City Council to hear discussion of parking, height limitations  

The City Council will devote its entire meeting tonight to the Draft General Plan, and it appears that parking and downtown height limits will be the major topics addressed during the public hearing. 

Once the hearing is closed, the council will hold three additional meetings to discuss the plan. Possible amendments are likely to be on the table. The council is required by state law to adopt the housing element of the plan by Dec. 31.  

The General Plan is a document that includes goals, objectives and policies, which govern land use, transportation and environmental management during a 20-year period. 

The 191-page draft plan, prepared by the Planning Commission, is the result of two-and-a-half years of public discussions and input from hundreds of Berkeley citizens and a variety of city commissions and boards.  

The council held its first hearing on the Draft General Plan last Tuesday. If the first group of speakers is any indication, the most controversial issues in the plan are a moratorium on parking studies in the downtown and height limits on buildings.. 

“Parking is shaping up to be the big issue,” said Senior Planner Andrew Thomas. “But I’ve also heard groups that want increased height limits have been gearing up as well.”  

YMCA Director Fran Gallati is concerned the Draft General Plan is too restrictive on the possibility of creating more public parking in the downtown area.  

Gallati said downtown is going through a renaissance with the expansion of the Berkeley Repertory Theater and the opening of the Aurora Theater. He said in the near future, the renovated Berkeley Central Library, the Freight and Salvage Coffee House as well as a variety of restaurants, cafes and art houses will be opening in the downtown areas increasing the need for parking.  

“The demand for parking in the downtown is going to increase,” Gallati said. “I don’t want to lose our ability to provide services because we were short sighted.” 

The draft plan calls for a two-year moratorium on parking studies while the city tries to implement a variety of policies recommended in the Transportation Demand Study. The study, released in March, suggests reducing the number of all-day parkers thereby freeing up parking spaces for short-term parkers who are more likely to patronize restaurants, theaters and other downtown businesses. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said during last Tuesday’s public hearing the claims of a parking shortage in the downtown area were exaggerated.  

“I challenge anybody to show me a time when all these spaces are filled, especially when the arts groups say they need them,” he said. 

In fact the Berkeley Daily Planet counted 79 empty spaces on the sixth floor of the Center Street Parking Garage at 12:45 p.m. Monday. 

Gallati argued it would take more than one day to make a meaningful assessment of the parking needs in the downtown area. He said parking congestion depends on events scheduled in the downtown area and added that there are 2,000 to 3,000 people who use the YMCA every day. He hears complaints about a lack of parking throughout the day, he said. 

“What I do know for sure is that we have a lot of people who drive, seniors, people with children and women who are concerned about safety,” he said.  

Gallati added that the YMCA does what it can to promote alternate transportation. He said there is a 20-space bike rack for employees and members are given a pamphlet that outlines bus stops, BART stations and bike routes to the downtown. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who represents the downtown area, said she supports reducing all-day parking in existing spaces. To balance the draft plan’s policy on parking studies, she has submitted a amendment recommendation to council that would ensure no existing public parking downtown is lost. 

“I think the council wants parking to be available for business patrons in the downtown area,” she said. “The whole goal was to figure out how to get the commuters out of their cars so they are not filling up garages or feeding meters all day.” 

Another issue likely to be discussed is a call for increased height limitations in the downtown area.  

Ecocity Builders, a nonprofit agency dedicated to creating open space in urban areas by increasing residential density along transportation corridors, is asking for four amendments to the plan. To support the proposed amendments, the agency will submit a petition with more than 100 signatures from nonprofits, educational institutions and businesses, said Ecocity Builders President Richard Register. 

The draft plan sets a height limitation in the downtown area of no more than seven floors. If the Ecocity amendment is approved, it would allow 10- or 11-story buildings, Register said. 

According to Thomas, during the drafting of the General Plan, the Planning Commission avoided increasing height limits because the subject was so controversial. 

“The Planning Commission was faced with relentless public comment that was opposed to increased height limits,” he said. “It was very clear the opposition to it was very strong.” 

In fact, a group of residents calling itself the Berkeley Party, is in the final revision of a proposed Zoning Ordinance amendment that would lower the existing height limits. They are proposing limitations be reduced to between 28 and 35 feet along certain sections of San Pablo Avenue. Currently, the height limits are 50 feet.  

“There are single family homes just behind San Pablo Avenue,” said Berkeley Party member Carrie Olson. “Since many of us buy our homes to live the rest of our lives and don’t expect to have a 50-foot wall altering the quality of our lives.” 

Olson said the Zoning Ordinance amendment could be voted on in November 2002, provided they can gather the 4,000 signatures necessary to put it on the ballot. 

Planning Commission Chairperson Rob Wrenn said somewhere between the Ecocity amendment and the Berkeley Party amendment is what’s best for the city.  

“The Berkeley Party amendment goes against the public process,” he said. “Lowering the height limits along the San Pablo corridor would allow virtually no development.” 

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 the KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25.

Tuesday, Nov. 6

Brown bag seminar with Vernon Jordan  

noon  

223 Moses. UC Berkeley 

An informal brown-bag seminar with Vernon Jordan, Civil rights activist, Washington lawyer, and presidential advisor, "A Personal History in the Civil Rights Movement." Jordan will discuss the dangers he faced registering black voters in the South, his success in promoting workplace integration as president of the National Urban League, and his experiences as a personal advisor to President Clinton. 

Free. 

“The Future of Indonesia” 

4 - 5 p.m. 

International House 

Ida and Robert Sproul Room  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Center for Southeast Asia Studies Distinguished Visitor Series: Dr. Nurcholish Madjid, Rector of Paramadina Mulya University, Jakarta, Indonesia. 642-3609 http://www-ihouse.berkeley.edu 

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Toll Room, Alumni House 

Public lectures and seminar by Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. Lecture one: Pleasure. 643-7413 www.grad. berkeley.edu/tanner 

Community Forum on Special  

Education 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater Stage 

1930 Allston Way 

Learn about the vision for special education at the BUSD with Superintendent Michelle Lawrence. Sponsored by the Berkeley Special Education Parents Group (BSPED). 843-9177 sandstep@earthlink.net. 

East Bay Mystery Readers  

Group 

7 p.m. 

Dark Carnival Bookstore 

3086 Claremont Avenue 

Informal gathering to discuss mysteries the first Tuesday of every month. This month's books are: Big Easy Backroad, Martin Hegwood; Resurrection Man, Charlotte MacLeod; and Last Seen in Massilia, Steven Saylor. You don't have to read the books to come. 654-7523 

Financial Planning for Older  

Adults 

11 a.m. 

St. John’s Senior Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Learn about long-term care insurance, local health care costs, and how to protect your assets. 845-6380 

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 

Creative Classes for Seniors 

9:30 a.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

2727 College Ave.  

Learn exercise, copper enameling, marquetry, weaving, water color painting, and more. Lunch and friendly conversation offered at a minimal charge. 845-6830 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Small Schools Community Action Committee meeting  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Parent Resource Center 

Rm H105 on the Berkeley High School campus 

Wednesday, Nov. 7

Yoga for People with  

HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

Advisory Council Meeting and  

Birthday Party 

10 a.m., 1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Monthly birthday party follows the meeting and will feature Destiny, the Harpist, Community members are welcomed to meeting. 644-6107 

Know Your Rights Training 

7 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Free workshop to learn what your rights are and how to watch the police effectively and safely. 548-0425 

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 

“The Genocide Continuum —  

Peace Time Crimes and  

Everyday Violence” 

7 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion Chapel 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

A lecture by Dr. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of “Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil.” 649-2440 

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Toll Room, Alumni House 

Public lecture and seminar by Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. Lecture Two: Change. 643-7413 www.grad. berkeley.edu/tanner 

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. 

Thursday, Nov. 8

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Geballe Room, The Townsend Center for the Humanities 

220 Stephens Hall 

Seminar and Discussion with Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. 643-7413 www.grad.berkeley.edu/tanner 

Women’s Cancer Resource  

Center Gallery Reception 

1- 3 p.m. 

WCRC Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

Opening reception with the artists Rowena Halligan and Margaret Herscher. Exhibit runs through Dec. 13. 548-9286 

Long-Term Care Coverage 

1 - 3 p.m. 

Herrick Campus 

Maffley Auditorium 

2001 Dwight Way  

Lecture outlining various options for long-term care coverage. 869-6737 

Grandparent Support Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

Malcolm X School, Rm. 105A 

1731 Prince St. 

For grandparents or relatives raising their grandchildren and other relatives. 644-6517 

The Teaching of Gurdjieff 

7 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue 

A lecture by Kevin Langdon. Gurdjieff’s teaching puts into question all that we think we know about our own nature and the nature of the universe. Free. 524-0345 www.polymath-systems.com/phenomen/gurdj /index.html 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Journeys Along the Arctic’s  

Edge: A Rower’s Odyssey 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Join Jill Fredston for a slide presentation on their remarkable adventures rowing more than 20,000 miles along the shores of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Sweden. Free. 527-4140 

Friday, Nov. 9

Special Seminar in  

Constitutional Jurisprudence: Thoughts on the 2000  

Presidential Election 

Noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Robert Post, UCB, “Sustaining the Premise of Legality: Learning to Live with Bush v. Gore.” 642-4608 

City Commons Club  

Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Ameena Janadali, Cofounder of the Islamic Networks Group, presents “Women of Islam.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Human Nature 

8:30 p.m. 

Metaversal Lightcraft 

1708 University Ave. 

Join the X-plicit Players as they visit the wilderness of Human Nature, explore intimate but un-named ways of being together, awaken senses old and new, and participate in rituals of Group Body. $15. 848-1985 wwwxplicitplayers.com 

PC Users Group Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Vista College, Room 303 

2020 Milvia St. 

Monthly meeting will feature a presentation by Jan Fagerholm and will focus on new Linux features. 

Editor: 

The “East Bay Coalition Against the War” has called for a demonstration tonight against the Madeline Albright forum in Berkeley. The announcement makes it clear that the intent is not only to present a political alternative, but to stop the forum. The organizers boast that a similar demonstration caused the Netanyahu forum to be canceled last year. 

They have selected stopalbright@yahoo.com as their email address. The issue is not whether the demonstrators are or are not “violent.” The issue is whether Berkeley citizens can accept a so-called left that feels it has the right to decide who the public is allowed to hear, and who the public will be prevented from hearing. 

The “East Bay Coalition Against the War” has a web site: http://www.geocities.com/eastbaycoalition/ At this web site they list “three points of unity: 1. Stop the war. 2. Stop racist scapegoating. 3. Defend civil liberties.” I’m sure that there are some good people active in the East Bay Coalition, but it’s apparent from this new demonstration that the group as a whole hasn’t the foggiest idea what civil liberties are, let alone any commitment to defending them. Their third point of unity is rhetoric without substance. 

The time is long past when this kind of garbage – trying to silence your political opponents every chance you get – can be regarded as acceptable. Even leaving aside the important democratic principles involved, it is downright suicidal for people who are opposed to American foreign policy – whether in the Middle East, Central Asia or elsewhere – to contribute to a public climate of political intolerance through their own actions. Suppose a few hundred idiots succeed in disrupting the Albright forum and perhaps getting it canceled. Don’t they realize that for every one of them there will be a hundred super-patriotic flag-wavers ready to disrupt every future anti-war demonstration? 

I recommend that people send email to stopalbright@yahoogroups.com and let them know that their planned action is both anti-democratic and politically dangerous in the current national war frenzy. 

David Friedman 

Berkeley 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Anna’s Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Nov. 11: Choro Time; Nov. 12: Renegade Sidemen with Calvin Keys; Nov. 13: Singers’ Open Mic #2; Nov. 14: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 15: Jazz Singers’ Collective; Nov. 16: Anna & Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 17: Vicki Burns & Felice York, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; Nov. 29: Les Arts Florissants, $24 - $46; 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 Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 7: John Hoban $15.50 - $16.50; Nov. 8: Ledward Ka’apana & Cyril Pahinui $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 9: The Harmony Sisters with Alice Gerrard, Jeanie McLerie & Irene Herrmann $16.50 - $17.50; Nov 10: Barry & Alice Olivier $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 11: Austin Lounge Lizards $16.50 - $17.50. All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through 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 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Nicholas Nickleby” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. The Young Actors Workshop presents a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby. $10 adults, $8 students and seniors. Performing Arts Center of Contra Costa College, corner of El Portal Dr. and Castro St., San Pablo 235-7800 ext. 4274 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“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 

Cal Performances Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; Nov. 30 - Dec. 2: Fri. - Sat.8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., The Suzuki Company presents a staged interpretation of the Greek classic, “Dionysus”, $30 - $46; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through 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 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.org 

“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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

“Much Ado About Nothing” Nov. 20 through Jan. 8: Check theater for specific dates and times. Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy chronicles a handful of soldiers returning from a winning battle to be greeted by a gaggle of giddy maidens. Directed by Brian Kulick. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“La Lesbian Film Festival” Nov. 9 - 11. La Peña Cultural Center presents La Lesbian at La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series. $8 Fine Arts Cinema 2451 Shattuck 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

Exhibits  

“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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“Art Benefit for the Gabriel Sussman Rodriguez Education Fund” Nov. 11 - Nov. 16: Over 60 artists have donated work for this tribute to the memory of Wendy Sussman, a painter and professor of art practice and UC Berkeley, and contribute to the education of her son. Sun. - Fri. 1 - 6 p.m. Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber hall, UC Berkeley 415-665-6131 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

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

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“The Paintings of Bethany Anne Ayers and Sculpture of Alexander Cheves” Nov. 15 through Dec. 15: Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 roadway, Oakland. 836-0831 gallery709@aol.com 

“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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray Through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 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 

UC Berkeley Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Berkeley’s World” Nov. 10 & 17: 8 p.m. Staged reading of a new play about five Berkeley emigres who form a career support group through an ad placed in the East Bay Express but find they can’t stand each other. Written by Andrea Mock. Free. Speakeasy Theatre, 2016 7th St. 841-9441 

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; 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  

Oakland Museum of California Through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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 two and a half years fighting Pacifica in the streets, the media and the courts, KPFA supporters say they have won the battle – a mediated agreement that will reconfigure the national Pacifica board. 

Still, there’s more to do before they can boast that they’ve won the war – including the reinstatement of Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” news program on Pacifica’s New York Station WBAI and the return of Larry Bensky to his paid position on the national Pacifica staff. 

“This is a major victory for us,” said attorney Dan Siegel, in a letter to the plaintiffs obtained by the Daily Planet. Siegel noted, however, that the agreement is yet to be put into writing formally and Pacifica’s insurance companies still have to sign off on the agreement, stipulating the amount of money they will pay for plaintiffs’ attorney fees.  

Mediators Sherry Gendelman and Tomas Moran both declined to comment on the settlement until it is finalized. 

In the mediated settlement between the Pacifica National Board and those who sued them – members of local advisory boards, members of listener groups and dissident board members – the parties agreed to set up an interim board of 19 people. According to the Siegel memo, the board is to consist of: 

• Six members appointed by plaintiffs. 

• Eight members appointed by defendants. 

• Five members, one each appointed by a local advisory board chair, which could include the chairs themselves. 

“Within one year, the interim board shall rewrite the bylaws and arrange for the election of a new national board,” Siegel writes, adding that the interim board will appoint its own officers, executive committee, search committee for new personnel and shall appoint interim national staff. 

In his commentary on the plan, Siegel said it was not clear what a judge might have decided, had the case gone to trial. There could have been a series of appeals, dragging the case on, he said.  

Some say the fight between KPFA staff and its listener-sponsors on the one hand and the Pacifica National Board on the other about three years ago, when then-station manager, Nicole Sawaya, began asking for detailed information on the station’s finances. 

Sawaya never did get her information, but instead, on March 31, 1999, did not get her contract renewed. At the time, then-executive director, Lynn Chadwick, said she could not reveal reasons for Sawaya’s dismissal.  

In response, programmers went on the air denouncing the ouster of the popular station manager. Pacifica management, in turn, went on the attack, instituting a gag order against talking on the air about Sawaya’s removal. 

Many programmers continued to talk about the issue and some, including Robbie Osman and Larry Bensky, were removed from the airwaves. In conjunction with the battle fought on the air, Camp KPFA sprouted in the street outside the station, with volunteers spending the night to “protect” the station. On the Pacifica side, security guards were hired to protect the building and a public relations firm was hired to explain the board’s actions. Pacifica eventually closed KPFA down and piped in music from off site. Community opposition grew to the point of a 10,000-person march through Berkeley, in support of reopening the station. 

The mediated victory is a fragile one, Siegel warned in his memo. According to his calculations, there will be a 10-9 majority, with those favoring the plaintiffs in the lawsuits in the majority. 

“This means that we can write bylaws that place control of Pacifica in the hands of its listeners and subscribers, insure that good staff is selected, solve the problems at WBAI, KPFA, etc, (and) engage enthusiastically in fund raising to save Pacifica....”  

Siegel cautioned, however, that given the slim majority, plaintiffs will have to get along and make sure “that minor disputes or personal fractions do not erode the unity of our forces.”

Editor: 

The new General Plan calls for holding back building more downtown parking until policies are in place to make better use of existing parking, and cause enough people to shift to public transit so that more parking is not so necessary. 

The alternative is to stupidly go on doing what has always been done, and encourage more and more cars coming to downtown. 

Of course, such regressive policy is fine if we all agree that the convenience of using a car is worth enduring traffic congestion, inching along, inhaling exhaust fumes, until we can pull into a blessed parking slot. 

The “parking lobby” is fixated on the notion that customers come only by car, and any attempt to relieve congestion by people shifting to public transit, is foolish and doomed to failure. 

It’s certainly true that most people prefer to get about by car, but polls consistently show that traffic congestion is thought to be the No. 1 urban evil. 

The Traffic Demand Management study found that the present supply of parking is poorly utilized. One reason is that people don’t know which lots have the free slots. Weekday commuters take up a huge amount of parking space by storing their cars all day. 

A bus can carry 30-40 people. At the typical one person per car, that’s a long line of cars not contributing to congestion. 

It’s all too easy to give in to the parking lobby. The big danger is that not only will an increase in available parking make congestion much worse, but the city will get focused on building the parking, and will forget about any effort to promote public transit. 

Should Berkeley call for a ban on parking, like it called for a ban on bombing? 

Of course not. Of course we should make use of cars for some trips. We will always need downtown parking for those trips, and for visitors. 

Here’s some good progressive policy for Berkeley: 1. Cut back the amount of all-day parking. Make those spaces available for short-term and visitor parking. 2. Shift a substantial number of people from driving alone in a car to riding a bus. Commuters should use transit if they work regular hours, don’t carry more than a briefcase of baggage and don’t use their car during the day. 3. Promote car-free shopping by establishing more downtown pedestrian malls. Establish package delivery services. 

Let’s see Berkeley get national attention, this time for doing something positive about our own traffic problem. 

Steve Geller  

Berkeley 

It has to be about the goofiest looking thing on the road. It’s got three wheels and one door, a steering wheel and a motorcycle license plate, and one person can zip up the HOV lane in it.  

The Sparrow, hatched at Corbin Motors in Hollister, is currently the most viable electric car you can buy. That’s not saying much, according to some. But investments in the company and “strategic alliances” with some heavy hitters hint that this little bird is about to fly into the big time.  

Anyone who’s spent much time on Berkeley’s streets has seen the little cars scooting around town.  

“We’ve got a lot of Sparrow drivers in Berkeley,” said Corbin Motors’ president Tom Corbin. “Probably because that area is a real center of environmental leadership.” 

Berkeley’s Transportation Commission secretary, Karen Haney-Owens says, “I live near the (Emeryville) dealer, and every time I go by, it looks like a garage full of Easter eggs.” 

About $15,000 gets you into the exclusive club of early adopters, owners of what Corbin calls his “proof of concept vehicle.”  

The concept, involving a short-range electric vehicle that qualifies as a motorcycle but drives like a car, would serve the needs of many commuters. “Look at all the cars in gridlocked traffic. SUVs, trucks, minivans, cars – what’s the common denominator?” asks Corbin. “One person per car!”  

Electric cars are nothing new, and the technology on this one is pretty basic – a bunch of batteries, a motor (a big version of what runs your coffee grinder). But other electric cars, like their gasoline powered counterparts, have always been multi-passenger affairs.  

“These things sell themselves driving up the carpool lane in rush-hour traffic,” says Anthony Luzi, Corbin’s Emeryville dealer.  

The Berkeley parking enforcement office confirms that the Sparrow can indeed legally park in motorcycle spaces. 

Add to that the facts that the Sparrow costs a buck or two to charge up overnight, and produces zero emissions, and you’ve got a green-commuter’s fantasy. So why doesn’t everybody own one? 

“It’s a beta-quality product at best,” said Steven Johnson, an East Bay Sparrow owner until his was destroyed in a crash (he was unharmed). Johnson says he will buy another vehicle from Corbin Motors, “but I’m holding out for the Sparrow II.” 

It’s not exactly a plug-and-play adventure, but Sparrow ownership is generally not a nightmare, either. Owners report mixed results. 

UC Berkeley Professor Vivek Subramanian bought an early Sparrow, No. 36, and says he has “basically had 100 percent up time,” and hasn’t had to tinker with his Sparrow at all. 

Subramanian asked the university to install a charging station in the parking lot where he and one other Sparrow driver park. The university happily obliged. The parking office says it will provide free electricity to any Cal faculty who drive electric cars. 

“I always get a good parking place,” says Subramanian. 

About 235 Sparrows have been sold since the first one was registered in July 1999. Of those, most have made the trip back to the factory for one major repair or another.  

Early Sparrows were plagued with trouble in an electrical component, the controller, which caused full power to be applied without warning on a few cars.  

Corbin has effectively recalled all the vehicles and retrofitted an improved controller on most, at no charge. But that brings up another gripe: customer service. “We can’t give the service turnarounds we should be able to. And some of the owners are cleaning our clocks,” says Corbin. 

Inside and out, a Sparrow has the something’s-still-missing feel of a kit car.  

“You can’t compare the Sparrow to a car from the “Big Three.” Those cars don’t fail. Sparrows do,” Corbin says.  

Think of it as the price of innovation. 

But not everybody wants to pay that price. “I just want a reliable vehicle. Before I buy another one, I want much, much, much greater reliability,” says Johnson. 

The problems are not news to Corbin. “We just got into the market too quickly,” Corbin admits. “But now that we’ve shown we can do it, we’ve got people lining up to help us bring it to the next level.”  

Corbin’s “people” are investors – the company’s private stock offering has raised some $9 million in two years – and parts suppliers. Of these, the latter are probably the most important. 

Most of the Sparrow’s components were designed and fabricated in-house. But it’s more efficient to use an $11 front suspension A-arm sourced from Nissan than to build your own for $115 a copy.  

“Now that we’ve shown that we can make a viable vehicle on our own, the hard way, vendors are willing to sell us the parts to really do it up right,” Corbin says.  

The animated 36-year-old executive stands close when he talks. His eyes sparkle. He just makes you want to believe all the confident rhetoric in his business plan. 

Corbin points to a full-scale mockup of the Sparrow II, the clean-sheet revision he says will shortly address all the issues troubling the first model, and without a trace of irony asks: “Remember Henry Ford?”  

Editor: 

In her letter (11/1/01), Jenny Wenk presents a novel theory to oppose the Planning Commission’s General Plan parking policy. She argues that demographic changes have increased the number of auto-dependent Berkeley residents. 

She asserts that children under 5 have to be driven and people over 65 have to drive. Unfortunately, she has misread the data.  

Ms. Wenk asserts the number of residents under 5 increased by 8 percent since 1990, while the number over 65 increased by 9 percent But, according to the Census, the number of children under 5 declined from 4,720 in 1990 to 4,109 in 2000, a decline of 13 percent. The number over 65 declined from 11,252 to 10,484 a decline of 7 percent. 

The Census undercounted the Berkeley population last year. The undercount overwhelmingly involved undergraduate students living in dorms. We know from Census and survey data that only about one-third of UC students in Berkeley have cars. It can be safely concluded that the car-dependent population of Berkeley has, if anything, declined since 1990. 

The assumption that people over 65 are auto-dependent is questionable. Seniors are less likely to own cars both because many can’t afford them and because some are not physically able to drive. Many depend on transit. 

Unfortunately, many bus stops don’t provide shelter or places to sit, and bus schedules are rarely posted. Many buses run too infrequently and move slowly in heavy traffic. If Ms. Wenk is interested in the mobility of people over 65, she should favor spending money to implement General Plan policies improving transit as well as for improving pedestrian safety, so that seniors can safely cross the street, instead of calling for wasting money on a parking study. 

Ms. Wenk suggests the Planning Commission expects everyone to ride bicycles to buy groceries. There is no such expectation in the General Plan draft. It does contain policies designed to encourage more people who commute to Downtown and the Southside to use transit or bicycles. We expect many people will continue to drive, but a relatively modest shift toward transit, bicycles and walking will ease traffic problems, reduce air pollution and reduce the demand for parking.  

Ms. Wenk wants a “parking needs study.” Other advocates of more parking want a “visitor access study.” The recently completed Southside/Downtown Transportation Demand Management Study already contains recommended actions designed to facilitate visitor access. But because the study does not call for more parking, Ms. Wenk and others want another study. 

But every dollar wasted on yet another study is $1 that can’t be spent implementing General Plan policies that would result in better utilization of existing parking resources, and that would reduce demand for parking by encouraging transit and bicycle use and by improving transit service. If another parking study is ever needed, it should, as the General Plan specifies, be done after such policies are implemented so that the impact of those policies on parking demand can be taken into account. 

We already have parking counts that show how much parking is available in downtown garages. The data shows ample parking on weekday evenings and on weekends. Weekdays, parking is tighter, but far from nonexistent. A 1997 weekday afternoon survey found 315 vacant spaces; a midday survey done in May last year found 815 available spaces. 

On-street metered spaces are often scarce. Some people don’t like to park in garages. The General Plan draft calls for better enforcement of parking regulations against meter-feeding so employees of local businesses don’t take up all the metered spaces. It’s not possible to add on-street spaces and it doesn’t make sense to add spaces in garages when there is unused capacity. 

Downtown Berkeley is urban. In urban places, you can’t expect to park in front of the place you are visiting. Expensive schemes such as tearing up Civic Center Park to build a giant underground parking garage won’t change that reality. 

Rob Wrenn, 

Planning Commission chair 

Hot water heating system efficient for residential and commercial use 

With all the concerns raised in recent times about national security and energy, and the reliance on foreign sources for oil and gas, there is a very bright light on the horizon – in fact, we wake up to it each morning. 

Solar power, both electrical power and solar heat, can do a great deal to reduce our reliance on traditional sources of energy in all kinds of emergencies, from man-made to natural disasters.  

According to the University of Central Florida’s Solar Energy Center, “... We import more than 50 percent of the petroleum products that we need to meet these demands (for energy) from foreign lands. Interruptions to our fuel supplies cause havoc within our economy… and threaten our national security.” 

Diversifying our energy sources through solar energy can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and creates more reliable energy in all types of emergencies. Solar and other renewable energy sources have the potential to stabilize our economy as well, since production and transportation costs will be less reliant on fluctuating energy prices and availability. 

The simplest, most cost-effective way to capture and use the sun’s energy is through a solar hot water collector, used in conjunction with your existing hot water heating system. A solar hot water heating system generally consists of tanks or panels mounted on the southern side of a roof, unshaded by trees or buildings.  

Water is piped up to a tank or collector, allowing the sun to heat it. The collector may be a simple tank painted black, or may be a more sophisticated (and therefore more efficient) flat plate collector, where the water is run through a series of black metal tubes. Since more surface area of the water is exposed to the sun, the water is heated faster.  

The top-of-the-line solar hot water systems are the flat plate evacuated tube systems. These have tubing mounted inside a vacuum space. The vacuum acts as insulation, reducing the amount of heat lost. These are the most efficient systems, reducing the amount of energy needed to heat water in a single family home to near zero in summer, and substantially lowering it even in winter – the amount will depend on the quantity of water used and the weather, and of course the size of the system. 

Once the sun heats the water, it is circulated back into the building’s water heating system. In a passive system, this is achieved naturally as the warm water rises and flows into the storage tank. This system has no moving parts. 

In an active system, a sensor determines when the water is warm enough to be pumped into the system. If the temperature is high enough, solar-warmed water is pumped into your regular water tank as the hot water is drawn down at the tap. Some systems are equipped with a small solar panel that works when the sun is out, warming the water. The water is sent to an insulated storage tank for later use. 

These systems can be used in both residential and commercial applications for hot tap water and for heating (if your building has a hot water heating system), and should be individually sized to meet the needs of the user. The size will depend on the number of residents, the number of appliances that use hot water, and the existing system. Conservation measures include using low-flow showerheads and aerators, and water-efficient appliances such as front-loading clothes washers and efficient dishwashers. The more efficient your home, the smaller (and less expensive) your system will be. 

Solar hot water heaters have no moving parts (although some systems have electric pumps as previously noted), and have a reputation for being very reliable as a whole, requiring minimal work to maintain the system. Residential systems can range from $3,500 to $6,000 installed.  

The payback period is affected by a number of factors, but in general is between eight and 12 years. Most systems are designed to last more than 20 years, and in fact Berkeley has several that are still functioning perfectly after more than 25 years. 

Just choosing a solar water heater with good ratings is not enough, though. These systems require a plumbing permit and licensed plumber to install. You may also need some structural work done if your roof or other location is not strong enough to support the weight of the size tank you require. Additionally, since Berkeley is subject to occasional freezes, the system should have proper insulation for any exposed pipe or point where water could freeze and expand, and rupture the system.  

Proper design, sizing, installation, and maintenance are critical to ensure efficient system performance. Consult a licensed professional for the right system for your needs, and make sure all work is properly inspected. 

If your area is frequented with winter frosts and freezes, you may want to consider a closed-loop system, where an antifreeze-type of liquid is circulated via pumps into a water storage tank. This will preheat your water without exposing it to freezing temperatures. 

If your system is properly sized, and remains undamaged through a seismic event, you could actually have hot or at least warm water available to you during an emergency. In the event of another period of unregulated soaring gas prices, it will prevent those tremendously high energy bills from emptying your bank account. Solar hot water is reliable and inexpensive all year round. 

For more information on solar hot water systems, visit the U.S. government Web site for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network at http://www.eren.doe.gov/erec/factsheets/watheath.html, as well as the University of Central Florida’s Solar Energy Center at http://www.fsec. ucf.edu/index.htm. You may also want to visit the Berkeley Energy Office’s web pages at http://www.ci.Berkeley. ca.us/energy. For permit information, contact Berkeley’s Permit Service Center at 2120 Milvia St., at the corner of Milvia and Center Street, or telephone: 883-6555. 

The next columns will discuss the basics of solar energy, generating your own electricity, and either storing it for emergency use, or selling your extra electricity back to your utility. 

Alice La Pierre is an energy analyst for the city of Berkeley. The Daily Planet runs Power Play on the first and third Tuesday of the month as a public service.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to the City Council: 

Thank you for your courageous council resolution regarding the events of Sept. 11 and the bombing of Afghanistan. Although not a resident of Berkeley, I think that you have represented your constituency well and showed resolve in defending your progressive stance amid great controversy.  

Don’t be intimidated by the threats and bluster of boycotts; to the future eye, you’ll look like one of the few sane voices in the storm of the times. I hope that more communities join you in requesting a quick end to the bombing. And meanwhile, I’ll be shopping and dining in Berkeley more regularly. 

Heidi Lypps 

Davis 

Editor: 

In these conflicting and difficult times we citizens and those whom we have elected to office must have the courage to stand up, speak with a clear voice, and seek the highest moral ground. As a nation and as a city we must continue to commit ourselves to greater social justice and democracy around the world. We must nurture a compassionate willingness to share our wealth, resources and intelligence with our own people and with the family of nations. 

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, as we feel profound sadness for those who have been lost, we must react not only with anger but also with compassion and understanding. If we do not, the whole world will condemn us and more pain and suffering will be inflicted on innocent people. 

I praise those Berkeley citizens and City Councilmembers who showed courage and leadership in seeking the high moral ground. It will be Councilmember Dona Spring’s legacy that in critical times like these, she didn’t jump on the bandwagon of cheap talk and popular rhetoric. She is like a bright banner waving up in our blue Berkeley skies. That’s the kind of leadership we so desperately need in our city and nation. 

Roger Van Ouytsel 

Berkeley 

SAN FRANCISCO — Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi condemned Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network Monday, distancing his actions from Palestinian movements for independence. 

“Our message to Osama bin Laden is that our cause is not up for grabs,” said Ashrawi, who is the spokeswoman for the Arab League. “He does not have the right to use it. 

“Ours is a cause that is justified and should not be hijacked by terrorists. It has nothing to do with the Osama bin Ladens or Talibans of this world,” Ashrawi said at an event organized by the Commonwealth Club of California. 

The Arab League issued an official statement yesterday from its gathering in Damascus, Syria, reproaching bin Laden and distinguishing his Al-Qaida organization from the viewpoints of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. 

Ashrawi began her speech by extending her condolences to Americans for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She noted that the much-publicized footage of Palestinians celebrating after the attacks wasn’t representative of the majority. 

“Those who acted that way didn’t understand the full impact of what had happened and perhaps thought that may be the U.S. will now understand the grief and pain of Palestinians,” Ashrawi said during the question-and-answer period following her speech. “But regardless of what they thought, their actions do not encapsulate the Palestinian reality. The footage misrepresents the Palestinian reality. Most Palestinians extended their mournings, as from one bereaved people to another.” 

Ashrawi spoke about the necessity to begin negotiations between Palestinians and the Israeli government to bring about peace in the region. She was critical of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel’s actions in the Camp David negotiations and the United States’ foreign policy record in the Middle East. 

Leah Simon-Weisberg, a spokeswoman for a Jewish Voice for Peace, which had representatives present at the event, said her organization agreed with Ashrawi’s opinions on the asymmetry of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. 

“The occupied and occupiers are not on an equal plane,” Simon-Weisberg said. “There are alternatives that work and still nothing comes up — towns are full of the military, people’s family members are injured, and there’s a constant humiliation and indignity the people have to face.” 

Ashrawi said that Islamic militant groups in Palestine don’t represent most Palestinians’ views. 

“We won’t be made subject to either a corrupt regime or Islamic fundamentalism,” she said. “There is a democratic majority and it needs to be given a voice.” 

But Ashrawi also said she didn’t consider Hamas or other jihad Palestinian organizations to be terrorist groups. 

“I do not agree with the military wings of those organizations, but I will engage with their political wings,” she said. 

. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t have political pluralism. I think people often pull out the convenient label of terrorism and label groups as terrorists.” 

Ashrawi also addressed fears about terrorism, especially for people of the San Francisco Bay area who may be anxious about threats to local bridges. 

“When you live with fear, insecurity and a sense of vulnerability, you have to develop defense mechanisms,” Ashrawi said. “I know how afraid Californians are about their bridges, and there is a fear of the unknown. That fear can be debilitating. But remember, the hardest thing for every terrorist to do is to break the spirit of their victims.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — California voters were headed to the polls Tuesday to consider a new school district and contemplate pushing California’s largest utility out of its hometown in favor of a publicly-owned power agency. 

Turnout was expected to be low, with local issues topping ballots and fears of terrorism on the minds of many. But several measures — such as an effort by the city of Carson to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District — could spark similar movements elsewhere in the state, analysts said. 

In San Francisco, two measures promote seizing Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s transmission lines and power plants to create a publicly-owned utility. Advocates say it would mean cheaper electricity, though start-up costs could stall such promises by as many as 10 years, and legal battles from PG&E could stall it indefinitely. 

The state’s power woes piqued interest in public power as agencies in Los Angeles and Sacramento managed to keep electric rates up to 30 percent lower than PG&E. 

Proposition F would expand the city’s utilities commission and allow an elected board to decide whether to take the necessary PG&E infrastructure to generate and provide electricity. Measure I would create an independent municipal utility district with an elected board. 

Both agencies would issue bonds to raise the millions they would need to buy PG&E property, pay workers, and buy any electricity they can’t generate. Should both pass, the MUD has two years to get up and running. If it still is tangled in legal battles with PG&E, the city agency would prevail, backers said. 

PG&E has spent more than $1 million to fight the measures, calling them “too risky.”  

The utility could lose about 360,000 customers, and industry experts predict a power victory in San Francisco could spur other cities in PG&E’s territory, such as San Jose and Davis, to move forward with similar concepts. 

Elsewhere in the state: 

— Angered by low test scores, high dropout rates and other long-standing problems, a group of Carson residents wants to become the first region to split from the Los Angeles Unified School District in more than half a century. 

Voter approval of Measure D on Tuesday’s ballot would mark the first successful secession attempt from the LAUSD since Torrance left in 1948, and critics warn it could prompt more. 

— The 28,500 residents in the unincorporated Santa Barbara County community of Goleta decide whether to make the 5,400 acres into a city. Backers of Measure H want local control of neighborhoods and revenues and a voice in regional decisions. Opponents say the proposal leaves out 57,000 who hold a stake in the community’s future and is financially unsound. 

Voters also are electing mayors: 

— In the San Francisco suburb of Livermore, mayoral candidate Marshall Kamena, who served as mayor 20 years ago, has acknowledged he took Mayor Cathie Brown campaign sign and tossed it behind a pile of weeds behind the local veteran’s hall. Kamena says it was a misunderstanding and that he put Brown’s sign back. Incumbent Councilman John Stein said half of his 300 signs have been stolen this year, at $4.50 a pop. 

— The Santa Barbara ballot features seven candidates for mayor, including two City Council members, a former council member, a neighborhood activist, a surfer with no telephone, a self-described “thinker” and the ex-con who wants to establish a marijuana free trade zone. All mayoral candidates need to do to get on the ballot is file the signatures of 100 registered voters. 

— In San Mateo County, the top election official who counts the votes will have to tally those for his wife, who is seeking a Redwood City school board seat. Warren Slocum said he felt a bit anxious when his wife, Maria Diaz-Slocum, decided to run. He has declined to endorse her or campaign for her, even though he could, insisting he is treating her like any other candidate. Slocum recently said he no longer planned to run for Secretary of State. 

— A pair of measures could transform fog-enshrouded San Francisco into one of the nation’s largest producers of sun-generated electricity. Prop. B would allow the city to issue a $100 million revenue bond measure to fund solar and wind power. Prop. H would allow the Board of Supervisors to authorize revenue bonds for renewable energy and conservation projects without voter approval. 

— Also in San Francisco, Measure D would let voters reject construction projects that would fill in 100 acres or more of the Bay. Opponents say it could hurt tourism by slowing expansion of San Francisco International Airport. Supporters maintain the measure protects the bay’s health. 

SAN JOSE — Cisco Systems Inc. posted a first-quarter net loss of $268 million, beating Wall Street’s expectations, sending shares of the networking giant nearly 5 percent higher in after-hours trading. 

For the three months ended Oct. 27, Cisco lost 4 cents per share, compared with a profit of $798 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. 

Excluding one-time items — including a $858 million investment charge — the company earned $332 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $1.4 billion, or 18 cents per share, a year ago. 

Analysts were expecting a profit of 2 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Revenue for the first quarter fell 32 percent, to $4.4 billion over a year ago, but increased 3 percent over the previous quarter’s $4.3 billion. Analysts were expecting first-quarter sales of $4.2 billion. 

Cisco, which makes routers and other devices that move traffic over the Internet and other data highways, suffered as businesses in general telecommunications companies specifically cut back spending. 

“Given the very challenging economic and capital spending environment, we were pleased to deliver a solid quarter with good linearity, sequential revenue growth and profitable market share gains,” said John Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive. 

Cisco, which makes routers and other devices that move traffic over the Internet and other data highways, suffered as businesses in general — and telecommunications companies specifically — cut back spending. 

The company posted its first-ever net loss in the third quarter last year and also laid off 8,500 employees. Before then, officials said it planned to hire 1,000 people a month. 

Shares moved up 85 cents to $18.75 in after-hours trading. Before the report was released, Cisco gained 64 cents to $17.90 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

SAN FRANCISCO — PG&E Corp. reported Monday that its third-quarter profit nearly tripled from a year ago, reflecting a steep drop in the energy costs of its bankrupt utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $771 million, or $2.12 per share, in the three months ended in September, up from $225 million, or 62 cents per share, for the same period last year. 

Pacific Gas and Electric’s dramatically lower energy costs powered the parent company’s profit surge. Management downplayed the significance of the third-quarter earnings gain, attributing it to different accounting methods used in the two periods. 

If not for the accounting change and other unusual items, PG&E Corp. said it would have earned $256 million, or 70 cents per share, a 3 percent increase from $248 million, or 68 cents per share, last year. 

The operating profit fell below the consensus estimate of 78 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

The results still drew a positive response on Wall Street. 

PG&E Corp.’s shares rose 43 cents to close at $18.36 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. With the worst of the California energy crisis apparently over, the stock has climbed steadily from its 52-week low of $6.50, reached shortly after Pacific Gas and Electric’s April 6 bankruptcy filing. 

The utility hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of next year, PG&E Corp. management told analysts during a conference call Monday. 

The reorganization plan calls for the utility to spin off its power generation business, including its hydroelectric dams and Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, so the company can borrow against the full value of the assets to help repay $13 billion in debt. 

State regulations limit how much can be borrowed against the hydroelectric dams and Diablo Canyon as long as they remain part of the utility. 

But PG&E Corp.’s healthy third-quarter profits showed the breakup probably isn’t necessary, said Nettie Hoge, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, which opposes PG&E’s reorganization plan. 

“They are not hurting as badly as they say they are,” Hoge said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to sell off the generating assets under a bankruptcy scheme.” 

PG&E management told analysts that the gap between the utility’s energy costs and energy revenue would probably continue to benefit the company next year, adding more cash to the $4.3 billion in its accounts as of Sept. 30. 

The company is confident its reorganization plan will be approved, although “there will be choppy waters ahead,” PG&E Corp. Chairman Robert Glynn warned in Monday’s conference call. A creditors committee, consisting mostly of wholesale power generators, supports the plan. 

The utility’s energy costs plunged 69 percent in the quarter, falling from $2.23 billion last year to $697 million this year. Meanwhile, a sweeping electricity rate increase imposed in June helped boost Pacific Gas and Electric’s revenue 16 percent to $2.94 billion. 

PG&E changed the way that it accounted for the difference between its wholesale power costs and incoming revenue late last year. 

With the utility’s retail rates frozen at a time its wholesale electricity costs were soaring, PG&E Corp. absorbed $5.2 billion in after-tax charges in the fourth quarter of 2000 and first quarter of this year to account for its unreimbursed power expenses. 

PG&E Corp. used the third-quarter windfall from lower power costs to offset $687 million in previously recognized losses. 

