A newly-formed political action group held a press conference on the steps of Old City Hall Thursday to announce a petition drive to overturn the recently-approved council district lines, which they said were gerrymandered. 

Citizens for Fair Representation, accompanied by moderates Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Miriam Hawley, charged council progressives with fashioning the new boundary lines in a back room with the intention of weakening the political power of moderate Councilmember Polly Armstrong in District 8 and strengthening that of progressive Councilmember Kriss Worthington in District 7. 

“We’re a grassroots organization that has formed to put a referendum on the March 3 ballot that will overturn the approved district plan, which is little more than a power grab by the far left,” said David Tabb, chairman of the newly-formed CFR.  

Tabb is also Hawley’s appointee to the Planning Commission.  

Progressive Councilmember Dona Spring, who attended the press conference, said there is “absolutely no truth” to moderate charges. She said it appeared the press conference was just another opportunity for the same kind of moderate grandstanding that has attended recent council debates. 

“We had two public hearings on the new districts and they were debated again and again,” she said. “There was no ‘back room deal’ and the mayor knows it.” 

According to the city clerk, the CFR will have to collect 4,000 authentic signatures by Nov. 15 in order to have the referendum put on the March ballot. 

The controversial redistricting plan was drafted by Berkeley residents Michael O’Malley and David Blake, a former aide to progressive Councilmember Linda Maio. Progressives said they approved the plan, from a field of six others, because it best fit City Charter requirements. 

The charter requires district boundary lines to be redrawn every 10 years, according to population data in the decennial census. The charter also states that redrawn districts must deviate as little as possible from the original districts, which were approved in 1986. 

Making matters worse, the Federal Census Bureau blundered by not counting approximately 4,500 Berkeley residents, mostly students in districts 6, 7 and 8. 

Because the charter requires the district lines be drawn according to the census – whether it has a colossal error or not – the approved district lines resulted in a population imbalance in District 8.  

So, according to the census, each new district has close to 12,800 people. But according to the 1990 Census, there are 17,000 people in District 8 and close to 12,800 in each of the other eight districts. 

Moderates contend the estimated 4,500 uncounted students that are now in District 8 are more inclined to vote for progressive candidates, which they say would lessen the moderate Armstrong’s chances of re-election in that district next year. 

Census officials have so far refused to correct their error in the census count. 

Tabb said progressives violated the law by taking advantage of the census mistake to consolidate their power in the new districts.  

“This redistricting plan is illegal and unconstitutional,” he said.  

Worthington said the answer to the problem is getting the Census Bureau to correct the population count as soon as possible and put an adjusted district plan on the ballot.  

“We don’t want the (extra people) in District 8,” Worthington said. “But nobody could come up with a legally permissible way to shift the undercounted residents.” 

Blake defended the plan he co-drafted.  

“The plan speaks for itself,” he said. “It’s interesting that if the opponents of the new districts chose to hold a press conference instead of filing a law suit.” 

In addition, Dean said a progressive meeting that took place a day prior to the plan’s approval on Oct. 2 was a violation of the Brown Act – a state law that restricts attendance of non-public meetings by elected officials. 

“We are going to ask the Grand Jury to take a look at it,” she said. 

Dean added that a Berkeley resident was preparing a letter, which would be sent to the Alameda County Grand Jury early next week. 

Progressives argued they closely followed legal procedures during the meeting and that the moderates are simply getting an early start on what apparently will be a negative campaign for the mayor’s office next year. 

Dean has said the meeting in question was attended by Spring, Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Councilmember Margaret Breland and Blake. She added that it constituted a Brown Act violation when Councilmember Kriss Worthington showed up after the meeting was underway. 

The Brown Act makes it illegal for more than four councilmembers to meet without noticing the public. But Worthington’s presence would have been a violation of the Brown Act, only if the redistricting plan were discussed. But those who attended the meeting insist they had finished discussing the issue when Worthington arrived, and if Blake was at the meeting representing Maio, which both Blake and Maio say is ridiculous. 

Worthington dismissed the mayor’s charges as politically motivated. 

“This is just another example of the extreme statements that the mayor has been making on recent controversial issues,” he said. “I’m sure these comments don’t benefit Berkeley, whether or not they benefit the mayor’s campaign remains to be seen.”

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson, is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the Mistress of Ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Hills Emergency Forum 

10 - 11 a.m . 

Joaquin Miller Community Center 

3946 Sanbord Dr., Oakland 

Annual meeting to discuss progress made in reducing and managing risks associated with wildland fires in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. 893-9888 

Saturday, Oct. 20

Private Elementary School  

Panel Discussion and Fair 

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

College Avenue Presbyterian Church 

5951 College Ave. 

Parents representing 12 selected schools will discuss issues parents encounter when searching for private elementary schools, including the admissions process. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network. Open to the public. $5 - $10. 527-6667 www.parentsnet.org 

UC Berkeley Community  

Action Day 

9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Haste and Hillegass avenues 

More than 300 students, faculty, staff, alumni, community members and student groups will participate in an all-day event, carrying out service projects throughout the city. 643-0306 kinyon@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that will be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Symposium on New Science  

of Aging 

10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Valley Life Sciences Building 

Room 2040 

UC Berkeley 

Lectures by prominent gerontologists and industry scientists will featured, plus leading biotechnology companies and research institutions will provide information about their research programs in aging and will discuss opportunities for collaboration and employment. 486-6096 http://crea.berkeley.edu/ 

Historical Society Walking  

Tour 

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society 

1931 Center St. 

Patrick Keilch will lead tour of the Berkeley Hills and relate his hands-on experiences and observations from the wildfire of 1991. 848-0181  

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Berkeley High School  

Workshop 

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High School 

1950 Derby St. 

Academic Workshop for parents on the graduation requirements for Berkeley High School. 644-8524 

Oakland Hills Fire  

Commemorative Walk and  

Pot Luck Dinner 

5 -9 p.m. 

5999 Grizzly Peak 

Walk led by Oakland Fire Department and CORE graduates. Participants should bring pot luck dishes to feed eight guests. 273-9111 www.nhphoenix.org 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. 

The Hall of Health 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

The Kids on the Block perform two shows to promote acceptance and understanding of cultural and medical differences. 549-1564 

Discussion of Current Legal  

Issues 

9 a.m. - 11 p.m. 

Boalt Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Top litigators, legal scholars and media experts participate in several panels discussions concerning some of the nation’s most closely watched legal issues. 643-6673 

Sunday, Oct. 21 

UNtraining White Liberal  

Racism 

2 - 5 p.m. 

The UNtraining offers personal work in a supportive setting for white people to address our unconscious racial conditioning. $10. Private residence, call 235-6134 for address.  

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 through 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

Editor, 

Both the Associated Press and United Press International wire services issued wrong information about what the Berkeley City Council did regarding the bombing of Afghanistan. We did not condemn the bombing in Afghanistan, as both AP and UPI published. Here is the essence of the action five councilmembers took:  

We deplored the September 11th attack, honored the victims whose lives were lost so tragically, honored our firefighters and police and the many volunteers. We asked our representatives to “help break the cycle of violence, bringing the bombing to a conclusion as soon as possible, avoiding actions that would endanger the lives of innocent people in Afghanistan, and minimizing the risk to American military personnel.”  

Because the media needs juice every day, we became that juice. AP issued a corrected wire, but bad news had already been spread, and used, across the nation. Ours is a city with a deep history of speaking out on matters of importance. 

Our democracy is what makes it possible for all voices to be heard. It is part of our strength.  

And because we rely on the news media for our information, they need to get it right, especially at a time like this.  

Linda Maio 

Berkeley City Council, District 1

Experimental, street, and non-academic poetry for Berkeley’s New Millennium 

What is a poem?  

Must its words rhyme?  

What if you don’t have an expert to pontificate upon the subtle poetic flavors?  

Do they still exist?  

Does a poem have to be taught to students who scored high on the GREs in order to raise a pulse? Does art have to make sense?  

And what if nothing in your life makes sense, nothing whatsoever?  

Say you’ve spent a little too much time on the rough side of the street and it’s amazing you’re even alive.  

What, then, if you want to write, or your hand itches to draw, and the desire to manifest your artistic vision is so strong in you, so compelling, that, at times, you can hardly breathe. You can hardly think. The obsession fills your horizon and every inside space. 

What, then, do you do about that? 

The New Now Now New Millennium Turn On Anthology (no, that wasn’t a typo) might be your port in the storm. This provocative, edgy, sometimes gentle, sometimes bitter, kooky, luminous, and occasionally lightning-strike brilliant collection of mostly Berkeley artists and writers is one big ‘ol mother lode of non-academic, street and experimental artistic expression. 

Dedicated to the spirits of Gregory Corso, Alan Ginsberg and other local artists who died within the last few years (some of whom did make it well into “the academy”), the anthology’s editor, H. D. Moe, has gathered the work of about 250 contemporary poets, illustrators, reviewers, and short story writers.  

Many extraordinary poets and artists are represented in this anthology. I don’t have the space, in this review, to name all the names, and can’t do justice to many remarkable works….  

Please understand you might want to buy the anthology and see this work for yourself.  

It’s impossible to even find a representative voice or image in this plethora of sensibilities, some searching for esoteric wisdom, others expressing rage, a few just shifting burdens from arm to arm –  

But here are the first few lines from one voice: 

Heavy Drinking 

By Robert Lavett Smith 

In my teens, prevented by cerebral palsy 

From driving—the usual rite of passage— 

And unacquainted still with the mysteries of sex, 

I viewed those first clandestine beers on sticky 

Summer nights as an invitation to adulthood: 

Proof I was part of a world I had barely begun to understand 

And here are the closing few lines from a poem by another voice: 

From Me To She 

By Leonard Irving 

But she lies beneath 

The yum-yum tree 

Of memory 

And there will stay 

As I lie here 

In Peoples Park 

Bereft and sad 

In Berkeley. 

Or you might want to consider these words if you’ve, perhaps, given up on defining what poetry is, and instead want to wonder what it does…. 

From Whole Poetry 

By Kelly Arbor 

Sing, daughter, sing. 

Your wideness is wonder. 

Your whole is not half. 

Find your voice inside 

the hole of poetry. 

924 Gilman St. Oct. 19: W.H.N.?, Jellyroll Rockheads, Ex-Claim, Crucial Attack, Sharp Knife; Oct. 21: 5 p.m. Throwdown, Martyr A.D., Bleeding Through, Everytime I Die, Fate 13; Oct. 26: Influents, Plus Ones, Divit, Summerjack, Robot Adrenaline, Claredon Hills; Oct. 27: (Halloween show, $1 off if you’re in a (non-punk) costume!) Babyland, Tsunami Bomb, Scissor Hands, Dexter Danger; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Ashkenaz Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30; Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Prometeh in Evin” Oct. 28: 8 p.m., A drama about political prisoners in Iran, performed by the brave and innovative Parsian Group. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. $25, Children, $15 2640 College Ave 845.8542 www.juliamorgan.org. 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 though Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 though Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail.com 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

Films 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey” Oct. 20: 1 p.m. The documentary chronicles Bunche, who rose to become Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, where he helped to bring about the Armistice in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. $8. Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak Street Oakland, 652-3192 

Exhibits 

“First Annual Art Show” UC Berkeley Life Drawing Group Reception, Oct. 20: 3 p.m.; Oct. 21- 26: 7 - 10 p.m. Figure studies from the workshops at UC Berkeley. 1014 60th St., Emeryville. 923-0689 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct. 10: Timothy Liu & Sam Will read their poetry; Oct. 14: Laurie Duesing & Mary Julia Klimenko read their poetry; Oct. 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct. 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct. 17: Valerie Berry, Terry Ehret & Grace Grafton read their poetry; Oct. 18: Suzanne Antoneta & Micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; Oct. 26 Sage Cohen & Mari L’esperance read their poetry; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Ecology Center Oct. 22: 7 - 9 p.m. Toby Hemenway presents a slideshow and reads from “Gaia’s Garden: A guide to Home Scale Permaculture”; 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-220 x233 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, 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; Oct. 21: United Nations Day; Oct. 25: A Storytelling Pajama Party, 6 - 7 p.m.; Oct. 27: 4th Annual Habitot Halloween; Oct. 28: Family Arts Day; Oct. 31: Sugar-Art Halloween Frosting; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot 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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. 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  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Facing an opponent with no real chance to beat his team, Berkeley girls’ volleyball coach Justin Caraway had two goals for Thursday’s match against Richmond: stay focused and try some new lineups. He went one-for-two. 

Caraway got to use just about everyone on his bench in different positions against the overmatched Oilers, but his team clearly didn’t have the fire he wanted to see. Although the ’Jackets (17-4 overall, 8-0 ACCAL) dominated the first and third games, giving up just three points combined, they let down big-time in the second game, allowing the Oilers to hang around and tie the game at 7-7 before pulling away to win 15-7. 

“It’s tough to keep your mental focus when you’re playing a team like (Richmond), especially when our team has bad focus in the first place,” Caraway said after putting his team through some windsprints after the match. “Games like this that provide no real competition actually hurt us more than they help.” 

The ’Jackets simply overpowered the visiting Oilers with their hard-hitting front row. Vanessa Williams, who Caraway recently moved from the middle to the outside, responded with seven kills and four digs, while star middle blocker Desiree Guilliard-Young had four kills and two blocks. Outside hitter Amalia Jarvis dominated the final game of the match, making four kills to lead the ’Jackets to a 15-0 win. Setter Danielle Larue had 21 assists and two aces, and served for the first eight points of the final game. 

Jarvis is one of three candidates for the outside hitter spot in Caraway’s new lineup, with Guilliard-Young and Williams the mainstays up front. By using three players as defensive specialists, Caraway has opened up a spot for Emily Friedman, his backup setter and one of the best passers on the team. 

“Being able to use Emily in that role will be key,” he said. “We can use more ball control with her on the court. We need that for our rematch with Encinal, and it will be very important in the playoffs.”

Outsiders react to council’s anti- war resolution 

Berkeley business owners are condemning a council resolution, which, they say, has caused outside businesses to refuse to purchase goods and services from them. The resolution, passed Tuesday by a divided City Council, calls on elected officials to end the bombing of Afghanistan. 

Mayor Shirley Dean said Thursday that she and other members of the City Council have received a flood of e-mail opposing the resolution and stating that they will refuse to work with companies located within the city. 

Berkeley firms have already reported a loss in business, leaving the members of the council’s progressive faction, who supported the resolution, and the moderates, who opposed it, blaming each other for potentially huge economic losses. 

Many city officials fear a more organized national boycott of city businesses is imminent. 

Tsunami Visual Technologies, a Fremont-based video game component manufacturer, said it had canceled a $12,000 contract with Berkeley’s ID8 Media, a vendor of 3-D computer technology. Tsunami said because of the council’s action, it would award the contract to a San Francisco company. 

In addition, the Tsunami employee who wrote the letter said he would no longer patronize Berkeley restaurants. 

Fireside Thrift Co., a Pleasanton-based savings-and-loan company with over 40 offices, wrote to the mayor’s office asking for a clarification of certain aspects of the resolution. The company had been planning to hold its annual convention in Berkeley, but was reconsidering in light of the resolution. 

Ashby Lumber reported that one of its biggest customers canceled a contract for $60,000-worth of goods, and would not do business with the company again.  

Mike Fuller, Ashby Lumber’s operations manager, said the contractor who canceled the contract asked that his name not be released to the press. Fuller did say, though, that it was one of the larger and better-known Bay Area construction companies, and that it is currently contacting other contractors in order to organize a boycott. 

“When someone who’s been working with us for 10 or 15 years says that he’s not coming in anymore, that hurts,” said Fuller. 

“This guy loves our service. He told us, ‘It’s not a reflection on you, it’s about the city.’” 

Fuller said management at Ashby Lumber asked if the contractor would consider switching to working with their branch in Pleasant Hill. 

“He told us ‘no,’ because the business was still based in Berkeley,” said Fuller. 

According to Dean, these are just a few examples from the hundreds of e-mail messages her office has received. A man left a voice mail on her office telephone saying he canceled escrow on a home he was buying in town. A Midwestern CEO wrote he would be convening a meeting with other business leaders to discuss a city boycott. Individuals from around the Bay Area and the country said they would not buy anything in Berkeley.  

On Thursday, Councilmember Dona Spring, the author of the resolution, came out swinging against Dean and Rachel Rupert, CEO of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, who she said should “bear the responsibility for the negative spin on this story.” 

Spring said in a television interview, Rupert said she was certain a boycott would follow passage of the resolution, and listed the forms such a boycott might take. 

“The president of the Chamber is the one publicizing the idea of boycotting Berkeley,” she said. “Rachel Rupert is trying to use the resolution to help Mayor Dean politically and hurt her rivals on the council.” 

“The important question businesses in the Chamber need to ask themselves is whether their president, Rachel Rupert, is working for them, or for the mayor.” 

A person answering the phones at the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce said Rupert was in meetings all day and could not be reached for comment. 

Spring accused Dean of repeating in a press release, a statement Spring gave to a reporter that Spring said was a misquotation. Spring also stated that the mayor had characterized the resolution as a “condemnation” of the bombing, which Spring said was a mischaracterization. 

“The mayor knows better than that,” said Spring. “In her using this issue, and publicizing it, she hurt Berkeley in order to advance her own political career.”  

“This is an organized campaign to help the mayor’s re-election campaign, and unfortunately it’s coming at the expense of Berkeley businesses.” 

Mayor Dean said the charges were “absolutely the silliest statements I have ever heard.” 

“(Spring) should quit blaming people for her own blunders,” she said. “She needs to go into her office and read her e-mails. She needs to recognize the seriousness of her actions.” 

“I’m getting death threats for what (the progressives) do. She has put me, my family, my office staff and their families at risk, and she has the effrontery to say that it’s my fault. I reject that.” 

“I have never described this resolution as a condemnation,” Dean added. “I have never used those words. Ms. Spring knows that, and I don’t know what she’s talking about.”  

Dean bristled at charges that she maliciously repeated the quotation from the “Daily Californian,” which Spring said was incorrect. 

“My press release, in which I did repeat her statement in the Daily Cal, was days ago,” she said. “The Daily Cal stood by their story, but I took that press release off my web site, and it hasn’t been on there for days.” 

Dean also strongly denied that she was using the fallout from the resolution for political gain. 

“I went on the national news and tried to smooth this thing over,” she said. “I went onto the Fox News Channel and called the people behind this (resolution) ‘patriots.’ I tried to defend them.” 

Councilmember Spring said she had not yet heard from any local companies that report business losses because of the resolution, but regretted any that did occur. 

“It was never our intent to harm Berkeley businesses,” she said. “We are sorry about the inflammatory way that this was spun by the media, but the mayor and Rachel Rupert should bear the responsibility for that.” 

Spring said she also received many e-mails from people thanking her and promising to shop in Berkeley. 

Editor: 

Shock vibrated through my heart while reading the Berkeley Planet article: “Council Condemns terrorists, mourns loss in resolution.” Added to this shock wave was the news report on the same issue. 

How dangerous six government representatives can be. The Berkeley City Council members are elected government officials. I see it as their duty to support the decision of President Bush.  

If you cannot support your president while serving as a government official, no matter what level you serve, whether in a local, state or federal capacity it is your duty to relinquish your position. Have the professionalism to step down. 

I request that councilmembers Linda Maio, Maudelle Shirek, Dona Spring, and Kriss Worthington give up their seats on the Berkeley City Council.  

Have the courage of your convictions and step down as government representatives of the people and speak your peace as a citizen. 

What you have done is self-serving. I cannot believe the majority of Berkeley’s citizens would vote in favor of such a resolution.  

I will encourage a boycott of Berkeley until this resolution is overturned. May the Berkeley City Council become a true governing body for the people.  

Please support our President and those who serve ready to die for your safety. 

God Bless America. 

Your decision has brought me great sorrow. I will never look upon local government again as truly for the people. It is time to reconsider the amount power we allow our city councilmembers to wield. 

Joyce Marlene Carroll 

Rio Vista

For the past four months the Pacific Film Archive has been showcasing the work of film director Fritz Lang, a giant of cinema whose career spans from silent films in 1920s Germany to Hollywood studio product of the ‘40s, and even an homage in Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague classic, “Contempt.” 

This massive retrospective of Lang’s oeuvre is soon coming to a close – just two more weekends remaining – and the enthusiastic filmgoers who have been flocking to the PFA will be given a chance to reflect on the man and his work.  

On Saturday, Oct. 23 at 3 p.m. in the PFA theater, there will be a free open discussion about Lang with guest speaker, UC Berkeley professor Anton Kaes, fielding audience questions about the man. 

Following the discussion will be a screening of “Die Nibelungen,” Lang’s 1924 film based on the medieval legend of Seigfried – a hero who learns to make himself invulnerable to harm by bathing in the blood of a dragon. The Teutonic myth is a mainstay of German culture (Richard Wagner wrote an opera about it) and appealed to the Vienna-born Lang as a means to assimilate himself in his adopted country. 

“Die Nibelungen” can be seen as part of a triad of film projects, which became the cornerstones of German film culture. Completing the package are “Metropolis” – a science fiction spectacle of a technological future society tainted with black magic – and his “Dr. Mabuse” – a genius super-criminal masterminding a complex contemporary underworld. 

Fritz Lang is among the rare luminaries whose name has become a description. His name can easily be transformed into an adjective. (You’ll never hear anyone speak the word “Murnau-ian,” as in the director of “Nosferatu” and one of Lang’s professional rivals in Germany, F.W. Murnau.)  

“Langian,” a slippery term, can refer to the enormous scale of his modernist productions – both epic and architectural – or the maniacal tyranny he exercised while making his films. His behavior and his signature eyepiece earned him the tagline: “The monster with a monocle.” 

In Saturday’s discussion with Kaes, filmgoers who have been watching Lang’s wide spectrum of work will have a chance to clarify his contribution to world cinema and coax out the man behind the films. But professor Tom Gunning, who gave a lecture on Lang at the PFA on Sept. 21, said looking for an artist in the art is a tricky business, particularly with Lang. 

“Although there are many reasons to question the link between a person and a work, I think pure self-expression is an impoverished idea,” said Gunning the day after his lecture.  

He added that the tendency to search the films for the psychological underpinnings of the artist is perhaps not the most rewarding mode of analysis. 

Lang made films under a variety of conditions. In the early German film industry he enjoyed nearly unbounded creative freedom until Nazism drove him to Hollywood. There, the powerful studio system forced him to button-up his omnipotent tendencies. (Much of his professional maneuverings were means to exploit the industry.) 

“One thing about Lang is that he’s not just some Romantic artist who has this terrible time adjusting to this industrial, commercial process,” said Gunning, “rather his artistry consists of the way he interacts with it. He usually interacts with it as conflict.” 

Because cinema is such a collaborative art form, searching for the delicate signal of an artist’s own personality might be futile. 

“I think that’s a prejudice we have toward the novel and psychology and interiority,” said Gunning. “I think there’s a good argument that cinema is better dealing with things like exteriority, action, space. And in all those areas Lang is a master.… I think this exteriority is a profound modern vision.” 

Lang often lied about his own life. His carefully-wrought biography neatly wrapped up such shady periods as the death of his first wife and his “escape” from Nazi Germany. Some truths we may never know for certain, but his claim of being trained as an architect is at least partially true. Much of the energy in his films comes from characters’ reactions to their environments. This weekend’s screening of “Die Nibelungen,” the glaring artificiality in its fantasy sets, will showcase Lang’s artistry of space and design. 

“In Lang’s forest for “Die Nibelungen” there are these concrete trees, they are monumental and you never get a sense there is a leaf stirring,” said Gunning. “Lang is diagrammatic, an architectural quality. The environment is something he controls, and that’s what you see on the screen.”

Jennifer Medina starts her day with a cup of coffee. Sitting in a local Starbuck’s, the diminutive 23-year-old appears to be just another Cal student trying to stay awake as another semester rolls by.  

Medina, “Pooh” to her friends, is much more than that. Every day around 6 a.m., she wakes up, walks to the nearby coffeehouse and plans her hectic schedule. As a member of the Golden Bears women’s soccer team, Medina is part of a nationally-ranked squad that’s aiming for postseason success. When the American studies major is not going to class, doing homework or playing, she coaches. Medina assists the Cal coaching staff, runs her own soccer camps and coaches the under-13 Berkeley Mavericks girls team.  

“I love coaching,” she said. “It’s fun to hear when the kids are having fun playing. It means more to me than anything, than any A on a paper or anything to me.”  

Medina, who had been coaching the U-12 Mavericks, began coaching the U-13 team last August. The club’s preseason was held during Cal’s preseason, but Cal coach Kevin Boyd was OK with her job, as long as there were no conflicts. 

Boyd has seen her coaching first-hand. Medina, an intelligent player who is now in her fifth year at Cal, works with Golden Bear teammates as a player-coach.  

“We’ve used her in ways such as working technically with players on an individual basis or working tactically with a player on a part of their game, whether in 1-v-1 defending or playing cover defense,” Boyd said. “She does a great job of that. She’s worked with Cami [Boswell] with her defense and Kassie [Doubrava] with her defense. Other than that, we’ve just used her as a sounding board, heard her thoughts and ideas. She has a great understanding of the game.”  

Medina had a promising playing career as a youth, but injuries and illness has limited her playing time in college. In 1994, her Sunnyvale Roadrunners team won the under-17 national club championship. Her club featured some future stars – U.S. World Cup and Olympic veteran Lorrie Fair, WUSA defender Ronnie Fair and former Cal teammate Regina Holan. All went on to greater playing fame than Medina, but it was Medina who earned MVP honors at the national championship.  

Two years later, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Doctors don’t know why she developed MS. It could have been due to a spinal cord injury she suffered while playing in high school, the stress surrounding her mother’s death in 1995, the stress of her senior year of high school or other reasons.  

Medina takes a weekly intramuscular injection of Avonex to help control the symptoms, which include muscular weakness, visual difficulties and numbness in various parts of her body, but she says that injuries are harder to deal with than MS. During her freshman season, she suffered two concussions, one during a game and one when she was hit by a car. At the end of her freshman season, the Cal senior suffered a hip flexor/quad muscle injury that caused her to redshirt her sophomore season. During spring training of her junior year, Medina tore the MCL of one knee and played sparingly – just three games – in the fall of 2000. She has played just once in 13 games this season.  

“The thing with all these injuries, the MS makes it harder to heal,” she said. “It’s more about the injuries and waiting for them to heal. Random things would happen to me in my four years. It’s just ridiculous.”  

Medina created First Touch Soccer Camps and Clinics when she was 17 in 1996. She comes from coaching stock – her father, Frank, coached her Roadrunners to their national title.  

In 1997, she asked Holan and the Fairs to join her venture.  

“I told them, ‘I’ll run it and you guys will just act like you’re coaching,’” said Medina, who splits her proceeds evenly with her fellow coaches.  

What started out as a one-week training camp for one club team has grown to a camp for several teams ranging in ages from 9-18. It’s big enough that First Touch sessions are held in three places in the Bay Area: San Carlos, the Mountain View/Sunnyvale area, and Berkeley. First Touch even has a Web site – www.firsttouchsoccer.com. 

Medina has a more difficult time planning her First Touch schedule with her friends and colleagues living outside the Bay Area. Both Fairs play in the WUSA, with Lorrie in Philadelphia and Ronnie in New York. Holan lives in Prague in the Czech Republic.  

Coaching could take a back seat after Medina graduates in May; she wants to play professional soccer in England. The United States is the only country with a true professional women’s soccer league, but the English soccer federation says it will start its own women’s pro league by 2003, and Medina has already played in the semi-pro league there.  

Ultimately, both Medina and Boyd see her joining the coaching profession full time.  

“Coaching is going to be her career, and should be,” Boyd said. “She’s patient and explains things very well. She has an ability to explain things in multiple ways. She can demonstrate things, too. She will be an outstanding coach, and is already an outstanding coach.”

The Board of Education heard a glowing third-anniversary report on the district’s home-grown Early Literacy Plan at its regular meeting Wednesday. 

“We have made significant progress,” said Donna Van Noord, who coordinates the program district-wide. 

Chris Lim, the associate superintendent for instruction, created the elementary school reading remediation program three years ago partly to tackle the “achievement gap” before it happens.  

Regular diagnostic testing, intensive tutoring, and innovative teaching by literacy specialists have been put in place to help shrink the number of students who normally underperform in later years – 20 to 30 percent, mostly from economically disadvantaged or minority backgrounds. 

With teachers and administrators from four elementary schools at her side, Van Noord reported that 11 of 12 eligible schools had implemented the core kindergarten-to-third grade reading remediation curriculum last year. The lowest-scoring 20 percent of students, as identified by diagnostic testing, are given intensive tutoring from Reading Recovery teachers. 

All the schools, she added, were now tracking students’ progress up to fifth grade through diagnostic testing and record-keeping. 

Van Noord said 69 percent of the students helped by ELP were reading by grade level at the end of last year – compared to 71 percent of the students districtwide, in all grade levels. Overall, 377 students had been served, she said. 

School board director Joaquin Rivera made one of the few criticisms of the evening when he pointed out that the percentage of third graders reading below grade level on the diagnostic tests, and thus eligible for ELP, had remained consistent in the last three years at about 26 percent. 

Van Noord said those numbers were partly the result of the greatly expanded number of schools and students participating since the first year. “We in no way think we’ve arrived,” she said. “We look at this as a great start.” 

School Board Director Ted Schulz said after seven years on the school board: “Of all the things I’ve seen, this plan or program is one of the best, if not the best, I’ve seen put into place.” 

The other educators took turns explaining the reasons for the program’s effectiveness. Lorna Skantzen-Niel, principal of Berkeley Arts Magnet School, said the individual student binders given to all K-5 teachers last year were helping them keep track of students’ progress in writing accuracy, reading fluency, text comprehension, and other literacy skills. 

“Every teacher has a complete binder of assessments with timeline and benchmarks,” she said. “Where do my students need to be at the end of fourth, fifth grade? All can see.” 

Amy Norris, a second-grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary, said the diagnostic testing had enabled her to give individualized instruction to all 27 of her students and “start teaching on day one.” 

“What this has done for me as a classroom teacher is almost indescribable,” she said. 

Tom Prince, coordinator of the ELP and Reading Recovery at Emerson Elementary, said the “safety net” for under-achieving kids was being widened with a “booster group” for brief immersion of second- and third- graders and special attention to the bottom five performers at the end of each kindergarten class. 

Because of the program, Prince said, the Emerson students in the lowest-achieving 20 percent at the beginning of the year are now attaining grade-level literacy by the end of the year at the same rate as the rest of the students. 

One big change in the program last year was moving from fictional narratives to nonfiction material, which Skantzen-Niel said represented an early start on SAT-9 preparedness and gave teachers a “better idea” of student skills. 

“This is not easy stuff, but it’s now the expectation in the BUSD,” she said.  

Even kindergartners are now learning to read a simple text of a few lines before moving up, Prince said. 

In addition to helping students, the presenters said, ELP is helping teachers develop their skills in dealing with literacy by having them meet regularly to compare notes and critique one another. 

Board Vice President Shirley Issel praised the “atmosphere of professionalism at each school” and suggested the assessment binders follow students all the way through high school. But she expressed concern of the estimated cost of $4,000 per student to pay for the literacy tutors’ services.  

“That’s a lot of money,” she said. 

However, one of the presenters also pointed out that the program could spare remedial costs in the long run. Superintendent Michele Lawrence added that the benefits of staff and teacher development will be felt for years to come. 

“It’s really quite an effective model,” she said. 

Lawrence said she welcomed the group’s report after a long week of budget and personnel drama.  

“It made my day because I really wanted to look at something that was working,” she said to appreciative laughter from the board. 

Van Noord thanked the board for its support, and Chris Lim for her guidance. She also took care to single out an audience member for thanks. Susan Lewis, who compiles most of the program’s data as a volunteer, also works full-time for PG&E. 

“I could not do my job without her,” Van Noord said.

Editor:  

Spiritual consciousness looks inward to the “self” for the causes of problems. It offers no solutions to social problems, but the radical root of a sound foundation for good religious and political action. 

Religious consciousness works with inter-personal relationships as the causes and resolutions of problems. Religious consciousness without a strong link to the spirit easily takes over behaviors of groups – so that we have the “letter but not the spirit of the law.” 

