the Bush administration not willing to close the loopholes, people are discouraged,” he said. “But they need to realize that there’s a lot that can be done.” 

For more information on the Million Mom March call 655-6520.

EUGENE, Ore. - The No. 6 California Golden Bears scored three times in the top of the seventh to break a 4-4 tie to eventually defeat the Oregon Ducks, 7-4, at Howe Field on Friday afternoon.  

With the win, the Bears snap a three-game Pac-10 skid and improve to 49-13 overall and 6-12 in the conference. The loss drops the Ducks to 28-38 overall, 1-18 in Pac-10 play.  

Cal jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by junior Candace Harper, scoring senior Pauline Dueñas from second after singling one batter earlier and moving to second on a passes ball.  

Oregon took the lead in their half of the first, 2-1. Alyssa Laux hit her first home run on the year, bringing in Lynsey Haij who singed earlier in the inning.  

The score remained 2-1 until Cal plated three runs in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead. With two outs, senior Paige Bowie homered to deep right center to tie the score at two apiece. Dueñas followed with her second single of the game and scored on a Harper single and a throwing error by the Oregon right fielder. Harper moved to second on the error as well and later scored the third run in the inning when sophomore Veronica Nelson lined a single in front of the right fielder.  

The Ducks knotted the score at four, with a two spot in the sixth, but the Bears answered with three runs in the seventh highlighted by a two-RBI two-out double by sophomore Courtney Scott to right center to bring home Nelson and Harper. Bowie scored the first run in the inning on a shortstop fielder's choice who threw the ball away at the plate trying to Bowie out on the play.  

Junior Jocelyn Forest started for Cal and went the first four innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out four, before giving way to senior Nicole DiSalvio who pitched the remaining three innings of two run (one earned), four hit ball to earn the win and improve to 18-6 on the year.  

Connie McMurren went the distance for the Duck and falls to 8-18 with the loss.  

Bowie, Dueñas and Harper each had two hits on the day, while Nelson, sophomore Eryn Manahan and Scott added one hit each for a total of nine hits in the game for the Bears.  

Cal completes the regular season tomorrow with a doubleheader versus the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, Ore. Game one is scheduled to get under way at noon.

The John Woolley House stands forlornly between a weedy empty lot and a large parking lot.  

The paint is peeling and it is somewhat hidden behind a sagging board fence.  

But this simple, dignified, Italianate Victorian house, an officially designated Berkeley Landmark, remains a visible link to the past. 

The house conveys layers of national, state and local cultural history.  

John Woolley’s life story is a record of a single individual’s pursuit of the American Dream which began in 1850 when he left his native England and went to Philadelphia where he worked as a boiler maker and blacksmith. In 1852 he sought his fortune in California.  

In California Woolley’s story is intertwined with the story of how California, the Bay Area and Berkeley developed over time.  

He worked for Southern Pacific Railroad and the Spring Water Company – both vital enterprises to the growth of California and the Bay Area.  

Woolley’s Oakland Boiler Works provided boilers for early campus buildings. After settling in Berkeley in 1876, he was involved in civic activities and in the establishment of public schools.  

The present location of the John Woolley House, facing Haste Street, (it originally faced Telegraph Avenue) reflects Berkeley’s growth in the 1890s.  

t is the story of Telegraph Avenue, the introduction of electric streetcars, the grading of streets and the general growth of the city’s population after the 1906 earthquake.  

John Woolley lived in this house until his death in 1912 at the age of 85. Members of the Woolley family lived in the house until 1943 and it remained a private home until 1993. 

The house remains a singular physical artifact in this neighborhood that links the distant past to the present; the story of how, why, and by whom a place is settled, planned, designed, and celebrated. If the house did not exist would anyone bother to tell its story?

A Berkeley inventor has started a company to harness the power in ocean waves to provide renewable energy to coastal communities. 

Mirko Previsic, chief executive officer of Sea Power and Associates, says the company's patented method uses a series of buoys that are driven up and down by the waves. That activity is then channeled through a hydraulic pump that converts the motion energy into electricity. 

Previsic says he's hopeful that each yard of coastline could power 20 homes, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in the process. 

Sanjay Wagle, who is chief financial officer at Sea Power, is also optimistic: “We've tested our prototype at half scale in the world's largest wave tank,” he said. “Now we're ready to put it into the ocean.” 

Their plan won top honors this weekend at the Haas Social Venture Competition, a national competition sponsored by the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. 

SAN DIEGO — Hispanics and blacks are over-represented in traffic stops, but there isn’t enough evidence to conclude racism is the cause, the police chief said Friday. 

A year-long analysis showed blacks last year made up 11.7 percent of traffic stops but 8 percent of San Diego’s population while Hispanics totaled 29 percent of stops and 20 percent of the population, Chief David Bejarano said at a news conference. 

Blacks were also subjected to 26 percent of vehicle searches following traffic stops while Hispanics made up 32.7 percent, Bejarano said. 

Whites, at nearly 59 percent of San Diego’s population, were subjected to 48 percent of the stops and 33 percent of the searches, according to the study. 

But the results, which mirror an earlier six-month study, do not prove racism because other factors, such as the city’s proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border and the high number of tourists, make it difficult to measure the ethnic breakdown of the driving population, he said. 

In addition, the new 2000 census data could change the study’s results, which were based on 1998 estimates of San Diego’s ethnic composition from a local government association. 

“There’s just too many factors we can’t explain,” Bejarano said. 

San Diego was one of the first large cities in the nation to begin collecting racial data from traffic stops and the chief deserves credit for the study, said Jimma McWilson, executive vice president of the San Diego Urban League. 

“There is a real problem here and we have to find out the reason for it,” said McWilson, who is a member of a task force appointed by the chief to advise the department on ethnic issues. 

The study noted little difference in the amount of contraband found during vehicle searches.  

Officers found something illegal in 12.7 percent of searches involving Asians; 15.9 percent for blacks; 12.6 percent for Hispanics and 17.4 percent for whites. 

The police and community groups will continue studying the issue while the department also increases racial sensitivity training for officers and new recruits, the chief said. 

But Bejarano, the city’s first Hispanic chief, said he doubts there is widespread racism among San Diego officers. 

“I truly believe that our department does not engage in racial profiling,” he said. 

The study was based on an analysis by three university professors of 168,901 vehicle stop forms filled out by officers on Bejarano’s orders in 2000.

SACRAMENTO — California’s unemployment rate jumped slightly in April, but the number of people with jobs also increased, state officials said Friday. 

The unemployment rate climbed from 4.7 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, according to the state’s Employment Development Department. The rate was 5 percent in April 2000. 

At the same time, the number of people with jobs increased last month, according to surveys of employers and households. 

The survey of households, which includes people who are self-employed, found that a record 16.5 million Californians were working last month, up by 21,000 from March and by 379,000 from April 2000. 

There were 834,000 who were unemployed and looking for work. That total was up 16,000 from March but down 13,000 from April of last year. 

Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent last month. 

Suzanne Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the department, said the growth in both employment and unemployment figures in California was caused by an increase in the number of workers. 

“Over the month we had a 37,000 increase in the labor force and 21,000 found jobs. That meant that there was an increase of 16,000 that did not find jobs,” she said. 

The department said five industry divisions – construction, wholesale and retail trade, services and government – added jobs during the month while transportation and public utilities reported no change. 

Mining, manufacturing and finance, insurance and real estate reported job losses. 

The services industry added 10,900 jobs, the biggest job gain, while manufacturing had the biggest loss, 7,000 jobs. 

—— 

On the Net: See the figures at www.edd.ca.gov 

SACRAMENTO — Republicans from the state Legislature to the White House are standing back as California’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gray Davis, sweat out the power crisis. 

“The last thing anybody would want to do is step onto the Titanic when it is sinking,” said California GOP strategist Mike Madrid. 

Neither President Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney has visited the nation’s largest state since taking office. State GOP lawmakers have voted against Davis’ energy proposals, but have yet to offer their own comprehensive power package. 

Even Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Jones, who has pledged to focus on energy in his campaign to unseat Davis next year, has not held a single public event since announcing his candidacy in March. 

“We intend to let (Davis) do as much as he can to unravel himself,” said Shawn Steel, chairman of the California Republican Party. 

At all levels, GOP officials seems to be adhering to Woodrow Wilson’s political advice: “Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide.” 

In Washington, where Congress and the White House are controlled by Republicans, GOP lawmakers are expressing concern they could become the victims of a backlash by voters angry about rising electricity prices and sporadic blackouts. 

Some Republican lawmakers have begun urging the White House to address short-term energy concerns as well as longer-term problems when the president unveils his energy plan next week. 

But Chris Arterton, dean of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, said Republicans will do as little possible to help save California and Davis — a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. 

“If you can keep him dangling on the horns of that dilemma that he is on as long as possible, it weakens him,” Arterton said. 

The Republicans are not the only ones playing politics. For their part, the Democrats have pointed out at every turn that it was Republican Gov. Pete Wilson who signed into law the 1996 electricity deregulation plan that led in part to the current crisis. 

State GOP lawmakers have focused on attacking Democratic energy proposals rather than offering their own legislation. Assembly Republicans have held several news conferences accusing Davis of waiting too long to attack the power crisis. 

This week, all but one of the 44 Republican state legislators voted against a $13.4 billion bond measure to repay the state treasury for power buys. 

The measure passed, but not by the two-thirds majority it needed to go into effect immediately, leaving Davis and Democrats plucking from the budgets of other state programs to pay for power until at least August. 

After Davis signed the bond bill, Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox called it “a dangerous gamble for California — a gamble Republicans couldn’t support without a clear endgame.” 

Republicans have attacked Democratic energy proposals as “anti-capitalistic,” including a proposed tax on windfall profits and potential criminal charges against power generators for alleged price gouging. 

Garry South, Davis’ chief campaign adviser, calls the GOP’s hands-off approach “indefensible.” 

“This is not just some matter of political positioning. This is about the solvency and the economic future of the state of California,” South said. “To be playing games with this just to make cheap political points is a very dangerous game.” 

Davis lashed out this week at Republicans after signing the law authorizing the revenue bonds. 

“The people of California have every right to expect us to put aside this partisan affiliation and philosophy in solving this serious crisis. To date, the Republicans have miserably failed that test,” Davis said. 

Democrats also are quick to point out that President Clinton visited the state more than 60 times during his two terms, including 28 days after he first took office. 

“If the eight years of Clinton/Gore is any indication, President Gore would have established residence in California until the problems were solved,” said California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres.

SAN FRANCISCO — Like prisoners before a judge, lawyers representing farmers, manufacturers and small businesses appealed for leniency Friday as California’s top power regulators mulled who will suffer most under the largest electricity rate hike in state history. 

The higher rates are set to appear on bills June 1, but the California Public Utilities Commission will announce Monday just what kinds of users – homeowners, manufacturers, retailers – will bear the brunt of the increase. 

“We defined a bigger pie, and this is a pie that nobody wants to eat,” PUC President Loretta Lynch said in an interview. “All the groups that are here today are saying why they don’t want to eat a piece.” 

The commission is struggling to collect enough money to keep the lights on, return the state’s largest utilities to solvency and reimburse state coffers for the $5.2 billion-and-counting it has spent buying power directly from energy companies. 

On March 27, commissioners voted unanimously to raise the rates. Since then, they have grappled with how much more each kind of customer should pay. This week, Lynch proposed rate increases that would boost residential bills on average 35-40 percent. The hikes affect customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co., but not San Diego Gas and Electric Co. 

But under Lynch’s plan, as many as half of the 9 million customers of PG&E and SoCal Edison would not see their bills rise at all. And the heaviest commercial users could pay rates more than 50 percent higher than present. 

Saying they will bear a disproportionate burden, business groups trooped before the PUC on Friday, asking regulators to foist more of the rate hikes onto residential users. 

Each industry also explained why it should be spared. Mobile home parks will have difficulty implementing the proposed rate structure, which would create five tiers to encourage conservation; food processors will suffer because they only use power during the summer harvest, when rates will be jacked up; representatives of small businesses and emergency service providers told similar stories.

SACRAMENTO — With a sagging economy and billions of state dollars flowing to buy power, Gov. Gray Davis is facing tough budget choices and possible cuts for the first time since he took office. 

Davis is making final changes this weekend to his “May revise” budget, which is to be released Monday after months of building concern about the state’s financial health. 

The governor’s aides have declined to give any hints about the revised budget despite their past practice of leaking details in the days leading up to its release. 

Lawmakers and state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill have warned that lawmakers will need to shave billions from Davis’ 2001-02 budget proposal made in January. 

“Since the early 1990s, we haven’t had to contemplate a downturn of this magnitude,” said Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, an Arleta Democrat who chairs the joint committee writing the state’s budget. “We will have to shift some dollars or, unfortunately, cut some dollars.” 

In January, Davis proposed a $104.7 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It included $5.5 billion in new spending. 

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

He also proposed lengthening the middle school academic year and dedicating $335 million to start a three-year, $875 million effort to improve training of reading and math teachers and school principals. 

To keep the state from slipping into the red, lawmakers will be forced to trim at least $1.5 billion from the initial budget proposals made by Davis in January, said Hill, the Legislature’s budget analyst. 

The shortfall could reach nearly $6 billion in 2002-03, Hill said. 

The Senate’s Budget Committee chairman, Sen. Steve Peace, D-El Cajon, predicted an even gloomier picture and said cuts of $2 billion to $4 billion will be needed in this year’s budget. 

Once Davis releases his revised budget, a joint legislative committee will approve its own version of the budget that will be subject to approval by the full Legislature and the governor. 

Meanwhile, Davis has spent the week leading up to the revise blaming Republicans for budget uncertainty. Specifically, he criticized Republican lawmakers for opposing a $13.4 billion bond package to reimburse the state treasury for power buys. 

This week, all but one of the 44 Republican state legislators voted against the measure. It passed, but not by the two-thirds majority it needed to go into effect immediately, leaving Davis and Democrats borrowing from other state programs to pay for power until at least August. 

“We’re going to have to pare back important programs in our budget since we won’t have the cash July 1,” Davis said Thursday. “Running away and playing politics does not serve anyone’s interest, in fact it further complicates the budget and could well do damage to the economy.” 

Republicans, however, have criticized Davis’ budget. 

“The governor has given a green light to tax increases and runaway spending increases,” said Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, during a press conference Tuesday. 

IRVINE — Kia Motors America on Friday voluntarily recalled 9,461 Optima mid-sized sedans built this year because of problems with wire harnesses that might prevent air bags from working properly. 

Customers were being notified by mail, Kia spokesman Geno Effler said. 

Driver’s side air bags might be damaged by the seat adjustment mechanism, Effler said.  

If harnesses are not repaired, driver’s side air bags might fail to deploy in a crash or deploy without a crash. 

Effler said the defect was discovered during a routine assessment. He did not know why these particular Optimas had the harness problem and others did not. 

Owners were being asked to take their cars to a Kia dealership for the correction. 

ASTORIA, Ore. — Fingers moved frantically through 35 feet of nylon netting, seeking the wild spring chinook salmon trapped inside. 

Vince Tarabochia got there first, but rather than violently pulling the webbing from around the mouth of the 20-pound fish, he tore several strands of the $500 net to free it. 

As gently as a doctor treating a patient, fish biologist Jeff Whisler lowered the salmon into a box of cool, circulating river water and watched as it oriented itself and began swimming softly into the artificial current. 

Within minutes, Whisler was dropping the fish back into the Columbia River. One whip of its strong tail and the salmon dove out of sight, to resume its upriver journey. 

“Wow,” said Whisler, a biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “This really does work.” 

It had better. The future of 550 lower Columbia River gill-netters in Oregon and Washington is riding on the success of Tarabochia and 19 other research teams. 

The new net that Tarabochia and his brother Brian are testing is designed to allow commercial gill-netters to catch and release wild salmon. If the experiment works, it would allow an industry that has jeopardized endangered salmon to improve its practices. 

Call it environmental gill-netting, a paradox to critics of traditional commercial fishing that transfers salmon from the river to the market. 

“This is absolutely the way we’re going to have to operate from now on,” said Brian Tarabochia, 33, a fourth-generation fisherman from Astoria. 

The states of Oregon and Washington, with funds from the Bonneville Power Administration, are experimenting with tangle-netting, a new commercial fishing technique developed in British Columbia to aid beleaguered fish runs on the Fraser River. 

Instead of using nets with larger mesh to catch salmon by the gills, suffocating them, the mesh of the experimental nets is much smaller. It tangles in the fish’s teeth and around its mouth, snaring the salmon without mortal injuries. 

Participating fishermen buy one net of their own and add to it one of a slightly different size bought with BPA money.  

The efficiency of the nets will be compared to find the ideal mesh.  

Designed for the gills of much smaller fish, each net typically lasts only a few trips. 

Tangled fish are brought aboard, where those with all fins intact are placed into the water of the recovery box. Salmon missing their adipose fins — a small, unused flap in front of the tail that is clipped before young hatchery fish are released — are kept and sold. 

Twenty commercial boats, selected by lottery from among 50 applicants, are participating in the research this season. 

Farther upriver, near Bonneville Dam, two gill-net boats are catching, tagging and releasing salmon to determine how many of the revived fish die after being released. 

Carl Schreck, an Oregon State University fisheries professor, said little is known about what damage is done by removing scales or the salmon’s protective coating of slime. 

“It would become more problematic as the water warms up,” he said. “I think it would be OK, though, in these temperatures. Those fish are pretty doggone hardy right now.” 

Steve King, Oregon’s salmon manager, said the research is critical to the survival of the nontribal commercial fishery. “Beginning next year, in 2002, they aren’t going to be allowed to keep unclipped fish,” King said. 

The Columbia’s tribal fishermen will send observers to Astoria to view the process, but a spokesman said they were not interested in participating, nor required to. 

“We don’t advocate for any catch and release,” said Charles Hudson, a spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “The salmon comes back to either give itself up or to spawn. To judge a fish by the mutilation of a clipped fin is not in keeping with the tribal view of the completion of a life cycle. It’s at the heart of the spiritual question.” 

John Skidmore, a biologist for the BPA who is handling much of the salmon-recovery funding, said the $356,794 tangle-net experiment is one of the ways the agency is trying to help endangered salmon. “We have to attack the problem on all fronts,” he said. 

On the boat, Brian Tarabochia said not all Oregon and Washington gill-netters are likely to participate. “Some of them think it’s being rammed down their throats,” he said. “But we’re not going to fish without this.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ 

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission: http://www.critfc.org/ 

PHOENIX — With the first significant number of wild-born pups expected this spring, scientists say a program aimed at restoring the Mexican gray wolf to its native Southwest is at a turning point. 

An independent preliminary report by three biologists concluded that the 3-year-old effort needs changes to ensure the pups survive and the project succeeds. Federal wildlife officials agree. 

“What’s really going to make the program succeed in the long run is having animals born in the wild,” said Brian Kelly, head of the program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The challenge is to switch the program’s direction from reintroduction to minimizing the endangered wolves’ contact with humans, including people who have shot them, campers who feed them and rangers who have had to recapture them too often. 

The Mexican gray wolf, a German shepherd-sized predator that once roamed throughout the U.S. Southwest and central Mexico, was hunted to near extinction in the 1950s.  

The only surviving animals lived in zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. 

Federal officials began working to change that in 1998, when they released 11 wolves in eastern Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. 

They wanted the animals to learn to hunt and mate again in the wild. Their goal was to have a population of 100 wild wolves in the forest area within 10 years. 

The program got off to a rough start, however, as ranchers began complaining that the wolves would kill livestock. Other problems followed. 

Five wolves were shot and the rest had to be recaptured, some because they were coming too close to people and livestock, that there were no wolves left in the wilderness at one point during the first year, said Kelly. 