Through the first nine months of the year, PG&E Corp. earned $570 million, or $1.57 per share, a 24 percent decrease from $753 million, or $2.07 per share last year. The company’s revenue through nine months totaled $17.99 billion, down less than 1 percent from $18.15 billion a year ago. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.pgecorp.com 

SAN JOSE — High-tech gadgets may be the focal point at Comdex, the nation’s largest technology trade show, but trusty laptops will not be welcome this year amid tightened security. 

On the Comdex Web site, organizers have asked attendees of next week’s event in Las Vegas to “please leave bags, briefcases, backpacks, laptops, etc. at home or in your hotel room.” 

No laptops at a computer trade show? 

“Yes, it’s going to be a zoo. It will be inconvenient, and it will cause some lines. But we’ve been advised that that’s what we should do for this event,” said Kim Myhre, president of Comdex Worldwide. 

Organizers expect up to 150,000 attendees — 50,000 fewer than last year. 

Citing the Sept. 11 attacks, organizers say security will be tighter than ever with the addition of metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs. Participants also will have to carry photo identification at all times. 

Attendees will be banned from bringing bags — including laptop cases and briefcases — on to the trade show floor as well as at all keynote speeches. If attendees must bring their laptops, the equipment will be allowed — but not with bags, organizers say. Purses and fanny packs will be allowed, but will be subject to security checks. 

Organizers say they will set up a secure area for attendees to check their bags outside the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

Bags distributed on the exhibit floor — to help attendees collect the plethora of booth giveaways and handouts — will be allowed on the premises, but once they are taken outside the convention center, they cannot be brought back in, organizers say. 

Exceptions for the no-bag rule will be made for exhibitors and members of the media. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.comdex.com 

BERKELEY — The majority of voters in Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s district support the president’s response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a poll. 

Lee was the only member of Congress who opposed granting President Bush authority for the use of “all necessary and appropriate force” against terrorists and nations that harbor them. 

A poll by the Contra Costa Times and University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies indicates that voters in Lee’s district narrowly support military action in Afghanistan, including the use of ground troops. 

But the poll shows widespread support for the liberal Democratic congresswoman’s re-election. 

The survey of 605 registered voters in the 9th Congressional District — an Alameda County district dominated by Berkeley and Oakland — was conducted Oct. 26-28. It has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. The poll was conducted using the boundary adjustments from this year’s redistricting. 

OAKLAND — Fire season ended Monday in Alameda County, state and local fire officials said. 

“Thank God, finally, it’s here,” East Bay Regional Park District Fire Chief Dennis Rein said Sunday about the end of the fire season. 

The announcement was made jointly by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Alameda and Contra Costa County fire chiefs and the East Bay Regional Park District. 

Rein said the East Bay hills were dampened by rains last week and that the probability of hot dry weather, common in the fall months, is diminishing daily. 

SAN FRANCISCO — District Attorney Terence Hallinan asked the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Monday to rethink its campaign against California doctors and medical cannabis providers. 

“I urge Administrator (Asa) Hutchinson to respect our city’s approach to medical marijuana, which has reduced crime, saved money and contributed to public well-being,” said Hallinan. “Any move to close the dispensaries will result in sick people trying to get marijuana from street vendors, whose product may or may not be safe. 

On Oct. 22, DEA agents searched the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center and seized computers, financial documents, 400 marijuana plants and medical records of some 3,000 current and former patients, said Scott Imler, resident of the resource center. 

The DEA seized thousands of records on Sept. 28 from the California Medical Research Center in El Dorado County in what was portrayed as an investigation into alleged marijuana distribution. The clinic owners deny selling marijuana or certificates to buy it. 

——— 

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The majority of voters in Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s district support the president’s response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a poll. 

Lee was the only member of Congress who opposed granting President Bush authority for the use of “all necessary and appropriate force” against terrorists and nations that harbor them. 

A poll by the Contra Costa Times and University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies indicates that voters in Lee’s district narrowly support military action in Afghanistan, including the use of ground troops. 

But the poll shows widespread support for the liberal Democratic congresswoman’s re-election. 

The survey of 605 registered voters in the 9th Congressional District — an Alameda County district dominated by Berkeley and Oakland — was conducted Oct. 26-28. It has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. The poll was conducted using the boundary adjustments from this year’s redistricting. 

——— 

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Fire season ended Monday in Alameda County, state and local fire officials said. 

“Thank God, finally, it’s here,” East Bay Regional Park District Fire Chief Dennis Rein said Sunday about the end of the fire season. 

The announcement was made jointly by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Alameda and Contra Costa County fire chiefs and the East Bay Regional Park District. 

Rein said the East Bay hills were dampened by rains last week and that the probability of hot dry weather, common in the fall months, is diminishing daily. 

SAN DIEGO — A Texas chemist who wrote a guidebook on illegal drugs was accused Monday of providing expertise and supplies to what authorities say was one of the largest and most sophisticated Ecstasy labs ever found in the United States. 

Hobart Huson, 33, of Humble, Texas, was arraigned Monday in federal court on a charge of conspiracy to manufacture Ecstasy. He pleaded innocent. 

Huson is one of 24 people charged with helping to set up and run an Ecstasy lab hidden inside an Internet pornography business in an office park in Escondido. 

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the lab last month. It was capable of producing 1.5 million Ecstasy pills per month, authorities said. 

Huson, under the pseudonym “Strike,” is the author of a guide for producing Ecstasy and is co-owner of The Science Alliance, a chemical supply company that allows customers to purchase its wares over the Internet. 

Ecstasy is also known as the “love drug” or “hug drug” for its ability to make users ultra-sensitive to visual and physical stimuli. 

Huson is accused of supplying chemicals for making Ecstasy along with technical expertise to the operators of the lab in Escondido, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson said.He is also accused of introducing the lab’s operators to Thomas Lillius, a 33-year-old suspected Ecstasy chemist from Stockholm, Sweden, who remains at large. 

Huson’s attorney, Gus Saper of Houston, denies the allegations and said Science Alliance is a legitimate chemical supply company and that the book, Total Synthesis II, is intended for information only. 

The book, Saper said, includes a disclaimer that warns people of the legal and safety hazards of making Ecstasy. 

“My client just collected information from many difference sources and gathered it in one place,” Saper said. “That has probably angered some people.” 

A description of the book on Amazon.com calls Total Synthesis II “the most comprehensive and detailed book on the underground production of Ecstasy and amphetamines ever published.” 

After authorities raided an Ecstasy lab in Flagstaff, Ariz., earlier this year, Huson was charged with three counts of selling a precursor to drugs and one count of manufacturing dangerous drugs. 

The suspects in that case told authorities they bought chemicals for making Ecstasy from Science Alliance and learned how to make the drug by reading a book by Huson. 

Huson pleaded innocent in that and was free on $50,000 bail when he was charged in the California case. He remains in custody in San Diego.

SAN FRANCISCO — Police investigating as many as 30 firebombings of utility poles focused on a man with an apparent grudge against Pacific Gas & Electric Co., and searched his home without a warrant. 

They said they discovered a detonation cord similar to one used on a telephone pole, books on how to make and detonate bombs and large glass bottles containing unknown chemicals. 

The search was challenged by Mark Knights, who had agreed to waive his constitutional privacy rights as a condition of his early release from jail on a public intoxication conviction. 

The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday in the case, which could determine whether the nation’s 4.4 million convicts on probation or parole can be forced to waive privacy rights when released early from jail or prison. 

California’s law, the nation’s strictest, demands that people on parole or probation waive their Fourth Amendment federal rights to be free from warrantless searches and seizures. Probation or parole generally lasts up to five years. 

Knights was suspected along with another man of conspiring to blow up the utility equipment in revenge for his electricity being turned off. 

A ruling upholding the 1998 search likely would usher in a wave of new state laws allowing warrantless searches of millions of convicts released early from jail or prison. 

“I would think the states would move in that direction,” said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. 

A ruling invalidating the search would leave intact a nationwide hodgepodge of laws, none of which demand a complete waiver of privacy as does California. It would also mean that authorities could not use at trial what they found in Knights’ apartment in Napa, about 30 miles north of San Francisco. 

The case has attracted widespread interest from civil rights and get-tough-on-crime groups. 

The government, following customary practice, declined comment on the pending case. 

Knights’ attorney, Hilary Fox, said the case has wide-ranging implications for the public at large, not just those who have been freed early from their jail cells. 

That is because the government will ask the high court to uphold the search on grounds that an early release is a privilege, and that those not wishing to waive their privacy rights can remain incarcerated. 

If the high court agrees, lawmakers may begin conditioning other benefits on a waiver of constitutional rights, Fox said. 

“If you want to have a driver’s license, in exchange, will you agree to submit to searches in your car at any time?” Fox asked. “What about welfare benefits, government employment?” 

Warrantless searches at the homes of those on early release also infringe on the rights of people living with them, she said. 

Some community groups said that many felons on early release are violent criminals that need to be monitored by the police, and people living with them do so at their own risk. 

The Center for the Community Interest, an anti-crime group billing itself as the “common sense counter to the ACLU,” urged the court to uphold Knights’ search while limiting the loss of Fourth Amendment rights only to people released early from incarceration. 

“We don’t want the court to put a blank check out there for waivers to be placed on everybody, like for those wanting government services,” said Lyle Roberts, the center’s attorney. “We want this just in regard to supervising those released early.” 

The high court already has allowed warrantless searches in airports and a wide variety of other public places and situations. Certain transportation and safety workers are required to submit to drug tests. Public school authorities may search students’ lockers. 

The court also has ruled in the post-incarceration context before, deciding in a Wisconsin case that probation authorities could search someone released early from jail without a warrant. 

But that 1987 decision was based on the so-called “special needs” of probation departments to ensure that the probationer is abiding by the terms of his release and not, for example, using drugs or alcohol.  

The decision did not authorize police to search that same home without a warrant as a pretext to investigate criminal behavior. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco invalidated the search at Knights’ apartment last year. The court said the police needed a warrant, and that they illegally used Knights’ probation status as a “mere subterfuge” to search his home for criminal activity not associated with his probation terms. 

The case is United States v. Knights, 001260. 

SAN JOSE — Community college district trustees have rejected a plan that would have required a U.S. flag in each classroom on the two campuses they oversee. 

There was a heated debate over whether to mandate American flags in West Valley-Mission Community College District classrooms, but in the end trustees voted 5-1 last Thursday against the patriotic proposal. 

“I went in there thinking I could vote for this. I like the flag,” said Nancy Rucker, president of the Board of Trustees. “But all I was hearing were objections. That was my concern.” 

Some who attended the debate said requiring an American flag in each classroom would dilute the meaning of Old Glory, while others claimed it would create a divisive atmosphere on the Santa Clara County campuses. 

A voluntary plan to put flags into classrooms at Mission College and West Valley College was adopted by the trustees. Private donors will need to raise the money to purchase the flags, and it will be up to each instructor whether or not to fly the flag during his or her instructional periods. 

Don Wolfe was the trustee who led the effort to make the American flag mandatory at the two campuses, something he felt was important in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

One West Valley College student, Nicole Miller, died aboard the hijacked United Airlines plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. 

“It would be a reminder to our students, and an opportunity for them to more fully understand and appreciate what liberty is all about,” Wolfe said. 

Planet reporter’s three-year-old story makes TV news headlines 

OAKLAND — As late as Monday, access to potentially vulnerable areas of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was unguarded, a San Francisco Bay area television station reported. 

John Geluardi, a reporter with the Berkeley Daily Planet, told KTVU he followed a group of urban adventurers into sensitive areas of the bridge three years ago. They went into the abutments and even to the top of one tower, taking pictures of the inside of the bridge and of each other. 

On Monday, he went back to his access point with KTVU, and found it open with no security. 

“It dawned on all of us that it would be relatively easy to do a lot of damage to this bridge for a prankster or a terrorist,” he said regarding his trip into the bridge three years ago. 

Greg Bayol, of Caltrans, said it would be difficult for a terrorist to bring down the bridge, but said security will be tighter. 

“With the current state of affairs at all our bridges, that sort of thing will be watched a little closer,” he said. 

After Caltrans was notified of the opening Monday, it asked the California Highway Patrol to set up extra security. It said the opening won’t be sealed off, but other measures would be instituted to monitor it. 

On Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis warned of a possible terrorist threat to bridges in California, including the Bay Bridge.

The troops – more than 150 spilled off of the sidewalk and into the street – were called back to KPFA at noon on Sunday. 

They came to the Martin Luther King Jr. Way station empty handed, leaving their old, used picket signs, chant sheets and leaflets at home. 

They came ready to party – well, they called it: “pre-party.” 

As reported in the weekend Daily Planet, lawsuits filed by station staff, listeners and local advisory board members from four of the five listener-sponsored Pacifica stations went into mediation Thursday. The outcome is likely to return the network to a democratic model, with a least some of the national board members elected by listeners and representing the various listening areas. 

That’s what former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, a new Pacifica board member, disclosed on Friday. Those representing the plaintiffs in the consolidate lawsuit, including attorney Sherry Gendelman, who chairs the KPFA Local Advisory Board, said, however, that mediators were sworn to secrecy until the final agreement had been signed. 

Still, speakers said they wouldn’t be there and ready to “pre” party unless the outlook looked good. 

Feasting on cake, mounds of candy and soft drinks, the crowd listened to upbeat statements made by the visibly light-hearted speakers. 

“We’ll turn Pacifica back to its mission,” Gendelman told the cheering crowd. 

“It never occurred to (the Pacifica management) that we’d have the power to take it back,” said programmer Robbie Osman, who was taken off the air by the Pacifica management two years ago, as the fight to democratize the network grew. 

In the mood to celebrate, long-time programmer Kriss Welch recalled the cancellation of the station’s 50-year anniversary celebration, which was to have taken place soon after Pacifica management’s dismissal of popular station manager Nicole Sawaya in March of 1999. “I hope I can wear that black dress I bought,” she said. 

Some cautioned that the final agreement had not yet been signed and that the fight could break out all over again. But that did not worry KPFA activist Barbara Lubin. 

“If it doesn’t work out, we’ll go out and fight again,” she said.

Monday, Nov. 5

RAWA (Revolutionary  

Association of the Women of  

Afghanistan) Speaking Tour 

5:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall Room 155 

Tahmeena Faryal (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) Presented by UC Berkeley Gender and Equity Resource Center and ASAP (Acting in Solidarity with Afghan People). http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/CD34.html 

A Current Update on the  

Peace Movement and  

Erosion of Civil Liberties in Japan 

7 p.m. 

Asian Resources Center Community Conference Room (1st floor) 

310 8th St., Oakland 

Come learn about what is going on in Japan, and about the rarely reported affairs of the Japan Peace Movement. Briefing from Japan: Koji Sakai, President, All Japan Postal Workers Union (Zentei) Osaka-Kobe Chapter. $5. 891-9045 x48 jprn@igc.org 

Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans  

YOGA  

6:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph 

Bring a mat or towel, eating within an hour of class is not advised, wear loose comfortable clothing. $10. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

Tuesday, Nov. 6

"The Future of Indonesia" 

4 - 5 p.m. 

International House 

Ida and Robert Sproul Room  

2299 Piedmont Ave. 

Center for Southeast Asia Studies Distinguished Visitor Series: Dr. Nurcholish Madjid, Rector of Paramadina Mulya University, Jakarta, Indonesia. 642-3609 http://www-ihouse.berkeley.edu 

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Toll Room, Alumni House 

Public lectures and seminar by Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. Lecture One: Pleasure. 643-7413 www.grad.berkeley.edu/tanner 

Community Forum on Special  

Education 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater Stage 

1930 Allston Way 

Learn about the vision for special education at the BUSD with Superintendent Michele Lawrence. Sponsored by the Berkeley Special Education Parents Group (BSPED). 843-9177 sandstep@earthlink.net. 

East Bay Mystery Readers  

Group 

7 p.m. 

Dark Carnival Bookstore 

3086 Claremont Avenue 

Informal gathering to discuss mysteries the first Tuesday of every 

month. This month's books are: Big Easy Backroad, Martin Hegwood; Resurrection Man, Charlotte MacLeod; and Last Seen in Massilia, Steven Saylor. You don't have to read the books to come. 654-7523 

Financial Planning for Older  

Adults 

11 a.m. 

St. John’s Senior Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Learn about long term care insurance, local health care costs, and how to protect your assets. 845-6380 

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 

Creative Classes for Seniors 

9:30 a.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

2727 College Ave.  

Learn exercise, copper enameling, marquetry, weaving, water color painting, and more. Lunch and friendly conversation offered at a minimal charge. 845-6830 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Wednesday, Nov. 7

Yoga for People with  

HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

Advisory Council Meeting and  

Birthday Party 

10 a.m., 1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Monthly birthday party follows the meeting and will feature Destiny, the Harpist, Community members are welcomed to meeting. 644-6107 

Know Your Rights Training 

7 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Free workshop to learn what your rights are and how to watch the police effectively and safely. 548-0425 

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 

“The Genocide Continuum —  

Peace Time Crimes and  

Everyday Violence” 

7 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion Chapel 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

A lecture by Dr. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of “Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil.” 649-2440 

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Toll Room, Alumni House 

Public lecture and seminar by Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. Lecture Two: Change. 643-7413 www.grad.berkeley.edu/tanner 

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. 

Community Forum on Special  

Education 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater Stage 

1930 Allston Way 

With BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence. Learn about the vision for special education at the BUSD; ask questions and voice opinions 

Wheelchair accessible 

843-9177  

Thursday, Nov. 8

Shakespeare and Canonicity 

4:10 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Geballe Room, The Townsend Center for the Humanities 

220 Stephens Hall 

Seminar and Discussion with Sir Frank Kermode, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar. 643-7413 www.grad.berkeley.edu/tanner 

Women’s Cancer Resource  

Center Gallery Reception 

1- 3 p.m. 

WCRC Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

Opening reception with the artists Rowena Halligan and Margaret Herscher. Exhibit runs through Dec. 13. 548-9286 

Long Term Care Coverage 

1 - 3 p.m. 

Herrick Campus 

Maffley Auditorium 

2001 Dwight Way  

Lecture outlining various options for long term care coverage. 869-6737 

Grandparent Support Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

Malcolm X School, Rm. 105A 

1731 Prince St. 

For grandparents or relatives raising their grandchildren and other relatives. 644-6517 

The Teaching of Gurdjieff,  

7 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue 

A lecture by Kevin Langdon. Gurdjieff’s teaching puts into question all that we think we know about our own nature and the nature of the universe. Free. 524-0345 www.polymath-systems.com/phenomen/gurdj/index.html 

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616

Editor: 

As a participant in the City of Berkeley Planning Commission’s David Brower Building/Oxford Street lot development site sub-committee meetings and workshops, I would like to belatedly commend the sub-committee members for their professionalism and diligence during the lengthy public process, and also commend the Berkeley City Council’s unanimous vote to pass the sub-committee’s recommendations. 

Planning Commission Chairperson Rob Wrenn deserves special praise for his firm, even-handed approach toward all parties and interests involved during the sub-committee’s, at times, contentious process. 

I am confident that the Brower Building will confront Berkeley’s current affordable housing crisis head-on by providing at least 90 or more units of deeply affordable housing. This housing will provide for an array of modest income populations, including employees who work locally in Berkeley, families with children, students and seniors among others. 

The Brower Building’s planned 90 (plus) units will represent the largest amount of affordable units built on one site in 15 years, a tremendous public policy accomplishment for the City of Berkeley. 

The Brower Building will also incorporate the highest green/sustainability standards possible, including solar heating, locally available green building materials, roof top gardens, and pedestrian/bicycle/transit-friendly streetscape features. 

The Brower Building’s potential to be a world-class urban development represents one of the most exciting challenges for Berkeley’s highly respected non-profit development community. 

Finally, to respond to a Sept. 7 letter expressing concern about losing the open, street-level Oxford Street parking lot: All current Oxford lot parking spaces will be fully replaced with an “easy-in and out” underground public parking garage below the Brower Building. 

Chris Kavanagh 

Commissioner, Housing Advisory Commission

924 Gilman St. Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Anna’s Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Nov. 11: Choro Time; Nov. 12: Renegade Sidemen with Calvin Keys; Nov. 13: Singers’ Open Mic #2; Nov. 14: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 15: Jazz Singers’ Collective; Nov. 16: Anna & Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 17: Vicki Burns & Felice York, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; Nov. 29: Les Arts Florissants, $24 - $46; 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 Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 7: John Hoban $15.50 - $16.50; Nov. 8: Ledward Ka’apana & Cyril Pahinui $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 9: The Harmony Sisters with Alice Gerrard, Jeanie McLerie & Irene Herrmann $16.50 - $17.50; Nov 10: Barry & Alice Olivier $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 11: Austin Lounge Lizards $16.50 - $17.50. All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through 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 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“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 

“Nicholas Nickleby” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. The Young Actors Workshop presents a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby. $10 adults, $8 students and seniors. Performing Arts Center of Contra Costa College, corner of El Portal Dr. and Castro St., San Pablo 235-7800 ext. 4274 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; Nov. 30 - Dec. 2: Fri. - Sat.8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., The Suzuki Company presents a staged interpretation of the Greek classic, “Dionysus”, $30 - $46; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through 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 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.org 

“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 

“Much Ado About Nothing” Nov. 20 through Jan. 8: Check theater for specific dates and times. Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy chronicles a handful of soldiers returning from a winning battle to be greeted by a gaggle of giddy maidens. Directed by Brian Kulick. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org

Cal football coach Tom Holmoe resigned Sunday, one day after a loss to Arizona gave the Golden Bears an 0-8 record and an 11-game losing streak dating back to last season. His resignation is effective after the 2001 season. 

Holmoe compiled a 15-37 record in five seasons at Cal. His best season was in a 1998, when his squad had a 5-6 record. In the end, too many losses did in the personable coach. 

“It was a great experience,” Holmoe said. “When I came in here five years ago as a head football coach, I had a plan to come in and build the program, build these young man into a team and into a group that would last for a long time. I had a plan to bring people along, not just the football players and coaches themselves, but the whole department and campus, to the point where we could continue on for a long, long time. I was not successful in that plan. The goals we had set did not come to fruition.” 

Holmoe added, “Any coach who’s in the business long enough knows he usually pays a price for a poor won-loss record, which we have, which falls on me.” 

When asked why he announced his resignation now instead of after the season, which has just three games to go, he said he wanted to take some pressure off his players and to give Cal more time to find its new coach.  

“I felt it was very important for the head football coach of this team to be with this team,” Holmoe said. “These are some very troubled times for our team. We’ve had a lot of different problems.” 

Holmoe said he will think about his future plans once his job at Cal is finally over. 

Athletic director Steve Gladstone didn’t want to talk about potential candidates but said he would like to wrap up the search by Christmas or Jan. 1. 

Gladstone did talk about his “empathy” for Holmoe and the football team’s struggles. 

“The decision was based on performance on the field, not the basic values that Tom has embodied and his staff has embodied and his players have embodied,” Gladstone said. “It is with respect and sadness that we accept Tom’s resignation.”

The Berkeley Unified School District will be one of three testing grounds for a federally funded research program aimed at changing mathematics instruction and improving retention of minority students through the college years. 

The National Science Foundation this week awarded a five-year, $11.5 million “Diversity in Mathematics” grant to the UC Berkeley School of Education and two other universities.  

UC Berkeley professors and graduate students will use the grant for hands-on work in local schools and will focus on the critical late-middle-school and junior-high school years that culminate in algebra instruction, said Alan Schoenfeld, an education professor and co-leader of the effort with Rogers Hall. 

Algebra, Schoenfeld said, is normally the last course junior-high students are required to take – and too many leave mathematics by the wayside afterward because of the way it is currently taught. 

“If you look at the kind of curricula that today’s parents went through, the dropout rate from mathematics from ninth grade on was better than 50 percent per year,” he said. “The dropout rates for underrepresented minorities were much higher.” 

In practical terms, the grant is to focus on training and staff development for mathematics educators who are already dealing with issues of minority achievement gaps. 

“We’re going to use the Web to create a collection of annotated Web-based lessons in mathematics, so teachers can see what works and what doesn’t,” Schoenfeld said.  

The project will build on a somewhat controversial effort that has been underway among educational scholars for several years, he said. Amidst a chronic shortage of high school graduates who are “quantitatively literate,” educators have tried to reorient mathematics education away from rote problem-solving toward a more conceptual and interactive approach – “not just doing calculations and doing answers, but figuring out situations and writing up explanations of them,” Schoenfeld said. 

He termed the conflict between the old and new approaches “the math wars.” On one side have been those advocating the new approach, while their opponents have resisted for fear that children would fail to learn the basics.  

“Now the data are finally starting to come in, and they say that kids who take the new curricula do as well on basic skills as the kids on the old curricula did, and they learn a lot more about concepts and problem solving,” Schoenfeld said.  

The main obstacle now in carrying out the changes, he said, has been a lack of both theoretical and practical training on a large enough scale to make it possible to put them into practice. 

“We need to get enough people excited about math teaching so that we have the people who can do this,” he said. “We need to develop the knowledge that will help them to teach the rapidly changing demographic population that we have.” 

The push for improved and expanded math instruction comes at a time when two trends are putting a squeeze on the field: within the next decade, Schoenfeld said, more than half of the country’s math teachers will be eligible for retirement. At the same time, the demographic changes in California’s population have made it especially urgent to chip at the traditional dividing line between what he called the “two tracks” of high school. 

“There was really college prep, and then everybody else got out as fast as they could,” he said. “What’s happened over the past decade or so have been various attempts to both make math more enfranchising and to broaden the pool of students who can make their way through mathematics,” Schoenfeld said. 

“We are attempting to rebuild the infrastructure of mathematics education research, to include a focus on professional development for both new and practicing teachers around diversity issues such as language, social class, gender and ethnicity,” said Hall. 

The other participants in the grant are the University of Wisconsin at Madison, in partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District, and the UCLA Graduate School of Education, which will work with Los Angeles Unified School District schools. 

The money is not intended for purely theoretical research, Schoenfeld said. 

“There’s no such thing as pure research anymore,” he said. “The idea is we get out in the schools and we see what’s happening.” 

“There will be new research, a new generation of researchers and student leaders, and a well-articulated model of how we have gone about this,” Hall said. 

Berkeley school district administrators could not be reached Friday for comment on the grant project.

The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Diane Feinstein, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

If you, as my elected representatives, do not elevate my cries for peace to a level where they can be heard above the call to arms, then who will speak for me? Your part in the unanimous decision to fund our next war will cost lives. And what then? 

After innocent people have died, after children have lost parents and friends, after parents have lost sons and daughters, after men and women have lost friends and loved ones,what will we have proven? 

What will we have won? And most importantly, what will be lost? 

Now is an opportunity to set an example for the world. Denounce the criminal acts that have taken place, and similar acts that take place on a daily basis in other parts of the world. Mourn for those who have lost their lives and for those who have lost loved ones to acts of violence both domestically and abroad. Bring the criminals to task for these violent acts and rewrite U.S. foreign policies that support ruling establishments that use terror and violence as means to achieve their ends. Put an end to the cycles of hatred, violence, and death that will only be perpetuated and further justified if the United States unleashes its military forces. 

You are my representatives – please represent me. 

Mitch Triplett 

Albany

In a game filled with big plays and very little defense, the St. Mary’s Panthers got a bunch of the former and just enough of the latter to take down St. Patrick’s, winning 42-34 on Saturday in Berkeley. 

The St. Mary’s win sets up a potential BSAL championship game against Piedmont on Friday. The Highlanders were undefeated in the league going into their game against Kennedy on Friday, but the game was suspended due to darkness with Piedmont in the lead. No decision has been made on the result of the game. 

The Panthers (5-4 overall, 3-1 BSAL) scored four long touchdowns against St. Patrick’s. Courtney Brown scored on an 89-yard kickoff return early in the game, then broke a short pass for a 51-yard touchdown later in the first quarter, and tailback Trestin George scored on runs of 57 and 64 yards sandwiching halftime. 

The Bruins (4-5, 2-2) were clearly hell-bent on stopping George, stacking nine men on the line of scrimmage for most of the game, leaving the Berkeley wide receivers with single coverage. Although St. Mary’s quarterback Steve Murphy had just 157 passing yards, he made them count, throwing for two scores and suffering through several drops by his receivers. 

“They were playing without a safety, so we threw the ball,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “We told Trestin to be patient, that we’d need him later.” 

George left the game in the fourth quarter with a strained hamstring after a late hit by St. Patrick’s Will Dunlap, but managed to pick up 171 yards and three scores on just eight carries. 

“They couldn’t stop me on the field, so they targeted me,” George said. “They were doing anything to get me out of the game.” 

George lost the statistical battle with St. Patrick’s running back Justin Ewers, who ran for 259 yards on 36 carries. But Ewers gained 178 of those yards in the first half, and appeared to tire a bit as the second half wore on.  

“Ewers might have had better numbers today, but I’m all about winning games, and we got the win,” George said. 

The Bruins had one last gasp on their final drive, driving the ball down to the St. Mary’s 21 yard-line with 20 seconds left and down by eight points. But their complete lack of a passing game (just 18 yards in the air) did them in. Brown broke up a pass on first down, and St. Patrick’s quarterback Aaron Capapas threw the ball away under heavy pressure on the next play, leaving just six seconds on the clock. Capapas went down hard on the play and was forced to leave the game. 

With Dunlap at quarterback, the Bruins tried a little trickery, pitching the ball to Ewers for a throw. But St. Mary’s linebacker Chase Moore lived up to his name and contained Ewers, batting the ball out of his hands as the clock ran out. 

“I was just doing my job, keeping containment,” Moore said. “I didn’t want him to get that pass off.”

Newly reorganized agency in a race against time 

The Berkeley Housing Authority has steadily increased new Section 8 leases over the last six months, but the troubled agency is still in a race against time to avoid HUD sanctions and possible dissolution. 

Housing Director Stephen Barton presented the BHA Board with a report Tuesday that showed an increase of 17 Section 8 leases in July, August and September despite a loss of 32 leases over the same period. Until May, the agency had been losing an average of 11 leases a month. September was the fifth consecutive month the BHA has recorded a gain in leases which officials say is clear evidence that both new BHA Manager Rick Mattessich and a reorganization of the agency have reversed years of department inefficiency. 

While that is good news, the agency still faces the difficult task of either adding more than 300 new Section 8 leases by April (about 50 a month), or facing HUD funding sanctions and a possible take-over of the agency by the county. 

In addition to internal problems, the BHA has had difficulty increasing its inventory of Section 8 leases because of a shortage of available rental units and a very competitive housing market. 

Barton said that a newly compiled waiting list is the agency’s best hope of meeting the HUD goals. The BHA collected 3,500 new Section 8 housing applications last month and hopes to begin processing applicants this month. 

“My hope is that with the new waiting list we will have a higher rate of applicants who are already in housing,” Barton said. “That will create a win-win situation for tenants and with landlords who will be able to get market rents despite rent control.” 

In February, Barton presented a report to the 11-member Berkeley Housing Authority Board – the mayor, councilmembers and two tenant members, that described the city’s housing subsidy agency on the verge of collapse.  

According to the February report, poor organization had resulted in an agency that was so dysfunctional it was apparently unable to provide landlords with HUD-approved rent increases or process a waiting list of 1,500 people who had applied for Section 8 housing subsidies. 

The BHA had gone through four managers in as many years and had been losing an average of $250,000 a year, according to Barton. The agency projects a similar loss for fiscal year 2001-02. 

But since February, the BHA has been successful in reversing the agency’s most disturbing trend – the average loss of 11 Section 8 housing leases a month. 

HUD approved a BHA budget for up to 1,620 Section 8 leases. Currently there are 1,287 active leases. If the BHA is unable to use at least 95 percent of that budget, which is HUD will reduce funding to an agency that is already losing $250,000 a year. 

Barton said that the gains over the last three months are modest but that he is encouraged because July, August and September are usually very slow months. 

“These gains were made despite a summer slowdown in processing applicants on the Section 8 waiting list,” Barton said in a report to the BHA Board. “This slowdown is attributed to staff vacations, and an emphasis placed on public housing issues.” 

Editor: 

Shame, shame, shame on T. Lent who states following concerning the butchering of American men, women and children, “what goes around comes back around.”  

The terrorists were motivated by the promise of eternal paradise and a harem, suicide madmen without the basic pity of burning innocents alive. What had the children on the four aircraft and in the World Trade Center done to justify T. Lent’s saying in defense of these madmen, “How can we respond with love?”  

What a monstrous thought! These butchers must be stopped now. Finally, to compete T. Lent’s defense of his massacre and blaming the victims for the horror - Mr. Lent should join bin Laden in Afghanistan for he sees these madmen as justified. Shame on you. 

Harry Lieberman 

Berkeley

Each week, John Mackovic has seen Arizona make steady improvements during a difficult season. 

Tom Holmoe can’t say the same thing about an even tougher season at California. 

Jason Johnson passed for a career-best 315 yards and four touchdowns as Arizona snapped a 10-game conference losing streak with a 38-24 victory over winless Cal on Saturday. 

Cal’s nightmare season under Holmoe reached another low point with a listless loss to the Pac-10’s second-worst team. The Golden Bears (0-8, 0-6) made it reasonably close with three fourth-quarter touchdowns, but 112 yards in penalties and an untold number of dropped passes kept Cal on pace for the school’s first winless season since 1897. 

“We’re not very smart,” said Holmoe, who’s almost certain to be dismissed by new athletic director Steve Gladstone in a few weeks. “We’re forcing the issue on special teams, and we’re not good enough to overcome stupid penalties. We have guys who aren’t playing up to expectations.” 

In a meeting of the Pac-10’s bottom-dwellers, Bobby Wade caught TD passes of 50, 13 and 16 yards from Johnson, and Clarence Farmer ran for a career-best 165 yards and a score. With Johnson completing 19 of 28 passes, Arizona (4-5, 1-5) kept its long-shot bowl hopes alive. 

“We played a full game,” Mackovic said. “I was really glad that we played 60 minutes. At halftime, the score was a little bit lopsided, and I was concerned whether our guys would continue to stay after it.” 

The Wildcats had 474 yards of total offense while rolling to Mackovic’s first conference victory. Arizona scored 38 straight points after going scoreless in the first quarter. 

“Our team felt like we could have won any number of the games we’ve lost recently,” Johnson said. “All week, we’ve been talking about how we can finish this season right and still have a good feeling inside about ourselves.” 

Arizona was stung by last-second losses in its previous two games, but the Wildcats got a lead too big to lose against Cal, even after quarterback Kyle Boller rallied the Bears late. 

Cal led 3-0 on Mark Jensen’s 43-yard field goal, but Farmer got Arizona on the scoreboard with a 65-yard TD run through the heart of the Bears’ defense early in the second quarter. 

Johnson threw TD passes on the Wildcats’ next three drives, hitting Justin Levasseur for a 3-yard score and finding Wade twice. Arizona made a methodical drive in the closing moments of the half, with Johnson hitting Wade for a 13-yard TD with a second left. 

“We were able to get some balls over the top, and Jason was putting up catchable balls, like he always does,” said Wade, who finished with six catches for 118 yards. “We were surprised they came at us with man-to-man coverage, and we used it to our advantage.” 

In keeping with Holmoe’s plan to give playing time to more young players at the end of this lost season, freshman Reggie Robertson — a Tucson native — started at quarterback for the Bears. But Robertson completed just 5-of-14 passes and looked rattled by the Wildcats’ defense. 

“That’s the way things are supposed to go,” Arizona linebacker Lance Briggs said. “It’s fun to get a taste of it. It’s been increasing the last few weeks. We’re looking forward to these final few games.” 

Boller, who missed the previous two games with a back injury, took over and threw TD passes of 38 and 44 yards to LaShaun Ward in the fourth quarter. Terrell Williams also had a 2-yard TD run. 

“This team is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Holmoe said. ”(In) the second quarter, we were terrible, and as a coach, given the situation, you can’t help thinking, ’They’re cashing it in.’ But the end of the third and the fourth quarter was as good as we’ve played all year.” 

Not even picturesque weather and thousands of giveaway bobblehead dolls of Cal’s mascot, Oski, could attract more than a few thousand fans to Memorial Stadium. Even Arizona’s cheering section, normally filled with San Francisco Bay area alumni, had only a few hundred fans. 

Cal lost its 11th straight game dating back to last season, but there’s a flicker of hope: The Bears’ three remaining games include a trip to New Jersey to face Rutgers, which lost 80-7 to West Virginia on Saturday.

Two UC students were robbed by a group of armed criminals as they walked down Telegraph Avenue early Oct. 31, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department. 

The victims were approaching the corner of Carleton Street at around 1:30 a.m. when they were approached by a suspect. The man allegedly pulled out a handgun and told the victims to stop and proceeded to search them. While he was doing so, two other individuals, one of them female, walked up and stripped one victim of his backpack, throwing it to the other.  

One suspect then told the victims to leave the area. The suspects then climbed into a dark-colored sedan which had pulled up to the corner and drove off. 

The suspect who carried the gun was described as an African-American man, 25 to 30 years old, weighing 180 to 190 pounds, wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and a goatee. The female suspect was African-American, in her 20s, 5-feet, 6 inches tall and of thin build... 

Two juvenile girls were the victims of a Halloween prank that police treated as a potential assault case, according to Harris. 

The girls were trick-or-treating in the Elmwood district some time in the evening when an individual at one of the homes they visited threw white powder on them and announced he had given them anthrax.  

When the girls returned home, their mother called 911. Both the BPD and the Berkeley Fire Department responded to the call. Police went to the home of the adult suspect, spoke to him and took no further action. 

A group of juveniles put one of their peers in a choke-hold and robbed him in Civic Center Park, according to Harris. 

The victim, a Berkeley High student, was sitting on a bench in the park around noon when another student approached him from behind and allegedly wrapped his arm around the victim’s throat, throttling him. An undetermined number of other students then came up and started to go through the victim’s pockets, making off with $20 and the victim’s cell phone, Harris said.  

The robbery took place shortly before the BHS lunch period. 

A man was assaulted and robbed by a group of juveniles on the night of Oct. 31, according to Harris. 

The victim was on Derby Street, near the corner of McGee Avenue, when four young men, at least one of whom was wearing a mask, walked up to them. The young men surrounded the victim and told him to give them his wallet. After the victim complied, one of the suspects hit him over the head with a blunt object. 

The victim sustained lacerations to the head, and was transported to Highland Hospital. The officer that responded to the call found a discarded tire iron near the site of the robbery.  

The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Dale Sanford’s TV in Berkeley. 

As you may know, the Berkeley City Council recently passed a resolution asking that the bombing of Afghanistan be ended as soon as possible. There was talk in the press about a possible boycott of Berkeley businesses as a protest against this vote.  

We want you to know that we are choosing to buy a TV at this time for your business in Berkeley in order to support the Berkeley City Council and Berkeley businesses. We believe that it is important to stop the bombing now and to be able to protest government policies without fear of economic retaliation. 

Jim Barnard and  

Anna Graves 

Berkeley

Cal held off a feisty Bay Area-Pro Am Team, 61-55, in women’s basketball on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.  

The Bears’ first exhibition game was a showcase for several newcomers, the most impressive of which were freshman Kristin Iwanaga and junior Audrey Watler.  

The Bay Area Team, which featured former Golden Bear Eliza Sokolowska and was coached by former Cal assistant coach Ronalda Smitherman, kept the game close despite having four players foul out with only nine suited up.  

Ami Forney, the Bears only returning starter, was Cal’s best player on Sunday. The senior forward/center scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds after a slow start. Cal had a big edge in rebounds, 44-31, and had 25 offensive boards to just four for the Bay Area. Forney led Cal with six offensive boards.  

Forney shared time in the pivot with Olga Volkova, a Ukrainian center who’s the most intriguing of the newcomers. The 6-4 sophomore transfer from Merritt College has the size and strength to give Cal a major presence in the middle, but her slow recovery from a right ACL tear will hamper her for the foreseeable future. She played just seven minutes and didn’t score against the Bay Area.  

Iwanaga gives Cal the presence of a pure point guard, something the Bears have lacked in the last two seasons. Courtney Johnson played the position since 1999, but her natural position was shooting guard.  

In the win Sunday, Iwanaga showed good court sense, running the fast break well and defending hard against opposing point guards. She scored nine points, dished out two assists, made three steals and had three rebounds. She was fearless when driving to the basket but was reluctant to shoot the outside shot. Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer said her player was listening to her instruction to reverse the ball instead of looking for her own points, but the second-year coach still would like to see Iwanaga take some outside shots.  

“I’d like her to be a scorer as a point guard,” Horstmeyer said. “She’s smart enough. I’m just not sure that she knows what I want from her.”  

Watler, an undersized walk-on power forward at 5-10, brought energy and a solid overall performance to an otherwise ragged game. The transfer from Umpqua Community College in Oregon scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds.  

“(Watler) is a gamer and she’s aggressive, and she was the only one who could score over our 6-9 [male] practice player,” Horstmeyer said. “She is hungry to play. She’s an animal.”

Editor: 

I too love America. But I love the whole world more, because the whole world contains more of our beautifully diverse brothers and sisters, mountains and seas. We are ALL children of God. So many of us pray for the killing of innocents to stop, whether the person be brown or pink. Common sense tells us that when we stop using money here on planet Earth, and learn to share, peace will come naturally. May our hearts be filled with love for all living beings. 

Lydia Maupin 

Berkeley

It may not have had the draw of the California Bears football game on the other side of the campus, but for the cognoscenti, the regional finals of the Third Annual Siemens-Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition, held Saturday in the Pauley Ballroom, was an eight-way battle royale to savor. 

The only problem: who to root for? The competitors, the crème de la crème of the youth science scene west of the Rockies, had each spent years honing their projects, and only a soothsayer could tell whose work would end up having the greatest impact. 

How to compare Yanjia Zhang’s (Arcadia, Calif.) work on hematological stem cells with Anna Lonyai’s (Roland Heights, Calif.) revisions to the standard model of the upper-atmospheric ozone depletion? Or Theresa Barens’ (Scottsdale, Ariz.) discoveries in brain oncology with the innovate, low-cost hearing aid designed by Gabe Klapman (Santa Cruz) and Peter Lee (Carmel)? 

In the end, engineering trumped pure science on Saturday, with the awards for group and individual projects each going to high-tech tinkerers. 

Ryan Patterson of Grand Junction, Colo., took the honors in the individual category for his automated sign language interpreter. The design of the product was simplicity itself, though its engineering - which involved arrays of sensors and complex circuitry - was all but incomprehensible. 

Users of the Patterson interpreter, which is intended as a low-cost means for people who speak only sign language to communicate with non-speakers, slip on a specially outfitted glove, then hand a small LCD screen to the non-speaker. As the person signs with the gloved hand, the device automatically translates the language into written words, which appear on the screen. 