Political consciousness is “world” centered. Politics is just a step beyond religious consciousness. The same feelings that are religious interchange with religious patterns of behavior and thinking. Religious groups often try to take control of politics; or, politics tries to control religion. The founders of the American Constitution insisted on the separation of church and state for these reasons. 

Some years ago, a friend of mine took me to task on my political activism, pointing out that “first we must change ourselves, before we can change the world.” Eventually, I understood his wisdom. 

I admit it – I want a peaceful world, where people live in harmony. Not a very exciting vision. Peace is a precondition for happiness. To get there, I need to stay with the first step – which is to learn to be peaceful myself. Than learn to share that state with others around me.  

In other words: be the peace that I want to see in the world. 

Americ Azevedo 

Berkeley

California All-American Laura Schott was added to the Hermann Trophy ballot for the 2001 season. The Hermann Trophy is one of two national player of the year awards in college soccer.  

“I didn’t expect to be nominated, but I thought it would be cool if I did,” said Schott. “It’s unbelievable. It’s one of the best if not the best honor I’ve received.” 

“The addition of Laura to the Hermann Trophy candidates is well deserved,” said Cal coach Kevin Boyd. “Laura has 12 goals in 13 games, and she draws the attention of every team we play. She has made great contributions to our program and has helped elevate Cal to national prominence.”  

A panel of Division I college coaches added two men and two women to the lists of 13 men’s and women’s candidates that were announced prior to the 2001 season. Virginia’s Lori Lindsey was the other female athlete added. At the beginning of the season, two places were left open for players who might otherwise have been left off the original ballot. This was done to ensure that any deserving player was eligible to win the award.  

Schott, a junior forward from Wilsonville, Ore., leads the Pac-10 Conference with 27 points and 12 goals. She ranks 10th nationally with 0.92 goals/game.  

The winners of the 2001 Hermann Trophy will be announced at the College Cups, the women on Dec. 8 in Dallas, Texas, and the men on Dec. 15 in Columbus, Ohio.

If the debut of the 21st century doesn’t become known as WWIII – and I pray that it doesn’t – I fear pundits will call it the age of “sit down and shut up.”  

Here at the Planet we’ve been hearing an awful lot of that lately. 

Take the case of the ill-fated Common Ground field trip. In case you missed it, Common Ground’s a small school inside Berkeley High that teaches about the environment. 

In its wisdom, the mini-school took some 330 kids to Yosemite with about 25 chaperones. According to the folks in charge of the concession at Yosemite and teachers and parents, the teens disrupted the campground, smoked marijuana, threw rocks and, the concession folk say, got kicked out. (Others contend they left early voluntarily.) 

Worse yet, according to a number of angry letters we got here at the Planet, was that we reported it. We were ruining Common Ground’s reputation and the future of small schools at BHS, we were told. 

Don’t write, don’t tell.  

Sit down. Shut up.  

Write about the flowers that push up through the cracks in the sidewalk and forget about the cracks that trip people up. 

But, I’ll credit the Daily Planet and reporter Jeffrey Obser with a role in spurring the adults to hold a meeting to discuss what happened on the Yosemite trip and how to avoid the pitfalls the future. Kudos to us all. And the First Amendment. 

*** 

Another thing about school’s is scaring me – that the art of critical thinking’s getting lost in a nationwide stress on testing. Shouldn’t our kids think? Shouldn’t they question? 

Even the school board seems to think asking hard question’s not a very good thing to do. 

Board members and a few of their apologists were very unhappy when we wrote about the board’s executive session meeting at the new superintendent’s house, where the public could not comment and which was inaccessible to those who use wheelchairs. 

No one said our accusation of violation of open meeting laws was inaccurate. No one asked for a correction. They just say we shouldn’t have talked about it; we need to support the new superintendent, they said. 

SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. Fill in circles. Mark the Xs. And don’t think. And don’t question. 

*** 

Talk about secrets. It seems the school board’s known since August that ex-Principal Frank Lynch was job hunting. Well they all knew it, so you’d imagine they talked about it among themselves. If they did, they violated open meeting laws. It was never on any agenda I’ve seen. 

Because it was never discussed in public, the high school community is in shock at Lynch’s abrupt departure.  

Kids are already reeling from the instability that’s entered all our lives in the era of post Sept. 11. They’re in a high school with accreditation problems, a high school that has never been able to figure out how to meet the needs of its most needy students – and now they’ve got no one at the helm. 

You’d think that when the newspaper – not the Planet, by the way, but the award-winning student newspaper the Jacket - broke the story of Lynch’s plans to get out, the school board would have met in emergency session and quickly reassured parents and kids that the post would be filled. 

If the gang of five are talking about how to replace Lynch, none of us know. And we’re going to keep asking the question until we get some answers. 

*** 

Then there’s the progressive majority City Council that got a really bad case of “sit down and shut up” when it passed a redistricting plan without a document explaining exactly what the new boundaries would be. 

I don’t know if there was a formal Brown Act violation – some say three “progressive” councilmembers had discussed the plan; some believe the plan was also communicated to a fourth (four councilmembers knowing the plan would not constitute a formal Brown Act violation) and some say a fifth councilmember knew the specifics of it as well, which would constitute a violation. 

But the biggest violation is the spirit of a truly open meeting, where the council votes only on things it thoroughly understands and where the public has a chance to look at what the council is considering. 

Should we all just sit down and shut up? 

*** 

And what about these difficult times of war? 

Much of the mail I’ve got (most from out-of-towers with no phone number for verification), say that the councilmembers who call for a stop to the bombing are traitors. Some of the mail councilmembers have got is very hostile, even threatening.  

(I should underscore that at the Planet we have also received thoughtful letters on both sides of the war debate as well.) 

Sit down and shut up, the e-mails say – less politely. Love it or leave it. The war is not debatable.  

But they’re wrong.  

The rule must be: speak out, even if you are as alone as Barbara Lee was when she voted against giving the president the power of war. Speak out, even if you are a Republican in Democratic Berkeley. Councilmembers must continue to speak their minds – on all sides – even in the face of angry e-mail campaigns. 

Stand your ground. The right to dissent is among the most prized rights we have in our country.  

We at the Planet will continue to report the facts as we see them. We won’t sit down. 

Or shut up. 

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein 

Thank you for your letter responding to my concerns. I agree the United States should “respond appropriately”. However, as a nation of laws, seeking to represent freedom and justice in the world, we must approach this problem in a way that upholds those values not only to the world, but also for our own citizens and residents within the U.S. borders. 

We must stop the bombing and killing of innocents RIGHT NOW. We have yet to hear any credible evidence that Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, or the Afghani people had anything to do with the tragedies of September 11. 

Indeed, it is reported in Time magazine that on Sept. 11 before any information was known or evidence had been gathered, President Bush had already telephoned Pakistan’s presiding general to demand assistance in capturing or killing bin Laden. The administration shows no signs of interest in truth or justice, and has shown an incredible refusal to consider any course other than war. “Wanted: dead or alive” is vigilantism; it is not lawful justice. 

You express outrage over loss of innocent American lives; nevertheless, we are taking actions certain to (and which already have) resulted in loss of innocent lives of those in Afghanistan, and which have caused riots around the world which are resulting in more innocent lives being lost. How can these deaths be excused? If the loss of innocent American lives (5,000 claimed; so far only about 500 deaths have been verified) is so great a crime as to demand a response in kind, then certainly the deaths of innocent civilians outside our borders is also not to be tolerated, by Afghans or by Americans. The people of Afghanistan have not declared war on the United States, nor has any government that we deem to be the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Under all rules of our own nation, as well as international law, our war actions in Asia are reprehensible, illegal, and can be seen by ordinary muslims and others around the world only as terrorist actions. You say you are acting to ensure that “the response is deliberate, and carefully targeted so that innocent civilians are protected to the greatest extent possible.” Is it more responsible or compassionate to deliberately push millions to die of starvation, cold, and disease than it is to bomb their homes directly?  

To consider the acts in New York and Washington to be “an act of war against the United States,” you seem to disregard that the United States has been at war with Muslims for decades, particularly in Palestine, but also in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, etc. The U.S. outrage that the war we have been waging for decades has finally come home is misplaced, ignorant, and arrogant. Yes, the United States and its government and people should be outraged; but our outrage must be humane enough to extend to the outrages against innocent people all over the world, whom our directly and indirectly funded terrorism has been killing. While ordinary citizens may be expected to cry out for blood to avenge American deaths wiser heads must call for peaceful means, for upholding laws. This is your duty. 

John M. Hartenstein 

San Francisco

California junior midfielder Brittany Kirk was named to the Soccer America Team of the Week for her play during the week of Oct. 8-14.  

Kirk helped lead No. 15 Cal (10-2-1, 2-0 Pac-10) to two road shutouts over Oregon and Oregon State to kick off Pac-10 play. The Claremont native tallied her first two goals of the season, both game-winners.  

Kirk also added an assist on Cal’s final goal against Oregon. She has 10 points on the year and is tied for the team lead with six assists.  

The Golden Bears host No. 18 Washington Friday, Oct. 19, at 3 p.m., in their Pac-10 home opener.

FBI agents beware. Leeza Vinogradov knows she doesn’t have to talk to you, and she plans to inform others. Mum is the word.  

Vinogradov, a self-described peace activist, was one of nearly 200 people who gathered at St. Joseph the Worker Church on Wednesday night to learn about what to do if the FBI or Immigration and Naturalization Service comes knocking at the door.  

Vinogradov said her ex-husband, who is Muslim and originally from India, feels vulnerable.  

“He keeps saying to me: ‘My name is Ali. My name is Ali. It’s a common Islamic name,’” Vinogradov said. “Actually, it’s ironic. When he first came to the U.S., it was during the Iran hostage crisis, and he wasn’t frightened at all. Back then, he was young and looked a lot like the people on the front pages of the newspapers. But nowadays, he’s beside himself with worry and concern.”  

He has good reason.  

Nancy Hormachea, one of the speakers at the event and an immigration attorney who represents Iranian, Afghan and South Asian clients, said since Sept. 11, many of her clients have been accosted by government agencies.  

“The FBI is calling people at home or just showing up at their doors,” Hormachea said. “They say: ‘I just have a few questions to ask you.’ And people are really intimidated by them and let them in.”  

But Hormachea said people can and should refuse to let them into their homes.  

“They need an arrest warrant to detain you,” she said. “And they need a search warrant to enter your home or office. If they have the warrant, ask for it, read it, then follow them and monitor the search. The search must be specific and limited only to the items listed in the warrant.”  

Hormachea also urged citizens and non-citizens to stay quiet until lawyers arrive.  

“Start exercising the right to remain silent,” she said. “Any information you give them can be used against you. And if you lie to an agent, the penalties are severe. So don’t talk. Just say: ‘I don’t have anything to say. What is your name? I’ll have my attorney call you.’”  

Elizabeth Fink, a New York criminal lawyer, agreed.  

“Never talk to government without a lawyer,” said Fink. “It is always a mistake. It’s more dangerous to talk to the FBI than it is to give testimony in a courtroom. In a courtroom, a court reporter takes down what is said. But with the FBI, it’s your word against his. You don’t want to be in the steelyard with this enormous bully.”  

While most in the diverse audience could only picture such confrontations with law enforcement, many speakers had wells of personal experience to draw from. Sponsors of the event included the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, Middle East Children's Alliance, National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Women in Black and the School of Unity and Liberation. 

Yuri Kochiyama, a spirited octogenarian, was 20 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and she was one of 120,000 Japanese Americans taken from their homes and interned during World War II. 

“Within three months of the bombing, the headlines of the papers were ‘Japs get out,’” she said. “Even Chinese and Koreans, because they couldn’t tell us Asians apart, were being attacked. They started wearing buttons that read: ‘We’re not Japs.’”  

“The wartime years were rough because racism, hysteria and mistrust,” said Kochiyama. “These same things are happening today when we look at Muslim and Arab-Americans. I hope social awareness today is higher than in yesteryears. The world cannot be controlled by one country. It belongs to the people.”  

Nancy Delaney, who was introduced to Arab culture about 20 years through a UC Berkeley class on Palestine, said she is also worried about the possible backlash on Arab-Americans.  

“The American public, like me 20 years ago, have no idea or understanding of Arab people,” she said. “They have targeted a whole race of people and demonized them. We need to learn how to treat each other as equals. If you don’t know how to relate to others as individuals, peace isn’t going to happen.”  

But for Michel Shehadeh and other Arab-American activists, the level of social awareness and understanding of Arab culture is not high enough.  

Shehadeh, the western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a member of the LA8 – a group of seven Palestinian-Americans and one Kenyan American who were detained in 1987 and threatened with deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Services for their political activism – said he struggles to get his message heard.  

“After Sept. 11, people were searching for reasons why they hate us,” Shehadeh said. “But they don’t hate us. They hate our foreign policy. We need to start to discuss deeply the reasons why our foreign policy perpetuates pain in the Middle East. But every time Arab-Americans try to advocate a debate about foreign policy, we are either ignored, accused of justifying or condoning terrorism or silenced. The U.S. does not exist in a vacuum. We live in an environment, and if that environment is diseased or sick we have to deal with it.”  

Shehadeh and others believe part of the problem lies in the absolutism of the Bush administration.  

“Nothing justifies polarizing the world into two camps: One that is absolute good and one that is absolute evil,” he said. “There’s no difference between Bush saying: ‘You’re either with us or you’re against us,’ and Bin Laden saying: ‘You’re either a believer or an infidel.’” 

Osama Qasem, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, said the only way to uproot terrorism is to have a fair and equitable foreign policy.  

“The Bush administration has been claiming that this is not a war against Islam, but at the same time it is creating a dichotomy and making Muslims and Arab feel like the ‘others,’” he said. “The government is exploiting fear and uncertainty to infringe on civil liberties and to embroil us in a military action campaign that does not have defined goals and will inevitably cause civilians casualties in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”  

During the two-and-a-half-hour event, anti-war sentiment ran high. Many speakers expressed, criticism and frustration with the government. All warned audience members to be outright mistrustful.  

Kate Raphael of the San Francisco Women of Black, a co-sponsor of the event, said she was called by the FBI last month and asked who she might know in the Middle East.  

“Since I know no one who would fly planes into buildings, I know no one whose name I’ll turn over,” she said, explaining her decision to keep quiet. “Now is the time to guard freedom and democracy. We cannot be silent, except to the FBI”.  

Donations collected at the event will go to the National Lawyers Guild, a conglomeration of law students, lawyers and legal workers committed to promoting civil rights.  

For more information or to report government harassment or seek legal advice, call the guild’s 24-hour legal hotline at 415-285-1055.

SACRAMENTO — California’s disturbed youth are not receiving necessary and available psychiatric services, causing overcrowding in juvenile jails and mental hospitals, a state watchdog reported. 

More than one million children statewide will experience an emotional or behavioral disorder this year, but more than 600,000 will not receive adequate treatment, concluded the Little Hoover Commission, a bipartisan agency that issues studies to the governor and Legislature. 

Children “endure a system that turns them away until their needs are severe,” Little Hoover Chairman Michael E. Alpert said Wednesday. 

“Because there are no standards, children often do not receive the right care at the right time in the right way. Because we do not measure outcomes, there is no pressure on the system to improve,” he said. 

A California Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman declined to discuss the report specifically, saying officials were still reviewing it. But she defended the department’s efforts to treat all of the state’s mentally ill. 

“There is a commitment to provide the best care possible to mentally ill children and adults,” said Bertha Gorman. 

According to the commission, more than 50,000 children in foster care who may need mental health services do not get them, and many children in the juvenile justice system statewide, including victims of abuse and neglect, do not receive treatment. 

The report suggested that lack of funding is not the problem, noting that more than $56 billion will be spent next year for child and family services. The problem, the report indicated, is that no coherent, coordinated approach is taken in addressing mental health needs. 

No single state agency is accountable for coordinating care, the panel said. Various eligibility requirements often mean parents, children and even siblings receive different services from different providers. 

“For some of these children their symptoms will go unnoticed; their needs will not be understood,” the Little Hoover report said. “For others, the symptoms will be obvious to parents, teachers and doctors, but they will not receive attention because of how California organizes, funds and delivers mental health and other services.” 

Among other things, the panel recommends ensuring that all families are covered by public or private mental health insurance, addressing the problems of duplications and gaps in services, creating a cabinet-level secretary for children services, and addressing the shortage of qualified mental health specialists. 

According to the report, nearly a third of Los Angeles County’s public psychiatrist jobs are unfilled. Nearly a quarter of the county’s mental health directors have retired in the last five years and another quarter are expected to retire in the next five years. 

More than 250 students, Jews and non-Jews, gathered Thursday at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus for a sit-in to stand up against hate and anti-Semitism.  

Wearing blue shirts, yarmulkes and prayer shawls, the students sat down, holding signs, saying: “Sit down to stand up for tolerance,” and “Stop the hate.” 

The rally was called in response to last week’s physical assault against Aaron J. Schwartz, a 23-year-old Jewish student from San Francisco. The incident occurred after a religious celebration at the Hillel Student Jewish Center on Bancroft Way. 

As they do every year, Jewish students finished their service celebrating the day that the Torah was said to be given to the Jewish people, by marching out of the center dancing and singing in the streets. 

On the corner of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, Schwartz said he saw a man giving a Nazi “Sieg Heil” salute as he goose-stepped in place.  

“I left the group to speak with him,” Schwartz said at Tuesday’s sit-in. “He immediately (narrowed) the distance between us. I didn’t move. I was then grabbed from behind by one of his friends. They punched me in my face, I fell down and they left.” 

At the sit-in, students took turns repeating Schwartz’s story and encouraged the audience to join the demonstrators.  

“An attack on anyone is an attack on all of us,” they chanted in unison. “Please join us in saying ‘no’ to hatred against all persons based on religion, nationality, or ethnic origin,” they said. 

“This isn’t the first time it happened,” said Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, who called for the sit-in. “It is the first time that there was a physical attack but there were multiple incidents over the last three months in which students have been verbally attacked and intimidated by anti-Semitic statements.” 

“Over the past year we had a few complaints of harassment or heckling of Jewish students,” said Capt. Bill Cooper from the UC Berkeley police department. “In terms of frequency, it seems rare but they don’t always report to us on those incidents. (The) Berkeley campus and, specifically, the police department are concerned about those kinds of incidents.” 

On Saturday night, more than 30 students met at Hillel and discussed how to respond to the assault. Some wanted to have a large rally with speakers. Others thought it was not the right time and preferred to write letters to the campus newspaper.  

In the end, they came up with the quiet sit-in idea “to educate people about the specific incident and make them aware of the racial crimes against racial minorities, religious minorities and ethnic minorities,” said Jackie Bliss, a second-year student who participated in the meeting.  

Bliss, a pro-Israeli activist, said several times in the last year, callers have left threatening messages on her answering machine. 

Weinberger said that he feels strongly that the hate messages come from the association with Israel.  

“People on this campus who are identified as Jews are hated because people associate them with Israel,” he said. “Jewish students on the campus hesitate to exhibit their Judaism because of that.” 

Other students from different organizations on campus, such as Stop the war coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight For Equality By Any Means Necessary joined the Jewish students. 

“We are here in solidarity speaking out against all form of racism,” said Mary Boktor, a member of SJP who is originally from Egypt. “I think what happened (last week) is horrible.” 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington joined the crowd wearing a star of David pin, which read: “Stand against hate” pin.  

“When we say we want Berkeley to be hate free zone, we means stopping all hate, against all groups,” he said.

Audie Bock is running again. Her target this time is Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

Bock, a political chameleon who upset former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris in a state Assembly race (only to lose the seat in a landslide less than two years later), announced Thursday her bid for Lee’s Democratic seat.  

She said her sole reason for candidacy was Lee’s vote against a bill granting President Bush war powers.  

“There’s an oath of office that a congressperson takes to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. She did not do this,” Bock told reporters as she filed preliminary papers to be placed on the ballot for the March 5 Democratic primary election. 

Bock said Lee’s vote represented a personal agenda, which does not serve the interest of the district adequately. She characterized the vote as a personal statement about Bush.  

“That is inappropriate at this time,” Bock said. 

She told reporters she initially supported Lee’s vote because the congresswoman had described it as opposing Bush’s grant of a blank check for military action. Bock said she changed her mind after reading the resolution. 

“This was totally different because it was an attack on U.S. soil,” the Piedmont resident said. “There is a pattern of ignoring feelings of the people of this country.” 

Lee was not available for comment. 

Bock originally ran as a Green Party candidate for state assembly in 1999 and defeated Harris. Ten weeks later, she switched her affiliation to independent. After running for re-election as an independent in 2000, Bock received only 22 percent of the vote against Wilma Chan.  

Bock said her current campaign is being run by a Republican political consultant, Sal Russo, who also handled her unsuccessful re-election campaign last year. 

“The problem that Audie Bock has is that she got herself elected as a candidate with a great deal of courage and conviction and then proceeded to jettison that strength by switching political parties to save her own skin. Now she’s just a typical politician,” said Darry Sragow, chief campaign strategist for the assembly Democratic Caucus. “In this race, Barbara Lee is the person of conviction.”  

Gale Kaufman, Lee’s re-election campaign manager said: “The Sept. 11 tragedy is really not an issue that should be politicized in this fashion.” 

Kaufman added she was confused about Bock’s campaign because Bock was one of the first people to congratulate the congresswoman on her strength of character. 

“She has changed her political party several times,” Kaufman said. “For all I know she might be a Republican.” 

Although the state Democratic Party traditionally does not get involved in primary races, spokesman Bob Mulholland left little doubt about how party regulars might view Bock’s candidacy. 

“Who are we kidding? Don’t take the Bock campaign too seriously,” he said. 

Bock’s campaign launched a web site on Wednesday, which initially featured a picture of a smiling Lee in the middle of the burning Twin Towers.  

The picture has since been removed.  

Bock said the picture of the congresswoman was not meant to demonize her, but to make the public aware of that “she turned her back on that suffering.”  

Bock’s Web site also has a link to DumpBarbaraLee.com, which is paid for by Audie Bock for Congress.  

Since the launching of the site, Bock said a lot of the responses are coming from people in New York who are offering their help. 

“I do think there will be support from all over the nation because this is a national cause,” she said. 

Harris said Bock’s campaign is very unfortunate, and called her Web site “despicable.” 

“The link to hateful information is a sad reflection on Audie,” he said. 

Bock criticized Lee for neglecting her district and spending too much time on foreign affairs. 

“She has focused on a program on getting money for AIDS treatment in South Africa. This is not a bad thing to do,” Bock said. “The epidemic is severe, but in Alameda County we have the highest incidents of AIDS in African-American men. I would like to see that addressed before we take on problems of people outside the United States.” 

Bock insisted her campaign was not negative but one of unity. 

“This is a campaign that is for unity with the rest of the nation, that’s for supporting and mourning with the people who have suffered,” she said.

SAN DIEGO — A large and sophisticated laboratory for the club-drug Ecstasy was shuttered after a raid Thursday, authorities said. 

The lab was hidden behind a bookcase in an office in an industrial park in Escondido, 30 miles north of San Diego, authorities said. 

Five people were arrested at the lab late Wednesday, and 21 others were picked up in related sweeps in and around San Diego and Los Angeles. More arrests were expected. 

Arraignments for the suspects were scheduled for Friday. 

The raid capped a yearlong investigation into an organization capable of making between 1 million and 1.5 million tabs of Ecstasy a month, said Errol Chavez, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge. 

Investigators found plastic bags filled with several thousand Ecstasy pills and enough chemicals to make a million more, said Todd Robinson, assistant U.S. attorney. 

Among those arrested was Dennis L. Alba, 52, whom authorities identified as the ringleader. A phone number for his Oceanside address was unlisted, and he could not be reached. 

The DEA had custody of Alba late Thursday, and whether he had an attorney could not be determined. The U.S. Marshals Service said it would have more information when he was turned over to the Bureau of Prisons. 

Typically, Ecstasy is made overseas, primarily in Europe. More than 80 percent of the pills distributed in the United States are believed imported, Chavez said. 

“This case represents a major attempt to establish a foothold in the United States,” he said. 

TRENTON, N.J. — A postal worker who may have handled anthrax-contaminated letters sent to NBC and the Senate majority leader has the skin form of the disease, authorities said Thursday. 

The infected worker is a female letter carrier. Two other Trenton postal workers are being tested, including a maintenance worker Postal Inspector Tony Esposito said officials are “almost certain” has anthrax. Test results were pending. 

The employees were being treated and taking antibiotics, Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco said. The letter carrier has been released from an undisclosed hospital. 

The letter carrier works at a local post office that sends mail to the regional facility outside Trenton where the contaminated letters were postmarked. The maintenance employee works at the regional facility. 

At the local post office in West Trenton, Postmaster Joseph Sautello said there are no immediate plans to shut down the facility. 

The state’s chief medical officer, George DiFerdinando Jr., said customers who visited the regional post office in the past three weeks should see a doctor if they have any symptoms of illness or a rash. 

The third employee is a a Levittown, Pa., man who works at an undisclosed post office serving Trenton. He has developed a rash and was being tested to see if he had been exposed to anthrax, Bucks County, Pa., health officials said. County Health Commissioner Dr. Louis Polk said test results on the 35-year-old man were expected Friday. 

Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control were en route to New Jersey to decide if additional tests were warranted for other postal employees. 

The female postal employee is one of six people infected with anthrax. One, a 63-year-old Florida man, died Oct. 5. The others are recovering. 

New Jersey authorities wouldn’t disclose personal details about the mail carrier and maintenance worker. They have said both were working on days when the tainted mail would have been processed. 

The postal facility collects mail from 46 postal offices throughout central New Jersey. 

A letter contaminated with anthrax that was postmarked in Trenton last month was mailed to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw at NBC headquarters in New York. The other letter, postmarked from Trenton earlier this month, was mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle’s office in Washington. 

An aide to Brokaw has the skin form of anthrax. More than 30 workers in Daschle’s Senate office were exposed to the bacterium and are being treated with antibiotics. 

Meanwhile, federal officials have questioned at least two New Jersey pharmacists about anyone buying large amounts of the antibiotic Cipro prior to Sept. 18, when the Brokaw letter was mailed. 

Pharmacist John Berkenkopf, who owns Episcopo’s Pharmacy in Trenton, said two officials with the Food and Drug Administration questioned him Wednesday about anyone who bought between 60 and 120 tablets of the antibiotic. 

Cipro is usually prescribed for a week to 14 days, which is about 10 or 20 pills, Berkenkopf said. 

“Any more than that would ring all kinds of bells,” he said. He said he had not gotten any requests for large amounts of Cipro. 

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll declined to comment on the investigation but said it “would stand to reason” that authorities would be suspicious of anyone seeking large amounts of Cipro. 

The state is also receiving attention from federal investigators looking into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At least six of the jetliner hijackers are believed to have lived in Paterson.

CHICAGO — Baxter International Inc. says two kidney patients in Texas who underwent treatment on dialysis machines using Baxter filters have died and two others were hospitalized with complications. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the manufacture and distribution of medical products, is investigating the cause of the deaths. 

“We are in the process of looking into it,” spokeswoman Sharon Snider said Thursday. 

Baxter on Wednesday announced a worldwide recall of its Series A and Series AF dialyzers which are manufactured in Sweden by Althin Medical AB, acquired by Baxter last year. The devices filter waste substances from the blood before it is returned to patients with kidney failure. 

The A series of dialyzers were used in Croatia, where authorities blame the dialyzers for the deaths of 23 kidney patients earlier this month, and in Spain, where 15 patients reportedly died in August at health centers while undergoing kidney dialysis. 

The filters used in connection with the Texas deaths were of the AF series. Both series use a similar fiber. 

Baxter said it is not clear what role the filters played in any of the deaths. 

“There is no information linking these deaths to the dialyzer made by Baxter,” spokeswoman Tanya Tyska said. “We’ve instituted the recall as a precaution until an investigation into all aspects of their treatment is completed.” 

“It’s unusual. We haven’t seen this with dialysis membranes before causing widespread death like this,” said Dr. Paul Scheel, dialysis director at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. “The dialyzers are a relatively new brand for Baxter and that certainly raises some uncertainty about what the potential interaction between the blood” and the dialyzers could be. 

Baxter has sent investigators to Texas, Spain and Croatia. The company has not released the names of the Texas patients, nor the hospital in which they were treated. 

Tyska said one of the two hospitalized kidney patients has been treated and released. 

Dialyzers are hollow filtering tubes that are attached to dialysis machines, which clean impurities from blood of patients with kidney failure.  

Blood is drawn from the patient’s vein and pumped through the dialyzer, where impurities are filtered into a special fluid called dialysate, which mixes with water to flush the impurities away. The patient’s blood is then pumped back into the body. 

Tyska said potential causes of adverse reactions could occur at any point in the process because of inadequate water treatment and quality, contaminated dialysate concentrate, machine malfunction, clogged blood lines and needles, and the medication administered before and during the process. 

“The investigators might look at all these possible causes of adverse events,” Tyska said. 

In Zabreb, Croatian Health Minister Ana Stavljenic-Rukavina said the filters are suspected in the deaths because all the victims were treated using them and deaths dropped to normal levels when hospitals replaced the filters with other brands. A panel of experts is investigating. 

In Spain, an investigation by a European quality standards firm found no link between the deaths and filters, although the Spanish government is still running tests. 

The Texas Department of Health hasn’t received any complaint that would prompt an investigation. 

“We haven’t received any complaint or any question from any hospital or facility,” said department spokeswoman Emily Palmer. 

Baxter is a global medical products and services company that provides therapies for people with life-threatening conditions. 

LOS ANGELES — To his dying day, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh impressed his jailers as well behaved, funny, pleasant to be around — and completely without remorse — according to documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. 

“Mr. McVeigh remains stable emotionally. He does not suffer from a major mental health disorder or defect,” according to a May 18 psychiatric evaluation of McVeigh, who would be executed in less than a month, on June 11. 

“He spends his time watching TV, reading his correspondence and writing letters,” the evaluation said of McVeigh, who was put to death for the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people at the Oklahoma City Federal Building. 

The 33-year-old Gulf War Army veteran spent more than six years in maximum security prisons. Throughout that time, according to 2,000 pages of documents obtained by the Times, he was almost always good-natured and rarely caused trouble, the newspaper reported on its Web site Wednesday. 

“He has just returned after hearing the verdict of a death sentence yesterday,” the records noted at one point. “He is taking the verdict and sentence remarkably well and is not depressed.” 

After his sentencing, he was sent to “Supermax” in Florence, Colo., the nation’s most secure prison. 

During his two years there he committed only one infraction, refusing to stand up during a head count. 

“He just looked at us and laughed,” a prison official wrote. 

Run-ins he had with prison officials elsewhere also were minor. He was written up for trying to mail various harmless items to friends, including a “Star Wars” action figure. He once griped about not getting immediate care for a chipped tooth and another time for not getting enough sunlight. And he made it clear he didn’t like being disturbed when he was watching a war movie on television. 

He always kept his cell tidy and his bed well made, authorities said, and earned a certificate for completing a video study course called “Earth Revealed.” 

He never apologized. 

“The inmate still displays no remorse for his actions, nor does he spontaneously discuss the matter,” it was reported in February 1998. 

“He remains in good spirits with a keen sense of humor,” according to a report filed in April, just weeks before his execution in the Terre Haute, Ind., death house. 

Upon learning that schools in Terre Haute would be closed on the day of his execution, he said he expected to hear from schoolchildren thanking him. 

When execution day finally arrived, he “cooperated entirely,” according to Warden Harley G. Lappin. 

LOS ANGELES — Despite concerns from one administration official that the state has secured enough resources to deal with the energy crisis, Gov. Gray Davis is considering renegotiating dozens of long-term power contracts, it was reported Thursday. 

The governor’s energy advisors announced they would hold a press conference Friday about the administration’s strategy for reworking the agreements, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

The Davis camp has defended the 53 long-term power contracts signed earlier this year that allow the state to buy electricity at set prices.  

Energy wholesalers have previously said they are willing to consider renegotiating the pacts but want the state to take the lead. 

Critics believe the prices agreed upon are too high and the contracts will provide more power than needed. 

In an internal memo, state Department of Water Resources Director Thomas Hannigan echoed those concerns and criticized S. David Freeman, chairman of California’s new power authority, for continuing to seek additional energy contracts. 