Today, there are at least 26 wolves in the wild and they’re showing signs of adapting to life without humans.  

They’re eating elk and deer and, most importantly, they’re forming pairs, conceiving and nursing pups on their own. 

“They’re beginning to do what we were helping them to do,” said Kelley, though he added it will be years before the wolf is removed from the endangered species list. 

Since scientists expect six wild-born litters this spring and an average litter consists of four to six pups, the Mexican wolf’s population could conceivably double if most of the pups survive. 

The biologists’ report, which will be completed and released next month, said that requires leaving them alone more because too many recaptures disrupt their adaptation to the wild. 

Wolves are recaptured primarily when they stray from their recovery area or when they attack cattle.  

So the study suggests they might be allowed to roam in larger areas and not be captured if they scavenge livestock carcasses. The study even suggests that wolves only be removed if they threaten humans. 

But some ranchers who opposed the program from the beginning said that the rules are already so restrictive that the wolves can’t even be shot for attacking pets. 

“How much more are they going to inflict on everything and everybody?” said Barbara Marks, an Alpine rancher and a spokeswoman for the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association. “I couldn’t stand there and watch a wolf kill one of my dogs. We’ve no need for another predator.” 

Biologists and environmentalists say the Southwest needs wolves to maintain a natural balance. 

“Wolves are efficient landscape managers,” said Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Craig Miller. He said wolves help keep elk populations in check, which in turns reduces grazing and improves air and water quality. 

Kelly said learning to live with wolves also signals a new policy toward endangered species. 

“Our resolve to do something so controversial reflects that we’ve the wherewithal to live with something that competes with us humans,” Kelly said. 

The scientists’ report will be released next month and the Fish and Wildlife Service plans to hold public meetings in Arizona and New Mexico to discuss it. 

Members of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission will study the preliminary report at their monthly meeting Saturday. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Mexican Wolf Reintroduction: http://ifw2es.fws.gov/MexicanWolf/ 

WASHINGTON — Over the past decade, the government paid a total of $4.1 million to cover future medical costs for patients who had already died, government inspectors said Friday. 

The Health Care Financing Administration made the payments to health maintenance organizations on patients’ behalf even though Medicare listed the beneficiaries as dead, the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General said. 

The Medicare agency paid premiums for roughly 200 people who had died between 1991 and 1999, the report said. 

The main Medicare database listed the patients as dead, but a smaller HHS database of HMO participants didn’t always square the deaths with the master Medicare database, the report said. 

The report said $3.2 million of the misdirected funds are still outstanding, but officials at the Health Care Financing Administration said they have recovered $4 million to date. 

And the agency has improved its matching of records, officials said. 

“The most recent monthly run of our utility shows no payments made for deceased beneficiaries,” Michael McMullan, acting deputy administrator of HCFA, told the inspector general’s office. 

Officials said they also expect to recover money paid for patients who had died but were not listed in the report. 

Medicare provides health insurance for 40 million elderly and disabled Americans. Most payments are reimbursements made to doctors and hospitals for Medicare’s share of approved patient services. 

In a program designed to attract HMOs to the program, Medicare pays the health plans a set monthly rate per person to deliver medical services.  

About 5.6 million seniors are served by more than 170 health plans nationwide, HCFA officials said. 

The report studied the four states, Arizona, California, Colorado and Florida, with the highest market saturation; 43 percent of the seniors served by HMOs getting such payments live in those states. 

The report said an unidentified plan in California received $330,957 from 1991 through October 2000 for dead beneficiaries. 

Inspectors say the discrepancies were noticed in routine regional checks on the HMO program. The report does not assign any blame to the HMOs that receive payments from Medicare. 

Health plan officials said they support efforts to make sure payments are accurate and adequate. 

“To that end this report highlights why regulatory reform and reform of HCFA should be an integral part of any Medicare modernization effort,” said Phil Blando, a spokesman for the American Association of Health Plans. 

Last month, investigations by HHS and Congress showed that felons and fugitives received millions of dollars in Medicare benefits, despite federal laws prohibiting most of them from receiving the health benefit. 

—— 

On the Net: 

Health Care Financing Administration: http://www.hcfa.gov/ 

Health and Human Services Inspector General: http://www.dhhs.gov/progorg/oig/ 

WASHINGTON — With the Nigerian president and the United Nations secretary-general at his side, President Bush on Friday pledged $200 million – and promised more money later – for fighting AIDS and other diseases ravaging Africa. 

The U.S. pledge is seed money for a $7 billion to $10 billion fund that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan hopes the world’s richest nations and private philanthropists will establish to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Annan also is trying to drum up support for an international action plan to be adopted at a June 25-27 special session of the U.N. General Assembly. 

“Across the world at this moment there are people in true desperation and we must help,” Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony. 

Activists sniffed at Bush’s promise for future funding and called the $200 million a pittance. A hodgepodge of protesters milled in front of the White House gate, chanting, “Billions for Star Wars, chump change for AIDS,” a reference to the missile defense system Bush has said he wants. 

“In the face of what will soon be the worst plague in human history, it’s tragic that the richest country in human history is unwilling to contribute its fair share to finance the solution,” said Salih Booker, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Africa Action. 

Even Annan and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gently prodded for more. 

“As we declare global war on AIDS, we will need a war chest to fight it,” Annan said. “We need a response that matches the challenge.” 

Obasanjo estimated that $7 billion to $8 billion will be needed each year “to make an impression” on the epidemic. “But, with this beginning, and just the beginning, I thank you on behalf of all AIDS sufferers in the world, but particularly on behalf of all AIDS sufferers in Africa,” he told Bush. 

Harvard University economist Jeffrey Sachs said the size of the initial donation was not as important as the fact that it represents a new approach to fighting AIDS. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that the $200 million is not sufficient. And there is no doubt in my mind that there will be more money to come,” Sachs said, adding that the global fund will “raise the magnitude of the battle in a very important way.” 

Bush said the funds were “a founding contribution” outside of $760 million the United States was spending this year on international AIDS efforts, and billions devoted to AIDS research. He said the United States would give more “as we learn where our support can be most effective.” Bush noted that 11 million African children have lost their parents to AIDS. 

“In a part of the world where so many have suffered from war and want and famine, these latest tribulations are the cruelest of fates,” Bush said. “Only through sustained and focused international cooperation can we address problems so grave, and suffering so great.” 

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., cheered Bush’s announcement but encouraged the president to put sufficient federal resources into fighting AIDS immediately. America “has an obligation to lead this effort, we have the resources and now we must muster the will to devote them to this problem,” he said. 

Since the vast majority of people suffering from infectious diseases who cannot afford treatment are in Africa, the continent is expected to get a large share of the funds. Of 36 million people around the world infected with HIV, roughly 26 million live in Africa. 

Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to Africa on May 22 to see the AIDS problem firsthand. He was to stop in Mali, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. 

Friday’s announcement came while Bush, by greeting Obasanjo, held his first meeting with an African president. Bush said they discussed Nigeria’s plans to increase oil production, a move called “positive news for U.S. consumers” expecting to be squeezed by exorbitant fuel prices this summer. 

They also talked about U.S. support for Nigeria’s efforts on peacekeeping and conflict resolution in places such as Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone. “The short of it is that Nigeria is a friend of America, and the president is a friend of mine,” Bush said. 

“I now can feel that if there is any need to call on President Bush, he knows what I look like,” Obasanjo said. 

——— 

On the Net: State Department background on Nigeria: http://www.state.gov/www/background—notes/nigeria—0008—bgn.html 

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency settled a case Friday in a Detroit federal court requiring seven petroleum refineries to reduce smokestack pollutants by more than 23,000 tons per year. 

Under the settlement, Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, of Findlay, Ohio, must spend an estimated $265 million to install pollution control equipment aimed at reducing emissions from smokestacks, wastewater vents, leaky valves and flares at its refineries which account for more than 5 percent of the total refining capacity in the United States. 

Those refineries are located in Robinson, Ill.; Garyville, La.; Texas City, Texas; Catlettsburg, Ky.; Detroit; Canton, Ohio; and St. Paul Park, Minn. 

The new equipment is intended to help ease respiratory problems like childhood asthma by cutting pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate emissions, carbon monoxide, benzene and volatile organic compounds. 

Two states, Louisiana and Minnesota, and Wayne County, Mich., joined the consent decree filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit and announced by the EPA and the Justice Department. 

Marathon Ashland also will pay a $3.8 million civil penalty under the Clean Air Act and spend about $6.5 million for environmental projects in communities near the refineries. Minnesota and Louisiana each will receive $50,000 of the penalty under the agreement. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft called it “a victory for the environment.” 

The case is part of EPA’s national effort to reduce harmful air pollution released from refineries, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. 

In March, the government reached similar agreements with Motiva Enterprises, Equilon Enterprises, and Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership, which will reduce air pollution at nine refineries across the nation. 

“The settlement also is expected to facilitate efficiency upgrades and increased production of gasoline over the next eight years,” Whitman said. 

Also Friday, the EPA and Justice Department announced it had reached a separate settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Benton, Ill., requiring Marathon Ashland to reduce benzene emissions at its refinery in Robinson, Ill. 

Marathon Ashland will pay a $1.67 million civil penalty under the Clean Air Act and spend another $125,000 on an emergency response project there. 

——— 

On the Net: 

EPA air quality site: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/uatw 

WASHINGTON — For an agency still reeling from the discovery of an alleged spy in its ranks, the last thing the FBI needed was the disclosure that it withheld evidence from lawyers representing the man convicted of the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. 

Timothy McVeigh was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. Now his lawyers are weighing whether to seek a stay of the execution, which would have been the first federal death sentence carried out since 1963. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft put off the execution until June 11 to allow McVeigh’s attorneys to review the evidence and ordered an investigation into the FBI’s failure to turn over thousands of pages to McVeigh’s defense team. 

“I know many Americans will question why the execution of someone who is so clearly guilty of such a heinous crime should be delayed,” Ashcroft said. He said he made his decision so that there would be no lingering questions over the case that “would cast a permanent cloud over justice.” 

The mishap comes a little more than a week after FBI Director Louis Freeh said he plans to retire in June – two years short of his 10-year term. Law enforcement officials familiar with the case said there was no connection between Freeh’s decision to retire and the problem with the McVeigh documents. 

The revelation shook the law enforcement establishment – and people waiting to see closure more than six years after a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168, including many women and children. 

“I’m appalled,” said Kathleen Treanor, who lost her 4-year-old daughter and her in-laws in the bombing.  

“The FBI knew from the very beginning that this was a huge case. How could they have possibly made a mistake this huge?” 

The documents mishap also follows the arrest in February of Robert Philip Hanssen, a 20-year veteran agent accused of selling national secrets to Moscow. 

Hanssen, a counterintelligence agent with access to highly sensitive information, carried on his alleged spying activities for 15 years without being detected by his bosses.  

Investigations are underway to figure out how. 

Other controversies, from a crime-lab scandal in the 1990s to the botched investigation last year of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, have dogged the FBI in recent years. 

The revelation that some 3,135 investigation materials – including interview reports and physical evidence such as photographs, letters and tapes – were inadvertently withheld from McVeigh’s attorneys is another embarrassment for the FBI. 

Law enforcement officials familiar with the documents mishap, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the mistake resulted from an antiquated records system. The FBI was in the routine process of gathering all documents from the Oklahoma City bombing investigation – numbering more than 1 million – from its bureaus when officials discovered that some pages had never been shared with defense lawyers. 

“One thing that’s overlooked here is that there were thousands and thousands of these statements that have to be stored and catalogued,” said Andrew Cohen, a legal analyst who has followed the case.  

“Certainly you don’t want to encourage the government to lose this sort of thing, but in some ways it’s a bit understandable.” 

As soon as the mistake was discovered, the bureau acted quickly to turn the documents over, the sources said.  

The Justice Department received the documents Wednesday and sent McVeigh’s attorneys copies of everything. 

The department says none of the documents creates any doubt about McVeigh’s conviction or sentence.  

McVeigh’s lawyers could still ask for a stay of execution so they can examine the materials. 

“I think the FBI has given McVeigh the chance to delay his own execution,” said Cohen. 

Paul Heath, who was injured in the bombing, said he was taking a wait-and-see approach to the news. 

“I’m convinced it wouldn’t make any difference to Mr. McVeigh,” Heath said. 

“It does not upset me.” 

Last year the FBI was stung by the case of Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos scientist indicted on 59 criminal counts of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets. He spent nine months in solitary confinement in a New Mexico jail. All but one count was eventually dropped. 

The FBI also suffered through an embarrassing investigation by its parent, the Justice Department, of its world-renowned crime lab in the mid-1990s. 

Spurred by allegations from Frederic Whitehurst, an FBI lab chemist, Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich investigated the facility for 18 months. He subsequently blasted the FBI facility for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing. 

The catastrophe at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which 80 people were killed, and a shoot-out with white separatists in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, have also dogged the FBI. 

McVeigh has said he carried out the Oklahoma City bombing to avenge the deaths at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Is a caterpillar a butterfly? Yes and no: Although a caterpillar has no wings, it is only a different life stage of the same animal.  

A successful butterfly garden caters to both life stages, the adult that sips nectar from flowers and the caterpillar which eats leaves.  

Although many people think flowers are important in a butterfly garden, the adults don’t eat all that much and many butterflies are just as happy to get their moisture from dead meat, dung, rotting fruit or mud.  

They will be thankful for the chance to visit flowers of Lantana, Jupiter’s Beard or Butterfly Bush, but they will be forever grateful to find the larval (caterpillar) food plant, because their offspring are ravenously hungry and rather fussy eaters.  

The spiky orange and black gulf fritillary caterpillars, for instance, will only eat passion vine. If you have room for only one butterfly plant in your garden, make it blue crown passion flower, also known as Passiflora caerulea.  

The butterflies, which are orange with silver spots on their under wings, tend to stay near this plant all day, making any yard look like a butterfly garden.  

Cabbage whites, a white butterfly with small black spots, also tend to stay near their host (caterpillar food) plant all day.  

As their name indicates, they lay their eggs on cabbages. They also lay on nasturtiums, which have orange and yellow flowers and are easy to grow from seed.  

Cabbage whites are rather plain looking compared to the stunning yellow and black anise swallowtails, which lay their eggs on fennel, a common weed in the western states.  

When properly maintained, fennel has a soft ferny texture. Cut back a section at a time over several months, it can provide fresh foliage for caterpillars all summer as it resprouts.  

Fennel, like most butterfly plants, needs no water once established. However, the caterpillars depend upon the plant for both solid and liquid nutrition and the butterflies only choose lush plants on which to lay their eggs, so regular water is a must. 

Oak trees, an exception to this rule, are prone to root rot if watered. They are home to California sister butterflies whose name is derived from the black and white coloration. 

Most nuns don’t have the orange spots that sisters have, though.  

The red admiral is another black and white butterfly with orange markings.  

The caterpillars eat another weed, pellitory, which can be found growing in shaded spots all over Berkeley.  

Although the plant prefers shade, the butterflies prefer sun, so it must be in the sun at least part of the day to attract butterflies.  

Growing about knee high with tiny white flowers, it can bring a texture of green to dark corners.  

Hollyhocks, on the other hand, have big bright flowers in many colors.  

Painted ladies are not interested in the flowers, however, and don’t care whether they are single are double since they lay their eggs on the leaves.  

After the caterpillars hatch, they protect themselves from predators with a bit of webbing.  

Buckeye caterpillars protect themselves by feeding at night on snapdragons and kenilworth ivy.  

They also eat plantain, a lawn weed that grows alongside the grasses as long as no herbicides are used.  

Butterflies and pesticides are incompatible because pesticides kill butterflies just as surely as they kill the pests.  

Milkweed, for instance, sometimes has an aphid problem, but killing the aphids could kill the monarch caterpillars, too.  

It is worth it to endure a few aphids to get a chance to see the exquisite orange and black butterfly.  

Compared to monarchs, skippers are small and drab, but they are delightful because they will grace a grassy garden whenever the sun is out.  

They lay its eggs on most grasses, including bamboo. Caterpillars eat almost every sort of garden plant: weeds, trees, vines, vegetables, turf and flowers, so it makes sense to integrate them into the entire garden.  

A comfortable seat is an important part of the plan, so the humans can watch the butterflies court, fight and lay eggs.  

These beauties of the insect world are easy to attract and endlessly fascinating.

WASHINGTON — When computer users install the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system this fall, they will get an Internet chat program automatically. Plus a new security program, a DVD player and software to make personal CDs. 

Rivals and some state attorneys general are complaining that with its Windows XP system, Microsoft is engaging in the same sort of product bundling that gave rise to the current federal antitrust case involving the company’s Internet Explorer browser. 

AOL Time Warner, the world’s largest Internet provider and the maker of two competing Internet messaging programs, was so upset that it provided a private briefing in March to the attorneys general of the states that sued Microsoft in the case now before a federal appeals court. AOL officials outlined what they believe are new anticompetitive practices. 

“This is a movie that many people have seen before. The direction Windows XP, .NET and Hailstorm all go in is to continue Microsoft’s desktop monopoly and we think that’s bad for consumers,” said John Buckley, AOL vice president. 

Microsoft .NET is the company’s plan to develop Internet technology that works with most other computing devices, encouraging consumers to keep their data on Microsoft Internet servers.  

Hailstorm is Microsoft’s code name for some of the services that will run on .NET. 

Microsoft counters that it is simply trying to improve its product with new features that consumers demand, and that its rivals are trying to do the same thing: expand into new markets. 

“We must continue to add new features and functionality, or else no one is going to want our product,” Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said. “You have to remain nimble and remain focused on delivering value to your customers.” 

The tensions between Microsoft and AOL come even as the two giants work together to resolve common issues, such as a single instant messaging standard. 

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has coordinated the states’ legal strategy in the antitrust case, said Microsoft’s behavior amounted to “history repeating itself.” 

“There are certainly some concerns about them continuing dominance,” Miller said. 

The strategy to continue product bundling comes as an appeals court in Washington weighs a trial judge’s order that Microsoft be split into two companies. 

“Without any court restrictions, Microsoft has remained free to continue its previous course with respect to integrating the browser and anything else, and it has acted consistently with its previously expressed views,” Howard University law professor Andy Gavil said. “The snowballing of added features, however, surely will complicate any future remedy if a violation is upheld.” 

Windows XP, which will be sold in stores in October, is the first Windows version designed for both home users and businesses. It promises to be far more stable for consumers, and includes more extras than ever. 

Among them: MSN Messenger, an instant-messaging program; the new Internet Explorer 6 browser; a computer security program known as a firewall; a new media player only available with XP that will play DVDs as well as streaming Internet music and video; and a remote access program that will let a more savvy user troubleshoot someone else’s computer across the Internet. 

For the first time, MSN Messenger installs and loads automatically every time XP is run. 

Several companies already sell security, multimedia and remote access programs. Once Microsoft has these features integrated with Windows, consumer advocates say, there is little reason to go elsewhere for them. 

“At first blush it looks like ease and convenience and simplicity for the user, but in the long run it sets off alarm systems of stifling competition and higher prices,” said Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union. 

Competitors are hoping that consumers will see that their products are better than Microsoft’s bundled ones. 

“The firewall in (XP) is very rudimentary,” said Sarah Hicks, a vice president of Symantec Corp., which makes a competing security program. 

RealNetworks general manager Steve Banfield said that Windows Media Player was “not the best product.” 

Microsoft’s Cullinan maintains that first, the company has to convince consumers to upgrade to XP. 

“If people don’t find those features compelling enough to upgrade,” Cullinan said, “they can keep whatever the heck they want. They’re not forced to upgrade.” 