Patterson said that he got the idea after he saw two people, one deaf and the other sign-language illiterate, attempting to communicate in a restaurant. Later that same week, he read a story in a newspaper about schools hiring interpreters for deaf students. 

“These students don’t have a lot of privacy, because the interpreter has to go everywhere with them.” Patterson said. “Plus, this just seemed a more cost-effective method.” 

Patterson also wrote the software with which users of the interpreter “train” it to recognize their own particular signing styles. 

In the group category, sisters Hanna and Heather Craig of Anchorage, Alaska won with their ice-sled rescue robot, which they hope will some day be used to save people who fall through thin ice. 

The robot fills an important gap in the rescue technology, according to Hanna Craig. 

“When we researched this, we found out that there were specialized rescue robots designed for fires and for earthquakes,” she said. “But nothing for ice.” 

With the robot, rescuers will be able to reach victims of ice-catastrophes from a safe distance. An operator may pilot the device out to a floating person by means of a remote control and an on-board camera. The victim can grab the robot, and the rescuer can pull the person to safety by means of a tether carried by the robot. 

Fellow Alaskans Crystal Gefroh, Crystal Keaster and Heidi Eckman of Delta Junction impressed science fans with their three-year experiment involving lichen, cosmic radiation and the space shuttle. 

Several years ago, the team persuaded NASA to carry vials of lichen into orbit, so that they could determine the effect of cosmic rays on living organisms. After returning to Earth, the samples were compared with lichen they had kept in Alaska. 

The results were unfortunately inconclusive, but the experiment had twice taken them to Florida, first to watch their samples blast off and then to discuss the results with NASA scientists. 

The winners of the western regionals took home $3,000 in scholarship prizes, and will compete in the national finals in December.

The Cal men’s soccer team lost a heartbreaker on Sunday, falling in overtime to UCLA, 1-0, on a penalty kick. 

The teams were scoreless for 97 minutes when UCLA’s Ryan Futagaki swerved into the Cal box, taking a shot that just missed the goal. But Futagaki went down after taking the shot, and the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot, where Futagaki converted the kick seconds later to give the Bruins (8-6-4, 3-2-1) the victory. 

The Cal defenders were visibly upset by the call. 

“The ref pretty much handed them the game,” senior Leo Krupnik said. “What can you do?” 

The Bears (9-6-1, 2-3) had two chances to score in the overtime period despite being down to 10 players, as freshman midfielder Mike Munoz had been sent off after receiving his second yellow card in the 81st minute. 

Less than a minute into overtime, Cal’s Pat Fisher put a cross in front of the UCLA goal, where forward Austin Ripmaster was between two defenders. Ripmaster just missed the header as the ball bounced off of his chest and right to UCLA goalkeeper Zach Wells. 

“We have to execute in front of the frame,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “Both defenses played really well, but we did have a couple of chances.” 

The Bruins outshot Cal 11-7 in the game.

Lee: feds should take charge of baggage screening 

OAKLAND – U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, denounced the House of Representatives for rejecting legislation that would have made the federal government responsible for airport passenger and baggage screening.  

Rejecting a version of the Aviation Security Bill approved unanimously by the Senate earlier this week, the House instead approved, 286-139, its own bill also omitting provisions that would have federal agents do the screening at the nation's 137 largest airports and create a separate deputy secretary in the Department of Transportation to take responsibility for transportation security.  

“It is important that we provide the safest environment for both our aviation industry employees and the customers who have come to rely on airline travel, air cargo, aircraft recreation and tourism,” Lee said in a prepared statement. “...Congress failed to provide the appropriate resources to strengthen and implement expanded aviation security measures so that our airline industry can get back on track and our nation's economy as a whole can once again prosper.”  

Riordan skips San Jose debate 

SAN JOSE – Secretary of State Bill Jones and Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon showed up at a California Congress of Republicans debate, but former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was conspicuously absent. 

The gubernatorial hopefuls, vying for the endorsement of the GOP group, each spoke for 20 minutes Saturday then answered questions from about 150 attendees. 

But Riordan said a scheduling conflict kept him from sharing the stage with Jones and Simon. He later addressed the Congress of Republicans alone. 

His absence drew a rebuke from Jones. 

“If you can’t get on the same platform as Bill Simon and Bill Jones, how are you going to beat Gray Davis?” 

All three criticized Davis’ handling of the energy crisis. 

Riordan, who’s expected to announce his candidacy Tuesday, focused on wooing Latinos and women. 

Jones emphasized his statewide political experience and discussed the need to rebuild roads, dams and other infrastructure. 

Simon focused on his experience as a businessman and working with charities and said the state needs to get private businesses more involved in solving California’s problems. 

Palestine official calls for Israeli withdrawal 

SAN FRANCISCO – An elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council says the way to peace in the Middle East is through Israeli withdrawal of Palestinian territories. 

Hanan Ashwari, also a spokeswoman for the Arab League, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday that she’s glad to see President Bush being tougher with Israel. 

She says the Sept. 11 attacks showed that the U.S. needs an alliance with Arab countries. 

She also condemns what she calls Osama bin Laden’s exploitation of the Palestinian struggle. “We don’t want people killing in our names,” she said. 

Israel began pulling out of a West Bank town early Monday, more than two weeks after invading six towns following the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister. 

Golden Gate Bridge wedding goes ahead 

SAN FRANCISCO – Possible terrorist threats to the Golden Gate Bridge couldn’t stop one man with who had his heart set on one word – “yes.” 

That was the answer Saturday when Brian Koupal, 23, stood on the span overlooking the Pacific and asked Melissa Beever, 22, to marry him. “The bridge will be here forever,” Koupal said. “We knew nothing was going to happen. We will be able to come back to a spot and remember where it all happened.” 

The bridge has been under the close watch of the National Guard after FBI told law enforcement in Western states that the agency received uncorroborated information that West Coast bridges had been targeted by terrorists from Nov. 1 through Nov. 7. 

Golden Gate Bridge toll Lt. Ronald Reed said there were about 13,000 fewer vehicle crossings on Friday.

LOS ANGELES – California’s love affair with the car is rivaled only by its love affair with the airplane. 

From 1910, when the first international air meet was held just south of Los Angeles, to the 1947 flight of Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose,” to the design of the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter, California has played a key role in world aviation history. 

So a decision by the Boeing Co. to end production of its 717 passenger jetliner in Long Beach would have an impact far beyond the jobs lost. The Boeing 717 is the last passenger plane built in the state that produced one of the first, the historic DC-1 built by Douglas Aircraft in 1933 for TWA. 

“Since the 1910 Los Angeles County air meet, flight has been a central metaphor for Southern California,” said California state historian Kevin Starr. “It’s part of the DNA code of Southern California economically.” 

Boeing, which inherited the 100-seater airplane program when it acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997, said last month it is considering scrapping the money-losing line. The company said it will decide the fate of the plane and 4,500 workers at the Long Beach factory that assembles it by the end of the year. 

To be sure, the disappearance of commercial airline manufacturing in the state would not signal the end of the aerospace industry here. Boeing still remains the largest private employer in California, and firms such as Northrop Grumman are hiring as they prepare to manufacture the Joint Strike Fighter, the richest defense contract in military history. 

California also remains a center of research and manufacturing for satellites, the space program and the military. 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Lockheed Martin’s “Skunk Works” research park in Palmdale and the high technology companies in the Silicon Valley are all heirs to a tradition pioneered by such names as Glen Curtiss, Jack Northrop and Donald Douglas. 

Even if 717 production is halted, it might be years before current orders are filled and the last jet leaves the production line. Midwest Express recently placed an order for 20 717s to be delivered one per quarter starting in 2003. The contract also includes an option to order another 30 planes. 

“We’ve been assured by Boeing that they intend to fulfill the contract,” Lisa Bailey, a Midwest Express spokeswoman said. “What that means, I don’t know yet.” 

The end of the Boeing 717 would come at the end of a long decline in aerospace manufacturing jobs, especially in Southern California. 

“The lower end of the defense industry, the metal-bending part, has been leaving over the last 20-30 years,” said Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University. 

That exodus reached a high point in the early 1990s, when the Los Angeles area lost more than 200,000 jobs as defense spending was cut. Since then, the area has diversified its economy and is much less dependent on military spending. 

On the commercial side, final production on major planes has been leaving the state for years. In the early 1980s, Lockheed shut down the Burbank assembly line that produced the big L-1011 TriStar airliners. 

The main body section for the Boeing 747, however, is still assembled in Hawthorne. 

The massive aircraft factory in Long Beach was built in 1940 by Douglas Aircraft to build warplanes. After Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, the company phased out production of the MD11, MD80 and MD90. The last of the planes rolled off the assembly line earlier this year. 

Today, most of the complex is shuttered, except for those used for final assembly of the Boeing 717. A separate facility is used to assemble giant C-17 cargo planes. 

Analysts say it is more likely than not Boeing will scrap the 717. 

There are more than 60 of the planes operated by regional airlines for flights of between 300 to 500 miles. Earlier this year, Boeing announced the elimination of 1,200 jobs in Long Beach because of lower than expected orders. 

“For Boeing to make a public statement that they’re mulling the future of the aircraft, it’s a fairly strong statement about their intentions,” said Joseph Nadol, an analysts at J.P. Morgan. “It’s a good aircraft and it’s a hot segment. But demand hasn’t materialized as quickly as the company needs.” 

Boeing officials in California say they are awaiting the fate of the program as nervously as workers and city officials. 

“This is a new review and a new process,” said John Thom, a Boeing spokesman. “Down here, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we can continue production and go on for years and years.” 

The Long Beach plant employs 4,500 workers on the commercial side, about 1,000 of which maintain a service department for older planes. It is not clear whether Boeing would close the plant or convert it to other uses. 

About 8,000 work in Long Beach, Palmdale and other plants building the C-17. That program may expand if the military orders more of the planes as expected. 

During World War II, the complex was camouflaged, as were similar plants in Santa Monica and elsewhere, by placing a mock rural village on the roof. Historical footnotes such as that make the fate of the program more poignant for Californians. 

“It’s like a death in the family,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

SAN FRANCISCO – After stumbling through the dot-com debacle, Web browser pioneer Jim Clark is teaming up with old partner Jim Barksdale again, trying to recapture the success they enjoyed in their heyday at Netscape Communications. 

Clark and Barksdale are reuniting as the lead investors in Neoteris – a Greco-Roman word meaning “new territory.” The Sunnyvale start-up, which is being run by one of Clark’s most trusted lieutenants, says it can save companies money by giving their employees and suppliers access to corporate networks through Web browsers instead of more elaborate Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs. 

After spending 18 months developing its technology, Neoteris is unveiling its product line Monday. 

Neoteris is “a nice alternative to the supreme headaches you get from using VPNs,” Clark said during an interview last week. “This may not be a pioneering market, but it’s going to be an instant market that grows rapidly.” 

Neoteris CEO Kittu Kolluri, Clark’s business confidant for years, is convinced the idea may be good enough to merit another chapter in “The New New Thing” – a 1999 book devoted largely to Clark’s knack for turning technology breakthroughs into lucrative businesses. 

“There is no question in my mind that we are going to revolutionize the way people access their corporate networks,” said Kolluri, who has worked with Clark for more than a decade. 

Neoteris’ service is more likely to become a supplement to VPNs and other similar remote control services, such as Expertcity’s GoToMyPc.com and Symantec’s pcAnywhere, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with the Yankee Group. 

Clark, 57, gained his reputation as a serial entrepreneur by launching three prominent tech companies: 

Silicon Graphics, whose 3-D computer imaging technology changed movie making; Netscape, whose Web browser commercialized the Internet; and Healtheon, now known as WebMD, one of the first online medical portals. All grew into major businesses with at least $500 million in annual revenue and became prized investments on Wall Street before falling on hard times. 

The successes helped build Clark’s estimated personal fortune of $740 million, but he has been misfiring lately. Kibu.com, a teen Web site funded by Clark, folded in October 2000. Shortly after that, Clark resigned from WebMD’s board amid criticism of his role in the company. 

None of Clark’s investments in other Silicon Valley start-ups have panned out yet.  

With Shutterfly, Clark even briefly competed with Barksdale, who also financed a competing online photography site, Ofoto, sold to Eastman Kodak earlier this year. 

Connecting to a computer network through a VPN always seemed cumbersome to Clark, so he saw dollar signs when Kolluri showed him the Neoteris technology. 

Clark subsequently shared the idea with former Netscape CEO Barksdale and they agreed to invest a total of $5 million in Neoteris. The seed money is supposed to carry Neoteris and its 25 employees through the middle of next year when the company plans to raise more venture capital.

Looks like it’s time for a new belt 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

Today I was driving to work in a nasty rainstorm. As I was driving over the large puddles of water collecting on the roadway, something strange happened. The red "battery" light on my dashboard lit up, and I had a hard time steering my car around the curve ahead. Once I got over the puddle, the problem stopped -- at least until I hit the next puddle, when it happened again. I drive a 1990 Chevy Celebrity station wagon. Is this something I should worry about? – Vic 

TOM: Steering? Nah. That's not important, Vic. Steering has always been vastly overrated. 

RAY: Don't listen to him, Vic. Here's what's happening: You have a single belt that drives all of the accessories in your car. It's a called a serpentine belt, because it's, well, serpentine. It slinks all over the engine, around various pulleys, like a snake, and it replaces all of the individual belts that used to run the accessories. 

TOM: And when you drove through those puddles, that serpentine belt got wet and started to slip. And when it slipped, all of the accessories lost power, including the alternator (which is why the battery light came on) and the power-steering pump (which is why you had a hard time steering). 

RAY: After a few seconds on terra firma, the belt dried out enough to catch, and everything was fine again. 

TOM: My guess is that it might be time to replace your belt. It might be stretched or glazed, and all it took was a little water to push it over the edge and make it slip. 

RAY: If the belt was recently replaced, or if your mechanic inspects it and says it looks fine, then you might need a new belt tensioner -- which is supposed to automatically keep the belt at just the right tension so stuff like this doesn't happen. Good luck, Vic. And get it taken care of.  

No brake lights; leaping before you look 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I read your response to some guy named Victor who wanted to know if it was OK to use the hand brake to stop his car. Though your response was technically and mechanically correct, it needed one more paragraph. You failed to mention that even though using the hand brake will stop his car, it will not activate the brake lights. So yes, while he is blissfully going around operating his car like a moron, everyone else on the road is endangered by him. His car might be coming to a stop, but the poor sot stuck behind him (and subsequently liable for rear-ending him in most states) won't know it and might well break this yahoo's neck. Please keep the rest of us drivers in mind when answering bozos like this. Thanks. – Mike 

RAY: You're right, Mike. What is it that Ann Landers says? 

TOM: I think it's "40 lashes with a wet hand-brake cable." 

A customer who knew too much 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

We have a '95 GMC Yukon. It has a slow electrical discharge that eventually causes the battery to go dead. Then my wife finds herself stranded. The battery has been replaced, so that's not the problem. The fuse box has been sequentially checked in order to isolate the leak. No leak has shown up. We have kids in college and can't handle a new car at this time. Can you suggest another approach to identifying the cause of this electrical leak? – Rich 

TOM: This is all your fault, Rich. I think you're living a lie. You don't have a current drain at all. 

RAY: I agree. I think this is a classic case of the customer who thinks he knows too much. We have some customers who come in and tell us what's wrong with their cars. They don't tell us what the car is doing; they skip that step and just tell us what to replace. And a lot of times they're wrong. 

TOM: You went to your mechanic, I presume, and asked him to figure out what's draining current from your battery. Only, you led him down the garden path, because we don't think anything is draining current from your battery. 

RAY: If you had simply told him your battery was dying intermittently, a good mechanic would have considered three possibilities: a bad battery, a current drain or a faulty charging system. You've eliminated the battery by replacing it. You've eliminated the current drain (assuming it was checked correctly) because you checked and found no drain. And that leaves what I consider to be the most likely source of the problem: a faulty charging system. 

TOM: Normally, the battery starts the car, and then the charging system takes over. The alternator (which is the key piece of the charging system) then provides all the electricity the car needs. It provides electricity to generate a spark for combustion, electricity to run all of your accessories (like your power windows, air conditioner and lights) and electricity to recharge the battery for your next start. 

RAY: But if the charging system isn't working correctly, everything will take its electricity from the battery. The battery never gets fully recharged, and eventually it dies and leaves your wife stranded. 

TOM: So here's what you do: Go back to your mechanic and apologize for lying to him and leading him astray. Tell him you'll always give him the symptoms in the future, and never try to solve the problem for him. Based on your description of an intermittent dead battery, he should test your charging system. And my guess is he'll find the problem there. Good luck, Rich.

Saturday, Nov. 3

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Julie’s Healthy Café 

2562 Bancroft Way 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Robert Ewing Quartet performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Meet the Innovators of Tomorrow... Today 

8 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor 

MLK Student Union 

UC Berkeley 

Hear students present their original research projects in science, mathematics, and technology for the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. (202)944-1940  

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Community and Family Contra Dance 

7 p.m.  

Grace North Church 

Cedar and Walnut 

With music by Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, come play and dance. Easy dances for all ages. $10. 482-9479 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands-on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult. Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Nov. 4

Re-Legitimizing Peace: 

Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m.  

The Village 

2556 Telegraph Ave. 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Rhythm Kitchen performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Day of the Dead: Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Commemoration 

1 - 5 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School  

Multipurpose Room (Cafeteria) 

920 Allston Way 

Rosa Parks Elementary School invites the community to a multicultural event and exhibit featuring traditional altars; entertainment by Ballet Folklorico Juvenil de Berkeley and Cuahtli Mitotiani Mexica; and delicious traditional Mexican dishes. 237-2557 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org 

Buddy Club Children Show 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

Musical theater with Zun Zun. $7, $6 BRJCC members. 236-7469 

Family Musical Education 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A child-centered presentation for the whole family by local classical musicians to learn about rhythm and meter. $10 per family. 527-6202 

Monday, Nov. 5

RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) Speaking Tour 

5:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall Room 155 

Tahmeena Faryal (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) Presented by UC Berkeley Gender and Equity Resource Center and ASAP 

(Acting in Solidarity with Afghan People). http://www.berkeley.edu/ map/maps/CD34.html 

Editor: 

In her Nov. 1 letter pushing for more auto parking in Berkeley, Jenny Wenk said of people ages 45-60 that “It’s unrealistic to expect them to ride bicycles to Safeway or the Berkeley Bowl.” 

Ms. Wenk is dead wrong. I’m 75 years old and do a weekly eight-mile bicycle round-trip to the Berkeley Bowl for my staples. With two panniers, a backpack and a rear rack, I routinely bring home four bags of groceries. And three days a week I bike to the 24-Hour Fitness to pump iron and enjoy the cardio equipment. 

Just because us geezers are old, it doesn’t mean we’re all necessarily decrepit. I gave up my car when I retired in 1986 because (1) it was too costly to retain on a reduced income, (2) it would mean one less exhaust pipe spewing carbon monoxide and other pollutants into our environment, and (3) riding a bike and walking are conducive to maintaining top health. 

So, Berkeleyans of all ages, if possible, junk those gas-guzzling monsters and hop on a bike. 

Harry Siitonen 

Berkeley

Beginning in the 1960s artists set up studios in modest-sized industrial buildings in West Berkeley.  

During the 1970s the trend gained momentum as industrial buildings became available due to departing manufacturing in West Berkeley. The rent was cheap and the spaces large. A person could splatter paint or clay in these abandoned manufacturing spaces and no one complained as long as the low rent was paid.  

By the mid 1980s, many of these low-income spaces were redeveloped or physically upgraded. With reinvestment, rents were increased and many artists were forced to move elsewhere, often to Emeryville or Oakland.  

Manasse Block Tannery is one of the manufacturing complexes that has taken on a new life as a live/work space. Although the complex of seven buildings has been adaptively reused, it remains one of the oldest intact industrial sites in west Berkeley. It is located on the north portion of the block bounded by Third, Fourth, Gilman and Camelia streets. The oldest buildings are on the south side of the property along Third Street and are heavy post-and-beam construction with six-over-six light windows and rustic overlapping wood siding.  

The Manasse Block Tannery was founded by August Manasse and Leo Block whose families had leather-related companies already established in Napa and Oakland. They moved to Berkeley in 1905 taking over a building built in 1898 by the Raymond Tannery. The business expanded and new buildings were added until 1956. The company tanned cowhides that had been dried, salted, and sorted elsewhere. The leather was mostly used for shoes. The tannery remained in business and was operated by members of the founding families until it was closed in 1985. 

The tanning of leather was hard and dirty work. It was graphically described by Philip Roth’s book, “American Pastoral” “...the vast vat rooms were dark as caves...a filthy, stinking place awash with water...” 

There are only a few manufacturing plants still operating in West Berkeley today. The most notable complexes that are still standing but converted to other uses include the Heinz Building, on San Pablo and Ashby, Durkee Famous Foods on Heinz Street, and the Kawneer Building on Eighth Street. Other complexes such as Colgate Palmolive Peet and Philadelphia Quartz have been demolished.  

Susan Cerny is author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this series in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Marion Barry, former Washington, D.C. mayor and new Pacifica board member, came into the KPFA studios late Friday afternoon and declared to evening news reporter Mark Mericle the “war is over.” 

Barry and others representing the Pacifica National Board of Directors, which holds the licenses to five listener-sponsored radio stations around the country – including KPFA – had been in a 12-hour marathon mediation session Thursday with representatives of the plaintiffs of three lawsuits against the foundation. The suits claim the board has disregarded its own bylaws and acted in an undemocratic manner. 

Local Advisory Board Chair Sherry Gendelman, however, put a damper on Barry’s good news. Asked if the war was truly over, she quipped: “Maybe he’s talking about the war in Kosovo.” 

Mediators had been in negotiations for 12 hours.  

“At the end of the day, we do not have an acceptable agreement,” Gendelman said, explaining that because of a promise of confidentiality among the parties at the table, she could not go into detail.  

“The plaintiffs honored the (agreement) of confidentiality,” she said, taking aim at Barry who talked about the negotiations in the interview with Mericle. 

That interview, shared with the Daily Planet before it was to be aired on Friday’s 6 p.m. news on KPFA, was upbeat. 

“All parties are happy,” Barry said. Explaining the agreement, Barry said there would be a “transition of the board of directors to an elected board.” 

The transitional board would consist of some members of the present board, some people elected by the various stations’ local advisory boards and the plaintiffs in the lawsuits. 

Saturday, he said, there would be a wrap-up of the mediation in a telephone conference with Pacifica’s executive board members. 

Why did the board majority decide to go into mediation rather than waiting to go to trial in January? 

Barry pointed to $2 million the board had spent on the lawsuits. While he talked about the network’s worsening fiscal situation, he said: Pacifica’s “not bankrupt.” 

He noted, however: “We have a severe cash flow problem.” 

(One of the ongoing complaints of “dissident” board members – those in the minority some of whom are party to one of the lawsuits – has been a lack of access to the foundation’s financial information.) 

Barry also underscored that the board “was not even thinking of selling KPFA.”  

Ken Ford, the national board member who resigned Wednesday, was quoted recently by the San Francisco Examiner saying the sale of KPFA and New York station WBAI made good business sense. 

The KPFA interview ended on a high note.  

“Let’s work to support this foundation and this radio station,” Barry said.

Berkeley’s Aurora Theater opened its 10th season Thursday with a production of George Bernard Shaw’s “St. Joan” in the company’s brand new theater downtown on Addison Street, next to the Berkeley Rep. 

Most strikingly, the new space retains the basic look – and the U-shape, three-quarter seating – of the tiny, former Aurora space at the Berkeley City Club. The difference is that the new theater is two rows deeper, rising up around a slightly larger playing area. It also seats 150 people – nearly three times as many as before. 

Initially watching “St. Joan,” I missed the extreme intimacy of the old space, where all audience members were right on top of the action. But the seats are larger and more comfortable now, and it is rigged with better lighting and other tech equipment. It also has good air-conditioning.  

Shaw’s 1923 play about Joan of Arc propelled him toward the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925. 

“St. Joan” is a play about a religious visionary who takes up bloody participation in a political war against overwhelming odds, because God tells her to. It’s an unsettling story in light of recent events surrounding Sept. 11. 

Under artistic director Barbara Oliver, Aurora has given “St. Joan” an uneven production. Shaw’s script is a long, didactic play, divided into seven segments that are short playlets in their own rights. 

The staging quality of these individual playlets varies. Further, the full sequence of the segments hadn’t yet, by opening night, found its larger flow. 

Irish playwright Shaw loathed English playwright Shakespeare. Shaw’s play tells a different side of the war story from Shakespeare’s hyper-patriotic “Henry V” and its famous battle of Agincourt.  

In Shaw’s piece, Joan of Arc responds to Henry’s victories by trying to mobilize the French to kick the marauding English out of France. St. Catherine and St. Margaret give her advice. 

Eventually, Joan rallies the French Dauphin’s failing courage and motivates his fragmented supporters to victory. Then after victory, the country’s jealous political and religious institutions turn against Joan for attracting the hearts and minds of its citizens. 

The quality of the performances varies in this production. Emily Ackerman’s self-absorbed, manic Joan doesn’t capture the character’s charismatic effect on others. The magic doesn’t happen on stage between the players, which the script seems to call for. 

Paul Silverman is an intriguing Dauphin, heir to the French throne. Impish, bullied and withdrawing early on. But later, more arrogant from political success, his character progresses through an amusing arc of different forms of cowardice. 

Bay Area favorite L. Peter Callender is cast in two roles. Initially Callender plays a French battlefield commander stimulated to victory by his personal conflict with Joan. Later he is a fascinating, complex, sour visiting church inquisitor who is trapped in a crippled, painful body. He instigates devious political ploys at Joan’s excommunication trial. 

Soren Oliver has some chilling moments as the intelligent and dangerously single-minded English nobleman Warwick, trying to engineer Joan’s execution out of fear she will destabilize the establishment. 

Gabriel Sebastian Marin is striking in a smaller role as arrogant French courtier Bluebeard, sporting little blue chin whiskers. I found some confusion at times from the double-casting of selected actors in multiple roles in adjacent scenes. 

Truth be told, “St. Joan” is kind of a predictable, wooden melodrama. Joan’s inspiration from God and her repeated call to arms play many times over in the play, seemingly redundant. 

As director Oliver has staged the play, Joan’s injured and insistent self-defense at her trial seems out of character for one earlier transported by God. Here the politics of the hypocritical religious and political institutions make sense in the story, but the character of Joan does not. 

Much of Shaw’s story and many of his characters verge on simple political satire. This one-dimensional, satirical concept is mostly telegraphed in advance to the viewer, and then played out somewhat predictably, in the three-hour production. 

Like much of Shaw’s work, “St. Joan” is an interesting, but talky play – frequently a debate of ideas. But for me, the characters and stories were not humanized in this production as successfully as they were in the Aurora’s wonderful production last season of Shaw’s family-politics debate “The Philanderer.” 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Nov. 11: Choro Time; Nov. 12: Renegade Sidemen with Calvin Keys; Nov. 13: Singers’ Open Mic #2; Nov. 14: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 15: Jazz Singers’ Collective; Nov. 16: Anna & Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 17: Vicki Burns & Felice York, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; Nov. 29: Les Arts Florissants, $24 - $46; 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 Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 7: John Hoban $15.50 - $16.50; Nov. 8: Ledward Ka’apana & Cyril Pahinui $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 9: The Harmony Sisters with Alice Gerrard, Jeanie McLerie & Irene Herrmann $16.50 - $17.50; Nov 10: Barry & Alice Olivier $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 11: Austin Lounge Lizards $16.50 - $17.50. All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through 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 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Nicholas Nickleby” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. The Young Actors Workshop presents a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby. $10 adults, $8 students and seniors. Performing Arts Center of Contra Costa College, corner of El Portal Dr. and Castro St., San Pablo 235-7800 ext. 4274 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“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 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; Nov. 30 - Dec. 2: Fri. - Sat.8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., The Suzuki Company presents a staged interpretation of the Greek classic, “Dionysus”, $30 - $46; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through 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 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.org 

“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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

“Much Ado About Nothing” Nov. 20 through Jan. 8: Check theater for specific dates and times. Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy chronicles a handful of soldiers returning from a winning battle to be greeted by a gaggle of giddy maidens. Directed by Brian Kulick. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

Dance 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“La Lesbian Film Festival” Nov. 9 - 11. La Peña Cultural Center presents La Lesbian at La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series. $8 Fine Arts Cinema 2451 Shattuck 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

Exhibits  

“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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“Art Benefit for the Gabriel Sussman Rodriguez Education Fund” Nov. 11 - Nov. 16: Over 60 artists have donated work for this tribute to the memory of Wendy Sussman, a painter and professor of art practice and UC Berkeley, and contribute to the education of her son. Sun. - Fri. 1 - 6 p.m. Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber hall, UC Berkeley 415-665-6131 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

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

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“The Paintings of Bethany Anne Ayers and Sculpture of Alexander Cheves” Nov. 15 through Dec. 15: Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 roadway, Oakland. 836-0831 gallery709@aol.com 

“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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 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 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Berkeley’s World” Nov. 10 & 17: 8 p.m. Staged reading of a new play about five Berkeley emigres who form a career support group through an ad placed in the East Bay Express but find they can’t stand each other. Written by Andrea Mock. Free. Speakeasy Theatre, 2016 7th St. 841-9441 

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; 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  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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.

Championship game with Pinole Valley set for Thursday 

The players on the Berkeley High football team admitted it all week: they were looking past Friday’s opponent, Richmond, to a potential showdown for the league title with Pinole Valley next Thursday. And on Friday, the Oilers put up little resistance to the ’Jackets’ dismissal, handing Berkeley an early lead and falling 68-14. 

Berkeley piled up 516 total yards, including 442 on the ground, while holding Richmond to just 147 yards, most of them well after the game had been decided. Six different Berkeley players scored touchdowns in the rout. 

“We feel pretty good about tonight’s game,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “We did what we were supposed to do.” 

Berkeley is now 5-0 in league play, and Pinole Valley went into Friday night’s game against Alameda undefeated in the ACCAL as well. Assuming the heavily-favored Spartans won their game (the result was unavailable at press time), Thursday’s game at Berkeley High will decide the league title and an automatic berth in the North Coast Section playoffs. 

“We knew it would come down to us and Pinole all along,” said Berkeley’s Lee Franklin. “We started out rough (the ’Jackets were 0-3 to start the year), but we got it back on track.” 

Berkeley’s biggest challenge will be to slow down Spartan running back DeAndre McFarland, who is the fifth-leading rusher in Northern California, averaging more than 150 yards per game. 

“We plan on shutting (McFarland) down,” Berkeley linebacker Leonard Scarborough said. “Every time he gets over 150 yards, they win. So if we stop him, we’ll win it.” 

Berkeley’s defense certainly shut down the Richmond running game on Friday night, as the Oilers managed just 55 rushing yards in the game despite running a wishbone offense designed to pick up yards on the ground. Defensive tackle Robert Hunter-Ford set the tone early, stuffing the first two Oiler plays for a net of -7 yards. 

Hunter-Ford is playing tackle for the first time this year, having been moved inside when mammoth junior Jamal Lucas-Johnson went down with an ankle injury three games ago. The 300-pound Lucas-Johnson, who should be back for the Pinole Valley game, has been tutoring Hunter-Ford on interior play since his injury. 

“I can’t replace the big man. He’s taught me everything I know,” Hunter-Ford said. 

Friday night’s game turned into a laugher quickly. When their first drive died a quick death, the Oilers called on the punt team. But the snap was low, and Berkeley recovered the ball on the Richmond 14 yard-line. Three plays later, tailback Craig Hollis ran one in from four yards out, and the rout was on. 

The next Richmond drive resulted in another three-and-out, and this time the punt snap was good. But Scarborough broke through and blocked the punt, recovering the ball on the 1. Fullback Roger Mason plunged over the goal line for another Berkeley score on the next play.  

Berkeley would score two more touchdowns in the opening quarter to take a 27-0 lead, and the ’Jackets coaches began pulling their starters to rest up for next week’s big game. Quarterback Raymond Pinkston didn’t play in the second half, while starting tailback Germaine Baird sat after just nine rushes, although he did pile up 145 yards and two touchdowns. 

Second half highlights included two long touchdown runs by Mario Mejia, who has now scored all three times he has touched the ball this season, and a 36-yard reverse for a touchdown by speedy wideout Sean Young.

What is the difference between an office and a factory? 

The answer would seem to be self-evident, and, if forced to explain, one would probably speak of blue and white collars, the differing lengths of workers’ resumes or the amount of grime on their hands at the end of the day. 

However, it became evident at the Oct. 25 Zoning Adjustments Board meeting, that sometimes the distinction isn’t so clear.  

Publisher’s Group West, a Berkeley book distributor, asked the ZAB to approve its application to expand its current Fourth Street offices into a neighboring space, formerly occupied by the Tom Tom Clothing Company.  

PGW wished to move its subsidiary, Avalon Travel Publishing, into its building at 1716 Fourth St. Avalon, with 75 employees, is housed in Emeryville.  

The company asked ZAB for a variance from the strict codes that apply to the West Berkeley mixed-use/light industrial district, in which the building lies. The MU-LI codes prohibit conversion of manufacturing space into offices unless the ZAB determines that “exceptional or extraordinary circumstances” apply. 

The board eventually followed planning department staff’s recommendation and denied PGW’s request for a variance, but not without a great deal of agonizing over the state of the city’s historically important publishing industry and whether, in the end, book publishing is an office or a manufacturing use. 

MU-LI codes, which were developed after the city approved the West Berkeley Plan in 1993, specifically state that if publishers do not run their own printing press, they cannot occupy former industrial space. 

However, PGW CEO Charlie Winton and Avalon CEO Bill Newlin argued that though the Avalon staff does nearly all its work on computers before electronically shipping it to the printers, they should be considered manufacturers. 

“Everyone on our staff feels very engaged in the making of books,” Newlin told the ZAB.  

He said his employees physically proof the galleys of books in development, handle and gauge potential materials and do other tasks that result in a physical product – the book. 

In a letter to city staff, the applicants took this defense a step farther. 

“The nature of book publishing is the creation of books,” they wrote. “The Standard Industrial Code has always considered the creation of books a manufacturing designation.” 

But according to the authors of the Standard Industrial Code, the U.S. Census Bureau, that has not been true since 1997, when the SIC was rewritten and standardized by the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

Under the North American Industry Classification System, which superseded the SIC, publishing without printing is classified as an “information” industry, which is itself a subset of the services sector. 

Upon learning this, ZAB member Carrie Sprague said Friday her only surprise was that the federal government has finally caught up with the West Berkeley Plan.  

“They’re sitting there at computers,” she said. “Of course it’s an office!” 

But Sprague, who voted against granting PGW’s variance, nonetheless said she shared the concerns of those who voted for the variance – that the city should be helping to retain publishing and other book-related companies, which have historically played a major role in the city’s economy and cultural life. 

“The activities that (PGW) undertakes are ones that we should encourage in the West Berkeley area,” said Carrie Olson, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission who substituted for ZAB member David Blake at the meeting.  

“Berkeley loves our books, and we should be supporting the publishers that bring us those books. Personally, I would rather see the heavy manufacturing move out of West Berkeley.” 

ZAB member Lawrence Capitelli agreed, and said the incorrect information in PGW’s letter to the city was relatively unimportant. 

“It wouldn’t have influenced my decision,” he said. “Publisher’s Group West is the kind of business we should encourage in the West Berkeley area. It’s been here for many years” 

“This an industry we want to support. We’re a center for publishing nationwide, far beyond our numbers.” 

Capitelli also said in light of the damage the ruling may inflict on the company, the city should review policies like the West Berkeley Plan.  

“The other thing I think we have to do is look at the changing nature of business,” he said. “I know there are many people committed to retaining blue-collar jobs, but I think we need to look at how many of those the city can realistically attract.” 

The issue of conversion of manufacturing spaces in the MU-LI district has been a major controversy of late. The Planning Commission is studying whether or not it will recommend a one-year ban on conversion to the City Council.  

Though Winton and Newlin could not be reached for comment after repeated calls to their offices, Winton has in the past promised to appeal the ZAB’s decision to the City Council – where, he said, he “is told” he has the votes to overturn the ruling.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to TV talk-show host Bill O’Reilly:  

I disagree with your opinion that (the Berkeley City Council) resolution is indicative of the “mindless nonsense from Berkeley for more than 40 years.”  

Thank God, there are a handful of Americans and elected officials that remember that this country was founded on the principals of free speech.  

I, along with the City Council of Berkeley, condemn the terrorists responsible for the mass killings of innocent people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But it is properly the purview of the United Nations and international tribunals such as the World Court or International Criminal Court to bring the terrorists to justice.  

A long time ago, citizens of the United States decided we wanted formal trial by jury of peers vs. vigilante justice for all crimes in this country. There are several international legal avenues available to the United States for recompense. As of this writing we have decided not to use them. 

I hope that you and others in the media will editorialize on means other than killing impoverished mothers and children in Afghanistan to bring justice and healing to the world. 

Deborah Hirsch 

Alpharetta, Georgia 

Hirsh also writes to the Berkeley City Council: 

I commend you on your vote on Oct. 16, 2001 calling for “bringing the bombing (of Afghanistan) to a conclusion as soon as possible.” I also appreciate your condemning the mass murders of Sept. 11, 2001, which has been overlooked in the media.  

Your courage in the face of certain backlash, for instance death threats, is a tribute to true patriotism. You spoke for me when you passed this resolution.

Cal freshman forward/center Amit Tamir, whose eligibility was called into question because he played with professionals as a member of the Israeli National Team, will have to sit out just eight games this season. The decision came after a vote Thursday by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. 

“I’m very happy for Amit,” said Cal head coach Ben Braun. “I’m extremely pleased that the Board of Directors supported the Management Council’s proposal to make a significant reduction in the number of games foreign players would have to miss. Anybody who is familiar with foreign players realizes that these players have done everything they could to secure their amateur status. Fortunately, the Board realized that. I’m not only happy for Amit, but for all players in his situation that wanted to pursue a college career.” 

According to the NCAA, the Board defeated a motion that would have overturned action taken Oct. 22-23 by the Management Council to set a new reinstatement policy for the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Subcommittee as it considers violations of bylaws for student-athletes who competed on a “tier-one” professional team prior to initial eligibility, but are otherwise eligible under NCAA rules. The policy primarily affects international basketball student-athletes who have participated in international leagues. 

This action changes the existing policy of the reinstatement subcommittee, which specifies that student-athletes who participated in first-tier-level professional competition in a foreign country would be withheld from one intercollegiate game for each professional game played. 

As a member of the Israeli National Team, Tamir played a number of games both with and against professionals. Without Thursday’s decision, he likely would have had to sit out the entire season. Instead, Tamir will make his Cal debut Dec. 28 against Harvard in the first round of the Golden Bear Classic. 

“Amit has already worked his way into our rotation as one of our top players and will add to the depth on our front line,” said Braun. “He’s an older, more mature player that will help us considerably.” 

A 6-10, 250-pound post player, Tamir has already served a three-year commitment with the Israeli army before enrolling at Cal. The Jerusalem native led his high school team to the city championship, and he also represented Israel at the 1998 Under-22 European championships.

Every summer for the last few years, Rhoda Olkin had looked forward to a week at Berkeley’s family camp near Yosemite. It is a special time to share with her son.  

But when the child turned 10 years old, he no longer wanted to go.  

“I thought he didn’t want to be seen with me because of my disability,” said Olkin, who contracted polio when she was 1 year old and now uses crutches or a scooter to get around.  

“It turned out he just didn’t want to be seen with his mother,” she said. “ It was no longer cool to hang out with mom.”  

Olkin says she is one of 10 million parents nationwide with a disability. She has devoted much of her professional life to increasing awareness and knowledge of disabilities. Olkin is a professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alameda and a staff member at Through the Looking Glass, a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization that provides direct services, information and referral to families in which one or more members have a disability,  

She recently wrote a book: “What Psychotherapists Should Know About Disability” (Guilford Publications, Inc., 2001). Now, she is spearheading a survey to learn more about the experiences of disabled parents raising teenagers.  

“Parenting is tough work,” said 48 year-old Olkin, a single mother who shares custody of her 11-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son with her former spouse. “But parents with disabilities feel that they have to be better than other parents just to measure up.”  

Paul Preston, co-director of the National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities at Through the Looking Glass, agreed and said parents with disabilities have special concerns.  

“A parent with a disability has the added issue of access to services,” Preston said. “If a school building is not wheelchair accessible, a parent can’t meet with her child’s teacher. If the school doesn’t provide an interpreter, a deaf parent can’t communicate.”  

At a recent back-to-school night, Olkin was appalled that the classrooms at her daughter’s middle school were not wheelchair accessible.  

“My daughter is at that age where she wants to be exactly like everyone else,” Olkin said. “So, I had a real internal struggle. What do I teach her? Do I stand up for myself? Or do I teach her to fit in? I don’t want her to be stigmatized by my disability.”  

In the end, Olkin wrote a letter to the school principal, and her daughter supported the decision.  

“I was really pleased that at the age of 11 she had a sense of justice,” Olkin said.  

“My kids see the bigger picture of things.”  

Olkin also said disabled parents feel guilty about how their condition affects their children.  

“When my son turned 14, I asked him to take out the garbage,” said Olkin. “ I worried that I was asking him because it was something I couldn’t do. I forgot that if I could do it, I’d ask him anyway.”  

According to Olkin, the three-year survey (conducted by Through the Looking Glass and funded exclusively through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education) is the first study to focus on disabled parents who have teenagers.  

“We wanted to find out what concerns parents and teenagers have so that we can develop programs to address these needs,” said Preston.  

“We wanted to hear their voices,” added Olkin, “and how they’ve incorporated disability into their lifestyles.”  

Olkin said the goal is to survey 300 to 500 parents and teenagers nationwide by September 2002. So far, the agency has surveyed between 60 and 80. And the response has been positive, she said.  

“People have been marvelous,” said Olkin. “No one asks the disabled about their experiences, but they want to talk about it. During the surveys, people talk to us longer than we thought they would.”  

Olkin, who trains therapists about disability issues, said that little information existed about disabled parenting when she was pregnant with her first child.  

“The only report I could find on a mother with polio focused on whether the mom had a healthy baby,” Olkin said. “There was nothing out there that could tell me about how pregnancy or childbirth would affect me.”  

After her son was born, Olkin, who used crutches since the age of 16, decided she needed a scooter.  

“I applied to the insurance company and they asked me all kinds of questions,” Olkin said. “Whether I could garden. Whether I could grocery shop. I could do all those things, but I couldn’t carry my child.”  

The insurance company denied Olkin’s request because as she explained, parenting was not considered an “activity of daily living.” But Olkin was relentless.  