“The state already has excess power resources,” particularly in Southern California, Hannigan wrote in the Oct. 4 memo. Additional contracts would “exceed the state’s ability to absorb that power.” 

Freeman defends his actions, noting the state needs more power to ensure future shortages don’t occur. His agency has been talking with solar and wind energy companies as well as examining the purchase of additional electricity from peaker plants, which are used only during times of great need. 

The power authority needs the Department of Water Resources’ endorsement before it enters into contracts because the agency supplies the money to purchase energy. 

The state is currently purchasing power to meet some of the needs of 24 million people served by two of the state’s troubled utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. While the contracts have stabilized energy prices, the state has been forced to buy electricity in recent months and then sell some of it at a loss because there was not enough demand. 

NEW YORK — In a courthouse ringed by shotgun-toting marshals a few blocks from the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center, four disciples of Osama bin Laden were sentenced to life without parole Thursday for the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. 

The men were the first to be convicted by a U.S. jury of carrying out bin Laden’s 1998 religious edict to kill Americans wherever they are found. 

They got the maximum sentence as expected after U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand called terrorism “one of the most serious threats to our society ... to the society of any civilized nation.” 

He also ordered each of the defendants to pay $33 million in restitution, perhaps out of terrorist assets frozen by the U.S. government in recent weeks. 

The near-simultaneous Aug 7, 1998, bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killed 231 people, including 12 Americans. Nearly two dozen people have been indicted in the case, including bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding out in Afghanistan and is also wanted for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Prosecutors during the six-month trial accused bin Laden and his organization of directing the bombings, using a satellite telephone from Afghanistan and messengers to communicate the orders. 

“Al-Qaida stands charged, tried, convicted and sentenced for terrorism,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said in Washington. “Today’s sentence sends a message: The United States will hunt terrorists down and make them pay a price for their evil acts of terrorism.” 

Sand handed down identical sentences for Wadih El-Hage, 41, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28, Mohamed Al-’Owhali, 24, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36. 

The jury had considered and rejected the death penalty for Mohamed and Al-’Owhali, in part to keep them from being viewed as martyrs. 

During the sentencing, El-Hage, rose to condemn last month’s attacks in New York and Washington that left thousands dead. 

“The killing of innocent people is radical, extreme and cannot be tolerated by any religion, principles or values,” said El-Hage, a Lebanese-born naturalized American. He maintained his innocence during the 30-minute speech in federal court. 

The government branded him a traitor and a liar, saying he raised money for bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization as he led the life of a family man in Arlington, Texas. 

El-Hage “claims to be a citizen, but he’s not an American,” prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said. “He betrayed his country, he betrayed his religion, he betrayed humanity.” 

Odeh, whose lawyer acknowledged that he “was a soldier in the military wing of al-Qaida,” showed no remorse at sentencing, and asserted that terrorism was the result of U.S. policies in the Middle East. 

“I can only say to Allah we belong, and to him we’ll return,” he said. “God help me in my calamity, and replace it with goodness.” 

Mohamed, convicted of helping to grind TNT and load the bomb that struck the Tanzanian embassy, declined to address the court. He said through his attorney that he “wishes to express gratitude to a jury that spared his life.” 

Al-’Owhali, who rode the bomb vehicle up to the Nairobi embassy and tossed stun grenades at guards before fleeing, also said nothing. 

Each was ordered to pay $7 million to victims’ families and $26 million to the U.S. government. Sand has said the defendants are indigent, but suggested that assets might be acquired from Bush administration attempts to freeze the funding of al-Qaida and other terror groups. 

The courthouse, the scene of five major terrorism trials in the past nine years, is surrounded by steel barricades to stop speeding bomb-laden trucks like those that exploded at the embassies. Its halls occasionally fill with the acrid smell of the smoldering rubble at the Trade Center. 

Relative of the bombing victims said the defendants deserved no mercy. 

“Let them die conscious of the fact that their souls will be condemned forever,” said Howard Kavaler, whose wife died in the Kenya attack. 

Two of the anonymous jurors attended the sentencing and spoke afterward with reporters. One said she was determined to show up after the Trade Center disaster “to be a presence in the courtroom and let them know we weren’t afraid of them.” 

SALT LAKE CITY — Passengers aboard a Greyhound bus left their seats and overpowered a man who allegedly tried to take control and flip the vehicle after ranting about hijackings, authorities said Thursday. 

No one was injured in Wednesday night’s incident and the driver was able to pull safely to the side of Interstate 80. There were 44 passengers aboard the bus bound from Portland, Ore., to Nashville, Tenn. 

The man and a female accomplice ran off the bus, flagged down a car and later fled to the truck stop where they were arrested several hours later, Highway Patrol spokesman Doug McCleve said. 

Troy Matzek, 34, and Becky Hyde, 25, of Wichita, Kan., were charged Thursday in federal court with carjacking and aiding and abetting. They face a possible maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. They were scheduled to appear Friday before U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba. 

Authorities said they believed the couple was not acting as part of a terrorist plot. 

“This is probably a person who is mentally unstable,” McCleve said. 

Rose Matzek said her son thought someone was after him. After talking to him by phone after his arrest, she said he had been affected by the terrorist attacks and might have had an emotional breakdown on the bus. 

“He called a couple of days ago. He wanted to come home,” she said. “He was very fearful. He was a little paranoid about what has happened.” 

Bus driver Gene Savage told KUTV television that Matzek grabbed the steering wheel and said he was going to flip the bus. He had been ranting about hijackings. 

The driver kicked Matzek away and several passengers wrestled with the man as Savage stopped the bus about 15 miles east of Salt Lake City, McCleve said. 

“People aren’t as tolerant about this kind of thing anymore,” said Paul Warner, the U.S. Attorney for Utah. 

After flagging down the passing car, the couple told the car’s driver that people on the bus were trying to kill them, McCleve said. 

The driver took the couple to a gas station and gave them money. The couple then jumped into a tractor-trailer which drove them to Salt Lake City. The driver called 911 while the couple were outside the cab. 

It was not clear if Matzek had a weapon, though some of the passengers said he had threatened them with a bomb, McCleve said. A check of the bus turned up no explosives. 

Earlier this month, a Croatian man slashed the neck of a Greyhound bus driver in Tennessee, causing a crash that killed seven passengers. 

Shelving storage is the one thing in most American homes that — as the song says — “there’s just too little of.” Not enough closet space, not enough shelf space. Simply nowhere to put anything. 

There are companies that are making millions selling storage systems in every size, shape and form that can help you make the most out of every inch of available space. We often have mentioned closet systems in our articles and how they can substantially increase the amount of “usable” storage space at your place. But we haven’t spent enough time in the garage or garden. These locations also are very important. 

Every time we’ve moved into a new home, we’ve followed the same setup routine. The first order of business always has been to organize the garage for maximum storage — installing shelving and a workbench. Once the garage has been organized, moving into the rest of the house is a breeze. 

In the past we built our shelves and workbench ourselves. We fired up the pickup and made a trip to the local lumberyard where we got the needed plywood, 2x4’s, brackets, braces and screws. At this point we were able to begin personalizing every available inch of our new garage. Unfortunately, we have recently discovered that built-in plywood shelving isn’t always the most practical alternative. Yes, it is inexpensive and sturdy and it can be fabricated to exactly fit our personal needs, but once it’s in, it’s kind of permanent, and changing the configuration can get complicated. 

Metal shelving always has been available, but was expensive and required hours of assembly. Times have changed. We’ve discovered that you can now buy prefabricated steel shelving that’s improved over what it used to be. It is lightweight, easy to assemble, strong and, best of all, you don’t need a truck to get it home. Even with all the advancements, we still want to offer an idea or two and a few precautions about installing prefab shelving of any kind. 

First, we want to tell you about the shelving itself, and why it interests us. By volume, steel is heavier than wood. But when it comes to sheer strength a tiny piece of steel will hold more than a gigantic piece of wood. Therefore, a lightweight steel frame can hold as much as — or more than — a heavy set of wood shelves. So, with steel, “lightweight” doesn’t mean weak. 

Older-style metal shelf systems were heavy and the ends of the assembly parts were sharp. One could easily be cut. This is no longer a problem. We have found the components to be smooth. And, best of all, at least for the systems we looked at, you won’t need nuts, bolts or washers to connect everything. Just stand four uprights on end and intersect them with interlocking shelves. You might need a rubber mallet, or a hammer and a block of wood, to firmly seat the shelves into the uprights. Even better, shelves can be added, removed or adjusted to satisfy changing storage needs. 

Take certain precautions regardless of what your shelving is made of — wood, steel or plastic. If it’s freestanding it can get top-heavy and topple over. And top-heavy or not, your shelving should be anchored to the wall for safety’s sake, especially if you live in earthquake country.  

Using approved connectors and heavy screws will hold everything safely against the wall no matter what the condition. Later, if you want to relocate a shelf all you’ll have to do is loosen a couple of screws. 

This type of shelving is usually about a foot deep and 6-feet to 7-feet tall. In the past we have connected two sets of shallow shelving to create one set of 2-foot-deep shelves.  

Just place one set of shelves immediately in front of the other, and clamp the two together with two or three self-taping sheet-metal screws. Takes about 10 seconds and holds like a welded joint. And disassembly is even quicker. 

Back to workbenches. Today’s workbenches range from a piece of plywood and a pair of sawhorses to fancy cabinetry topped with countertops made of everything from particleboard to steel. You also can purchase kits that allow you to assemble a modest-sized bench that contains locking cabinets, a small storage closet with a pegboard backing and shelving above. For more tips and information, check our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

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Readers can mail questions to: On the House, APNewsFeatures, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020, or e-mail Careybro(at)onthehouse.com. To receive a copy of On the House booklets on plumbing, painting, heating/cooling or decks/patios, send a check or money order payable to The Associated Press for $6.95 per booklet and mail to: On the House, PO Box 1562, New York, NY 10016-1562, or through these online sites: www.onthehouse.com or apbookstore.com. 

Esopus Spitzenberg — what a name for an apple! Nonetheless, this is a variety of apple you might just want to plant. 

This apple originated in Esopus, N.Y., and was grown in New York and surrounding states even before 1800. Spitz is little known today, so you have to grow it to eat it. It has left its legacy in some offspring: the Jonathan apple, and Jonathan’s increasingly popular offspring, Jonagold. 

More than 100 years ago, Spitz was an apple held in high esteem. One of the first things Thomas Jefferson did after returning from France was to order a dozen trees of Spitz, his favorite apple, for Monticello. Andrew Jackson Downing (in “The Fruit and Fruit Trees of North America,” 1845) considered Spitz to be “unsurpassed as a dessert fruit.” Besides its excellent flavor, this variety shipped and stored well. 

But Spitz does have its shortcomings. This variety is very susceptible to apple scab disease, which defaces the fruit and makes it inedible. The tree also does not bear particularly heavy crops, and requires a moderately moist, moderately fertile soil. 

The tree fell out of favor as a commercial variety not only for the above reasons, but also because of its appearance. Through the 20th century, the trend was to market apples that were pure red (and more recently, pure green or pure yellow). Spitz’s skin is yellow, splashed liberally with bright red and occasional streaks of dark red. Ironically, 19th-century writers considered this apple to be particularly beautiful. 

Backyard fruits that get less pest control sprays than commercial fruits are apt to be less handsome than they could be. A backyard Spitz might have a few dark splotches of sooty mold, clusters of small black dots from fly speck disease, and occasional lesions of apple scab.  

This cosmetic damage seems acceptable when you realize that less than a half-dozen sprays are needed to produce perfectly edible apples in the backyard.  

Commercial apple growers, in contrast, must spray their apples every two weeks throughout the growing season, beginning before the apples come into blossom. 

You can scrub off sooty mold and fly speck, both of which are only superficial blemishes, to let the beautiful skin of Spitz come into full view. Beneath the skin is the exquisite flesh, which is yellowish, firm, and just a little juicy. The flavor is rich and brisk — delicious, with a bit of history in each bite. 

Here’s a comparison of what decorators Jane Bell Cammarata and Linda Clay estimate it would cost to buy items at a flea market to furnish a child’s room, and what the same items might cost new or at an antiques store (their purchases were hypothetical): 

- The 7- by 9-foot needlepoint rug would cost $50 at the sale; on the market, expect to spend $300 or more. 

- Slant-top desk would be a bargain at $75; a new one would probably cost about $600. 

- Yellow cabinet with glass doors would cost the decorators $125; market price for a similar item would be about $700. 

- A small lamp would go for $15 at the sale; new, it would run about $100. 

- Three pictures at the sale have an estimated cost of $20; if new, $100. 

- Two window treatments could be conjured up by the decorators from a $10 price for drapery remnants; similar new ones would be about $550. 

- The rush-seat stool would go for $7; new, it would be $45. 

- A $1 basket at the sale would cost about $10 in a store. 

- The child’s rocker picked up for $25 would cost $125 retail. 

- Bed linens, which the women say they could get for $20, would run around $200 new. 

- And the bird cage, priced at $30 for the sale, would cost around $90. 

Estimated flea market costs: $378 

Estimated retail costs: $2,820 

Estimated savings: $2,442 

CASCO, Maine — Sebago Lake, which provides drinking water to Maine’s largest city as well as recreation to boaters and swimmers, is on the front lines of the state’s war against an aquatic invader. 

One type of milfoil already has a foothold and it’s feared a more aggressive variety, Eurasian milfoil, could take root. 

Environmental officials have plenty of cause for worry because fast-growing milfoil can easily overwhelm lakes and ponds. Some fear the unsightly plants can reduce shorefront property values and hurt Maine’s $8 billion tourism industry. 

Maine, Wyoming and Montana are the only places in the continental United States that have avoided infestation of the dreaded Eurasian milfoil so far. 

But with credible evidence of variable milfoil in 10 bodies of water in central and southern Maine and a boat on Crystal Lake found with Eurasian milfoil fragments hanging from its exhaust cover, the threat of infestation is all too real. 

“We have every reason to expect it is coming,” said Martha Kirkpatrick, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. 

Variable milfoil and Eurasian milfoil take root on the lake’s floor and grow upward, forming mats on the surface that can be dense enough for birds to walk on water. 

Prevention appears to be the best defense since both varieties can be resistant to efforts to control them. 

Toward that end, the state has launched a public information campaign: Toll collectors warn motorists entering the state with boats. Warning signs are posted at border crossings. TV ads remind boaters to be vigilant. 

Gov. Angus King signed a law requiring stickers on all motor boats using inland waters. The fees — $10 for Maine boats and $20 for out-of-state registrations — will help pay for the fight against invasive plants. The sticker program begins Jan. 1. 

This summer, the Portland Water District, several state agencies and the Volunteer Lakes Monitoring Program tackled variable milfoil with PVC-coated screens. 

The so-called benthic barriers, which block sunlight to variable milfoil, were to be installed around the state park boat launch to create a 100-foot milfoil-free passageway to the main channel. But a diver discovered that the infestation was more extensive that first thought, and now other options are being considered, said Roberta Hill, education coordinator for the water district. 

Some options include creating a longer weed-free channel with benthic barriers, employing an inspector to check for plant fragments left on boats and equipment, and moving the boat launch if the area is too infested to manage. 

The worst-case scenario Hill hopes to avoid is mechanical harvesting, a labor intensive and costly solution used in some states with the worst infestations. Barges outfitted with a cutter similar to those used to harvest hay may clear areas for boating and swimming, but ultimately can make the infestation worse by spreading plant fragments, Hill said. 

New Hampshire abandoned mechanical harvesting in the 1970s. 

“During the ’60s we used harvesting but found it was like getting a haircut: it would come back up again,” said Jody Connor, a biologist with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. 

Much of New Hampshire’s funds now goes to chemical herbicides, a method shunned on Sebago because it is the source of drinking water for 170,000 people, or about 15 percent of the Vermont population. 

In Wisconsin, the Lake Pewaukee Sanitary District, west of Milwaukee, gave up on chemical treatments because they killed native species along with milfoil. Instead, the district regularly harvests milfoil on about 300 of the lake’s nearly 2,500 acres during the summer months. 

“We’re harvesting every day, 40 hours a week at a minimum,” said Charlie Shong, the district’s superintendent. Last year, the district harvested about 102 dump truck loads of milfoil, Shong said. 

Other techniques used to manage milfoil include introducing fish or aquatic insects that can curb the plant’s growth. 

Weevils, aquatic insects whose larvae eat the leaf tissue and burrow into stems, are used in Michigan, Vermont, Wisconsin, Illinois and New York. Minnesota has had some success but the insects are sometimes devoured by fish before they can do their job, state biologist Wendy Crowell said. 

The prospect of such serious infestations in Maine feeds the fear in officials and sports fishermen alike. 

David Garcia, owner of Naples Bait and Tackle, has fished through thick milfoil in New York’s Catskills. He had to create openings in the milfoil with a long-handled rake to get his line into the water. 

“It would be like trying to get a comb through your hair if you had bubble gum in it,” he said. 

The Eurasian milfoil was found in July when a boat with plant fragments was launched into Crystal Lake in Gray. It will be a year or two before biologists can determine whether the plant has established itself. 

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On the Net: 

Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program: http://www.mainevolunteerlakemonitors.org 

Maine Department Environmental Protection’s invasive plants: http://www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/topic/invasive.htm 

End Adv for Sunday, Oct. 14, and thereafter 

What colors make you happy? Which ones help you relax after a busy day? The colors you choose to decorate with really do influence your emotions. 

To stimulate conversation when guests visit, for example, choose active colors such as red, yellow and orange, which inspire camaraderie and an upbeat attitude. 

Colors play off your mood in three basic ways — active, passive and neutral. These are important factors when choosing colors for various rooms and how you plan to use those rooms in your home. 

Accents of red can greet guests in an entry or add a cozy touch to a den. Yellows, good for home offices and kitchens, can inspire creativity. 

Need a room to rejuvenate your soul? Passive colors, such as blue, green and purple, help pacify and restore. They work well in bedrooms or restful sitting rooms. If, however, your home is in a cold climate, the cool colors might be too “chilly,” so you might want to add some visual warmth with sunny accents to spark your spirit. 

Neutral colors, such as beige, gray, white and taupe, help bridge other colors and rooms. Dark neutrals tone down other colors, while crisp white intensifies them. 

What power do various colors have in home decorating? Their strength might surprise you. Some clues: 

—Pink: soothes; promotes affability and affection. 

—Yellow: expands the space, cheers your spirit; increases energy. 

—Black: disciplines, authorizes, strengthens what’s around it; encourages independence. 

—White: purifies, energizes, unifies; in combination, makes all other colors stronger. 

—Orange: cheers, commands; stimulates appetites and conversation. 

—Red: empowers, stimulates, dramatizes; symbolizes passion. 

—Green: balances, normalizes, refreshes; encourages emotional growth. 

—Purple: comforts, spiritualizes; creates mystery and draws out intuition. 

—Blue: relaxes, refreshes, cools; produces tranquil feelings and peaceful moods. 

Don’t be shy about playing with color. Choosing compatible colors is as easy as taking a look at the color wheel. It’s a cinch when you choose similar or analogous colors, those located side-by-side on the color wheel. Simply choose a favorite color as your main one, then look on either side of it for accent colors. 

For choosing high-energy schemes, consider complementary colors, hues opposite each other on the color wheel. Red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple are examples. In these schemes, warm and cool hues play off each other for interesting results. 

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“Better Homes and Gardens New Decorating Book” (Meredith Books, $34.95).

SACRAMENTO – State power officials plan to begin renegotiating billions of dollars worth of long-term energy contracts, which an administration official says commit the state to buying more power than it needs. 

Critics say the contracts, arranged during the height of the energy crisis, are overpriced and contain questionable clauses, including one that prevents the state from seeking federal price reviews. 

The 53 contracts, worth at least $43 billion, vary in length from a few months to 10 years and in one case, for 20 years. Gov. Gray Davis pursued the contracts to secure the state’s energy supplies and avoid more blackouts like those that plagued California six days this year. 

Davis says the contracts drove down the wholesale cost of power and saved the state money, since it didn’t have to buy expensive energy on the spot market. 

But the contracts, signed at the peak of the power crisis, locked California into overly high prices, critics say. Those prices will then be passed to customers of San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. 

The state has bought power for the three utilities since January, when they were unable to buy power on their own after months of record-high wholesale electricity prices wrecked their credit ratings. 

Administration officials said Thursday they would discuss their renegotiating strategy Friday. 

The move to renegotiating comes after the Department of Water Resources chief warned the state’s new power authority not to seek any more long-term deals. 

DWR Director Thomas Hannigan told Power Authority chairman S. David Freeman in an Oct. 4 memo that “contracting for substantial additional supplies may lead to unnecessary costs for Californians.” 

The state has excess power lined up, especially in Southern California, Hannigan said. The authority should line up any new supplies for Northern California and closely coordinate that with DWR. 

So far, the authority has signed letters of intent to buy electricity from a dozen wind generators, but Hannigan said those arrangements could exceed the state’s ability to absorb the power and be incompatible with other resources. 

Power Authority spokeswoman Amber Pasricha said the two agencies are working together and that a DWR representative highlighted the memo’s points during the Oct. 5 Power Authority board meeting. 

A recent private study found that at least eight of the contracts cost too much and should be immediately renegotiated, because they will saddle customers with 10 years of high prices and require buying too much energy for too much money. The study was sponsored by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies. 

Because out-of-state power wholesalers “are desperate to cut deal,” said consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, the state has an “excellent” chance to renegotiate. 

Wholesalers, Rosenfield said, “could renegotiate these contracts and still walk out with billions in profits.” 

Rosenfield’s group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, has long criticized the contracts and the secrecy surrounding them. The contracts’ details were released only after lawsuits by Republican lawmakers and several news organizations, including the Associated Press. 

Rosenfield criticized a clause in some contracts that bars the state from seeking price reviews by federal regulators who are charged with overseeing wholesale energy costs. 

One wholesaler, Houston-based Dynegy Inc., hasn’t been asked to renegotiate the contracts with the state but is willing to talk about it, spokesman Steve Stengel said. 

“We would be willing to discuss renegotiating the contracts, if it was mutually beneficial to each party,” he said.

LOS ANGELES – For much of the 1990s, California’s economy was the envy of the nation. High-tech gold was being mined in the north while tourists flocked to the beaches and resorts in the south. 

California provided the nation with a bounty of agricultural products and fed the culture with movies and television shows. 

Now the state is reeling from major blows to its tech, power and tourism sectors – any one of which might have been enough to send most states and even many countries into a recessionary tailspin. 

But unlike past downturns, California’s problems are not expected to shake the rest of the nation. Instead, economists say its troubles are mostly reflections of existing national trends. 

“Historically, what happened to California would happen to the rest of the country in three, six or nine months,” said Fariborz Ghadar, director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. 

That’s not the case this time, he said. 

California’s power woes are fairly unique, the result of failed deregulation. The tech downturn hit many other parts of the country at the same time as California, and the slump in tourism has also been felt strongly in Florida, Washington and New York. 

“At this point, we’re in the same national boat,” said Steven Sheffrin of the University of California Davis Center for State and Local Taxation. “I don’t see (the rest of the country) looking at California and worrying about what is going on.” 

The state’s problems have been brewing for several years. 

The technology meltdown that started in 1999 devastated northern California, home to Silicon Valley. Earlier this year, a power crisis gripped the state, plunging historic San Francisco and posh Beverly Hills into darkness for hours at a time and sending one of the nation’s oldest public utilities into bankruptcy. 

And on Sept. 11, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington sent a ripple across the country that overnight pulled the rug from under California’s tourism industry and threatens to saddle the state with billions of dollars in unanticipated security and other costs. 

“California has been hit disproportionally hard with a one-two-three punch,” said Tappan Monroe, senior vice president and chief economist at Applied Development Economics, a consulting firm in Berkeley. 

Most economists agree the state, like the rest of the country, is in a mild recession that could last well into next year. 

But despite continuing national uncertainty, California could recover relatively quickly if consumers regain confidence and start spending. Lower interest rates and the economic stimulus package being debated in Congress could also aid the recovery. 

Meanwhile, demand for housing remains strong while supply is tight, leading state real estate agents to predict record home prices next year. 

Another factor aiding California is its diversified economy – the fifth largest in the world if measured alone – which essentially is split between the northern and southern halves of the state. 

A decade ago, high-tech companies dominated the San Francisco Bay Area, while defense and aerospace companies fueled the powerful economic engine in Southern California, especially in the Los Angeles area. California-based industry provided jobs and exercised influence across the nation. 

The end of the Cold War and the 1991 economic recession devastated Southern California, which lost more than 400,000 defense-related jobs. And while the rest of the country began its recovery after about a year, Southern California struggled along for more than three years. 

“Northern California got the brunt of the tech upturn in the late 1990s and bore the brunt of the tech downturn,” said Michael Bazdarich, director of the Forecasting Center at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California Riverside. 

Signs of strength are emerging in other parts of the state. 

Tulare County, nestled in the center of the state, is home to some of the richest farmland in the nation, producing more milk than any other area in the country. 

It also produces jobs at a rate good enough to make it No. 1 in job growth in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Tulare County still has an unemployment rate of 12 percent compared to the state’s 5.4 percent. But officials there are hopeful. 

“There seems to be a sense of optimism,” said Paul Saldana, president of the Tulare County Economic Development Corp.

A group of Berkeley High School students held a sparsely attended, but spirited anti-war rally Wednesday in the fading afternoon light of Civic Center Park. They had been denied permission two weeks earlier to hold such an event inside the high school grounds, across the street. 

As part of the demonstration, sophomore Mollie Dutton Starbuck read a letter addressed to “Resident Bush.” 

“The terrorists want holy war, and that is what you want to give them,” she said. “Holy war, an oxymoron from the oxiest of morons: You.”  

Members of Students Halt Revenge and War Under Bush, or SHRUB – a play on one of the President’s nicknames – read poems and played electric guitars and local elected officials spoke. Students took turns reading famous quotes from Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Khalil Gibran and other thinkers and peace advocates. 

Clutching a written statement, junior Jessica Malachowski chided those who think they can’t make a difference. 

“I’ll tell you what you can do,” she said. “You can raise your voice against this war. Your silence means the death of innocent people. How would you like to be the one who pulled the trigger on those homeless children and oppressed women?” 

She lowered her notes to her side. “Do you still think your voice can’t do anything?” she said. “Want to know who said this? I did.” 

Alfonso Alamar, a junior, read Rep. Barbara Lee’s., D–Oakland, speech to the House of Representatives defending her vote against giving the administration broad war powers, and Diane Douglas, the lead organizer of the rally, read a scathing open letter to Bush from TV and film director Michael Moore. 

“Don’t sink to these mass murders’ levels,” the letter said, among other, less polite instructions. 

Three leaders of SHRUB – Douglas, Sarah Price, and Mollie Dutton Starbuck – are also members of a rock band, “Corrupting the Masses.” Taking up their purple instruments, drums and amps, they played anti-war songs written by Douglas: “Feed the Fire” and “Dollar Bill.” 

Non-students also addressed the small gathering. Steve Philandrinos from Global Exchange, the San Francisco-based human rights and cultural exchange organization, called on Americans to “be consistent in their values” by mourning for “hundreds of thousands of dead in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan,” the blame for which he placed at the doorstep of the U.S. government. 

“They must also demand justice for victims of U.S. crimes,” Philandrinos said. “Can we train military governments in terrorism and then ask why we are victims of terrorism?” 

Holding a large national flag on a pole, School Board President Terry Doran urged students to “take back this flag from false patriots who drive around in their cars and SUVs and claim it represents lockstep adherence” to the administration’s war agenda. He encouraged them to “make this flag a symbol of our right to be here today,” rather than one of war, and to say the Pledge of Allegiance with different wording if that better reflected their own patriotism. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington spoke briefly about the resolution the council passed Tuesday night, which called for a halt to the bombing of Afghanistan. He thanked the students for “getting an early start on being outstanding citizens of Berkeley.” 

In spite of warm, breezy sunshine, the crowd was thin. Only about 20 people, mostly adults, sat on the grass within 50 feet of the stage, which was at the edge of the central fountain plaza. Further back, scattered clumps of students played hack-sack or stood together talking. Not everyone agreed with the rally’s message. 

“I’m a radical liberal and I’m for the war,” said Nicholas Easterday, also a junior. “No one is giving a constructive solution to what we should do. Until they do that, I still support what we do. I think it’s kind of a reactionary liberal response to spew rhetoric and not offer a solution.” 

“I think it’s sad they didn’t get a bigger student turnout,” said Andrew Gruen, a junior. “It’s sad how apathetic students are.” 

“I think there were less people in the park than normal today,” said junior James Foley. 

“We usually go to the UC (demonstrations), said Gruen. “This is kind of new to see, organized by a couple of girls that go to the school.” 

Tim Condit, 63, a self-described lifelong Berkeley resident, Marine Corps veteran and witness to Vietnam-era protests, said today’s educational and media climate discouraged debate and involvement. 

“People were more used to discussing politics back then,” he said. “It makes it harder for these people to organize because their peers don’t want to talk about anything. They’re thinking: ‘Will we be tested on this?’” 

The rally ended after an hour with Douglas playing “Imagine” by John Lennon on her electric guitar. Behind her, on the stone edge of the fountain, Alamar, who read Barbara Lee’s statement, and Jaana Humlie, a senior who read an original poem, swayed together and looked off at the waning sun.

No time is ever a good time for a football team to lose its starting quarterback. But when Cal’s head coach, Tom Holmoe, announced that his starter, junior Kyle Boller, would miss the Bears’ game this Saturday, it was a huge blow for both team and player. 

The Bears head down to Pasadena on Saturday to face UCLA, possibly their toughest test of the season. The fourth-ranked Bruins have the top defense in the Pac-10 Conference. Now Cal, which hasn’t exactly lit up the scoreboard while getting off to a 0-5 start, will play without Boller. 

Boller aggravated a back injury suffered during training camp against Oregon on last Saturday, waking up with pain and numbness in his legs. The injury has been diagnosed as a disc injury, with Boller scheduled to have an MRI on Wednesday for further evaluation. 

Holmoe said Boller has taken two epidurals (an injection of fluid into the spine, most often used on pregnant women to lessen pain during childbirth) for the injury this season, including one during training camp and one during the team’s bye week after a loss to BYU. 

“Kyle is not playing in the game. He’s injured and he’s had a bad back for most of the season,” Holmoe said. “He was sore after the game, but he woke up the next day and was really sore.” 

Boller will not practice at all this week and will be re-evaluated next week. 

Boller’s injury hands the offensive reins to backup quarterback, Eric Holtfreter.  

Holtfreter has appeared in several games this season in relief of Boller, completing 52.1 percent (25-of-48) of his passes for 313 yards but throwing four interceptions and just one touchdown. The junior-college transfer is in his second and final year with the Bears, and has gotten an unusually high percentage of snaps in practice for a backup this year. 

“(Holtfreter) has had a lot more reps this year in practice than he did in the past,” Holmoe said. “Al (Borges, Cal’s offensive coordinator) tries to get the second quarterback a considerable amount of reps, it’s not a 50-50 proposition, but Eric is prepared.” 

Holtfreter’s backup will be redshirt freshman Reggie Robertson, who has yet to appear in a game for Cal. Holmoe said the third quarterback spot is up in the air, but one option that won’t be used is true freshman Richard Schwartz. 

“We will not pull someone out of a redshirt year,” Holmoe said. “Maybe (backup defensive back) Adam Sugarman will be the backup. He was a high school quarterback and he’s got a great head on his shoulders. If anyone can do it and not panic, he can.”

Thursday, Oct. 18

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life, speaks on “Rekindling Conversation.” 549-3509 www.seedsofsimplicity.org 

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 

Albany YMCA’s Kids’ Club Walk to Raise Money For YMCA New York Relief Fund 

3 p.m. 

Y-Kids Walk is an annual fundraising event for the Albany YMCA Kids Club. This year half of the proceeds will be sent to the YMCA of New York. Once the kids arrive at Live Oak Park, they will participate in a Halloween Carnival complete with games and prizes. 549-4524 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson, is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the Mistress of Ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Hills Emergency Forum 

10 - 11 a.m . 