David Farber, a former Federal Communications Commission technologist who testified against Microsoft in the antitrust trial, thinks consumers will resign themselves to using even more Microsoft products. 

“It’s the same game that they played with (Internet) Explorer,” Farber said. “If it’s sitting there and it’s built in and you have to put a lot of work in to use another product, you don’t do it.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/ 

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Three popular allergy medications are safe enough to be sold without prescription, a federal advisory panel ruled Friday in an unprecedented case that could save the health insurance industry billions of dollars but increase costs for many consumers. 

Acting on a petition by WellPoint Health Networks of Thousand Oaks, the Food and Drug Administration panel recommended that Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec be made available over the counter, without supervision by a doctor. 

The vote was 19-4 each for Claritin and Zyrtec, and 18-5 for Allegra. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of the panel, but usually does so. 

Dr. John Jenkins of the FDA said he did not have a timeframe for a decision in the “very unusual” case. Traditionally drug companies, not insurance companies, ask for a change, he said. 

WellPoint, which could save $45 million a year, had argued that the allergy medications were safe. 

“There is no clinical reason for Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec to be maintained as prescription drugs,” Robert Seidman, a company vice president, told the 23-member panel. “They have side effects similar to a sugar pill.” 

Drug companies countered that the move would force consumers into a “risky trial-and-error gamble with their health, their quality of life and their money.” People will self-diagnose and treat conditions that need the attention of a doctor, company executives said. 

“Insurance companies see a physician visit as a cost item,” said Dr. Robert J. Spiegel, vice president of Schering-Plough, maker of Claritin. “We see it as an essential part of health care. Now is not the time to drive patients farther away from their physicians.” 

The company said later in a statement that an FDA change without pharmaceutical makers’ support would be a reversal of past agency policy and could create legal questions. 

The financial implications of the FDA’s decision will be huge for the insurance industry, drug manufacturers and consumers. 

Consumers with insurance would have to pay the full cost. Those without insurance may pay less if the drug companies lower prices to meet competition, which some experts expect. 

Last year, the three drugs generated about $4.7 billion in sales. 

The drugs can sell for more than $2 a pill. With a prescription, a patient with insurance can get a month’s supply at the personal cost of a copay charge, perhaps as little as $5. The insurance company then has to pay the balance, $50 to $60. 

If the drugs are reclassified as over the counter, insurance companies would no longer have to pay for them. 

Mike Bernstein, a Washington-based food and drug attorney, said if there is a change, the three drug companies could be forced to compete with other over-the-counter cold, flu and allergy medications, most of which are cheaper than prescription drugs. 

In Canada, Claritin can be purchased at stores without prescriptions for significantly less than the U.S. price. Seidman said the cost there is about $11 a month and that the companies should also have competitive prices in America. 

Jenkins said the FDA cannot force the companies to continue selling the drugs. 

Inappropriate self-treatment could have serious medical consequences, said Dr. Francois Nader, vice president of Aventis Pharma AG, maker of Allegra. 

“Consumers would face a risky trial and error gamble with their health, their quality of life and with their money,” he said. 

Manufacturers pointed to asthma, a serious respiratory condition, as a disease that patients might try to treat without seeing a doctor. 

Nader said WellPoint is pushing for declassification because it does not pay for over-the-counter drugs and the change could save the company millions of dollars. But he predicted that “the short term gain to the insurers would increase the health care burden” on society. 

Pfizer Incorporated, maker of Zyrtec, did not make a presentation at the meeting. 

The allergy drugs are known as second generation antihistamines because they dry up allergy symptoms without causing drowsiness so common with first generation over-the-counter drugs. 

Claritin was approved in 1993, Zyrtec in 1995 and Allegra in 1996. 

In response to the decision, shares of Schering-Plough finished trading on the New York Stock Exchange up $1.20 to $38.20. Shares of Aventis fell $1.22 to $75.53, while Pfizer was off 74 cents to $43.00. 

Dr. Robert Meyer, of the FDA, told the panel that there have been only a few instances of heart and kidney problems and seizures among patients taking the drugs, but there is no clear indication that these adverse events were directly caused by the medication. 

In his presentation, Seidman said that second generation antihistamines are now on sale without a prescription in 17 countries. He said U.S. consumers could save money they now spend for doctors visits to get prescriptions. 

——— 

On the Net: Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov 

WASHINGTON — Timothy McVeigh’s countdown to execution was suddenly interrupted Friday, five days before he was to die, as Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered an investigation into the FBI’s bungling of records in the Oklahoma City bombing. 

President Bush said he was sure of McVeigh’s guilt but did not want the government “rushing his fate.” 

McVeigh, on death row in Terre Haute, Ind., is now scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 11. 

Attorney Rob Nigh described his client as frustrated and possibly reconsidering his earlier decision against challenging the execution order. 

“He’s distressed about this in that he knows the impact that it has upon his family and those who care about him,” Nigh said outside the federal prison where he consulted with McVeigh. 

Some victims said they were sickened, others resigned, after the dramatic turn of events in what is to be the first federal execution since 1963. 

“It’s like a big old clamp squeezing my gut,” said Dan McKinney, whose wife was among the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing to which McVeigh has confessed. “We have to wait 30 more days for something we have waited six years.” 

McVeigh’s defense team was handed 3,135 documents that the FBI should have provided more than three years ago during trial. 

Retired FBI agent Danny Coulson, who worked on the case, told The Associated Press that all of the documents involved were generated from interviews on the day of the explosion and the day after – when field offices were chasing leads all over the world about a possible “John Doe No. 2” suspect. 

McVeigh lawyer Nathan Chambers said he was informed by the U.S. attorney of the documents’ existence on Tuesday. Bush and Ashcroft both said they were not told of the problem until Thursday. 

Complaining that 30 days was not enough time to study the mountain of paper, Nigh said McVeigh was now “keeping all of his options open.” 

“He has indicated in the past that he did not want to delay. He’s willing to take a fresh look and evaluate the information,” Nigh said. 

Separately, Michael Tigar, lawyer for convicted conspirator Terry Nichols, who is serving a life sentence, told CNN he would file a new appeal for Nichols with the Supreme Court. 

Ashcroft, his back to the ticking mantle clock in a Justice Department conference room, said government attorneys studied the newly disclosed documents and concluded they did not contradict the 11 guilty verdicts returned against McVeigh for murder, conspiracy and using a weapon of mass destruction. 

The attorney general, who decided last month to telecast McVeigh’s execution for victims, said he was now postponing the date “in order to assure the American people that they have a right to have confidence in our processes.” 

“If any questions or doubts remain about this case, it would cast a permanent cloud over justice,” Ashcroft said. 

McVeigh attorney Chambers called Ashcroft’s decision a public-relations attempt to restore public trust in the federal justice system. 

“Regardless of the content of materials recently released, the most recent episode demonstrates in dramatic fashion why trust and confidence should be reserved,” said Chambers. 

McVeigh has said he bombed the Oklahoma City federal building to avenge the deadly FBI standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. 

Bush, in a White House news conference, dismissed the notion that McVeigh might take the FBI foul-up in his case as justification for his anti-government rage. 

“He should say he’s lucky to be in America; that’s what he ought to say,” Bush said. “This is a country that will bend over backwards to make sure that his constitutional rights are guaranteed as opposed to rushing his fate.” 

In Pendleton, N.Y., Bill McVeigh watched Ashcroft’s announcement with a local television crew and confessed mixed emotions, saying he had been bracing all week for his son’s execution on Wednesday. 

“Now this,” Bill McVeigh said. “It’s like starting over.” 

FBI special agent Danny Defenbaugh, who led the Oklahoma City investigation, said that 28,000 interviews were conducted, and 23,290 pieces of evidence and 238,000 photos gathered over the course of the inquiry. Defenbaugh said the problem came to light when the documents — drawn from 45 FBI offices in the United States and one in Paris — were being archived in December. 

Ashcroft said he was instructing the inspector general of the Justice Department to conduct “a careful study” into what went wrong. 

“We are going beyond the requirements of the law,” he said. 

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the panel will hold hearings on “the FBI’s inability to comply with basic legal procedures.” He said the hearings would follow the investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general. 

The failure to turn over the documents is one several “colossal mistakes” by the bureau, said Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. 

Coulson blamed a computer-filing glitch, saying the documents were keyed into FBI computers by field offices but not flagged or cross-referenced to the bombing case. “I’m sure there’s nothing there that changes the outcome of the case, but it makes the FBI look bad,” Coulson said. 

Nigh urged a moratorium on all federal executions. 

But Bush, who was governor of Texas while 152 inmates were put to death, reaffirmed his faith in the death penalty Friday. 

“Today is an example of the system being fair,” Bush said. 

“There is never going to be an end to the twists and turns,” sighed Jim Denny, whose two children were injured in the 1995 blast. “As long as justice comes in the end.” 

WASHINGTON — President Bush criticized the House vote to withhold some overdue payments to the United Nations in a display of anger over the ouster of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

“I think we have made an agreement with the United Nations, an agreement that had been negotiated in good faith, and I think we ought to pay our dues,” Bush told a news conference several hours after meeting in the White House with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

The House voted 252-165 Thursday to pay $582 million in back dues but to withhold an additional $244 million until the United States is restored to the human rights panel. An initial $100 million back-dues payment occurred last year. 

Bush also criticized the U.S. ejection from the seat it has held since the panel’s creation in 1947, calling it “an outrageous decision.” 

“To me, it undermines the whole credibility of this commission to kick the United States off, one of the great bastions of human rights, and allow Sudan to be on,” he said. “And I think most reasonable people in the world see it that way.” 

Annan, back at U.N. headquarters in New York, said it was clear that both Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was also at the White House meeting, “are very supportive of the U.N.” 

“I had a chance to exchange some ideas about the U.N. dues and the decision in Congress to attach an amendment to the $244 million,” Annan said. “The president did indicate to me that he would also want to see the dues paid without any withholding.” 

The provision was written by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the International Relations Committee, and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, to forestall even tougher amendments aimed at blocking all the dues money. 

It was attached to the bill authorizing State Department programs for the 2002 and 2003 fiscal years.  

A House vote is expected next week. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is still writing its version. 

Powell urged lawmakers Thursday to show “a little more restraint,” telling a House subcommittee that “we should not now try to find a way to punish the U.N.” 

But that word never got to Hyde or Lantos, Hyde said after the vote. 

“The administration did not contact us on this bill,” he said. “It may be that they don’t have personnel in place, or maybe they didn’t care that much. I don’t know.” 

Hyde said the provision could change as the White House makes its opinion known during Senate action and the House-Senate conference resolving differences between the two chambers’ bills. 

“Passage by one house is the beginning of a long journey,” he said. 

On Thursday, Annan predicted the United States would get back its seat on the Human Rights Commission next year, “and I hope in the meantime they will work with other member states to get back on.” 

Despite the Bush administration’s opposition, GOP leaders championed the fight to punish the United Nations. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, implored his colleagues to “send the world a message: America cares and America dares to stand up for any lost soul beleaguered and tortured in any part of this world at any time.” 

The most visible backers of the White House position were Democrats. 

“How can we expect the United Nations to improve its performance or to respect us if we go back on our word and refuse to pay our bills?” asked Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. 

After the vote, White House spokesman Sean McCormack said: “Our position is we’re committed to paying our arrears. To do otherwise now would undermine what we’re doing at the U.N. and our credibility as a negotiating partner.” 

In other amendments Thursday, the House: 

—Showed it was not opposed to all things United Nations by voting 225-193 to support a return to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and pay it $65 million. The United States left UNESCO in 1984, upset by management problems and what was perceived to be an anti-American bent. 

—Voted 282-137 to keep the United States out of the proposed International Criminal Court. Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, contended it could be used against U.S. military personnel overseas and, by endorsing the court, “we would be abandoning the sacred covenant between the Congress and our men and women in uniform.” 

Asked about that provision, Annan said: “I think that we know the position of Washington but I hope it is not immutable.” 

José-Luis Orozco, a long time Berkeley musician, is an expert in bilingual education through music and song.  

Ever since he was a child in Mexico City, he’s been singing for multi-cultural audiences. The second of eleven children, Jose-Luis learned old songs from his grandmother. His mother taught him to interpret the spirit of the song. 

“My mother, though not a professional, was very good at singing the feeling of the music, from a slow Bolero (love song) to Mexican polkas,” Orozco said. “I picked up the energy of the music from her, the feeling.” 

Last week, Orozco brought that musical tradition to Washington School. People in the audience were awed by the performance. 

“He had the whole audience, whole families, up dancing to children’s songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish and English. Nobody just sat. It was amazing!” said Pat Ungern, a teacher at the school.  

At 7, he and a brother were chosen to travel with the Mexico City Children’s Choir throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. They stayed with families – both rich and poor – and performed for heads of state and a diverse range of audiences.  

Traveling gave him opportunities that he could never have had at home. He learned church music in Latin, Mexican folk music, and sang world music including American folk songs like, “Home on the Range.” While in Spain, he was given a guitar as a gift and his father taught him to play once he arrived home.  

While touring, he also learned about politics. In Venezuela, the choir was turned back because of a coup. During the Bay of Pigs invasion, he was staying with Basque families in Spain.  

The families were progressive and sat up late at night listening for news about Cuba.  

The Cuban revolution was a very big thing, Orozco said, to people who lived whole lives under dictatorships.  

When his voice changed at 13, and he could no longer be part of the children’s choir, he formed a musical group with neighbors and played at various barrio gatherings. He attended evening music classes, but also worked to help his mother support the family. Life was not easy. 

In 1968, there was a student rebellion in Mexico City similar to rebellions around the world including the civil-rights movement and the anti-war movement in the United States. It ended in the massacre of many students, some of whom he knew, three blocks from his mother’s home.  

Jose-Luis’ father called him at work and told him not to go home because the army was searching for students and taking them from the neighborhood, even if they had not been part of the rebellion. He stayed away for three days. 

The sadness of that event coincided with a friend’s urging him to come to the United States. He and his mother decided it was something he should try. He moved to San Jose and mopped floors.  

After six months, lonely for music, he bought a cheap guitar and started singing at schools in the Bay Area. 

Quickly he discovered Berkeley. He went to Laney College and transferred to UC Berkeley to complete his Bachelor of Arts.  

Oscar Lewis’s book, “The Children of Sanchez,” was written about the barrio where his parents were born and raised and inspired Orozco’s strong interest in sociology.  

The University of San Francisco offered him a scholarship and he earned an Master of Arts in multi-cultural education. 

For several years in the 70s, he worked as a community liasion in Berkeley. He married and fathered three children – Jose-Luis, Maya, and Gabriel. He also co-founded a national Hispanic university and ran summer programs for the University in Gudalajara. 

In all of this mix, his interest in music became foremost and his ability to support himself through music was accomplished by the mid-80s. His politics, he said, is connected to his daily life education. He wrote a corrido, or ballad, for Cesar Chavez and for Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Worker’s Union. He will be performing them at La Peña Cultural Center on June 9.  

Orozco loves to sing to any age group, but the demand to sing to children is always the highest.  

“The most important thing about my music is the effect it has on the education of children,” Orozco said.  

“Seeing the joy in the children and then the joy in the teachers noticing the music’s impact on the children keeps me motivated. 

“Music brings down barriers between people, barriers of prejudice and racism. Music is a non-threatening tool. It brings people together, it makes people happy. All along, since I was very young, I’ve seen that music is magic,” he said. 

When Jose-Luis Orozco sings to children he is warm, engaging, and upbeat. He presents his music in a way that values children. He makes them feel important. They know, during his time with them, that they matter. He can take a dull classroom and fill it with color and light.  

He has been recording for years. The recordings for children are done simply with just his guitar and voice – a soothing combination, he’s been told.  

“They use my music to calm fussy babies, “ he said, laughing.  

One compact disc, “De Colores,” has sold over thirty thousand copies. There is a companion book with songs in Spanish with English translations. The illustrations by Elsia Kleven are richly conceived and whimsical. One song from this collection, “Paz y libertad,” has a life of its own. People have been dancing to it at circle dance gatherings for years never knowing that José-Luis Orozco wrote it. 

His oldest son, Luis, has been managing his business for him.  

“Luis is an excellent organizer,” Orozco said, bragging. “And he has great people skills. Even when he was twelve people would ask him questions and he would explain everything to them.” 

Dual immersion programs, the best model for dual language acquisiton, are flowering in schools throughout the United States. Three of Berkeley’s schools have programs; Orozco’s youngest son, Pablo, is at Cragmont’s. And because Orozco is emerging as the foremost educator in Spanish-English music for children, he is highly sought after. He has song recently in New York City, Houston, and Miami, and, unpredictably, a dual immersion school in Anchorage, Alaska. 

At 52, Orozco is realizing that the possibilites for his music are limitless. He wants to keep on creating and letting his music provide continuity across generations.  

He feels he’s reached two generations already, his and that of his children. He’s working on his third. His daughter’s new born son is one baby he’s singing to already. 

You can hear José-Luis Orozco in a Benefit Concert for Centro Vida-Bahai, a child care, at the Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison Street on June 2 at 11:00a.m. Call 524-7300 information.

If Americans appear to be not fully sold on the idea of saving for their retirement, the explanation might lie in two very broad and different possibilities: 

1. They feel they can’t maintain a modern lifestyle and afford to save. 

2. Deep down, they feel that some outside force will take care of the matter and provide the wherewithal when the time comes. 

Whichever the reason, fewer workers than a year ago are saving for retirement, according to a report by two research organizations. Moreover, they say, confidence in a future comfortable retirement is down. 

Supporting the first possibility is the concern that whatever small amount workers save could be wiped out by illness or other forces beyond their control, such as rising prescription and utility bills. 

It is a fatalistic attitude, but understandable when you consider the overwhelming anxiety that grips some families when they match their incomes against the demands, such as for tuitions and mortgage payments. 

And perhaps taxes, too. Americans in recent years have been paying more in taxes than for food, clothing and shelter, the traditional essentials. The alternative is to stop saving rather than lower living standards. 

Worse, they sense that taxes might very well take an ever bigger bite in future years despite loudly sought tax cuts. 

The possibility of taxes taking an even larger budget share is raised by the Tax Foundation, whose documented but controversial Tax Freedom Day, has been pushed back to May 3 this year. It was April 18 in 1992. 

It means,the Foundation says, that taxpayers must work until then simply to meet federal, state and local tax bills. And, it adds, another week will be added to the grind by 2011, the result of the tax code’s built-in tendency to absorb a larger fraction of the nation’s income. 

While those angry at the tendency have a tendency of their own to blame an avaricious government, much of the tax growth has, in effect, been sought or acquiesced to by voters approving more government services. 

That brings up the second possibility – that some people harbor the notion that government will bail them out. How, they ask, can it not do so? And, if not the government, then possibly the stock market. 

More than one survey has shown, for example, that American investors believe a stock market that can scalp their portfolios one year can replenish it the next.  

The idea of easy fortunes has not been eliminated. 

The decline in savings for retirement comes at a time when publicity about the need to do the very opposite - that is, raise savings rates – is so loud that few worker-taxpayers have failed to hear it. 

But savings declines are what’s been found by the independent researchers – the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the American Savings Education Council – and it presents serious issues of public policy. 

Obviously, there’s evidence of a fundamental contradiction: that you can have the benefits, but avoid the risk and the pain. 

Relying on government rather than oneself to pay for retirement means higher taxes and maybe lower living standards now.  

Depending on the stock market means assuming the risks and perhaps facing a miserable retirement. 

It’s a painful choice for those who face it, but it is a choice – an alternative rather than a dictate. 

John Cunniff is a business  

analyst for The Associated Press

SANTA BARBARA — A co-founder of EarthLink, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, could face claims of $600 million or more for alleged investment fraud that netted Internet moguls, Santa Barbara socialites, venture capitalists and Hollywood producers. 