“Three months later, I applied again and told them that I couldn’t grocery shop,” Olkin said. “And I got my scooter.”  

Olkin said one of her anxieties during those early years was the fear that her children would be taken away from her.  

“I was going to my car after grocery shopping and I had my 5-month old son, my crutches and my wagon,” she said, recounting a memory that still frightens her today. “A woman came up to me and asked if she could help. But instead of taking my crutches or helping me with my groceries, she took my baby out of my arms. I panicked. I really felt physically vulnerable.”  

Olkin’s fear is not ungrounded.  

According to a dissertation by Lisa Cohen, a California School of Professional Psychology at Alameda graduate and former student of Olkin’s, 10 to 15 percent of disabled parents surveyed had experienced active interference in their parenting, including pressure to have an abortion, tubiligation or excessive involvement by Child Protective Services.  

The fear of losing one’s children can persist even after the early childhood years, said Olkin. In divorce proceedings, Olkin said courts look favorably on able-bodied parents and that Through the Looking Glass receives four phone calls a week from disabled parents seeking assistance with custody issues.  

Though Olkin eventually got over her fears, she has faced many physical challenges since. One of the hardest tasks was getting her children into their car seats when they were younger.  

“Someone should really invent a car seat that is easy to get in,” she said. “As soon as my kids were old enough to crawl, I taught them how to crawl into those seats.”  

Although Olkin’s physical limitations made it difficult for her to keep up with her children’s energy levels, Olkin said there were benefits to her disability.  

“We developed our own pace for doing things,” she said. “We did a lot of projects at the table that focused on sharing and talking. Every year, for instance, we make Hanukkah decorations together. And because of that, we see a lot of our community projects around the house.”  

Olkin also said teenagers of disabled parents often display more tolerance toward others and have higher levels of empathy.  

“When we’re out on the street, my children are always pointing and saying there’s a curb cut here or there,” said Olkin. “They have different eyes without even knowing it. My son is particularly attuned to what’s going on with other people. He’ll notice when I’m using crutches in the house, which is something I don’t normally do, and acknowledge that I’m in more pain.”  

Olkin also thinks having a disabled parent can make children better problem solvers.  

“If there’s something my children really want to do but that I don’t have the energy for, they’ll figure out a way,” she said. “ If they want to go the mall, they’ll say you go to one store and we’ll go to the others.”  

But Olkin still has concerns about how her disability affects her children.  

“I worry about whether the kids feel like they need to protect me, or if they keep things from me because they think it will hurt my feelings,” said Olkin. “It’s not uncommon for children with disabilities to have parents who protect them. So it’s easy to think our kids are doing the same thing.”  

Olkin said the survey aims to examine unspoken issues like this as well as other challenges and benefits disabled parents and their teenagers face.  

The survey, conducted in writing or on the phone, can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on format, disability and whether the respondent is a parent or teen. Teenagers are paid $5 for completing the survey. An online version will be available in three to four weeks.  

“The teenage years are difficult,” Olkin said, stressing the importance of having a support network of other disabled parents to lean on. “Teens are asserting their independence and testing limits.”  

But Olkin reminds disabled parents to maintain their perspective on the situation.  

“There are so many struggles that you have with your teens,” she said. “Many of them have nothing to do with the disability.”  

For more information about the survey contact Nancy Freed at Through the Looking Glass: 848-1112 ext. 174 or (800) 644-2666; TTY: (800) 

804-1616; or nfreed@lookingglass.org. 

Editor: 

Allegedly George Bush and the military have been given a “blank check” to stop terrorism. I wish someone would give ME a blank check. 

I am a low-income, single-parent mother who has put three out of four children through college and trust me when I say that I KNOW how to make an eagle scream  

You can bet your bippy that if I had three trillion dollars to play around with, terrorism would be a thing of the past – and it wouldn’t have taken me no four weeks of killing civilians in Afghanistan to do it! 

As a mother, I had to learn the hard way that the use of violence, humiliation and punishment is inefficient, ineffective and dangerous. 

Military might is COST-INEFFECTIVE. Punishment always leads to resistance. Humans all think alike. Adults are just kids that grew up. You want co-operation? You gotta use positive reinforcement! Ask any mom. Nothing else works. 

Jane Stillwater 

Berkeley 

After receiving several months of data from a year-long study at Harrison Soccer Fields, the Community Environmental Advisory Commission asked city staff to post notices of poor air quality around the popular field. 

The recommendation also asks the planning department to make sure parents have signed mandatory waivers before allowing their children to play at the field, located at Fifth and Harrison streets.  

Some commissioners thought the notices and waivers were critical because of the many youth soccer games at the field. According to the Alameda-Contra Costa Soccer League Web site, 137 soccer games are played at the field between Sept. 8 and Nov. 10. 

The commission approved the recommendation at its Thursday meeting by a vote of 6-1-2, with Commissioner Robert Clear voting in opposition and new Commissioner Sarah MacKusick and temporary Commissioner Dan Simon abstaining. Clear said he voted against the recommendation because he thought the commission did not have enough time to discuss the issue before voting. 

With Vice Chairperson LA Wood chairing the meeting while Chairperson Elmer Grossman is away, the commission requested the posting because preliminary results from an air study showed the level of Particulate Matter 10 exceeded state standards an average of five times a month since July 1, when the study began. The most recent test results show that during the first two weeks of October, the particulate matter level exceeded state standards four times. 

“I believe the city has an obligation to inform the public because Harrison Field was a very controversial project to begin with and the most controversial thing about it was its environmental quality,” Wood said. 

The sports facility was the site of another environmental controversy earlier this year when construction of the Harrison Field Skate Park, also located at Fifth and Harrison streets, was halted because of the discovery of the carcinogen Chromium 6 in groundwater during excavation of nine-foot deep skate bowls. Removing the groundwater, sealing the base of the bowls and redesigning the skate park added $365,000 to the city’s total cost of construction. 

Particulate matter is small airborne pieces of liquid or solid matter that originates from a variety of sources, but is most often associated with exhaust from automobiles, according to information posted on the Bay Area Air Quality Management Web site. 

The city contracted with Applied Measurement Science to conduct a one-year air study because of concerns about the widening of the Interstate 80 Freeway, which is adjacent to the field. In addition there are s several industrial manufacturing facilities and a waste transfer station nearby. 

The $40,000 contract was for a study that included Particulate Matter 10 (PM10), which are particles about 10 micrograms in size, and the even smaller Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5), which is 2.5 micrograms in size, or about one-seventh the width of a strand of hair, according to Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesperson Ralph Borrmann. PM2.5 is considered by medical experts to be the more dangerous substance because its small size allows it to become deeply imbedded in the tissue of the lungs. 

So far Applied Measurement Science has been unable to produce any useable PM2.5 data because of equipment problems. But according to Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy, it is reasonable to assume that the PM2.5 has been exceeding the state Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended levels – .05 micrograms per cubic meter averaged over 24 hours.  

“The PM2.5 data could be available as early as next week,” he said. 

Al-Hadithy also cautioned it would be unwise to assume the preliminary test results mean there is an excessive health risk for people who use Harrison Soccer Field or live nearby.  

Dr. Eric Winegar, who is carrying out the study for AMS, said he will include a health risk assessment when the study is completed in June. 

“Generally speaking risk assessments are done over a long period of time,” he said. “Three to four months just isn’t enough.” 

Winegar said there was enough information to post notices at the field as long as they were not worded in an alarming way. 

The commission also asked the planning department to determine if soccer organizations that use the field have been fulfilling the requirement put into place with the site’s use permit, that parents sign a waiver. According to the use permit, parents and adults who use the field are required to sign a waiver stating they understand that field is in an industrial area and that traffic noises and odors in the area are “normal.” 

“I’ve asked to see these waivers, which Current Planning (a division of the planning department) is supposed to have on file,” Commissioner Wood said. “And I don’t think they exist.” 

For to-date test data from the Harrison Field air study go to www.airmeasurement.com/berkeley.html and for more information about particulate matter 10 go to www.baaqmd.gov/pie/pm10bacm.htm.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter written to the City Council: 

I live downtown. I walk to most things, including work. In the nearly eight years I have lived in downtown, I have seen it change dramatically from a place people avoided at night to a vibrant destination.  

Things happen all day in downtown Berkeley. It is more than commuters (whom the General Plan doesn’t like), downtown is shoppers, families, the regular “crazy locals”, the Berkeley High kids, Y members, seniors, diners, movie goers, theater goers, library users, and commuters. 

I’d like to see even more people use downtown, so the idea of greater density is a plus to my thinking. The idea of a parking moratorium, however, doesn’t sound like a good idea. Has anyone actually tried to park in downtown recently? The new time limited parking meters are already a major irritation for my friends when they visit. And, I cannot suggest that they take alternate transportation as many do not live near BART or AC Transit, and some are too fragile to bike. 

As I understand the grand vision of good intentions, more people will live downtown and they will supposedly receive incentives not to have cars (I suspect they will take the incentives and park in the neighborhoods). In this vision, the city with a derring-do rivaling that of the Flying Wallendas declares a moratorium on new parking just as the Kittredge garage comes down and Vista College takes its lot out of service to build its facilities. But the City Wallendas are fearless and want people out of cars. 

Something doesn’t line up here! Didn’t those of us who live in Berkeley agree to tax ourselves to improve downtown? Didn’t the Council give a loan or grant to Berkeley Rep to expand in order to develop the Arts District? Wasn’t the idea to encourage people to come to downtown? Did someone give BART and AC Transit pots of money? Did the Council fund a transit pass? Isn’t Cal planning on taking more students and thinking of a year round schedule? What have I missed? When did John Ashcroft approve the alternate transportation check points?  

After all is said and done, if the Council doesn’t change the General Plan, the grand vision of good intentions will make it impossible for current users of downtown services from doing anything but circling the area; viewing former garage sites; watching the parking Taliban issue tickets to the (un)lucky few parked at meters; and, if there is a space, parking in the neighborhoods.  

The boycott that didn’t happen in response to the Council’s Afghanistan resolution may just come about through frustration. 

Just as actions have consequences, so can overly zealous good intentions. And even the best of intentions. 

Bob Dixon 

Berkeley

What’s that? You want $200 off the rent? No problem. 

How about a free month’s rent if you sign a lease? Oh, and pets are OK too. 

Sound like a tenant’s dream? Maybe a reality in Idaho, or Wyoming, right? Never in the Bay Area, where sky-high rents are as famous as the Golden Gate Bridge.  

But Berkeley’s three largest housing referral services say they’ve witnessed a dramatic escalation of available rentals this season. During the last month, their phones have been ringing off the hook with landlords lowering prices.  

Vacancies are up more than 400 percent from last year, according to Allison Vogel, director of customer service at Homefinders, a Berkeley-based referral service.  

As of Oct. 24, Homefinders had 2,003 vacant East Bay listings, compared to 456 properties at this time last year. 

For months, no one’s dared to say the “R” word: Recession.  

Now, another phrase is perched on people’s lips: Renter’s market. 

“At our office, every other phone call is a landlord dropping their rent,” said Becky White, director of the UC Berkeley-based Cal Rentals. White said some landlords have to drop prices three or four times before a tenant moves in. 

“I’ve got a studio at Haste and Fulton, right near campus for $695,” said Leah Summers, director of customer service at eHousing, based in downtown Berkeley. “That’s ridiculous. It was a $1,000 unit a few months ago.” 

“It’s like, where did all the people go?,” said Vogel. “They must have left the Bay Area, because they’re not moving to the suburbs. Landlords in Walnut Creek can’t rent either.” 

Vogel and Summers can rattle-off a list of recent phone calls: landlords willing to cover rent until tenants are ready to move in; landlords lowering the deposit; landlords staunchly against pets calling to say they’ll allow a dog or cat this time around. 

“It’s a very unusual year. It’s unprecedented,” said Nancy Pfeffer, a research analyst with Cal Rentals. 

Pfeffer was staffing a table in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza last Friday as part of a university-sponsored “Tenant’s Rights Week.” She said some students had approached her to report they had been able to find an apartment in just two days. 

For home-seekers like Maya Spaull, that’s good news. She said she’s been looking for a two-bedroom house for two weeks, and “there’s a lot available.”  

Spaull said she’s seen a few things she’s liked, but she and her roommate want “ an ideal place, with lots of amenities,” so they’ve decided to keep looking. “We turned one down,” she said nonchalantly.  

The landlord offered one month free, but it was a duplex, and Spaull wants a single family home. 

It’s certainly a world of difference from last year, when landlords were the ones turning people down. Jobs were plentiful, but competition for scarce housing was fierce. 

Now it’s the opposite, said Spaull, a recent college graduate.  

“I’m having a harder time finding a job than a place to live,” she said.  

October and November are typically slow months for rentals, said representatives from all three referral companies. But the volume of vacancies is much higher than in years past.  

White said she began to see signs of a slowdown as early as June. Some rents were dropping in August, which is typically peak season as students return for the school year.  

“Eighteen years in this job, and I’ve never seen that happen,” said White. 

San Francisco has seen the impact of a softening market for several months. Postings to a housing forum on the web-based craigslist.org indicate that prospective tenants are successfully negotiating lower rents. Some existing tenants have also been able to ward-off rent increases. 

But some landlords responding to an e-mail query about the East Bay market said they wouldn’t consider lowering rents. 

“I won’t lower my asking price,” said landlord Kesete Yohannes, who said his outlook on the economy was optimistic. He said he rented an apartment in North Oakland last month just three hours after placing an ad. The price was $850 for a one bedroom, $100 below average area rents for September according to eHousing’s Summers. 

Meanwhile, the student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian, received numerous calls from landlords wanting to change the asking price listed in advertisements. And Albany-based K&S properties, which has 50 vacancies in the East Bay, has run ads offering a month’s free rent for tenants who sign a lease. In September, they offered a $200 discount for renters. 

Indeed, many properties have languished on the market for months. Chun-Xian Sung has had a vacancy in large two-bedroom apartment in posh North Berkeley for three months. The previous tenants paid $2,200. He’s lowered the price to $1,800 and said he would be willing to negotiate the deposit and terms.  

But he can’t get the place rented. Every time he’s held an open house, only two people show up. The 91-year old Chinese immigrant is worried; rent from the eight-unit building supports him in his retirement.  

Sung has advertised with Homefinders, eHousing, and Cal Rentals. These agencies said their phones are ringing off the hook from landlords, but not necessarily from tenants, whose subscription fees sustain their businesses. 

When the market is glutted with vacancies, tenants are less likely to use listing agencies So they’re offering specials, too. Homefinders has a 30-percent discount through the end of the month; eHousing is offering $20 off its fee for apartment-seekers. 

“We want people to know they really don’t have to pay such high rents,” said Vogel of Homefinders. “I know people are nervous about the economy, and might be afraid to move. But it’s not a bad idea, you might find something cheaper out there.” 

“If it doesn’t work out here, maybe I’ll go to S.F.,” said Jeff Curland, checking the listings at eHousing. 

“The world is turning on its head,” Curland said. 

Editor: 

I’m all for stopping the bombing of Afghanistan during the Moslem month of Ramadan out of respect for our Moslem sisters and brothers. How ‘bout also showing respect to our Christian brothers and sisters by continuing the halt from December 2, the beginning of the Advent preparation for Christmas, to January 6, the end of the Christmas season? Both Mohammed and Jesus, I am sure, would be pleased. 

Also, I’m glad to see American Christians remaining cool and relaxed, in view of the anthrax scare, by keeping in mind those words of Jesus (Mt. 10:28). “Do not be afraid of those (e.g., terrorists) who can kill the body. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being.” 

Ian Johnson 

Albany

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis’ warning that the Golden Gate and three other California bridges could be on terrorists’ Friday rush-hour hit list has renewed a debate over whether such disclosures do more harm than good. 

Just making the warning, rightly or wrongly, accomplished a terrorist goal, the disruption of normal life, said George Vinson, the special security adviser Davis named Thursday.  

“This is exactly what terrorism is all about. They release information, they make threats, they want to create anxiety among people.” 

But Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said there’s no “universal blueprint” for deciding whether to publicize threats. Because federal investigators released information about the threats to various West Coast law enforcement agencies, the information might have become public without Davis. 

Robyn Pangi, a domestic preparedness specialist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., said the public has received too many mixed messages since the Sept. 11 attacks and the more recent anthrax incidents from officials including President Bush, Ridge and Davis. 

“You’ve got one person saying, ’Go along with your lives,’ another saying ’Don’t cross a bridge,”’ she said. “People want to know what’s going on, but when you’re not giving them any advice, it’s not doing them any good.” 

Announcements, however, can make the public more vigilant, said University of California, Irvine political scientist Mark P. Petracca, who defended Davis. 

“I think they have a moral obligation to let people know, even if it increases anxiety,” Petracca said. 

Bush, a Republican, backed the Democratic governor Friday as he promised continued cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies despite the FBI’s fears that Davis might have compromised its investigation. 

“Part of the homeland defense is active and strong communications so that governors and/or local authorities can harden targets, respond to uncorroborated evidence and to protect their people,” Bush said during a Rose Garden appearance. 

As Ridge mentioned, some of the information was already leaking out, said San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau, adding that he was preparing to release the information himself Thursday after learning that East Coast corporations were already warning their western employees of the threat. 

Lau said he wanted to keep his announcement low key, because “we didn’t want to overreact and cause a panic.” 

Across the San Francisco Bay, Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer, Northern California’s liaison to state emergency officials, said Davis’ information was so nebulous that it just “scares people to death.” 

Davis on Friday again defended his decision, which he said was based on written warnings from three federal agencies. 

“This one was time-specific and location-specific and I felt it was appropriate to tell people what I was doing to prepare for that threat and to fully inform them,” Davis said at an economic summit press conference in Burbank. 

“We do have to find a way to balance the seemingly competing concerns of keeping people safe and restoring confidence so they can go about their lives. This is not an easy line to walk. There is no playbook to guide us,” Davis said. 

Despite the FBI’s concern for its investigation, disclosure could stop the attacks if terrorist know their plans are no longer secret, Davis said. 

“We don’t want to just clean up the dead and wounded, we want to prevent terrorism in the first place,” Davis told CNN’s “Larry King Live” Thursday night. 

Davis and California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick said their listing of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge, both in San Francisco, the Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Port of Los Angeles, and the San Diego Coronado Bridge as possible targets was only done to cite examples. 

They said they wanted to assure motorists extra care was taken and not to panic. 

Yet the governors of Washington and Oregon chose not to issue warnings, and Seattle’s mayor held a news conference to downplay the threat only after Davis’ announcement. 

The warning was sent Wednesday to law enforcement agencies not only in the three West Coast states, but to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Montana and Idaho. 

On Friday, traffic flowed normally across San Francisco Bay Area bridges during the morning commute, amid noticeably higher security. Several commuters who decided not to alter their plans said Davis overreacted. 

But Bechtel Inc., the engineering company that built the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco with Oakland, gave its 1,200 San Francisco employees the option of working from home or taking time off for the next few business days after Davis’ warning. 

Officials should limit the number of announcements they make to avoid crying wolf and diminishing their future credibility, said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat whose district includes the potential targets. 

“The purpose of terrorism is to instill fear,” said Pelosi, a top House Democrat and her party’s top member of the House intelligence committee. “They engage is disinformation and deception by throwing out more threats than they are capable of.” 

Despite Bush’s emphasis on constant communication, Plummer said California could be cut off from future warnings. 

“Do you think the FBI is going to tell the governor anything from now on?” Plummer asked. “I think he just burned his bridge.” 

SAN JOSE — Competitors complained Friday that Microsoft Corp.’s settlement with the federal government will do little to protect them or consumers from the software giant’s monopoly power. But they held out hope that state attorneys general could make the deal more restrictive. 

“My guess is that all Bill Gates could do was to suppress a big grin when he held his press conference this morning,” said Mitchell Kertzman, chief executive of Liberate Technologies, a rival provider of software for interactive TV. 

“This settlement doesn’t come close to matching the scope of the violations of antitrust law that Microsoft has been convicted of,” he added. “It was an inexplicably bad deal for the government.” 

Microsoft and the Justice Department presented the settlement to a federal judge Friday, saying it would end the antitrust case in a way that would help the sagging economy. 

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed to review it and gave the 18 states involved in the case until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the plan. 

Several competitors called on the state attorneys general to insist on making changes to the settlement. Sun Microsystems Inc.’s general counsel, Michael Morris, said the Justice Department was “walking away from a case they had already won.” 

“This agreement allows a declared illegal monopolist to determine, at its sole discretion, what goes into the monopoly operating system in the future,” said Kelly Jo MacArthur, general counsel for RealNetworks Inc., which makes music and video software threatened by Windows Media Player. “This is a reward, not a remedy.” 

Paul T. Cappuccio, the general counsel for AOL Time Warner Inc., said the settlement “does too little to promote competition and protect consumers, and can too easily be evaded by a determined monopolist like Microsoft.” 

The state attorneys general had been pressing for stiffer penalties, but on Friday, several said progress had been made. 

“Those of us in New York these days believe that good things happen in extra innings,” said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. “I think we’re now at the bottom of the ninth.” 

Several tech executives said the settlement was too focused on restricting Microsoft’s Windows monopoly, and not its broader business practices and new initiatives. 

“We’re quite disappointed. We believe there are a lot of issues that haven’t been addressed,” said Michael Mace, chief competitive officer of handheld computer maker Palm Inc., which makes an operating system that competes with one from Microsoft. 

For example, some rivals point out that Microsoft has kept secret key technical details of its Internet initiative, known as .NET, in hopes of making it the de facto standard system for Web transactions. Some competitors say .NET programs should be made to work with their own Web interfaces. 

IBM Corp., which makes business software that conceivably could benefit if .NET programs were opened up, wouldn’t comment. Neither would Oracle Corp., despite chief executive Larry Ellison’s fondness for needling Bill Gates, nor Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. 

One reason few large technology companies are willing to openly criticize Microsoft is that Microsoft is so far-reaching, even its competitors likely will need to work with it at some point. 

In fact, the industry has changed so much since the Clinton administration first sued Microsoft in 1997 — alleging that it unfairly forced PC makers to sell the Internet Explorer Web browser — that even formerly unabashed rivals now find themselves aligned with Microsoft. 

For example, Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder Marc Andreessen pointed out to The Associated Press in July that his current company, Web services firm Loudcloud Inc., “has a really close partnership with Microsoft.” Andreessen declined to comment Friday. 

——— 

AP Technology Writer May Wong contributed to this report. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

Coalition of competitors: http://www.procompetition.org 

SAN DIEGO — It took one of the world’s biggest gold-mining frauds to lead Yasin Al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman with suspected ties to Osama bin Laden’s terror network, to the board of a small California diamond mining firm. 

Bre-X Minerals Ltd., a Canadian mining firm once valued at $4.5 billion at its peak, collapsed in early 1997 when an independent survey revealed that its rich Indonesian gold deposit was a hoax. 

The Bre-X collapse caused mining stocks to dive, a market crunch that hit Global Diamond Resources Inc., a San Diego firm with mines in South Africa. Potential investors stopped buying Global Diamond, leaving the company with no way of financing a deal to tap a new mine in South Africa. 

“We were up a little creek,” recalled Johann de Villiers, Global Diamond’s chairman, an American citizen from South Africa who lives in San Diego. 

So, Global Diamond went looking for private investors, a search that led to Al-Qadi, one of 39 people and groups named by the U.S. Treasury Department Oct. 12 as providing financial help to bin Laden. 

The path between Al-Qadi and Global Diamond shows the challenge U.S. officials face in trying to untangle the complicated terrorist fund-raising network, experts said. Also, it illustrates how some accused of helping bin Laden can have legitimate activities while also allegedly backing terrorism. 

Global Diamond officials found the Saudi millionaire a charming, honorable businessman who filed the appropriate regulatory paperwork and provided essential financing. Behind the scenes, U.S. officials said, Al-Qadi ran a charity that financed terrorism. 

“That’s what makes it so difficult. It’s not about money laundering. A lot of this is clean money,” said Reyko Huang, a terrorism researcher at the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. “What makes it so difficult to track is all these things are happening behind the scenes.” 

With the help of a London-based investment firm, the company met in May 1997 with executives of the Bin Laden Group, a Saudi conglomerate. That December, the group invested $6 million in Global Diamond and installed three executives on the board. 

Owned by relatives of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaida terrorist organization, the Bin Laden Group has estimated revenues of $5 billion. It has also severed ties to Osama bin Laden, a man the Bush administration calls the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. No direct evidence has surfaced to tie the Saudi exile to the company. 

It’s uncertain if the Bin Laden Group knew of Al-Qadi’s alleged ties to Osama bin Laden. But it was through a Bin Laden Group executive that Al-Qadi joined the board, interviews and court records show. 

In 1998, despite the $6 million Bin Laden Group investment, Global Diamond still had financial problems. The board sought between $4 million and $10 million in new money, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego in a lawsuit filed against Global Diamond. 

Abu-Bakr Mood, Global Diamond’s vice chairman and also a Bin Laden Group executive, lined up two investors willing to invest $3 million each. One was Al-Qadi. 

Treasury officials say Al-Qadi’s Saudi-based Muwafaq (“Blessed Relief”) Foundation has funneled money from Saudi businessmen to Al Qaida. 

Peter Carter-Ruck, Al-Qadi’s London-based lawyer, said his client was “horrified and shocked” that his name has been tied to bin Laden. Al-Qadi “has never been involved with, supported or provided funds for any terrorist or extremist activities,” Carter-Ruck said. 

Al-Qadi told The New York Times the allegation was “nonsense.” 

However, it’s not the first time Al-Qadi’s name has been attached to money that allegedly supported terrorist activity. The FBI claims in court documents that part of an $820,000 loan Al-Qadi made in 1991 to the Quranic Literacy Institute in Chicago went to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. 

Steven Haney, Mood’s attorney, said his client knew little about Al-Qadi when he joined the Global Diamond and certainly nothing about any link to Osama bin Laden. Mood’s contact with Al-Qadi came through a Saudi business acquaintance, Ahmed Basodan. 

In December 1998, Al-Qadi agreed to buy 17 percent of Global Diamond, an investment that came through New Diamond Holdings, Al-Qadi’s shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands. Basodan and Al-Qadi joined Global Diamond’s board. 

Global Diamond records describe Al-Qadi as the chairman of the Saudi National Consulting Center and Qordoba Real Estate Co. based in Saudi Arabia. He also is listed as chairman of the Caravan Co., based in Turkey and a board member of both Himont Chemical of Pakistan and Kazakhstan’s Cariba Bank. 

In 1999, Haney said a Bin Laden Group representative forced Mood to resign from the Global Diamond board. Mood then sued the company, claiming the Bin Laden Group deprived him of his finder’s fee for attracting the $6 million investment. 

Mood claims the “Bin Laden Group controls and manages that company,” Haney said, an allegation de Villiers denies. 

Basodan and Al-Qadi have also split, de Villiers said. Basodan left the company’s board earlier this year. 

Al-Qadi remains on Global Diamond’s board, although the chances of him making any more investments in the company are dim. The Treasury Department froze Al-Qadi’s assets last month, something that de Villiers said will have little effect on his company. 

In 1999, Al-Qadi also invested $750,000 in a Canadian diamond exploration firm, MIT Ventures, which has mines in Ontario and Botswana, company records show. 

MIT Ventures’ attorney, William Schmidt, said its dealings with Al-Qadi went through Basodan. No one in the company has ever talked to Al-Qadi, he said. 

Schmidt and de Villiers said Global Diamond and MIT Ventures had no relationship, despite Al-Qadi’s investment in both. 

Other MIT Ventures investors include the Saudi multinational firm, Al Murjan Group, owned by the bin Mahfouz family. 

The Al Murjan Group was represented on the board by Dr. Abdullah Basodan, the uncle of Ahmed Basodan and a prominent Saudi businessman, Schmidt said. 

Sultan Khalid bin Mahfouz, chairman of the Al Murjan Group, is a former chairman of the Saudi National Commercial Bank, the nation’s largest, which was investigated in 1998 for allegedly transferring $3 million to Osama bin Laden, according to news reports. 

Mahfouz’s son, Abdul Rahman Khalid bin Mahfouz, was on the board of the Muwafaq Foundation. 

“They were interested in going into mining ventures,” Schmidt said of Al-Qadi. “This particular investment was part of their learning curve.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Global Diamond, www.globaldiamond.com 

MIT Ventures, www.mitventures.com 

SAN JOSE — Competitors complained Friday that Microsoft Corp.’s settlement with the federal government will do little to protect them or consumers from the software giant’s monopoly power. But they held out hope that state attorneys general could make the deal more restrictive. 

Microsoft and the Justice Department presented the settlement to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Friday. She agreed to review it and gave the 18 states involved in the case until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the plan. 

Several competitors called on the state attorneys general to insist on making changes to the settlement. Sun Microsystems Inc.’s general counsel, Michael Morris, said the Justice Department was “walking away from a case they had already won.” 

Kelly Jo MacArthur, general counsel for RealNetworks Inc., which makes music and video software threatened by Windows Media Player called the settlement “a reward, not a remedy.” 

Paul T. Cappuccio, the general counsel for AOL Time Warner Inc., said the settlement “does too little to promote competition and protect consumers.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Chalk up a legal victory for the computer geeks. 

A California appeals court ruled Thursday that using the Internet to publish software code that decrypts and copies DVD movies is protected by the First Amendment as an expression of free speech. 

The San Jose-based 6th District Court of Appeal found that Andrew Bunner’s published Web site, which links to software program called DeCSS, represented “pure speech” and was protected by the First Amendment. 

Thursday’s ruling by a three-judge panel overturns a lower court injunction that prevented the program from being published by the defendants, though it is still widely available on various Internet Web sites. 

SAN JOSE — A low-cost rural electricity system and solar-powered radios to bring AIDS education to people in Africa were among the projects that won the first Tech Museum of Innovation Awards. 

The $50,000 awards were given to five people and organizations Thursday night, selected from a field of 25. The awards recognize those who encourage the adoption of technological advances in health, education, environment, economic development and equality. 

The winners include Joseph DeRisi, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who worked at fighting malaria; the Audubon Center for Research and Endangered Species in New Orleans for reproduction technology to save threatened species. 

low-cost rural electricity systems; CZBioMed of Fayetteville, N.C., for making inexpensive prosthetic limbs; Freeplay Foundation in South Africa for wind-up and solar-powered radios distributed to spread education about AIDS to people in Africa. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

Coalition of competitors: http://www.procompetition.org 

http://www.thetech.org 

A group of first-grade parents at Washington Elementary School have been pressuring the district to close two bathrooms located in a “portable” building, which is accessible from the street, but invisible to teachers. They want new bathrooms built inside the classrooms. 

“Anybody on the street could walk into those bathrooms and use them and go into them when the children are in them,” said Pamela Springer, one of the parents. 

The district has already put out bids for a contractor to renovate and clean the existing bathrooms – a task another parent demanded. But Superintendent Michelle Lawrence said Wednesday that the question of their location offered no easy solution. 

“It is so incredibly crowded, so it’s not an easy issue of our just bringing in another portable and setting it someplace,” said Lawrence. “Relocating (the bathrooms) becomes a much more difficult issue.” 

The two bathrooms face McKinley Street, which is blocked off to traffic but easily accessible to the public. A five-foot-tall chain-link fence separates the building from the sidewalk, but a gate is open to the street 20 feet away. 

Rita Kimble, the school principal, said she installed that chain-link fence two years ago, when she began working at Washington. Parents had expressed concern at the time. 

“The way it was configured was to deter anybody from going into the bathrooms,” she said. 

On Wednesday afternoon, several first- and second-grade students bounded around the building in their Halloween costumes to use the bathrooms and lingered afterwards for a few moments on the stairs up to the doors, watching the sunny street. 

“It’s totally ridiculous,” said Linda Navidad Franco, who stood outside the portable structure. “(The kids) come along all the time, and we understand that the teachers can’t be with them all the time.” 

She said she told her daughter, a second-grader, never to use those bathrooms.  

“I tell her to hold it for when they go for recess or lunch,” Franco said. 

The parents started writing letters to Kimble, the first-grade teacher, Avis Minger and district administrators soon after the school year began. Aside from decrying the bathroom location, they also described the conditions inside the bathrooms in terms reminiscent of an underdeveloped country. 

“In the girls’ bathroom a door on one of the stalls in entirely missing, while in the other a long strip of rusted metal hangs off the stall door,” the parents wrote to Kimble.  

They cited flooding, lack of soap and paper, peeling paint, and faucets so tight that girls have had to ask boys to come in and help operate them. 

The bathrooms, they wrote, are “an accident waiting to happen.” 

“The health considerations are serious,” they wrote in another letter to Minger, “especially since first-grade children are still learning to wash after toileting.” 

In a letter responding to the parents, dated Sept. 11, Kimble wrote that she asked the maintenance department to “upgrade” the bathrooms last spring. She noted that flooring and painting work had already been initiated and said coded locks would be placed on the bathroom doors. 

“Children will be able to learn a simple code to enter,” Kimble wrote. “This will prevent anyone else from entering them.” 

Kimble also said she would ask teachers to take their classes to the bathroom as a group. But in a Sept. 5 letter, the begrudged parents said this idea “seemed impractical and impossible.”  

Kimble said on Thursday that the first-grade teacher was carrying-out this instruction. 

“One of the improvements (is) that actually the first graders are not going to the restrooms as frequently as they did,” said Kimble. 

Lew Jones, who has led the district’s maintenance department since last month’s departure of maintenance director Gene Le Fevre, said a bidding process was underway to hire a contractor to improve the existing bathrooms by painting and replacing the floors, doing minor carpentry, and perhaps, some plumbing. 

Jones estimated about $12,000 would be spent, but would not estimate how long the work would take. 

“I don’t think it’s that long a duration of a project,” he said. 

Franco, the second-grader’s parent, echoed many parents’ opinions on Wednesday. 

“What’s the point of fixing them when they’re still accessible to everybody?” she said. 

The bungalows were placed in their current location in 1995 as part of a two-year schoolwide renovation and seismic retrofit, said Stephanie Allen, who headed the school’s site committee during that period. The bathrooms were added within a year to handle the expanded school population, she said. 

“There is not any other place to put those bathrooms in terms of hookups, and they have to have bathrooms for the kids and staff,” Allen said. 

“These are the kinds of problems (you find) when you’re housing students and staff in portables.”

Friday, Nov. 2 

Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. 

Morrison Library in Doe Library 

UC Berkeley 

Korean poet Ko Un reads selections from his poetry, short stories, fiction, criticism, essays, and children’s literature. 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Julie’s Healthy Café 

2562 Bancroft Way 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Robert Ewing Quartet performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Meet the Innovators of Tomorrow... Today 

8 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor 

MLK Student Union 

UC Berkeley 

Hear students present their original research projects in science, mathematics, and technology for the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. (202)944-1940  

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Community and Family Contra Dance 

7 p.m.  

Grace North Church 

Cedar and Walnut 

With music by Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, come play and dance. Easy dances for all ages. $10. 482-9479 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult. Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Nov. 4

Re-Legitimizing Peace: 

Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m.  

The Village 

2556 Telegraph 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Rhythm Kitchen performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Day of the Dead: Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Commemoration 

1 - 5 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School  

Multipurpose Room (Cafeteria) 

920 Allston Way 

Rosa Parks Elementary School invites the community to a multicultural event and exhibit featuring traditional altars; entertainment by Ballet Folklorico Juvenil de Berkeley and Cuahtli Mitotiani Mexica; and delicious traditional Mexican dishes. 237-2557 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult. Visit www.cal-sailing.org 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

Editor: 

How do we count the living spaces in the downtown? The the building boom – the bedroom, loft, and studio building boom – now underway should leave some public record of what it has accomplished. The General Plan on page 12 in its Land Use Element gives a beginning: a table of 10 residential mixed-use projects recently or nearly finished, each one listed with an address, the project type (rental, condo) and the number of units. But a living space is better measured by the bedroom than by the unit, and with the assistance this week of two diligent city planners (this information is not usually part of the necessary public record), the bedroom count for seven of the 10 can be given: for the seven projects, 300 units and 440 bedrooms (including lofts and studios). The other three still need research. 

Among the seven projects is the Gaia building, which led in both units (91) and bedrooms (146), but its leadership may be short-lived. On Oct. 11 ZAB approved a housing project for 2020 Kittredge St. Its developers want to call it Library Gardens, but with 176 units and – are you sitting down? – 320 bedrooms, it might better be called The Village. And Gardens or Village, it will be right next to the Central Library. 

All this may be news to you, particularly the size of the project, which has moved very quietly through the permitting channels, though it has taken a year and a half. The quietness is partly due to the noise elsewhere in the Berkeley construction scene involving Gaia. But it is also because the Central Library has been absent from its home on Kittredge since October, 1998. Without patrons and supporters coming daily to Kittredge, a developer (the Use Permit application for the project is dated May, 2000) might imagine that the library building is the library. Not so: only a library in residence is a library. And a library in residence is its own best – and I think only true – spokesperson. 

What effect will this huge project have on the Central Library?  

The project is part of the larger movement toward “infilling” the downtown with mixed-use residential, a process I see having no end, since one can always find underperforming property and work to convert it. 

But infilling implies filling – with people. The downtown will suddenly have a population it has not had, and that population will be first in line to use the new Central Library. If the demand is heavy enough, Central may unofficially become Downtown, though it has been redesigned to be Central – to all of Berkeley. 

Will the extra local demand require a future expansion? My guess is that it will, in 10 to 15 years. But also, if I understand the design of the project next door at 2020 Kittredge, no expansion will physically be possible. What a problem: pressure, and no way to release it. 

Is there a way to challenge The Village? The ZAB process allows only a short appeals period, which for this project expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 6. Someone with more insight than me into the project and the appeals process might want to take up the challenge. But Yes or No, there is a challenge here for ZAB: it is time they televised their meetings. This project may be the largest one downtown since the trenching for BART in 1971, and with 420 people (my estimate, a low one, I think), will shift the center of people gravity significantly southwest. 

Televising ZAB meetings will allow both public scrutiny and the scrutiny of the process of public scrutiny. ZAB most certainly followed the procedures, but it would have been much better if more people could have been watching and commenting. And more should be watching and commenting now and in the near future as this great change of downtown to mixed-use residential is contemplated, planned and executed. 

Fred Lupke 

Former co-chair Measure R 

Oakland

“So, you want to know the story of our Rusalka?” begins an old woman, talking to a scholar of folklore who is recording the quaint beliefs held by those in these remote mountain villages.  

“Her voice was the sound of old paper, handled seldom, in a book carefully stored in an even older library: Thin, transparent, a whisper of what once had been,” writes Berkeley author Cenizas de Rosas (a pseudonym). Much of the description in “Rusalka Moon” has just this mixture of preciousness and precision. 

The folklorist begins notetaking, and this ornate floral-smelling tale of how a certain Rusalka came into being unfolds.  

This Rusalka, a mythical creature who lives in the river and leaves at certain times in order to fertilize crops, was originally a young virgin named Valasha, who was simply too sweet for this world. 

There are a few bluntly delicious descriptions: At one point Valasha’s intended, a farm boy named Vasily Andryef, forgets he is “standing in mud and pig shit up to his ankles,” so distracted is he by the lures of going to war. Vasily’s war experiences are portrayed in unflinching detail, especially when he’s off burning and bayoneting little children and grooming his superiors’ horses. The wry and witty jokes are lovely when they appear, and there’re other nice touches, such as a child named Masla, “pat o’ butter.” 

But these pleasures come with the requisite fantasy genre clichés: “sloe-eyed maidens” and the word “silky” doing double-duty as a mood enhancer and adjective. The ground is “dappled” and blossoms are everywhere. 

But I digress.  

There is wisdom in this book, a hard-edged 21st century awareness of that sad rag, human nature, in which individuals and groups just simply won’t stop making deals with the devil or, in this case, with the Vodany, the frenzied creepy corpse-like creature that, apparently, dwells under the local river and captures the fluttering quivering souls of the drowned in order to turn them into Rusalkas.  

At one point, the villagers try to pay off the Vodany with the sacrifice of a gleaming strong horse, that they tie up and drown in a quite vividly-described passage.  

But does this bribe work? 

Of course not. 

According to this novel: “It is said that at the end of all things, the tears of Faeries will heal the world.” We’ll just have to wait for that.

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 2: Anna de Leon and Ellen Hoffmann, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 2: Shady Lady, Buffalo Roam, $5; Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; 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 Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

Theater 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through 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 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“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 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through 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 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.org 

“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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

Dance 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“La Lesbian Film Festival” Nov. 9 - 11. La Peña Cultural Center presents La Lesbian at La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series. $8 Fine Arts Cinema 2451 Shattuck 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

Exhibits  

“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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

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

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 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 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

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; 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  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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.

Forney the lone returning starter  

SAN JOSE – Caren Horstmeyer expects her new–look Cal women’s basketball team to play small ball to start the season. 

The expected starting lineup doesn’t have much height, so the Golden Bears will have to rely on running and scrappy play to succeed. Cal got strong guard play last year from Courtney Johnson (15.2 points per game) and Kenya Corley (12.8 ppg), its two leading scorers who have exhausted their eligibility. But this year’s team will rely even more on its non–post players. 

“It might not be pretty, but the goal is, find a way to win,’” Horstmeyer said. 

The second–year Cal coach talked about her changing squad Thursday at Pac–10 Women’s Basketball Media Day at the Compaq Center in San Jose, where the conference’s teams gathered to preview the upcoming season. 

Last season, Cal had a 12–16 (8–10 in the Pac–10) record to tie for sixth in the conference. This year, Pac–10 coaches tabbed Cal to finish tied for eighth with UCLA. The media poll picked the Bears ninth. Stanford earned the top spot in both polls. 

The Bears return just one starter – forward/center Ami Forney – after losing seven seniors from last year. They bring in nine newcomers, but two of the brightest – sophomore center Olga Volkova and freshman guard Jackie Lord – enter the season recovering from ACL injuries.  

Volkova will help offset the loss of Lauren Ashbaugh, a forward/center who scored 7.8 ppg and pulled down 5.8 rebounds per game. Volkova, a 6–foot–4 Ukrainian center, injured her knee last year while playing for Merritt College in Oakland. If she does play in Sunday’s home exhibition against the Bay Area Pro Am team, she would come off the bench. 

“We know (Volkova) is an elite athlete that can give experience, smarts and then size, ability to score and good defense,” Horstmeyer said. “But right now, she’s limited to (practicing in a) half court (setting). We’re trying to get her back to full court. The status of her knee really right now is uncertain.” 

For the foreseeable future, Horstmeyer will operate with just one true post player – Forney – in the starting lineup. Horstmeyer’s other likely starters include forwards Amber White and Kiki Williams asdf

Funding would continue hotel’s emergency homeless aid  

Councilmember Linda Maio pulled a $100,000 contract to provide emergency housing off the City Council’s consent calendar Tuesday, saying she wanted to learn more about the program and its impact on the neighborhood. 