Joaquin Miller Community Center 

3946 Sanbord Dr., Oakland 

Annual meeting to discuss progress made in reducing and managing risks associated with wildland fires in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. 893-9888 

Saturday, Oct. 20

Private Elementary School Panel Discussion and Fair 

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

College Avenue Presbyterian Church 

5951 College Ave. 

Parents representing 12 selected schools will discuss issues parents encounter when searching for private elementary schools, including the admissions process. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network. Open to the public. $5 - $10. 527-6667 www.parentsnet.org 

UC Berkeley Community Action Day 

9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Haste and Hillegass avenues 

Over 300 students, faculty, staff, alumni, community members, and student groups will participate in an all day event, carrying out service projects throughout the city. 643-0306 kinyon@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that week be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Symposium on New Science of Aging 

10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Valley Life Sciences Building 

Room 2040 

UC Berkeley 

Lectures by prominent gerontologists and industry scientists will featured, plus leading biotechnology companies and research institutions will provide information about their research programs in aging and will discuss opportunities for collaboration and employment. 486-6096 http://crea.berkeley.edu/ 

Historical Society Walking Tour 

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society 

1931 Center St. 

Patrick Keilch will lead tour of the Berkeley Hills and relate his hands-on experiences and observations from the wildfire of 1991. 848-0181 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Berkeley High School 

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High School 

1950 Derby St. 

Academic Workshop for parents on the graduation requirements for Berkeley High School. 644-8524 

Oakland Hills Fire Commemorative Walk and Pot Luck Dinner 

5 -9 p.m. 

5999 Grizzly Peak 

Walk led by Oakland Fire Department and CORE graduates. Participants should bring pot luck dishes to feed eight guests. 273-9111 www.nhphoenix.org 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. 

The Hall of Health 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

The Kids on the Block perform two shows to promote acceptance and understanding of cultural and medical differences. 549-1564 

Discussion of Current Legal Issues 

9 a.m. - 11 p.m. 

Boalt Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Top litigators, legal scholars and media experts participate in several panels discussions concerning some of the nation’s most closely watched legal issues. 643-6673 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 through 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Fall House Tour 

1 - 5 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

Claremont Blvd. & Russell St.  

This year’s tour “Around the Claremont Hotel” features ten houses in the historic neighborhood of residences and gardens that surround the landscaped park of the hotel. There will be a reception at one of the houses. $30. 845-8507 

Third Annual Sisters of Fire Awards 

3 - 6 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church of Oakland 

14th and Castro St. 

The Women of Color Resource Center will honor Congresswoman Barbara Lee with an award for Courage and Conscience. This year’s program, “Forward from Durban: Raising Women’s Voices Against War and Racism,” will also feature reports from women who traveled to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. $15 - $50 sliding scale. 848-9272 www.coloredgirls.org 

Run for Peace 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Berkeley Marina 

Participants can choose 10 K run, 5 K run or 5K walk. $18 per participant. For registration form call 849-1742 or e-mail unarunforpeace@yahoo.com 

Monday, Oct 22

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Interfaith Couples Look at Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 23

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Similarities between Jewish and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

Editor: 

Passing this resolution once again puts Berkeley in the national spot light. Again it creates a focus on the ideology of the council members who voted for it – how ever irrelevant it is to the immediate needs of running this city.  

The main issue here is that it’s not city’s business, and passing these dramatic declarations creates a general opinion of the city and it’s residents that may not be accurate and is really a reflection of the personal political and ideological perspectives of the council members. 

This is pure and simple opinionated arrogance and rather pointless jargonistic nonsense. It’s one thing to pass a resolution that simply shows compassion and support for people affected by these tragic events but many of the items outlined are about making policy that the council has little clarity, knowledge or historical perspective on and can have virtually no affect on changing. 

Why can’t the council put their energies into making Berkeley a cleaner, better, safer place to live for all its residents and get off the national political and ideological band wagon that is self serving and not really focused on making my life and kids lives function better on a day to day basis. 

Hey, I’m a child of the 60s, been in Berkeley my whole life, I was at People’s Park in 1969. I’ve seen all sides, all opinions. I’m inclusive - you got to be to live in Berkeley.  

Let’s keep open minds here! and I mean the minds of the council members who think they always know best on every issue.  

Passing national policy declarations like this show how we can tell everyone else “that Berkeley knows better” - when we don’t really know anything. 

Steven Donaldson 

Berkeley 

MUSIC 

924 Gilman St. Oct. 19: W.H.N.?, Jellyroll Rockheads, Ex-Claim, Crucial Attack, Sharp Knife; Oct. 21: 5 p.m. Throwdown, Martyr A.D., Bleeding Through, Everytime I Die, Fate 13; Oct. 26: Influents, Plus Ones, Divit, Summerjack, Robot Adrenaline, Claredon Hills; Oct. 27: (Halloween show, $1 off if you’re in a (non-punk) costume!) Babyland, Tsunami Bomb, Scissor Hands, Dexter Danger; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Ashkenaz Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 18: Ascension, $5; Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Oct. 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30; Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

THEATER 

“Prometeh in Evin” Oct. 28: 8 p.m., A drama about political prisoners in Iran, performed by the brave and innovative Parsian Group. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. $25, Children, $15 2640 College Ave 845.8542 www.juliamorgan.org. 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 though Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 though Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail .com 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

FILMS 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey” Oct. 20: 1 p.m. The documentary chronicles Bunche, who rose to become Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, where he helped to bring about the Armistice in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. $8. Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak Street Oakland, 652-3192 

EXHIBITS 

“First Annual Art Show” UC Berkeley Life Drawing Group Reception, Oct. 20: 3 p.m.; Oct. 21- 26: 7 - 10 p.m. Figure studies from the workshops at UC Berkeley. 1014 60th St., Emeryville. 923-0689 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

READINGS 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct. 18: Suzanne Antoneta & Micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; Oct. 26 Sage Cohen & Mari L’esperance read their poetry; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature” 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Ecology Center Oct. 22: 7 - 9 p.m. Toby Hemenway presents a slideshow and reads from “Gaia’s Garden: A guide to Home Scale Permaculture”; 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-220 x233 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, 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; Oct. 21: United Nations Day; Oct. 25: A Storytelling Pajama Party, 6 - 7 p.m.; Oct. 27: 4th Annual Habitot Halloween; Oct. 28: Family Arts Day; Oct. 31: Sugar-Art Halloween Frosting; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot 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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. 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  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

After a bitter process, the City Council finalized the revised council districts Tuesday, then immediately put them in jeopardy by approving a plan that could alter the city’s political landscape by creating a district where students are in control. 

After finalizing the new district boundaries, the council resurrected the idea of a student-led district, a plan the council was unable – because of City Charter constraints – to consider when it voted on the new boundaries.  

Tuesday, the council adopted a plan where students and community would work together to write a charter amendment to create a student-dominated district. The amendment would go before the voters in November 2002. 

A divided council approved the proposed plan by a 5-2-2 vote with councilmembers Miriam Hawley and Betty Olds voting in opposition and Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Polly Armstrong abstaining. The proposed charter amendment plan will come back to council on Oct. 30 for further discussion and possible approval. 

The conceptual plan approved Tuesday, submitted by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, calls for the formation of a council subcommittee to work with student representatives, property owners, neighborhood groups and local businesses to formulate a student district plan, which will be presented to voters as a charter amendment. 

A charter amendment is necessary to create the student district because districts 7 and 8 will have to be significantly reconfigured, and the charter allows only minimum changes to existing district boundary lines.  

For that reason, a redistricting proposal, submitted by the Associated Students of the University of California in August, was not considered by the council during the recently-completed redistricting process. 

Dean said she was surprised by the Worthington recommendation because she had been led to believe from a telephone conversation with the ASUC Vice President of External Affairs Josh Fryday that the existing plan would be presented to the council to be put on the March ballot. 

After the council approved the plan, Dean confronted Fryday outside the Council Chambers. “Everybody thought you wanted to put the ASUC plan on the ballot,” Dean said. “We’re trying to work with you and then we get punched in the head.” 

Armstrong, who failed to carry a substitute motion, which would have put the existing student plan on the March ballot, said if students wait until November to put the revised proposal on the ballot, the earliest a student would be able to run for election would be 2004. 

Fryday said he didn’t think it was prudent to put the existing student plan on the March ballot and that the plan would stand a better chance of approval if it contained community input. He said changing the charter is the critical thing. 

“Students are always going to be here,” he said. “I want a student district as soon as possible and having a better plan is the best way to do that.” 

Dean said Wednesday that the students were “manipulated” by the council’s progressive faction. She said the progressives have two goals: Protecting Worthington in District 7 and not alienating the student vote. 

“This plan precludes a student running against Councilmember Worthington in District 7 in November,” she said. “And I can’t believe that the students are so gullible that they decided to roll over and play dead for their own cause.” 

Worthington dismissed Dean’s statements as more of her “incessant political attacks.” He added that if the students did put their plan on the March ballot, as the moderates suggested, it would likely fail because of the traditional low-voter turnout for primary elections. 

He said even if the student plan “defied logic” and did win in March, it could be rendered obsolete by ongoing efforts to correct a census blunder that resulted in an undercount of approximately 4,000 Berkeley residents, mostly students. The City Charter requires districts to be redrawn with the most recent census numbers. 

Worthington added that he has consistently supported students by appointing them to commissions and boards, which are considered a training ground for potential councilmembers.  

“Dean didn’t appoint any students during her first 17 years in office and in the last couple of years she generally has one student, one Asian and one Latino,” he said. “I call that institutionalized tokenism.” 

If the student plan is approved as a charter amendment, students will face the difficult task of demonstrating to Berkeley residents why students, largely transitory residents who don’t own property, should be involved in city politics. 

“That’s the main reason why we want to take our time,” Fryday said, “we want to put forward a plan that everybody will be comfortable with.” 

SAN JOSE – The University of California women’s volleyball team lost a disappointing match to host San Jose State, 3-0 (30-21, 30-28, 30-27), Tuesday night at The Event Center on San Jose State’s campus.  

The Bears, who had substantial leads during the contest, were led by freshman Mia Jerkov’s 15 kills, while junior outside hitter Leah Young added 11 kills and junior Reena Pardiwala had a team-high 13 digs.  

San Jose State’s top hitter was Liz Hudson with 18 kills and the Spartans out hit Cal, .271 to .181.  

The Bears (5-10) let the first game slip away. Cal had a 10-8 lead on a Jerkov kill, but had a let down after that and fell behind 21-14 and could never rebound, losing 30-21. Jerkov led the Bears with five kills and Pardiwala had five digs in game one.  

Game two was even a worse case of Cal falling apart. The Bears held a 22-12 lead, only to see the Spartans go on a 9-0 run to get within 22-21. From there the two teams were tied six times, before San Jose State’s Brianna Blair’s service ace gave the Spartans (16-3) a 28-27 lead. A Cal hitting error gave SJS a 29-27 lead, followed by a Gabrielle Abernathy kill to get the Bears within 29-28, only to see Young’s kill attempt go long to lose the game, 30-28. Jerkov led Cal with six kills in game two.  

The Bears did not let a big lead slip away in game three, but still fell 30-27. Cal was down 15-12, but was able to eventually tie the contest, 16-16 on a kill by Abernathy. There were eight more ties before the Bears were able to muster a 26-25 advantage on another kill by Abernathy. San Jose State was able to tie the game at 26-26 when Cal again fell apart, losing points on a missed block attempt and a bad set.  

The Spartans had a net call on a block to get the Bears within 28-27, but a bad pass and finally a kill by San Jose State’s Stephanie Pascucci ended the game and the match.  

Cal will next return to Pac-10 play, hosting Washington State, Friday, Oct. 19 and Washington, Saturday, Oct. 20. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. at Haas Pavilion. The Bears will try to avenge earlier loses this season to the Cougars and Huskies, as Cal fell to the two teams, 3-0, Sept. 20 and 21 in Seattle and Pullman.

Editor 

There are many of us living in Berkeley who are shocked and disappointed that some of our city officials have clearly stepped outside of their elected mandate and have taken it upon themselves to speak for us in matters concerning foreign policy. I have NOT given my vote to any member of this city council to represent my beliefs in matters that are outside of their purview. Foreign policy is definitely something that, as an elected city official, they have no right, whatsoever, to speak for me. I do not recall that any of these council members presented their constituents with a platform that addressed foreign policy. Are we to assume when we voted for them that their responsibilities and expertise would extend so far beyond their duties and jurisdiction? In these matters they are free as private citizens to express their opinions but when they trespass on matters beyond their scope, I believe they abrogate my right as a citizen. It shames me to admit that I live in a city where the local officials have so little concern for the rights of their citizenry. 

Claudia Kawczynska  

Berkeley 

Apparatus Operator Darren Bobrosky, of Berkeley’s Fire Station 5, recently returned from a 10-day stint as a rescue worker in Lower Manhattan. Bobrosky and his partner, Dylan, a highly-trained search and rescue dog, are affiliated with Oakland’s Urban Search and Rescue team, one of the 28 FEMA-affiliated USAR teams nationwide. Following is the second part of Bobrosky’s story, edited by Daily Planet reporter Hank Sims. The first part ran on Wednesday. 

Initially, they didn’t want us there. They didn’t want outside help, and also I don’t think they knew how to use us. They’ve got 13,000 firemen, so they’re used to running their own program.  

I talked to people on some of the first teams that went, and they just got ignored. And that was in prime time – they were there the second day. If there’s going to be anybody alive, you’re going to find them in the first five or six days. But they weren’t being utilized hardly at all. They just sat and waited and hoped they could get some work, while everyone frantically dug through the pile. They didn’t realize that the dogs were such a valuable tool, and we came with equipment and training that would be valuable to the rescue operation. 

Once they figured that out, once some teams got in and got to work, the New York guys found out we weren’t there to take over. We weren’t there to steal any of their authority. By the time I got there, everything was cool. They’d grab us and say: “Hey, we need you guys to look over here. Come with us.” 

These were their brothers. We’re all one big brotherhood, but this was closer to them. A lot of family members of guys who were out there digging are still buried under there. So they had a very personal attachment to getting those guys out. They finally figured out that we had the equipment there with us to help pinpoint better locations to dig. 

New York fire and the police department were handling all the bodies. They were very discreet about it. They’d pull the bodies out, put them in a basket or on a stretcher, cover them up and carry them out. They didn’t make a big deal about it. It was done very low-key, very professionally and it wasn’t observable to anyone, unless you were right there when they found them.  

We didn’t get into any of the body-removal areas. We searched on the perimeter for bits and pieces that they were finding. The dogs were hitting on small body parts and things that had just been destroyed.  

You didn’t see them. The pieces were either so small or so buried that we weren’t supposed to dig anything up, just to mark what we found. 

If we sent one dog into an area and the dog alerted on something, we made a map of the area but we didn’t mark it. We’d send a second dog in, and if that second dog alerted us to the same spot, then we’d mark it. If two dogs hit same spot, it’s confirmed. There’s something there.  

A dog can have a bad day just like we can have a bad day. You’re not having a good day, you’re not performing as well as you should – dogs can do the same. It’s up to the handlers to know if our dogs are performing at the top of their game. You have to be able to read them.  

You need to be honest. You’re going to commit a lot of resources to an area if you say: “Yes, my dog has a scent here – dig here.” If 20 or 30 people come there and dig in that spot and find a salami sandwich, they’re going to be upset. They might force-feed it to you. So if your dog gives a weak alert at a spot and the second dog doesn’t even look at it, you have to figure that it’s nothing. 

Dylan was fine. I didn’t really work him enough to wear him out. When we went to search, he was all over it.  

We had marking tape with us. In the early going, when they were looking for live people, the dog handlers had people standing behind them with tools, ready to dig. With us, it was just the FBI standing there taking pictures of the area, making notes and making sure that the spot was sifted before it got bagged up and hauled away. 

They sent one FBI guy with us everywhere we went, to make sure things didn’t get disturbed, or if there was something that was obviously evidence it got marked. 

We asked him if we could take pictures. He said, “No, it’s a crime scene. That’s a felony.” We said, “OK, no problem.” 

We had a very small amount of free time. Since our mission deteriorated from rescue to recovery, and the immediate need for us was dwindling, they started giving us 24 hours off if they could – although the dogs didn’t really get it, because we needed to have two dogs available at all times, at Queens and Manhattan. 

We did get 12 hours off, and I was able to make it to Central Park. I let Dylan swim around, let him be a dog for a while.  

One night we were able to go by foot to the Empire State Building. It was closed to the public, but with our FEMA I.D.s we got in there, got to go up to the observation deck and look around. Six of us – we walked in, rode up, and there were 10 people on the top. We walked through Times Square, Rockefeller Center – hit all the highlights in the immediate area. We didn’t go out to dinner, because they fed us too well at the site.  

The people were impressed that we were from California, and came all the way across the country to help out. They asked the same questions everyone else asked – “Does your dog wear booties? Why aren’t the dogs wearing the booties we sent?” Everyone in the world wants to know why the dogs don’t wear booties.  

In the end, there were no live finds by the USAR teams. The success story was that some of our dogs found the bodies of the firefighters. That was the big thing, because back there especially, everything was fire-oriented.  

In addition, we found many, many civilians. But the fire department wanted to find their own, and that’s who we were working for. They were pleased that we found civilians, but even more so that we were locating their own. 

It was tough to come back. We still felt we had work to do there. We didn’t get to do much, and in the rescuers’ eyes, there was still a need for us. It was nice to come back because we were tired, physically, but mentally and emotionally we didn’t want to come back. It was bittersweet. It’s tough to leave a job unfinished.

The Cal men’s basketball program received its third oral commitment this week, as Alabama prepster Kennedy Winston said he planned to choose the Bears. 

“They offered me a scholarship and I told them I want to come. As of right now, I’m pretty solid,” Winston said of his choice of Cal following a weekend campus visit. 

Winston, a 6-foot-7 wing player, averaged 25.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 6.3 assists last season, leading Blount High of Pritchard, Ala., to the state’s 5-A title. He is rated as the nation’s No. 32 prospect by The Sporting News, and is considered to be the top prospect in Alabama. 

Winston joins Modesto Christian’s Richard Midgely and David Paris as oral commitments for the Bears. Recruits cannot officially commit until Nov. 14. 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the mayor and council:  

Last night I felt a shudder from the spirit of Mario Savio as our mayor said on television that there are certain issues we must not discuss. And I began to imagine: wouldn’t it be great if instead she had said, “We must speak out – just as Councilmember Spring did last week – sometimes Dona’s not as eloquent as Martin Luther King, Jr. was when he said: 

“A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. 

“Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.” (From a speech delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967.)  

Then I hear the mayor say, “We are in support of Dona’s proposal. We want to work together, take a long look at ourselves and have the courage to make Berkeley a beacon in the search for a just and peaceful world.” 

She could have said that.  

Bonnie Hughes 

Berkeley

One of Berkeley’s medical marijuana clubs was robbed by two gunmen last Friday, according to Berkeley police. 

Lt. Cynthia Harris, BPD spokesperson, said two men entered “The Old Brick House,” a medical marijuana club at 1672 University Ave., around 4:30 p.m. 

Holding the clerks at gunpoint, the two men demanded that they turn over the club’s supply of marijuana and all the cash in the store. The clerks complied. Afterward, the suspects fled in one of the victim’s vehicles. 

The suspects are described as African American males in their 20s. One of them was of heavy build, approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall, 240 pounds, with a shaved head and wearing black pants and a purple shirt. The other suspect was around the same height, of thin build, wearing a beige sweater, black pants and a mustache. 

Though reported robberies at California’s medical marijuana clubs are somewhat rare, they have occurred in the past. Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Co-operative said there have been a few such cases in San Francisco and Oakland in recent years. 

Jones said medical marijuana clubs generally run the same risks that other businesses do, and that some vigilance is called for. (The OCBC recently lost a case in the Supreme Court where it claimed that a medical necessity defense cannot be used to fight federal marijuana charges.) 

“I always tell these groups that there is a risk, and they should put some safeguards in place,” he said. “It’s not just for their own safety, though there is that – it’s also that they should be securing the medicine that their patients need. 

“A lot of the facilities that I’ve visited in San Francisco and the East Bay have safes, or other ways to secure their resources.” 

The people who run the “Old Brick House” club could not be reached for comment.  

The business is now closed, but signs outside say it will be open again next week. It is not known whether they had a security system, or any set procedures in place in case of such an emergency. 

In 1999, the San Francisco Patients’ Resource Center, another club, was held up shortly after it began operating. The thieves made off with $5,000 worth of marijuana and cash. Security personnel were stationed at the club soon after. 

The SFPRC, which is located near San Francisco’s Panhandle, later became a program of the city’s St. Martin de Tours Chapel. Sister Rosemarie, a nun who works at the club, said it was robbed again last March. 

She said in the wake of the recent hold-up, security at the club was tightened again. 

“We already had alarms, but we increased security by firming up entrance facilities,” she said. “We also had a staff training session, where we learned how to do perimeter checks before opening doors and to exercise ‘preventative scrutiny.’”  

Sister Rosemarie said the medicine’s physical availability is also limited to prevent losses, in case of another robbery. 

“We have secure lockdown procedures, including safes and off-site storage,” she said. 

When reached by telephone, a member of the Berkeley Cannabis Co-op, the most prominent of the Berkeley medical marijuana clubs, said that the group’s policy was not to speak to the press. 

Berkeley police were unable to say whether other marijuana clubs in the city have been robbed.

Michael Lawson, who left the Cal basketball program last season before ever playing a game, will redshirt the upcoming season before returning to the team for the 2002-03 season. 

Lawson, a guard from Martinez, enrolled as a full-time student at Diablo Valley Community College in Stockton after withdrawing from Cal before the start of the last school year. Since he did not receive an Associate of Arts, he is ineligible to play the upcoming season according to NCAA regulations. Lawson will rejoin the program as a walk-on.

Editor: 

Bless these people in the Media who are trying to cover the news. Did anyone happen to think of the time it takes to get to the bottom of a problem (Anthrax for one).  

This causes fear. We are headed for being dissolved as a nation (imploded) if we don’t start watching out for our neighbors.  

Compel the news media to get their facts straight (possibly consult with each other as to what and when to report to the tender ears of our citizens).  

People who listen to a number of newspeople with many different concepts forget the basics given. This could cause snowballing of fear and corrupt thinking. 

There are not enough qualified psychiatrists in the world to project the thought that our best protection comes from within ourselves.  

It’s too bad nobody listened to the sole dissenter from this community (Barbara Lee), when we could have concentrated on discussion and protection of OUR OWN country.  

A few admissions of guilt by our leaders wouldn’t be a bad idea either. 

Joy A. Flaherty 

Berkeley

On Sept. 11 Wanda Anita Green and members of the crew and passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 gave their life to save the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of others. Wanda’s family deeply appreciates the expressions of love from the people of our nation and announce plans to celebrate Wanda’s life. Memorial services for Wanda Anita Green will be held Oct. 27 at Evergreen Baptist Church in Oakland at noon. The Rev. Frank Pinkard Jr. will be officiating.  

Wanda’s parents, Francis and Aserene Smith moved to Oakland from Oceanside within the year of her birth on Aug. 22, 1952. Wanda, her identical twin sister Sandra and brother Tommy Smith were raised in West and North Oakland. Wanda’s sister, Sandra Jamerson, now lives in Antioch. Wanda’s parents and brother still live in Oakland. 

Wanda was loved and will be sorely missed by her daughter Jennifer R. Green, 21, son Joe B. Green II, 18, of Linden, N.J. and many other family members and friends. 

For 28 years, Wanda was living her childhood dream of earning her wings and working as a senior flight attendant for United Airlines.  

In celebration of Wanda’s life the family has formed a foundation in her honor that will assist inner-city youth in reaching their dreams with scholarships to support their education and career goals.  

The public is respectfully invited to support this effort in Wanda’s honor: 

Wanda Anita Green Foundation 

c/o Bay Area Urban League 

303 Hegenberger Road, Ste. A. Oakland, CA 94621  

(A United Way Agency-Member) 

The family thanks the public in advance for their support of this celebration of Wanda’s life. 

Sandré R. Swanson, Wanda’s first cousin, is coordinating essential communication for the family and he can be reached at 847-1125 or SRS215@aol.com or by fax 814-0639.

Bay Area deaf women victimized by domestic or sexual abuse have a new way of protecting themselves. 

Deaf Women Against Violence officially introduced a 24-hour teletypewriter, or TTY, crisis line for deaf victims of abuse last week at the Commission on Disability. 

Deaf victims of domestic or sexual abuse can type a message into their home TTY machine, which automatically transmits the message to the Deaf Women Against Violence Hayward offices. An automated message center then transmits the message to a victim response advocate who contacts the victim. 

“We provide anything that will allow (the victim) to live independently and without violence,” said Amber Hudson, a social worker working for Deaf Women Against Violence. 

The service also provides for free emergency hotel stays, deaf awareness education as well as free medical and legal support for victims throughout the Bay Area. Most of the organization’s money comes from Bay Area counties and the federal Violence Against Women Act. 

The number of deaf women in the Bay Area has not been counted, but advocates say there may be several thousand – 25 percent of whom are likely the victims domestic or sexual violence. 

“Because they are deaf, they are already isolated and batterers can capitalize on that and make it more difficult to leave the abusive situation,” said Hudson. “For example, taking away her TTY so she is not able to communicate, making fun of her deafness or language skills and increasing her low self-esteem saying: ‘You’re deaf, where can you go anyway?’” 

The Hayward-based nonprofit organization says its service is the only one operating in California and one of only 16 in the United States. 

Delia Todd, a member of the Commission on Disability, says domestic violence shelters are often not equipped to serve deaf women, which further discourages victims from leaving abusive environments. 

“The problem is if deaf women go to a shelter, they feel very isolated because the other people there don’t know sign language,” said Todd. 

Deaf Women Against Violence is currently working with area shelters to arrange for American Sign Language interpreters and deaf support groups at local shelters. 

The organization has been operating since last June and just recently received federal nonprofit designation. 

The group has helped more than 25 deaf victims and at least 50 children of those victims. 

The Deaf Women Against Violence TTY crisis line is 538-0152. For voice calls, a TTY relay system can be used by first dialing 888-877-5379.

SACRAMENTO — When a new law signed by Gov. Gray Davis takes effect Jan. 1, California will be the nation’s second state to allow pharmacists to provide women with emergency contraceptives without a prescription. 

The morning-after pill is a heavy dose of ordinary birth control pills, which, if used within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can delay ovulation and prevent pregnancy. 

California will join Washington state in allowing women to get the drugs without a doctor’s prescription, a move that will have a “clear impact in California in preventing abortions,” said Jane Boggess, director of the Public Health Institute’s Pharmacy Access Partnership. 

“California is a bellwether state for many other parts of the country,” Boggess said. Eleven other states considered bills this year related to emergency contraception, but only California approved a law. 

Once proven successful here, other states will see the benefits of starting their own programs, she said. 

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, a co-sponsor of the bill, estimates that about half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended, and about half of those will end in abortion. 

However, opponents say the law allows pharmacists to act beyond their training and could give access of the drugs to minors, who may need more counseling to decide to take the pills. 

Pharmacists will be able to “prescribe this morning-after pill to children without the parents’ knowledge or involvement,” said Christine Thomas, acting executive director of California Right to Life. 

The law has no age limit, so minors also able to get an abortion or birth control without parental consent in California could also get the morning-after pills. 

California Right to Life would have opposed the bill, even if excluded minors, because it believes the drug induces abortion, Thomas said. 

Morning-after pills, however, differ from the abortion pill RU-486, which expels the fetus, because they prevent a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterus and doesn’t end a pregnancy. 

About 90 percent of women who take the morning-after pill do not become pregnant, Boggess said. 

Thomas, however, said the morning-after pill can also prevent an egg from implanting, which they call tantamount to abortion. 

The bill was state Sen. Dede Alpert’s second attempt to pass this law. A previous measure by the Coronado Democrat was defeated two years ago. 

Jan Carroll, legislative analysts for the California Pro-Life council, said her group didn’t oppose the bill, but she was concerned it would allow pharmacists to dispense drugs without seeing a patient’s medical history. 

The law, Carroll said, is “a move in the wrong direction,” because it may open the door to pharmacists prescribing other drugs. 

Pharmacists will be trained in the available medications and will use guidelines established by doctors and a pharmacists’ association, Boggess said. 

The Berkeley-based Public Health Institute sponsored a trial program that started in January 2000 and now includes 70 clinics and pharmacies. It has provided pills to several thousand women, Boggess said. 

A grant from the Packard Foundation to the Public Health Institute, a private nonprofit organization, funded the program. 

The pilot program involved clinics with large number of women enrolled. They can go to a pharmacists for the pills immediately, instead of waiting for an appointment with the clinic. 

Timely access to the drugs is critical, which is why the California Medical Association supported the bill, said Shannon Smith-Crowley, its associate director of government relations. 

“This is so safe, and timeliness is so critical for the use of this drug, that we believe all women should have access to it,” she said. 

At least 11 states considered the issue of emergency contraceptives in the past year, said Leah Oliver, a researcher with the National Conference of State Legislatures, but only California has approved legislation. Washington used existing laws to implement its program. 

The states were Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia. Among the bills they considered were measures to require hospitals to provide the drugs to rape victims, establish studies or start education campaigns. 

——— 

On the Net: 

California Right to Life: http://www.calright2life.org 

Planned Parenthood of California: http://www.ppacca.org 

Read Senate Bill 1169 at http://www.senate.ca.gov 

On Monday, a man was robbed by two men wielding a stun gun or taser, police say. 

According to Lt. Cynthia Harris, the victim was walking down the street around 10:15 p.m. When he reached the corner of Vine and Milvia Streets, he felt a sting on the back of his neck and heard zapping sounds. He turned around and was allegedly punched by one of the men behind him. One of the men demanded his wallet, Harris said. The victim gave it to them, and the suspects fled by foot. 

*** 

A shooting was reported Sunday afternoon at the corner of Haskell and Mabel streets. According to police, one or two people in a white Dodge or Ford van drove up to the corner at 3:15 p.m. One person got out of the van and fired shots at a young man, missing him. The suspect got back into the vehicle and drove away. No one was injured.

A portion of the Haas School of Business was evacuated for a few hours after a mail clerk reported finding an “unknown white powder” Wednesday afternoon. 

It was determined that the substance was not anthrax and the evacuation order was lifted a few hours later. 

Kathleen Maclay of the UC Berkeley Public Affairs office said that campus police and the Berkeley Fire Department's hazardous materials team responded to the scene and cordoned off the area.  

SAN FRANCISCO — University of California regents said Wednesday they need more information on a faculty proposal that admissions decisions be based on more than just academics. 

“Who are these people? What are their qualifications?” asked Regent John Davies at a meeting of the university system’s governing board. 

“How do we assure the public that students who go to high school, stay up nights to get good grades — that that really matters?” said Regent Ward Connerly. 

Regents discussed the proposal at their Wednesday meeting but did not vote on it. The proposal comes from a faculty committee. If approved by an Academic Senate of UC faculty, it would come back to regents for a vote in November. 

The new admissions approach follows the board’s decision in May to rescind a 1995 vote dropping UC’s old affirmative action program. 

The repeal was largely symbolic, since a state law passed in 1996 bans considering race or gender in public education. However, the May vote did call into question a requirement in the 1995 measure that at least 50 percent of students at each campus — up from the previous minimum of 40 percent — be chosen solely on the basis of academic criteria. 

The balance of students are selected on the basis of grades and test scores and supplemental factors such as talent, leadership and ability to overcome disadvantage. 

A faculty committee has endorsed changing that system to eliminate the 50 percent minimum and take the larger view of all applicants, a system known as “comprehensive review.” 

“The important thing is it is not just one or two academic criteria like high school GPA or the standardized test scores that determine the potential for success,” Chand Viswanathan, the faculty representative to the regents, said in an interview Monday. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson supports the shift toward comprehensive review and the elimination of the two-tier system. 

The change wouldn’t affect who gets into the nine-campus system, but it could change which students get into top campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA. 

Students become eligible for UC by reaching minimum grade and test scores or by graduating in the top 4 percent of their high school class. 

UC has a policy of finding a place for all eligible students. However, being eligible doesn’t guarantee a spot at the campus of your choice.  

That’s where the academic criteria come into play.  

Each campus is now limited to taking half of the new freshman class on academics alone. 

The May repeal ordered that any changes take effect for students entering in fall 2002. 

The move toward comprehensive review is the latest in a series of changes in UC admissions policies. 