Emotions ran high Thursday as 90 investors met with attorneys representing company co-founder Reed E. Slatkin at the Santa Barbara office of U.S. bankruptcy trustee Brian Fittipaldi, who said claims could range as high as $600 million. Some attorneys have estimated the amount could go higher. 

Slatkin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors last week and remains in control of all accounts and assets under U.S. bankruptcy code. Slatkin has less than $21 million, most of it invested in shares of EarthLink. 

“I thought he was a hero because he made all his money without hurting anyone, but he made his money by hurting everyone,” said investor Patrick Siefe, a Santa Barbara computer consultant. 

Slatkin was not present to answer allegations he mismanaged money given by 500 investors. His attorneys said they advised their client not to attend. 

Bankruptcy trustees called the meeting to organize a seven-member creditors’ committee to represent investors’ interests in court. The committee’s first move was to agree to file a motion Friday asking a bankruptcy judge to freeze all of Slatkin’s accounts and assets, a move that will go uncontested. 

“It’s a very serious, staggering amount of money that’s at stake, and I don’t believe personally we’re going to find (it) stashed overseas,” said attorney Richard Wynne, who represents the committee. 

Another group of investors on Thursday filed a motion asking that a trustee be appointed to wrest control of EarthLink’s assets from Slatkin, 52, who resigned last month from EarthLink’s board of directors. 

More than 1 million documents and three computer hard drives that Slatkin turned over to his attorneys and an independent auditor show about $100 million of investor funds have been funneled into limited partnerships and real estate transactions, said Slatkin attorney Richard Pachulski. 

“Some people have suggested that this was a Ponzi scheme,” where new investors’ money is illegally passed as payment to prior investors, Pachulski said. “We don’t know one way or another what it was.” 

Pachulski said more than $140 million was distributed to investors in the past two years and that one group of investors got $120 million more than they invested, while another group gave $240 million more than they got out. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating alleged investment fraud. Slatkin also is being sued by three investors who claim he pocketed more than $35 million. Slatkin owes the Internal Revenue Service about $6 million. 

For the past 18 months, Slatkin has fallen under SEC scrutiny for failing to register as an investment adviser as mandated by federal securities law. 

NEW YORK — With the stock market appearing its firmest in months, investors looking for the best bets for profitability when the economy and corporate profits begin improving will find little consensus among analysts. 

As trading this week illustrated, the overall market appears to be in a holding pattern. 

Investors hesitated to take any strong positions, instead alternating between technology and blue chips. Although the three major stock indexes slipped for the week, their losses were expected after April’s strong advances. 

In addition, trading volume was light all week, especially Friday when the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market recorded one of their slowest days of the year. 

“Back in 1999 and 2000, we had technology to move stocks higher. Part of the problem we are having in this market is you haven’t had consistent sector leadership in sectors strong enough to take the market up,” said Richard Dickson, a technical analyst at Hilliard Lyons. “You have to make some type of coherence or you end up jumping from sector to sector and going nowhere.” 

That’s not to say some sectors aren’t doing better than others. Retail and semiconductor stocks, which historically been among the earliest performers in recovering markets, are reporting higher rates of return than the broader market. 

The Philadelphia Semiconductor and Standard & Poor’s Retail indexes are up nearly 7.0 and 6.2 percent respectively for the year, compared with the broader S&P 500, which is down about 5.6 percent. 

“The pattern is that retail stocks outperform early in a slowdown and then they underperform for a significant time and shortly before the slowdown is over, they outperform,” said Linda Kristiansen, a retail analyst at UBS Warburg, who expects to see healthy December sales but isn’t sure the momentum will last. “I think we’re still in the middle of the correction.” 

Daniel Barry, Merrill Lynch’s senior retailing analyst, is more bullish, predicting strong performance ahead for the sector. 

“I think retail is going up and it’s going to outperform the market for the balance of the year,” he said. “The average cycle for retail stocks is about 18 months. We’re in the eighth month right now, so we should have another 10 months of performance.” 

Opinions vary even more widely when it comes to technology issues. 

In a research note issued this week, Morgan Stanley upgraded several semiconductor stocks noting “we expect the next cyclical upswing to begin in September or October as the year-over-year growth rate for chip industry revenues begins to reaccelerate.” 

The idea behind this theory is that the Federal Reserve’s lowering of interest rates will spark consumer spending, which should coincide with more orders for semiconductors, the computer chips that form the building blocks of a lot of consumer goods like TVs and computers. 

The skeptics, though, are vocal and numerous. Unlike retail stocks, which have been around for decades and have a longer track record, technology stocks’ behavior is less well known. It wasn’t so long ago that analysts were talking about the “New Paradigm” – the idea that technology was so important to businesses and the economy that it wouldn’t be vulnerable to downturns. 

“With the semiconductors, the only thing that’s changed is the psychology. People are buying now with the expectation that a turnaround won’t happen until next year, but they’d rather be early than late,” said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy at Dain Rauscher Wessels. “I wouldn’t read anything else into this.” 

Meanwhile, interest rates are another variable. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates for the fifth time this year next week, how much, or whether the Fed may be nearing the end of its rate-cutting cycle, remains a topic of much speculation. 

Inflation also remains a potential issue, although most economists say data doesn’t indicate pricing is a problem right now. 

The bottom line for investors, say most analysts, is to keep focused on longer-term returns and realize that the market’s recovery may take awhile. 

“If you’re going to buy stocks, you should be very, very selective,” said Dickson, the Hilliard Lyons analyst. “Use market pullbacks, not rallies, to build a position in technology. I’d also be looking at financial and health care stocks. They tend to be more stable, even in times of weakness.” 

The Dow finished the week down 129.93, or 1.2 percent, at 10,821.31 on a 89.13 loss Friday. 

The Nasdaq composite index fell 84.10, or 3.8 percent for the week. It closed Friday at 2,107.43 on a drop of 21.43. 

The Standard & Poor’s 500 ended the week off 20.94, a 1.7 percent change, after slipping 9.51 to 1,245.67 Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index dropped 3.22 Friday to 487.36, ending the week off 5.53 or 1.1 percent. 

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index — which represents the combined market value of all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq issues — ended the week at $11.491 trillion, down $196 billion from the previous week. A year ago, the index was $13.151 trillion. 

End advance for weekend editions, May 12-13 

Alameda gets 16 hits, rolls over Berkeley 

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

If it looks like a slump, smells like a slump and walks like a slump, it’s probably a slump. And that’s just what the Berkeley High baseball team is in right now, at just the wrong time in the season. 

The ’Jackets (16-6 overall, 7-3 ACCAL) lost their second straight game Wednesday, falling 11-5 to the Alameda Hornets at San Pablo Park in Berkeley. This is the first time they have lost two straight all season, and the loss put them firmly in second place behind Pinole Valley, the team they lost to on Friday. 

The Hornets (5-4 ACCAL) rapped out 16 hits on Wednesday, the most the ’Jackets have given up this season. Toss in four Berkeley errors and some poor baserunning, and it was clear Alameda was in the driver’s seat. 

Berkeley starter Cole Stipovich hadn’t pitched for nearly two weeks before taking the mound Wednesday, but looked strong to start the game, giving up just one unearned run in the first two innings. But when third baseman Robert Williams made his second error of the game to start the third, the roof caved in.  

Stipovich walked the next batter, then gave up an infield single to leadoff hitter Dave Burson, loading the bases for the heart of the Alameda lineup. Jeff Soskin opened the floodgates, lining a bases-clearing double into left-center. Cody Nelson bunted his way on, and Conor Patterson brought in Soskin with a single. Nelson stole third base, then scored on Matt McBride’s double-play grounder. Stipovich gave up two more singles before getting out of the inning after five runs and six hits, and Berkeley was down 6-3. 

“We’ve been spoiled all year by our pitchers, but they can’t always have good outings,” Moellering said. “I’d rather we had three games a week so we could get them all work, but sometimes it’s hard to keep them all fresh.” 

But Stipovich wasn’t helped any by his defense, which was weakened by the absence of regular shortstop Jason Moore, who was suspended for the game after being ejected from Friday’s loss. 

“Cole’s a ground ball pitcher, and we didn’t take care of some grounders today,” Moellering said. “Jason’s a key to our defense, and we had to move some people around today.” 

The ’Jackets had been hitting Alameda starter McBride hard in the first two innings, and designated hitter Matt Toma started the third with a double. The Alameda coaches, obviously thrilled to have taken such a sudden lead, quickly went to their ace to protect the lead, calling in centerfielder Patterson to put out the fire. Although Noah Roper hit an RBI single, Patterson got out of the inning without any further damage. 

The ’Jackets managed nine hits on the day, including three doubles. But second baseman DeAndre Miller was doubled off of second base in the first on a routine fly ball, and Toma was caught between second and third on a grounder to the Alameda third baseman in the third. Both plays killed Berkeley rallies, and the ’Jackets just couldn’t string together hits the way Alameda did. Patterson went the rest of the way, striking out five to earn the win. 

Moellering yanked Stipovich and looked to Sean Souders in the fourth. But the Hornets scored run on a single, wild pitch and another single in the fourth. Souders managed to hold them off for the next two innings, and Berkeley managed to pull a run back in the sixth for a 7-4 deficit heading into the seventh. 

Once again, however, the wheels came off as Alameda strung together a series of base hits. The first four batters in the seventh all hit singles, scoring two runs. Souders struck out the next two Hornets, but Mark Gillman came up with a two-out single to bring in another run. Souders then hit Burson on the foot, and Soskin hit a single that scored Alex Rosko before Dave Ballarini was gunned down at the plate by the relay throw. Patterson, who had struggled through the past two innings, set down the ’Jackets in order in the bottom of the inning to seal the victory. 

Berkeley now has one more loss than Pinole Valley. If the Spartans win their remaining games and finish in first place to claim the league’s lone NCS spot, the ’Jackets will be at the mercy of the at-large selection committee.

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  

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  

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. All ages. May 11: Subincision, Next to Nothing, Fracus, Thrice, The Average Joe; May 12: The Sick, Impalid, Creuvo, Tearing Down Standards. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 10: 10 p.m. Dead DJ night with Digital Dave; May 11: 9:30 p.m. The Mood Swing Orchestra, 8 p.m. dance lesson May 12: 9 p.m.The Johnny Otis Show; May 13: 9:30 p.m. Toyes, The “Smoke Two Joints” Band 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 10: Richard Shindell; May 11: Steve Seskin, Angela Kaset and Don Henry; May 12, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with authors Adair Lara and Janis Newman, and the Acoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet; May 12: Robin Flower and Libby McClaren; May 13, 1 p.m.: The Kathy Kallick Band; May 13, 8 p.m.: The Pine Valley Boy. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. May 13: Michael Zilber Group 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com 

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 10: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 11: Mood Food; May 12: Post Junk Trio; May 15: Chris Shot Group; May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Netwerk: Electric; May 29: The Lost Trio; May 30: Zambambazo 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Pena Cultural Center May 11, 8 p.m.: Erika Luckett, Irina Rivkin & Making Waves, Gwen Avery, Shelly Doty X-tet; May 12, 10:30 a.m.: Colibri; May 13, 4 p.m.: In the Cafe La Pena - Community Juerga; May 13, 3 p.m.: Juanita Newland-Ulloa and Picante Ensemble; May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

“The Children’s Hour” May 12, 8 p.m. and May 13, 4 p.m. The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Arlene Sagan will perform Julian White’s piece along with Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia and selections from Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, poems of Robert Frost set to music. Free St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. 528-2145  

Apollo String Quartet May 10, 7:30 p.m. Composed of ninth grade students from Crowden School, quartet will perform Mozart and Bartok. Berkeley Public Library’s North Branch 1170 The Alameda 548-1240 

“MadriGALA” May 11, 7:30 p.m. The Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble presents a concert of chansons and madrigals from the 15th and 16th centuries. $5 - $10. Calvary Presbytarian Church 1940 Virginia St. (at Milvia) 237-2213 

Berkeley Opera Gala Concert May 12, 7 p.m. Berkeley Opera singers and special guest artists will be joined by Music Director, Jonathan Khuner and members of the Berkeley Opera Orchestra to provide entertainment highlighting the 2001 theme, “Opera Uncensored.” Also a silent auction, balloon raffle, champagne and more. $15 - $40 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Juanita Newland-Ulloa & Picante Ensemble May 13, 3 p.m. Romantic songs from South America. Luncheon served at 1 p.m. at the Valparaiso Cafe. $13 - $15 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

Mother’s Day Celebration May 13, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Albany Big Band will play from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. followed at 2 p.m. by Wine Country Brass. Picnic fare will be available from Classic Catering, or bring food from home. Flowers for sale. 525-3005 

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 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

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! The Soul Behind the Art” May 11, 8 p.m. The Attitude Dance Company presents jazz, hip hop, lyrical, street funk, modern and tap dancing. $6 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300  

“Grease” May 11, 12, 8 p.m. and May 6, 2 p.m. By Berkeley High Performing Arts Department. Rock-musical set in late 1950’s explores teen issues. A classic. $6 Little Theater Allston Way between MLK and Milvia 524-9754  

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” May 11 - June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Musical Tree of India” May 13, 2 p.m. Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre present this legend from tribal India. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“A Ship with Painted Sails: The Fabulous Animation of Karel Zeman” May 11: 7 p.m. Zeman Shorts, 8:55 p.m. The Fabulous World of Jules Verne May 12: 7 p.m. Baron Munchausen, 9:10 p.m. Kraba - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice May 13: 5:30 The Thousand and One Nights, 7:05 p.m. The Tale of John and Mary. Admission: $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Mirele Efros” May 13, 2 - 4:30 p.m. Jacob Gordin’s classic story set in turn-of the century Grodno. A classic study in family relations. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 10: Ron Hansen talks about “A Stay Against Confusion; May 11: Terry Pratchett reads “Thief of Time”; May 12: Ike Oguine reads “A Squatter’s Tale”;  

Anchee Min reads “Becoming Madame Mao”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 11: Suzanne Gold will read from her novel “Daddy’s Girls”; May 12: Krandall Kraus will read “Love’s Last Chance: A Nigel & Nicky Mystery”; May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 10: Gray Brechin talks about “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin”; May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”; May 29, 7 - 9 p.m.: Travel Photo Workshop with Joan Bobkoff. $15 registration fee  

“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. May 10: Jamie Kennedy with host Mischell Erickson; May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo; May 31: Connie Post with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Paul Polansky and Voice of Roma May 10, 3 p.m. Polansky’s poetry gives voice to the Kosovo Roma and their plight in the aftermath of their plight in the aftermath of the 1999 war. Free Kroeber Hall Gifford Room Second Floor (at College and Bancroft in Anthropology Building) 981-1352 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike May 12, 6:30 p.m. An ongoing open mike series, featuring poet/artist Anca Hariton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

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  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour 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 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 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 

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  

By Lt. Governor Cruz M. Bustamante 

Power producers are robbing our state of its economic future.  

That is why I have filed a lawsuit on behalf of California’s taxpayers against the “big five” out-of-state energy producers. They have violated our state’s antitrust and unlawful business practices laws by manipulating the energy market through price-fixing schemes. It is time they are held accountable for ransacking our state and forced to return their illegally collected fortunes. 

This cartel of five out-of-state corporations, Duke, Mirant, Reliant, Williams and Dynegy control the critical 19 gas-fired electric generation plants, located in 11 California counties, that provide critical amounts of electricity to the state’s consumers. The cartel appears to have engaged in unlawful trading practices to manipulate the market, and gained unrestrained monopoly power over electricity prices in California.  

The numbers are staggering. 

The price of power has increased ten-fold in just two years – from $7 billion in 1999 to a projected $70 billion this year. The Independent System Operator (ISO) estimates that California has been overcharged by billions of dollars. Even the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which has been appallingly negligent on California’s behalf in this crisis, stated that the cartel has overcharged Californians by tens of millions of dollars. 

As published reports show, the big-five companies unlawfully acted like a monopoly 98 percent of the time they sold power to California’s consumers. They increased prices by jamming the electric transmission lines with excess electricity, and also engaged in a “withhold-and-bid” scheme designed to create false shortages of supply at crucial periods.  

These are funds that should be invested in our schools and children instead of lining the pockets of this energy cartel. 

Billions of dollars that could have gone to textbooks, uninsured children, police, teachers, after schools programs, economic development, affordable housing and other needs in our state are instead being siphoned out-of-state, bankrupting our businesses and burdening working families. 

It is critical that we ensure that these power generators are stopped from looting California taxpayers in the future. One way to do this is by criminalizing this type of behavior. 

I have sponsored legislation, which would make it a felony for energy suppliers to manipulate the market at the expense of our taxpayers. This measure is prospective -- targeting future abuses. 

Specifically, the legislation would put those who collude or conspire to manipulate the market behind bars. It would levy a fine of up to 10 percent of their corporate assets, create a whistleblower provision to protect individuals who provide information to authorities, and create a bounty hunter provision with a reward of $1 million for information which leads to an actual conviction. 

I am confident that once their illicit practices are exposed in a court of law, these companies will be forced to release California from our current energy-hostage situation and deal fairly with our state’s taxpayers. 

We must act now! If we do not, the cost is too high; seniors on fixed incomes will have to choose between air conditioning and food or medicine, small business owners will continue to struggle paying their bills and families will have to work that much harder. 

While the lawsuit and legislation will not solve all of our state's energy problems, they will stop the abusive behavior and get our money back. 

We’ve tried to reason, tried to deal, and tried to negotiate. We’ve had enough!  

We want our money back now! 

Thursday, May 10

Showcase 2001 

5 - 7:30 p.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant  

199 Seawall Drive  

Berkeley Marina  

Showcase 2001, a tradeshow and mixer.  

549-7003 

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location 

Mediterranean Herbs 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Tour of herbs. Learn myths and legends, ideas for planting in home gardens. 

643-1924 

Friday, May 11

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  

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.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

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.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Saturday, May 12

Be Your Own Boss 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

YWCA 

1515 Webster Street, Oakland 

Two day workshop on the basics of starting up a small business, taught by local business owners. 

$50-$100 sliding scale 

Call 415-541-8580 for registration  

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. (at San Pablo)  

Adair Lara, author of “Hold Me Close, Let Me Go,” Janis Newman, author of “The Russian Word for Snow,” Wavy Gravy, and Accoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet.  

Call 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike 

6:30 p.m. 

Berkley Art Center  

1275 Walnut St.  

An ongoing open mic series featuring poet/artist Anca Hariton. Sign up at 6:30 and reading at 7 p.m. Free 

Cordornices Creek Work  

Party 

10 a.m. 

Meet at 10th St. south of Harrison St. 

Join Friends of Five Creeks in removing ivy and reducing erosion as part of National River Cleanup Week. Learn to create creekside trail. Bring work gloves and clippers if possible. 

848-9358 

f5creeks@aol.com  

Sunday, May 13

Mother’s Day Concert 

3 - 4 p.m. 

Environmental Education Center 

Tilden Regional Park  

Featuring Mary Mische singing children’s songs. Free 

525-2233 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to adjust the brakes on your bicycle from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Tapping Into Creativity 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Based on Tarthang Tulku’s “Knowledge of Freedom”, ideas and meditations to inspire creativity. Free and open to the public. 

843-6812 

Carpentry Basics for Women 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Second day of weekend hands-on workshop taught by Tracy Weir, professional carpenter. Build your own bookshelf unit. $195 for Saturday and Sunday. 

525-7610 

Ceramic Tile Installation 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Second day of weekend hands-on workshop taught by tile-setting expert Rod Taylor. $195 for Saturday and Sunday. 