The council resolution would continue an emergency housing contract with the Flamingo Hotel, located at 1761 University Ave., to house up to 10 mentally ill homeless people. Generally, items on the consent calendar are approved unanimously in one vote, without discussion. 

“I checked with Health and Human Services to make sure the delay would cause no disruption to the program’s services,” Maio said. “But this one threw me a curve because I didn’t know what was being proposed.” 

Maio has scheduled a meeting with the Health and Human Services officials so she and neighbors of the hotel can learn more about the state program, formally known as Integrated Services for the Mentally Ill. 

The program, which provides counseling, drug rehabilitation, food and clothing to the chronically homeless, has been housing clients at the hotel since March.  

The council is now considering the contract because of a policy to approve all contracts once they go above $25,000. 

Harvey Tureck, manager of the Mental Health Division, said he is confident the contract will be approved because the program participants who use the emergency housing at the Flamingo Hotel are not troublemakers. “Mental health staff are on site every day and besides these people are mentally disabled and not likely to commit crimes,” he said.  

Tureck added that since the program began, none of the participants has been arrested. 

The recommendation was rescheduled for the council’s Nov. 13 meeting. 

If approved, the temporary hotel housing will continue to provide a much needed element in a unique $3 million program that is attempting to offer meaningful and lasting help to the most severely mentally disabled homeless, who health officials say are the hardest to reach. 

In September 2000, Gov. Gray Davis approved $56 million for similar programs in 26 counties. Berkeley received grant approval for $3 million last November to serve approximately 100 of the city’s most severely mentally ill homeless through November 2003. 

The Mental Health Division, which manages the program, has hired seven social workers who have mostly been working the streets to gain the trust of the mentally ill homeless. Tureck said trust building is essential because the people the program is meant to help are often mistrustful and wary of all government agencies. 

The need for housing this particular homeless population is especially great, because it brings some stability to what is often an otherwise chaotic existence, according to Tureck. He said the 72 clients currently being assisted by the program are now living in residency hotels, long-term care facilities and independent housing. 

Tureck said the Flamingo Hotel provides clients with much needed transitional housing until arrangements can be made for long-term housing, which is the primary goal of the program.  

“So far the results have been good,” Tureck said. “We’ve been able to move some clients into permanent housing around the county and we are currently negotiating to convert a boarding house in central Berkeley into housing for about 20 people.” 

The governor approved the bill based on three pilot programs in Stanislaus and Los Angeles counties and the city of Sacramento. 

The pilot programs cost $10 million to provide the mentally ill homeless with counseling, drug rehabilitation, housing, food and clothing but, according to organizers, it saved $20 million in other services such as emergency medical care and police services. 

Maio represents District 2, where the Flamingo Hotel is located. She said she expects the contract will be approved on Nov. 13. 

“My neighborhood has been supportive of affordable housing, which makes it a very tolerant and unusual place,” she said.

Editor: 

Unreal. 

First we get Richard Gere saying that we should love our Terrorists and now, another Democrat won’t support our President or the fight against Terrorism. What a shame.  

How dare Lee fail in her commitment to stand behind our country to fight the zealots that killed innocent men and women. I hope that the City Council in Berkeley is run out of town on a train as well as Lee, and for Danny Glover to support her is another one of the signs of how the Democrats got us into this position.  

President Bush would have never had to resort to war if the Democrats had started the man hunt and stopped Osama bin Laden when they bombed the foreign embassies. It seems that once again the Hollywood Democrats are on the wrong side of justice as well as environmental movement. Also, Democrats want their freedom, gold chains, metal cars and wooden million dollar homes but they don’t want to stand up to fight, allow miners and loggers to make a living or support our president in time of great need. Lee and the City Council should be ashamed and apologize to the families of missing loved ones and the men and women of the armed forces trying to give you back your comfort and freedom from terrorists. Don’t you understand that you are playing into the hands of Osama and the Taliban. They have no other source of weapon shipments to fight a sustained war so they are relying on the American people to fight amongst ourselves to stop the attacks. They hope to outlast us while they sit in their caves waiting for responses from people like Berkeley to cause in-house feuding, see, you are playing right into their hands.  

One last note, I sure won’t visit Berkeley ever again. Boycott Berkeley!  

Tim Barnett  

Salt Lake City, Utah

NEW YORK — Since Sept. 11, Americans by the millions have been reaching out to friends — real ones, and imaginary ones on television. 

The NBC sitcom “Friends” has unexpectedly become TV’s most popular show this fall. Rachel is pregnant, Ross is the dad, and viewers are anxious to share the experience. 

“Friends” is averaging 28.4 million viewers through five weeks, despite competing against “Survivor” for two of them. Guest shots by Sean Penn on Thursday and Brad Pitt later this month should keep those numbers up. Not bad for a show that many worried was creatively spent. 

“Nobody expects that in the eighth year of a series,” co-creater David Crane said this week. “It’s phenomenal.” 

Many suggest “Friends” is doing well because viewers crave the familiar in a time of stress — the comfort food theory. Crane believes that shortchanges the producers, writers and actors. 

“We have something to do with it,” he said. “We’re not just cozy.” 

The show does seem infused with a new energy. New York Daily News critic Eric Mink called the new season’s episodes “creative gems — funny, touching, crisply performed and produced and consistent with the characters’ long-established personalities.” 

Last spring, when a lackluster set of “Friends” episodes was beaten regularly in the ratings by “Survivor,” there were real questions about a comeback. 

“It kind of felt like the series was done — it had said what it had to say, it was good while it lasted but it was time to fold it up,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. 

And it was introducing two plot devices — marriage and pregnancy — that for many television series are signs of creative desperation, he said. 

Instead, viewers who have figuratively “hung out” with the six main characters in their carefree youth have chosen to watch them grow up. 

“They tapped into a story line back in May that was terrific, and that America clearly wanted to see,” said NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker. “We know that when Ross and Rachel hooked up for the first time five years ago that it was their single biggest year. Clearly, America loves the Ross and Rachel combination.” 

Does that mean the ratings-hungry Zucker will order that the characters played by Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer — currently on the outs romantically — get together again? He said he’s leaving it up to the creators. They’re not tipping their hands. 

“Friends” has never finished a television season atop the Nielsen Media Research ratings. Its peak was a second-place showing in 1998-99. The show was the fifth most-popular series during the last two seasons. 

For a series set in New York City, “Friends” has made only subtle references to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11: Joey wore a New York Fire Department T-shirt in one scene, and “I Love NY” was scrawled on a bulletin board in the background. 

Anything beyond that really doesn’t have a place on the show, Crane said. 

“If we had something fresh to offer, we would,” he said. “But there’s also something escapist about the show. It’s a half-hour where you’re laughing and not thinking about what’s going on in the world. That’s providing something, I think.” 

The program has always existed in a fantasy version of New York anyway, with impossibly beautiful friends living in impossibly large apartments. 

”‘Friends’ doesn’t really take place in New York,” Thompson said. “It takes place on another planet.” 

The Syracuse professor is curious about whether viewers will embrace a “married with children” “Friends.” It’s a rare show that can change its basic premise and thrive, he said. 

They may never get the chance. With the six stars’ contracts expiring after this season, it has been conventional wisdom that this would be the last year. 

Crane resists that talk. Zucker wants the show to continue. There’s some hope that Schwimmer, Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry — whose movie careers aren’t thriving and who may be enjoying the show’s new roll — would want to stay. 

The six actors banded together in past contract negotiations to demand more money. If they do it again, NBC might have a wrenching decision to make with the collapsing advertising market making money tight. 

Look for a real-life cliffhanger next May. 

“Could we do another year?” Crane asked. “Oh, yeah, in a second. If, for whatever reason, this is the last season, knowing we went out on top also feels really good.” 

Berkeley clinches 2nd ACCAL title 

Eventually, the Berkeley High girls’ volleyball team will lose an ACCAL match. But Thursday, they beat their toughest league opponent for the second time this year, extending their winning streak in league play to 24 games and clinching their second straight league title. 

The Encinal Jets took Berkeley to five games in their last meeting, but the ’Jackets simply overpowered them this time, winning in four games, 15-1, 15-8, 14-16, 15-2. Their only cold streak came in the third game, as they allowed the Jets to come back from a 14-3 deficit to win the game. 

Berkeley middle blocker Desiree Guilliard-Young didn’t win the statistical battle with Jackie Randolph, last year’s league MVP, but her team came out on top and she faced Randolph down several times, as three of her four blocks came on Randolph spikes.  

Guilliard-Young finished with seven kills, paling in comparison to Randolph’s 15 to go with three blocks, but the Berkeley star got much more help from her teammates. Outside hitter Vanessa Williams had 13 kills and 11 digs, while outside hitter Amalia Jarvis had eight kills. Encinal, on the other hand, had no player other than Randolph with more than three kills. 

“You just have to control Jackie when you can, and shut down everyone else,” Berkeley coach Justin Caraway said. “She’s going to get her points, but you can’t let anyone else beat you.” 

Randolph was virtually invisible in the first two games, managing just two kills and two blocks. But she did manage to ignite Encinal’s only big run, taking control of the third game with her team on the brink of being swept. She led her team back from 14-3 to 14-9 with several nice digs, then drove two kills to make the score 14-11. When Berkeley managed a side out, Randolph answered with another kill, then served the last five points of the match, including two aces. 

But the ’Jackets refused to let the collapse continue. Williams came through with three kills early in the final game as Berkeley jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back. 

Caraway said his team played its best game of the season on Thursday, passing and serving better than any game this year. He even declined to rip into his players for the collapse in the third game, chalking it up to some good serving from the Jets and bad communication on his team’s part. 

“The only thing that disappointed me was that we dominated all four games, but we lost one,” he said. “We outplayed them in every facet of the game, but we just got tentative and scared for a little bit.” 

The ’Jackets have yet to lose a match in league play since joining the ACCAL last season. Caraway admitted that going undefeated two years in a row would be an impressive feat, no matter how uneven the competition is. 

“We’re sitting pretty at 12-0 right now, but we want to finish undefeated,” he said. “Can I see us losing to either of the next two opponents (El Cerrito and De Anza)? No. But you never know what will happen on any given day.”

Gov. Gray Davis set off a flurry of mildly panicked inquiries Thursday when he told reporters that terrorists may be targeting California suspension bridges for a terrorist attack somewhere between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7. 

The announcement came at a press conference in Los Angeles, during which Davis presented FBI veteran George Vinson as his new special advisor on state security issues. Davis is in Los Angeles for an economic summit to be held in Burbank Friday. 

“We have received from several different sources threats that the law enforcement agencies in general believe are credible,” Davis said, immediately catapulting himself onto television screens across the nation as cable channels broke into regular programming to announce the new terrorist threat.  

Davis also appeared on Larry King Live Thursday night and said he received warnings from three separate federal agencies. 

Oakland mayor Jerry Brown said on CNN news that the threat warnings he had received were confused.  

“I’m going to drive across that bridge unless we receive a lot more credible information than what we got today,” he said. 

Brown was asked what the point of the governor’s warning was if vehicles were not going to be searched or the bridges closed. After several attempts to explain the difficulty in balancing warnings of danger with the need to continue daily life, the former California governor finally confessed: “I don’t know what the point was.” 

While polls nationwide have shown the public coalescing behind elected officials from the president on down to city council members, there has been no similar increase in Davis’ popularity. In a late September field poll, the governor’s approval rating among Californians dropped to 41 percent, the lowest since he took office. 

“As governor, he has to take the heat for the economic crisis and the downturn in the state’s economy,” said Democratic pollster David Binder of San Francisco. 

Nearly every government agency in the state was flooded with calls from reporters and worried citizens all afternoon. They seemed caught off-guard by the statement and much less concerned about the threat than the governor.  

Caltrans referred calls to a wrong number for the California Highway Patrol; the CHP took messages and promised to return calls. Even the governor’s office had no prepared statement or staff ready to respond to questions. 

A spokesperson for the CHP said there are no plans to close any of the bridges, or to search crossing cars. In a terse written statement, the FBI stressed that “the information presented was unsubstantiated, and the reliability of the source is unknown.” 

An FBI spokesperson in the agency’s San Francisco office appeared to struggle to maintain his professional demeanor and politely refused to comment on whether the governor’s decision to make the announcement was motivated as much by politics as by security. Asked if the Davis should have made the threat public, his composure snapped.  

“Well, it’s too late now,” he said. 

Coast Guard spokesperson Barry Lane said the Coast Guard has been on heightened alert since the Sept. 11 attacks.  

“As for preparing for a new threat, we’ve been preparing for any threat,” he said. He advised the public to “just rest assured that the Coast Guard and other government agencies have everything under control.” 

Davis said people have to decide whether or not to cross the bridges, just as they have to decide if it is safe for them to fly.  

“They’ll have to make whatever choices they think are best for them,” he said. “We want them to know, if they’re going to cross these bridges that we’ve done everything possible to ensure their safety, and we have.” 

According to Davis, the threatened bridges are the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, and the San Diego Coronado Bridge. An average of 270,000 cars cross the Bay Bridge each day, and about 125,000 use the Golden Gate. 

851-4561 

Editor: 

Since the 1980s I’ve noticed the apparent misuse of the word “tolerance.” We seem to have forgotten that “tolerate” means “to put up with.” In the words of educator Jane Elliot: “People don’t want to be ‘tolerated’ - they want to be accepted.” 

O.V. Michaelsen 

Alameda 

BOONE, N.C. - No. 4 seed Davidson (5-13) gave No. 1 California (11-4) a scare as the Wildcats pushed the 17th-ranked Golden Bears into double overtime. Sara Hunt’s goal at 7:14 rescued Cal from an upset-minded Davidson squad for a 5-4 win Thursday afternoon in the NorPac Postseason Tournament at Kidd Brewer Stadium on the Appalachian State campus.  

Cal went up 2-0 with goals from Michelle Wald and Danya Sawyers in the first half.  

Not to be outdone, Davidson came charging back after the intermission with two quick goals. Less than two minutes into the second half, the Wildcats’ Amanda Strickland scored to put her team on the board.  

A minute and a half later, the Wildcats scored on a penalty corner as Kathleen Fenn belted a shot from 15 yards out.  

At 25:46, the Bears regained the lead as senior Erin Robinson scored on a corner with assists from Sara Hunt and Wald.  

The same assist duo set up the next Cal goal, as this time, Nora Feddersen connected on a Bear penalty corner with 19:38 left in regulation for sophomore’s team-leading 10th goal of the season.  

Forward Strickland completed a hat trick for the Wildcats with two more goals to knot the score again, both from assists by Elizabeth Schoening. The second came with just three minutes left in regulation. 

Cal’s unblemished overtime record (4-0) stayed intact as senior Sara Hunt one-timed a Feddersen pass on the Bears’ 11th corner of the day in double overtime.  

“I think Davidson played a good game,” said head coach Shellie Onstead. “I’ve got to give them credit for keep coming back and I just feel like our team had, I guess, our first collective bad day. We had a hard time getting on track.”

Most visitors to the city’s Permit Service Center on Milvia Street probably only want to remodel a kitchen, get a permit for electrical or plumbing work or apply for a small business license. 

Everyone who passes through, though, is bound to notice a prominently-placed sign at the counter: 

“Attention! Important information regarding applications involving medical marijuana/medical cannabis.” 

“If you plan to cultivate, store, sell, barter, give away or otherwise distribute medical marijuana/medical cannabis, you must state that you plan to do so on your permit application, and provide documentation that your proposal is in full compliance with the city’s ‘Protocols for Medical Cannabis.’”  

Vivian Kahn, acting deputy director of planning, said on Thursday that the sign, which has been in place for the last few months, is there for a reason. 

“When we get an application for zoning approval, we normally don’t require the applicant to list every single thing they sell,” she said. “But in this case, even if (medical marijuana) is an incidental activity, we want to know.” 

“To my knowledge, no one has yet come in and said they wanted a permit for this.” 

Which just shows, according to critics, that the sign is fulfilling its purpose. 

The sign is the public face of the scrap of city policy that exists for the regulation of medical marijuana clubs. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said on Thursday that after the city passed the medical marijuana ordinance – which resulted in the “Protocols for Medical Cannabis” mentioned above – in March, there were no guidelines in place for regulating medical marijuana clubs. 

“The old city manager (James Keene) killed the Proposition 215 Implementation committee we had proposed to study the issue,” he said. 

Shortly after the passage of Proposition 215, the state referendum that permitted the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the city permits department started to receive a number of applications for “hemp and incense” and “herbal remedy” stores, which were approved. Only later did the city find out that the applicants were operating as medical marijuana clubs. 

After neighbors started to complain, the city briefly considered imposing a temporary moratorium on new clubs and developing rules in the city’s zoning ordinance for where new clubs could locate. 

However, that effort was suspended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that Proposition 215 did not invalidate federal laws, under which marijuana is an illegal drug. After the ruling, current city manager Weldon Rucker advised the council against the zoning changes, as the new ruling brought both the city’s ordinance and Proposition 215 into question. 

According to Kahn and Fred Medrano, director of the Health and Human Services Department, Matthew Orebic of the city attorney’s office developed the process now in place in the Permit Center.  

Orebic could not be reached for comment. 

Worthington said that regulation through the permits department was far from ideal, but still workable. 

“It’s a reasonably practical compromise,” he said. “In the sprit of Proposition 215 we’re allowing for some way for people to get their marijuana prescriptions filled. At the same time, it would cause a lot of controversy, and a lot of unwanted attention from the federal government, if we had 100 of these things in Berkeley.” 

Some medical marijuana advocates take a dimmer view of the method. 

Chris Conrad, a cannabis expert who has testified in many court cases involving medical marijuana laws, said that Berkeley was on the right track when it was looking at broader zoning regulations. 

“Regulation through zoning ordinances is fairly rare, though I do think it is a sensible way to do it,” he said. “But Berkeley has perverted the method, because they’re looking at it as a way to limit marijuana clubs rather than regulate them.” 

Conrad said a more equitable approach would be to designate certain districts in which clubs would be allowed to operate, and to develop other guidelines, including distance from schools. 

There are three medical marijuana clubs currently in operation in Berkeley – one on Shattuck Avenue, one on San Pablo Avenue and one on University Avenue.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to residents of Berkeley and the City Council, 

How proud I am of Berkeley again - for its recent City Council resolution on bombing and for its people’s support of Rep. Barbara Lee. I lived in Berkeley for a decade during the l980s and now farm outside Sebastopol in Sonoma County. Years later, when we look back on these dark times, Berkeley and Rep. Lee will shine in history for their bravery - as Rep. Jeannette Rankin and Sen. Wayne Morse do for their opposition to previous wars. 

Many of us here in Sonoma County and throughout the United States and the world look to Berkeley for leadership. Please don’t back down! Leadership is not always easy. Though there may be some short-term economic losses for Berkeley from this mild decision speaking for our country’s conscience and soul, it will accumulate long-term moral gains. We love you, Berkeley and Rep. Lee. 

Yea Berkeley! 

Shepherd Bliss 

Kokopelli Farm 

Sonoma County

Hornets take ACCAL cross country titles 

Berkeley High cross country lost to Alameda at the ACCAL league championship meet on Wednesday, although Berkeley’s Alex Enscoe won the boys’ race. 

Enscoe, a sophomore, beat Alameda’s Yoji Reichert by four seconds to win the boys’ race in a time of 16:09. Alameda’s Nicolas Bell came in third and the Hornets won with a team score of 25, with Berkeley second at 31. 

On the girls’ side, the Hornets won going away with 15 points, with Alameda’s Corrine Roberts winning the race in 19:22. Berkeley’s top runner, Grace Nielsen, was forced to quit the race with a leg injury, leaving Elizabeth Mendelson as Berkeley’s lone finisher. 

Cal golf finishes third in Hawaii tournament 

OAHU, Hawaii – The California women’s golf team finished third at the Rainbow Wahine Fall Golf Classic with a 911 after carding a 299 in the final round of the 54-hole tournament.  

New Mexico won the tournament at the par 72, 5900-yard Kapolei Golf Course with an 884, and Arizona was second at 905.  

Arizona’s Lorena Ochoa won the individual competition with a score of 218, two strokes ahead of two other golfers.  

Junior Vikki Laing led the Golden Bears, tying for fifth with a 223 after shooting a 73 in the final round. Cal’s next best golfer were senior Anne Walker and junior Ria Quiazon, who tied for 17th at 229. Sophomore Sarah Huarte tied for 22nd at 230, and sophomore Anna Temple shot a 249 to tie for 89th.  

The Bears don’t return to competition until the spring. 

Cal picked fifth by media 

The Cal mens’ basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-10 Conference this season at the conference’s annual media day Wednesday in Los Angeles. 

The 27 voting media members picked UCLA to finish first, with the Bruins getting 25 first-place votes. Stanford was picked second, USC third and Arizona fourth.

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

Editor, 

It's sad to see Berkeleyans attacking their City Council for a desire to stop the violence - over here and over there. I grew up in New York. My mother still lives there. I went to school with people buried in the rubble. Of course, its a terrible thing. The question is whether cluster-bombing Afghanistan, supporting the Israeli occupation and denying Iraq medicine for curable diseases makes it more or less likely that it will happen again.  

People keep saying they don't want to understand why. But then the United States had better be able to defend ourselves a lot better than we have been able to so far, because I doubt the attacks will stop. New recruits to the Jihad are streaming across the Pakistani border every day. A generation of Afghans and Palestinians and Iraquis holds us directly responsible for the loss of their loved ones. They're not running out of suicide bombers.  

Me, I'd rather try to figure out what we can do the change the foreign policy of our government. I much prefer that to dying over it.  

Tracy Rosenberg 

San Francisco 

Editor: 

This is to express my gratitude and support for the very reasonable resolution the Berkeley City Council recently passed regarding Afghanistan. I can't understand why anyone would object to a simple request to seek lawful ways to bring the perpetrators to justice without bombing innocent civilians, or unnecessarily risking the lives of American military personnel. 

If other city councils – and elected officials in counties, states, and Congress – would follow the courageous and wise example of the Berkeley City Council, the benefits to the country and the planet would be incalculable. 

Tara Treasurefield 

Sonoma 

A.M. Fonda, an Emeryville mailman, poet and candidate for Emery Unified School District board election, was first at the mic during Monday’s poetry reading at Spasso Coffeehouse. His fellow poets had gathered to celebrate Halloween, Day of the Dead and the Celtic new year, but Fonda wanted to talk about modern politics and real-life terror.  

Sitting in a corner wearing a faded denim jacket and white T-shirt, he told one George W. Bush joke, which involved Bush, Bill Clinton, an attractive blond and a large woman. Then Fonda read his poem, “Midnighters,” in honor of a political activist recently killed in Afghanistan:  

“Midnight watch towers rise above low hanging fog/beneath a starry canopy,” he began. “Restless souls down on their luck/disturb birds/create a ruckus in their tree.” 

Fonda said he has no problem raising tough issues, whether he is composing poetry or campaigning for a spot on the school board in the struggling district. Like the other three candidates running for seats on the board, Fonda said he wants to improve school facilities and help restore financial stability to Emery Unified, a district that in August was $2.3 million dollars in debt. 

Fonda does have some distinct issues in his platform. He wants to bring poetry to all California schools, thinks students should be studying how to balance checkbooks, and believes Emeryville can help fight terrorism by protesting the recent Berkeley City Council resolution calling for a quick end to the bombing in Afghanistan. 

“I’ve taken a real stand on the issues. I’m the only candidate urging a boycott of Berkeley,” Fonda said, adding that Berkeley councilmembers may be able to redeem themselves if they change the resolution. “The City Council would be wise, I think, to redraft the whole thing.” 

Fonda said local media made Berkeley’s resolution sound more “condemning,” than it really was, but said the council’s actions encouraged American passivity. 

“As a people we have to stand up,” he said. “We can’t wait until the next thing comes along, so that these anthrax monsters, so they don’t have a sanctuary in Berkeley.”  

He said Emeryville needs to boycott its neighbor “until reason is restored to the City Council there.” 

His pro-boycott stance has earned him criticism from local political activists, like Dana Engen, a member of the Emeryville Green Party. 

“I think its very unfortunate that he would say something like that, if he intends to represent the city of Emeryville,” said Engen, who worked with Fonda on a campaign to recall former school board candidates. “It didn’t condemn the U.S. government, it asked that the bombing end as soon as possible. It really represents to me that he’s incapable of doing a good job on the school board.” 

Competing candidates said they feel there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed by the board. After the state take-over of Emery Unified in August, three former board members were recalled. The school board recall occurred less than a year after former superintendent J.L. Handy was arrested for misusing district funds. 

“The highest priority, of course, is to make sure the students are getting the best education,” candidate Josh Simon said. “And getting the financial accountability systems in order.” 

Fonda has had previous success organizing, and his current campaign is not his first foray into local politics. He campaigned to encourage term limits for the official California Poet Laureate, a position that had been a lifetime post. Gov. Gray Davis signed the poet term-limit bill into law on Aug. 30. Fonda said he is thrilled with his political success, and is urging the governor and senate to pick a California poet quickly. The seat is currently vacant. He has visions himself with teams of other poet laureates, teaching in schools all over the state, and around the nation. 

Fonda said he wants to balance kids’ poetry education with solid math skills. 

“The thing that really interests me is teaching money management to children,” he said. “It seems like education is somewhat disjointed from reality.” 

Mayor Nora Davis said she was thrilled to have four candidates running for three seats on the school board, and said she finds Fonda a “very interesting guy.” 

However, he is the only candidate she has not endorsed for school board. 

“I’ve worked with him on a number of issues,” Davis said. “And you know, he’s a poet. But the others have been very involved. I just don’t know what his interest is in the school board.” 

Other poets gathered at Spasso this week said Fonda seemed a natural choice. 

“I think he’d be terrific on the school board,” said Holly Goodwin, the poetry reading organizer . “He’s certainly literate.” 

Among the more light-hearted fashion and Mehndi tattoo stands and the cultural events of this week’s South Asian Awareness program on the UC Berkeley campus, stood a booth dealing with one of the most serious issues facing South Asian women – domestic violence.  

Lining Upper Sproul Plaza at lunchtime, the booths were set up as part of a week of events geared to inform the public about South Asian culture. 

A domestic violence booth was sponsored by campus volunteers from Narika, a community based nonprofit organization dealing that with issue in South Asian communities in the Bay Area. Located in Berkeley, the group supports women who come from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.  

Fliers at the booth included information on both domestic violence and hate crime awareness.  

“We decided to combine the topics because they both have the underlying theme of violence, especially against South Asians,” said Leena Kamat, a student volunteer for Narika and a senior at UC Berkeley. 

Kamat has been volunteering for Narika for more than a year now, and had joined the group with a desire to help other women.  

“Fortunately I have not been in a situation of domestic violence and I think others shouldn’t be either,” she said. 

She went on to explain the importance of recognizing that domestic violence goes beyond issues of country, race and ethnicity. South Asian women are especially at risk because of cultural attitudes about gender roles. Women are traditionally expected to be submissive and not struggle, especially with a husband. 

“We need to learn more about gender roles and how we’re socialized into believing a certain way,” Kamat said.  

She added that communication is important between partners. 

According to Narika’s experience with domestic violence in the South Asian community, women living in the United States with immigrant visas have been mostly at risk. These women are doubly jeopardized if they report incidents of domestic violence – they may be deported if their husbands abandon them and may not be accepted back into their own families after separation from their husbands.  

Because of the legal and social issues involved in such a situation, most women are reluctant to put an end to the violence, Kamat said.  

The issue of domestic violence is also not generally addressed in the South Asian community. “I think there is a lot of shame and denial surrounding this issue because sexuality and dating violence is something that is not talked about,” she said. 

The number of students, especially South Asians, stopping by the booth was limited, although many passed by and paused to either watch the dancers or to get a Mehndi tattoo.  

Kamat said this may be because there is still a lot of wariness in the South Asian community about domestic violence. 

Arti Agarwal, a third year UC Berkeley graduate student of South Asian origins, came by the booth interested in finding out more about the organization. She said she had not realized there were Narika student representatives on campus. 

“I think it’s great to have such a booth during South Asian Awareness week because it draws people and provides inspiration,” Agarwal said. She also expressed an interest in becoming involved with volunteering for the group. 

Jennifer Yin, a third-year student, commented on the importance of having such booths. This type of information is very necessary because Asian women in general don’t have many resources to deal with domestic violence, she said. She added that some communities make women feel that domestic violence is their fault.  

While there is more of an emphasis on fun during South Asian Awareness week, Kamat underscored that it is also important to let people know of the more serious issues facing the South Asian community.

BERKELEY — University of California faculty have endorsed a change in admissions policy that would look at students’ life achievements as well as their academic records. 

The systemwide assembly of the Academic Senate met Wednesday at UCLA and voted 42-0 in favor of the new approach, known as “comprehensive review.” There were three abstentions. 

The vote means the issue now goes to the university’s governing board of regents. The board is expected to vote later this month at its regular meeting in San Francisco. 

The change would not affect who gets into UC’s nine campuses. That is determined by eligibility, which depends on meeting minimum grade and test score totals or on graduating in the top 4 percent of one’s high school class. 

UC has a policy of finding a spot somewhere in the system for all eligible students. 

Where comprehensive review comes in is in deciding which student goes where, in particular, which students go to the highly competitive campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA. 

Campuses are now required to take at least 50 percent of their students based on academic factors alone. The remainder can be considered on grades plus four supplemental factors, which include such things as overcoming poverty or a difficult family situation. 

Comprehensive review would allow campuses to view all applicants on academic and supplemental factors. 

Regents set the 50 percent academics alone requirement in 1995, at the same time as they banned considering race or gender in admissions. In May, they repealed that ban. The vote didn’t restore affirmative action, banned by a state law passed in 1996. However, it did open the door to reconsidering the 50 percent requirement. 

Regents discussing the proposed shift to comprehensive review at their October meeting were wary of the change, saying they need assurance UC won’t lose its academic edge. 

“I accept the fact that we want well-rounded students, but we’re not the Rotary Club,” said Regent Ward Connerly. “We’re trying to select scholars.” 

Some have criticized comprehensive review as a backdoor attempt to reintroduce race-based admissions. 

After race-blind admissions took effect in 1998, enrollment of blacks and Hispanics dropped sharply. The numbers have since rebounded to affirmative action levels systemwide, but not at flagship Berkeley. 

But proponents counter that comprehensive review doesn’t look at race. 

Comprehensive review is the latest in a series of admissions changes or proposed changes at UC. 

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, but that initiative stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT I achievement test as an entrance requirement. 

——— 

On the Web: UC faculty site, http://www.ucop.edu/senate/assembly/oct2001/oct2001viib.pdf 

CHICAGO — It’s a popular science exhibit that explores the slimy, the crusty and the scaly. 

But we’re not talking sea urchins, moon rocks and dinosaurs here. 

This one’s about “grossology,” the unapologetic and sometimes stomach-churning study of body functions and fluids that are rarely talked about openly — but that kids love to giggle and squirm at. 

“Throwing up, pooping and peeing — the combination of the three are what make it a hit,” says Sylvia Branzei, a science teacher from Garberville, Calif. She wrote the book that inspired “Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body,” a traveling exhibit now visiting Chicago, Singapore and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

The interactive exhibit is a veritable jungle of giant body parts and rude noises. 

Among other things, there’s a cave-like nose that sometimes sneezes on those who dare to enter; a burp machine that allows museum-goers to pump air into a stomach chamber and then release a loud belch; and a slide shaped like a giant gastrointestinal tract that ejects kids onto a “poo poo” mat. 

Each station also has factoids that explain how the body works — with plenty of grossness piled on to keep it interesting. 

Consider this morsel: 70 out of 100 people admit to picking their noses. 

Sisters Isabelle and Austen Friend aren’t about to confess their own nose-picking habits during a visit to the exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. But they’re more than happy to tell on each other. 

“I don’t eat my boogers. But she does,” 8-year-old Isabelle says, pointing at her little sister. 

“No, you do!” 6-year-old Austen shouts back. 

“No, you do!” Isabelle repeats — and so on and so on. 

A few feet away, at the “Y U Stink” station, Rickia Ballentine and others from her third-grade class hold their noses and wince when they get a whiff of scents they squeeze from plastic bottles. 

“Smelly feet, bad breath ...,” Rickia says, shaking her head in disgust as she  

lists off a few of them. 

Then she goes back to smell more. 

It’s just the sort of moment Branzei — who collaborated with Michigan-based Advanced Exhibits to create the show — expects. 

“Kids like the taboo of the whole thing. And our culture finds any body excretion to be taboo,” says the self-proclaimed “all-around grossologist.” 

Branzei got the idea for her book a few years back while cutting her toe nails and observing what was left behind. 

Where did it come from? And why do feet stink, anyway? 

Answering questions like those propelled her to success. Branzei’s book and exhibit have been so popular that she has written a sequel, which will soon become a second exhibit: “Animal Grossology.” 

Teachers who visit the first exhibit with their classes are raving about it. 

“There’s only so much you can do in the classroom,” says Heather Siegel, a Chicago teacher who brought her kindergarten class. “This is very hands on.” 

Not that her students always get it at first. 

When one boy  

slid onto the “poo poo” mat, Siegel asked if he knew he’d just slid through a make-believe colon. 

Hearing that, he let out a common cry at the exhibit: 

“Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!”

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. — “Variety’s the very spice of life,” said 18th century British poet William Cowper. The phrase, stale now, is still hard to beat. But statesman Benjamin Disraeli tried, calling variety “the mother of enjoyment.” 

In the garden, variety is the name of the game. Horticulture teems with countless varieties and breeders tirelessly come up with “new” and “improved” flowers and vegetables. True, some gardeners stick to the “old” and a veritable cult has sprung up on the nurture of “heirlooms.” But there’s no denying the attraction and selling power of novelty. 

Foremost in the sponsorship of new varieties, a non-profit organization called All-America Selections makes yearly awards based on nationwide trials. The winners are announced early in the fall and then featured in next year’s seed catalogs. Thirteen flowers and vegetables have been picked for 2002. 

Awards don’t often come in pairs, but this time two pumpkins and two petunias have made the coveted list. Other winners are a vinca, a geranium, a cleome, a pansy, a rudbeckia, a basil, a cucumber, a winter squash and an ornamental pepper. 

One of the pumpkins, called Orange Smoothie, aims at the child market. The dark orange skin is described as ideal for painting Halloween faces. It’s small enough for young hands, weighing five to eight pounds and with a strong, long handle. The fruit mature early, about 90 days after sowing seeds. Beyond decoration, Orange Smoothie has sweet meat for pies. 

The other pumpkin, Sorcerer, is a biggie, weighing 15 to 22 pounds, but it’s produced on a compact vine. Of course, they also can be carved and painted and used for pie filling. They mature about 100 days after sowing. 

With two pumpkins and one winter squash on the winner list, it’s a good year for that related family. Advance publicity for the squash, called Cornell’s Bush Delicata, says that butter and brown sugar are optional when eating this squash because it’s so sweet. The flesh is fine textured without coarse strings and it’s rich in Vitamin A. It takes about 100 days from sowing to harvest. 

One of the petunias, named Lavender Wave, was cited for “exceptional” performance. It bears large two-inch, lavender blooms on ground-hugging plants that spread up to four feet. This petunia was described as particularly suited for sloping gardens, hanging baskets and window boxes. 

The other petunia, called Tidal Wave Silver, sports silvery white blooms with dark purple centers. The grower can decide on the height of the mature plant. If spaced six inches apart and given trellis support, they will reach heights of two and three feet. Spaced a foot apart, they’ll reach 16 to 22 inches. They’re adaptable to container culture. 

Neither petunia needs pinching nor pruning to flower all season and both resist severe weather and the disease, botrytis. 

The geranium, called Black Magic Rose, boasts an unusual bicolor leaf pattern distinguishing it from other hybrid geraniums. Each leaf has a black center, creating an exceptional dark contrast to the bright rose florets, and each floret has a small white eye. 

The vinca, Jaio Scarlet Eye, bears a rose-colored flower that distinguishes it from all other vincas. It’s described as perfect for gardeners who want prolonged garden color with minimal care. 

A distinct bicolor design features the pansy, named Ultima Morpho after the Morpho butterfly, which is blue and yellow. In the pansy, the upper petals are midblue. The lower petals are bright yellow. Rays radiate from the center.  

Mature plants spread eight to 10 inches and attain a height of five to eight inches. 

Three feet tall, the cleome, Sparkler Blush, is smaller than most and thus is suited for gardens with less space. It flowers freely all season with pink blooms. Easy to grow, it is heat and drought tolerant and adaptable to most soil conditions. 

The rudbeckia, Cherokee Sunset, offers gardeners a blend of autumn colors — bronze, mahogany, golden yellow and orange — and it flowers profusely the first year with double and semidouble blooms. They are long-lasting as cut flowers when grown in full sun. 

The cucumber, called Diva, produces all-female flowers, giving it a potential for high yields. Maturing in 58 days, it has a tender skin, sweet flavor and crisp texture. 

Ornamental as well as edible, the sweet basil, Magical Michael, features uniform-sized plants that are reliably 15 inches tall and 16 inches to 17 inches wide. The clearly defined size and shape are rare in basils. The leaves may be harvested within 30 days of transplanting. 

The “heat” has been bred out of the ornamental pepper called Chilly Chili, making it safe for children who “explore their environment,” the announcement says. The petite, two-inch peppers make lively ornamental garnishes on salads. 

——— 

EDITOR’S NOTE: George Bria retired from the AP in 1981 after 40 years that included coverage of World War II from Italy. 

End advance for Thursday, Nov. 1, and thereafter 

LOS ANGELES — The parents of every child born in California will receive a free, bilingual parenting kit in an unprecedented statewide education campaign funded by a voter-approved tobacco tax. 

The effort, spearheaded by movie director Rob Reiner, is believed to be the first in the country, officials of the California Children and Families Commission said Thursday. It is expected to benefit as many as 500,000 babies a year. 

“I am unbelievably excited today to announce the single biggest parent education program in the history of this country,” Reiner, the commission’s chairman, told a news conference at a family center where the kits were unveiled. 

Each one includes a guide containing a list of organizations helpful to new parents, as well as information on such subjects as childproofing a home and finding quality child care. 

The kits also include a series of celebrity videos taped in both English and Spanish on topics such as child care, safety, nutrition and discipline. 

The videos, done by such celebrities as Gloria Estefan, Maria Shriver, Phylicia Rashad, Andy Garcia and Jamie Lee Curtis, are available in both English and Spanish. 

Garcia, who narrated a Spanish tape on safety, said he was proud to be part of the program. 

“What a noble thing to be doing,” he said. “If one life is saved, it’s worth it.” 

A pilot project showed 94 percent of parents who used the tapes found them helpful, with 74 percent reporting they would be “very likely” to use them again, commission officials said.  

Forty-eight percent of new mothers reported changing their thoughts on child-rearing as a result. 

Jessica Roosinisalda, who has a 1-month-old son, said she wished she had the information sooner. 

“Had I had the manual, it would have been a lot easier those first few days,” she said. 

The kits are being paid for by the 50-cents-a-pack tobacco tax voters approved in 1998. 

The commission has projected a first-year cost of $25 million, with $15.6 million dedicated to advertising alone. 

The campaign will include a series of television, radio and newspaper ads in 11 languages encouraging parents to get the kits. 

They will be distributed at family centers and hospitals throughout California in the weeks ahead. Close to 40,000 will be handed out in Los Angeles County alone in the coming weeks. 

Reiner, who spearheaded the campaign to pass the tobacco tax initiative, said the kits will fill a key need in building a solid future for children. 

“We know based on years of research that the earliest years are the most critical,” he said. “We need to get this information to parents and give them the tools that they need.”

A 50-state survey conducted over the last two weeks confirms the latest economic worries: state revenues are down, budget cuts are needed, and strains on government services are worsening. 

Adding to the gloom, the results don’t fully capture the economic damage following September’s terrorist attacks, the National Conference of State Legislatures said in the report released Thursday. 

“Policy-makers are bracing for the worst,” said Corina Eckl, one of the report’s authors. “What they’ve seen for the first few months is pretty bad...But the real question is how long and how deep this downturn is going to be.” 

The report said it found the “harshest fiscal conditions in a decade.” At the Federation of Tax Administrators, a group that monitors state economies, Executive Director Harley Duncan said 20 years might be more on target. 

The aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks adds a great deal of uncertainty to the fiscal outlook. “We really don’t have any experience with this kind of economic shock,” Eckl said. “This is new ground.” 

The conference contacted legislative fiscal directors in every state, trying to gauge the substantive ways states’ economies weakened in July, August and September — the first three months of most states’ fiscal years. A report a few months ago documented the softening that began last winter. 

The new report found: 

—Revenue growth continues to fall, with 44 states reporting their already scaled-back hopes were set too high. 

—Costs rose faster than expected, too, with 19 states reporting they were spending faster than their budgets anticipated, and an additional seven expecting overruns in some programs. Higher Medicaid costs were a big worry for many. 

—Budget cuts were passed or on the table in 28 states. 

That meant nearly $1 billion in cuts in Michigan; in Florida, lawmakers approved $800 million in cuts, a half-billion less than the shortfall. In Utah, the governor and lawmakers are squabbling over how to cover a $177 million shortfall. 

Colorado and Missouri both ordered widespread cuts to government programs, but spared K-12 education. In Idaho, education was cut, though not as deeply as other programs. 

Many states were worried that job losses would add to government demand for unemployment, welfare and Medicaid. 

A very few positive spots remained: Louisiana, Montana and Texas benefited from energy-related taxes. Alabama, Nevada and New Hampshire reported revenues in line with or above projections. 

To add to the overall worry, the new data didn’t reflect sales tax returns since Sept. 11 for most states — an important source of government funds for 45 states, and one that is very sensitive to weaker consumer confidence. 

“As more collection figures become available — especially post Sept. 11 data — the revenue picture is expected to get worse,” the report said. “Many states are waiting to see the effects of declining consumer confidence, widespread layoffs and corporate downsizing on state coffers.” 

Duncan, who before joining the tax administrators’ group worked on state finances in Kansas and South Dakota, said he hadn’t seen the new NCSL report, but it confirmed the other data he’d seen. 

And, he said, “the pace of deterioration that occurred between Sept. 11 and now — I’ve never seen anything go that far and that fast.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

National Conferences of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org 

NEW YORK — Three major television networks are suing the maker of the first Internet-ready personal digital video recorder, saying the ReplayTV 4000 lets people make and distribute illegal copies of television programs. 

NBC, ABC and CBS filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in California against SONICblue Inc., claiming the ReplayTV 4000 would violate their copyrights by allowing users to distribute copies of programs over the Internet. 