In 1999, regents guaranteed eligibility to students who finished in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on UC-required courses. This year, they approved expanding that guarantee to the top 12.5 percent, provided students who fell in the latter 8.5 percent went to community college for the first two years, although that proposal stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT I achievement test as a requirement. 

MARTINEZ — A yellowish cloud of dust billowing from a local oil refinery forced residents to seek shelter for the second time in four days. 

Contra Costa County fire officials said the cloud began forming over Equilon Martinez Refining Co. around 8:50 a.m. Wednesday.  

They said the situation was under control an hour later. 

The county health department warned area residents to stay in their homes, with windows and doors closed and wet towels around all door and window openings. 

The cloud was a sandy silica dust, according to Equilon spokesman Mark Hughes. He said it was not toxic. 

Still, the cloud prompted the California Highway Patrol to shut down Highway 680 between the Benicia Bridge and Highway 4. 

Hughes said the company did not know what caused the release. 

It was the second accidental release in less than a week at the refinery. 

Sunday night, the same unit of the refinery released alumina silica for just over an hour, prompting officials to issue a “shelter in place” order. The cause of that accident is still under investigation. 

County health officials said those fluffy particles were not hazardous to touch and had no reports of anyone being injured. Equilon offered to pay to sweep city streets and school playgrounds, and said it would cover cleaning bills for cars, houses or other private property dirtied by Sunday’s black dust.

Before the terrorist attacks, 7-year-old Jacqueline Zobel wasn’t sure what it meant to be patriotic. 

Since then, she’s been wearing red, white and blue to school, learning to sing “God Bless America,” raising relief money at her lemonade stand — and starting to grasp the concept. 

“It means you’re a good person and you live in America,” says the second-grader from Plantation, Fla. She was among thousands of students nationwide who stood last Friday to say the Pledge of Allegiance simultaneously. 

Many Americans, including Jacqueline’s parents, are thrilled at schools’ heightened emphasis on national pride since the attacks. But others are worried that an unchecked wave of patriotism might quash some basic U.S. traditions — such as the right to question and separation of church and state. 

“Right now, it’s a lot of rote memorization,” says Cecilia O’Leary, an associate professor of history at California State University, Monterey Bay, and author of “To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism.” 

“If you leave it at that, we’re just marching lock step wherever the flag is taken — right or wrong.” 

There is little doubt that Americans, overall, have been feeling more patriotic lately. A University of Michigan survey taken after Sept. 11 found that 90 percent of those questioned felt proud to be an American. 

That sense has driven the push for a show of patriotism in schools. 

Earlier this month, the Nebraska state board of education voted unanimously to endorse a 1949 state law that requires schools to teach lyrics to patriotic songs, reverence for the flag and the dangers of communism. 

Officials at an elementary school in Rocklin, Calif., declined to remove a “God Bless America” sign after the American Civil Liberties Union complained that it violates the separation of church and state. 

Private organizations also have gotten involved. This week, the Family Research Council, a conservative, Washington-based lobbying group, began offering patriotic book covers on its Web site with the Pledge of Allegiance on one side and two verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the other. 

“This is an important statement of American unity,” says Jennifer Marshall, who oversees the group’s work on education. “Students need to understand what we are at war to protect.” 

All the flag-waving has left some wondering if there’s much room for dissent. 

Jane Bluestein, a teacher and school consultant based in Albuquerque, N.M., says her research has found that even before Sept. 11, many students did not feel safe expressing their own opinions at school. 

“If that’s going to be the case, what’s going to happen to the kid who’s a pacifist?” asks Bluestein, author of the new book “Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide For Educators and Parents.” 

But some students say they do feel free to express their opinions. 

“The teachers aren’t telling us what to think — they’re getting our thoughts on it,” says Jennifer Ewa, a sophomore at Walter Payton College Prep High School in Chicago, who opposes bombing Afghanistan. “They’re really telling us to think for ourselves.” 

Kajal Alemo agrees that students need a safe space to air their views.  

One good place for him is the daily discussion of current events in his history class at Episcopal Academy, a private high school in Merion, Pa. 

“It’s helped everyone calm down a lot,” the 10th-grader says. 

Other students, including eighth-graders at Liberty Junior High School in Liberty, Mo., have taken their opinions — including support and a mix of advice — all the way to the top, by writing letters to President Bush. In Virginia Beach, Va., the attacks have sparked an unprecedented interest in voting.  

Organizers of a Kids Voting USA project say they’ve been overwhelmed with students who want to staff practice voting booths for young people in the general election.  

And even if children don’t understand all the words, Kathy Hoveland, a second-grade teacher in Madison, Wis., thinks the pledge has been a comfort to them. At home, some of her students have been sneaking downstairs to sleep, where they feel safer. 

Says Hoveland: “We have kids who are clinging to anything to feel better.”

NEW YORK — Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday that anthrax had been found in his midtown Manhattan office, the third time the dangerous germ has turned up in the city in less than a week. 

No one was believed to have the disease in Pataki’s office, but the governor said he had begun taking the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution. 

He also said he didn’t plan to be tested for the disease that has infected two other people in New York City. Three more have tested positive for exposure. 

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Pataki said, who was advised by the state health commissioner on whether to be tested. “I feel great.” 

A positive result from an initial anthrax test came back Wednesday morning and all 80 people working in the office were relocated.  

Results from more sophisticated tests are due by Friday, but Pataki said he was confident they would prove anthrax was present. 

The source of the anthrax is under investigation but Pataki suggested it could have been tracked in by state police who have accompanied him to anthrax investigations at two news networks. 

“The state police have been obviously at NBC, at ABC, all over the environs over the course of the past month,” he said. 

A suspicious letter prompted Pataki to order testing, but he said he didn’t think the package is the source. 

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the anthrax mailed to NBC appeared to match a strain discovered at a Florida tabloid publisher earlier this month. An employee of the company died of anthrax on Oct. 5. 

The strain occurs naturally and responds well to antibiotics, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said. 

Matching strains do not necessarily mean the anthrax came from the same source. More tests would be needed to confirm that. 

Elsewhere, city health officials gave a clean bill of health to the Rockefeller Center headquarters of NBC, where an assistant to anchor Tom Brokaw tested positive for the skin form of anthrax last week. Tests on some 500 employees came back negative. 

An anthrax test of air filters at ABC’s Upper West Side headquarters came back negative, the network said.  

On Monday, the 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer tested positive for anthrax after spending time at the facility. Other test results are pending. 

The governor ordered the Capitol in Albany tested for anthrax.  

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said city health officials have also tested City Hall and other agencies as a precaution. No results were immediately available. 

At Pataki’s office on Third Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, the substance was detected on a desk in the state police offices on the 39th floor. The area was not open to the public or large numbers of staff. 

The anthrax testing began after the governor’s secretary became concerned about a letter that arrived at the office a few days after its Sept. 25 postmark. She turned it over to state police, who found it did not contain any threats or suspicious substances, Pataki said. 

Anthrax tests on her and two mail handlers were negative, Pataki said. 

The governor and his staff refused to say who sent the letter or what prompted the concern. They did say the letter came from an organization within New York state; representatives of the organization have since been interviewed by state authorities. 

Environmental tests in four areas of the governor’s office were performed Monday night, after ABC News disclosed the baby’s infection. 

The governor’s complex of offices on the 38th and 39th floors has been closed for further testing and decontamination work. It is expected to reopen Monday. 

Rick Owen, a banker who had an appointment in the building Wednesday, said he is not worried but his wife is concerned. 

“She already told me that when I get home I have to put my clothes in a bag,” said Owen, of Boonton Township, N.J. 

HONOLULU — Navy divers entered the wreck of the Ehime Maru and recovered the body of one of the nine men and boys killed when the Japanese fishing boat was accidentally sunk by a surfacing U.S. submarine. 

Navy officials gave few details about Tuesday’s operation, such as where on board the vessel the body was found. 

“The U.S. Navy is committed to treating the families respectfully and honorably. We’re committed to an honorable closure for those families,” said Lt. Cmdr. Neil Sheehan, the Navy’s liaison officer for the Japanese victims’ families. 

The search for the dead is expected to take a month. 

Divers using cameras spotted the body before actually entering the Ehime Maru. 

Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Baumann, a spokesman for the operation, said divers still must clear large amounts of fishing line and dislodged objects — including a refrigerator — from the exterior and interior of the vessel. 

Over the weekend, the Ehime Maru was towed 16 miles underwater from the 2,000-foot waters where it sank Feb. 9 after it was rammed by the USS Greeneville during a rapid-surfacing drill. 

Twenty-six people from the high school fisheries training vessel from Japan were rescued.  

Four students and five adults were never found and are believed to be in the wreck. 

The wreck now lies in 115 feet of water a mile off Oahu’s southern shore. 

“I pray that as many bodies as possible will be found, and am thankful for the U.S. Navy’s thorough preparations leading up to this day,” said Moriyuki Kato, governor of the Ehime state, where the fisheries school is located. 

Once the bodies are removed, the Ehime Maru will be towed more than six miles out to sea and allowed to sink. 

The unprecedented recovery effort has cost more than $60 million.

CHICAGO — The warning by United Airlines’ chief executive that the carrier is in danger of going out of business prompted criticism Wednesday from its labor unions and sent the stock plunging to its lowest price in more than a decade. 

United shares fell 10 percent after James Goodwin said in a letter to employees that it will stop flying sometime next year if it doesn’t stop “hemorrhaging” cash at the current pace, which accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Aviation industry experts are divided on whether United could fail that quickly, with some calling it unlikely and others possible. They say such carriers as US Airways, America West and perhaps Continental are in more dire situations, although troubled United is going through its cash alarmingly quickly. 

Labor officials representing United employees angrily dismissed the warning as a “Chicken Little letter” — a scare tactic intended to force a reopening of its costly labor contracts or at least gain leverage in negotiations with 15,000 mechanics and 30,000 ramp and customer service workers. 

Reservations agents, they said, were being swamped with calls from nervous passengers seeking ticket refunds. 

Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, assailed Goodwin for an “alarmist rant” that undercut passenger confidence in air travel just when it was beginning to return. 

“Goodwin’s credibility with employee-owners and the IAM is shot,” he said. “I refuse to accept his assessment of United’s future. We want to see the books.” 

Federally mediated contract talks, which remain deadlocked after nearly two years, are due to resume Oct. 31 with ramp and customer service workers and Nov. 6 with mechanics. 

IAM spokesman Frank Larkin said United’s management may also be trying to get more money out of the government, which already rescued the airline industry with a $15 billion package designed to stave off bankruptcies. 

“The letter may represent a new high in pre-negotiations rhetoric, or it may be greasing the door for a return to Washington for additional bailout billions,” Larkin said. 

Herb Hunter, union leader for United pilots who signed an industry-leading wage agreement last year, said the letter raised troubling questions — particularly since bookings are high again and “there are a lot of full airplanes.” 

“It scares the people, it scares the employees,” he said. “It sounds like labor negotiations 101 and using fear as a tactic.” 

United spokesman Joe Hopkins declined comment on the union charges that Goodwin’s remarks were a ploy. 

Investors took the warning seriously, sending the stock of United parent company UAL Corp. — which peaked at over $100 in 1997 — as low as $16, down 14 percent, before it recovered somewhat. Shares finished the session down $1.79 to $16.85 on the New York Stock Exchange, near the post-attacks closing low of $16.22 reached last month. 

The last time UAL shares closed as low as $16, including adjustments for stock splits, was Sept. 9, 1988, according to the Center for Research in Security Prices, run by the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.  

Intraday lows, or those reached during trading sessions, are not available for that far back. 

Analysts estimate that United is losing as much as $20 million a day and risks burning through its cash by next summer. But with schedules, fares and work force levels all in flux, they said it’s impossible to assess exactly how badly it’s doing or how full its planes need to be in order for it to break even. 

United has announced plans to lay off about 20,000 of its 100,000 employees and reduced daily capacity by 26 percent, to 1,654 flights. 

“I think Goodwin has been understating the situation all along, and it’s about time he told everybody what the true picture was,” said ABN Amro analyst Ray Neidl. “Every airline is in danger.” 

He noted that United, which depends more heavily on business travel than other carriers, accounted for two-thirds of airline industry losses in the second quarter when it lost $292 million. 

But others think United’s chairman and CEO overstated the case. 

“We believe Goodwin’s comments are designed to ensure UAL’s employees fully understand the magnitude of UAL’s financial difficulties as he likely seeks wage and/or work rule concessions,” Brian Harris said in a research note for Salomon Smith Barney. 

“We do not think UAL will ’perish’ because we fully expect the combination of revenue claw-back and cost reductions via unprecedented capacity reductions will be sufficient ... to survive.” 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sprint Corp. will lay off about 6,000 employees, or about 7 percent of its workforce, and 1,500 contract workers because of the weak economy, the company said Wednesday. 

Sprint also said it would discontinue its money-losing voice and high-speed Internet unit, ION. 

The announcements came as Sprint, the nation’s third-largest long distance provider, reported lower third-quarter earnings and a loss for its PCS wireless division. 

The decision was based on “rapidly changing industry landscape and future funding requirements for the ION, especially in light of the economic slowdown and the uncertainty of the timing of the recovery,” William T. Esrey, Sprint’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. 

Additionally, Sprint said it will restructure various divisions and its fixed wireless services, which allows customers to operate wireless devices or systems in fixed locations such as homes and offices. 

Sprint, the nation’s third-largest long distance provider, hopes to save an estimated $1 billion annually starting in 2002 with the changes. 

Sprint employs 84,000 worldwide. About 14,500 of them are in the Kansas City area, where Sprint is the largest private employer. 

The company had held out on layoffs even as its telecommunications competitors shed about 225,000 workers. 

The Kansas City Star reported Wednesday that Sprint’s layoffs will be complete by mid-November. 

ION let customers connect to the Internet and simultaneously use one or more separate phones, all through a single phone line. 

The service was ballyhooed when it was announced in 1998, but “it just kind of fizzled,” said Tom Morabito, a telecom analyst with McDonald Investments in Cleveland. 

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Sprint Corp. FON Group reported a 60 percent drop in earnings to $154 million, compared with $384 million the year before. 

Sprint PCS, the company’s wireless division, reported a loss of $288 million, or 29 cents per share, in the quarter, compared to a loss of $390 million, or 41 cents per share, a year ago. This quarter’s loss was wider, however, than the 22 cents expected by analysts. 

Even so, Sprint is in better shape than some other telecom companies, said Ramkrishna Kasargod, an analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis, Tenn. 

“They do have customers, they do have revenues,” Kasargod said.

SAN FRANCISCO — With millions of square feet in new office construction and few tenants in sight, San Francisco is facing a commercial real estate glut rivaling the excess development of the late 1980s. 

More than 3 million square feet of prime office space is under construction and scheduled for delivery within 12 to 18 months, according to brokers. Another 3 million square feet is approved for building in San Francisco but pending groundbreaking. 

That new space, combined with falling rents, high vacancies and a huge amount of sublease space, is spelling trouble for a market that fairly recently posted record rents and single-digit vacancies. 

“This is the highest vacancy in two decades, and millions of square feet of sublease space is hanging over the market and depressing rents,” said Margaret Duskin, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate firm. “We’re all concerned at the lack of demand in office product.” 

Many of the new buildings coming online were planned during the dot-com boom and will apparently open up amid slumping demand for space. Developers, for their part, say they are continuing to build during the slower climate because city entitlements carry strict construction timetables. 

“We are going forward because the entitlements are structured in such a way that we have to go forward,” said Rob Paratte of Wilson Equity Office, which is building the 1.1 million-square-foot Foundry Square office complex. “Our view is that things will be very difficult, but it’s not going to get appreciably worse.” 

Foundry Square was intended to serve thousands of new tech workers. Technology giant Sun Microsystems preleased about 500,000 square feet, but brokers said that as much as half of that space will be dumped on the sublease market as soon as the buildings open. 

Developers of a number of other high-profile projects who were counting on the dot-com economy to provide tenants are also proceeding despite an uncertain future. 

The projects include a 155,000-square-foot building across from Pacific Bell Park, a 260,000-square-foot building on Potrero Hill and a 660,000-square-foot building in the south Financial District. 

The Financial District building was preleased by JP Morgan Chase, but that firm said it will put the space on the sublease market.  

Brokers said it illustrates the current dilemma facing companies that preleased space at high rents in a hot market. 

“The JP Morgan lease deal was done in a bold environment,” said Dan Cressman, managing director at real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis, which recently predicted a 25 percent vacancy rate in San Francisco by the middle of next year. “It was dot-com growth that fueled the increase in rental rate.” 

As of Oct. 1, the average Class A office rent in San Francisco was $43 per square foot, a stunning decrease from the record high of $80 last year. Average Class B rents have fallen to $30 per square foot from a record $68 last year. 

The last time the city endured such a glut was the late ’80s, a period that followed an intense political debate over downtown development. The excess office space produced by that boom took several years to fill. 

Experts said the spike in construction this time happened much more quickly, with normal business assumptions temporarily suspended. 

“Nobody looked at operating expenses,” said Paratte, referring to the headlong rush to find office space. “People focused on tying up space. Now it’s back to basics.” 

On the other hand, Cressman said the current market means it is a great time to be a tenant. 

“Ten years ago, the (downturn) occurred a lot more slowly,” he said. “We’re taking a big hit, but I think a lot of the empty space will be absorbed over time. You can view it as the sky is falling, or you can see the net of it all as greater opportunities for tenants.” 

SAN JOSE — Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Wednesday posted a third-quarter loss of $186.9 million as the chip maker suffered the effects of a price war with rival Intel Corp. 

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company lost 54 cents a share, compared with a profit of $17.4 million, or 5 cents per share in the same period a year ago. 

Excluding one-time charges, the company lost $97 million, or 28 cents per share, compared with net earnings of $219 million, or 70 cents per share, a year ago. 

Analysts were expected a loss of 28 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Revenues fell 22 percent, to $765.9 million. Last year, AMD reported sales of $985.3 million. Analysts were expecting revenue of $779 million. 

Earlier this month, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company warned losses would be between $90 million and $110 million, or 26 cents to 31 cents per share.  

Prior to the warning, analysts were expecting a loss of 12 cents per share, excluding one-time charges. 

AMD says sales of its microprocessors are increasing, but its results are diminished by lower selling prices as it matches Intel’s price cuts on Pentium 4 processors. 

“AMD held market share in the 22 percent range in a very weak PC market made more difficult by our principal competitor’s efforts to halt our forward momentum,” said W. J. Sanders III, AMD’s chief executive. 

Sanders claims Intel resorted to the price cuts to make up for performance deficiencies of its processors. Intel says it’s passing on savings from more its more efficient production. 

Shares of AMD closed down 90 cents to $9.71 in Wednesday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the earnings release. In after-hours trading, shares lost 6 cents. 

——— 

On the Net: 

AMD: http://www.amd.com 

CUPERTINO — Apple Computer Inc. reported a 61 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits Wednesday, beating Wall Street’s expectations. But the company warned of a shortfall in profits and revenues in its fiscal first quarter. 

Shares of Apple fell $1.02, or 5.6 percent, to $16.99 on the Nasdaq Stock Market ahead of the report. The stock was off 35 cents in after-hours trading. 

For the three months ended Sept. 29, the Cupertino-based company reported net income of $66 million, or 19 cents per share — compared with $170 million, or 47 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. 

Excluding a one-time investment gain, the company earned $65 million, or 18 cents per share. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call predicted earnings of 16 cents per share. 

Revenue for the quarter reached $1.45 billion, down 22 percent from the year-ago period. 

Revenue in the first quarter is expected to be flat at about $1.4 billion and earnings per share are now expected to fall to 10 cents per share, Apple said. Thomson Financial/First Call estimates were for earnings of 18 cents per share on revenue of $1.6 billion. 

For the year, Apple reported losing $25 million on revenues of $5.36 billion. In 2000, the company earned $786 million, or $2.18 per share, on revenues of $7.98 billion. 

Seeing no upturn in the slumping personal computer market, Apple officials in July lowered their fiscal year revenue expectations to about $3 billion from a range of $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion. 

The personal computer has been struggling with the economic slowdown. Market researcher International Data Corp. has lowered its annual forecasts several times this year and predicts global shipments of PCs to decline in 2001 by 1.6 percent to about 130 million units. A recovery isn’t expected until 2003. 

Despite the industry’s gloomy performance, Apple is forging ahead with product rollouts and upgrades. Tuesday, the company beefed up its iBook and PowerBook G4 mobile laptops, adding faster processors, bigger hard drives and wireless networking features. The company kept prices the same. 

Next week, Apple said it will announce a new digital device — “not a Mac” — but won’t give any more details. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.apple.com 

Wednesday, Oct. 17 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28. 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley 

“Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

Thursday, Oct. 18  

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life, speaks on “Rekindling Conversation.” 549-3509 www.seedsofsimplicity.org 

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 

Friday, Oct. 19 

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Honorary Chairperson is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the Mistress of Ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that week be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 through 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Fall House Tour 

1 - 5 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

Claremont Blvd. & Russell St.  

This year’s tour “Around the Claremont Hotel” features 10 houses in the historic neighborhood of residences and gardens that surround the landscaped park of the hotel. There will be a reception at one of the houses. $30. 845-8507 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

Proud to be a citizen of Berkeley 

Editor: 

I am troubled by local reaction to Dona Spring’s alleged statement comparing the actions of our federal government to those of a terrorist state. I find it troubling that the response from mainstream media might intimidate a public figure from speaking the truth as she sees it.  

I am troubled that other elected officials exploit the situation to embarrass a colleague. I am troubled that our mayor is embarrassed by the words of our elected leaders who speak from the conviction of their moral conscience. 

What makes Berkeley a beacon throughout this country is its historical willingness to challenge mainstream posturing that perpetuates national arrogance and self-righteousness.  

If leaders and citizens of Berkeley fail to hold up the mirror of accountability, where else in the United States will people ask the hard questions? 

Our mayor continues to remind us that this is not the 60’s. I agree; we have lost the innocence of the 60’s. But hopefully we have gained wisdom to recognize a familiar path our country has tread too many times in the past four decades. Whether Dona Spring said it or not, many of us who examine the evidence recognize this country’s acts of terrorism against innocent civilians in the Middle East and in other third world countries. 

I am troubled by a reported statement that suggests the mayor of Berkeley is embarrassed by our most valuable characteristics – our moral conscience and our willingness to stand up for it. That Barbara Lee and Dona Spring draw attention to our city because they speak from moral conscience brings pride to our city.  

At times throughout my adult life I have traveled outside the United States – in Europe, during two Republican administrations’ bombing of Libya and Iraq, and again while a Democratic administration bombed Kosovo. At those times I was ashamed to admit I was from the United States; I have never been ashamed to say I am from Berkeley. 

Pamela Webster 

Berkeley 

Blame bin Laden for death of civilians 

The Daily Planet received the following letter addressed to Councilmember Dona Spring: 

While you have a right to your opinion, I do not believe you have a right to inflict your opinion on the city and citizens of Berkeley as an elected representative. Have you consulted with the people of Berkeley as to their opinions on the U.S. war on terrorism? 

There comes a time when talk and coalitions cease to be effective. The terrorist acts upon the United States were unmerciful, violent attempts to destroy our country by destroying our freedoms. No terrorist involved cared about the lives they ended and the many more lives that they have tragically affected forever. No, the majority of the citizens of Afghanistan are not responsible for Sept. 11 or what terror may come to the United States. And no, they should not have to die because of what some of their countryman did.  

But it is not the United States killing Afghan civilians. It is Osma bin Laden and his organization who are killing them. (Why would we be bombing Afghanistan if it weren’t for bin Laden?) I think they want to get rid of bin Laden almost as much as we do. You have to understand – bin Laden et.al. do not comprehend diplomacy. They do not want to solve anything peacefully. The man is using his religion as a front for his evil. He is not capable of compromise or working toward a common goal unless that goal is to tear down the United States. At the same time he denounces our “system,” he uses that same system for profit to fund his campaign against us. By the way, do you really think he or members of his organization would ever keep their diplomatic word? Come now. 

What you are asking the city manager and ultimately the people of Berkeley to do is to join bin Laden’s side–work to divide our country instead of being the kind of patriots our Founding Fathers were and support our president. Does “Give me Liberty or give me death” ring a (Liberty) bell? I think you should reevaluate what you are in office to do, how you were even afforded the opportunity to hold office via our government structure and uphold the Constitution of the United States instead of work to tear it down. 

Becky Kaiser 

Bakersfield  

Follow the money 

Editor: 

While all the news reporters watch and report on every bright flash of light, every loud explosion, why aren’t they covering, with equal ferocity, the war on terrorist finances?  

Like any organization, the far-flung network of terrorists needs money to function. Who is reporting and watching whether our government is going after their stock accounts, banks, and trading companies with an equal ferocity that we launch jets with big bombs? 

The terrorists hit the World Trade Center because it is a symbol of the global economy. So, let’s give them what they want, let’s unplug them from their money. 

Responsible journalism should keep watch that Bush’s war on terrorism is being fought where the action is, and not just focus on watching rubble bounce. Afghanistan is a side show, how about reporting on the Main Event? 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

International law should rule 

Editor: 

We killed the messenger of bad news and learned very little from his message; certainly not enough to prevent what happened on Sept. 11, 2000.  

He was a U.S. combat-veteran awarded for bravery in action, who bombed a federal government building in Oklahoma City in protest against his government’s action in Waco, Texas, when it killed 80 men, women and children in the Davidian community that was not threatening our national security in any way requiring their obliteration. 

We should have learned then that we needed to mend our ways and stop trying to dominate the world with our super military might. 

I believe the sponsors of the multiple murders and massive destructive actions in New York, Washington, D.C. (actually Arlington, Virginia) and Pennsylvania, must be identified and arrested by United Nations action since all of its members have declared themselves opposed to barbarism and terrorism, and we should add: militarism (namely war-waging and preparations for the same, to which the 1945 U.N. Charter refers as a “scourge” from which “succeeding generations should be saved”): I repeat: action that consists in and amounts to effective global police action, as noted above. 

Timothy McVeigh took the law into his own hands and made a terrible mistake for which he paid with his own life. No person nor gang of persons, nor a single nation or gang of nations, should make that mistake and risk the lives of the world’s people and their ways of life in so doing.  

The 9/11 killers self-destructed. Arresting the sponsors requires super global police action by the United Nations. 

Alfred C. Williams 

Member, World Community Advocates, 

Unitarian Universalist Center,  

San Francisco 

The collective heartbeat, tears and history of America were never better exemplified until Monday night at Zellerbach, when a near-capacity crowd listened, laughed and paused silently in communal empathy with the words and reminiscences of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel. 

“I'm getting as deaf as a post just like Rush Limbaugh and it couldn't happen to two nicer guys,” said Terkel. 

“And that's the only thing they have in common,” added host Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley School of Journalism. 

Spending an evening with Terkel is a tour of contemporary American history through the stories of the people who lived it. He has written over a dozen books ranging from “The Giants of Jazz” (1957) to his Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Good War” (1985) and “Working” (1974), each one exploring a different theme. 

“We as a country have a national Alzheimer's disease,” said Terkel. “The only hope is if we have a memory of the past through the eyes of ordinary people.” 

With 89 years of ageless wit and wisdom, he records the oral history of the famous and the not so famous. In his latest book, “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith” (New Press), he listens to the stories of death and the life surrounding it as told by doctors, veterans, singers, AIDS victims and the people he calls “ordinary heroes.” 

Exploring how Americans live with death was an idea suggested to him by Gore Vidal more than 25 years ago over martinis. At the time, Terkel admitted, all he could see was the olive or lemon peel in the martini, not the subject for a book.  

He felt differently after his wife of 60 years died in 1989. 

Reflecting on his new book he said: “This is therapy for me; palliative beyond description. 

“The irony is that ‘Death’ is the liveliest book I've written.”  

Terkel entertained and moved the Zellerbach audience with stories from the book.  

He responded to questions by Schell and co-panelist Peter Coyote, an author and actor, with a series of stories from his other works and his colorful life. 

Terkel is a graduate of the University of Chicago with degrees in philosophy and law. His varied career includes a 45-year stint at WFMT-FM in Chicago as a music show host. This gig led to interviewing artists and gathering material for his first book. He also played gangsters on Chicago soaps. In 1950, he started a television show at NBC called “Stud's Place,” but was eventually let go because of his political views. 

“I never saw a petition I didn't like,” he said, recalling the Senator McCarthy era. “All I had to say was that I was stupid, that I had been duped into signing the anti-Jim Crow petitions, but my ego and vanity were at stake.” 

With America at war again in 2001, he was asked to compare his generation, which experienced the depression and World War II, with following generations. Calling the 1960s a great generation because they looked outside themselves to the civil rights and peace movements, he then asked what have “we” learned. 

“We are hungry for something, a kind of immortality. If we reach someone and he in turn reaches someone else, that gives us solace,” he said. 

Sharing his thoughts about his next book, “Hope,” he gave the audience the promise of another guidebook to help us remember our past. 

"I may not finish it," he smiled, "but it makes the journey go faster."

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Documentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Exhibits 

“First Annual Art Show” UC Berkeley Life Drawing Group Reception, Oct. 20: 3 p.m.; Oct. 21- 26: 7 - 10 p.m. Figure studies from the workshops at UC Berkeley. 1014 60th St., Emeryville. 923-0689 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, 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. $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  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot 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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. 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  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Apparatus Operator Darren Bobrosky, of Berkeley’s Fire Station 5, recently returned from a 10-day stint as a rescue worker in Lower Manhattan. Bobrosky and his partner, Dylan, a highly-trained search and rescue dog, are affiliated with Oakland’s Urban Search and Rescue team, one of the 28 FEMA-affiliated USAR teams nationwide. Following is Bobrosky’s story, edited by Daily Planet reporter Hank Sims.  

This is the first of a two part series. Look for the second part in Thursday’s edition. 

I was here at the firehouse when we got the word. We all got up at 8 o’clock that morning, the 11th, and we were watching what was going on. They paged me at about 8:30 and said, “You’re on standby. Do you have your stuff together?” 

I got a number of other calls that day, asking about my status. The state Office of Emergency Services called me, a fire chief from Sacramento called, the USAR team manager from Oakland called – they were just checking and double-checking the members to see if they were available and ready to go.  

I normally keep a 10-day supply of food for Dylan and supplies for myself in my truck at all times anyway, so we’re always ready. We are supposed to have a two-hour response time to get to our rendezvous point in Oakland, so that’s no problem. 

But then we got put on standby, and then we were told to stand down. Then again – standby, stand down, all throughout the two weeks we were ready to go. It was terrible. I had a few chances to go with the Sacramento team, but I was fifth on their roster. One guy couldn’t go, and they couldn’t get ahold of another one, but then it didn’t happen. 

I knew I would get to go with Oakland – that’s the team I’m assigned to – but since there aren’t enough dogs to go around, they send whatever dogs they need with whatever teams go out. So we can cross over to other teams, whereas other members – the engineers, or the logistics people – don’t. 

I was concerned that if they wait and don’t send us until late in the game, we wouldn’t go at all. Generally, the dogs are not required to be certified as cadaver search dogs. I do train Dylan with cadavers whenever possible, just so I know his reaction, but they are primarily live-find dogs. 

It was hard to get solid information, even at the task-force leader level. I’ve got things going on in my life – I was trying to maneuver things around, get things squared away. My wife’s birthday was October 8th, so I was hoping to be back by then. 

They finally activated us on the 26th. We met at Oakland two o’clock the next afternoon. They bussed us out to Travis Air Force Base at 5:30, and we waited at Travis until midnight. Then they flew us to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. 

We took another bus into New York, and got our accommodations set up. They put us up in the Javits Convention Center. Usually they try to give you that first day off as a rest period, so you can get your bearings. They took us out to the pile the next morning. 

It was bigger than I thought it would be. I’d seen it on TV a few times. When you initially saw it on TV, you saw everything from a distance, from ground level. It looked pretty amazing, but you couldn’t get a feel for it. Then they took it to another level when they let the helicopters fly over. From the top, you could see that it was huge. 

But you don’t get the true sense of it until you get right up to it, or right in it, and you see people 200 or 300 feet from you that look like ants compared to the structure they’re looking at.  

When you tour some of the buildings around the perimeter, you see how much destruction and debris hit the building that surrounded the towers.  