525-7610 

The City Council approved a recommendation Tuesday asking the city manager to develop procedures for issuing permits and licenses to Medical Marijuana cooperatives.  

The council approved the recommendation by a vote of 8-0-1 with Councilmember Betty Olds abstaining.  

The recommendation, put on the agenda by Councilmembers Margaret Breland, Linda Maio and Kriss Worthington, also asked the city attorney to draw up language for an urgency moratorium on any new medical marijuana dispensaries until specific zoning regulations can be approved. 

A moratorium would have to be approved by seven of the nine councilmembers if there is no public hearing prior to the vote. If a moratorium is adopted, it would be in effect for only 45 days at which point it could not be extended without a public hearing. 

The council adopted a Medical Marijuana Ordinance in March, which allows doctor-approved patients to possess up to 10 marijuana plants and up to 2.5 pounds of dried marijuana. The ordinance also allows  

cooperatives to grow up to 50 plants and have up to 12 pounds of dried marijuana at any one time.  

However, shortly after the ordinance was approved, it became clear that the city’s zoning ordinance does not provide guidelines for regulating medical marijuana cooperatives and outlets.  

“We kind of backed into this trying to do the right thing,” said City Manager Weldon Rucker. “If we’re not careful we’re going to legitimize something we can’t legitimize and soon it could be ‘anything goes.’” 

While California Proposition 215 allows marijuana use for medical reasons it provides no guidelines for the cultivation, distribution and transportation of the drug. Such logistics are left up to counties and municipalities to work out.  

This situation creates legal quandaries for local law makers because federal law still prohibits the use of marijuana under any circumstance. The contradiction has left law makers struggling to find ways to help patients who need medical marijuana while trying to dodge state and federal legal snags. 

Currently the Supreme Court is considering a law suit involving Oakland’s Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative that tests the scope of Proposition 215. The cooperative was sued, along with six others, by the U.S. Justice Department shortly after Proposition 215 was passed in 1996.  

The Supreme Court is considering arguments and is expected to make a decision on the case by August. 

One question that the city manager will try to answer is, which city department will oversee the inspection and permitting of the cooperatives. Councilmember Linda Maio said she would like the Health and Human Services Department to supervise the cooperatives.  

But Health and Human Services Department Director Fred Medrano said the responsibility would mean a significant work increase for the already taxed health department, and more importantly, his staff might be reluctant to take on the job.  

“Essentially it would be asking a city department to carry out an illegal activity,” he said. “There would be a great deal of concern on staff’s part, especially physicians who are subject to medical license review.” 

Another thorny issue for the city manager to work through is what parts of town are appropriate for the collectives. According to the Planning and Development Department, there are as many as five cooperatives the city knows about.  

A cooperative that recently opened on San Pablo Avenue near Addison Street has raised neighbors’ concerns. They say they were not informed beforehand that the club would locate there and they question the professionalism the club’s management. 

Laurie Polster, who lives near the cooperative, said the collective brings an element of uncertainty to the neighborhood. She said after the business opened up, she went to another cooperative in Berkeley and was impressed with the clinic-like atmosphere of the place.  

She said the clinic that opened in her neighborhood is in a dilapidated building and the only sign outside the cooperative reads “knock hard.” 

Polster said she supports medical marijuana but is worried about the cooperative being the target of robberies. “These places have lots of cash and drugs around,” she said. 

The person who started the club at San Pablo and Addison, who asked to be identified only as Michael, countered that the club had been operating only for two weeks. He said another person, one with experience, was taking over its management. “Poor people need the medicine,” he said, arguing for its location in the low-income area. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said one of the goals of the council recommendation was to put both patients and neighbors at ease about the cooperatives. 

“We care about the concerns of the patients and neighbors alike.” he said. “The cooperatives want to be sure the police are not going to raid them and the neighbors want to be sure the cooperatives will be run in a reasonable, safe way.” 

The City Council could consider the urgency moratorium as early as next week.  

After nearly firing a pick-off attempt into left field and sustaining some heckling from the St. Mary’s bench, Piedmont catcher Drew Olson assured the Panthers that he wouldn’t throw the ball away. 

He kept his word. 

Olson kept St. Mary’s baserunners honest all game by routinely throwing behind runners at first, second and third base.  

He didn’t pick off any runners through six innings. 

But in the bottom of the seventh, with St. Mary’s trailing by a run with runners on first and second and no outs, Panthers’ shortstop and relief pitcher Jeremiah Fielder tried to steal third base. Olson, who is also Piedmont’s star quarterback, gunned down Fielder and stopped the Panthers’ rally dead in its tracks. 

Piedmont’s 7-6, come-from-behind victory on Wednesday kept them in first place in the Bay Shore Athletic League. The Highlanders finished the regular season 15-6 overall and 9-1 in the BSAL. St. Mary’s, meanwhile, finished with a 14-10 overall record, 8-2 in league play. Piedmont awaits the outcome of Salesian’s final two games to see who wins the league. 

Piedmont struck first with Olson’s no-out first inning single to left that drove in Peter Schneider. Panthers’ pitcher Anthony Miyawaki struck out the next batter and forced two pop-ups to get out of the inning. 

St. Mary’s bats got hot in the bottom of the first, as Omar Young rocked Piedmont pitcher Mac Conn with a lead-off home run. A single by Joe Storno drove in two more runs, and Chase Moore’s two-out single drove in another pair. 

That was before the Highlanders brought in Brett Webster to pitch. The senior effectively shut down the St. Mary’s offense, allowing just five hits and one run in six innings of work.  

“We just wanted to get a lead and then give it to Jeremiah to finish,” St. Mary’s coach Andy Shimabukuro said. “Webster did a great job and we didn’t make the necessary adjustments at the plate.” 

While the Panthers bats cooled from fire to ice, the Highlanders chipped away at St. Mary’s lead. Piedmont scored three runs in the second on a double down the left field line by Schneider and Justin Lindenmayer’s double to right. Lindenmayer was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple, but not before another run crossed the plate. 

Piedmont’s Pete Boyle tied the game at five on a single that drove in Olson. The score remained tied heading into the bottom of the fifth when St. Mary’s Storno drove in Mike Glasshoff for a 6-5 lead. 

St. Mary’s Fielder moved from shortstop to the mound with two outs in the fifth inning and struck out three of the first four batters he faced. But the Highlanders found the holes in the top of the seventh and scored two runs that proved the difference in the game. 

“I just didn’t hit my spots,” Fielder said of his pitching. “I threw the right pitches, they just weren’t in the right places.” 

Fielder, who struck out five batters in 2 1/3 innings, led off the St. Mary’s half of the seventh inning with a stand up double before being thrown out trying to steal third. 

“We just didn’t execute,” Shimabukuro said. “We were trying to do too much.” 

The loss came on the heels of St. Mary’s 28-0 thrashing of St. Elizabeth’s last week. It also came against a Piedmont team that the Panthers beat 13-3 earlier this season, giving the Highlanders their only league loss. 

“I knew they were a good team,” Shimabukuro said. “We knew that we weren’t going to get another game like last week.” 

With the win, Piedmont secured a first-round bye in the playoffs while St. Mary’s will likely face Albany or St. Joseph’s in the first round. 

“I bet we’ll get to see them (St. Mary’s) again,” Piedmont coach Mike Humphries said. “It’s nice to get a bye so we don’t have to burn a pitcher and we get to play on our home field.” 

Fielder also said the two teams would meet again in the playoffs. 

“We’re going to do our part,” he said. “We’ll see them again unless they get knocked out.”

A loss all of us can feel 

Editor: 

To the family of Nandi Phelps, 

I extend the heartfelt sympathy of all of the PTA Presidents in the Berkeley District, and of each and every Parent as well. I know that my heart screamed out with your pain when I heard that shocking news report that another child’s life had been taken, and that this time that child was one of our own. How easily that report could have been talking about my own son. Or one of his classmates at Le Conte. I look at their faces and can’t think  

of one of them that we could live without tomorrow. I don’t think that I will ever look at them the same again. In that I can understand how deeply the Oxford community suffers with you. Why fate reached out and dealt your family this horrible, horrible blow, we will probably never know. I can assure you that there isn’t a parent in Berkeley, or anywhere else who has heard about your Sister, your Daughter... your Angel, who hasn’t then reached out to hold their own child, and in doing so are embracing your Nandi. And like those parents, my tears at this moment are for you and all that you’ve lost.  

There is not much that we can do except to give you our love and our prayers, but know that all of our community is there for you. I don’t imagine that the shock of your loss will ever wear off, but as you begin to see a clearer picture of the road ahead; please let me know what we can do. 

Mark Coplan, President 

Berkeley PTA Council 

Coplan further encourages the community to help the family with funeral expenses. Please see the funeral announcement on p. 6 – editor. 

Thanks to Temple Beth El 

Editor: 

I am writing to commend Congregation Beth-El for the wonderful volunteer effort that its Social Action Committee mounted to support our efforts at Chaparral House, a not-for-profit skilled nursing facility on Allston Way.  

As part of the “Rebuilding Together” national spring event, Beth-El’s “Sukkot-in-April” brought over 30 volunteers to Chaparral for the last two weekends in April. These volunteers planned and organized then painted our dining room a bright cheery white which increased the light capacity of the room a good 25 percent. Besides saving us the expense their efforts help to make the space more livable for our elder, disabled residents, many of whom have diminished vision.  

The highlight of the last weekend was a wonderful community barbecue in Strawberry Creek Park which brought together the volunteers from our neighbor, the Berkeley Youth Alternatives, our residents, family, and staff, and the volunteers from Beth-El.  

This endeavor is just one more example of the community contributions which the Beth-El congregation makes to Berkeley. 

Jim Johnson 

Administrator of Chaparral Foundation 

Peace with justice for kids too 

Editor: 

The Bay Brief from Associated Press headlined “10-year-old arrested for terrorist threats” left something out, as such stories usually do. 

This fourth grade terrorist hopeful was removed from class, suspended, arrested, and charged by the police. What, pray tell, was done about “The other students” with whom he was arguing at the time of his alleged offense, who “were reportedly picking on him during a reading class?” 

It’s my impression from accounts of other incidents that children who attack people in schools have often been the object of harassment or torment by their fellows before they lash out. Certainly kids cannot with impunity harm their schoolmates or, in these days, even threaten them with violence, but the news stories always seem to leave the original offenders – the ones who were “picking on” the would-be terrorist before he earned his stripes – pretty much out of the picture, or at least only on the very edge of it. 

Recently I was heartened by some stories in the news from which I inferred that at least some schools, communities, and “authorities” are beginning to make the connection between the harassment (usually but not always of boys) that leads to violence or threats of violence and the sexual harassment (usually but not always of girls) that leads to the suffering and deprivation of the victims.  

In the latter case, society is finally beginning to take action, long overdue, but in the former case society – or is it only the media? – which seems to be focused almost exclusively on the victim of the harassment who lashes out when no “authority” acts to protect him. 

In both cases, it seems to me, the maxim holds good: if you want peace, work for justice. 

Kenneth M. Sanderson 

Berkeley 

No need for Dems wrapped in Republican skins 

Editor, 

A $ 1,300 billion tax cut that benefits the very rich is bad for the country, and it is bad for the Democrats. It does not pay down Regan’s national debt. It does not shore up Social Security. 

It does institutionalize the privilege of a permanent upper class. 

We need leaders who can mount successful opposition to this policy. 

We do not need Democrats who are but tepid Republicans. 

Bruce Joffe 

Oakland

About 100 Berkeley High School students turned out over the course of Wednesday morning to hear a panel of prosecutors and student representatives discuss the impact of Proposition 21. 

Approved by 62 percent of California voters last year, Proposition 21 made it easier for prosecutors to try juvenile offenders (youth under the age of 18) in adult court. If convicted as adults, youth can face the whole range of adult sentences, up to life in prison. 

The proposition also made it possible for youth as young as 16 to be incarcerated in the same prisons as adults, a practice which Amnesty International has denounced, claiming it greatly increases the chance that youth will face assault or rape while in prison – and makes youth prisoners up to eight times more likely to commit suicide. 

Berkeley school board student director Niles Xi’an Lichtenstein moderated part of the forum, which was sponsored by the Berkeley Youth Commission. He told the audience the forum was intended both to educate youth about the potential consequences of breaking the law; and to give Alameda County prosecutors a chance to hear youth concerns around Proposition 21. 

A number of teens said the proposition has contributed to the criminalization of youth in the public eye, making police that much more likely to intimidate and harass youth. 

Berkeley sophomore Nick Sandevski said he has seen Berkeley police use the threat of Proposition 21 to intimidate youth, by saying things like “Prop. 21 isn’t a joke.” 

Some youth expressed anger that Proposition 21, something that impacts youth so directly, was passed by adult voters, without any consultation with young people. Others said there hasn’t been enough of an effort to explain the new law to youth so they know what they’re up against. 

“It’s like, whoah, where did that come from,” said Berkeley High sophomore Christien Liong. Liong said she attended the forum Wednesday to “learn her rights” under Proposition 21. 

There is a general feeling among youth that “there is more of a push towards enforcement rather than service-based solutions,” Lichtenstein said Wednesday.  

Marcellis Ashley, who works with youth at the James Kenney Recreation Center, agreed. She said there is too much emphasis on making it easier to channel youth into the prisons when the state ought to be spending its money on intervention programs that help keep kids out of trouble.  

“Give kids something to do, somewhere to go and people who care about them,” Ashley said. 

But the prosecutors on the panel said that Proposition 21 has had very little impact on the way youthful offenders are handled by the criminal justice system. 

“I can’t say concretely that I’ve seen any change (under Proposition 21),” said Trina Stanley, a commissioner with the Alameda County Juvenile Court. 

Stanley said youth offenders are treated on a case by case basis, with prosecutors opting to divert youth into intervention programs as often as possible.  

“It’s a judgment call between the police officer, the parent and the probation officer,” Stanley said. “Depending on the gravity (of the crime), it might not get to court at all.” 

Only in the most serious cases would a prosecutor recommend that youth be tried as adults, according to Walter Jackson, an Alameda County assistant DA. 

“Prop. 21 allows prosecutors to treat grafitti as a felony,” Jackson said. “But the reality is, prosecutors aren’t going to do that” except for in cases where the graffiti leads to extreme property damage. 

Youth Commission member Nick Rizzo said he was encouraged by the prosecutors’ statements. 

“From what I’ve seen, it seems like things haven’t changed very much, which is cool,” Rizzo said. 

But others weren’t so sure. 

Theresa Miller, who graduated from Berkeley High last year and volunteers in a youth after school program in Berkeley, said Proposition 21 increased the likelihood that youth offenders will face punishments far beyond what they deserve. 

“Some don’t deserve to be put in prison,” Miller said. “They really don’t know any better. It’s what they’ve been brought up around.” 

Eric and Erica Bachman’s three children seem to represent the indecision of their interfaith marriage. One child had a baptism. One had a bris. And for one child they held no ceremony at all.  

The problem is that both members of the Oakland couple know they should decide what their in-house religious policy should be – and quickly, because their oldest daughter is almost 6 years old. 

A totally Christian lifestyle is out of the question, but so is a totally Jewish one. “If the parents are confused, the kids are confused,” said Erica Bachman.  

“You want the kids to have a religious identity.” 

To help them decide, they attended an intimate outreach program called “Religious Identity for Interfaith Families” sponsored by the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center on Tuesday. About 20 Jews and non-Jews participated.  

The Bachmans are just one couple out of hundreds of thousands that must deal with this dilemma. The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey reported that 52 percent of Jews who married between 1985 and 1990 married outside of the Jewish faith. Of all married Jews, 28 percent are married to a non-Jew.  

Program facilitator, Dawn Kepler, said that interfaith marriages have been rapidly increasing in the last few decades. Kepler said it’s easier to resolve religious differences between a husband and a wife, but when you add kids, the question becomes: “What do you want to give to our child?” 

Outreach programs like this are designed to support couples with these decisions, she said. 

Rabbi Jane Litman of Berkeley’s Congregation Beth El and Dave Sauer, pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in San Leandro, came to offer their perspectives. 

“The greatest danger is if the couple does not do anything,” Sauer said to the group. “The child has no spiritual roots and they’re not going to get it from the culture.” 

Both Litman and Sauer agreed that parents should actively form religious guidelines for their families. Allowing indecision and uncertainty to prevail may do the most damage of all.  

“Adult children of interfaith families who did not choose, often come to me in a great deal of distress,” says Litman, who has been working with interfaith issues for over 20 years.  

She said that in most cases, it’s better to choose a tradition and have respect for the other faith. “It’s generally better to have clarity.” 

However, clarity is difficult to achieve, especially when couples don’t exactly know what they believe or why.  

“Most people have a 13 or 16 year old’s understanding of their faith,” said Kepler. It’s important that the couples discover what makes their faith special in order to pass that down to their children, she said. Kepler suggested that couples take introductory courses in their partner’s faith so that they can appreciate the significance of each belief. 

One worry for partners is that their faith can be so dogmatic that it is difficult to explain to their husband or wife, why retaining customs is important and why their children should be exposed to them.  

“I believe what I believe because I was told to believe it,” said Erica Bachman, who was raised in a Presbyterian household. “Sometimes I think we can do Jewish, but part of me doesn’t want to give up what was so important to me.” 

But at the same time, a family cannot practice Christianity and Judaism equally. On the other extreme, partners don’t want to convert one way or the other. Couples don’t know how much they are willing to sacrifice.  

Litman said she always emphasizes the same standards for interfaith couples. She said that for these relationships to work, the couples must stress open communication, have mutual respect and always put the children first and let go of “ego concerns.” 

For Jews she advised, “Build a Sukkah instead of arguing about a Christmas tree. Don’t get caught up about not having a good time at Christmas.” 

Because as Pastor Sauer reminded them, “Who’s well-being are we looking out for?”  

Answer: the children.  

Lisa Fernandez and her husband, Bob Gammon, wanted to know what elements of religious compromise works with kids, and “What are the elements that totally screw the kids up so they write a book ‘How my parents screwed me up?’” 

For the most part, said Litman, the relationship can work as long as religion does not become a battlefield where holidays and customs are “chalked up and counted.” Or else, the child ends up hating both faiths, she said.  

Interfaith families must be flexible, creative and understanding. For some, that means raising the children Jewish, but with a few concessions like a Christmas tree or wreath. For others, that means practicing Christianity, but visiting grandparents to celebrate a proper Passover.  

Before they finally decide, the Bachmans, like many families stuck in the middle, have been celebrating both. They’ve been taking classes and talking with each other. There’s no real answer. In the meantime, their kids know that they’re “half and half.”  

Kepler will be leading a workshop on “Grandparenting in an interfaith world,” at 7:30 p.m. May 29 at Temple Sinai, 2808 Summit St. For information, call 208-5554. 

Answering an invitation from students, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno delivered the keynote address at UC Berkeley’s 2001 Commencement Convocation Wednesday.  

Reno, the nation’s first female attorney general, was among the most requested commencement speakers in last summer’s survey of more than 9,000 UC Berkeley seniors-to-be. 

Reno’s address in the Greek Theatre, capped off a well-attended ceremony full of nostalgia, good cheer, the requisite talk of endings and beginnings, possibilities and responsibilities and university pride.  

“This is your day,” she began, “and this is a wonderful day for the country.”  

Reno recalled her own early adulthood, and a dawning duty of “trying very simply to make the world a better place.” She referred to a visit she’d made to the concentration camp at Dachau, after which, “I resolved that I would never stand by, that I would try with all my heart and soul to look at what was wrong, and try to correct it and never give up.”  

She went on to describe the rewards and disappointments of her life in public service, lessons learned there and from her parents – a mother who taught herself to build a house, and did so without “cutting any corners,” and a father who taught himself English and thrived as a newspaper reporter.  