The networks also complained that technology in the personal video recorder can automatically strip out commercials. 

In a joint statement, the networks said the device “violates the rights of copyright owners in unprecedented ways” and “deprives the copyright owners of the means by which they are paid for their creative content and thus reduces the incentive to create programming and make it available to the public.” 

The ReplayTV 4000 has not yet been released for sale to the public, and the networks are asking the court to prevent the device from coming to market. SONICblue, which is based in Santa Clara and acquired ReplayTV Inc. this year, was planning to begin sales in mid-November. 

SONICblue officials said they have not seen the lawsuit but stressed that they took precautions against a Napster-like unfettered distribution of television programming. 

The company limited the number of times — to 15 — in which a user could send a particular show to another ReplayTV 4000 owner, or so-called “TV buddy.” A recorded show could only be sent — or resent to another user — a maximum of 15 times. 

“I think we’ve treaded softly,” SONICblue’s chief executive Ken Potashner said. 

The product also supports a digital rights copy protection technology made by Macrovision, giving broadcast networks the option to use that technology to restrict consumers from sending copies of a show over the Internet. 

The ReplayTV 4000 is a souped-up version of digital video recorders which were first introduced to consumers in 1998 by ReplayTV and rival TiVo Inc. So-called DVRs allow consumers to store hours of TV offerings on built-in hard drives, and while watching live television, users can pause, rewind, even do instant replays. 

The networks, some of which have invested in ReplayTV, did not object to earlier versions of the ReplayTV recorder or devices by TiVo. Both allow users to fast-forward through commercials but — unlike the ReplayTV 4000 — do not include technology to automatically delete the ads or share the files of the recorded shows. 

“We do have an investment. However we never consented or would consent to the misuse of our copyrighted works,” said Michelle Bergman, a spokeswoman for Disney, also a plaintiff. “We made clear we expect the use of copyrighted materials to be licensed and this technology does not allow for that. We’re protecting ourselves.” 

Digital video recorders devices have yet to take off — there are only an estimated 750,000 users. 

Analysts say the lawsuit marks the broadcast networks’ pre-emptive strike against a technology that is expected to flourish and could raise the same kind of thorny piracy issues that plagued the record industry after Napster helped popularize the practice of song-swapping over the Internet. 

The ReplayTV 4000 “is not going to impact the revenues of networks today but they care about what the technology could do to them by 2003 and 2004,” said Carmel Group analyst Sean Badding. 

“The networks will have to figure out a way to adjust to it, or capitalize from it,” he added. 

SAN JOSE — Business software maker BEA Systems Inc. said Thursday it will lay off about 300 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force, by year’s end, joining the long list of Silicon Valley firms that have trimmed payrolls to offset declining sales. 

The San Jose-based company revealed the cutbacks in an announcement warning that its profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 will fall shy of Wall Street expectations. BEA said its earnings from operations will be 5 or 6 cents per share, below the consensus estimate of 8 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Until the tech slump of the past year, BEA was one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing companies. It provides a software platform that helps run applications more quickly and smoothly. 

BEA will record a charge of $15 million to $20 million to cover severance pay and other costs incurred in the layoffs. The company also said it will absorb a $110 million charge to account for the diminished value of past acquisitions and investments.

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Sun Microsystems Inc. will lay off about 250 people in Colorado as it cuts its global work force because of the soured economy. 

Almost all the cuts will be at Sun’s business park in Broomfield, Sun spokesman Prentiss Donohue said. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is cutting about 3,900 of its 43,000 employees overall. 

Donohue said the actual number layoffs in Colorado won’t be known until next week, but about 235 will come at the Broomfield office.  

Affected employees began receiving notices Tuesday, he said. 

Scores of technology firms in Colorado and across the United States have laid off employees in response to the economic downturn. The Sept. 11 attacks further hurt demand. 

Unlike many other firms, Sun refrained from layoffs until later in the year. But demand for its servers, storage and software programs declined through 2001. 

In mid-October, Sun reported a loss of $180 million on revenue of $2.86 billion, down sharply from net income of $510 million on revenue of $5.05 billion for the same quarter last year. 

Sun’s stock was trading at $10.64 on Thursday, up 49 cents, or 4.83 percent.

LOS ANGELES — A hearing was ordered Thursday to determine whether the guilty plea by a former Symbionese Liberation Army radical for a 1975 attempted bombing was valid, given her public declarations of innocence. 

The order from Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler came one day after Sara Jane Olson entered the plea. She then walked outside the courtroom and insisted she had done so because the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had made it impossible to get a fair trial. 

“I pleaded to something of which I’m not guilty,” she said. 

Fidler set the hearing for Tuesday. A court spokesman said he didn’t know whether the hearing would be private or held in open court. 

“I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” said Michael Latin, one of the prosecutors. “I’ve been in situations where a defendant comes back and asks to withdraw a plea, but that is not what’s happening here.” 

He said the prosecution had not asked for the hearing. 

Olson, 54, made no reference to the attacks as she admitted to possessing bombs and attempting to explode them under police cars in two incidents — one at the Hollenbeck Police Station in Los Angeles and another near a House of Pancakes restaurant in Hollywood on Aug. 21, 1975. 

Neither bomb went off. Prosecutors said one of them was one of the largest pipe bombs ever built in the United States and would have injured many people. 

Prosecutors dismissed three other charges in exchange for Olson’s plea, but did not guarantee her a specific sentence. Her lawyers said they expected her to get about five years in prison, but she could be sentenced to life behind bars Dec. 7. 

After the hearing, Olson said the esteem of law enforcement authorities has risen since the attacks and she had to consider the possibility of being convicted. She said her lawyers advised her that her chances of a lesser sentence would be better if she pleaded guilty. 

Defense lawyer Shawn Snider Chapman said Olson had been so ambivalent about pleading guilty that she did not make the final decision until just a few minutes before the hearing. 

The trial was to have provided an ending to the SLA’s violent history and perhaps a finale to a story which once riveted America. The SLA had gained national notoriety after the 1974 kidnapping of media heiress Patty Hearst. 

Olson, whose given name was Kathleen Soliah, was accused of targeting police officers in retaliation for the deaths of six SLA members in a 1974 shootout and fire at a Los Angeles house. 

She vanished a short time after the attempted bombings. She was indicted in 1976 but remained a fugitive until her June 1999 capture in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living under the assumed name she later adopted. She had built a life as a wife, mother of three children and sometime actress. 

Even before Fidler’s move, legal experts said Olson’s actions were surprising. 

“I don’t think it’s a very smart thing to do,” said Loyola University Law professor Laurie Levenson. 

“At minimum, she will get a tongue lashing,” Levenson said. “But the court is going to say, ’Ms. Olson, if you are innocent, let us do what we do best and give you a trial.”’

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The federal government has ordered Ohio and 13 other states to make their Megan’s laws stronger or risk losing millions in grant money. 

Making their laws consistent with the federal Megan’s Law is one of 17 requirements for states to receive a federal grant that pays for crime prevention and victims’ assistance programs in communities nationwide. 

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance notified the states in June that they would lose 10 percent of their annual grant beginning next year if they did not change their sex-offender registration laws by October. The National Criminal Justice Association, which is working with the states on the problem, said it is uncertain if any of the 14 met the deadline. 

For Ohio, which receives about $19 million a year, the loss would be nearly $2 million. 

“It might not seem like a lot, but communities are counting on this money for programs that have proven to be a success,” said Domingo Herraiz, director of the Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services. 

Sheriffs and police departments can use the money to pay for task forces, community policing efforts, victims’ advocacy projects or treatment programs for drug- and alcohol-addicted offenders. 

All 50 states and the federal government have passed some type of sex-offender registration law since 1994 when 7-year-old Megan Kanka, was raped and murdered by a convicted sexual offender who lived near her family’s New Jersey home. 

States had until last month to change their laws to require sex offenders to register with local authorities for life. 

In some states, sexual offenders are required to register for only a certain length of time, not life, and can ask a court to terminate the registration order, which also is against the federal law. 

“Some states have faced difficulty because their Legislatures didn’t want to change the law. For the most part, that’s been the problem,” said Cabell Cropper, executive director of the National Criminal Justice Association. 

Besides Ohio, the states are Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington. 

Virginia said it believes its law was already in compliance. 

Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the state had made the necessary changes by the end of the legislative session in 1999. She said officials were trying to find out why the state is listed as non-compliant. 

In Ohio, only offenders labeled sexual predators are required to register for life, and they can petition a court to throw out that designation. Habitual sexual offenders must register with authorities for 20 years, and sexually oriented offenders for 10 years. 

Officials said the state is trying to round up support for the changes among lawmakers and sheriffs and has asked the government for more time. 

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gays may be entitled to the estates of partners who die without wills, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday. 

The decision came as the justices ordered a new trial for Frank Vasquez, who is claiming the $230,000 estate of his longtime partner. A lower court had found the claim invalid because same-sex marriage is illegal in Washington. 

“Equitable claims are not dependent on the ‘legality’ of the relationship between the parties, nor are they limited by the gender or sexual orientation of the parties,” Justice Charles Johnson wrote in the unanimous decision. 

Vasquez, 64, shared a house, business and financial assets with Robert Schwerzler until Schwerzler died without a will in 1995. 

Vasquez claimed the estate, which consisted mainly of the house, and was challenged by Schwerzler’s siblings. The siblings said they never saw the men display affection, that Vasquez was apparently a housekeeper, and that he did not accompany Schwerzler on trips. 

“They literally wanted to put Mr. Vasquez out on the street with nothing,” said Terry Barnett, Vasquez’s attorney. Vasquez is illiterate and disabled because of a childhood head injury, according to court records. 

Ross Taylor, an attorney for Schwerzler’s siblings, said he hopes to disprove Vasquez’ version of the relationship at the trial, thus avoiding the question of whether he is entitled to the estate. 

“My clients do not think their brother was a homosexual,” Taylor said. 

A trial judge ruled that Vasquez was entitled to the property under a legal concept that protects the interests of unmarried people in long-term relationships. An appeals court reversed the decision, saying the concept does not apply to same-sex couples because they cannot legally marry. 

The state’s highest court rejected that conclusion but ordered a new trial because some facts of the case are in dispute. 

“It’s a tremendous affirmation of one of the most basic principles,” said Jenny Pizer of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights organization 

NEW YORK — Geraldo Rivera is quitting his prime-time talk show on CNBC to become a war correspondent for Fox News Channel, saying Thursday he couldn’t bear to stay on the sidelines during a big story. 

Rivera’s last CNBC show after seven years will be on Nov. 16. He said he’ll be leaving for Afghanistan the next day. 

His legal affairs talk show is one of CNBC’s highest-rated programs, although down from its heights during the O.J. Simpson trials. His 10 years as a syndicated talk show host ended in 1998. 

Rivera, who exercised an exit clause in his NBC contract, said he wanted to do more reporting but it was difficult when he was committed to a talk show four nights a week. 

He was particularly frustrated recently when he asked to do a special for NBC on why Muslims hate America, and was told he couldn’t leave the country, Rivera said. 

“That’s when I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,”’ he said. “I’m a reporter, that’s how I see myself. And the war on terrorism is the biggest story of our times. I’ve got to get out there. And when you’re an anchor, you’re literally anchored. I had to break the chain.” 

It’s a coup for Fox News Channel, which has struggled to keep up with CNN in international coverage. Fox recently hired a former CNN correspondent, Steve Harrigan, to report from Afghanistan. 

Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes said Rivera “never got the respect he deserved as a newsman” at NBC. “He never was used in the way he should be.” 

Rivera did news specials for NBC and appeared on the “Today” show. But many in NBC News’ old guard were suspicious of Rivera’s tabloid TV days searching Al Capone’s vault and getting his nose broken during a chair-throwing brawl with white supremacists. 

Ailes nearly hired Rivera in 1997, but at the last minute he decided to stay at NBC. Rivera said his exit from NBC now was done in a “gentlemanly’ fashion.” 

NBC News President Neal Shapiro said: “We wish him all the best.” 

“Geraldo has had an up-and-down career,” Ailes said. “He wanted to, and decided to make money doing talk shows and other things. My own view is that does not destroy you as long as when you’re doing the news, you’re doing the news. 

“I don’t think anyone has ever questioned his ability to do news,” he said. 

Ailes said Rivera’s contract provides flexibility to use him for other things, perhaps as a talk show host again, but that’s not imminent. “Right now he’s coming in as our hot spot correspondent,” he said. 

CNBC said it will fill the sudden hole in its schedule by expanding its business programming into prime-time. 

Rivera planned to tell his viewers Thursday that he’s not the same man he was before Sept. 11, when “the maniacs tried to tear our heart out.” 

“I’m feeling more patriotic than at any time in my life,” he said. “Itching for justice, or maybe just revenge.” 

And this catharsis I’ve gone through has caused me to reassess what I do.”

Unable to agree on a compromise Tuesday, the City Council took no direct action on a recommendation from the Commission on Disability to change one of the Berkeley Free Folk Festival venues because of poor disabled accessibility. 

Instead, the council referred the matter to the city manager, who will develop an accessibility policy for all city-sponsored events. The council approved the referral by a vote of 7-1-1 with Councilmember Betty Olds voting in opposition and Councilmember Miriam Hawley abstaining. 

“It seems that the Berkeley Free Folk Festival was singled out from other city-sponsored events and that’s not good for anybody,” Councilmember Linda Maio said. “It’s better having a policy that is applied to everybody across the board.” 

The City Council does not have the authority to cancel or move the festival but it could have withdrawn its annual contribution of $3,000. It did not do so, however. 

The city manager will develop an accessibility policy for other city-sponsored events such as the Juneteenth, Earth Day and Cinco de Mayo festivals. 

The Commission on Disability unanimously approved a recommendation on Sept. 12 asking the council to move the folk festival, which is being held on Nov. 17 and 18, from the Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center on San Pablo Avenue. According to commissioners, Ashkenaz has poor accessibility at its entrance and bathrooms and no disabled access to the stage. 

The festival is also being held at the Freight and Salvage on Addison Street. 

The council first approved the referral to the city manager and then attempted to take specific action on the Berkeley Free Festival. 

“I am really concerned about this,” Mayor Shirley Dean said. “This has been a long-standing dispute that needs to be settled.” 

The festival, which began in 1996, was moved once before from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall for similar accessibility problems. 

In an attempt to find some resolution to the issue, Commissioner on Disability Marissa Shaw presented the council with a compromise that would allow the festival to go ahead as planned this year, but require it be held in a larger, more accessible venue, such as a school auditorium next year. 

But a series of miscommunications and disagreements resulted in the council taking no further action on the folk festival. 

The compromise was first moved by Hawley but moments later she removed the motion because there was a dispute about whether an amendment by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, which would have included funding for a sound system, had been accepted. 

Worthington then made two more motions requiring a new venue for the folk festival next year and funding for a sound system, but both failed. 

“I’m really dismayed and quite shocked the council did not approve the compromise,” Shaw said. “We knew there were not enough council votes to move the festival this year and that’s why we offered the compromise.” 

Maio said just prior to voting she couldn’t support the compromise.  

“This is too hastily done,” she said. “We have a year to work out something that is well-worded. I have a problem with the process.” 

Festival Director Suzy Thompson said Wednesday that “to move the festival to a larger and institutional setting like a school would alter the festival’s nature.  

“But we’re waiting until after this year’s festival to discuss any changes.” 

Worthington, who helped develop the festival six years ago, said on Wednesday that the Commission on Disability actually made progress on Tuesday even though the council did not approve its recommendation or compromise. 

“Twice in recent months motions to move the folk festival have been withdrawn at the mere suggestion of requiring it be moved to a more accessible venue,” he said. “Last night, even though the council couldn’t agree, there was a clear willingness to approve a recommendation to move the festival (next year).” 

Worthington said the community got a clear message that the festival should be moved and he was sure it would not be held at Ashkenaz next year. “I understand the commission is frustrated but they deserve a great deal of praise for their persistence.”

After missing Cal’s last two games due to a back injury, junior quarterback Kyle Boller has been allowed to return to the field by team doctors. But head coach Tom Holmoe said it isn’t a sure thing that Boller will start against Arizona on Saturday. 

“We think he’s back, but I don’t think it’s a great idea just to rush him back into it right away,” Holmoe said. “I’d rather see how things progress.” 

Holmoe said the key to Boller’s return would be a good showing in practice this week. Boller, who has been the starter for three years, usually takes a large majority of the snaps in practice, but redshirt freshman Reggie Robertson, who got his first career start last weekend against Oregon State, will take about half the snaps this week in case Boller isn’t ready to go on Saturday. 

Holmoe confirmed that Robertson has moved past senior Eric Holtfreter on the depth chart. Holtfreter started two weeks ago against UCLA but was ineffective. Robertson came in late in that game and looked impressive, leading to the freshman’s start against the Beavers. 

“Reggie’s had some good things happen the last two weeks and gives us enough cause to think that he can go play some of this game,” Holmoe said. “Then we have Eric Holtfreter available if need be.” 

Robertson was ineffective last week against Oregon State, completing just 12-of-32 for 120 yards and an interception while underthrowing several deep balls. But his struggles were somewhat mitigated by the poor playing conditions due to a downpour that made the ball slippery. 

“(Robertson’s) completion percentage wasn’t good,” Holmoe said. “But you’re dealing with a wet field, wet ball, receivers slipping, balls flying. It would be good to see him in another situation, nice weather.”  

Boller’s big arm presumably would be appreciated by new deep threat LeShaun Ward, who finally made the move to wide receiver from cornerback against Oregon State. Ward caught four balls for 55 yards against the Beavers, along with a 39-yard gain on a reverse, but Robertson underthrew the junior a couple of times when Ward was open deep, a problem Boller doesn’t have to worry about with his cannon. 

Ward is the fastest player on the Cal team, and having him as a threat should cause opponents to at least worry about the deep ball, which hasn’t been a factor without Ward playing offense. 

“One of the things in contemplating moving LaShaun over is that he would give us that big play threat,” Holmoe said. “We threw a couple more (long passes) at him. If anything, even if we didn’t complete them, at least it stretches the defense. It gives people a feeling now that we are going to do that.” 

Also in flux for the Bears is the tailback position. Starter Joe Igber is out for the season with a broken collarbone suffered against Oregon State, leaving Holmoe with just two healthy tailbacks on the roster, true freshman Terrell Williams and walk-on Michael Sparks. 

“Losing Joe is very tough,” Holmoe said. “To me, you lose one of your key ingredients on the team, and that’s a kid that everybody loves. We’ll lose him and that will be a big loss.” 

Williams has been a nice surprise so far this season, stepping into the backup role when Joe Echema was ruled ineligible by the NCAA. The freshman has played in every game, rushing for 266 yards on 63 carries. He ran for 104 yards last week after stepping in for the injured Igber in the first half. 

Another option at tailback is senior Marcus Fields, who has been one of Cal’s best weapons at the fullback position. Fields is second on the team with 20 catches. He was a tailback early in his career, rushing for 734 yards in 1998 as the starter, but moved to fullback after being supplanted by Igber the next season. Holmoe said Fields will likely see some time at both positions on Saturday, but expect Williams to get the lion’s share of carries. 

“Marcus will obviously help us,” Holmoe said. “You could see at the end of the game when Joe went out, Marcus was in there on a couple of plays as a single back.” 

Holmoe said the Bears may resort to the option to take some pressure off of the replacement players on offense. It’s a play they have rarely used this season, and Robertson is the only quarterback with much experience running it. 

“Reggie’s the guy that can run it better than the other guys, but Kyle has run some nice plays out of it and so has (Holtfreter),” Holmoe said. “In the next four weeks, it might be something that will play a little bit bigger role, knowing that we have to find a few other ways to compensate for the loss of (Igber).”

Thursday, Nov. 1

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College of Alameda Hosts 11th Annual Citywide College Night 

6:30 - 8:30 

College Gymnasium 

555 Atlantic Ave. 

College of Alameda hosts representatives from over 70 public and private colleges and universities for a night of information-sharing and inspiration.  

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Public Works Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Agenda includes drafting policy on naming of public facilities from the Parks and Recreation Commission. 981-6400 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge.... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First Floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia St. 

6 p.m., Presentation from Lawrence Berkeley Lab On Site Restoration. Procedure for CEAC Agenda and Council Reports, Green Business and Green Building positions. 705-8150 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Presentations and discussion of various proposals received for funding under the Housing Trust Fund Program. 981-5411 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Friday, Nov. 2

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Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. 

Morrison Library in Doe Library 

UC Berkeley 

Korean poet Ko Un reads selections from his poetry, short stories, fiction, criticism, essays, and children’s literature. 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3  

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Nov. 4

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Re-Legitimizing Peace: Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org 

Family Musical Education 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A child-centered presentation for the whole family by local classical musicians to learn about rhythm and meter. $10 per family. 527-6202 

Editor: 

I am appalled by the vitriolic reaction to the Berkeley City Council’s decision to send a statement to President Bush opposing the bombing of Afghanistan, a decision widely condemned as unpatriotic. To me, this demonstrates insulting presumptuousness about the feelings and motivations of those council members who voted for the resolution and individuals who support it. You may passionately disagree with their reasoning, but condemning sincere and conscientious opposition to public policy as unpatriotic is dangerous and oppressive. Acting on one’s conscience shows integrity and does not equal lack of patriotism. A core value of this country is respect for and protection of minority views, no matter how unpopular. Let’s hope we get out of this mess with that value intact. 

Sonja Fitz 

Berkeley 

MUSIC 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 1: The Irrationals; Nov. 2: Anna de Leon and Ellen Hoffmann, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 1: Ascension, $5; Nov. 2: Shady Lady, Buffalo Roam, $5; Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; 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 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 1: Si Kahn $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 1: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series Nov. 1: 8 p.m., Singer/songwriters Faith Nolan and Megan McElroy, $14; Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

THEATER 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through 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 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“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 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through 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 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre. org 

“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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

DANCE 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

FILMS 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

Exhibits  

“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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

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

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 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 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

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; 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  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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.

The Berkeley Unified School District has won a second Magnet Schools Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which will spread $1 million among four schools. The award will help the schools buy equipment and materials based on a specialized theme of instruction that is integrated throughout the curriculum.  

“I’m very pleased that we could qualify for that money,” said Michelle Lawrence, the district superintendent.  

“I think it supports the creativity that is so much a part of our organization.” 

The grant serves four schools. It renews one school’s funding received in 1998, while the three other schools will receive new funds.  

Three other schools, selected in 1998, are not part of the grant. They have spent their grant funds and are now facing cut-backs. 

The grants bring the name “magnet” with the funding – Le Conte Science Elementary Magnet will make science the centerpiece of its studies; Thousand Oaks Arts and Technology Magnet will emphasize visual and performing arts; and Washington Communications and Technology Magnet will focus on communications and media. 

The City of Franklin Micro-Society K-8 Magnet, with renewed funding, will continue its centerpiece project – a model city, that teaches the art of citizenry.  

It is scheduled to hold an “election” next week. 

Irving Phillips, the district director of magnet programs, said it was a special honor that Berkeley was chosen again. 

“It’s tougher the second time, it really is,” he said, because a district not only has to demonstrate need, but to show success from the first time around. “Our grant application was about 350 pages.” 

In addition to City of Franklin, three other Berkeley schools had received funds from a three-year grant first awarded in 1998. Rosa Parks Environmental Sciences Magnet, Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet, and Longfellow Arts and Technology Magnet Middle School all hired instructors, trained staff, and bought equipment. 

Longfellow Principal Bill Dwyer said his school’s share went for computers and technology education, staff training “to use the arts as delivery of skills and concepts related to mandated state standards” and arts purposes. 

Theater props and a “follow spot” stage light purchased with grant money are being used in this year’s production of “Antigone,” Dwyer said. Last summer, five teachers received hands-on instruction in arts education from a program called the Lincoln Center Arts Integration Process. Another program taught students “how to legally and effectively access the Internet to improve both writing and research skills,” Dwyer said.  

Rosa Parks also received a $150,000 grant from the Bayer Corporation when the magnet schools grant came through in 1998, said Kathy Freeburg, the school’s curriculum coordinator. After a $50,000 splurge on a new computer lab, most of the money went to instructors, from science to gardening and cooking, she said.  

“The main thing is that the students are studying the same topics at the same time, so the teachers are collaborating more and it’s also being used in the language arts,” Freeburg said. 

So what happens to a magnet school when the magnet grant runs out? 

Dwyer and Freeburg both said while the nomenclature is here to stay, the money will be missed. 

“We are continuing to promote the program (because) the magnet focus of arts and technology is used in recruiting teachers who have backgrounds in our area of specialty,” Dwyer said. 

However, he said, “the key piece to it was we had four staff positions funded by the magnet grant, and all we were able to continue out of that with the district picking up the funding was a .6 position.” 

That part-time job has been filled by a voice and general music instructor, he said, “so despite the loss of funding for positions, we were able to move the choral music program ahead.” 

Rosa Parks’ money, Freeburg said, is also “gone,” but the school will continue to call itself a magnet. 

“It’s part of our name,” said Freeburg. “The whole idea of magnets is that you have a specialty that’s maybe not true at other schools.” 

Without the grant, Freeburg has gone from full-time to half-time in her coordinating position (she also teaches fourth grade), and a full-time computer instructor is also no longer around. 

“We’re trying to work on sustainability, not just writing grants but finding ongoing contributors,” Freeburg said.  

The federal government launched the Magnet Schools program in 1984. Its official goals are to reduce minority group isolation, raise achievement levels to close the “achievement gap,” develop an innovative curriculum, and promote early career awareness. 

Freeburg said the magnet program had helped the school become “a little more balanced ethnically and achievement-wise.” 

“We’ve had a lot of different programs, and I can’t say the science program did it all,” she said.

Cal basketball recruit Julian Sensley failed to get a qualifying score on his latest attempt at the SAT, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week. 

Sensley, currently a part-time student at Diablo Valley College in Stockton, has one more chance to pass the SAT in time to enroll for Cal’s spring semester. Sensley will take the test on Nov. 10. If he passes, he can enroll and be eligible in time for Cal’s Dec. 21 game against Mount St. Mary’s. 

A native of Kailua, Hawaii, Sensley was rated the No. 6 prospect in the country by ESPN.com.

Editor, 

The Berkeley City Council’s next gesture should undoubtedly be a resolution calling for the immediate imposition of Rent Control in all Afghan towns and villages. Why? Because of that famous quote by Henry Spencer: “Rent control is second only to bombing as a way of destroying a city.” 

Leon Mayeri 

Berkeley

The fungus that causes Sudden Oak Death, a virulent disease which has killed tens of thousands of trees in northern California since 1995, was recently discovered on the UC Berkeley campus, school officials reported on Wednesday. 

According to Jim Horner, campus landscape architect, the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum was discovered to have infected a bay laurel tree, a buckeye and a rhododendron near the university’s Faculty Glade. 

The discovery, made by Dr. Matteo Garbelotto of the College of Natural Resources, is the first time the fungus has been found in the East Bay lowlands. In August, several live oak and bay laurel trees bordering Crow Canyon Boulevard, in the hills outside Castro Valley, were found to be suffering from the disease. 

Some experts fear that the discovery could mean the fungus is already widespread in the Berkeley area. 

“The fact that they found this on campus means that it’s most likely already in and around Berkeley – probably up in the hills there,” said Bruce Hagen, an urban forester with the California Department of Forestry who has studied Sudden Oak Death extensively.  

Garbelotto, one of the leading researchers on the disease, said he expected this to be the case. 

“The most likely explanation is that it’s widespread in the county but is not yet killing the oaks,” he said. “The other would be that this pathogen was introduced in particular spots, by birds or some other carrier, and the campus happened to be one of them.” 

In addition to oaks, the fungus can live and spread on a number of different species of trees and shrubs, including madrones, manzanitas, huckleberries and certain maples. 

Many of these species are not affected as severely as oaks by the disease. The fungus may just infect their leaves and not their trunks, as in the case of oaks. The campus’ infected plants on campus all showed symptoms in their leaves. 

Garbelotto said those species may manifest the symptoms of infestation long before it shows up in neighboring oak trees. Non-oaks may show signs of infection just 72 hours after exposure to the fungus, whereas the disease can gestate in oak trees for months or even years before any symptoms appear. 

Garbelotto said he expects to begin testing trees around the city very soon. 

“I have received some reports of suspicious trees in the Berkeley hills,” he said.. 

Many experts warned, however, that the disease is nearly impossible to identify on sight. Garbelotto said samples from the trees on campus were tested three times before a diagnosis was confirmed. 

“The thing about Sudden Oak Death is that there are many other diseases that look like it,” said Jerry Koch, a forester with the city. “That’s why you have to have a lab test to confirm that a tree has this particular fungus.” 

Local agencies involved with the disease have been preparing for an onslaught of Sudden Oak Death around Berkeley, but they have not developed a detailed plan to respond if it does strike.  

“We’re in the early stages of the research as to how this spreads and what we can do to slow it down,” said Koch, who had attended a seminar on the disease in September. 

Koch said the only immediate action the city could take is to determine if any trees are infected and isolate them. He said if more cases are found, the city would have to make sure that chips from removed or trimmed trees not be moved to a different location. 

Ned MacKay, spokesperson for the East Bay Regional Parks District, said coincidentally, a parks district workshop on Sudden Oak Death, which had been planned for many weeks, was held Wednesday at the Oakland Zoo. 

According to MacKay, the EBRPD had just issued a new policy to help contain Sudden Oak Death if it is found in the park system. The policy banned the cutting of downed logs into firewood, so that people wouldn’t be tempted to carry it off and unwittingly spread the disease. 

Lisa Caronna, director of the city’s Parks and Waterfront department, said her department had no immediate response to the discovery of the disease. 

“We’re going to be implementing whatever best practices that are recommended by the experts,” she said. 

Garbelotto said he would be hanging informational fliers around the campus, warning students not to take plant material from the campus into their homes.  

“Students need to be responsible and not to bring the pathogen into their neighborhood,” he said. 

Maggie Kelley, director of monitoring for the California Oak Mortality Task Force, said citizens should be on the watch for the disease in their communities. 

“The risk is pretty high,” she said. “Once this gets established in an area, it can spread pretty quickly. In Berkeley, the conditions are right, and the host materials are there.”  

“We always encourage people to look out, but we also want them to be educated about the look-alike diseases out there.” 

Concerned citizens may learn more about the disease on the Oak Mortality Task Force’s web site, www.suddenoakdeath.org. If you have a tree that you believe may be afflicted, read about the symptoms particular to that tree. If you still believe the tree might carry the disease, contact the Natural Resources Advisor for the UC’s Cooperative Extension program at (408) 299-2635. 

ditor: 

Here is another voice – and vote – in favor of being able to park a car in downtown Berkeley. At the very minimum the number of parking places should stay at the current level. A better solution is a prompt and professional study of the short term parking needs in all of Berkeley’s retail and commercial districts. 

That study should include an analysis of the changing demographics of Berkeley. The U.S. Census shows that between 1990 and 2000 Berkeley has had: 

• An 8 percent increase in the number of children under 5 years of age. Getting around Berkeley by bus or bicycle when you have an infant or toddler is at minimum difficult. It can be dangerous. 

• A 60.6 percent increase in the number of residents between the ages of 45 to 64 years of age. While some of these folks probably take public transportation regularly, it’s unrealistic to expect them to ride bicycles to Safeway or the Berkeley Bowl. 

• A 9 percent increase in the number of residents over the age of 65. These are people who know they are no longer as strong or vigorous as they were a few short years ago. Their increased concern about their physical safety can make a bus stop appear very dangerous. Yet these are the very people who are natural patrons of, and donors to, Berkeley’s Arts District.  

If you endorse the Planning Commissioner’s view of Berkeley you are voting to make life harder for all of the mothers and fathers of young children, all the seniors, all the disabled in our city. Or does our Planning Commissioner want a city made up only of 1) people young and healthy enough to ride bicycles everywhere and 2) people who have plenty of extra hours in their days so they can take the bus to the grocery store? 

The Parking Needs study should also take note of an increase in the population of Berkeley. These additional people are probably the reason so many of us find it harder to find parking places when we want to visit the YMCA, go shopping or eat in a restaurant in the downtown area. If the city government wants Berkeley residents to continue to buy their groceries, their medicines, their clothes, their books, and get their haircuts in Berkeley then it needs to recognize the genie is out of the bottle. And until there are millions of “extra” dollars to radically upgrade public transit in this area the genie will stay out of the bottle. 

Jenny Wenk 

Berkeley 

A new energy-efficient Berkeley Lamp was presented to the city Wednesday by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Charles Shank.  

Thirteen fluorescent desk lamps were donated to the city’s engineering offices and will be used in a pilot program where the lamps’ energy consumption will be monitored for one year. 

Based on four years of research and testing at LBNL, the Berkeley Lamp is a “Trojan Horse for energy efficiency,” said an enthusiastic Michael Siminovitch, one of the project designers. 

“Most office lighting is profoundly challenged, and people are very sensitive to their environment. User control and preference is the Trojan Horse for getting energy efficiency to the market place,” said Siminovitch. “Usually, energy efficiency means a penalty of either the amount of light or control.”  

The lamp is reported to be as bright as a 300-watt halogen torchiere and a 150-watt incandescent lamp combined at full power, but uses a quarter of the energy. 

The lamp’s efficiency lies in the control of the immediate environment. At the heart of the Berkeley Lamp is a patented Septum Dish, which looks like a metal cereal bowl, dividing two 55-watt CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps), sending light up and/or down. Two dimmer switches control either the torchiere or desk style of lighting.  

Siminovitch said the lamps were first designed to meet the needs of the hotel and residential market, but they are finding their place in the office, especially where there are no windows and the only light source is overhead fluorescent lighting.  

Berkeley Energy Officer Neal De Snoo led a tour of the city’s engineering office where the 13 Berkeley Lamps were the only source of light. 

“This office alone will save the city $915 per year,” said De Snoo. “This office produced 6 tons of carbon dioxide per year (using overhead fluorescent lighting). It will now produce 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide.” 

“The light is very nice, a much warmer feel,” said Wendy Wong, an assistant public works engineer who works in the office.  

She was not a fan of fluorescent lighting, but said she is a fan of the lamp.  

There are about 1,000 Berkeley Lamps currently in use in California. For more information see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ energy.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter sent to the mayor and council: 

The loss of thousands of jobs in the dot com industry, a national recession, and high California electric prices were bad enough, so when tragedy struck this September 11th, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the economy would suffer.  

Whether or not a boycott in response to the Council’s resolution on Afghanistan would have been a significant factor, or would even have materialized, is an open question, but one thing is certain: by publicizing the threat of a boycott with inflammatory rhetoric, press conferences and appearances on national TV, the Mayor has guaranteed businesses will suffer more losses then would otherwise have been the case.  

Seeking publicity that can do nothing but hurt Berkeley means the mayor is either foolish or making a deliberate decision. As someone who has watched council business for years I can assure you that the mayor is not a fool. She has every right to publicly disagree, if she wants to, with a resolution that calls upon the United States to end the bombing “as soon as possible.” We can differ, respectfully, without grandstanding. 

But going to the media and talking up a boycott of Berkeley based on a political calculation that she can convince retailers to blame political opponents for what is likely to be a slow Christmas season should not be tolerated. FOR SHAME: seeking to exploit the grief and anger we feel over the tragic deaths of 5,000 people for cheap political gain. It is deplorable, it is indecent, and it crosses the line. 

Perhaps the mayor’s political calculation is correct, and people angered at the loss of business will blame their plight on those who supported the anti-war resolutions, but it seems obvious to me that the mayor of any city should be urging people to support its economy, rather than publicizing calls for a boycott of this fine city.  

The mayor owes us all an apology. She owes an apology to local merchants, who will lose income because of her efforts to publicize the idea of a boycott. But most of all, she owes an apology to the nation and to those who loved and cared for the 5,000 people who lost their lives, whose memory she has exploited by taking a cheap shot to achieve crass political gains.  

Elliot Cohen 

Berkeley 

Thursday, Nov. 1 

• 7 p.m. 

The first Bay Area Appearance of members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan 

Mills College 

Campus Chapel 

5000 Mac Arthur Blvd. 

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to the Chamber of Commerce: 

In this time of agony and anger over the attacks on Sept. 11, it is truly moving to have the Berkeley City Council pass a resolution urging restraint of our overwhelming military attacks on the wretched of Afghanistan. 

I support and salute those council members and their citizen supporters who voted on the resolution. I will gladly make purchases in Berkeley. I will not support a boycott. 

Let’s not respond with Taliban-like zeal to events but, rather, look at the reality of our actions in the world. 

Michael Mora, 

Palo Alto 

SAN FRANCISCO — A spring frost and summer heat spikes led to a lower wine grape yield this year, but it also helped vines intensify the flavor in the grapes that survived the temperature extremes. 

The total statewide crop for 2001 is expected to be 3.1 million tons when harvesting wraps up.  

That’s down 6 percent from last year’s harvest of 3.3 million tons, a record high, despite 40,000 new acres coming into production this year. 

Abnormal weather damaged fruit, with little rain, a frost in April, hot weather in May and June and cool weather in July and August. But cool fall weather has helped balance out the flavor of the grapes, according to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute. 

And the glassy-winged sharpshooter, the insect that spreads the vine-killing Pierce’s disease that has affected Southern California vines, has been controlled with a wasp that lays its eggs in the sharpshooter’s eggs. 

“It’s gotten rid of about 85 percent of the eggs,” said Gladys Horiuchi, a spokeswoman for the Wine Institute. 

Consumers should benefit because there’s still an abundant supply of grapes and prices have gone down. That means wineries will be able to blend better grapes into their wines, Robert Smiley, dean of the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management, said in a recent survey.

LOS ANGELES — Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing bombs with intent to murder policemen during the violent era of the 1970s revolutionary group. 

Olson, however, immediately asserted outside court that she was innocent and only pleaded guilty because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. 

“I pleaded to something of which I’m not guilty,” she said, adding it became clear the attacks would affect a jury and were “going to have a negative effect on my trial.” 

With law officers gaining rising esteem, Olson said, she had to consider the possibility of being convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She said her lawyers advised her that her chances of a lesser sentence would be better if she pleaded guilty. 

The surprise plea came in an agreement which does not guarantee Olson a specific sentence. Her lawyers said they expected her to get about five years in prison, but the judge warned her that she could be sentenced to life behind bars. 

“Are you pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?” asked Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Hunter as she outlined the agreement in court. 

“I am,” Olson said in a strong voice during a brief hearing in open court. 

She specifically admitted possessing explosives devices and attempting to explode them in two incidents — one at the Hollenbeck Police Station in Los Angeles and another near a House of Pancakes restaurant in Hollywood on Aug. 21, 1975. 

In return, the prosecution dismissed three other charges. 

Defense lawyers and prosecutors had spent some four hours in the judge’s chambers before the agreement was announced. 

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said that most of the discussions centered on the difference of opinion between the two sides as to how much time Olson would have to serve in prison. 

The agreement calls for Olson to surrender to the California Department of Corrections on Jan. 8 with a recommendation from prosecutors that she be allowed to serve her time in Minnesota near her family. 

Her husband, Dr. Fred Peterson, her mother, Elsie Soliah, and her daughter Sophie Peterson, sat in the front row of the courtroom as the plea was entered. Earlier, her daughter had been in tears, hugging her mother as she entered the courtroom. 

The plea ended a court case which harkened back 26 years to the era of the revolutionary SLA which kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst. The case against Olson, 54, was resurrected with her arrest 2 1/2 years ago. 

The plea followed many delays in bringing the case to trial, and a recent failed defense bid to put the trial off until next year because of concern that jurors might be biased because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

A grand jury had accused Olson of attempting to murder officers in retaliation for the deaths of six members of the radical group who died in a shootout and fire in 1974. The bombs did not explode. 

She was indicted in 1976 under her given name, Kathleen Soliah, but remained a fugitive until her June 1999 capture in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living under the assumed name Olson. 

Her arrest came soon after the FBI offered a $20,000 reward on the 25th anniversary of the SLA shootout and her case was featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” 

Olson vanished shortly after the attempted bombings. She maintained later that she had nothing to do with it and was not in the area when the bombs were planted. She also contended she was never a full-fledged member of the SLA, but was merely a friend of some of the revolutionaries. 

Her brother, Steven Soliah, was tried and acquitted in a related 1975 bank robbery in the Sacramento area. 

While a fugitive, Olson married an emergency room doctor, had three children and lived the life of a volunteer and community activist in Minnesota. 

She lived in an upscale neighborhood and did not avoid public attention. Her community theater roles even drew notice from local reviewers. 

The SLA, a violent band that used a seven-headed snake as its symbol, made a name for itself with the kidnapping of the then-19-year-old Hearst from her Berkeley, Calif., apartment in February 1974. 

Hearst soon joined the SLA and took the name Tania, and two months after her abduction was photographed holding a rifle during an SLA bank robbery in San Francisco. She was later arrested and imprisoned until President Carter commuted her sentence. 

In the meantime, six heavily armed members of the SLA, including its leader, an ex-convict who called himself Cinque, died in a May 17, 1974, shootout and fire that consumed a Los Angeles residence where police learned they were hiding. 

Hearst later wrote a book in which she implicated Olson in SLA crimes. She had been reluctant to come to Los Angeles and testify against Olson, saying she had put the days the SLA behind her and did not want to dredge up unhappy memories. 

The prosecution said it had plans to bring up every crime committed by the SLA, including the 1973 killing of Oakland schools Superintendent Marcus Foster. Olson was not charged with that crime or any others aside from the attempted bombings, but prosecutors maintained her association with the group showed her violent intent. 

East Bay tour operators who deal in the exotic say their clients, at least those still traveling, are sticking to destinations closer to home.  

“The focus is rediscovering America,” said Rick Snodsmith, sales manager at Berkeley-based Backroads. Snodsmith said his company has felt the sales crunch and, like others, Backroads is adding domestic trips and delaying foreign ones.  

“People think: ‘We were thinking of going to the Loire Valley, but we’re going to keep it close to home this year,’” he said.  

And to adapt to such thinking, Backroads has added three more Wine Country trips, each accommodating 40 to 50 guests on a bike tour through Napa and Sonoma.  

Backroads offered almost 1,000 guided trips last year, ranging in price from about $1,000 for a four-day biking and camping excursion around the San Juan Islands, to about $4,000 to hike, bike and raft through Nepal for nine days.  

But since the attacks, Snodsmith said many clients have stopped flying far, and he predicts trip sales for Backroads will follow the industry’s downturn, sliding 25 to 40 percent for the year.  

The American Society of Travel Agents, a nonprofit association with about 30,000 member travel agencies, reported that agencies lost $1.36 billion in commissions and fee income since the attacks. The organization estimated total revenue will plummet 50 percent between this October and December 2002 – an estimated loss of $4.4 billion for agencies around the nation.  