The concrete was turned into powder. That was another problem we had with searching and digging through the rubble. We train in rubble all the time, pieces the size of a picnic table down to pieces the size of bricks. This pile looked like steel with dirt thrown on top of it. All that concrete just became dust.  

There were areas you could see around the fringes that looked like the rubble we’re used to seeing – broken-up concrete like a recycling plant would have, or a small, recently-demolished building. This one, though, it came down with such force that it pulverized concrete and twisted those big I-beams in half.  

They split our team in half. The next day, the New York City fire department asked us to cover for their Collapsed Structure Response Unit, up in Queens. They had lost all the guys from that unit in the rubble. Since we were collapsed structure specialists, basically, they had us cover. The other half of our team went to the pile. 

USAR teams are designed to split in half. One half takes the first 12-hour shift, the other half the second. Once we got there, we found out that we weren’t going to be working 24 hours a day. So we switched to day shifts only, and half of us went to Queens first. 

We were in Queens for two and a half days. It was away from all the action, but it was nice – very relaxed and peaceful. You could get sleep up there, which you couldn’t do in the Convention Center. The dogs had a park to play in. 

But knowing that we had things to do back in Manhattan, we were tense about being up there. We didn’t want to be there, we wanted to be back working on the pile.  

Knowing that we were doing a service for the fire department in New York made us feel better. They asked us to help, and cover that area for them. We were doing something, even if it wasn’t what we were planning to do originally. Their Collapsed Structure Response Unit deals with 150 collapsed buildings a year, but we never got called. 

We were staying in the officers’ quarters at an Army base. We had one New York fireman with us, who was going to be our liaison if we ever got a call. We didn’t know the city, so were going to have to follow him. We had three trucks full of gear that we would bring, so we would go in a convoy if we got any type of call. 

He was the only fireman we talked to up there. But as we got more involved with the pile, at Ground Zero, we started to talking to more guys. They were happy to see us there. They knew what we could do, and that we weren’t there to take over from them or anything. They were in charge of the rubble, and they wanted to get their people out. That was their deal.

Berkeley High School’s now ex-principal, Frank Lynch, wasted no time in hitting the road. In an e-mail sent Monday to Parent Teacher Student Association President Joan Edelstein, Lynch wrote: “Wednesday is my official last day.”  

On Tuesday, some officials had assumed he would be around until Nov. 1. Now the question looms of who will run the high school beginning Thursday. 

“I didn’t get the impression that the transition to a new administrative model at Berkeley High was going to take place as early as tomorrow,” said Terry Doran, the school board president.  

The board and Superintendent Michele Lawrence will discuss the matter at Wednesday’s school board meeting, Doran added.  

Lynch accepted the superintendent post in the Del Norte County Unified School District late last week.  

Lawrence sent an e-mail to the Berkeley High community Monday to announce his departure and reassure parents. It said Lynch would leave “by Nov. 1.” 

“Parents are very upset,” Edelstein said. “They finally after a year got used to having a new principal. There was a lot of questioning when he came whether he was really committed to Berkeley, because he wasn’t moving into Berkeley.” 

Lynch lives in Petaluma. 

“The professional thing to do would be not to depart until a replacement was identified,” said Bob Epstein, parent of a Berkeley High sophomore and senior, “otherwise he would leave the school at a needless risk.” 

“A lot of parents have said to me in e-mails that there has been so much stress and anxiety since the Sept. 11 events, that to add to the disruption only causes even worse anxiety,” Edelstein said. “What they really want is some normalcy and continuity in their kids’ lives, and they need reassurance that this is going to be happening.” 

Edelstein also said some parents she had spoken to wondered why the district had kept Lynch’s possible departure under wraps. 

“He was really working on establishing a relationship, and parents were finally starting to feel comfortable,” she said. “It came as a big shock, and it seemed that it had been kept as a secret rather than helping to prepare the parents for a potential transition.” 

Doran said keeping Lynch’s job search quiet was not unusual. He pointed to former superintendent Jack McLaughlin, who was asked to apply for “many jobs.”  

“If every time he was asked to apply for a job, we made that a public announcement, it really would have hurt his ability to be an effective superintendent while he was here,” Doran said. “It didn’t serve any purpose whatsoever.” 

In her Monday e-mail, Lawrence stated a desire to move on. 

“While we could debate the merits of his leaving just now, and the District’s legal right to retain him, I see only harm in that discussion,” Lawrence wrote.  

Outlining the steps she saw the administration taking in response to Lynch’s departure, Lawrence wrote of the need to “examine the entire staffing allocation and current administrative assignments” and possibly add more personnel in spite of budget constraints. She pointed to time-consuming disciplinary burdens as one impediment to retaining teachers and administrators. 

Acknowledging the need for more consistency and stability, the superintendent called for better decision-making procedures and asked for parents’ patience. 

“I remain steadfast in my commitment to make the school and District one of the best in the nation... It’s just going to take some time,” she wrote. 

Lawrence’s e-mail also announced that officials of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges might allow the district some wiggle room in its ongoing struggle to meet accreditation deadlines. 

Last spring, WASC gave Berkeley High until next fall to upgrade its performance and accountability or lose its standing. 

“I’ve had a long term relationship with WASC so I believe they were willing to entertain alternative solutions to our current dilemma,” she wrote. “We reached agreement on some compromise. While the accreditation will not be canceled or postponed it can be modified and packaged in a way to help us meet a more realistic time line.” 

The recent increase in hostility, posturing and backbiting between the two City Council factions could be the first stirrings of a mayoral election that is still more than a year away. 

Some council watchers say the sharp rhetoric, which has characterized recent council debates between progressives and moderates over redistricting and an anti-U. S. bombing resolution is a sign that incumbents are wrangling for advantage over potential challengers in the November 2002 elections. 

Moderate Mayor Shirley Dean said last week she would run for a third term. Progressive Councilmember Linda Maio may be another likely candidate, although she has not publicly stated she will challenge Dean. 

So far Dean, who will be 67 next month, is the only elected official on the council who has announced a re-election campaign, although she isn’t saying much else other than she is confident she will win.  

“Yes I am running, but I haven’t made any campaign plans yet and haven’t given any thought to what the issues will be.” she said. “I’m totally confident but I’m going to run hard because that’s the way I am.” 

Dean’s unofficial announcement ends any speculation that she was planning a bid for Dion Aroner’s State Assembly seat. Aroner will be ousted by term limits in November 2002. 

Maio, 58, will not admit she’s a candidate for mayor, but one can hear the echoes of political barnstorming when she talks about the coming election. 

“The city needs new leadership,” Maio said. “The city needs to be worked on, not superficial work, I mean really worked on.” 

One reason for Maio’s reluctance to announce her bid for mayor might be that she will have to give up her seat on the City Council. According to the city clerk, incumbents cannot run for two seats at the same time. Maio’s seat as representative of District 1 will also be on the ballot next year. 

Other councilmembers up for re-election are progressive councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington in districts 4 and 7 and moderate Councilmember Polly Armstrong in District 8. Currently, the council’s five progressives hold a slim majority on the nine-member council.  

Another issue for potential mayoral candidates to consider is money. Mayoral elections in Berkeley are expensive. According to city campaign records, Dean spent nearly $200,000 on her campaign in 1998. That’s no small amount when the Berkeley Election Reform Act limits political contributions to $250 per person.  

Dean, who has traditionally enjoyed the support of property owners, developers and business interests, said she is not worried about raising money for the campaign.  

“I’ve never had a problem raising money,” she said. 

On the other hand, Maio said progressives have a tougher time filling their campaign coffers. But she said progressive supporters make up for money shortages with devotion and enthusiasm. 

“Progressives are the ones who will roll up their sleeves and go door to door, block to block in a walking–talking campaign,” she said.  

Maio said a potential campaign issue might be development, especially in the western part of town, which has seen thousands of square-feet of small manufacturing and artisan space converted to offices. 

“Artists, musicians and crafts people are the life’s blood of Berkeley,” Maio said. “We received a wake-up call from San Francisco where they lost so many artists and nonprofits because development overran them. We have to see how we can keep these people in Berkeley.” 

Dean said a staff report describes claims of offices taking over west Berkeley exaggerated. She added that it would be hard to run against her record as a supporter of the arts. Dean pointed to her work in establishing the Downtown Arts District and the West Berkeley Artisan District. 

“If Councilmember Maio makes a bid for mayor, then I’m sure we’ll discuss all of these issues and discuss them at length,” Dean said.

In a resolution that was, perhaps, the first like it in the nation, the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution Tuesday, mourning the loss of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, condemning the attackers and calling on elected representatives to minimize the risk to American military personnel while avoiding actions that could endanger the lives of innocent people in Afghanistan. 

A divided council debated the issue before a packed council chambers, with most of the audience in support of the resolution and some 20 apparently opposed. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong tried to counter the motion, authored by Councilmember Dona Spring, and put forward a resolution to support the president and honor his bringing together a coalition of 60 countries to fight terrorism. This resolution was defeated. 

Comments from the public mostly reflected support for the main council motion. Ann Fagen Ginger from the Meiklejohn Institute made a point that the fight against terrorists should be confined to international law. Barbara Lubin from the Middle East Children’s Alliance called on the council to support a cessation of the bombing.  

“I have seen the result of American bombing on starving Iraqi children,” she said. 

Eric Skidmore was one of those supporting the attacks on Afghanistan. He is part of United Students for America, a group formed on the UC Berkeley campus soon after Sept. 11 to provide a counter voice to the anti-war sentiment on campus.  

“To approve this recommendation will not only make Berkeley a laughing stock, but will misrepresent most Berkeley citizens,” he said. “There are many people (in Berkeley) who support America.”  

While Councilmember Betty Olds, a member of the moderate council faction, talked about the difficulty of responding to the terrorists “who do not value human lives.”  

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, also a moderate, said those supporting the resolution cause the city to appear out of step.  

“Instead of a thoughtful city, we come across as a bunch of nuts,” she said, condemning the progressives. 

Speaking in favor of the resolution, Councilmember Kriss Worthington pointed to the “damage and destruction (the United States) has caused in Afghanistan” and said he would not give in to the pressure to “sit down and shut up” on the question. 

“The loss of lives is horrifying,” said Councilmember Linda Maio, arguing that terrorism can be overcome by changing policies that cause others in the world to hate the United States. “We can overcome terror by making it irrelevant,” she said. 

The main motion, which was approved, was broken up into various parts: 

• Dean and the five progressives – councilmembers Worthington, Spring, Margaret Breland, and Linda Maio and Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek voted in favor of expressing grief at the atrocities and honoring “the valiant firefighter and police...and our military personnel now engaged in Afghanistan.” 

• Dean also supported the progressives in calling for a national campaign to lessen dependence on oil from the Middle East and to commit to using renewable energy sources. 

• The council split 5-4 – progressives voting in favor and moderates abstaining – on calling for an quick conclusion to the bombing and avoiding actions that could endanger civilian lives in Afghanistan and U.S. military lives; on calling for an international body to bring the terrorists to justice; and on “addressing and overcoming those conditions such as poverty, malnutrition, disease, oppression and subjugation that tend to drive desperate people to acts of terrorism.”

Fresh on the heels of Berkeley High principal Frank Lynch’s abrupt departure, another key figure in the district administration announced Monday he would resign. 

Gene Le Fevre, the district’s maintenance director, will leave his post at the end of October, Superintendent Michele Lawrence said Tuesday.  

Le Fevre has worked in Berkeley for over two years, working on an interim basis for his first several months. He took over from Harvey Delorum, who left the district after only eight months to direct maintenance at Sonoma State University. Le Fevre could not be reached for comment Tuesday. 

The resignation comes just as Lawrence has created a new structure for the maintenance department. The school board is slated to vote on the plan at its meeting Wednesday evening.

OAKLAND — The small union that represents BART train controllers and supervisors rejected an offer from BART management Monday, which could trigger a strike early next week that would strand more than 300,000 commuters. 

The one-week delay is meant to give BART and the union time to reconvene the so-called Labor Day Committee, a seven-member team of Bay Area elected officials who helped broker a deal with the transit agency’s two largest unions in September. 

The 238-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993 voted 130-43 to reject the contract offer that’s largely similar to those won in September by the 2,500-member Service Employees International and Amalgamated Transit Unions. 

Those contracts call for a 22 percent wage increases over the next four years, continued health care coverage at no added cost to employees and increased pension plan contributions. 

“Please, let’s get back to the table and settle our issues,” said Norma del Mercado, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993. “Let’s avoid a strike. Nobody wants a strike.” 

While union leaders supported continuing negotiations, BART managers said their offer is final. 

BART General Manager Tom Margro said the system would be willing to meet with AFSCME negotiators, but would not improve its offer. 

“Our position is we have a best and final offer out there,” he said. 

BART spokesman Mike Healy said trains would run even if Local 3993 rejects the contract next week, though with possibly disruptions or delays. 

Leaders at Service Employees International Union and Amalgamated Transit Union say their members will not cross the picket line. Privately, however, they say fears of a recession could make it hard for many workers to give up their paychecks.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport officials announced Tuesday that a parking lot that has been used for years as a public viewing area will be closed. 

The lot, which also serves as a staging area for buses, limos and door-to-door vans waiting to be called to a terminal, will be closed for an indefinite period starting Wednesday morning because of security concerns. 

The lot, which is located close to a departure runway at the southern end of the airport, has been a popular spot for plane-watchers for years. 

“A lot of people plan to have their lunches there,” said airport spokesman Ron Wilson. “They will be disappointed. We just don’t want to take any chances.” 

The commercial vehicles will be moved to a lot at the northern end of the airport, but no new public viewing area will be established at the airport. 

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SAN JOSE — Out of money and unable to pay its musicians, the San Jose Symphony board voted Monday to temporarily shut down its business operations, but still hasn’t decided what to do about the rest of its concert season. 

Most of the office staff will be let go, said Dick Gourley, the symphony’s acting chief executive officer. The board will discuss at a meeting Thursday whether to cancel upcoming performances, including concerts scheduled for Oct. 26 to 28 in San Jose and Cupertino, and a November fundraiser.  

It isn’t clear yet what will happen to tickets for more than 40 future performances scheduled through June. 

The symphony had a $7.8 million budget last year and ended the fiscal year in July with a deficit of $2.5 million. It has been operating with almost no cash reserves since the summer. 

Curtis Dudnick, the acting chief financial officer, told the board in August that if it couldn’t raise at least $2.7 million by year’s end, the orchestra would be facing bankruptcy. The $1 million raised has been used to pay operating expenses. Last month, musicians were paid only after trustees wrote personal checks after a board meeting. 

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MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) — Contra Costa County health officials want to know why it took the Equilon refinery more than a half-hour Sunday night to activate warning sirens after the start of a smoky release that showered soot for miles. 

Meanwhile, Equilon has begun a huge cleanup, paying to sweep city streets and school playgrounds and offering to pay the cleaning bills for cars, houses or other private property dirtied by the black dust. 

County health officials said the fluffy particles are not hazardous to touch and they have no reports of anyone being injured by breathing the particles. 

Equilon equipment released alumina silica for about 65 minutes Sunday, the company reported to the county. The cause of the accident is under investigation. 

In deciding initially that the release was not serious enough to warrant sirens, Equilon also postponed activating the county’s automated phone system to dial prerecorded warnings to refinery neighbors. 

BERKELEY — University of California faculty members are considering recommending that the nine-campus system stop judging applicants on the basis of grades alone. 

The proposal, which will be discussed Wednesday at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, follows the board’s decision in May to rescind a 1995 vote dropping UC’s old affirmative action program. 

The repeal was largely symbolic, since a state law passed in 1996 bans considering race or gender in public education. However, the vote did call into question a requirement in the 1995 measure that at least 50 percent of students at each campus — up from the previous minimum of 40 percent — be chosen solely on the basis of academic criteria. 

Remaining students are selected on the basis of grades and supplemental factors such as talent, leadership and ability to overcome disadvantage. 

The issue comes back to regents Wednesday by way of a report from a faculty committee suggesting that it may be better to take the larger view of all applicants, a system known as “comprehensive review.” 

“The important thing is it is not just one or two academic criteria like high school GPA or the standardized test scores that determine the potential for success. There are other criteria also that one should take into account,” said Chand Viswanathan, the faculty representative to the regents. 

The proposal has not yet been voted on by UC’s Academic Senate. If approved, it would go back to the regents for a vote, possibly as early as the November meeting. 

The May repeal ordered that any changes take effect for students entering in fall 2002. 

The move toward comprehensive review is the latest in a series of changes in UC admissions policies. 

In 1999, regents guaranteed eligibility to students who finished in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on UC-required courses.  

This year, they approved expanding that guarantee to the top 12.5 percent, provided students who fell in the latter 8.5 percent went to community college for the first two years, although that proposal stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT 1 as a requirement.

CAMDEN, N.J. — The mistress of a rabbi charged with killing his wife testified Tuesday that he once told her about a dream in which “violence was coming” to his spouse and that she ultimately feared for her life. 

Rabbi Fred Neulander, 60, is accused of arranging the bludgeoning death of his wife Carol in 1994 so he could pursue the affair with Elaine Soncini, a former Philadelphia radio personality. He is charged with murder and conspiracy. 

Elaine Soncini said she met Neulander the day her husband, Ken Garland, died in December 1992. After the funeral, she testified, the rabbi asked if they could meet for lunch. 

They were having “relations” within two weeks, she said — either at her house during lunch or in his office at Congregation M’kor Shalom, the temple he founded with his wife in wealthy Cherry Hill, southeast of Philadelphia. 

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Zucker acknowledged to jurors that the rabbi had an affair, but said his client is not on trial for adultery. Soncini said the relationship was immoral and she accepted responsibility for it. 

Soncini, who didn’t look at Neulander as she testified, said the two exchanged expensive gifts and spoke as many as 10 times a day. She said she told Neulander at one point in 1994 about bad dreams she’d been having and he told her about some bad dreams of his own. 

“He dreamed that violence was coming to Carol,” she said. 

Carol Neulander was beaten to death with a metal pipe in her living room as her husband was at synagogue. A few months later, Neulander resigned as senior rabbi, citing unspecified moral indiscretions. 

Prosecutors later identified Neulander as a suspect and Soncini acknowledged the affair, saying she ended it after learning he was suspected of arranging his wife’s death. 

Since then, former private investigator Leonard Jenoff and another man have confessed to the slaying. Both men pleaded guilty to manslaughter and have agreed to testify against Neulander. 

Soncini said she considered it a sign when Neulander came into her life just as her husband was dying and ended up converting to Judaism. 

But she said she decided she needed to make changes in her life and told the rabbi their relationship would end by the end of 1994. She said the rabbi insisted they would be together by her birthday in mid-December. 

Soncini also said Neulander called her to his office less than two weeks after his wife’s Nov. 1 slaying and told her he would marry her “as soon as appropriately possible.” 

She said he told her: “Trust me, when God closes a door, He opens a window.” 

She said when she was questioned by investigators Dec. 5, she began to fear for her own safety. 

“I was afraid Fred Neulander might kill me, as a matter of fact,” she said, “because I didn’t know what had transpired” the night Carol Neulander was killed. 

LOS ANGELES — Afghanistan may have been the breeding ground for last month’s terrorist attacks, but Hollywood served as a source of inspiration, says director Robert Altman. 

“The movies set the pattern, and these people have copied the movies,” Altman said Tuesday by phone from London, where he’s finishing his film “Gosford Park.” “Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they’d seen it in a movie.” 

So violent action movies with huge explosions amount to training films for such bold attacks, as studios spend a lot of time and money trying to appeal to young males, the 76-year-old filmmaker said 

“How dare we continue to show this kind of mass destruction in movies,” said Altman, whose directing credits include “M-A-S-H,” “Nashville” and “Dr. T & the Women.” “I just believe we created this atmosphere and taught them how to do it.” 

Altman hopes audiences will lean more toward thoughtful, character-driven films after witnessing the horror of the attacks on television. 

His “Gosford Park” — a combination class-war satire and Agatha Christie-like murder mystery set at a British manor in 1932 — features Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Clive Owen, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith. 

“Maybe there’s a chance to get back to ... grown-up films,” Altman said. “Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.”

NEW YORK — Knight Ridder’s net income plunged 27 percent in the third quarter as the Sept. 11 attacks led to a steep drop-off in newspaper advertising and higher costs associated with increasing news coverage. 

Knight Ridder, the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher after Gannett Co., on Tuesday reported net income of $55.7 million for the three-month period ending Sept. 30, compared to $76.1 million in the same period a year ago. 

Revenues slumped 10 percent to $693.1 million from $769.2 million. 

Per-share profits were 65 cents, in line with guidance the company issued a month ago and 2 cents above the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. Year-ago earnings were 87 cents. 

Knight Ridder’s chairman and chief executive Tony Ridder said in a statement that the Sept. 11 attacks cost the company a total of $10 million, including $9 million in lost advertising revenue, after accounting for temporary increases from condolence ads, and additional costs of $2 million for extra editions and creating more space for news. Offsetting those costs were added circulation revenues of $1 million. 

Other newspaper publishers and media companies have also been affected by the slumping advertising market, which was made far worse by the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.  

But so far Knight Ridder has offered the most specific details on the direct financial impact of the attacks on its bottom line. 

Ridder said the attacks reversed a slight comeback in retail advertising.  

That combined with an already soft market for general advertising and help wanted ads turned September into a “memorably bad month,” he said in a statement. 

In a separate report also issued Tuesday,  

Knight Ridder reported that total advertising revenues at its newspapers fell 16 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago. Year-to-date advertising revenues were off 7 percent. 

Ridder said that while the company’s prospects had started to look up in the weeks after the attacks, they fell back again once the U.S. bombing campaign began in Afghanistan. But he noted that cost savings from a downsizing effort announced in April were paying off, and he also said newsprint costs were heading lower. 

He did not specifically lower the outlook for the company’s full-year earnings, which currently stand at $2.91 per share, as measured by Thomson Financial/First Call, but he noted that there still exists a “harsh revenue environment” and that achieving full-year earnings goals would be contingent upon “resumption of more normal business patterns.” 

Investors seemed to take the news favorably, sending Knight Ridder’s shares up 60 cents to close at $57.72 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Investors seemed to take the news favorably, sending Knight Ridder’s shares up 90 cents to $58.02 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Knight Ridder, which is based in San Jose, Calif., publishes 28 newspapers in major markets across the country, including the San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

For the first nine months of the year, net income fell 67 percent to $109.8 million compared to $333.2 million in the same period a year ago, while per-share figures fell to $1.28 from $3.71. Revenues were off 7 percent to $2.17 billion from $2.33 billion. 

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On the Net 

Knight Ridder’s company Web site: www.kri.com. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Wells Fargo & Co. reported Tuesday that its third-quarter profit surged by 42 percent, as the West’s biggest bank cashed in on a home-loan boom fueled by falling interest rates. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $1.16 billion, or 67 cents per share — up from $821 million, or 47 cents per share, at the same time last year. 

If not for the bank’s acquisition of Utah-based First Security Corp., Wells said its earnings per share would have improved by 5 percent. 

The results lagged the consensus earnings estimate of 69 cents per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. The shortfall clipped Wells’ stock, which fell 58 cents to close at $40.19 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Wells’ mortgage division propelled the bank’s third-quarter performance. 

From July through September, Wells funded $48 billion in mortgages. That raised its home lending volume through the first nine months of the year to $122 billion — more than it has recorded in any other previous full year. The bank, the nation’s biggest headquartered west of the Mississippi, financed $109 billion in mortgages in 1998. 

The bank ended the quarter with another $38 billion in mortgages in its processing pipeline and $476 billion in its mortgage servicing portfolio, which is a source of reliable fee income. 

Wells is benefiting from the economic weakness that has pushed mortgage rates well below 7 percent, prompting millions of homeowners to refinance existing loans and making it easier for prospective home buyers to qualify for new loans. 

“With mortgage rates at historically low levels, we are seeing unprecedented levels of applications,” said Mark Oman, Wells’ executive vice president of mortgage and home equity. 

The mortgage flurry helped lift Wells’ community banking division to a third-quarter profit of $931 million, a 51 percent improvement from the same time last year. 

The refinancing craze also means that some of Wells’ outstanding mortgages will be paid off earlier than expected. The bank increased its reserves slightly more than expected in the quarter to offset revenue losses from the anticipated payoff of mortgages, said industry analyst Joseph Morford of Dain Rauscher Wessels. 

Like other banks, the frail economy hurts Wells, as businesses and consumers begin to default on loans. The bank’s non-performing assets increased 9.5 percent, or $155 million, during the third quarter to $1.79 billion as of Sept. 30. The bank’s problem loans totaled $1.62 billion at the end of the third quarter, a 67 percent increase from last year. 

The trends are “consistent with our view that there is continuing weakness in the overall economy,” said Ely Licht, Wells’ chief credit officer. 

The credit problems are slightly worse than analysts expected, but remain in a manageable range, Morford said. 

The bank said it is still assessing its exposure to businesses hardest hit by the economic ripple effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

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On The Net: 

http://www.wellsfargo.com 

REDWOOD CITY — Internet service provider ExciteAtHome and Comcast Corp.’s cable TV division have worked out a way to resume signing up new cable modem customers while ExciteAtHome deals with its bankruptcy reorganization. 

Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer would not describe the terms of the arrangement, but said it provided a way for ExciteAtHome to resume installing cable modems for Comcast customers. 

ExciteAtHome stopped provisioning new accounts for its cable partners last week. Moyer said Philadelphia-based Comcast, the nation’s third-largest cable company, didn’t stop taking orders for new cable modems, but there could have been installation delays without Tuesday’s deal. 

A spokeswoman for Redwood City-based ExciteAtHome said she could not confirm the arrangement or whether similar deals were in the works with other cable companies. 

ExciteAtHome’s cable-access service has 3.7 million subscribers, making the company the leading provider of high-speed Internet connections.  

It filed for federal bankruptcy protection in September, and its controlling shareholder, AT&T, plans to buy the company’s network assets for $307 million.

At Berkeley High, a school with about 3,400 students, it’s a challenge for any one student to rise above the crowd and make a name for him or herself. And for a freshman to be recognized by random students in the often-polarized world of high school is quite a feat. 

While a freshman on the Berkeley High girls’ tennis team last season, Megan Sweeney played and won several matches as the ‘Jackets’ top singles player. After each victory, her name floated through the halls and appeared in the school newspaper. The 14-year-old quickly became known for her strong serve and powerful ground strokes. 

“It was a bit overwhelming,” Sweeney said of her instant notoriety. “I had people coming up to me and recognizing me from (articles in) the ‘Jacket. It was kind of neat.” 

Sweeney moved to Oakland from Petaluma when she was 8 years old. A year earlier her stepfather and now-athletics director at UC Santa Cruz, Greg Harshaw, introduced her to tennis. She was instantly drawn to the singles game because it allowed her “to run around a lot.”  

Exercise aside, Sweeney said the opportunity to “wear little tennis skirts” provided the motivation necessary to stick with the sport. Following her early days on the court with a racquet in hand and Harshaw on the other side of the net, Sweeney’s mother signed her up to play at a local recreation center. Three years later, she began training with a coach in a tennis program at Oakland’s Laney College. 

“I saw the 15- and 16-year-olds playing when I was younger and I always wanted to be like them,” she said. “Watching them inspired me to focus on becoming better.” 

Admitting that she wasn’t a tennis prodigy, Sweeney spent hours on the court solidifying her fundamentals and improving her technique. Her hard work paid off. Last year Sweeney was ranked as high as 13th in the Girls’ 14 division in the Northern California section of the United States Tennis Association. She finished the season ranked 34th, according to NorCal USTA.  

Sweeney is now 15 years old and a sophomore at Berkeley High. In June she moved into a higher age bracket in USTA tournaments and now plays competitively in the Girls’ 16 division. Sweeney estimates she plays between 15 and 20 tournaments a year, mostly during the high school off-season. 

After playing in about eight tournaments during the first half of 2001, Sweeney spent much of the summer taking classes at a Pre-College Academy where she was enrolled in trigonometry, chemistry and college writing. Her plans following high school are still undecided, but she knows that it will likely involve tennis. 

She currently spends up to four hours a day on the court practicing, which leaves little time for anything other than schoolwork. When free time is available, it’s quickly filled with photography, spending time with her friends or, having recently acquired her driving permit, behind the wheel of a car. 

“I enjoy driving but it’s been a little bit scary for my mom,” she said.  

These distractions, however, don’t pose a significant threat to her game. When she’s not on the court, Sweeney said she feels as if her “life is boring.”  

The tennis obsession intensified this year when she attended the U.S. Open in New York and saw Gustavo Kuerten, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, among others, up close serving aces and striking cross-court winners. 

“I would love to do that,” she said of playing in a Grand Slam event. “I would wait to turn pro at least until after high school to get an education and really make sure that I love the game.” 

Now with her second season of Berkeley High tennis well underway, Sweeney’s already set her sights on helping the team reach the North Coast Sectionals. Last year the ‘Jackets finished second to Alameda High in the Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League. In the first meeting this season, Alameda defeated Berkeley 5-2. 

As a freshman, Sweeney began the year in the No. 2 singles spot behind Monique Le, but soon landed in her current position as the ’Jackets’ top singles player. 

“She’s definitely earned the spot,” said Dan Seguin, Berkeley head coach. “Megan has the ability to play the entire court.” 

As a ’Jacket, Sweeney finished last season with just two losses, but both came against Alameda’s top player, Megan Falcon, who finished the year ranked ninth in the Girls’ 14 division of the NorCal USTA.  

In a scrimmage against Piedmont High earlier this season, Sweeney posted the ’Jackets’ only win. Despite the team loss, Seguin pointed to the overall benefit of Sweeney’s victory. 

“It’s nice having someone who’s on a roll,” he said. “It really pumps up the team and for girls who are new to the team, it’s important to have her leadership.”

Lee praises tightened airport safety 

OAKLAND – U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s Monday morning press conference at the Oakland International Airport was billed as a briefing on measures to enhance airport security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

But Lee, the sole member of congress to oppose the Congressional resolution giving the president the power to go to war, fielded a number of questions on her vote as well. 

“I stand by my position,” said Lee, who represents Berkeley and Oakland, explaining that she thought the resolution modified the principle of governmental checks and balances. “I didn’t believe Congress should be taken out of the loop.” 

She explained further: “While we’re grieving, let’s step back. Let’s see the implications of our actions.” 

The Oakland airport had a new look Monday morning. Parking near the two terminals has been eliminated and lines to the security station snaked out the door and along the side of Terminal 2.  

There are 23 Alameda County Sheriff’s Department officers now stationed at the airport, and the Oakland Police Department’s contingent has increased from eight to 21 officers, Airport Director Steve Grossman said. 

“There is a new normal,” Grossman said. 

“I’m impressed with what the port and the airport are doing to ensure security,” Lee said. 

Still, she’s pushing for more.  

“I want the federalization of security personnel,” she said, underscoring her support for the Airline Security Bill which passed in the Senate 100-0 and is now before the House of Representatives.  

The legislation would authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to assume responsibility for all aviation-related security at all U.S. airports and calls for: 

• Strengthening and locking aircraft cockpit doors to prevent entry by non-flight deck crew members. 

• Authorizing deployment of federal marshals on domestic commercial air passenger flights and all international flights. 

• Making the FAA responsible to screening air passengers and property boarding each aircraft. 

• Allowing the use of Passenger Facility Charges to pay for some of this increased security. 

Lee said she hopes airport security can move toward screening all, rather than just some, baggage. 

These measures will make people want to fly again, Lee said, noting that Oakland flights are back to 90 percent capacity. 

Enhanced security will also include Oakland’s waterways and port. 

At the same time, Lee said she was very concerned with keeping a balance between enhanced security and individual freedom. 

And she said she was concerned about the shift of priorities to war-time expenditures on the federal level. Naming affordable housing, Social Security, and schools, she said: “I do not want to see them shortchanged.” 

HelioTrope, a local medieval ensemble, presented a concert of luscious melodies at Trinity Chapel Saturday night. Some were sung and some were played on a bevy of exotic instruments.  

Before the composers of the Renaissance invented the composition techniques of polyphony and harmony, medieval composers needed to rely on the strength of naked melodies to carry their pieces. These ancient tunes are either powerfully direct or curiously turned and embellished. 

HelioTrope drew from the diverse repertories of troubadours and Andalusian Arabs, in addition to some settings of modern poets in an authentic medieval style. It was a rare treat to hear poems of e.e. cummings and Theodore Roethke sung using ancient melodies, bridging a gap of centuries in a blend that is completely postmodern. 