The audience loudly approved Reno’s mention of her imitated and actual appearance on Saturday Night Live. “It is so important to laugh at yourself every now and then,” she said. “Laughter is the great leveler. It puts attorneys general and Will Ferrell on the same level,” she added, referring to the actor who had portrayed her on the popular satirical program. 

And, indulging the prerogative of every graduation speaker, Reno dispensed advice. “Fill the spaces of your life with poetry and music and... kayaking, and other good things,” she said to a chorus of approving chuckles. “Make your word your bond. When you say something, mean it. If you lose, pick yourself up and move ahead. Don’t duck. Accept responsibility. Stand and take it.” 

Reno challenged the graduates to engage in public service. “I’ve challenged lawyers to stop talking and start doing,” she said. “You people who are headed for law school, help me. We have a nation to serve, and a world to serve, and all its people.” She said she assumed that many in the audience shared her determination to improve American public education, including raising teachers’ salaries and ending “the culture of violence.”  

In fact, Reno’s advice, and advocacy, gradually began to sound something like a campaign speech, delivered to an enthusiastic group of political supporters. Most of the audience applauded what she called her decision “to return a little boy to his father,” citing the Elian Gonzalez affair, and, with the exception of two students holding a white banner bearing the words “Remember Waco” between them, the crowd made clear its support.  

She follows other notable and sometimes controversial speakers, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, actor Bill Cosby, author Terry McMillan and Silicon Valley legend Steve Wozniak. 

Diplomas will be distributed at various departmental graduations throughout this month.

BERKELEY — University of California regents appear ready to withdraw their much-protested, and moot, 1995 vote banning affirmative action. 

The move got the surprise endorsement Wednesday of Regent Ward Connerly, who wrote the 1995 policies and had firmly opposed the idea of revisiting them. 

The vote, which comes in the form of a new resolution eliminating the 1995 policies, won’t bring back the old affirmative action programs. UC’s nine campuses will continue to be governed by Proposition 209. That 1996 state ballot measure bans considering race and gender in public hiring, contracting or education. 

But supporters say the new resolution, on the agenda for next week’s meeting in San Francisco, would be a significant gesture. 

“We shouldn’t have led the cause. We did, and now we are trying to withdraw from the cause,” said Regent Bill Bagley, who has long campaigned to overturn the 1995 vote. 

The new resolution replaces two policies passed in 1995, one forbidding consideration of race and gender in hiring and contracting and the second doing the same for admissions. 

The 1995 resolutions also decreed that at least 50 percent of all admissions be based on grades alone – up from the previous minimum of 40 percent. It also included a statement committing the university to promoting diversity by, among other things, considering students’ individual hardships. 

The diversity statement has become the basis for a multimillion-dollar “outreach” program aimed at getting more California public school students interested in and qualified for UC. 

The new resolution notes that Proposition 209 is law, and affirms the commitment to diversity. It refers the question of how many students should be admitted by grades alone to the Academic Senate. The senate, which also is considering a request by UC President Richard Atkinson to consider dropping the SAT 1 college entrance exam, another closely watched UC admissions issue, would then report back to the board for further action. 

After race-blind admissions went into effect for undergraduates in 1998, admissions of blacks and Hispanics, traditionally underrepresented at UC, fell sharply. At flagship Berkeley, admission of black students dropped nearly 70 percent, from 515 in fall 1997 to 157 in fall 1998. 

Since then, the numbers have increased. Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians – “underrepresented minorities” – comprised 18.6 percent of in-state freshman admissions at all eight undergraduate campuses this fall, compared to 18.8 percent in 1997.  

However, underrepresented minorities have yet to reach 1997 levels at the most competitive campuses. 

Regent Judith Hopkinson, who is sponsoring the new resolution, said in a statement that many had formed a perception that they were unwelcome at UC following the 1995 vote. 

“I believe now is the time for the regents to seek common ground to dispel this perception,” she said. 

Connerly had opposed the idea of revisiting the 1995 vote, saying UC’s new outreach programs, which includes developing partnerships with public high schools, are working. 

On Wednesday, Connerly said he still would prefer to leave the 1995 vote alone, but considers the Hopkinson resolution to be a satisfactory compromise because it acknowledges the authority of Proposition 209. 

Supporters of repeal have said they believe they have enough votes on the 26-member board to win. Connerly saw it as more of a stalemate and said he wanted to avoid that kind of battle. 

“It would be foolish for me to dig my heels in the sand,” he said. 

SAN JOSE — At least 53 people intentionally have killed themselves on Caltrain tracks since 1992, and another man died Tuesday night. Now, the commuter train system hopes to make life along the rails safer by installing more than 400 signs seeking to deter potential suicides. 

“There is Help,” the signs read. The signs also contain an image of two clasped hands and a toll-free phone number for the Suicide Prevention Hotline. 

“This is an all-out effort by Caltrain to end the deaths along the railways,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin. “If we save one life, those signs are worth our efforts.” 

In San Bruno, Richard McAllister, 35, was seen lying on the Caltrain tracks moments before being fatally struck at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.  

McAllister was the 99th person killed by a train along the tracks since 1992. 

His death comes one week after a man committed suicide along the same train route – the 53rd confirmed suicide along the tracks since 1992. 

Nevin came up with the idea in an effort to cut down on the mounting number of deaths along the tracks that have been ruled suicides. 

Last year, trains killed 17 people along Caltrain tracks and seven of those deaths were ruled suicides. There have been three suicides by train so far this year. 

Caltrain officials are hoping that anyone considering suicide along the tracks will change his mind after seeing the signs reminding him that “somebody in the world cares,” Nevin said. 

Golden Gate Bridge officials post similar signs to deter jumpers. 

Bob Atchison, a Caltrain engineer, has been operating trains for nearly 30 years and has experienced the helplessness of hitting someone bent on suicide.  

By the time a train engineer sees the despondent person, it’s too late, Atchison said. 

“You blow the whistle, you go into emergency brakes, and then you just pray,” Atchison said. “You can’t stop. It’s a foregone conclusion unless they decide to get out of your way.” 

LOS ANGELES — Flush with a new appreciation for the beauty of Earth and weightless sleep, space tourist Dennis Tito arrived home Wednesday on a flight from Moscow, completing the last leg of his round trip to the international space station. 

“I’ve met my dream,” a jubilant Tito said after being greeted at Los Angeles International Airport by Mayor Richard Riordan, who clasped the spacefaring tycoon’s hand and declared “Astronaut Dennis Tito Day” in the city. 

“I think I have a sense of appreciation of what a privilege I had to be able to experience Earth from 240 miles up,” Tito said. “We have a beautiful planet.” 

Tito’s sons Brad and Michael, and girlfriend Dawn Abraham were also on hand. 

Tito, 60, landed back on Earth on Sunday, ending his eight-day stay in space. He reportedly paid the Russians up to $20 million for the privilege, which included six days spent aboard the orbiting station. 

The trip angered officials from the four nations that are partners with Russia in the station. The officials, including National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief Daniel Goldin, had feared that Tito would jeopardize work aboard the station. 

NASA may yet bill Russia for any disruptions caused by his visit, which was overshadowed by a series of unrelated, but far more crippling, computer problems, said Debra Rahn, a spokeswoman for the agency. 

“I think it was actually quite a deal,” said Tito, who compared the cost to the estimated $500 million price tag for each space shuttle mission. 

Tito, wearing a black leather jacket, encouraged NASA to reserve a private seat on the space shuttle for individuals “who represent creative aspects of our culture: poets, philosophers, reporters and teachers.” 

“I found that eight days in space was the most unique experience a human being could have and I am surprised that many of the people who have been to space have not expressed it this way,” said Tito, who described the professional astronauts aboard the space station as cordial and straight-laced. 

He said he helped choose food for the astronauts, took pictures and video of Earth while listening to opera and went through about 30 rolls of film. 

Tito said he spent a lot of time asleep and never slept better. 

“I would go back to space to sleep,” Tito joked. 

Tito was no stranger to space. He has a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and a master’s in engineering science, and joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1964, where he worked on designing the flight paths for spacecraft flybys of Mars and Venus. 

“It’s not like he doesn’t know what a rocket is,” said Norm Haynes, a retired JPL engineer who worked with Tito. 

Tito later helped found Wilshire Associates in 1972. The investment firm now manages more than $10 billion in assets and advises on $1 trillion in assets. 

Riordan appointed him in 1993 to serve on the city’s board of water and power commissioners. Tito resigned from the board in 1996. 

The Pacific Palisades resident may not be the last tourist to station Alpha: Officials are now drafting criteria that would guide how future amateur astronauts would be selected, trained and certified before flying to the orbiting outpost. The document could be signed by July, NASA’s Rahn said. 

“Bureaucracies don’t like to change and this clearly forced a change and it’s going to have it’s impact,” said Tito, who plans to write a book about his experience. 

SACRAMENTO — In the past five years, 28 California hospitals have closed and mounting financial pressure could cause many more to follow suit, according to a study released Wednesday. 

The study, conducted by University of California, Berkeley researchers, found that most of the hospitals that closed were for-profit hospitals and 65 percent were in Southern California. 

Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked for the study after two hospital closures in Southern California sparked public outcry. Despite all the attention hospital closures received, the report found that public objection was recorded in only seven cases. 

“We found in the study a significant number of closings, and given the seismic upgrade that is mandated, there will be mounting pressure on more hospitals to close,” said Richard Scheffler, one of the researchers from UC Berkeley’s Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare. 

The study found that the number of closures were accelerating, doubling in the second half of the period. 

Lockyer said though the study found most of the closed facilities were for-profit, that trend “raises concerns for non profit hospitals operations and the potential impact on charity health care.” 

The number of hospital closures between 1995 and 2000 could be as high as 34, said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Association. 

“The reality is California’s health care system is in a financial meltdown,” Emerson said. “Two of every three hospitals in the state are losing money.” 

Scheffler said that California’s hospital closures follow national trends, but he was concerned because the loss of facilities was at a time when the population was growing. 

“There is, on the other hand, some notion that hospitals that close are inefficient, and may need to be pruned from the system, so that other hospitals are more healthy,” he said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Read the report at the attorney general’s Web site: 

http://caag.state.ca.us 

LOS ANGELES — The state Department of Education has filed a civil suit against a Hispanic immigrants rights group alleging that it failed to account for $7 million in federal funds intended for citizenship and English classes for immigrants. 

The lawsuit filed Tuesday against Los Angeles-based Hermandad Mexicana Nacional also seeks $10 million in punitive damages for failing to properly account for grants received between 1994 and 1998, when the state stopped funding. 

“After three years of going around and around with Hermandad, it became obvious that the only way we are going to get what we need from Hermandad is through legal action,” said education department spokesman Doug Stone. 

Hermandad officials denied any wrongdoing. 

“They are grasping at straws,” said Nativo Lopez, who heads a splinter group based in Santa Ana that was formed after the January death of Hermandad founder Bert Corona. 

Angelina Casillas, the widow of Corona, runs the original organization and its Los Angeles offices. 

The lawsuit names Hermandad, Lopez, the Santa Ana group and possibly 50 other unnamed parties as defendants. 

“We are all in that mix,” Lopez, a member of the Santa Ana Unified school board, told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday’s newspaper. “It is not clear. All that is going to have be cleared. ... The executive director (Corona) passed away, and they are grasping at whomever they can.” 

Emily Durkee, a San Diego attorney representing Hermandad, declined to comment saying she had not yet seen  

the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit is the latest action involving Hermandad and other nonprofit groups that received federal funds to provide English and civics lessons to immigrants seeking citizenship. 

Federal officials have said a separate federal probe is continuing. 

The state alleges that Hermandad did not properly account for the federal funds it received and accused the group’s officials of defrauding the state with incomplete or fraudulent documentation of expenses. 

Allegations that community-based organizations misused federal adult education funds first surfaced in 1998. 

Hermandad was among 10 community organizations probed by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Education’s inspector general for their handling of nearly $15 million in federal grants. 

The state Department of Education in February also filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Templo Calvario Legalization and Education Center in Rancho Cucamonga seeking reimbursement of nearly $3 million. The case is still pending. 

SAN FRANCISCO — California Supreme Court justices peppered the makers of an assault pistol Wednesday, calling the weapon “socially useless” and demanding to know why the gun was fingerprint resistant. 

The questioning came during an hour of oral arguments in a closely watched case focusing on whether a gun manufacturer can be sued on grounds it partly was responsible for a criminal shooting – in this case the massacre of eight and wounding of six in a San Francisco law office. 

No state’s high court or federal appeals court nationwide has allowed such a case to proceed. 

The seven California Supreme Court justices did not indicate whether they would uphold the nation’s only state appellate court ruling allowing victims to sue a gun manufacturer for the criminal acts of somebody else. Instead, the justices appeared to ask questions that could support either of two outcomes. 

The victims allege Florida-based Navegar Inc.’s marketing tactics and weapon design caused a disgruntled and crazed man to storm the high rise at 101 California St. in 1993, an allegation the gun maker staunchly denies. 

Chief Justice Ronald M. George wanted to know whether Navegar marketed to criminals its TEC-DC9, the weapon used in the killing spree. 

“What about the marketing here that this weapon was  

resistant to fingerprints?” George said. 

Navegar attorney Ernest Getto said such resistance is to prevent rust from being caused by perspiration. 

“It’s almost impossible to associate that with anything but corrosion,” Getto said. 

George later asked the victims’ attorney: “What is there in the advertising ... that leads a person to commit a criminal act?” 

Victims’ attorney Dennis Henigan said, “This isn’t just a negligent marketing case. This is a much more clear case of irresponsibility.” 

Justice Marvin R. Baxter was perplexed why Navegar marketed to the general public a semiautomatic pistol that could spray dozens of bullets in seconds. 

“I would like to hear from you what legitimate purposes this weapon was used for,” Baxter said. 

Getto replied that it was “conceivable” that any weapon could be used for criminal purposes, but said the weapon in question is used at shooting ranges and during competitions. 

Baxter later asked Henigan if a maker of a fast car should be held liable for a traffic accident resulting from speeding. 

“Do you see any distinction between that hypothetical and the case we have here today?” he asked. 

At one point during Wednesday’s argument, Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar told Getto that the TEC-DC9 was “socially useless.”  

But then she told the victims’ lawyer that she was confused with their “theory of liability.” 

The California Supreme Court is considered one of the nation’s most influential courts, and the outcome of the case could have broad national implications.  

The case could affect suits against gun makers by Los Angeles, San Francisco and 10 other California cities and counties, claiming faulty design, manufacture and distribution of firearms.  

Dozens of similar suits have been filed by local governments elsewhere. 

So far, every state high court and federal appellate court to consider a suit against gun manufacturers has ruled that makers of legal, non-defective guns cannot be sued for their criminal misuse. 

But California’s 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in 1999 that families of the victims in the San Francisco shooting were entitled to a trial on their claims that Navegar marketed the TEC-DC9 to appeal to criminals and should have foreseen it would be used in a massacre. 

The California appellate court, ruling 2-1, said Navegar “had substantial reason to foresee that many of those to whom it made the TEC-DC9 available would criminally misuse it to kill and injure others.”  

The dissenting judge said the majority was engaged in “judicial legislation” and that the shooter, not the gun maker, was responsible for the blood bath. 

The Navegar case dates from July 1993, when Gian Luigi Ferri, a mentally disturbed man with a grudge against lawyers, entered the 101 California St. skyscraper and opened fire in a law office with two TEC-DC9s and a revolver.  

He killed eight people and wounded six before killing himself. 

Stephen Sposato, whose wife, Jody, was killed in the incident, told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing that Navegar should be held accountable. 

“They say they didn’t pull the trigger. My answer is they may as well have,” he said. 

Found in Ferri’s Los Angeles suburban apartment were copies of Soldier of Fortune and similar magazines, in which Navegar commonly advertised the TEC-DC9. 

The TEC-DC9, a high-capacity pistol easily converted to fully automatic fire, was one of the guns used by two students to kill 12 fellow students and a teacher in Littleton, Colo. 

A San Francisco Superior Court judge originally dismissed the suit against Navegar, saying there was no evidence that Navegar’s marketing practices had influenced Ferri or helped to cause the killings.

SAN FRANCISCO — Customers of California’s two largest utilities who use the most electricity will pay much more to run canneries, tumble laundry or water crops under a tiered rate plan implementing record hikes approved in March. 

The rate plan proposed Wednesday by Loretta Lynch, president of the state Public Utilities Commission, suggests how the record rate hikes should be allocated among residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural customers. 

Residential customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. who use the most electricity would face average rate hikes of 35-40 percent, said Paul Clanon, director of the PUC’s energy division. The increases do not affect customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Co. 

And industrial users, such as factories and food processors, could face hikes of 50 percent or more as the state desperately tries to start recouping the $5.2 billion it already has paid to buy power for customers of those financially ailing utilities. 

But, under Lynch’s plan, as many as half of the 9 million customers of PG&E and SoCal Edison would not see their bills rise at all. 

“I thought it should be spread so each kind of customer class shares the burden, rather than by usage, which weighs against large (commercial, agricultural and industrial) users,” Lynch said. 

“The simple reality for at least 50 percent of residential consumers is that their bills are going up,” countered Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, after the news conference. 

Lynch also called for a study on creating a real-time pricing pilot program for large customers and federal agencies. Proponents of real-time pricing say that charging customers the full price of electricity during hours of high demand will prompt them to shift their use to cheaper times of the day. 

“For those who want those kinds of theories to be tested, why not let them test them?” Lynch said. Though it would be great, Lynch said, if shifting demand brought down record wholesale power prices, “I don’t think it’s possible.” 

Spokesmen from both utilities said they had yet to see the official proposal and were not ready to comment. Many groups involved in the proceedings said the delay left less time to meet Thursday’s deadline for written remarks on the proposals. 

An attorney with the California Farm Bureau Federation said it’s unfair that residential customers are shielded from rate increases for a portion of their use, while farmers would be charged more for every kilowatt. 

“I think it’s clear people are going to be impacted tremendously by these rate increases,” said Ron Liebert.  

“Even if you only got 30 percent, that’s still on top of the 1 cent (increase) that went in effect in January.” 

Lynch’s plan is the culmination of weeks of discussion among customers, state officials, consumer activists and the utilities about how best to allocate the record rate hikes approved in late March by the PUC. 

Those rate hikes will affect all classes of customers, from small families to the huge Silicon Valley facilities powering the Internet, but not all will face the same magnitude of rate increases. 

And, even within those classes, customers will pay more depending on when they use the electricity. Those who use power during times of highest demand – generally, during daylight hours – will pay the most. 

Lynch said her plan “recognizes that energy is expensive at every hour of every day by every customer,” but penalizes those who do not cut back on energy use or try to shift to different times of the day. 

Under Lynch’s proposal, agricultural customers could face rate hikes ranging from 23-30 percent, with increases capped at 30 percent. Industrial users face average increases of 50 percent or more, and commercial users average 34-45 percent hikes. 

Her proposal, Lynch said, designs rates to encourage conservation and provides $5 billion over the next year to help pay the state Department of Water Resources for the billions it has spent providing electricity for customers of PG&E and Edison. 

Lynch left the door open for future rate hikes, noting that the state provides its electricity-buying expenses to the commission only on a monthly basis, while wholesale electricity prices continue to soar. 

Lynch’s proposal, and a largely similar proposal from PUC administrative law judge Christine Walwyn, will be reviewed in public hearings throughout the state the rest of this week, though that leaves little time between their input and the PUC vote. 

Parties to the distribution plan – including large industrial power users, consumer watchdog groups and the California Energy Commission – will have the chance to speak about the two proposals Friday in San Francisco. 