“People are scared,” said Robin Gorman, director of marketing for Mountain Travel Sobek in El Cerrito. And that’s coming from a company known for serving the more courageous travelers. They offer 21-day hiking trips through Tibetan villages to the 18,450-foot base camp of Mt. Everest ($3,500) and others that voyage around Antarctica for 21 days ($10,000).  

Though sales are down about 20 percent, according to Gorman, Mountain Travel Sobek is confident their clientele will continue to travel.  

“Every trip is going,” she said. “They may not be as full.”  

Even Mountain Travel’s 30-day Pakistan trip scheduled for July is still on. In fact, she said, since Sept. 11, three people signed up for the trek from Islamabad up to the base camp of K2 at 15,000-feet.  

“There’s no need to cancel,” said Gorman, “because it’s not happening for another eight months.”  

Others feel differently. Some companies are delaying or canceling trips. At Backroads, Snodsmith said he is comfortable holding off on some trips, like those to China, Nepal and India. He said they can make up the losses when clients book in other areas.  

Wilderness Travel of Berkeley has also canceled trips. They offer a variety of Middle East adventures, and have cut ones such as their “Iran Unveiled,” in which clients spend 18 days touring medieval and ancient cities like Bam and Esfahan ($3,900 - $4,200).  

Even Mountain Travel is promoting closer trips.  

“South America feels closer to home,” said Gorman, whose Mountain Travel Web site promotes mostly Latin American trips.  

Backroads and Wilderness Travel, another Berkeley retailer, have found sales increasing for this area too.  

Despite cancellations and lagging sales, customers will find few bargains among adventure companies.  

“You can’t entice people with money and discounts to travel who don’t want to travel,” Gorman said. “Discounting is not something we do.”  

Discounting only cheapens the brand, according to Yasmine Ahmed, president and CEO of The Adventure Collection, a group of eight luxury adventure travel companies, including Backroads. Staying away from discounts “may hurt our short-term business, but over the long term it will actually help the overall industry,” she said.  

However, according to Louise Smith, marketing manager at Wilderness Travel, clients independently might find discounts in airfare, which the tour operators exclude from their packages.  

But spending money is not the problem for their demographic, generally 35- to 60-year-olds who have discretionary income.  

“We’ve learned that customers say, it has nothing to do with price, it’s about: ‘Am I feeling good about leaving home right now?’” Ahmed said.  

Despite a lagging economy prior to the attacks, most of these travelers answered yes to that question, and sales are better than last year. Some customers fear neither the economy nor flying. Laura Harrison, a stockbroker in San Francisco, booked her biking excursion in Southern Tuscany after the attacks.  

“The food is great.” Harrison said. “The countryside is beautiful. The people are friendly.”  

It will be Harrison’s sixth trip with Backroads since 1994. “I wouldn’t be eager to travel internationally now,” she said, “but I think you need to get on with your life, and by May things will be fine.”  

Eventually, people will want to travel again, said Snodsmith, who saw a similar trend during the Gulf War. He said guests moved their trips to North America at the time, and many stopped traveling altogether.  

After a while, he said, “there was a huge growth spurt. They got tired of it and said, ‘Forget it, we’re going.’”

SAN FRANCISCO — NextCard Inc., the nation’s largest online credit card issuer, disclosed Wednesday that federal regulators clamped down on its operations as its loan losses mount, prompting the company to put itself up for sale. 

The crackdown occurred after regulators conducting a routine exam concluded NextCard doesn’t have an adequate financial protection against the trouble brewing in its $2 billion loan portfolio. 

The regulators declared NextCard as “significantly undercapitalized” — a scarlet letter that freezes the company’s growth and means management won’t be able to make major decisions without government approval. 

Unable to raise the $140 million it would take to satisfy regulators, NextCard hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to sell its credit card business, including 1.2 million accounts, to a “larger, more established financial institution.” 

Wednesday’s news devastated NextCard’s stock. The company’s shares plunged $4.48, or 84 percent, to close at 87 cents Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The stock peaked at $53.12 in late 1999. 

As of Sept. 30, NextCard’s book value was about $185.9 million, or about $3.50 per share, based on estimates provided the company. NextCard’s management also believes the company’s online databases and insights accumulated over the past four years also will raise the sale price. 

The company collected more than $300 million from investors in its initial and secondary public offerings in 1999. NextCard’s market value stood at $46 million Wednesday. 

Investors have little confidence that the company will fetch much in an auction, partly because the depth of its loan problems remains murky, said industry analyst Meredith Whitney of Wachovia Securities. 

“Regulators did this in such a rash manner that things have to be pretty bad,” Whitney said. 

“Right now, there is just no confidence that this company knew how to underwrite loans.” 

Regulators are forcing NextCard to tighten its underwriting standards as part of the new restrictions on the company. 

The doubts shadowing NextCard are similar to those dogging Providian Financial Corp., a major credit card provider that recently jolted investors by revealing a number of problem loans to customers with troubled borrowing histories. 

NextCard CEO John Hashman spent 11 years in Providian’s management and the company’s chairman and founder, Jeremy Lent, formerly worked as Providian’s chief financial officer. 

Some of NextCard’s loan problems may be tied to its Internet business model. Analysts have long feared that NextCard’s promise to quickly issue credit cards on the Web would limit the company’s ability to screen out unworthy borrowers and fraudulent applications. 

As part of the bank exam, regulators forced NextCard to reclassify some of its previous fraud losses as loan losses. 

NextCard also continued to grow rapidly even as the economy deteriorated, doubling its customer base in the past year. 

“The Internet is a good way to service financial products, but it has yet to be proven that it is a good way to originate financial products,” Whitney said. 

Wednesday’s developments turned NextCard’s third-quarter earnings release into a footnote. The company reported a loss of $53.1 million, or $1 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $20.3 million, or 38 cents per share, last year. 

In light of the regulatory actions, NextCard said it will stop providing forecasts about its future results. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.nextcard.com 

Attention, customers: terror and germs are now in stock. 

After weeks of delay in receiving highly publicized books on the Taliban, Islam, biological warfare and terrorism, Berkeley booksellers are receiving their shipments and reporting strong sales. 

“This is all people are buying right now,” said Rose Katz, manager of Black Oak Books on Shattuck Avenue. 

Of Black Oak’s 20 bestsellers for October, seven are directly related to the Taliban, Islam or the Middle East. Ahmed Rashid’s “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia” is the store’s best-selling title, and Karen Armstrong’s “The Battle for God” is No. 2. 

“We’ve sold close to 200 copies of the Taliban book,” said new-book buyer Nick Setka, “and we’re selling 10 times as many (than usual) of the other books that we’ve gotten in.” 

In contrast to Black Oak and Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue – which are displaying a staggering 60 related titles on one table – tiny Collected Thoughts on Euclid Avenue has just a few titles immediately visible. 

“We don’t have the space for a comprehensive selection,” said manager Peter Palmquist.  

But a bigger problem for booksellers has been the wait for book orders. 

For four days after the Sept. 11 attacks, customers bought nothing but newspapers, Palmquist said. Owner Lorraine Zimmerman used that time to figure out what books she should have on hand.  

“I just closed the store one night and perused the history sections,” she said. “I took out everything I had and it went really quick.” 

Zimmerman and other booksellers used their own knowledge plus lists compiled by newspapers, book distributors and industry associations to create their orders. Customers listening to media reports came in with specific requests, too. 

But copies of books like “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” by Chalmers Johnson were nowhere to be found.  

“The stocks had just depleted from all the warehouses,” Palmquist said.  

Collected Thoughts was able to get in “Taliban” only by asking University Press Books for some of theirs.  

All 10 copies were sold within a week, Palmquist said, “which for us is pretty good.” The store has 40 more on backorder. 

One store that was prepared – if not with quantities, then with selection – was University Press Books on Bancroft Way. The store sells new and used scholarly books from 100 different university presses.  

“It’s not like we had to scramble to find something,” said manager Christine Creveling. “We just went upstairs and brought it down.” 

Rashid’s Taliban book is published by Yale University Press. Copies on hand were gone in a week-and-a-half, Creveling said, and the store made a rare request that its reorder be shipped directly from the bindery, instead of through a distributor.  

In all of 2000-2001, the store sold four copies of the book. Since Sept. 11, 31 copies have gone out the door.  

The store is having similar success with Mark Juergensmeyer’s “Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence,” published by the University of California Press.  

“We couldn’t give (that) away a year ago,” Creveling said. 

“At a time like this, people are really struggling for informed answers and that’s what these books are providing them with,” said Amy-Lynn Fischer, sales manager for the University of California Press. 

Unlike more mainstream titles that have print runs in the tens or hundreds of thousands, most scholarly books get printed in quantities of just a few thousand. The hardcover printing of “Terror in the Mind of God,” Fischer said, was just 2,000 copies. The first paperback edition – 5,000 copies, printed in August – sold out soon after Sept. 11, and another 12,000 copies were immediately reprinted and sold. The press already has “substantial backorders” for another 20,000. 

Jeanne Guillemin’s “Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak” is the publisher’s other “bestseller,” its initial 4,000-paperback printing giving way to a 12,000-copy reprint, of which, Fischer said, about 5,500 are already spoken for. 

“We don’t often see sales like this,” Fischer said. “It’s a whole new ear in bookselling; nobody really knows how to do this in university publishing. We’re not used to bestsellers.” 

Fischer said it was hard to get excited about book sales at a time like this.  

“I had a very hard time sending out that e-mail to all of our vendors,” she said. “To announce: ‘“Terror in the Mind of God,” it’s available and you should put it on your bookstore shelves.’ It’s a tough thing to feel like you’re taking advantage of in a way.” 

Clay Banes, manager of Pegasus Books on Shattuck Avenue, agreed. While the store, which sells mostly used books, is still waiting for copies of “Taliban” and Judith Miller’s “Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War,” it has purposely kept its Sept. 11-related offering small.  

“We didn’t want to just cash in,” Banes said. “We thought, ‘let’s do a little research and find out’” what’s good. “We wanted it to be something that we felt we could be behind.” 

“Germs,” “Taliban” and Yossef Bodansky’s “bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America,” are selling at Barnes&Noble. But not doing too well is John Pynchon Holms’s “Terrorism: Today’s Biggest Threat to Freedom,” a mass-market paperback with the World Trade Center’s twin towers on the cover. 

“That’s the only insta-book I’ve really seen,” said store manager Joe Battaglia, adding that “sensationalism and exploitation” of events surrounding Sept. 11 seem to be absent. “I think publishers are being respectful.” 

Other titles selling in Berkeley are on bestseller lists of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, but not necessarily on national lists. Pema Chodron’s “The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times” and Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames” are No. 4 and No. 7, respectively, on the association’s Oct. 22 list. Neither appears on the Oct. 29 bestseller list of the publishing industry’s trade magazine, Publishers Weekly. 

“We’re probably the strongest independent market in the country, and I think those books are selling better in the independents than they are in the chain stores,” said Hut Landon, the association’s executive director. “I guarantee you (the Hanh book) is on the list as a result of what happened.” 

Many booksellers said customers come into their stores as a way of coping with such tragic events. Creveling remembered one man who didn’t buy anything.  

“He said, ‘I just want to know that all of this is here,’” she said. “‘I can’t deal with it now,’ he said, but when he was ready, he would. 

“It was funny,” Creveling added. “We all understood.” 

Wednesday, Oct. 31 

Yoga for People with HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

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 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children 3 years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Thursday, Nov. 1 

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Public Works Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Agenda includes drafting policy on naming of public facilities from the Parks and Recreation Commission. 981-6400 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge.... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First Floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia St. 

6 p.m., Presentation from Lawrence Berkeley Lab On Site Restoration. Procedure for CEAC Agenda and Council Reports, Green Business and Green Building positions. 705-8150 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Presentations and discussion of various proposals received for funding under the Housing Trust Fund Program. 981-5411 

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Friday, Nov. 2 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3  

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Pre-registration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served basis on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanied by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

Time for city teach-in 

Editor: 

As an inhabitant of the planet earth, a citizen of the USA and a resident of Berkeley I thank the Berkeley City Council most gratefully for their recent vote on stopping the bombing of Afghanistan.  

Now that the Berkeley City Council has garnered national attention I think they should go a step further and contribute to widening, or should I say surfacing, the public debate about the United States “war” on Afghanistan. I use the term “war” judiciously, in quotes, because being that we’re the richest country of the world bombing the hell out of one of the poorest countries of the world I think it could more correctly be termed a massacre. For all the defense department denials which assert that we are not inflicting significant civilian casualties I think there is enough credible independent confirmation that, in fact, we are killing many civilians – at least a number of whom are too poor and helpless to escape the bombing, including the elderly and children. It reminds me of another of our country’s most glorious moments where, in the Gulf “War,” our troops dispatched a decimated, retreating Iraqi army, in the words of one of our soldiers, “like shooting fish in a barrel.” Is there any question that our current strategy will bring anything more than further hatred and the likelihood of more violence toward our country? Our distinguished leaders tell us to expect this.  

I believe these are extraordinary times and as such they demand extraordinary measures and that this “war” does in fact have a direct bearing on the City of Berkeley’s day to day business. Each one of those not-so-smart bombs and missiles, all the fuel for those billion dollar bombers and dozens of navy ships, and all the other expenses associated with this endeavor are going to add up to quite a tab at the end of the “fun and games.” That is, if there is an end. With the Afghan winter fast approaching our military offense will become severely impeded there and from recent days’ news reports it appears Bush, Rumsfeld and Company are looking to keep the ball rolling by initiating military actions in the Philippines and very likely Iraq. While it may be argued that a certain number of our citizens will score big on newfound employment in the arms industry, I believe the cost of the “war” will have a dramatic negative impact on our nation’s ability to maintain and sustain its current standard of living. In all likelihood there will be severe cutbacks in federal subsidies to states and cities in the realm of housing, social services, education and infrastructure programs.  

Therefore it behooves the City Council to discuss this issue now and make their voice heard by the nation and federal government. 

I’d like the City Council to host a teach-in, town hall type meeting to broaden the public’s awareness about the “war” from the view of those educated persons who represent an anti-war sentiment and have pretty much been shut out of the mainstream media-which has become a cheering chorus for our government’s policy. I envision the format of a City Council meeting held at a very large capacity auditorium – I don’t think the Berkeley Community theatre will be large enough. It would be a one or two day event. The invited speakers would be given 20 to 40 minutes to present their views at the microphone (the podium of which would be turned around to face the audience). Then they would answer questions from the audience and the Council. Here are some of the people I’d like to see give their views: Ralph Nader, Howard Zinn, Retired Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll and others. 

I think it highly unlikely that the national media could ignore the event or distort the collective message. I really doubt the accuracy of recent polls saying 90 percent of the American public is willing to see its sons and daughters come home in body bags for a reckless military endeavor with no clear achievable goals. I think there is a vast sea of public opinion waiting to be guided by the a loud collective enunciation of good old fashioned American common sense. How about it Berkeley City council? 

Peter Teichner 

Berkeley 

Sanity in city 

Editor: 

Here’s my support for you in your passing of the Afghanistan resolution. At least one city could be sane. 

Ed Light 

Eureka 

Dreaming of democracy 

Editor: 

We need to start referring to George Bush’s war on terrorism as the “so-called war on terrorism.” Here are the facts. On September 13, Bush called for war on terrorism, bin Laden, and his organization. Bombing started on Oct. 7, as the CIA tracked the location of Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban. Omar wasn’t bombed. The CIA admitted (on Oct. 15) that they didn’t have the authority to kill him. 

Since then many bombs were dropped, inflicting major damage to “military targets” and also to Red Cross shelters and food storage warehouses (oops, Sorry!). Then, on October 23, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld back-peddled on the original reason for this war saying that maybe we won’t be able to get bin Laden after all. A day later (Oct. 24) Navy Rear Admiral Stufflebeem admitted that, gee, these Taliban are tougher than we expected. 

Now (Oct. 27), we learn that Afghan resistance fighter, Abdul Haq, called for CIA assistance as the Taliban were closing in on his fighters. The CIA didn’t come to his rescue. Future Afghan resistance fighters may well think twice about who is backing them up. Perhaps they should consult with the widows of the Kurd resistance fighters in Iraq who were similarly abandoned by Bush’s father during desert storm.  

Two conclusions can be drawn. First, the bombing is likely to stop soon because it is clear the Pentagon has run out of targets when (Oct. 27) they intentionally bombed the same Red Cross food warehouse for a second time. Starvation is now forecast for over 200,000 Afghanis. This, presumably, is the reprisal for 6,000 Americans killed on Sept. 11. 

The net result will be a massive increase of volunteers into the ranks of the Taliban. Second, this war, and our government, are being run by incompetent nincompoops. I wish we had a democracy where leaders were elected by the majority of votes. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

Halloween  

redistricted 

Editor: 

It was the time of year when a big pumpkin-colored moon rises up in the dark evening sky. And the cold nights cause apples to sweeten and crisp and smell delicious. When little goblins and angels anticipate their special day to “trick of treat.” But there are devilish details in this picture of Berkeley, October 2001. You can almost see the Cheshire cat smile lingering on while someone slips strangely shaped amphibians into a steaming brew. A gang of jolly pirate circles ‘round a big map of Berkeley, singing lustily:  

“Who put the gerrymanders in Blake/O’Malley’s cauldron?” 

Nobody answered, as the fun had just begun, 

They were carving up the city, 

As they sang this little ditty, 

“The gerrymander’s in Blake/O’Malley’s cauldron!” 

Note: They moved over 4,000 students into Council District 8 and then gerrymandered the entire city to their advantage!  

Merilie Mitchell 

Berkeley 

Council kudos 

Editor: 

I read about the City Council’s action to publicly renounce the U.S. crusade of violence. This is a rare occurrence and I applaud it! Thank you for your courage! 

Jon Fader 

Indianapolis, IN 

More council kudos 

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter sent to the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce: 

As a former Bay Area resident, I applaud the City Council’s courage in speaking out against the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Please lend them your support. Thank you. 

John Wages 

Tupelo, MS 

Neighborhood store good for residents 

Editor: 

Regarding the article this past weekend about the ZAB meeting, I find that the proposed "solutions" to targeted problems surrounding Brothers Liquors miss the mark. I have lived one block from Brothers Liquors for just over a year. I find the establishment to be a convenient and friendly place to pick up a last minute grocery item or snack. 

I love this neighborhood and do not want it to be the victim of gentrification.  

Sure, I have walked by Brothers Liquors and seen people standing outside (though not visibly causing trouble).  

I also see people loitering in the two gas stations a block away at Shattuck and Ashby asking if they can wash people’s windshields. Each time I go to the Berkeley Bowl a couple of people try to sell me the latest issue of Street Spirit. Is there an outcry to shut down the gas station and the grocery store? 

Let’s not be hypocritical as a community. Shutting down a local market is not going to solve any problems.  

I am very disappointed in the city’s misguided efforts to "help" my neighborhood.  

Rather than blame the proprietors of the market for misconduct of people in the surrounding area, why can we not expect local law enforcement to make it safe and possible for them to conduct their legitimate business? 

Liz Gill 

Robert Mann 

Berkeley

Author Sandra Cisneros has a way of giving voice to adolescent angst or fervor. I remember, as a teacher, my earnest freshmen at Maybeck High School in Berkeley using chapters from Cisneros’ signature work “House on Mango Street” for journal topic ideas. Her protagonist, 11-year-old Esperanza Cordero, is wonderfully vibrant, spunky and encouraging to young writers, especially women.  

On Thursday, Nov. 1 her book, “The MacArthur Genius” (1985) will be featured in the Lunch Poem Series at UC Berkeley from 12:10 to 1 p.m. At the free reading at Zellerbach Playhouse, Cisneros will share her poetry – a voice she is perhaps not as well-known for, even though she has a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in poetry.  

Cisneros was a visiting fellow at Berkeley in 1988 and she hasn’t read on campus in quite some time.  

Her reading is cause for celebration too. The author has just completed a nine-year journey into a new novel, “Carmelo.”  

Cisneros credits her father for inspiring her to write because he did not understand why she didn’t want to marry someone who’d take care of her and have babies. 

She says: “When I wanted to study it was all right, he thought I would just study and get married. But when he saw that I was taking my career seriously, to the point of not marrying and quitting jobs to continue the writing and taking time off to write (he was convinced). He saw me packing up and making sacrifices that women make for husbands. I always called the writing my husband. I also call ‘him’ the wife-beater. The writing has been that, abusive and supportive and loving and also a very difficult marriage, and my father just couldn’t understand why I just couldn’t settle down with someone who’d take care of me, and have kids.” 

Cisneros was partly shaped as a writer by being the only girl out of seven kids, and because her Chicana mother spoke only English and her dad Spanish. 

“I started writing out some real place of impotence and I still do,” she said. “I go to my desk out of desperation. You know you read the paper and you think, ‘What are we doing bombing Afghanistan?’ and you feel so impotent. There are these foolish people making decisions for you, so there’s that feeling of impotence that follows you to the page if you’re honest. 

“I didn’t write because I wanted to become famous,” she continued. “I did the writing because it was the only way I was going to go to sleep.”  

Although best known for “You Bring out the Mexican in Me,” Cisneros says she feels closer to her second collection of poetry, “Loose Woman” because she never planned to publish it.  

“When you are not thinking about publication you allow the poem to take you where you need to go, so I still feel that poems need to come from that place,” she said. “That they are so dangerous you can’t publish them in your lifetime. I think that’s when you truly have left all of the censors. Poetry forces you to sort of sit down and think about what are your most important issues?”  

Cisneros is a diligent writer, and poetry is difficult and time consuming because she confronts private issues. She takes few breaks, and sometimes with a lot of guilt.  

“I’ve always said that writing a poem is like when you wash laundry and all the clothes get stacked up on one side and the buzzer goes off – to me that’s what a poem demands,” she said. “A spin cycle that has been put to a halt and the buzzer is going off and it’s an annoying buzzer and you have to attend to it immediately. Poems take you and you don’t even know what you are writing until you’re through. 

“(They are like) a smudge of emotion that clarifies itself with language,” Cisneros continued. “I haven’t a clue what it is that’s tugging at the end of it the fishing line. It’s just something that’s tugging. Prose has been my soapbox where I say what I have to say. Poems are much more personal to me.” 

Writing is so consuming for Cisneros, it takes her a while to change gears. She only just began preparing for the Nov. 1 reading in Berkeley. 

Thursday, Nov. 1 falls on the eve of the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Cisneros, who recently lost her father, said she plans to read essays on the topic as well as a poem.  

“My father’s death transported me (with) some of the most important spiritual lessons of my life. His voyage was made with this book, so Day of the Dead is especially significant to me right now.” 

The Lunch Poem series features two poets this month: Sandra Cisneros on  

Thursday, Nov. 1 and Korean poet Ko Un on Friday, Nov. 2, at Morrison Library of Doe Library near the Campanile. Thursday, Dec. 6, join Beat poet Gary Synder in Zellerbach Playhouse. Call (510) 642-0137 for information about the series.  

Football and soccer kept Rudy Vasquez running during his first few months at St. Mary’s High School. Before that it was roller and ice hockey, and even before that it was basketball. 

A track and cross-country coach caught a glimpse of Vasquez training for soccer as a freshman and convinced him to try a sport where running was the focus.  

“He told me: ‘You’re running’,” Vasquez remembered the coach saying. “I wanted to run track, but it wasn’t until he told me I was doing it that I finally did.” 

Soon, Vasquez began competing in the mile and two-mile events and became a tri-sport athlete his freshman year. During his sophomore year, Vasquez dropped football and added cross-country to his athletic resume. It wasn’t difficult for the comparatively small cornerback to realize he was better suited for other sports. 

“For me football was fun,” he said, “but I wasn’t thinking about playing another year. I just wanted to say I did it.” 

After a season of running track, Vasquez challenged the uneven-surface, 3.1-mile cross-country races in the fall. He immersed himself in the sport and said he’d spend two-thirds of his time either running, thinking about running or writing about running.  

“That’s what I write stories about in English,” Vasquez said. “About how I did at a certain race.” 

Vasquez finished second at the North Coast sectionals as a sophomore and qualified for state where he placed in the top 20. In the spring he returned to the track team and ran a speedy 4:29 mile. 

As Vasquez’s cross-country experience grew, his results kept improving. Last year as a junior he won an NCS title and placed 10th in state.  

Despite numerous individual honors, Vasquez said his thoughts while running often reflect upon the team aspect of cross-country racing and motivate him to move faster.  

“I’m thinking I need to run harder for myself and if I do that I’ll help the team improve,” he said. “You have to run for yourself first, but running better helps out the team. They go hand in hand.” 

Now that he’s a senior on a team filled with freshmen and sophomores Vasquez has become a leader that the younger runners look to for guidance and inspiration. 

“He brings experience and leadership to this team,” said Richard Boulet, St. Mary’s first-year cross-country coach. “I really count on Rudy because I’m not here all the time and I ask him to act as a coach.” 

Several universities have recruited Vasquez as a distance runner, and he’s narrowed it down to Western schools, particularly Cal, UC Irvine and Arizona. Vasquez wants to attend a school where he can study to become an engineer and where he can contribute to a top-ranked cross-country program. 

“I want to talk to the Cal coach a little more, but they have a highly rated school and their (running) program is pretty strong,” he said. “I haven’t talked to Arizona yet, but I’d like to see what they have to offer.” 

Vasquez began distance running three years ago, but with his extensive athletic experience he gathered long before his first cross-country race has helped him develop his skills as a runner. 

“A lot of people think that you run cross-country because you can’t do anything else,” Boulet said. “But the best runners are the ones who are the best all-around athletes.” 

The 5-foot-8, 128-pound senior’s raw talent combined with his dedication to the sport made him one of the state’s top cross-country runners last season. But Vasquez said there’s something more to his success. 

“It takes a lot of heart to be a good cross-country runner,” he said. “When it comes to running, it’s whoever has got the biggest heart, whoever wants it more and whoever has the desire to be a champion.” 

Three head coaches have led the St. Mary’s cross-country team since Vasquez started running. Even though their philosophies remained similar from year to year, Vasquez still had to adjust to three distinct coaching methods and personalities. 

“Rudy has adapted really well to each style,” said Dennis Mohun, who coached Vasquez last year. “He’s taken the best out of each coach and that’s just made him a great runner.” 

This season St. Mary’s is considered to be the second-best team behind Piedmont High School in the Bay Shore Athletic League. Defeating the Highlanders in head-to-head competition would be a bonus, but two other meets rate higher for the team. 

“I only care about two races – North Coast and State,” Boulet said. “But what I’ve told these guys throughout the year is that results matter, but what’s more important to me is the effort. I want to see them all spent at the end of the race.” 

Vasquez, who has been running in some fashion most of his life, gives a full effort in practice and during races but when the time’s right he enjoys resting his legs like anyone else. 

“The funny thing about being a distance runner is that you turn lazy when you’re not running,” he said. “People will ask me if I want to walk a couple blocks somewhere and they’ll look at me funny when I tell them no.”

Halloween is showing a less deadly face this year. 

Images of real-life death and destruction, along with taut nerves over everyday safety concerns, have dimmed the appeal of bloody costumes and spooky strangers in the night, some educators and parents say. 

“I think there does seem to be a more dampened nature to it,” said Dr. Matthew R. Mock, program supervisor of family youth and children services for Berkeley. He attributed this to the awareness that “people did actually die in a gruesome kind of way.” 

In an e-mail to the Berkeley High School community, co-principal Laura Leventer said students “should be respectful of September’s tragedy by avoiding scary costumes or pranks.” 

District-wide, said Leventer, “I think everybody’s putting something out about basically just being respectful.”  

She said on the block where she lives, “they put out a letter to everyone in the neighborhood to keep in mind the new tenor, not to scare people too much, that kind of thing.” 

Mock said some parents he had talked to were paying more attention to their teenagers this year than in the past. 

“There’s just a little bit more of being aware of their behaviors, being aware of certain partying or the things they might do,” he said. 

May Lynne Gill, the parent of a student at Cragmont Elementary, said the school had always disapproved of children carrying fake weapons on Halloween, but that “it’s specifically more so now.” 

“The kids aren’t responding the same way the parents are,” she said. “I think parents, when they see costumes with blood – personally, I’m appalled. I like it even less than I did in the past. But I don’t think the kids are affected. I think they’re still in their zone.” 

Mock said among kids he has observed – including his own daughter – this year’s costumes are “more on the good side: Firefighters, police, cheerleaders, and superheroes rather than two-headed or headless persons or something like that.” 

The two elementary schools that responded to the Daily Planet’s unscientific survey of Halloween plans indicated a determination to make the day fun, in spite of current events. 

“Our plans are the same,” said Brenda Stanford, the Berkeley Arts Magnet School secretary. “We’ll still have a parade unless it rains, in which case our kindergarten through third grade will parade inside our school building.” 

Malcolm X Elementary Principal Cheryl Chinn said Halloween would be exactly as it always was this year. And according to the district’s public information consultant, Marian Magid, Thousand Oaks Elementary plans to carry out its annual Halloween parade with special relish because it is the first time since the opening of the school’s new facility. 

Halloween has its origins in the Celtic belief that the dividing line between the physical and spirit world are suspended on Oct. 31, “All Hallow’s Eve,” otherwise known as All Saints’ Day. This rupture, the belief went, allowed the spirits of those who passed away in the previous year to come back in search of bodies to possess. The custom of wearing costumes arose as a way to ward off those spirits. 

At Halloween Headquarters on University Avenue Tuesday, midday shoppers kept the registers ringing with armfuls of plastic and polyester costume gear. Aisles were, as ever, outfitted with fire chiefs’ hats and facial-burn makeup kits. 

“My family’s more concerned about the fact that I’m going to a crowded place,” said shopper Marie Louise Cremer, a UC Berkeley graduate student in information management and systems. 

“It’s the idea of totally hiding your identity,” she said. “I guess there’s more suspicion around people who try to hide their identity at the moment.” 

Lauren Greenberg, the store’s assistant manager, said some people were more enthusiastic about Halloween this year – not to make light of the recent events, but “as a way of coping with it.” 

The sale of many American flags is “definitely a new thing,” she said. “There’s also a Statue of Liberty costume we couldn’t keep in the store,” she said. 

“I think at least in our family we are trying to make it the same as usual, even maybe a little more overboard, to kind of make up for” the current atmosphere, said Alan Mayer, an Albany resident who said he was helping build a haunted house at his son’s middle school. 

I guess there’s just more tension,” said Chinn. “People aren’t as relaxed about it anymore.”

The West Berkeley Shellmound, a city landmark, will shrink a little in November.  

Earlier this month, in response to a petition brought by landowners, Judge James A. Richman of the Alameda County Superior Court ordered the city to revise the Shellmound’s designated boundaries to exclude four properties west of Second Street. 

The City Council must remove the landmark status from the properties in question before Nov. 16.  

The petitioners, who included Richard and Charlene DeVecchi, White West Properties and the 620 Hearst Group, a consortium that owns the property at that address, charged that the archaeological map the city used to determine the area covered by the Shellmound – which now lies underground – was based on “arbitrary and capricious” data. 

The city’s own maps, they argued, showed there was no record of the Shellmound ever extending onto their properties on what is now the west side of Second Street. 

Richman’s ruling does not question the landmark status of the Shellmound as a whole, and it leaves the door open for the city to redesignate the four properties if more proof can be found. 

However, the principal forces behind the Shellmound may not mount a campaign to re-list the four properties. 

“I don’t think this a bad outcome at all,” said Becky O’Malley, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “It recognizes the commission’s authority to designate the Shellmound. It just means the boundaries on Second Street have to be fine-tuned.” 

“We’re going to have to give it a little thought and see if we want to fight for redesignation,” said Stephanie Manning, an activist who fought for the Shellmound’s landmark status. “It’s a time-consuming and costly process, and I’m not a rich woman.”  

The Shellmound was a center of Native American communities up until around 800 A.D. It served as burial grounds, landmarks and centers of villages. The remnants of the West Berkeley Shellmound, which was first built more than 5,000 years ago, mostly lie underneath Truitt & White Hardware and Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto’s parking lot, just west of the Fourth Street shopping district. 

More than 400 such sites, some up to 30 feet tall, are known to have existed around the San Francisco Bay in centuries past.  

Chris Carrigan, attorney for the petitioners, said he was pleased by the judge’s decision, and believed that it didn’t infringe on the Shellmound’s role as a cultural and spiritual resource. 

“I see this as a win-win case, and you don’t often see that,” he said. “All the important cultural resources are preserved, and the boundaries are still generous. 

“As a Native American myself, I think that’s the right decision.” 

O’Malley noted that if the petitioners do decide to build on their properties, they may still be required to verify that there are no archaeological resources on the site. 

Having just returned from a national security summit for civic leaders in Washington D.C., Mayor Shirley Dean and several top-ranking city officials held a press conference Tuesday to discuss preparation strategies for possible terrorist attacks. 

Joining Dean were Councilmember Miriam Hawley, Fire Chief Reginald Garcia, Police Capt. Bobby Miller and the city manager’s chief of staff, Arrietta Chakos. 

“Many people haven’t realized this yet but local police, fire and health departments are going to be the first responders in this war,” Dean said. “That was the big pow (of the summit).” 

Dean said the summit resulted in a National Action Plan to help communities across the country prioritize strategies for responding to local terrorist attacks.  

One of the most serious issues facing cities is the cost of increased security measures. Dean said city economies around the country are strained because of an economic downturn, which has been accelerated by the Sept. 11 attacks. Cities will require federal assistance to help pay for added security measures such as police and fire training, protection of water supplies and emergency response equipment. 

Dean said cities will have to lobby for the extra funds because so far the federal government has not allocated substantial funds for local agencies.  

“Of the $10 billion federal anti-terrorism budget identified by the Office of Management and Budget, only 4.9 percent is allocated to state and local first response activities,” Dean said.  

Berkeley does not have any obvious, high-profile terrorist targets such as the Bay Bridge or the Port of Oakland. But Dean said if there were terrorist attacks anywhere in the region, Berkeley’s financial contribution to mutual aid “could impact our budget seriously.” 

Locally, Dean said Berkeley still needs to be alert because of a jet fuel pipeline that crosses the western part of the city. There are also many industries that store large quantities of hazardous materials near residential areas. 

Garcia and Miller said there is currently no estimate on the cost of added shifts for police and fire personnel, nor other security measures, which have been implemented since Sept. 11.  

“The city manager’s budget department has been keeping track and there should be a report soon,” Garcia said. 

Miller said extra police costs to the city include a uniformed officer in the lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center as well as responding to 76 calls of suspicious letters or packages. Miller said 32 of those calls involved a suspicious substance or powder. He said none of the calls were determined to be serious. 

Dean said the city’s Health and Human Services Department will also have to be trained and prepared to respond to large-scale biological or chemical attacks. 

“Health is every bit as important in making our city safe as police and fire, so training for not just our Health Department employees but for our local medical personnel, emergency personnel and citizens is vital,” she said. 

Dean said the city’s Community Emergency Response Training program, which already provides residents with fire and earthquake training, will be expanded.  

“The public should also be educated in basic life saving techniques so that bystanders can provide assistance to those injured until help arrives,” Dean said. “Berkeley needs to step up its already impressive record in this regard.”  

Another aspect of the National Action Plan is local economic security for workers who have been effected by the economic fallout of the terrorist attacks. According to the NAP, the fallout has most effected the travel, hotel and restaurant industries. “The result is that busboys, dishwashers, maids, cleaning people and baggage handlers are the first to go,” Dean said.  

She went on to say that a proposed $60 million federal recovery package will not be adequate to help the unemployed because it relies too heavily on tax cuts. 

The NAP calls for direct worker assistance including expansion and extension of unemployment insurance benefits, funding for job training programs, free or low-cost health insurance for low-income families and health insurance subsidies for unemployed workers. 

On the home front, Dean said residents can prepare for a potential terrorist attack by storing seven days worth of food and water. Also it is important to be familiar with the addresses of neighbors who are disabled or elderly because they will likely be the first to need assistance in the event of an emergency. 

“These are things we’ve been saying all along,” Dean said. “Now we’re just saying it with more urgency.” 

For more information about the city’s Community Emergency Response Training call 644-8736 or visit the city’s Web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/cert.html.

On Sept. 12, Ahmad Esmatyar took down the sign in front of his food stall at the Emeryville Public Market, afraid the words “Afghan Cuisine” would hurt his sales. 

Customer Jon Zalon, a regular, noticed.  

“I felt sorry for them,” he said Thursday, digging into his lentils and rice. 

Other customers have too. Instead of a backlash, Esmatyar has seen an outpouring of support from customers, and a sales increase by 20 to 25 percent in recent weeks. 

The Afghani refugee had been nervous about business since Sept. 11, he said, wiping his apron with curry-stained hands. 

But his customers are “very kindly people,” he said, adding that old ladies coming from church on Sunday have brought him candies and flowers.  

Others have dropped-off flyers saying: “We are your friends. We wish you happiness and peace.” 

Two Jordanian-American customers said they chose to eat at Esmatyar's stall as a way to show support to the Afghani community.  

“We were debating Mexican, Japanese, Thai,” said Monadel Herzallah, who drove from San Francisco to eat at the market. But once they noticed the Afghani stall, it made “a lot of sense.” 

Pamir Afghan Cuisine is the closest restaurant to Berkeley specializing in Afghani food. But without the sign, and despite the giant TV screen blaring CNN coverage of Afghanistan, some customers at the Public Market don’t even know what they’re eating. 

Now, the stall is adorned with a listing of menu specials, and several American flags. The restaurant’s name is visible on only one easy-to-miss sign tacked to an inside wall.  

Some customers confuse it with the Indian food stall across the way; there are 14 stalls in the market, ranging from pasta to Korean barbecue. 

“I didn’t even know” it was Afghani food, said Keith K., from Richmond, munching on chicken curry. “I thought it was Indian. The food still tastes good.” 

The cuisine is similar to Indian food, but the names and some of the spices are different. At lunch hour, customers descend on the food stall to sample its spicy chicken curries, lamb kabobs and veggie karahis (stir-fried vegetables over rice). They wash it all down with a sweet purple Afghani tea.  

Many of the market’s customers are computer programmers and software engineers who work at nearby dot-coms. A group of young employees from IDB Systems, a local software company, shared a table. A few had plates from Pamir, but they didn’t know it was Afghani food. 

If they had, they might have saved themselves a trip across the Bay. A few weeks ago, the company went out to dinner at an Afghani restaurant in San Francisco to show their support, said Carolyn Jackson. 

Paul Thibault, who works for AT&T, said he knew the food was Afghani. But it was the samples of chicken kabab, not necessarily notions of consumer support for Afghanis, that drew him in.  

“The food looked good, and appetizing,” he said.  

Customer H. Sezen said he empathizes with the discrimination Afghanis may be feeling; as a Muslim, he’s been uncomfortable too.  

But he’s not going to eat more Afghani food just to show his support, he said, because you can’t just buy according to current events. Quality has to come first.  

“What if they don’t have good food?” he said. 

Esmatyar said he had heard of cases in which South Bay Afghani restaurants had rocks thrown through their windows. 

But Esmatyar says he has not received threats.  

“The situation is no good, but if we’re not safe in America, we’re not safe anywhere,” he said. 

“I pray with all my heart for the American soldiers, that their mission is successful,” he continued. “I want to write a letter to Bush and tell him he’s doing a good job.” 

Esmatyar said he thinks the U.S. action in Afghanistan is long overdue.  

“Afghanis have been suffering before Sept. 11,” he said, referring to the war fought with the Soviet Union, and the Taliban’s rule. 

Esmatyar came to the United States as a refugee 20 years ago, fleeing the Soviet invasion. He opened the restaurant 12 years ago, and has worked there seven days a week ever since. 

He loves this country, he said, because even though he has to work hard, he has everything he needs.  

“At 2 a.m., the shops are open, you can get milk. What other country does this?” he said. 

Esmatyar said his regular customers have been pressuring him to put the sign back up.  

“I’ll do it when I find out more about what’s going on,” he said, gesturing at the big screen TV. “I’m gonna do it.”

Halloween Night at Old East Campus 

6 - 9 p.m. 

1950 Carleton St. 

For children ages 5 - 12, accompanied by parent. Art and craft activities, games, and limited treats. Sponsored by Berkeley Recreation Programs Office and Young Adult Project. $1. 981-5147 

CarnEvil, A Haunted House in Berkeley  

7 - 10 p.m. 

1818 Fifth St. 

CarnEvil is a neighborhood haunted house with three floors of good, old-fashioned fright complete with scary clowns, freak show, evil fortune teller, a haunted midway and much more. 644-3305 www.berkeleyhauntedhouse.com

A gunman took over a College Avenue store Monday evening, robbing it and four individuals, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department. 

Around 6:30 p.m., a man entered the Ovation Clothing store at 3206 College Ave. carrying a dark-colored handgun. He ordered one employee to usher another employee and two customers to the back of the store, then he took money from the cash register. Afterward, he went to the victims and ordered them to hand over their money.  

The suspect then ordered the victims into the store’s bathroom and told them to lock it from the inside, after which he fled the store. 

The suspect is a dark-complected African-American male, with a muscular build, in his late 20s to mid-30s, between 5-feet, 9 inches and 6-feet 1-inch in height and between 170 and 225 pounds. He was wearing a black cap, black pants, a black leather jacket and a mustache. 

Anyone who may have been a witness to this crime or may have any other information is asked to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742. 

A Kensington man was robbed on Solano Avenue Monday evening, according to Harris. 

The victim was walking near the corner of Ensenada Avenue at 6:35 p.m. when a man walked up behind him and told him to hand over his wallet. The suspect simulated a pointed handgun beneath his jacket. The victim handed over his wallet, cell phone, checkbook and shoulder bag, and the suspect fled. He was later reported in an off-white, late-’80s-early ‘90s truck or SUV. 

The suspect is described as a dark-complected African-American male between the ages of 40 and 45, 5-feet, 8 inches tall and around 150 pounds. He was wearing a black jacket and dark pants. 

A man was robbed Sunday evening after his car overheated on Telegraph Avenue, according to Harris. 

The victim, seeing that his car was smoking, pulled into the Andronico’s parking lot at 2655 Telegraph Ave. around 8:15 p.m. When he got out to take a look, he was approached by a man who pointed a long-barrel revolver at him. The suspect told the victim to take everything out of his pockets. The victim complied, and the man took his money and fled on foot. 

The suspect is described as an African-American male, around 18 years of age, 6 feet, 3 inches tall and around 180 pounds. He was wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans and an American flag bandana. After fleeing, the suspect was seen in the company of five other African-American males who were not involved in the robbery. 

Police were called to the Habitot Museum on Kittredge Street Sunday afternoon after a pre-teen child was seen with a toy gun, according to Harris. 