In addition to modern poetry with medieval tunes, HelioTrope played modern melodies for some ancient verses. Many troubadour manuscripts contain no music notation, so performers are invited to fit existing tunes to the lyrics, or to compose new melodies in the ancient style. The band members are quite adept at this high art. The oud player, Tom Chandler, has mastered this Arabic version of lute so thoroughly that he mixed and blended styles; playing troubadour tunes with Arabic flavor and Arabic tunes in troubadour style.  

The exotic and rare hurdy-gurdy added a delightful region of the aural palette not often represented. Ethan James is a world renowned virtuoso on this instrument which is now mostly associated with French folk music, but was once a staple throughout Europe.  

The vielle wizard, Shira Kammen, breathed passionate life force into the seemingly austere melodic lines of the troubadours. Kammen’s warm, rich tone found the heart of these tunes and sang their soulful stories. Her vielle wept and sighed like a gypsy fiddle, and she even sang a couple of tunes herself.  

Complex, but subtle rhythmic support, was provided by Tobias, a young master percussionist who plays a variety of hand drums, including dumbek, tar and riqq.  

The center of the ensemble was the singer Joyce Todd, who demonstrated her linguistic breadth by singing the program in Arabic, Spanish, Provencal and English.  

Her voice is ideally suited to the troubadour style. She controls her vibrato expertly, using it sparingly as an ornament, rather than applying the common classical warble, which disguises the difficulties of matching pitches in ensembles of instruments with different tuning strategies.  

This pure stream of melody was performed with pure intonation and plenty of heart. The setting ideally suited the style and size of the ensemble.  

Trinity Chapel’s resonance and intimacy highlighted the sustained emotional content of these seeds and fruits of European courtly love.  

The dance melodies might have been more appropriately performed around a gypsy campfire, but this allowed the audience to travel in reverie through space as well as time.  

Future events at Trinity Chapel include a concert by UC Berkeley's Collegium Musicum Friday night. They will perform a selection of John Dowland's compositions for broken consort, including his "Lachrimae" suite, various pavans, galiards, and other Renaissance dances. The historically-informed performance will include the Renaissance Fiddle Band and the Consort of Viols, as well as other instrumentalists and singers.  

Saturday there will be a performance of "The Space Between" featuring Pauline Oliveros, founder and champion of the “deep listening” school. The audience will be asked to listen deeply as the program highlights the relationships between three different tuning systems.  

Oliveros’ accordion, custom-retuned in just intonation, will explore relationships with a piano in modern 12-tone tuning and a Japanese shakuhachi, whose tuning matches neither of the Western instruments. Oliveros focuses on the subtle interplay of the small spaces between the three tunings. Fans of international microtonality should not miss this.  

For other events at Trinity Chapel call 549-3864.

MUSIC 

924 Gilman St. Oct. 19: W.H.N.?, Jellyroll Rockheads, Ex-Claim, Crucial Attack, Sharp Knife; Oct. 21: 5 p.m. Throwdown, Martyr A.D., Bleeding Through, Everytime I Die, Fate 13; Oct. 26: Influents, Plus Ones, Divit, Summerjack, Robot Adrenaline, Claredon Hills; Oct. 27: (Halloween show, $1 off if you’re in a (non-punk) costume!) Babyland, Tsunami Bomb, Scissor Hands, Dexter Danger; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Ashkenaz Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 15: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 16: Black Dog Band featuring Peanut McDaniels, $4; Oct. 17: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 18: Ascension, $5; Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Theater 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Films 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Exhibits 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, 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. $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  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot 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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. 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  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Wednesday, Oct. 17

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article – a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley 

“Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

Thursday, Oct. 18

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life, speaks on “Rekindling Conversation.” 549-3509 www.seedsofsimplicity.org 

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 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson, is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the mistress of ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that will be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets. 

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 to 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

A year ago, on October 9, 2000, my stepfather, Joseph Carleton, died at the age of 67 after a four-month battle with stomach cancer. On this anniversary, I find myself reflecting on how I came to love Joe. 

I’ve sometimes thought that men who marry women with small children must really be in love, because they’re so often entering hostile territory. When Joe first started dating my mother, Ruth, in the mid-1960s, I didn’t like him very much.  

My brother, Jeff, and I met the news of Joe’s engagement to my mother with sullen silence. In addition to the intrusion into our relationship with our mother, I guess we feared being disloyal to our father. And Joe’s flaws as a stepparent mirrored the negative stereotypes of his profession, mechanical engineering: he could be perfectionistic, remote, and overly critical. I remember him going in after we bathed to make sure we hadn’t used too much water (he’d feel the inside of the tub for wetness and warmth to check the level). 

The year 1968 was a turning point, not only for our country – with the Vietnam War raging, the anti-war and civil rights movements filling the streets, the assassinations, and the violence at the Democratic Convention in Chicago – but also in my feelings towards Joe. Although I was only 10, I was well aware of the events of the times. 

One memory stands out. It was April, and I was sitting on the couch in our living room. The front door opened, and I heard a sound I had never encountered before. Joe was sobbing as my mother rushed to meet him. I remember worrying that something had happened to Joe’s mother, my new grandmother.  

“They’ve shot him,” I heard Joe say to my mother, and they held each other tightly as they cried together. Then they joined me on the couch to tell me that the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been killed. I remember Joe piling us all in the car that evening to take us to the one black Baptist church in Palo Alto for an impromptu service, where we were among a handful of white people in a sanctuary overflowing with grief-stricken parishioners. 

Although I already respected my parents’ political involvement on an intellectual level, this was the first time I understood that the motivation for it was deep love. Joe’s work in the civil rights movement came from his heart. 

Over the years, I’ve seen that all the hard work Joe did for many causes came from the same place. His work as an environmentalist and conservation chair of the local Sierra Club chapter stemmed directly from his love of nature; his involvement in the anti-war movement arose out of a heartfelt belief in peace and a fierce patriotism that required him to speak out when he saw his country doing wrong; and his support of farmworkers and the civil rights movement came from a true love of justice. 

I came to see that Joe used his mind and intellect to serve his heart, as he fought for the things he believed in. He was also willing to be of service in smaller ways, fixing an elderly friend’s refrigerator, or going miles out of his way to help a stranger whose car had broken down. And although he was sometimes emotionally distant, Joe was always there to lend a hand when I needed it. 

Now, as our world faces uncertain times, I find myself really missing Joe. I know Joe would be acutely concerned about our nation’s safety and security, and that he’d want the perpetrators of the crimes of September 11 brought to justice, but I also know without a doubt that he would be committed to working for peace and that he’d never stand by silently while our civil liberties were eroded. And his deepest motivation would be love. 

Nancy Carleton is a long-time community activist who has served as chair of the Zoning Adjustments Board and as vice chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission. She is currently active in the growing peace movement. 

Like public and private buildings around the country, City Hall instituted a slew of new security measures Monday in an attempt to make the building safer, while not disrupting public business.  

“All government agencies from the federal to local levels are operating with heightened awareness,” City Manager Weldon Rucker wrote in a Sept. 12 memo to city councilmembers. “Many have implemented considerable security measures as a result of the Sept. 11 events. As part of the city’s overall effort to review, update and exercise our emergency procedures, I will be implementing a new building safety and security plan.” 

All visitors to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center building will now be asked where they are going, then lobby staff will call ahead to that department to announce their arrival. Visitors will wear a name tag, which will include the floor and department they intend to visit. 

In addition, a plainclothes Berkeley police officer will be stationed in the lobby for at least the rest of this week. 

City Communications Manager Stephanie Lopez said the measures are designed to be helpful as well as security conscious.  

“Since the Civic Center reopened (early this year) we’ve needed to update our building plan for how we service the public,” she said. “People should expect to come to the Civic Center and have a safe and pleasant experience while here.” 

Lopez said the city manager’s safety measures are based on common sense. She said public buildings in other cities, such as San Francisco and Oakland, have implemented more intrusive safety measures including metal detector stations and parcel and bag searches. No additional funding will be needed for the new safety measures, she added, since more staff or equipment will not be used. 

Other safety measures include a tow-away zone around the perimeter of the Civic Center and closure of the public rest rooms in the rear of the building until further notice. 

According to the city manager’s memo, all the city’s buildings will be reviewed for safety measures. 

The general response among councilmembers and their aides was favorable to the new safety measures. 

Councilmember Miriam Hawley said she had not yet heard complaints from any of her constituents and that the new measures made city workers feel safer. 

“I suppose some people will be upset by the new security at first but it makes people working in the building feel unafraid,” she said. 

The mayor’s executive assistant, Tamlyn Bright, said the new safety measures are a welcome feature.  

“I think these are appropriate actions and I’m very happy that we are responding the way the rest of the country is,” she said. “This is the least we can do.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio’s aide, Calvin Fong, said the building was a little too open before – at least once a week there is someone wandering around the hallways with no apparent business in the building. He added that people frequently walk into the office.  

“It’s kind of irritating when people come walking right into the office unannounced,” he said.  

Councilmember Betty Olds said she thought the new measures were OK but the tow away zone outside the building was “going too far.” She said she was concerned about older residents who now have to park blocks away to come to the Civic Center. 

Berkeley Resident Frankie Fraser, who had business in the city clerk’s office Monday, said she approved of new safety measures.  

“I think it’s great,” she said. “Especially after you travel abroad and see that this type of thing is common procedure there. We just aren’t used to it yet.”

Editor: 

The Oct. 2 action by Berkeley Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio, Dona Spring, Maudelle Shirek and Margaret Breland to draw new council district boundary lines presents a classic how-to manual in the art of Back Room Dealing. It’s Gerrymandering 101 as follows: 

1) Proclaim yourselves champions of open government and letting the sun shine into all city decisions so that you can act otherwise. 

2) Meet privately behind closed doors with four members of the City Council of the same political persuasion. Be sure this closed-door group is all the same politically. After all, your purpose is to extend your power, not build consensus.  

3) Hammer out a proposal that gives your group the biggest political advantage, ignoring public comment from other groups, like the students, even though you have said you are their friend. Remember, your political purpose comes first. 

4) Keep your proposal a secret by not releasing it until just before the council votes. Show it to a few political friends who are not on the council so they can speak in favor of it. Show it ahead of time to the person who will provide the necessary fifth vote so she won’t have to ask many questions. Don’t show it to the other councilmembers until well after the meeting has started. Certainly don’t show it to the public! 

5) When your proposal is distributed, be sure that it does not come with annoying facts or numbers like those that you insisted be attached to all the other proposals people have been discussing for weeks. 

6) Be sure the motion to approve this new proposal cannot be understood by anyone including Councilmembers and staff. This is best accomplished by including in the motion only census block numbers, not street names. Since no one knows their census block numbers, they won’t be able to figure out how the proposal affects them. 

7) When you approve the proposal, repeatedly say it “meets all criteria,” even if you present no evidence that it does. Claim how wonderful it is. Saying it is the best proposal helps deceive people.  

8) Claim loudly you have student interests at heart by spreading their influence over two Council districts rather than one. Never admit you have reduced District 7’s 18-24 year old registered voters to 45 percent and achieved only 50 percent in District 8: neither percentage being even close to the 55 percent students currently hold in District 7. 

9) Assert that Councilmember Worthington represents students. Ignore comments by current students that they want one of their peers as their representative. 

10) Ignore pesky homeowner neighborhoods in District 8 that are now being pitted against students. They don’t vote for you anyway. 

11) Claim a student should sit on the Council, even though it is likely the door on such a reform has been closed due to the fact you have significantly increased tensions between student and homeowner interests. 

12) When other Councilmembers lodge objections, dismiss them as “sour grapes.”  

But why am I surprised. Kriss Worthington, along with his Assistants, David Blake and Becky O’Malley have been practicing the technique for years. I tell my students at San Francisco State University that in Berkeley we call this style of politics “citizen participation”and deny its existence, while in Chicago it is admitted and referred to as machine politics.  

David Tabb 

Berkeley 

The City Council could find itself the subject of national media attention again if it approves a controversial recommendation by Councilmember Dona Spring, who is asking the council to send letters to congressional representatives and the president calling for an end to U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.  

Berkeley has been in the national eye twice since the Sept. 11 attacks, once over the temporary removal of American flags from fire department vehicles during a protest and once over a controversial statement by a councilmember – a misquote according to Councilmember Dona Spring, picked up by a Wall Street Journal Web site columnist. The quote had Spring saying the United States is a terrorist country, while Spring said she meant that the Afghanis would believe the United States was a terrorist country for dropping bombs on Afghanistan. 

Spring placed the resolution to call for an end to the bombing on the agenda at last week’s meeting as an emergency item, but it failed to get the six votes it needed to be put on the agenda. The nine-member council voted in favor of the item 5-4, with Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Betty Olds, Polly Armstrong and Miriam Hawley voting in opposition.  

Tonight the item needs only five votes to gain approval. The five-member progressive faction, which includes Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, and councilmembers Spring, Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio and Margaret Breland, is expected to approve the item.  

Counter terrorism equipment 

The council is expected to authorize the city manager to join with the cities of Albany and Emeryville to accept a state grant from the Office of Emergency Services to respond to chemical or biological terrorist attacks. 

The grant will reimburse the city for $54,000 worth of equipment including portable decontamination showers, shelters and antidote kits. 

The fire department has been planning to purchase this equipment for the last six months, but according to a department staff report, Fire Chief Reginald Garcia is asking the council to expedite the purchase “in light of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11.” 

Capturing the wind 

The council is expected to waive fees and expedite permits for a nonprofit advocacy group to erect a wind monitoring station on an unused section of the Berkeley Pier.  

Local Power wants to place the equipment on the pier to test the feasibility of wind-powered, energy-producing technology. The Waterfront Commission has already approved the project.  

The proposed section of pier is ideal for the project because it’s among the windiest sections of the San Francisco Bay, according to the recommendation submitted by Councilmember Linda Maio.  

The report goes on to say that conventional electricity production accounts for about 30 percent of global warming, making it the largest single contributor. While on the other hand, wind power is the greenest electricity source available and is economically competitive with coal and other carbon-based sources of electricity. 

The equipment will be in place for approximately 18 months. The associated costs to the city is approximately $675. 

Un-reinforced masonry 

The council will be presented with an status report by the Planning and Development Department regarding the remaining un-reinforced masonry buildings in the city.  

Since the Un-reineforced Masonry Building Ordinance went into effect after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, 100 of the city’s 301 un-reinforced buildings have been seismically upgraded. That leaves 201 to go, according to a recently prepared Planning Department report. The report also mentions that retrofitting work on some of the remaining buildings has already begun or are near completion.  

According to the report, there are four buildings considered in the highest risk category and another 21 in the medium risk category.  

The privately-owned building highest on the city’s priority list is the California Theater at 2115 Kittredge St. The city’s concern stems from the large numbers of people who attend films there and the historical status of the building itself.  

Because the building is on the State Historic Building Resources Inventory, the Landmarks Preservation Commission had to approve the retrofit plans, which it did in August. According to the report, the theater operator has committed to completing the retrofit by the court-ordered deadline of December. 

City-owned businesses on the URM list include the former Fire Administration Building at 2121 McKinley St., the Facilities Maintenance Building at 1326 Allston Way and the Live Oak Recreation Center at 1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Green building 

The City Council will likely approve and increase in funding for the Green Building Design Assistance Program. The city's housing department is asking for an increase of $5,580 to add building assistance consultations and sessions for private and commercial builders. If the increase is approved, the budget for the program through December 2002 will be $95,000. 

The Green Building Design Assistance Program was established to assist builders make preliminary design decisions about energy systems, building design and environmentally conscious building materials. 

For more information about the program call 705-8187. 

Other items to be considered include: 

• The second reading of the newly-drawn council districts.  

• A charter amendment that, if approved by city voters, would create a student-dominated district, which would likely result in a student being elected to the city council. 

• Authorizing the city manager to accept a $100,000 grant from the Alameda County Public Health Department to launch a smoking prevention campaign aimed at college students. 

• The conversion of all city vehicles to fuel sources that are environmentally friendly.  

Not for the public 

A closed session meeting will be held prior to the regular City Council meeting to continue contract negotiations with the Berkeley Police Association. The council will also hear from legal counsel about a litigation against the city by the 620 Hearst Group, which is currently in Alameda County Superior Court. 

The public will allot 10 minutes to make comments to the public prior to the closing of the meeting, which will be held 2180 Milvia St., in the sixth floor conference room at 5:30 p.m.  

The City Council meeting will be held tonight at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The meeting will also be broadcast live on KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25.

Editor: 

Are students really under represented? Aren't they allowed to vote? 

If students get their own district, shouldn't others, like public employees or seniors? 

Don't students live all over the city, as well as in neighboring cities? Should districts in those cities be gerrymandered as well? 

Everyone else has to deal with the current political system (as imperfect as it may be). People join associations (neighborhood, professional, etc.), alliances, clubs, non-profits etc., to promote their causes. To legislate special political privilege to citizens of a particular occupation is simply unfair to others. 

I. Dayrit 

Berkeley 

Conductors of a citywide survey on the homeless will present their results to the city council tonight, indicating a strong demand in Berkeley for a legal campground, an expanded shelter system and storage facilities. 

Members of the non-profit organization, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, interviewed members of the city’s homeless population. The 100 respondents were found in shelters, on the streets, and at service-provider centers.  

“Sleep deprivation is the No. 1 problem people talk about,” said Michael Diehl, a community organizer for BOSS.  

He added that of the 52 people who reported sleeping either outside or in a vehicle, 70 percent said they do not have a safe place to sleep. 

Diehl said the survey was conducted, in part, to justify the city council’s April 28 approval of the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution, which made the enforcement of Penal Code Section 647(J) a low priority. The law states that it is a misdemeanor to lodge “in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it.”  

Critics charge that the law prohibits sleeping anywhere in public.  

“In essence, homelessness itself is criminalized by punishing people for doing things in public because they don’t have a place to do it in private,” said Tirien Steinbach of the East Bay Community Law Center. “Sleeping, drinking, eating, or littering. Things that are basically because of homelessness, there isn’t a choice where people do these things.”  

Steinbach was not involved in the survey. 

Of the survey’s 100 respondents, 61 percent were male, 39 percent female. Sixty-one percent of respondents were African-American, 27 percent white, 7 percent other. According to Diehl, the remaining 5 percent of respondents did not fill out this portion of the survey.  

Just under half of the respondents reported having a physical disability, 42 percent reported mental health problems, 36 percent of respondents reported using drugs, while a quarter said they frequently used alcohol. 

While 7 percent of respondents did not finish high school, 81 percent reported having received a GED or higher level of education. The remaining 12 percent did not fill out this section of the survey, Diehl said.  

A vast majority of individuals surveyed said they were unemployed. Just less than half said they did not have a safe place to store possessions. Diehl said storage facilities are key in finding work and creating stability for the homeless.  

“When people are looking for work they lose their papers,” he said, adding that storage lockers would allow them a place to store resumes, clothes, and other possessions. 

The survey also showed more than three-quarters of those asked said they would use a public campground within Berkeley city limits if available.

Most realtors optimistic in housing market outlook, despite economic climate 

Elizabeth Kim, a Berkeley teacher is house hunting with her husband. Like other home buyers, Kim, 29, is taking advantage of a market with interest rates at a 30-year low. 

“I do find myself hoping the economy will get worse. It’s like I’m taking advantage of the craziness of the world,” said Kim. 

The government is helping home buyers like Kim with interest rates as low as 6.25 percent on a 30-year loan. Buyers are also finding that the slowdown in the economy and the attacks on the East Coast which shook things up even further reduced the number of people able to put their money down on a home. 

Still, a possible recession may not be enough to put a home in the East Bay into the hands of the average resident. 

To buy a home, buyers will need to fork over an average $500,000, according to a June report from the California Realtor’s Association, a trade group. 

Realtors today say almost half of all buyers coming to them are looking for homes costing between $350,000 and $500,000. 

Kim said she is willing to buy a home that costs around $700,000. However, she said, she has looked at homes in neighborhoods like El Cerrito for a better deal. But even then, other prospective buyers overbid them by 15 to 20 percent. 

Ira Serkes, a realtor and author of “How to Buy a Home in California,” said last year’s market was unhealthy. Homes were overpriced because sellers received as many as 15 to 20 bids.  

Today, the market is still active, but he said he is now seeing an average of only three to five bids on a home. 

“I’d call this year’s market healthy,” he said.  

Serkes said prices are remaining stable so far and he’s not seeing a precipitous drop. 

Simon Chen, owner and broker of Realty World Abacus in Fremont, said some sellers are keeping homes off the market in hopes of better economic times.  

This lowers available inventory, Chen said, and may be making it harder for buyers to find affordable homes. 

According to a broker’s report, which lists new homes, there were 180 homes that went up for sale last week. This year, only 164 were listed in the report. 

Chen added that buyers shouldn’t expect a significant drop in the prices of homes; the mean price of a home is going up. 

“That’s because in this area, and all over California, it’s still an attractive place for people to live,” Chen said. 

Ann Tham, an Emeryville resident, was looking at an open house when the realtor told her the asking price was $730,000. 

“It’s ridiculous,” Tham, 33, said. “The property tax is my whole income.” 

Tham, who earns $70,000 a year wants to buy a home to receive a tax break, but knows she can’t afford it. 

“I’m just hoping that the market will go down,” she said. 

Nancy Wallace, a professor who lectures on real estate at UC Berkeley, said prices may fall in the housing market after a significant number of potential buyers are laid-off from their jobs.  

“The best indicator for housing prices will be the unemployment index,” she said. 

The commercial real estate market is also suffering. According to Wallace, there’s a 20-percent vacancy rate in the office space market in San Francisco.  

“The Bay area’s labor market has been seriously hit by the economic downturn,” she said. “People are already losing their jobs and leaving the area.” 

Other economists remain optimistic. 

The increase in government expenditure and tax cuts will boost the economy, said Robert Kleinhen, a San Francisco economist. 

He said we should begin to see a turn-around as soon as November. 

For now though, Wallace said prices have fallen in the South Bay. The market in the East Bay is doing well because it’s less expensive and has amenities, such as public transportation. 

If homes do become more affordable, it will eventually be good news for buyers who can stick out a recession, she said. 

Chen said he is already seeing the benefits of a softening economy on the real estate market. 

He said people who are in today’s market are those who want to sell their homes for a healthy profit, but aren’t looking to cash in. 

“Right now, the people who have unrealistic expectations and want to sell to get rich are staying out of the market,” he said.

SACRAMENTO, — Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation Sunday providing about a dozen rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples to more than 16,000 registered gay, lesbian and senior domestic partners in California. 

Davis also signed twin handgun bills late Sunday that would require gun buyers to pass a written test and demonstrate to a safety instructor that they know how to operate the weapon. 

The domestic partners bill lets those who register with the California Secretary of State’s Office make medical decisions for their incapacitated partners, sue for wrongful death, adopt a partner’s child and will property to a partner. 

“This bill marks a stellar advance for lesbians and gays in California,” said its author, Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. 

Davis said, “This bill is about responsibility, respect, and most of all about family — and it’s about time.” 

Supporters call Davis’ decision the biggest expansion of domestic partner rights in the country, putting the state alongside Vermont and Hawaii for acceptance of same-sex couples. 

Opponents label it an assault on traditional marriage and family values. In March 2000, more than 60 percent of California voters said that marriage should be between a man and a woman. 

“In one fell swoop, Gray Davis has cheapened every marriage in the state, undermined the vote of the people, pandered to the special interests, frivolously spent taxpayer money and broken his written promise to the citizens of California,” said Randy Thomasson, director of the Campaign for California Families. 

The group rallied in six California cities last week, asking Davis to veto the bill. 

The bill, which goes into effect, Jan. 1, also allows an individual to relocate with a domestic partner without losing unemployment benefits, use sick leave to care for a family member and administer a partner’s estate. 

Davis spent Sunday considering more than 200 bills and was expected to work until the early hours of Monday morning. 

Late Sunday, he signed identical Senate and Assembly bills that require handgun buyers to provide a thumb print, proof of residency, identification and a handgun safety certificate. 

The gun bills’ requirements take effect Jan. 1, 2003. 

Davis also signed a measure to limit the sale of “junk food” in elementary schools. 

The measure by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, restricts sales of soda at middle schools to after lunch and increases the money schools are paid for lunches for poor children. 

Davis deleted $5.5 million in the bill for grants to local school districts to implement and monitor new nutrition standards. He said the use of federal funds should be explored. 

Davis has vetoed several bills that involved new spending, citing the state’s growing budget crunch. 

He also signed 13 crime bills Sunday while racing toward a midnight bill-signing deadline, including one to fine adults who leave young children alone in cars. 

Davis also signed a bill to make registered sex offenders provide yearly fingerprints, photo and vehicle information. Another allows prosecutors to weigh old drunken driving arrests when trying people arrested again on the same charge. 

Current law allows prosecutors to overlook drunken driving arrests more than 10 years old. 

The governor also signed a bill cracking down on unlicensed workers who help people who can’t leave their homes. The bill, by Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, lets people receiving in-home services know if their worker has been arrested before taking the job. 

Davis spent Sunday considering more than 200 bills and was expected to work until the early hours of Monday morning. 

Legislators sent the governor 1,000 bills when they adjourned their 2001 session Sept. 15. Davis had until midnight to sign, veto or let them become law without his signature. 

Most bills take effect Jan. 1. 

RENO, Nev. — All six people exposed to anthrax in a letter at a Microsoft office in Nevada have tested negative for the deadly, inhaled version of the disease, state officials said Monday. 

The nasal swab tests for the final two people came back negative Monday, Washoe County District Health Officer Barbara Hunt said. The other four had tested negative on Sunday. 

State officials were waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to complete tests on the anthrax sample from the letter at Microsoft Licensing in Reno to determine whether it is a disease-causing strain or a harmless vaccine strain. Results were expected Tuesday, Gov. Kenny Guinn said. 

Hunt said the test result was a secondary concern because no one had shown signs of illness. 

“The negative nasal swab tests, combined with the physical condition and location of the letter, indicate that this is a very, very low risk situation even if the CDC results indicate that the anthrax isolate did contain a disease-causing strain,” Hunt said. 

“It is a great relief,” Hunt said. 

Health officials will monitor the six people for the less dangerous form of anthrax, which can result in skin lesions but is highly treatable, she said. 

State officials also were testing a vial filled with powder found aboard an America West flight from Phoenix that was isolated after it arrived at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Officials suspect the material is harmless and could be a hoax. 

Ten passengers and crew members were subjected to decontamination procedures by a hazardous materials team at the airport early Monday morning, spokesman Adam Mayberry said. The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration were notified. 

An FBI spokesman said Monday from Las Vegas that the agency is investigating whether the letter that tested positive for anthrax was contaminated before or after it was sent to Malaysia then returned to Microsoft in Reno. 

“It is too early to tell,” FBI spokesman Daron Borst told The Associated Press. “Anything is possible at this point.” 

Borst said the FBI will release additional information “if we develop anything that is a public safety issue,” but otherwise won’t be making any statements on the progress of the investigation. 

“If the CDC test comes back positive for the content of anthrax, then yes, it will be considered a criminal investigation,” he said. 

The anthrax was found in the letter on a pornographic picture, which apparently had been cut from a magazine. 

Guinn ordered new training for state employees Monday to help recognize suspicious-looking envelopes and packages. Regular mail was being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service as usual. 

Officials at the state Emergency Operations Center in Carson City said they have turned over about three dozen suspicious envelopes picked up from people in northern Nevada and delivered them to the state health lab in Reno for testing. 

Guinn said Microsoft had sent a check in the letter to a vendor in Malaysia. The letter was returned and the check was still in the letter, along with pornographic material. The vendor wasn’t identified. 

Microsoft representatives contacted U.S. health officials Wednesday after an employee became suspicious about the returned envelope. 

Malaysia’s foreign minister said Monday he believed that the letter did not originate in Malaysia.  

He suggested it might have been tampered with before it was sent to Malaysia. 

“I think definitely there is no truth that the thing originates from Malaysia,” Syed Hamid Albar told reporters after holding talks with a senior U.S. government trade representative. 

Syed Hamid said he told U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick that Malaysia was concerned that unverified anthrax information could cause fear in other countries. Zoellick later met with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. 

The Malaysian government has pledged to prosecute anyone shown to be involved in the Nevada anthrax letter, and to cooperate fully with U.S. investigators. The government has appealed to the FBI for all relevant information. 

“We do not know exactly how the thing originates,” Syed Hamid said. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft officials sought to reassure employees returning to work Monday. About 600 employees work in the Sierra Pacific Power headquarters building in Reno where Microsoft Licensing Inc. leases office space. 

Counseling sessions were held with workers over the weekend and were continuing Monday. 

“What we are trying to manage now are not the medical issues — which the local health officials have done a good job with — but those legitimate emotional concerns that people have,” Sierra Pacific President Jeff Ceccarelli said. 

Dan Leach, a spokesman for Microsoft, said there did not appear to be any great anxiety on the part of 140 Microsoft workers at the office. 

“Any risk is obviously an emotional concern,” he said. “But the people I have talked with seem to be handling it well.” 

All six people being tested — five Microsoft employees and a family member — had some form of contact with the contaminated letter. 

Hunt said the letter contained such a small amount of anthrax that it’s difficult to know whether it was deliberately placed on the picture. 

“There’s always a chance it came from contaminated soil and ended up on the picture accidentally,” she said, adding it’s a matter for law enforcement authorities to decide. 

Borst said it’s too early to tell whether terrorists sent the letter, but “anytime you send anthrax through the mail, the intent is to induce fear and that’s a form of terrorism.” 

LOS ANGELES — Country Joe McDonald is being sued for allegedly stealing the tune of his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die-Rag” from a 1926 song by famed jazz trombonist Kid Ory. 

The suit was filed last month by Ory’s daughter, Babette Ory, in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Ory claims McDonald stole the tune to her father’s “Muskrat Ramble” and argues that McDonald’s infringement was intentional 

According to the suit, Ory notified McDonald in July that his song infringed on her father’s copyright, but he continued to perform it. Under copyright law, the suit can ask for damages for performances of the song only in the past three years and for any performances since its filing. 

“Damage for intentional infringement can be up to $150,000 for every time the song has been performed over the past three years,” Ory’s lawyer, Neville Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times. “McDonald released it on a record, sang it on a TV series, ’Tales of the City’— it’s hard to tell how much that will amount to. His song is an American classic, it’s just too bad that it infringed on another one.” 

The suit asks for unspecified damages and an order barring McDonald from performing the song. Ironically, it comes just at the time when the recording may be gaining new popularity because of the military action in Afghanistan. 

McDonald, head of one of the leading psychedelic political bands of the 1960s and a solo artist since 1970, conceded that he’s been a fan of Kid Ory but denied he copped the tune.

LOS ANGELES — Country Joe McDonald is being sued for allegedly stealing the tune of his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die-Rag” from a 1926 song by famed jazz trombonist Kid Ory. 

The suit was filed last month by Ory’s daughter, Babette Ory, in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Ory claims McDonald stole the tune to her father’s “Muskrat Ramble” and argues that McDonald’s infringement was intentional 

According to the suit, Ory notified McDonald in July that his song infringed on her father’s copyright, but he continued to perform it. Under copyright law, the suit can ask for damages for performances of the song only in the past three years and for any performances since its filing. 

“Damage for intentional infringement can be up to $150,000 for every time the song has been performed over the past three years,” Ory’s lawyer, Neville Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times. “McDonald released it on a record, sang it on a TV series, ’Tales of the City’— it’s hard to tell how much that will amount to. His song is an American classic, it’s just too bad that it infringed on another one.” 

The suit asks for unspecified damages and an order barring McDonald from performing the song. Ironically, it comes just at the time when the recording may be gaining new popularity because of the military action in Afghanistan. 

McDonald, head of one of the leading psychedelic political bands of the 1960s and a solo artist since 1970, conceded that he’s been a fan of Kid Ory but denied he copped the tune.

LOS ANGELES — A report on fuel-cell vehicles commissioned by a coalition of government agencies, automakers and other companies concludes that bringing the low-polluting technology to market in California will require an expensive effort that probably won’t be profitable for at least a decade. 

But regulators, industry officials and environmentalists were heartened by the 258-page report, which they called their first comprehensive blueprint for moving fuel cells out of the laboratory and onto the streets. 