The PUC then will meet Monday to approve a rate design that will start appearing on customers’ bills as early as June 1. The PUC initially approved the rate increases March 27, and power used during the six-week interim period will be subject to the new rate design and charged to customers over the next 12 months. 

Since late March, the PUC has reviewed dozens of proposals for how it should allocate those record rate hikes. 

Lynch’s system divides California utility customers into five different tiers based on how much electricity they use. Under state law, customers face no rate increase for electricity they use that is up to 130 percent of their baseline amount. 

Baseline is an average amount of usage based on climate, geography and season. Utilities use this average, set by the PUC, to fairly bill customers so that customers are not penalized for living in the desert rather than in more temperate climes. 

Low-income customers within 175 percent of federal poverty levels also are exempt from rate hikes. 

Those are the first two tiers. Each of the three higher tiers for residential customers are based on how much power is used, with higher rates charged as usage increases. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov 

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors said Wednesday they will challenge an appeals court order delaying the trial of former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson until Sept. 4, but her attorneys argued they can’t proceed because they now face charges. 

Olson’s trial on a 1976 indictment alleging she attempted to murder police officers had been expected to begin in a few weeks, after pretrial hearings. 

Defense attorneys Shawn Chapman and J. Tony Serra sought the delay order before learning this week that the city attorney’s office had charged them with misdemeanor crimes involving release of addresses and phone numbers of two police witnesses. 

Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler said during a hearing that filing charges against lawyers with a trial imminent is unusual. “There is very little law in this particular area,” he said. 

Chapman said the charges have “chilled” their ability to effectively represent Olson due to a conflict created by having to defend themselves. 

“This is an extraordinary situation,” said Chapman.  

“I’ve never heard of anything like this.” Olson, who attended the hearing with one of her daughters, told reporters she was “surprised and worried” when she heard about the charges against her lawyers. 

Chapman suggested that Olson’s trial cannot proceed until the misdemeanor case against the lawyers is resolved. 

Fidler said he believes the felony charges against Olson take precedence. He scheduled a status hearing for May 18, the day after the attorneys are to be arraigned. 

Olson, 54, is accused of planting bombs under police cars in 1975 in retaliation for the deaths of six SLA members in a fiery shootout in 1974. The bombs did not explode. 

Indicted in 1976 under her former name, Kathleen Soliah, she was a fugitive until her 1999 capture in Minnesota, where she had taken on her new name and was living as a doctor’s wife, mother and active community member. 

Defense attorneys won a stay of the trial Tuesday from the 2nd District Court of Appeals. The attorneys had argued that they needed more time to analyze extensive evidence in the case, while prosecutors contended they have had enough time. 

Deputy District Attorneys Michael Latin and Eleanor Hunter immediately filed notice that they will challenge the stay. A hearing is set before the appeals court June 22. 

Meanwhile, the prosecutors asked Fidler to order immediate videotaped testimony taken from three elderly witnesses in the Sacramento area who are in poor health and may not be able to attend the trial.  

They witnessed bank robberies allegedly committed by the SLA. 

Fidler said he believes the appeals court stay prevents him from ruling on any pretrial motions for the time being. 

Outside court, Chapman alleged authorities were trying to interfere with Olson’s defense by prosecuting the attorneys. 

“I suppose they see we are effectively representing her and they are pulling out all the stops,” Chapman said. 

District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons called the allegations “absurd” and said county prosecutors were unaware of the city attorney’s action until after the charges were filed. 

“Why would we do this?” she said. “Why would we want to complicate a case that we are ready to take to trial?” 

She said if the city attorney had asked, the trial prosecutors would have told them to hold off on filing charges against the lawyers. 

DAVIS — Federal investigators have been called in to investigate a suspected hate crime directed at a Jewish organization near the University of California, Davis campus. 

Someone ignited a Star of David flag hanging under the eaves of the small, white frame Hillel House between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Wednesday, said Davis Police Sgt. Colleen Turay. The fire spread to some shingles and a corner of the home, causing minor damage, she said. 

An object also was thrown through a front window, knocking over a Jewish sign, Turay said. “Apparently there was some indication this might happen, or some time of incident might happen,” Turay said. Police were investigating the nature of the threat, she said. 

Davis police called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms because it appears to be a hate crime, she said. 

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region denounced what it called a “despicable act of hatred.” The group’s chairman, Marc Carrel, compared it to arsons at three Sacramento-area synagogues three years ago; two defendants are jailed awaiting trial on charges stemming from those arsons. “There’s always rumors of activities – nothing specific,” said Raphael Moore, president of Hillel House’s board. “We have had no incidents that I can remember in years, certainly nothing like this.” 

The house was empty after Hebrew classes concluded about 9 p.m. Tuesday, he said. An earlier weekly discussion of Israeli politics brought its usual spirited debate, he said, but no confrontations. 

The Davis campus has had several racially motivated incidents over the last few months, but most involved Asian students – “nothing related to us,” Moore said. “I want to believe that this is an isolated event, (though) nothing to be taken lightly.” 

The house already had installed a security system that was triggered during the incident, and will go about its business serving about 2,500 Jewish students from UC Davis and Sacramento State University, Moore said.  

Hillel House — named after an ancient Jewish rabbi — hosts about 500 religious and cultural events a year. 

“We’re not going to hide,” Moore said. “Tonight a new flag will be put up in (the burned flag’s) place.” 

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s high-priority legislation to improve public schools sailed through a House committee Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats alike backed a plan that includes annual testing for millions of elementary and junior high school students. 

The vote by the Education Committee was 41-7, and set the stage for a debate as early as next week in the full House. 

“This is the beginning of a process, not the end of a process,” said GOP Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the committee chairman. And even as the committee vote was announced, the White House and House GOP leaders pledged to seek changes sought by disgruntled conservatives. 

Even so, the vote marked a clear triumph for the White House, which has sought bipartisan backing for the legislation atop the president’s agenda. 

“The bill we approved today is a good bill,” said Rep. George Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the committee. “It represents significant agreement between Democrats and Republicans to improve education for all children in our country regardless of their economic, social or racial background.” 

Boehner said the measure would “empower parents and improve education for every child in America. It’s an unmistakable signal that after three and a half decades of increasing education spending, Washington is finally beginning to demand some results for our children.” 

The measure would require states to conduct annual reading and math tests for all public school students in grades 3-8. Students in schools that failed to show significant improvement would become eligible to use federal funds for private tutoring or transportation to another public school. Failing schools would receive additional federal aid to help them improve. 

In addition, the bill would grant local school districts flexibility in their use of federal funds, a provision that supporters say would enable local officials to target money to their greatest needs – teacher training or technology, for example. 

The measure no longer contains some of the provisions Bush initially proposed, though, including one to allow federal funds to be used for private school tuition in the case of students in failing schools. 

And despite a last-minute attempt by the White House and GOP leaders to ease the concerns of the bill’s critics, six of the seven votes against the measure were cast by conservative Republicans. 

“I think it’s a sad day when Republicans pass a bill that’s to the left of Ted Kennedy,” said Rep. Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., referring to the liberal Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Bush said the bill contained “monumental reforms,” and called the vote “a first step toward reforming America’s education system and making sure no child is left behind.” 

Education Secretary Rod Paige issued a statement saying the bill “reflects each of the four pillars of President Bush’s education reform plan – accountability, flexibility and local control, research-based reform and expanded parental options.” 

The committee debate was delayed for two hours, in part so Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republican leaders could meet with committee opponents of the measure. 

Several officials said the leaders and White House chief of staff Andy Card, who participated via telephone conference call, pledged to support major changes when the bill reaches the House floor. These include an amendment to restore the president’s private school voucher programs, as well as greater flexibility for some school districts and states. Ironically, a companion bill in the Senate, which Kennedy and Republicans agreed to, includes flexibility language that the House conservatives like. 

The mail elements of the House bill itself was negotiated several weeks ago by Boehner, Miller and a small group of lawmakers in both parties, with White House participation. 

The committee met last week and after lawmakers quickly voted against private school vouchers and in favor of annual testing, the way seemed clear for passage. 

Conservative leaders and organizations, James Dobson, for example, and the National Association of Christian Teachers, registered their objections, however, as did a small but vocal group of committee Republicans led by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Schaffer. 

“At the end of the day, we are left with federally mandated testing with a federal audit, new reading, math and science programs and a 22 percent increase in spending in the first year,” said a paper circulated by conservative Republican lawmakers. 

The White House weighed in earlier in the week, issuing a set of “talking points” to all GOP lawmakers that made clear the administration supported the bill, and detailing several provisions that the president had won. 

Bush called Miller on Tuesday, and the Californian said in an interview the president “wanted to know what we could do to get this bill passed.” Miller said he told the president “you have to enforce the agreement we have.” 

No date has yet been set for the measure to come to the House floor, but officials said during the day they hoped for debate as soon as next week. 

The Senate has been debating its version of the bill fitfully for more than a week. There, as in the House, conservatives have been growing restless with the results, particularly as Democrats advance a series of amendments to add spending. 

BOSTON — A natural bone-building hormone appears to be the most effective treatment ever for osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that afflicts millions of older Americans. 

The manufacturer hopes the medicine, called Forteo (for-TAY-oh), will be available by prescription by the end of the year. If so, it is likely to be recommended for victims of moderate to severe osteoporosis, a condition blamed for more than 1.5 million fractures annually in the United States. 

The drug is based on the parathyroid hormone, which is ordinarily secreted by tiny glands in the neck. When given to volunteers with osteoporosis, it doubles their normal rate of bone formation. 

A study in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine shows that it dramatically reduces the risk of broken bones. The risk of spinal fractures, a hallmark of osteoporosis, fell by two-thirds in women getting the medicine. 

Other osteoporosis drugs on the market, such as Fosamax, work by slowing the body’s loss of bone. Forteo is the only treatment that actually prompts the body to make new bone. 

But unlike the other medicines, Forteo has a major drawback: It can be administered only by daily injections. Still, doctors say patients quickly master this process, which is similar to insulin injections, and no serious side effects were seen. 

“It’s the first demonstration of the concept that stimulating bone formation is going to be an effective way to treat osteoporosis in humans,” said Dr. Robert M. Neer of Massachusetts General Hospital, the study’s director. 

The medicine, known generically as teriparatide, is being developed by Eli Lilly, which financed the study. 

Dr. Felicia Cosman of Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, N.Y., clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, estimated that 25 percent to 30 percent of osteoporosis patients might be considered for treatment with the new drug. 

“It represents a lot of hope for the future for women with severe osteoporosis, especially those who are on the best drugs and still having fractures,” she said. 

The foundation estimates that 10 million Americans – 80 percent of them female – have osteoporosis. Broken vertebrae, hips and wrists are especially common. 

The latest study was conducted on 1,637 postmenopausal women who had suffered at least one fracture because of osteoporosis.  

They were randomly assigned to take either 20 or 40 micrograms of the hormone or dummy shots.  

After 18 months of treatment, women taking the higher dose of drug had 13 percent more bone in their spines than did those on the placebo. 

Forteo has not been compared directly to other drugs, so doctors cannot say for sure that it is truly better. However, the results of this and other studies with the new medicine are more impressive than those typically seen with other drugs. For instance, the researchers said the largest increase in bone seen with other drugs was 9 percent. 

Forteo reduced the occurrence of new vertebral fractures by 65 percent or 69 percent, depending on whether women got the high or low dose. Neer said no other drug has reduced it by more than 40 percent to 50 percent. 

The new drug reduced the risk of multiple spinal fractures by 77 percent or 86 percent, and it lowered the risk of fractures elsewhere in the body by just over half. 

The study was stopped early because of a cancer scare resulting from other Lilly research in which scientists found that rats developed bone cancer when given high lifelong doses of the drug. 

However, researchers eventually decided that the results do not suggest a higher cancer risk in people.  

Among other things, people with naturally high levels of the hormone as a result of overactive parathyroid glands are not especially prone to bone cancer, and none of the women in this or earlier studies of the hormone has developed the cancer. 

The entire parathyroid hormone contains 84 amino acids. Forteo is a 34-amino acid portion of this. Experts believe it does the same job as the full hormone. 

On the Net: 

Journal: http://www.nejm.org

WASHINGTON — Forty years ago, John Lewis and other civil rights activists boarded a bus for Montgomery, Ala., and prepared for the worst. Before leaving they called their families and said goodbye, worried they might never see them again. 

When they arrived to protest segregation they were attacked by a mob of whites. Lewis was hit in the head with a wooden crate and his friend Jim Zwerg was knocked unconscious, all of his teeth fractured and three vertebrae cracked. 

This weekend Lewis and other survivors will embark on another bus trip to mark the 40th anniversary of the “Freedom Rides,” a seminal event in the civil rights movement that helped focus the nation’s attention on discrimination and violence against blacks in the South. 

This time, the bus riders will be welcomed in Montgomery and other stops. 

“To go down those roads, to get on a Greyhound bus, just to relive this whole thing for a weekend is going to be very moving,” said Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia. 

Events marking the anniversary begin Thursday with a news conference by Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta in Washington. They conclude Saturday with a re-enactment of the Atlanta-to-Montgomery bus trip. 

Unlike other chapters in the struggle for civil rights, the Freedom Rides weren’t about changing laws. They were about getting a region to acknowledge that laws already had changed. 

In 1960 the Supreme Court ruled in Boynton vs. Virginia that segregation in interstate bus and rail travel was unconstitutional.  

Despite that, blacks in many Southern areas still faced discrimination when they traveled. 

To draw attention to the situation, 13 freedom riders – blacks and whites – left Washington on May 4, 1961, aboard a Greyhound bus. Their 13-day itinerary of stops through the South included nonviolent protests at bus stations. By the end of the three weeks of rides, some 300 protesters had joined the crusade. 

The riders were not subjected to violence as they traveled through the Carolinas and Georgia. But upon entering Alabama, the trip became bloody. 

A mob of 200 whites set the bus on fire when it arrived in Anniston. The trip continued in another bus to Birmingham, where the riders were met by a mob that assaulted them with stones, baseball bats, lead pipes and chains. 

Birmingham police arrested the riders, including Lewis, then dropped them off late at night across the Tennessee border. 

The riders reorganized themselves and continued on to Montgomery, where they were met by the most violent opposition. 

“I was kicked in the spine, thrown forward and felt a foot come down on my face,” said Zwerg, a retired white minister for United Church of Christ.  

“That’s basically the last thing I remember until I woke up in a vehicle. I thought I was getting taken out to get lynched.” 

The riders continued on to Mississippi where they were sentenced to 60 days in jail. The never reached their destination of New Orleans, but they achieved their objective. Later that year, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. 

Catherine Burks Brooks, one of the riders who now is a teacher in Birmingham, is proud of the result but concerned the message of the Freedom Rides has been lost on today’s young people. 

“I think we all thought that by now everything would just be going smoothly, that this would be over,” Brooks said. “By now, I didn’t think there would be a need for any type of movement, that we all could just be people. But that’s not true.” 

Saturday’s bus trip will start at Clark Atlanta University and include stops at the Greyhound terminal in Birmingham and the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined the freedom riders. 

Greyhound Lines Inc. is sponsoring the festivities, and during the Atlanta events a replica of the 1954 bus from the original Freedom Rides will be on display. 

On the Net: 

Lewis: www.house.gov/johnlewis 

The Congress of Racial Equality: www.core-online.org/History/history.htm

WASHINGTON — Federal employees who complain about discrimination or report fraud at their agencies routinely suffer reprisals and continued abuse from their supervisors, the NAACP’s president told lawmakers Wednesday. 

Among the examples cited by Kweisi Mfume at a House Judiciary Committee hearing: A Federal Aviation Administration employee’s car was vandalized after she complained about a Confederate flag display and references to slavery at the agency; at the Agriculture Department, someone scribbled on the wall that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stood for “Now Apes Are Called People”; a hanging noose was found at a black employee’s desk at an Army Corps of Engineers district office in Massachusetts. 

No one was ever prosecuted for any of those actions, Mfume said. 

“Discrimination and retaliation against people who complain about it and their supporters, is rampant in federal departments and agencies across the nation,” he said. 

The committee chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, are again pushing the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act, or No FEAR bill, after introducing it last year. 

Sensenbrenner said agencies should have to pay for settlements or judgments against them in whistle-blower and discrimination cases, rather than tapping a government-wide general fund. 

“This will make the agency more accountable for its actions,” he said. 

The bill also would require agencies to inform employees of their options under anti-discrimination laws and to notify Congress how many discrimination cases have been filed against them and the outcome. 

J. Christopher Mihm of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said that for government to work well, “allegations of discrimination and reprisal for whistle-blowing in the federal workplace must be dealt with.” 

Mfume said an NAACP survey found 92 percent of the employees questioned at a Bureau of Printing and Engraving facility in Fort Worth, Texas, said they had been discriminated against.  

An investigation by an NAACP task force found similar problems in other agencies, he said. 

Also testifying at the hearing was Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who won a $300,000 judgment in a discrimination lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency. 

She contended in a lawsuit that she was denied promotion on two occasions while white men in similar positions were not.  

She said she was the target of racial slurs and suffered retaliation after she complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

“I wish I could tell you that my situation is unusual, but it is all too common,” she said. 

The jury awarded her $600,000 in compensatory damages. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly subsequently cut the award in half and EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has asked to drop the appeals against the award. 

On the Net: 

Information on the bill, H.R. 169, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov 

House Judiciary Committee: http://www.house.gov/judiciary 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: http://www.naacp.org

WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman is preparing a series of civil rights initiatives for her agency, including mandatory two-day training for 1,600 supervisors and managers nationwide. 

The EPA has contracted with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to conduct the course. Whitman opened her tenure as chief environmental officer for the Bush administration by trying to end an EPA discrimination suit. 

Whitman also said that she has set a two-year target for wiping out a backlog of 80 cases of alleged discrimination involving individuals or recipients of federal funds from the EPA. 

She made her pledge while testifying at a hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the EPA’s budget. 

The agency “has had sort of a sordid background on civil rights,” Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Fla., told Whitman, referring to several discrimination lawsuits filed against the agency by employees. 

Whitman said she was taking the steps to create a better work environment at her agency. “I’m absolutely committed to it,” she said. 

The House Science Committee last year investigated allegations of intolerance at EPA including charges that blacks and disabled people were discriminated against and harassed and that whistle-blowers suffered retaliation for talking to members of Congress. 

Two weeks after being sworn in on Jan. 31 as EPA administrator, Whitman sent a memo to employees about her anti-discrimination initiatives and pledged in a second memo on May 3 “to personally monitor our progress in these areas.” 

One of Whitman’s first acts at the helm of the EPA was to drop the agency’s legal battle against a black employee who won a $300,000 judgment in a discrimination lawsuit. 

The plaintiff in the case, Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a senior adviser to the EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxic Substances, had called Whitman’s decision a healthy start toward better relations between the EPA and its employees. 

An April 30 report prepared for EPA by the Covington & Burling law firm says that despite public concern over the Coleman-Adebayo case, EPA’s Office of International Activities where she formerly worked “does not suffer from any systemic diversity or fairness problem or any pattern of discrimination. 

The report says the firm reached that conclusion after interviewing about three-quarters of the OIA staff. 

It is not the first time Whitman has dealt with racially charged issues. 

During her last two years as New Jersey governor, Whitman’s administration was accused of responding slowly to charges of racial profiling by New Jersey State Police officers when they made stops for traffic violations and vehicle searches. Last year the controversy deepened when a 1996 picture was published of Whitman frisking a black youth during a police tour in Camden, N.J. 

Whitman’s EPA initiatives come as the House is considering legislation aimed at curbing alleged reprisals against federal employees who complain about discrimination or fraud . 