“It’s a revolutionary technology. Clearly if it’s going to replace ... the internal combustion engine, we’re certainly going to have many challenges,” said Alan C. Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resources Board. “But I don’t see any show-stoppers.” 

A fuel cell is a battery powered by the energy generated when oxygen and hydrogen combine. When pure hydrogen is used, the only byproduct is water. 

Only a scattering of fuel-cell vehicles has been produced so far, but state air board rules will require some public transit bus fleets to use fuel-cell buses in demonstration projects by 2003. 

The report released Tuesday by the California Fuel Cell Partnership — which includes the air board, the U.S. Department of Energy, most major automakers and other governments and companies — examined what it would take to put 40,000 new fuel-cell vehicles on the road every year by 2010 or later. 

If needed improvements in fuel-cell technology are developed, “all other challenges to (fuel-cell vehicle) commercialization can be overcome, albeit in some cases with high cost, difficulty and risk requiring public support,” according to the report, written by Bevilacqua-Knight Inc., a Hayward, Calif., consulting group. 

ompanies building the estimated 500 fueling stations needed to support 40,000 California fuel-cell vehicles a year would go about 10 years before the operations started making money, and it would take several years after that to recoup infrastructure investments, said study author Bob Knight. 

“It’s going to be difficult to convince fuel providers that this is a good thing to do,” Knight said. “Government is likely to have to play a bigger role to contribute to this transition ... than they’ve ever done before.” 

Government funds and incentives would be needed to help reduce the financial risks automakers and fuel providers would assume by producing fuel-cell vehicles and facilities, the report found. 

The report examined all the ways the hydrogen needed for fuel cells could be produced, including electrolysis, natural gas, gasoline, ethanol and methanol. All methods need more research before they’re inexpensive enough to be used on a large scale, and all have unique pros and cons. 

Electrolysis is potentially the cleanest way to make hydrogen — depending on how the needed electricity is produced. But setting up 500 fueling stations to dispense hydrogen gas would cost an estimated $235 million. 

Infrastructure would be cheaper for fuel-cell vehicles that used gasoline, ethanol or methanol, but the cars themselves would be more expensive because they would need not-yet-perfected equipment to convert the fuel into hydrogen. 

Even if fuel-cell vehicles ultimately cost about the same as their internal-combustion counterparts, it will be a challenge to convince consumers to try something new, Knight said. 

“It’s not completely clear why a person would want a fuel-cell vehicle instead of a conventional vehicle. It’s very different in a way that could make buyers uncertain, so it’s going to have to have some very appealing aspects to it,” Knight said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

www.fuelcellpartnership.org 

RENO, Nev. — All six people who had contact with a suspicious letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office have tested negative for the inhaled form of anthrax, Nevada health officials said Monday. 

Health officials said they will now monitor the six — five Microsoft employees and a family member — for the less dangerous form of anthrax, which is contracted through the skin but is treatable with antibiotics. 

No one has become ill. 

“The negative nasal swab tests, combined with the physical condition and location of the letter, indicate that this is a very, very low risk situation,” said Barbara Hunt, Washoe County’s district health officer. 

State officials were waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to complete tests on the letter’s contents to confirm whether it was contaminated with anthrax. Results were expected Tuesday, Gov. Kenny Guinn said. 

Microsoft officials contacted health officials last week about the letter, which had been sent to the Microsoft Licensing Inc. office. 

Guinn said Microsoft had sent a check in the letter to a vendor in Malaysia. The letter was returned with the check, along with pornographic material. The vendor wasn’t identified. 

An initial test on the letter’s contents produced results “consistent with it being anthrax,” health officials said. The subsequent test was more specific to anthrax, but came back negative. A third test on the pictures tested positive for anthrax, Guinn said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A majority of California public schools scored better on standardized tests this past academic year, but the results still fell far short of academic performance goals set by the state. 

State school Superintendent Delaine Eastin announced the results Monday from more than 6,700 schools, where the Academic Performance Index will be used to divvy up $257 million in funds this year. 

The state calculates the index based on the Standardized Testing and Reporting exam, or STAR test. Education officials track changes in each school’s rating as part of recent school reform efforts. 

During the 2000-01 academic year, 20 percent of public schools reached the state-set performance target, up from 17 percent the year before and 12 percent in the 1998-99 academic year. State education officials attributed this year’s rise to the nearly three quarters of schools that increased their index scores over 1999-2000. 

But the gains appeared to be wider than they were deep. 

Just 57 percent of schools increased their scores at the rate set by the state — down from 71 percent during 1999-2000. 

Eastin put a positive spin on the decline. 

“An outstanding number of schools showed major gains on their 1999-2000 API reports,” she said, “and this could not be expected every year.” 

The index ranges from 200 to 1,000. Legislation passed in 1999 offers schools that score below 800 incentives to improve their performance each year. That improvement must equal 5 percent of the gap between the score and the performance target. So, for example, a school that scored 600 on the index in 1999-2000 would have to increase its score by 10 points — 5 percent of the 200-point difference between 600 and 800. 

Schools that cannot show that one-year improvement lose access to the extra state money. Those that underperform over several years may face local review or stiff state sanctions. 

To be eligible for extra state funds, a school’s index must rise both across the board and within specific racial populations. 

Two Los Angeles County schools provide a good example. 

Monroe Elementary in Lakewood and Ramona Elementary in Bellflower both scored 579 in 1999-2000. Last academic year, Monroe scored 626 and Ramona scored 623 — gains of 8 percent that should have qualified both schools for extra state money. 

But Ramona did not qualify for funds, because its scores among black students rose only five points. Those scores would have had to rise nine points to qualify, according to Pat McCabe, the department of education analyst who designed and tabulated the index. 

High schools are finding it particularly difficult to meet the state goals, the new results show. 

While nearly two thirds of elementary schools and half of middle schools made such improvements, barely a quarter of high schools did. 

“We continue to be concerned with the lack of progress at the high school level,” Eastin said, adding that a new high school exit exam may soon boost scores. 

Nearly 4.5 million public school students in second through 11th grades took the STAR test last spring. The exam has two main parts: the national Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford 9) and questions written for California schools based on state standards of what each grade should learn. 

While 57 percent of schools did meet growth targets, only about 48 percent are eligible for extra money in 2001-02 under legislation Gov. Davis signed Sunday. Among the reasons for the difference is that not enough students took the test at some schools, said department of education spokesman Doug Stone. 

Davis said Monday he thinks the tests are a good way to assess schools. 

“This public index encourages schools to stay focused on progress,” Davis said. “Our schools, students and teachers are working hard to meet the challenge of higher expectations.” 

Sometimes, though, the index may not accurately measure a school’s progress. 

Take Bodega Bay Elementary School, which fell from a 718 score in 1999-2000 to 581 last year — a 137 point drop that was the state’s largest. 

The kindergarten through fourth grade school has only 37 students, a population small enough that a few poor performers can skew the results, said Stephen Rosenthal, superintendent of the district that oversees the school. 

“Next year, we may increase 200 points because of one or two kids,” Rosenthal said. “It’s not fair.” 

With a score of 975, Faria Elementary School in Cupertino topped the list. 

Principal Dolly Travers credited the school’s “academic and traditional environment” for high scores among the 379 students tested. But she also said the scores only go so far. 

“We don’t get too carried away by this,” Travers said. “The kids are most important. They’re more important than the API.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Department of Education’s: http://api.cde.ca.gov/ 

LOS ANGELES — Displays of patriotism have a limit in what Los Angeles police officers can wear on their uniforms, and some of them aren’t happy about the restrictions. 

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some officers began wearing flag pins and other patriotic decorations around their badges to show support for New York City officers who died in the tragedy, as well as for the country in general. 

Recently, Deputy Chief Michael J. Bostic, who runs the Los Angeles Police Department’s human resources bureau, reminded them that only one flag lapel pin is allowed on their uniforms. It is the one containing the “DARE America” flag, which also promotes the department’s anti-drug program, Bostic said in a memo issued at the end of last month. 

“A couple of officers have been making waves about it, saying the policy has stifled their ability to display their patriotism,” Lt. Horace Frank, a police spokesman, said Monday. 

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Frank added, saying the department encourages displays of patriotism “but with the caveat that our officers be uniform in their appearance.” 

He noted that police officials have also approved an American flag decal for patrol cars and other department vehicles. 

Don Lint, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said that isn’t good enough for many officers, adding at least 70 have expressed their unhappiness to him about the restrictions. 

“Officers are upset with the DARE pin because it’s promoting the program, it’s not promoting the ’United We Stand’ theme that the country is looking for right now,” Lint said. 

The union, which represents more than 8,000 officers, has ordered 10,000 American flag pins with the words “Remember 9-11” at the bottom. 

Lint said he hopes to discuss the new pins with Bostic but so far hasn’t been able to reach him. 

OAKLAND — Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., has opened a field office in Oakland. 

The only California field office will expand the reach of the organization’s work on its core issues, which include campaign finance reform, food and automobile safety, prescription drug pricing and corporate responsibility. The new office also puts Public Citizen in a prime location for its work on international trade and energy policy. 

Public Citizen was founded in 1971 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader to fight for consumer interests in the legislatures, courts and regulatory agencies. Nader left the organization in 1980. The non-profit also has a Texas field office which opened in 1984. 

The organization has five policy groups. 

Congress Watch tracks congressional actions on health policy and campaign finance reform and monitors attacks on the civil justice and regulatory systems. The Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program is devoted to studying nuclear safety, food irradiation and energy issues. 

Global Trade Watch campaigns for social and economic justice in international trade agreements. The Health Research Group works for prescription drug safety and healthcare delivery, and the Litigation Group fights in the courts for corporate and government responsibility. 

SAN JOSE — A hang glider spotted the car of an elderly couple Monday who had been missing since late last week after their car ran off the road into dense brush. 

Mark Cogan, 81, and his wife Dvora, 80, were sighted off Skyline Boulevard. Both were suffering from dehydration and were being held overnight for observation at Stanford Medical Center. 

A man who was hang gliding noticed the car, which was not visible from the road, and called 911, said Officer Joseph Deras of the San Jose Police Department. Park rangers found Mark Cogan, who is partially blind, trying to climb a cliff to look for help. 

Deras said Dvora Cogan is legally blind. The couple originally is from Russia. 

They reportedly called relatives from a cell phone Thursday night to report their car had run off the road near the San Tomas Expressway. Police searched the area extensively over the weekend with no luck. 

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Monday ordered the return of passports taken from nine Greenpeace protesters and one free-lance journalist arrested in July following a demonstration against the “Star Wars” missile defense system. 

The defendants — from Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, India and the United Kingdom — will now be able to travel home before returning to Los Angeles for the trial scheduled for Nov. 20. 

They and seven others, including another free-lance journalist, were arrested after the group allegedly rowed rafts into an exclusion zone near Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast base on July 14. 

They are charged with conspiring to violate a safety zone, a felony, and a misdemeanor count of entering military property without permission. If convicted, they each face up to 6 1/2 years in prison and about $250,000 in fines. 

Also on Monday, the 17 defendants pleaded not guilty to charges in a second superseding indictment, which is factually the same as the previous one, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Following their arrest, the six defendants from the United States were given immediate bail and those from other countries had their passports seized and all but one had their travel restricted to central California, Greenpeace officials said.

LOS ANGELES — A lawsuit filed by power supplier Duke Energy against the California Independent System Operator and another state agency in hopes of getting paid for electricity will continue, a judge ruled Monday. 

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter refused to dismiss the lawsuit, saying he wanted to proceed and have the parties work out the issues. 

In a lawsuit filed in February, Duke claimed it provided millions of dollars in energy to cash-strapped California utilities under orders from the ISO without ensuring that it would be paid. The action also named the state Department of Water Resources, which is in charge of buying wholesale electricity for the utilities. 

“The power is just going out there and is being taken,” said Seth Ribner, a lawyer for Duke. “You have to pay for power because it is unconstitutional to steal it.” 

Cal-ISO, manager of the state’s power grid, argued that Duke failed to state what specific violation it is accusing the grid operator of committing. The DWR, in charge of buying wholesale electricity, contends it only backs the transactions and is not actively involved in them. 

Both parties asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. 

John Saurenman, a lawyer for the DWR, also argued that the lawsuit was premature, adding that officials are implementing a process to pay energy suppliers. 

“This is not a case whether Duke will get paid,” he said. “It is simply when and how.” 

If Duke cooperates, it could be “paid in full by the end of the year,” the attorney said. 

LAS VEGAS — Three employees of a Las Vegas hobby rocket company and three firefighters were treated for burns and smoke inhalation after a warehouse explosion just after noon Monday. 

A 65-year-old man and a 24-year-old man were reported in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns, while a 52-year-old man was in fair condition with first- and second-degree burns, a University Medical Center spokesman said. 

“The three male firefighters were treated and released for smoke inhalation,” said hospital spokesman Rick Plummer. 

Employees working next to AeroTech Inc. reported hearing two explosions come from one of the rocket company’s warehouses, Las Vegas fire spokesman Steve La-Sky said. 

“People in the auto shop next door said the first explosion rocked the building and cracked their wall,” he said. “They said they ran out of the building after the first explosion.” 

That’s when La-Sky said the second and larger of the explosions created a 100-foot fire ball. 

“It’s amazing we have no fatalities,” he said. 

Three AeroTech employees who were originally reported missing were found, La-Sky said. Two were burn victims and the third was uninjured. 

About 50 firefighters and 12 units put out the three-alarm blaze by 1 p.m., La-Sky said. But by late afternoon, the fire reignited and firefighters remained on the scene waiting for the fire to burn itself out after failing to contain with water using ladders. 

About 2,500 pounds of ammonium perchlorate, a powder form of a chemical used in rocket fuel, and about 800 pounds of magnesium were stored in AeroTech’s warehouse making it too dangerous for fire crews to fight the blaze from the ground, La-Sky said. 

Authorities began evacuating residents living within a one-mile radius of the burning warehouse after 6 p.m because of the hazardous chemicals. 

Fire investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fires and the amount of damages, La-Sky said. 

It was the second workplace explosion to rock the state in a month and it renewed calls for strict oversight of companies handling hazardous materials. 

On Sept. 17, a series of explosions at Depressurized Technologies International, an aerosol recycling plant in Minden, left one man dead and four others hospitalized. 

Workers’ rights groups say earlier reforms involving businesses dealing with hazardous materials are not being taken seriously. 

State regulatory changes made after two deadly blasts in 1998 seem to have been forgotten, said Tom Stoneburner, director of Reno-based Alliance for Workers’ Rights. 

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and get it right,” he said. “We can’t keep exposing our workers to these kinds of things when we send our families off to work every day.” 

In 1998, an explosion at Sierra Chemical, an explosives manufacturing plant east of Reno, killed four workers and injured six, while the another explosion at Pacific Engineering and Production Co. in Henderson, killed two people and injured more than 300. 

“We thought we had fixed it (through legislation),” Stoneburner said. “Then along comes the blast at DTI in Minden.” 

Stoneburner’s group is part of a coalition that has asked Gov. Kenny Guinn to establish a commission to investigate workplace safety. 

Michael Hillerby, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, said a commission wasn’t necessary. 

“We have very good laws that protect workers,” he said. “Anytime anything happens it encourages all the parties involved to take a closer look, but a commission isn’t a magic bullet to make things better. Accidents, sadly, are going to happen.” 

According to its Web site, AeroTech is the largest supplier of technically advanced rocket motors for the hobby rocket market. 

The company also produces rocket motors for the motion picture special effects industry that have been featured in films including “Star Trek: Generations” and “Tomorrow Never Dies.” 

SAN LUIS OBISPO — A parole hearing for one of the men who kidnapped and buried a busload of school children 25 years ago was postponed Monday. 

Richard Allen Schoenfeld requested his parole hearing be put off because his father recently died and he didn’t have time to prepare, according to Denise Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the Board of Prison Terms. 

The hearing has not been rescheduled, she said. 

Schoenfeld was arrested about two weeks after he, his brother James and Frederick N. Woods, all scions of wealthy San Francisco Peninsula families, commandeered the bus on July 15, 1976, near Chowchilla in the San Joaquin Valley. 

They transferred their hostages to two vans, drove about 100 miles north and put them in a moving van they had buried in a quarry owned by the Woods family in Livermore. 

While they were trying to arrange for the ransom, bus driver Ed Ray and some of the older boys dug their way out of the truck and summoned help. 

Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in six days after the kidnapping. He has been denied parole 16 times. 

On one side is a massive fiscal stimulus effort of tax cuts and spending increases. On the other is the fear and uncertainty of the public about a war without precedent. 

This is the battle of the home front, the war to keep the economy strong and ward off or mitigate impending recession. 

No greater economic power has been assembled before in the lifetime of most adult Americans, since government-decreed fiscal and monetary efforts are augmented by manufacturer, retailer, airline and hotel discounts. 

And, at least for the time being, a surprising decline in the prices of gasoline and heating oil has reduced tensions on business and home budgets, freeing funds for saving or spending. 

Aiding the effort are interest rates that in some instances already have effectively dropped to zero when adjusted for inflation, and prices that have remained stable for months at relatively reasonable levels. 

The signals so far are mixed. Unemployment is creeping higher, but late reports of a decline in jobless claims is encouraging. Although stock prices remain volatile, they rebounded after initially plunging. And while retailers endured a terrible September, carmakers held their own. 

Early indicators, however, might not be reliable, since the shock effect could only have been negative. Businesses and consumers might reassess their possibilities, especially as the economic lures become clearer. 

Immediately after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center a survey of small business attitudes showed many canceling their hiring and capital spending plans, and expressing deep pessimism for sales. 

But, as economist William Dunkelberg told Congress, “At least 85 percent of small-business owners benefit from income tax relief, which would provide a broad base for economic recovery.” 

Such relief and more is now in the works, and Dunkelberg, chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business, indicated that such measures could greatly change confidence, hiring and spending. 

How quickly all this could occur is still up in the air; there is a necessary time lag between enactment of economic lures and their impact, and additional economic deterioration could occur in that time. 

“Things are only starting to get worse,” economist Peter Hooper of Deutsche Bank told clients. In the year’s final quarter, he said, “we think the economy could contract twice as much” as in the earlier quarter. 

Such negative comments are based on hard experience in months past when, through interest rate cuts, the Federal Reserve sought and failed to stir the economy. Eventually, such lures are likely to pay off. But when? 

The stock market is another story, since it peeks into the future more than it deals with the present. In each of the past nine recessions it has bottomed at least four months before the economy. 

Watch it for signals. While, sadly, it has shown a high degree of fallibility, it is after all activated by institutions and people who are willing to put their money on the line. 

Already there are signs it sees something better out there in the immediate future, and the unprecedented number of lures dangling before the economy suggest it may not be seeing things.

SAN FRANCISCO — A major credit agency placed San Francisco International Airport on its “negative” outlook list Monday in anticipation of steep declines in passenger volume amid widespread anxiety raised by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Fitch Inc. predicted the San Francisco airport will suffer a 25 percent drop in domestic passengers and a 15 percent decline in international traffic for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30. 

The agency expects the downturn and increased security costs to saddle the airport with a $100 million budget shortfall that will force management to slash expenses, lobby for money from the federal government and possibly raise its fees. 

Airport officials didn’t immediately return calls Monday. 

Fitch’s decision to change the San Francisco airport’s credit outlook from “evolving” to “negative” doesn’t immediately affect its bond rating, which remains at “AA-.” 

Fitch also issued negative warnings on several other major airports, including: St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Memphis, Tenn. and Charlotte, N.C. 

All are suffering from the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 attacks, but the San Francisco airport is facing additional pressures caused by the technology industry downturn, which already had cut into business travel, according to Fitch. 

The San Francisco airport also is facing intense competition from nearby airports in Oakland and San Jose, where discount carrier Southwest Airlines operates its regional hubs, said Fitch analyst Jessica Soltz. 

Fitch hasn’t changed its outlook on the San Jose and Oakland airports.

SUNNYVALE — Getting behind a growing trend in Web commerce, Yahoo! Inc. plans to soon launch a new shopping category that will offer used and clearance merchandise at set prices. 

Items for sale in Yahoo’s new “warehouse” category will be featured in search results and on the site’s shopping pages, complementing auctions, virtual “stores” that sell new products and regionally based classified ads for goods and services. 

Sellers in the Yahoo warehouse will be able to type in numbered product codes on their books, compact discs and other discount merchandise to call up descriptions of the items. Yahoo will not charge to list items but will take a yet-to-be-disclosed commission on successful sales. 

A similar system was started in 1999 by Half.com, which was bought last year by eBay Inc. and is being incorporated into eBay’s site to satisfy the growing interest in its “buy it now” feature. Amazon.com also lets companies and individuals sell used merchandise at set prices. 

Yahoo’s warehouse, scheduled to be rolled out by the end of the month, “is an outgrowth of what consumers have started to tell us over the last six to 12 months,” said Brian Fitzgerald, a Yahoo senior producer. “Consumers absolutely want this sort of control and choice.”

SAN FRANCISCO — With demand for its business software evaporating, fallen Internet star Commerce One Corp. said Monday it will shed 1,300 jobs, or nearly half its work force. 

The Pleasanton-based company said 700 of its 2,800 employees will be laid off. The cuts began Monday, Commerce One spokesman Andrew McCarthy said. 

Another 600 jobs will be jettisoned by spinning off operations unrelated to Commerce One’s primary product — so-called “business-to-business” software designed to create online exchanges for corporate customers. 

The spin-offs will be concentrated among several small consulting companies that Commerce One acquired in a $1.65 billion purchase of AppNet Inc. last year, McCarthy said. 

Commerce One has been retrenching much of this year. The company began the year with 3,700 employees. 

The latest purge is long overdue, said industry analyst Bob Austrian of Banc of America Securities in San Francisco. 

“The demand for the company’s product has already shown its true colors,” Austrian said. “Management is slowly aligning its costs with the reality of its revenue.” 

The company provided an inkling of the job cuts last week when it warned that its third-quarter revenue would range from $80 million to $83 million, well short of the $100 million in revenue that management had forecast in July. 

Commerce One also said it will lose 24 cents to 25 cents per share, worse than the consensus loss estimate of 23 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

In last year’s third quarter, Commerce One lost 9 cents per share, excluding one-time charges, on revenue of $113 million. Through the first half of this year, the company had lost $2.57 billion on revenue of $271.5 million. 

Commerce One’s comedown largely reflects the growing disillusionment with business-to-business software, which initially enthralled investors by promising to revolutionize the way companies bought and sold goods. But the software hasn’t lived up to the hype, causing businesses to delay purchases and investors to dump the stocks of companies specializing in the sector. 

Commerce One’s shares gained 21 cents to close at $3.50 Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock, which went public in July 1999, peaked at a split-adjusted $135.63 in early 2000. 

To weather the turbulence, Commerce One has deepened its ties to German software giant SAP, which invested more than $200 million for a 20 percent stake in the company. The investment stirred talk that SAP eventually will take complete control of Commerce One. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.commerceone.com 

WASHINGTON — Breast cancer risk increases by 8 percent to 60 percent for women who work the night shift for many years, according to two studies that suggest the bright light at night diminishes the body’s supply of melatonin and increases estrogen levels. 

Researchers said the fact that two independent studies, using different methods, found roughly the same results suggest strongly that working the graveyard shift for long periods of time may lower the body’s resistance to breast cancer and, perhaps, to other types of cancer. 

“We are just beginning to see evidence emerge on the health effects of shift work,” said Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and first author of one of the studies. He said more research was needed before a compelling case could be made to change night work schedules, however. 

“The numbers in our study are small, but they are statistically significant,” said Francine Laden, a researcher at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and co-author of the second study. 

Both studies appear Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

“These studies are fascinating and provocative,” said Larry Norton of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “Both studies have to be respected.” 

But Norton said the findings only “hint” at an effect on breast cancer rates from nighttime work and “raises questions that must be addressed with more research.” 

In Davis’ study, researchers explored the work history of 763 women with breast cancer and 741 women without the disease. 

They found that women who regularly worked night shifts for three years or less were about 40 percent more likely to have breast cancer than women who did not work such shifts. For women who worked at night for more than three years, the relative risks went up to 60 percent. 

The Brigham & Women’s study, by Laden and her colleagues, found only a “moderately increased risk of breast cancer after extended periods of working rotating night shifts.” 

The study was based on the medical and work histories of more than 78,000 nurses from 1988 through May 1998.  

It found that nurses who worked rotating night shifts at least three times a month for one to 29 years were about 8 percent more likely to develop breast cancer.  

For those who worked the shifts for more than 30 years, the relative risk of breast cancer went up by 36 percent. 

American women have a 12.5 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Laden said her study means that the lifetime risk of breast cancer for longtime shift workers could rise above 16 percent. There are about 175,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed annually in the United States and about 43,700 deaths. Breast cancer is the second only to lung cancer in causing cancer deaths among women. 

Both of the Journal studies suggested that the increased breast cancer risk among shift workers is caused by changes in the body’s natural melatonin cycle because of the bright lights during the dark hours. 

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland during the night. Studies have shown that bright lights reduces the secretion of melatonin. In women, this may lead to an increase in estrogen production and increased estrogen levels have been linked to breast cancer. 

“If you exposed someone to bright light at night, the normal rise in melatonin will diminish or disappear altogether,” said Davis. “There is evidence that this can increase the production of reproductive hormones, including estrogens.” 

Davis said changes in melatonin levels in men doing nighttime shift work may increase the risk of some types of male cancer, such as prostate, but he knows of no study that has addressed this specifically. 

Both Laden and Davis said the melatonin-estrogen-breast cancer connection is still a theory that will require more research to prove or disprove. 

Dr. S. Eva Singletary, a breast cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said the two studies show “a small relative increase in breast cancer risk, but nothing to become alarmed about.” 

More study is needed to precisely define the risk of shift work and how that compares to other known breast cancer risk factors, such as family history, smoking and obesity, said Singletary. But she said the finding does suggest the need for women who work night shifts to be particularly prudent in following breast cancer screening recommendations calling for regular mammograms and medical exams. 

——— 

On the Net: 

American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org 

Journal of the National Cancer Institute: http://jnci.oupjournals.org/ 

National Cancer Institute: http://www.nci.nih.gov/ 

WASHINGTON— The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to clear the lungs of millions of children exposed each year to secondhand smoke through a public relations campaign that encourages parents who smoke to light up outdoors. 

The EPA has found that children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from bonchitis and pneumonia, wheezing and coughing spells, ear infections and more frequent and severe asthma attacks. 

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. 

It has been classified by the EPA as a known cause of lung cancer in people, resulting in several thousand lung cancer deaths in non-smokers each year. 

Joining the EPA in the $1.5 million campaign Tuesday are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, the Consumer Federation of America and the National Association of Counties. 

The counties’ organization, for example, agreed to help gather parent signatures to commit to smoking outside as part of the overall public relations health campaign. 

The consumer group said a new survey indicates that 70 percent of parents who smoke and who claim to have been previously unaware of the harmful effects would take their tobacco outside to protect their children. 

“We don’t think the public is very aware of how many children are involuntary victims of secondhand smoke,” Jack Gillis, the group’s public affairs director, said Monday. 

The National Cancer Institute has said there are links between secondhand smoke and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, new cases of childhood asthma and behavioral and cognitive problems in children. 

It was 10 years ago when 25 lives were lost and over 3,000 homes, businesses and buildings were demolished by the devastating fire that swept through the East Bay hills region.  

In remembrance of the tragedy, California’s 2001 Wildfire Conference was held at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland where the three-day event gave representatives from different agencies, cities and universities an opportunity to talk about many of the lessons learned from previous fires and to share information on fire prevention and readiness. 

“The idea is really to empower people and agencies and to make a difference to the potential threat of fires,” said Kenneth S. Blonski, fire mitigation advisor for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Forest Products Laboratory. 

Blonski said the conference, which started Wednesday and ended Friday, was an opportunity for attendants to share valuable, life-saving information. However, the biggest challenge is figuring out ways to educate the public and to encourage them to change their behavior to become fire safe. 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation for  

Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism, Understanding  

the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Rent Stabilization Board 

7:05 p.m. 

City Council chambers 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Public Hearing on the 2002 Annual General Adjustment. 

Interfaith Couples Look at  

Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 16

Crabby Chef Competition 

4 p.m. 

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto 

1919 Fourth St.  

Top East Bay chefs compete to create the best crab dish. Free.  

5 - 7 p.m. Fund-raising Reception for the Visual and Performing Arts Group of Berkeley High School. $25 donation. 845-7777 

Similarities between Jewish  

and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

The Berkeley Garden Club 

2:15 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

“Yearlong Garden Color with Bulbs” with Retired Director, Regional Botanic Gardens, Wayne Roderick. The program includes slides of flowering bulbs ideally suited to the East Bay climate. 524-4374 bgardenclub@aol.com 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight way 

“Herbal Alternatives and Drug Interactions for Fibromyalgia.” 601-0550 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Israel and Palestine: Why the  

Oslo Peace Process Failed 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Speaker Joel Beinin is a Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University: “The Oslo Declaration of Principles... was supposed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East... the entire region is more unstable than a decade ago. Why have the hopes of so many people for a just peace been disappointed?” He will also address the relationship between U. S. policy, the Arab-Israel conflict, and events of this kind. 863-6637 

Wednesday, Oct. 17

 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28 

 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley “Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

 

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Thursday, Oct. 18

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 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the MC. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that wukk be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets. Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Editor: 

On Sept. 12 nearly 40 residents of Strawberry Creek Lodge joined together to express our support to Rep. Barbara Lee for her courageous act in standing as the sole voice in Congress in saying “no” to giving President Bush open ended funding for wiping out whole countries “harboring” terrorists. 

In the wake of the escalating frenzy for war from the White House, the halls of Congress, the military, the media and those who stand to profit, the people of our country are being rapidly brain-washed. It is time to slow down this barrage and let the voices of reason be heard through the media. 

Please publish the contents of our message to Rep. Barbara Lee which follows. 

“We the undersigned residents of Strawberry Creek Lodge congratulate our courageous representative, Barbara Lee for her vote in opposition to the war powers resolution. We agree that the perpetrators of the terrorist bombings must be brought to justice, but we believe that more killing can only result in the death of innocent people. In addition we have to ask, what is it in U.S. foreign policy that results in such blind hatred toward the United States?” 

Your paper has the duty to reflect feelings and opinions of readers who are opposed to bombing other countries thus causing a long and deadly war. 

Sept. 11 should remind all Americans that violence begets violence. Those behind this fearful terror must be found and punished. The frightening war propaganda should be restrained now. Please join us in calling for “Justice not Vengeance.” 

Robin Hipolito 

For the Legislative Committee 

Strawberry Creek Lodge 

Berkeley 

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

The Cal Bears gave their worst performance of a dismal season on Saturday, putting up a lackluster effort in losing, 48-7, to Oregon. The Bears were shut out until a meaningless fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Kyle Boller to Joe Igber, and the defense allowed 463 total yards to the Ducks, including 257 yards on the ground. 

“I’m completely flabbergasted by our total lack of execution,” Cal offensive coordinator Al Borges said after the game. “There’s no excuse for playing like that.” 

The Bears were equally helpless on offense, defense and special teams. Quarterback Kyle Boller followed up his outstanding effort in a loss to Washington two weeks ago with a terrible game, completing just 18 of 40 pass attempts and getting yanked in the fourth quarter. The Bears turned the ball over five times, including interceptions on backup Eric Holtfreter’s first two series in the game and a fumbled punt by return man Ray Carmel.  

On defense, Cal missed a busload of tackles, including one play that looked like a Three Stooges schtick, as Oregon wide receiver Sami Parker took a simple out pattern and scored a 37-yard touchdown while three Bears fell over each other trying to tackle him. 

That score was one of three for the fifth-ranked Ducks in the first quarter, giving them a 21-0 lead and snuffing any Cal hopes for an upset. Harrington scored on a two-yard sneak to open the scoring, and running back Onterrio Smith went in from the same distance on a sweep as the quarter wound down. 

“The first couple of series, everything they did was right,” Cal head coach Tom Holmoe said. “On defense, it seemed like every time we called a play they were right on it.” 

Even when the Bears caught a break, they couldn’t take advantage. Oregon tailback Maurice Morris dropped a pitch early in the second quarter, and Cal freshman defensive end Lorenzo Alex