“Discrimination and retaliation against people who complain about it and their supporters is rampant in federal departments and agencies across the nation,” Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, testified Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. 

——— 

On the Net: 

EPA: http://www.epa.gov 

House Judiciary Committee: http://www.house.gov/judiciary 

NAACP: http://www.naacp.org 

WASHINGTON — The cellular phone: The newest terror on the highways, or a minor distraction that has saved lives? 

It all depended on who was talking Wednesday at a congressional hearing long on anecdotal evidence and short on supporting statistics. 

Lacking numbers, members of a House Transportation subcommittee and witnesses traded tales of drivers weaving from lane to lane while reading a newspaper, or running stop signs while talking on the phone. 

About the only certainty that came out of the hearing was the reality that Congress is neither ready nor inclined to restrict drivers from using cell phones or other electronic devices. 

“I’m not certain we can legislate this behavior,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, even as she told the story of a friend who died in a car crash while talking on a cell phone. 

Patricia Pena, her voice cracking, told a hushed committee room of the death of her 2-year-old daughter, killed in an automobile accident involving a driver who ran a stop sign while talking on a cell phone. 

“We waited and we prayed. Then the doctors walked in the room,” said Pena, unable to hold back her tears. 

“The industry will try to say there are so many other distractions in vehicles,” said Pena, a Pennsylvania resident, who founded Advocates for Cell Phone Safety after her daughter’s death. “Cellular telephone use is a more complex and demanding task. There are simply not comparable distractions.” 

Last month, model Niki Taylor was severely injured when a car she was riding in crashed into a utility pole. The driver said he looked down to answer his cell phone before the car ran off the road. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that a driver’s inattention causes 20 percent to 30 percent of accidents. That amounts to about 1.6 million of the 6.3 million crashes last year, or around 4,300 accidents a day. 

“Who among us hasn’t been behind a car that is weaving or speeding up or slowing down for no apparent reason, only to find that the driver is more interested in reading the paper than watching the road,” said Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee, which held the hearing. 

“My children have to be high on that list in terms of distractions,” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., father of three, aged 11, 8 and 4. The cellular industry’s top lobbyist, Tom Wheeler, offered some stories of his own: The family members who helped catch a kidnapper because they called police on their cell phone after spotting the suspect’s van on a highway.  

The 8-year-old who used his uncle’s cell phone to call for help after a boating accident. The medical technician who received help over his cell phone while treating a 10-year-old boy lying unconscious after being hit by a car. 

“The wireless phone is the greatest safety tool since the development of 911,” said Wheeler, president and chief executive officer of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the industry’s trade group. 

Twenty-seven states are looking at passing their own laws and three – California, Florida and Massachusetts – have minor restrictions on using cell phones in cars, NHTSA said. In addition, about a dozen municipalities have their own cell phone laws. On Monday, the Nassau County, N.Y., legislature voted to ban motorists from using hand-held cell phones while driving.  

Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., suggested the federal government help look at ways to make electronic equipment easier to use, the way compact disc players are now part of car radios.  

Built-in phones that can automatically dial a phone number when a driver asks could help reduce any distractions, he said. 

“We all have anecdotal tales,” Simmons said. “But we are people who want to communicate. And we have the resources to make it safer.” 

On the Net: 

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: http://www.house.gov/transportation 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov

WASHINGTON — President Bush nominated 11 lawyers to federal appeals courts Wednesday, urging the Senate to “rise above the bitterness of the past” and rapidly confirm his diverse, mostly conservative first slate of judicial candidates. 

“I now submit these nominations in good faith, trusting the good faith will also be extended by the United States Senate,” Bush said. 

After taking care to mollify Democrats with two nominees previously tapped by former President Clinton, Bush asked the evenly divided Senate “to provide a prompt vote to every nominee ... I ask for the return of civility and dignity to the confirmation process.” 

Even before Bush spoke, Democrats announced that Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., could block the nomination of one of the picks, Terrence Boyle of North Carolina. Bush had withheld planned nominations of at least four conservatives to avoid Democratic objections. 

Controversy and contention has surrounded the judicial confirmation process throughout the nation’s history, but the acrimony reached new levels when Democrats scuttled the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork in the 1980s. Republicans, in turn, blocked several Clinton nominees to lower court seats. 

Bush’s nominees are little known outside judicial circles, but their selection offers a first glimpse of his resolve to add conservatives to the federal judiciary and the eagerness of Democrats to stop him. 

Bush portrayed his picks as models of “experience and character” and said he will seek always to nominate judges who don’t “legislate from the bench.” 

All eleven nominees were present, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. — the ranking members of the Judiciary Committee. 

“We are pleased that the White House has chosen to work with us on the first group of nominations,” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. 

Though a review of their legal records suggests Bush’s first judicial nominees are mostly conservative, he took pains to offer a diverse slate by appointing three women, two blacks and one Hispanic. 

Seven of the 11 candidates are sitting judges. 

Many owe previous judicial selections to Republican presidents. 

None is known as an ideologue or as especially partisan, although it is hard to gauge the prospects for confirmation when the Senate is split 50-50. 

Democrats have threatened to hold up the president’s nominees, partly in revenge for the delays that met some of Clinton’s judicial picks. 

One of the more conservative selections, Washington lawyer Miguel Estrada, has a long list of admirers who call him one of the smartest and ethically rigorous lawyers they know. He is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the firm that represented Bush at the Supreme Court during the postelection legal fight. 

Estrada came to the United States from Honduras as a teen-ager and took the SAT in English two years later. He got into Harvard and graduated near the top of his class. 

Estrada favors gun control, but believes in the conservative judicial model of reading the “plain language” of a law or of the Constitution. The best-known proponent of this philosophy is probably Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. 

The White House informally advised lawmakers last week that Bush intended to nominate 15 judges, pending final reviews. Candidates drawing objections from Democrats were pulled from the list, including a GOP congressman from California, as Bush sought a controversy-free first slate. 

Bush hopes to nominate the withheld candidates at a later date — but not for a least a couple of weeks — after further consultation with Congress, the White House official said. 

Republican Rep. Chris Cox was the most prominent candidate tabled, along with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and Peter Keisler for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va. 

In addition to Estrada, the source said Bush also intends to nominate: 

—Roger Gregory to the 4th Circuit in Virginia. Clinton nominated him to the post originally. Bush hopes the pick is cast as a show of bipartisanship. 

—U.S. District Judge Edith Brown Clement to the 5th Circuit Court in New Orleans. She is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, whose members have had a hand in shaping Bush’s judicial choices. She was named to the federal bench in Louisiana by President George Bush in 1991. 

—Boyle to the 4th Circuit in North Carolina. He was nominated for the appeals court by Bush’s father but never confirmed. 

—John G. Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Also nominated by Bush’s father, Roberts is a popular member of the bar who is considered a politically well-connected moderate. A specialist in making oral arguments before the Supreme Court, he is considered among the two or three most effective lawyers there. 

—Jeffrey S. Sutton to the 6th Circuit in Ohio. He is a Supreme Court specialist with a winning record. 

—Barrington D. Parker, appointed to the bench by Clinton, to the 2nd Circuit in Connecticut. He has 30 years experience as a judge, litigator and law clerk. 

—Deborah Cook to the 6th Circuit in Ohio. She was elected twice to the Ohio Supreme Court. 

—Dennis Shedd to the 4th Circuit. The South Carolina resident was appointed to the federal district court by Bush’s father. 

—Priscilla Owen to the 5th Circuit in Texas. Elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1994, she is the second woman ever to sit on the state’s high court. 

—Michael McConnell to the 10th Circuit in Denver. He is another well-respected Supreme Court specialist, a professor at the University of Utah College of Law. 

OAKLAND — Yvonne Westbrook recalls when getting relief from the symptoms of multiple sclerosis meant venturing into seedy parks to buy bags of marijuana from drug dealers. 

So she worries that the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling Monday could mean a return of those days. “Now they’ve opened us up to the street and all the perils involved,” she said. 

The high court ruled 8-0 on Monday there is no exception in federal anti-drug laws for patients to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses. 

Westbrook is fearful the ruling could mean the end for the dozens of distribution clubs that sprang up after California passed Proposition 215, the state law allowing people to grow and possess medical marijuana. 

“With the clubs you’re able to go to a clean, safe, secure environment,” she said. On the street, “you never know what you’re going to get. You never know who’s lurking behind the bush to jump you.” 

Voters in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington also have approved ballot initiatives allowing the use of medical marijuana.  

In Hawaii, the Legislature passed a similar law and the governor signed it last year. 

Patients like Westbrook could still use marijuana for medical reasons in states that allow it, legal experts said in several states affected by the ruling.  

But it would be more difficult to obtain because distribution violates federal law. 

Dr. Robert Killian of Seattle, the primary backer of the Washington’s successful 1998 marijuana initiative, said the ruling was a blow to marijuana distribution networks, which hoped to be able to provide pot to patients who instead must grow their own or buy it illegally. 

“They were hoping for some validation,” Killian said. “They are and always have been operating extralegally.” 

But JoAnna McKee, of the Seattle-based Green Cross Patient Co-op, said the network would continue to operate. 

“We are a network of patients who help other patients – all with notes from our doctors,” she said. “If you’re starving to death, and I have food, it’s my moral obligation to help you get food. 

“The Supreme Court has been wrong before. It used to be against the law to teach black people to read and write – they were wrong about that,” she said. 

In Alaska, 191 people have registered to use the drug as medicine, and officials there said they expect them to simply grow their own. 

“The ruling is clearly about the distribution of marijuana, not the possession of marijuana,” said David Finkelstein, a former state legislator who led the Alaska petition drive to legalize medicinal marijuana use. 

“Basically what it says is that cannabis clubs can’t be opened up in Alaska,” Finkelstein said in a telephone interview.  

Some Alaskans who registered with the state to use medical marijuana don’t want to grow it, or can’t grow it, Finkelstein said. But “for most patients, it’s working well.” 

But in Arizona, officials said that while two voter-approved measures legalized marijuana for medical use under state law, doctors have not been prescribing it because doing so would violate a federal law – and now they are even more unlikely to do so. 

”(The court’s ruling) confirms that distribution, even for medical purposes, would violate federal law,” said Pati Urias, spokeswoman for the Arizona attorney general’s office. Robert Raich, an attorney who represented the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, one of six marijuana distributors challenged by the federal government, said the decision “is not the end of the line by any means.” 

Raich said the issue of medical necessity was just one of several legal arguments they are ready to make in the future in favor of cannabis distribution clubs. 

“We feel we have many other defenses left,” said Jeff Jones, executive director of the club.  

The club was prohibited from distributing pot but has remained open to issue identification cards to verified medical marijuana patients. 

Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman said the ruling would not change the way his office prosecutes drug crimes. In Mendocino, people are permitted up to six mature plants and 2 pounds of dry marijuana. 

“If the feds want to prosecute these people they can,” he said. “In California, the law has not changed one iota.” 

Julie Roche, one of the sponsors of Amendment 20 legalizing medical marijuana in Colorado, said the state’s law does not address distribution and how patients obtain the drug so the Supreme Court ruling should have no effect on it. 

“The law says people in Colorado can possess and use marijuana, and they will continue getting it as they got it before.  

I think the federal government will continue their war on drugs looking for large amounts. I do not expect a crackdown on patients,” Roche said. 

Joel Karlin, a spokesman for Coloradans Against Legalizing Marijuana, cheered the court decision, saying the narcotic in marijuana is already available in a tablet and will soon be available in a patch. 

Karlin added that people who obtain marijuana illegally run the risk of impurities, dosage regulation and adverse effects from smoking it.  

“It’s right that the Supreme Court ruled the way it did. I don’t think there is any good need for it.” 

But Westbrook, 48, who lives in an east San Francisco Bay suburb, says she uses marijuana for pain relief and to control the spasticity that is part of her disease. 

“It’s not about getting high. I’m too old for that. What it does is provide me with the necessary relief I need in order to live a functional life,” she said. 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative: http://www.rxcbc.org 

Marijuana Policy Project: http://www.mpp.org 

DEA: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/agency/agency.htm

OAKLAND — Supporters of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative say a Supreme Court ruling against them was a blow, but not a fatal one. 

“This decision is not the end of the line by any means,” said Robert Raich, an attorney who represents the club. 

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses. 

But Raich and other backers of the Oakland club said medical necessity was just one of several legal arguments they are ready to make in favor of cannabis distribution clubs and they hope to be able to go to the lower courts to contend, among other things, that people have a constitutional right to be free of pain. 

“We feel we have many other defenses left,” said Jeff Jones, executive director of the club.  

The club is forbidden from distributing pot but has remained open to issue ID cards to verified medical marijuana patients. 

The Supreme Court wasn’t ruling on Proposition 215, the voter-approved law that allows the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes on a doctor’s recommendation. 

Interpretations of what the ruling would mean to medical marijuana users in California varied. 

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m doing business on Monday the same way I did business on Friday,” said Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman, whose policy is not to prosecute in cases where people have no more than six mature plants and 2 pounds of dry marijuana.  

“If the feds want to prosecute these people they can. In California, the law has not changed one iota.” Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued a statement saying the high court’s opinion needed further review. 

But in Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a statement calling the ruling a “victory for enforcement of our nation’s drug laws.” 

Oakland resident Angel McClary, a 35-year-old woman with an inoperable brain tumor who said that medical marijuana is the only thing that can stimulate her appetite and keep her from starving to death, angrily denounced the ruling as she spoke at a news conference called by club backers. 

“The Supreme Court has American blood on their hands,” she said. McClary said she won’t stop using medical marijuana. 

“I am not going to let my children watch me die. If that is wrong, so be it,” she said.

Californians living with higher rates, rolling blackouts; utilities struggling 

SACRAMENTO – When he signed California’s electricity deregulation law, Gov. Pete Wilson said it would lower rates, spark competition and improve service “so no one literally is left in the dark.” 

So much for predictions. 

Nearly five years later, rates are up for millions of Californians, there’s virtually no competition for electricity customers, the state lives with rolling blackouts and one bankrupt utility, and Wilson says he knew the law was an “obviously flawed mechanism.” 

Few, if anyone, anticipated this in the final days of the Legislature’s 1996 session, when the deregulation bill passed unanimously and few interest groups uttered a word in opposition. 

“It was like a big prayer meeting,” said Nettie Hoge, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group. ”(Almost) everyone signed off.” 

Now, the flaws have become more visible. They include: 

— A rate freeze that initially kept electricity rates artificially high and then, when wholesale prices skyrocketed last summer, drove the state’s biggest utilities deeply into debt. Wilson said the freeze kept the utilities from keeping pace with rising costs. 

— The Public Utility Commission’s decision to discourage utilities from signing long-term contracts to buy power. People on all sides of the issue now say such contracts could have stabilized prices. 

— The creation of a financial incentive for utilities to sell their power plants to unregulated wholesalers, who then could hold utilities hostage by forcing up prices for power. 

— Failure by lawmakers to anticipate the higher energy consumption that accompanied the state’s sharp economic growth in the late 1990s and 2000. 

Assemblyman Bill Leonard, who helped write the deregulation law, said lawmakers didn’t pay enough attention to state Energy Commission predictions in 1998 that power shortages could hit as early as 1999 or 2000 without more power plants. 

“The Legislature in California has never done its oversight responsibility as well as it should,” he said. “It’s always working on new legislation and trying to solve new problems.” 

California’s electricity consumption jumped 9.2 percent between 1996 and 2000 compared to 5.5 percent in the previous four years, according to the Energy Commission. This came as Arizona, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest increased their use as well, which dried up the power surplus of the early 1990s, said Mike Florio, an attorney for TURN. 

If legislators had anticipated the increased consumption, they could have included tax breaks or other incentives to encourage more plant construction, said Leonard, R-Rancho Cucamonga. 

Even so, electricity prices would have gone up without deregulation, said former PUC Commissioner P. Gregory Conlon, who voted for a PUC deregulation order that preceded the law. 

Electricity wholesalers have profited from the state’s power problems, but extreme weather conditions, limited power plant development, and increases in natural gas and pollution control costs for generators are mostly to blame for sharp increases in power prices, Conlon said. 

But the PUC added to the problem by creating too big of a financial incentive for utilities to sell many of their power plants, he said. 

In a recent report, the state auditor said increases in demand, lack of new plants and extreme weather all helped boost electricity prices. But the auditor also said the markets established by deregulation made it easier for generators to withhold power to get higher prices. 

“The whole system was designed by (power) sellers, not by buyers,” said Bill Sessa, a former spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state’s largest utility company. ”(The utilities) were looking at it from the standpoint of being sellers. The buyers of electricity were never truly represented.” 

Along with the flaws in the law, others have identified several possible culprits who helped create California’s current mess. 

Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, who helped write the deregulation bill while in the Assembly, said Proposition 9, an unsuccessful 1998 ballot measure, created uncertainty that discouraged plant construction. 

The proposal, backed by several consumer groups, would have ordered a 20 percent electricity rate cut and limited the ability of utilities to charge consumers to recover their noncompetitive investments. 

But Energy Commission spokeswoman Claudia Chandler said the uncertainty surrounding deregulation, not Proposition 9, caused the lull in power plant development. 

“We began getting applications again as soon as the +deregulation+ law went into effect,” early in 1998, she said. 

The commission certified only one plant, a 240-megawatt project that was never built, between 1995 and 1998. Since 1999, commissioners have approved 13 new plants with the ability to produce 8,464 megawatts. Seven are under construction. 

Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers Association, a wholesalers’ group, says California’s deregulation approach was too middle-of-the road. 

“California was sort of a guy with one foot on the dock of regulation and the other foot on the boat of markets, and the boat left,” he said. “California did not stay on the dock and did not get on the boat and as a consequence got wet.” 

Sen. Sheila Kuehl, one of 30 lawmakers who voted for deregulation and are still in the Legislature, says the state never should have considered deregulation in the first place. 

“I believe what we’ve learned from this is that free-market principles only work where you can say no to a product,” the Santa Monica Democrat said. “In a critical industry like energy, water, public roads, free-market principles do not work and these industries need to be strictly regulated.”

SAN JOSE— A San Jose middle school student is hospitalized after being diagnosed with what doctors say is probably meningococcal meningitis. 

The seventh grade boy is a student at Castillero Middle School. A letter was sent home with students Thursday afternoon informing parents of the situation – and Thursday night, Santa Clara County Health Department officials were at the school to answer parents’ questions. 

“The good news about meningococcal meningitis is that it’s not that easy to transmit,” said Dr. Sara Cody, a health department official. She told parents that the disease is only spread through contact with an infected person’s saliva or mucous. 

Health officials said there is no evidence of transmission at the middle school at this time and reassured parents that the risk to the general student population is very low.  

They urged parents not to panic and promised that this latest case is under control and not likely to affect other students. 

The infected student is on a course of antibiotics and is said to be doing well. His family and students who may have come in contact with him are also being treated with antibiotics as a precaution, officials say. 

Concerns about the disease have been heightened in recent weeks following the meningitis deaths of Michael Gordon, a Livermore high school student, and Nandi Phelps, a Berkeley elementary student. 

Symptoms of the disease include sever headache, fever and stiff neck.

Funeral services will be held Friday for Nandi Phelps, the 9 year old Oxford School student who was stricken by bacterial meningitis and died last week. 

Services are at 11 a.m. at Bethany Baptist Church, 5400 Adeline Street in Oakland. 

A quiet hour will be held this evening at 7 p.m., at McNary, Morgan, Engel & Jackson 

Mortuary, 3630 Telegraph Avenue, in Oakland. 

Donations to help with funeral expenses can be sent to: “McNary, Morgan, Engel and Jackson Mortuary,” with a notation in the memo line of “Nandi Phelps.”