A group of children were asked to leave the museum after running around and creating a disturbance. Upon leaving, one of the people in the museum reported seeing a gun in a child’s hand. Police arrived, determined the weapon to be a toy and took no further action.  

– Hank Sims

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County has become the second California county to ask Gov. Gray Davis to halt all executions. 

The county’s board of supervisors passed the non-binding resolution 4-1 on Tuesday. The city and county of San Francisco has approved a similar resolution, as have the cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz. 

The supervisors are requesting that all executions stop until studies on fairness in sentencing and the risk of executing innocent people are completed. Supervisors said Santa Clara County’s increasingly diverse population prompted them to consider the number of minorities sentenced to death there. 

Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, said the way the death penalty is used “doesn’t work.” 

Supervisor Dan Gage cast the lone “no” vote. He said he understands that the way the death penalty is implemented may need modification, but said he is against a moratorium on the death penalty while it’s being studied. 

A recent Field Poll found that as many as 73 percent of Californians support a moratorium. Similar measures have passed in more than 30 cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

SAN JOSE — Nearly two dozen cattle killed by anthrax in a remote area of Santa Clara County do not pose a threat to the general public, and the deaths were not related to terrorism, authorities said. 

The 21 cows and bulls died Oct. 20-28, and about 120 cattle have since been vaccinated. State officials called it California’s worst outbreak in 17 years. 

Anthrax spores occur naturally in soil around the world, and animals contract the disease by ingesting the spores. The disease is not uncommon in animals, State Veterinarian Richard Breitmeyer said Monday in a written release. 

The Santa Clara cattle were exposed “by eating dirt, primarily,” said Greg Van Wassenhove, Santa Clara County’s agricultural commissioner. 

With pastures brown and parched, “The stubble is so short out there that cattle are ingesting soil,” he said. 

The state has regular procedures to handle cases of anthrax in livestock, but because of the incidents on the East Coast, the FBI has been notified. 

Four people at the ranch came into contact with the blood of the infected animals while assisting in a necropsy, and they have been given antibiotics as a precaution. Also, 10 employees of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, where the anthrax diagnosis was confirmed, also have been placed on antibiotics as a precaution. 

There have been 10 known cases of anthrax in the past 10 years in the state. In 1991, an anthrax incident killed 28 cattle in Contra Costa County, and in 1984, an anthrax incident killed 43 cattle and 135 sheep in San Luis Obispo County.

CONCORD — The only maternity ward in Concord, Contra Costa County’s largest city, has closed. 

Citing the birth center’s annual losses, including $4 million last year, the John Muir/Mount Diablo Health System board voted in June to close the unit based in Mount Diablo Medical Center. Since then, through a series of legal moves, the hospital survived five scheduled closure dates, until Monday. 

Ninety percent of Concord women have been delivering their babies at other hospitals, according to the private nonprofit system, which says that it lost $39 million last year. John Muir Medical Center and Mount Diablo Medical Center merged in 1997. 

For months, Mount Diablo supporters have said that closing the birth unit ultimately will lead to the death of the Concord hospital by choking off its supply of new patients. 

“We have no plans to close Mount Diablo Hospital,” said Steven Bauer, an attorney for the health system. 

SAN JOSE — The city’s redevelopment agency has abandoned its recommendation for underground structures as a solution to address the parking crunch in the downtown area. 

Executive Director Susan Shick said public support was limited. Preservationists also opposed the plan. 

Pat Curia, president of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose said they hated the thought of tearing up historic St. James Park and Plaza de Cesar Chavez for construction that would have lasted at least 18 months. 

Shick reached her conclusion after studying the latest downtown parking management plan, a 136-page report by Santa Monica-based Kaku Associates. 

The parking plan recommends the city build five garages for 4,130 cars and proposes specific locations for three: north of the Hotel De Anza, on the Greyhound bus terminal site, and behind the Tech Museum. 

Two other garages would be built through public-private partnerships with developers who pursue projects at two locations: near South Second and East Santa Clara streets, and near South Second and East San Carlos streets. The exact locations have not been determined. 

The five garages are estimated to cost $145 million, which would be financed through the sale of bonds. Those bonds would be paid off with revenue from the parking garages, redevelopment funds and parking rate increases.

UNION CITY — As news emerged last week that former Afghan guerrilla leader Abdul Haq was executed by the Taliban, his 16-year-old son and crowds of others began mourning half a world away. 

Abdul Majeed Arsala, a junior in high school in Union City, has been surrounded by hundreds of Afghans and others who have gathered to mourn Haq’s death, said Rona Popal, an organizer from the Afghan Coalition in Fremont, the nation’s largest Afghan community. 

Arsala has lived in Union City for the past two years with Haq’s nephew, Khushal Arsala. 

“This is not just my family’s tragedy, but the tragedy of the nation,” Khushal Arsala told The Oakland Tribune. “It is a loss for humanity.” 

Haq was hanged Friday at the Rishkore barracks near Kabul after sneaking into Taliban-held territory to rally Afghan tribal leaders and others to form a new government. He was a member of Afghanistan’s majority Pashtun tribe and did not belong to the northern alliance. He was seen as a key to U.S. efforts to persuade Pashtun leaders to abandon the Taliban. 

Haq, 43, had been a leader in Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union’s 1980s invasion. 

U.S. officials say they knew of Haq’s mission, but neither endorsed nor supported it. Washington has confirmed it ordered airstrikes to try to save Haq, but that they were too late. 

Abdul Majeed Arsala moved to the Bay Area after witnessing his mother and young brother being gunned down in their home in 1999. The assassins were aiming for Haq. 

Although suspicion for those killings fell on the Taliban, Haq at the time said he had no proof of who might have been behind the killings. 

”(Haq) is someone who we admire so much, it is just an honor to be in his family,” said Mohammad Arsala, Haq’s cousin in Hayward. “He gave every sacrifice he could for his country. He lost his foot, he lost his family and, most importantly, the ultimate sacrifice of his life.” 

A memorial will be held Sunday for Haq at a mosque in Hayward. Taliban officials initially told the family they would hand over the body for burial in Pakistan, but family members later were told Haq had been buried in his home village of Surkhrud.

SAN FRANCISCO — John Newton Rosenkrans, a San Francisco Bay area toy company executive and heir to the Spreckels sugar fortune, has died of heart failure. He was 73. 

Rosekrans died in Paris on Oct. 27. 

He was the great-grandson of Claus Spreckels, who founded a successful sugar company. Rosekrans himself went on to found Kransco Group Co. with longtime friend John Bowes in 1963. 

Kransco originally focused on making floating furniture for swimming pools, but by the 1990s had acquired several companies and branched out by selling Hula Hoops, Frisbees, Hackey Sacks and other toys.  

The men sold the company in 1994 to Mattel Inc. 

Rosekrans grandmother, Alma Spreckels, built the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and donated it to the city. 

Like his grandmother, Rosekrans was a patron of the arts. He and his second wife, Dodie, built an outdoor sculpture farm, named Runnymede, at a family property in Woodside. Runnymede has 140 works of contemporary art. 

Rosekrans spent much of his time in San Francisco, but frequently lived at his homes in Paris and on the Grand Canal in Venice. 

He is survived by his wife, two sons, John Rosekrans, of Mill Valley, and Peter Rosekrans of Woodside; two stepsons, John Topham and Ned Topham of San Francisco; two brothers and four grandchildren. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A state appeals court said Tuesday that San Francisco voting laws must a0llow for write-in candidates during runoff elections for mayor or other city offices. 

San Francisco currently allows write-ins only during city election primaries. The race for office goes to a runoff between the top two vote vote-getters if nobody from the primary field secures a majority of the vote. 

The 1st District Court of Appeal said San Francisco’s runoff practice violated the California Constitution and the federal First Amendment rights of speech for voters and write-in candidates. During runoffs, San Francisco provides no line for write-in candidates. 

A lower court had dismissed the suit stemming from the 1999 mayoral election, which Willie Brown won. The suit was brought by Michael Edelstein, a write-in candidate for the office. The case does not affect the election’s outcome. 

The court noted that the California Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that write-ins should be allowed during runoffs in San Diego municipal elections. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled otherwise in a Hawaii case in 1992. 

The 1st District urged the California Supreme Court to revisit its 1985 decision to clarify the conflict. 

The case is Edelstein v. Fado, A093007. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Salmonella-contaminated eggs may be identified within hours, rather than days or weeks, using a rapid-detection technique developed by germ warfare researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

The DNA-based detection system distinguishes a deadly salmonella strain from the many benign forms of the bacteria, according to a paper to be published Thursday in a scientific journal. 

Most large processors spray eggs with chlorinated water heated to around 110 degrees, which is hot enough to kill salmonella. Still, an estimated one in every 10,000 eggs on grocery store shelves is infected with salmonella enteritidis, a significant source of food poisoning that can cause diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, headache, nausea and vomiting when undercooked eggs are eaten. 

Approximately 1.4 million people nationwide fall ill each year due to salmonella, 300,000 of which are affected by the enteritidis strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Healthy people usually recover, but the disease can be life-threatening for children, the elderly and for people with weakened immune systems. The government estimates that a consumer eats undercooked eggs 20 times a year. 

Federal officials hope to cut salmonella food poisoning from eggs in half by 2005 and eliminate it totally by 2010 through the Egg Safety Action Plan, a joint effort of the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The plan includes safe handling warnings and new refrigeration requirements. 

Bacteria can be on an egg’s shell, since the egg leaves a hen’s body through the same passageway as feces. Many benign bacteria closely resemble the pathogen, including many strains of salmonella. Because of this, it currently takes at least two tests and several days for inspectors to determine if suspect chickens and eggs are truly infected with the pathogen. 

By comparing the genomes of the benign salmonella with the bad salmonella, lead researcher Gary Andersen and his team were able to pinpoint a tiny fragment of DNA unique to the pathogen. The scientists then dropped that unique DNA strand — a “DNA signature” — into a culture of suspected salmonella enteritidis to see if they would bind. Binding indicates the presence of the pathogen. 

“We’re making Caesar salads safe to eat,” joked Andersen, who is using the same comparative genomic methods to develop a similar test for anthrax, plague and other pathogens thought to be used in biological weapons. 

Lawrence Livermore is developing a handheld detector fueled by Andersen’s technology. The lab also has licensed the DNA signature technology to biotechnology company Cephied, which is developing its own germ warfare detector. 

Using DNA signatures, scientists are able to determine with one test and within hours if suspect eggs are contaminated. 

“It seems to work very well,” said Richard Walker, an inspector with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory. Walker said he’s been using Lawrence Livermore’s test alongside traditional tests in the field the last six months. 

Still, Walker said the detection technology would need to be evaluated and approved as an alternative to conventional testing by the FDA and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. 

The lab’s research is to be published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

LOS ANGELES — Laws making it a crime to bring false accusations against a peace officer but not anyone else are unconstitutional because they represent a selective prohibition that inhibits free expression, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday. 

The 2nd District Court of Appeal’s ruling speaks directly to California Penal Code sections 148.5, filing a false report of a criminal offense, and 148.6a1, knowingly filing a false charge of police misconduct. 

Shaun Stanistreet and Barbara Joyce Atkinson were convicted in 1998 of the two misdemeanor counts after they accused an Oxnard police officer of lewd conduct at a gathering of at-risk youth attending a Police Activities League meeting. The accusation was proved false. 

In overturning the convictions on a 3-0 vote, an appeals court panel ruled that Ventura County prosecutors did not establish “that officers lack effective means to rebut groundless complaints.” 

“Internal oversight procedures may quickly screen out spurious complaints such as those filed by Stanistreet and Atkinson,” the justices added. 

Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Michael Schwartz said prosecutors plan to appeal to the state Supreme Court. 

The appellate court acknowledged that law enforcement officers “confront the worst that society has to offer” and “risk their lives to provide citizens a safer and better place to live,” but concluded that isn’t a justification for limiting the public’s Constitutional right to free expression. 

“The importance of providing to citizens free and open access to governmental agencies for the reporting of suspected illegal activity outweighs the occasional harm that might befall a defamed individual,” the justices said. 

A similar case at the Solano Superior Court in Fairfield was dismissed two weeks ago. Two women driving to Reno, Nev., were stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer for speeding. Kimberly Joan Reed and Rita Lena Jamerson later filed a complaint that the officer was discourteous. 

Using a tape recording of the stop, the CHP said the officer had acted professionally and that the complaint was false.  

Criminal charges were brought against them. But Solano County’s judge said the charges against the women were unconstitutional. 

The state Legislature revised citizen complaint procedures about law officers after the Rodney King beating off March 1991. In response to a number of false allegations that came up as a result of the revisions, the Legislature put this section into effect.

LOS ANGELES — The Police Commission on Tuesday condemned a city councilman’s reference to Police Chief Bernard C. Parks as “Osama bin Parks.” 

“On Sept. 11, Chief Parks led the Los Angeles Police Department in assessing the threat of imminent danger from terrorist attacks and deploying city resources for the public good,” a commission statement said. 

“To compare him to a murderous madman like Osama bin Laden at a time of national crisis is insulting and offensive. The board of the Los Angeles Police Commission would like to state for the record that the chief does not deserve this type of vilification.” 

Third District Councilman Dennis P. Zine said Tuesday that Parks has not accepted his Oct. 22 apology, in which he wrote: “I would like to apologize. During a lighthearted fund-raising event, I made reference to your name and that of ’Osama.’ I did not intend any ridicule to you or your position as chief of police.” 

Zine was an LAPD officer for 33 years and a police union official before he was elected to the City Council this year. He has been a longtime critic of Parks, who has been on the force for 36 years. 

A Zine spokeswoman asserted last week that the councilman’s remark was a joke among a few friends. 

The remark came amid a flap involving the Police Department’s refusal to allow officers to wear any American flag lapel pins on their uniforms other than an approved pin honoring the DARE national anti-drug program. 

On Tuesday, the chief reaffirmed his refusal to accept Zine’s apology. 

“He should apologize to the 6,000 families who lost loved ones during the Sept. 11 attacks. That’s who Councilman Zine should apologize to,” Parks said at a news conference on an unrelated subject.

BILLINGS, Mont. — The use of American Indian mascots for sports teams can demean a culture still fighting discrimination and can be a barrier to learning, a panel of experts told a gathering of Indian educators Tuesday. 

“We ... have a multiethnic society, and we basically still are culturally illiterate,” Jeff Sanders, who teaches Native American studies at Montana State University-Billings, said. 

The chants and caricatures often associated with teams with Indian nicknames are distracting and humiliating for Indians, Charlene Teters said in a forum during the National Indian Education Association conference. 

To simply tolerate it, “you get sick,” she said. 

But fighting back means fighting strong opposition, with die-hard sports fans loathe to see the names of their favorite teams changed, and division even among Indians, experts said. 

Teters said she’s not afraid of the debate in Indian communities. “Ignorance continues to be our biggest enemy,” she said. 

Michael Jetty, an adjunct professor of multicultural education at Montana State University, said he roots against teams with Indian mascots, “because the bottom line for them is money. And if they’re losing, they’re not making money.” 

The issue is an important one, Jetty said. “It’s an issue of people treating people with respect.” 

Jetty said, however, some reservation schools continue to use such team nicknames. 

John Orendorff, a counselor at a high school in Los Angeles, said he and his son should not have to see derogatory signs if they go to local sporting events. Similar references to other groups of people would not be tolerated, he said. 

“My fear is that Indians are seen as less than human,” he said. 

The message sent by mascots and nicknames is a confusing one for Indian children, Orendorff said. 

If he roots against a team called the Indians, “what does that do to my son?” he said. “He’s wondering, Who’s an Indian?”

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. chairman William Clay Ford Jr. took over as chief executive of the struggling automaker Tuesday after the ouster of Jacques Nasser, becoming the first Ford in 22 years to run day-to-day operations. 

“We’ve been given an amazing legacy, and we’re going to build an even better one,” said the 44-year-old great-grandson of Henry Ford. 

Nasser’s fate had been the subject of widespread speculation as the world’s second-largest automaker lost sales amid the Firestone tire debacle and questions about the quality of its vehicles. 

Ford complimented his predecessor, saying Nasser “made many significant contributions to our business operations around the world, and we all appreciate his dedication.” He said the job “is not something I sought, but something the board thought was necessary.” 

Nasser, 53, earned the moniker “Jac the Knife” for his prodigious cost-cutting. He took over as CEO in 1999 when Ford was poised to overtake General Motors as the world’s top automaker. 

But last year, Ford was shaken by the news that people were dying in accidents when the treads separated from Firestone tires, most of which were installed on Ford Explorers. Federal authorities say there is no evidence the Explorer’s design was at fault, but the automaker has reportedly spent millions to settle more than 100 Firestone-related lawsuits. 

Just last week, Ford settled a lawsuit over allegedly faulty ignition systems for vehicles dating from 1983 to 1995. The plaintiffs said the settlement could cost Ford as much as $2.7 billion for repairs, a figure the automaker disputed. 

Nasser resigned Monday afternoon during a meeting with Ford. 

“This seemed to be the right time,” Ford said. “Outside events like Firestone weighed heavily on management distraction.” 

Ford stock was down 9 cents to $16.12 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the announcement. 

“Obviously management thinks it was the right thing to do,” said Jim Hall, vice president of AutoPacific, an industry consulting firm. “But it’s a tough time for any kind of shake-up. During economic times like these you want continuity.” 

The last time a Ford ran daily operations at the company was in 1979, when Henry Ford II resigned. 

Ford Jr. faces a rebuilding task. 

Ford’s market share is down, slipping during the first nine months of 2001 to 22.6 percent from 22.8 percent a year ago. 

Sales of Ford vehicles through September were down 11 percent from the first nine months of 2000, a record sales year for the industry. In the third quarter of 2001, Ford lost $692 million after earning $888 million a year earlier. 

Looking for ways to save money, Ford announced in August it would cut 4,000 to 5,000 salaried positions by the end of the year through voluntary buyouts or early retirement packages. More restructuring moves are expected. 

The management shake-up includes the elevation of North American group vice president Nick Scheele to chief operating officer. Known as “Mr. Fixit,” Scheele was brought in last July in the first sign that Nasser’s job was on the line. 

Nasser’s ouster ends a 33-year career with Ford.  

He was the executive out front, pleading the automaker’s case during the Firestone debacle that began last fall when Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires and the safety of Ford’s most popular SUV was called into question. 

Nasser was convinced the tire maker was producing an inferior product, and he launched a $3 billion program in May to replace 13 million tires that were not part of Bridgestone/Firestone’s original recall. The tire maker responded by severing its nearly 100-year old relationship with Ford. 

The tire replacement program was viewed as a public relations coup for Ford, but its cost blew a hole in the automaker’s second-quarter earnings. Ford and its CEO took another hit when two influential industry reports showed the company losing ground in productivity and quality.

NASHVILLE, Tenn — Teen-agers may have outgrown their fear of ghouls and goblins, but health officials believe their haunted house has something far scarier: gonorrhea and genital warts. 

Hoping to combat one of the nation’s highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, city health officials have staged the “STD Free! Haunted House.” 

As visitors make their way through a dimly lit, S-shaped maze, they view startling, full-color photos of canker sores and genital warts on male and female genitalia infected with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practice safe sex. 

“We want to scare their pants back on,” said Elizabeth Frazier, a registered nurse at Tennessee State University’s health center. “We encourage abstinence. But if they can’t do that, then use protection.” 

Lynnette Whitlow, program specialist for the city health department, said some football players could barely get through last year’s haunted house. 

“Guys would come up and say nothing scares them,” Whitlow said, “then before they could get around the corner ... I could hear them screaming.” 

The haunted house was developed three years ago after Nashville reported the second-highest rate of syphilis in the country — 250 cases, or 45 cases per 100,000 people. 

Haunted house visitors are given “goody bags” filled with brochures on sexually transmitted diseases, and can get a free STD test once they complete the maze. 

Last year, more than 1,600 visited the haunted house and 60 students were tested for HIV and syphilis. 

“I think it will have a positive effect and deter freshman like myself from making mistakes,” said Jordan Williams, a freshman from Toledo, Ohio, who planned to take a tour when the house opened Wednesday. “I don’t know if it will make people abstain, but I do think they will consider using protection.”

WEST HOLLYWOOD — The most popular outfit at public Halloween bashes around the nation is expected to be a police uniform — but it won’t be a costume. 

After FBI Director Robert Mueller warned this week of the possibility of more terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials planned to increase their presence at public Halloween parties around the nation. 

More than 200,000 costumed revelers are expected to pack the city streets in West Hollywood on Wednesday night. Scattered among them will be 100 members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — “a deputy on every corner,” said Sgt. Gary Griffith. 

“Obviously, based on all the media and the announcement coming out of the federal government, we have increased the number of deputies working the assignment,” Griffith said. 

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, fears of further violence have led police to focus on large gatherings of people, from airports to sporting events to shopping malls. 

In Miami, police planned to double their presence at the annual Coconut Grove Halloween block party, which draws as many as 15,000 people, said Delrish Moss, a police spokesman. 

Even that won’t be enough for some, said Chastity Medina, 27, who works in an accounting office at a Miami law firm. 

“None of my friends are going because they’re scared, and I am not going alone. They’re afraid some type of terrorist attack is going to happen,” Medina said. 

In New York, Halloween comes the same week as the annual marathon and the World Series. The Police Department said it will be security as usual for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, with 2,000 officers on duty. 

In San Francisco, city officials have tried to discourage partygoers from flocking to the Castro District. They have urged people to attend the city’s official Halloween event at the Civic Center instead. The predominantly gay Castro neighborhood’s Halloween festivities draw as many as 500,000 people. 

Terrorist threats won’t quench the Halloween spirit of Noah Bishop, a 22-year-old West Hollywood bartender. 

“The community has lived in fear of different, random stuff for so long, from gay-bashing to HIV. I think we’re over it,” Bishop said. “We’re just tired of living in fear.” 

Les Hall, a 27-year-old waiter who works nearby, said he isn’t taking any chances with his costume. He plans to wear a gas mask. 

“That way,” he said, “I’ll be ready for everything.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Pledging to make the next generation of consumers better educated about money than their parents, Wells Fargo Bank has introduced a financial literacy program aimed at students in fourth grade and above. 

The San Francisco-based bank, which developed the curriculum with the nonprofit group Operation Hope, plans to educate 100,000 students in classrooms across the country during the next year. 

In addition to sending 200 employees to teach the basics of money management, Wells also is dispatching 45-foot-long buses equipped with computer terminals that provide wireless Internet access to a new Web site devoted to the program, dubbed “Banking On Our Future.” 

The site features an animated money management primer for fourth and fifth graders, as well as more advanced sections for junior high and high school students. 

Wells CEO Dick Kovacevich described the project as the most ambitious financial literacy program undertaken by a major U.S. bank. 

“We know this is something that students are going to eat up,” Kovacevich said in an interview Tuesday. 

Although they agree schools need to do a better job educating kids about money management, consumer activists are leery of Wells’ involvement in the program. With $298 billion in assets and 5,400 branches, Wells is the largest bank headquartered west of the Mississippi. 

“It’s like the fox guarding the chicken coop when you send banks into the classrooms,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. “We have seen banks all over college campuses trying to sell their credit cards, and now it looks like we are going to be seeing them all over our playgrounds.” 

Wells isn’t trying to promote its own products through the programs, Kovacevich said. 

“We have been doing this in a minor way for years,” he said. “We just thought it was the right time to put this together in a major way. It’s in everybody’s best interests if people are better educated about money.” 

The Wells brand appears on credit cards, checks and financial statements displayed as part of the online education program developed with Redwood City-based SmartForce. 

The bank’s self-promotion is troubling, said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Portland, Ore., consumer group that has fought to keep corporate influence out of classrooms. 

“Financial literacy is a noble goal, but this program has no place in schools. This is just a Trojan horse for marketing credit cards and other products,” Ruskin said. 

Recent surveys have documented the financial illiteracy of most students when they graduate from high school. 

High school seniors scored 51.9 percent — a failing grade — in a money management test taken last year by the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. Last year’s results represented a decline from the average score of 57.3 percent — also a failing grade — in the previous test taken by the coalition in 1997. 

Only a handful states, including Idaho, Illinois and Pennsylvania, have introduced financial education into their curriculum, JumpStart said. 

With so much ground to make up, Wells’ project should be embraced instead of reviled, said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. The congressman hopes to include a financial literacy grant program in an education bill under consideration by lawmakers. 

“Adults aren’t doing a good job demonstrating their own financial aptitude,” Pomeroy said. “We can’t afford to live in an economy with low savings rates and high default rates (on credit card loans). Wells understands that an informed consumer is the best business plan of all.” 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.bankingonourfuture.org 

http://www.commercialalert.org 

ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Co. is buying juice maker Odwalla Inc. in a $181 million deal that gives the world’s biggest soft drink company a stronger foothold in the market for noncarbonated beverages. 

Under the deal announced Tuesday, Odwalla will become part of Coke’s Minute Maid juice division. California-based Odwalla makes juice blends, smoothies and fortified health drinks and will retain its current management. 

Don Short, chief executive of Minute Maid, said acquiring Odwalla strengthens Coke’s opportunity for growth in new beverage categories. 

“Odwalla’s talented and proven people have built unique brands with loyal followings,” he said in a statement. “The innovation and expertise of the Odwalla team coupled with our innovation and logistics network are key to expanding the brands they have created and nurtured.” 

Odwalla, based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., markets its drinks under the Odwalla and Samantha labels. Its chief executive Stephen Williamson said he felt “the entrepreneurial spirit of Odwalla will be nurtured by the opportunity for growth that this new relationship presents.” 

Coke recently scrapped a deal with Procter & Gamble to market products such as Minute Maid juice and Pringles potato chips jointly. 

Odwalla posted $98 million in revenue for the first nine months of fiscal year 2001. It had revenue of $93 million for all of 2000. 

Coke will pay $15.25 a share in cash for all of Odwalla’s outstanding common stock. The boards of Atlanta-based Coke and California-based Odwalla approved the deal Tuesday. 

In morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Odwalla shares climbed 27.8 percent, or $3.29, to $15.12. Coca-Cola shares were down 77 cents at $47.84 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.cocacola.com 

http://www.odwalla.com 

SAN JOSE — Adobe Systems Inc. will lay off about 150 people, or about 5 percent of its worldwide work force, and lower its revenue and earnings targets for the current quarter and fiscal year 2002. 

The desktop publishing software maker said Tuesday it expects revenues for the fourth quarter ending in November to range between $275 million and $285 million, down from its previously lowered target of between $310 million and $320 million. 

Earnings per share for the quarter is now expected to be 20 cents to 22 cents, the company said. 

Before the announcement, Wall Street analysts were expecting the San Jose-based company to earn 26 cents per share for the quarter, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. 

“This is a much tougher year than we certainly expected,” Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen said at the company’s fall financial analyst meeting. “There isn’t as much revenue and not as much revenue growth as we have anticipated.” 

Chief financial officer Murray Demo cited continued weakness in Japan and the United States. Sales also slowed after the Sept. 11 attacks, making October the weakest month of the fiscal year for Adobe, he said. 

Chizen remained bullish on the company’s long-term growth opportunities but said the outlook for next fiscal year 2002 “will be as it as today — weak.” 

The company expects to incur up to a $10 million restructuring charge from the layoffs, which will start this week and continue over the next few weeks. 

Out of respect for its employees, the company said it was postponing a groundbreaking ceremony for a third office tower. The event was to take place Wednesday. 

Construction of the new building, however, will continue as planned, the company said. 

Shares of Adobe fell $1.59, or more than 5 percent, to $28.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In extended trading, the stock plunged $4.70 to $24.05. 

The company plans to release its fourth-quarter results on Dec. 14. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court temporarily has blocked a settlement between California’s second-largest utility and state power regulators that would keep electric rates at record highs for the next two years. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted a consumer advocacy group, The Utility Reform Network, two weeks to argue against the settlement. 

That settlement would help Southern California Edison pay $3.3 billion of its estimated $6 billion debt, by continuing to charge Edison customers higher rates imposed last May. 

The deal also would require Edison shareholders to forego $1.2 billion worth of dividends over three years and have Edison use its available cash to pay the remainder. 

Consumer groups, including TURN and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, say the deal unfairly makes ratepayers carry the burden of the utility’s debt, and that the Public Utilities Commission, members of Gov. Gray Davis’ staff and Edison lawyers should not have negotiated in secret. 

“This order confirms that there are substantial questions about the legality of what the CPUC has done,” said TURN Executive Director Nettie Hoge in a written release.  

“The appellate court wants to see ratepayers protected while those questions are answered.” 

But PUC officials said Tuesday the settlement likely will go forward despite the stay. 

U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew previously said the agreement was “fair, adequate and reasonable to the parties, the shareholders and to the public and is not a bailout by any means.”  

It is he who would have to overturn his previous ruling for the stay to become permanent. 

“The court has not decided anything on the merits of the stay, or the merits of the case,” said PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper. “TURN jumped the gun in appealing to the 9th Circuit. We are confident that the settlement agreement is the right thing for consumers, and that Judge Lew will make the appropriate ruling.” 

If the settlement goes forward, Edison has said it believes it will accumulate enough cash and gain financing by the middle of the first fiscal quarter of 2002 to pay its debt to banks, bondholders and power generators. 

The PUC has said the ruling was fair to ratepayers and should allow Edison to pay its debt by the end of 2003. The ruling also would allow the commission to retain authority over Edison, in contrast to a bankruptcy reorganization plan proposed by PG&E to cope with its financial troubles. 

The Edison deal was negotiated over 10 days this fall to keep the Rosemead-based utility from following Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest utility, into bankruptcy. 

PG&E and Edison blame their financial woes on California’s 1996 deregulation law that prevented them from passing on skyrocketing wholesale power costs to ratepayers. The state stepped in, buying billions of dollars in power for the cash-starved utilities. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Southern California Edison: http://www.sce.com 

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

The Utility Reform Network: http://www.turn.org 

Prosecutors argue he planned to meet a boy for sex 

NEW YORK — A California man was sentenced Monday to 17 1/2 years in prison for a federal child pornography conviction after prosecutors broke legal ground by arguing he deserved a longer prison term because he planned to meet a boy for sex knowing he is HIV positive. 

John Weisser, 39, of Oakland, Calif., was sentenced after U.S. District Judge Richard Casey concluded he was “a predator who poses a significant risk to children.” 

Both prosecutors and the defense agreed that the case was the first in which a federal defendant was sentenced to a longer prison term because he planned to have sex with a child knowing he has HIV.  

He could have been sentenced to as little as five years and three months. 

The judge said Weisser deserved greater punishment than if he were HIV negative or unaware of his status. He said no condoms were found on Weisser or in his Manhattan hotel room when he was arrested April 27, 2000. 

In computer chat rooms, Weisser had indicated that he intended to leave his condoms at his California home when he flew to New York City to have sex with what he thought was a 12-year-old boy, the judge said. 

The boy actually was a fictional identity created by Secret Service agents. 

Weisser was convicted by a jury Oct. 23, 2000, of using the Internet to entice a child to engage in a sexual act, traveling with the intent to engage in sex with a child and transporting pornography. 

Prosecutors said child pornography charges resulted when agents found that Weisser had a compact disc with numerous images of child pornography. 

Weisser’s lawyer, Richard Lind, argued for leniency, saying no child was harmed. 

Editor: 

The wrathfulness of terrorism is causing unreasonable and unjustified deprivations to the disabled population of Berkeley by “shutting down” disabled persons parking privileges around the Berkeley city hall as a denial of reasonable access to city hall facilities or reasonable accommodations to the services, programs, or activities of city hall. 

This denial of access is “unjustified” or “bad judgment” or unreasonable or unconscionable as an illegal and unlawful act against disabled persons while the city officials enjoyed full parking rights in the comfort and convenience of the back area of city hall and closer that the blue disabled free zone parking areas. 

Ray Dobard 

Berkeley

Hotel honcho wants New York-style cleanup 

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco spends more than $200 million a year on its homeless, but money has not answered the problems connected to drugs, alcohol and mental illness that abound on the streets, a newspaper reported Sunday. 

The problem has gotten so bad, it’s not unusual to walk down the city’s sidewalks and see homeless doing drugs, urinating or defecating in the open. The city’s last count found about 2,000 living on the streets. 

“You walk down Market Street and step over comatose bodies, debris and human waste. It’s just not a pleasant experience,” Dave Myers of Cupertino told the San Francisco Chronicle. He and his wife used to regularly visit San Francisco, but now they go elsewhere. 

“It’s where people walk and take their kids,” he said. “It’s dirty and nasty and not healthy.” 

Despite spending about the same amount annually for the homeless as for San Francisco’s fire department, city officials admit the problem is not improving: There are about the same number of homeless on San Francisco’s streets today as 10 years ago. 

But homeless advocate George Smith, who heads the Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness, said San Francisco’s homeless are all concentrated in one area, and there are solutions to helping the homeless while also cleaning up the streets. 

“In San Francisco, it is in your face. All the shelters, social services programs, all systems of care are downtown and with the density downtown, you are going to see people,” said Smith, who spent five years living on the street. “Once we spread it out, it is going to have a whole different tone to it, a lot more people discussing it, a lot more people influencing what we do and a lot more people supporting what we do.” 

Unlike New York City, which cleaned up its streets by offering shelter every night to anyone who needed it, San Francisco took the long-term approach. Much of its money went toward full services for those who were accepted. 

“If you divert money from housing and put it into homeless shelters, then you have your homeless and indigent populations living in huge warehouses,” said Marc Trotz, director of the city Department of Public Health’s housing program. 

The last census in the city found 5,300 total homeless, including the 2,000 street people. The others were in hospitals, shelters, treatment centers or jail. 

San Francisco has about 1,700 emergency shelter beds, and most of those shelters do not serve the mentally ill or those exhibiting bizarre behavior, according to a draft city application this year for federal funds, the Chronicle found. 

Mayor Willie Brown declined to be interviewed by the Chronicle, but he recently said the city’s dirty streets and large visible homeless population are keeping tourists from visiting San Francisco. 

“It makes no sense to spend San Francisco taxpayers’ dollars to arrest and prosecute those whose only crime is poverty,” Brown said early in his term. 

But last month, after national media attention on the issue, Brown admitted: “Right now, you get a negative impression of the city.” 

In New York City, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cleaned up the streets full of homeless a decade ago. He threatened to arrest those who did not go to shelters provided by the city — enough to hold nearly 27,000 people a night. 

They invested in outreach services that encouraged homeless to come to shelters and began citing homeless for nuisance crimes such as public urination to help get the mentally ill into treatment. 

Bob Begley, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, said it’s time for change here, too. 

“If New York can do it, why can’t San Francisco?” he said.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Two first period goals from each team was all that was scored as the Arizona State soccer team (9-8-1, 3-4-1) tied with 23rd-ranked California (11-5-2, 3-3-1), 1-1,on Sunday.  

First half goals from Cal’s Jordan Iantorno and ASU’s Marlina Fletcher were the teams could muster in 120 minutes of soccer. The goals were career firsts for both players.

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

KPFA supporters welcomed the news that Ken Ford, a member of the Pacifica board majority they have battled for the last two and a half years, resigned on Wednesday. 

In a message on the Pacifica Foundation’s Web site, board president Robert Farrell said, “Ken Ford's years of service to Pacifica Foundation as officer, board member, and WPFW local advisory board member were of great value to the organization and are appreciated. We all wish him well as he takes his leave.” 

WPFW is a Washington, D.C. station, one of the five listener-sponsored stations in the network. 

Phil Osegueda, KPFA’s assistant station manager, said that in his resignation letter to board president Farrell, Ford wrote he was stepping down “for the betterment of the organization.” 

The departure comes one week after Bessie Wash, the network’s executive director, left under uncertain circumstances, amidst a worsening crisis in the network’s finances. 

Representatives of the Pacifica Board majority and KPFA were in mediation Thursday to resolve four lawsuits against the network: one was filed by members of four of the five stations’ local advisory boards, another by its listeners, a third by dissident national board members and a fourth by fired staff.  

The talks were expected to conclude late Thursday or on Friday. 

“We’d like an end to this struggle and we hope that (Ford’s resignation) is indicative of good faith discussions by both sides,” said Osegueda. 

The KPFA community last week voted to put off a decision on holding a fundraiser, partly out of concern that Pacifica might gain strength from it to fight the lawsuits. 

Immediately after Wash’s departure on Oct. 25, Pacifica agreed to bring those suits to mediation. 

Ford was one of a majority on the Pacifica board that supporters and staff of KPFA have battled for more than two years over control of the radio station.  

Two weeks ago, the San Francisco Examiner quoted Ford comparing those fighting to keep control of KPFA to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, which the government holds responsible for recent terrorist activities.  

Larry Bensky, a former KPFA station manager who now hosts the Sunday Salon program as a volunteer after being ousted from his paid position by Pacifica, said he did not think the resignation necessarily meant better times ahead. 

“I’ll be happy when the board changes to be controlled by advocates for free speech community radio,” he said. “This is the 13th director to resign over the last two and a half years, and yet the policies of the Pacifica central organization continue to be ruinous. Ford was certainly one of the most intemperate and nasty members of the board, but as long as they keep replacing the Ken Fords of the world with like-minded individuals, there can be no sense of victory or vindication.”

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter to the Berkeley City Council: 

To the honorable members of the Berkeley City Council,I would like to express my deepest thanks to you for your brave stand on the latest American military action against the wretched of the earth. Please send me a list of some Berkeley businesses that I can patronize online or through the mail to show my support. Thanks again. 

Nora Freeman  

Port Chester, NY  

The Drug Enforcement Agency raided a West Hollywood club last Thursday, and now local outfits fear that federal agents will turn their attention to Berkeley. Their No. 1 concern is not arrests, but the confiscation of patient medical records.  

“Our biggest concern is getting medication to patients,” said Dorrit Geshuri, coordinator for the Alliance of Berkeley Patients, a local medical marijuana advocacy organization. “The confiscating of records would be a big problem in reopening.”  

If medical records are confiscated, the clubs will not be able to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate patients, rendering clubs unable to sell marijuana to any registered buyer.  

“We’re definitely going to think of methods not to have the patients’ records available,” said Geshuri in response to a possible seizure. 

Medical marijuana advocates like Geshuri say federal agents confiscate the records for the sole reason of hindering pot sales.  

In the West Hollywood bust, no arrests were made. But the Los Angeles office of the U.S. District Attorney said the raid was part of an ongoing investigation, and agents were collecting evidence for possible future convictions. 

But activists say convictions are unlikely.  

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, the agency that officially registers local patients, said most Americans accept marijuana as legitimate medicine. According to Jones, agents know the federal government would lose a criminal trial and merely want to disrupt the club’s operations. 

Patients who want to purchase marijuana from one of the cannabis clubs in Berkeley must obtain a private doctor’s prescription and then get a registration card from the cooperative. Doctors prescribe marijuana as medicine for a variety of conditions, from AIDS and cancer to arthritis and glaucoma. Jones estimated that about 7,000 active members in Oakland and Berkeley get their medical marijuana from the clubs. 

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Geshuri said the local cannabis clubs are currently building their relationship with the city of Berkeley, and “some people on city council are supportive.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington agreed. In the event of a raid, he said, the council would take the side of the clubs.  

“Doing whatever we can do to strengthen the clubs would be a high priority because they’re providing a valuable service,” he said. “The progressives see this as a medical need and it’s been approved by the voters, so we should facilitate implementing it.” 

The city’s health department also respects the clubs.  

“There’s a mutual coexistence and understanding we have with the clubs with Berkeley,” said Fred Medrano, director of Health and Human Services. “We are not really in the business of regulating the clubs per se, but we are allowing them to coexist with us to provide medical marijuana under the provision of 215.” 

The Berkeley Police Department and the cannabis clubs do not have a formal relationship, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris. However, she said the local police avoids shutting down the clubs, only enforcing marijuana laws “as they see it.”  

Marijuana for any use, including medicinal purposes, is illegal under federal law. In May, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 in opposition to the medical use of marijuana.

SAN FRANCISCO — Some Northern California counties are hoping to win approval for a committee of government creditors in the Pacific Gas and Electric bankruptcy case. 

The only committee now representing PG&E’s thousands of creditors is dominated by energy traders. They have no incentive to stand up for the communities PG&E serves, according to a motion filed Wednesday by San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne. 

Joining San Francisco in the request are Alameda, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo and Siskiyou counties, along with the cities of Berkeley and San Jose. 

Renne’s office claims PG&E has negotiated a reorganization plan that favors energy companies whose soaring wholesale electricity rates drove the utility into Bankruptcy Court. Under the plan, released Sept. 20, PG&E would drop legal challenges against the prices charged by generators, who would receive full payment of about $9 billion. 

The 11-member creditors committee endorsed the PG&E plan two weeks after it was filed. Renne’s office says the committee, which includes seven energy trading companies, including Enron and Dynegy, has kept the majority of PG&E’s creditors in the dark. 

The counties hope want to draw up an alternative restructuring plan. 

SAN JOSE — Palo Alto police are looking for a man who they say conned a car dealership into handing over the keys to a custom-ordered Porsche valued at $125,000. 

The real owner of the gray 996 Turbo, who had waited two years for his special order, showed up 20 minutes later to claim it. 

The suspect, who called himself Steve, showed up Saturday morning at the Carlsen Motor Cars dealership dressed in a gray business suit and holding out his handheld computing device. 

He talked briefly with the sales clerk inside and then asked to look around the lot, police said. The man walked into the detailing shop where an employee was washing the new Porsche. 

According to police detective Dana de la Rocha, the general manager had just told the detailer to finish washing the car because the customer who ordered it was on his way. So when the man told the detailer that the Porsche was his, the detailer turned over the keys. 

The man was last seen heading north on Highway 101. The car had no license plates or dealer tags and still belonged to the dealership. 

Editor: 

There are more effective tools than war for stopping terrorism. War is what the hijackers wanted. The longer unilateral military intervention continues, the deeper and wider the suffering for all. This war will actually increase terrorism. This war could easily spread throughout the world. Happy Halloween. 

One probable result is the fall of the fragile dictatorship which we support in Pakistan. It would go to Taliban types. Pakistan has 30 to 50 nuclear weapons. Another probable result, if we don’t stop very soon, is the starvation of 7.8 million innocent Afghanis – according to the U.N. – who did not elect the Taliban and have nothing to do with terrorism. Trick or treat? 

Before we erode even more international support, we must stop killing innocent civilians and try to make amends for such deaths that we caused. 

Then we will get the near global solidarity that we need and deserve to bring the terrorists to justice legally, and to gradually root out terrorist cells worldwide through cooperative covert intelligence. We do not need to sacrifice civil liberties, which would be a victory for the terrorists. 

In foreign policy, we need to lead rather than impede international efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, the UN Convention to Eliminate Discrimination against Women and the one on child abuse, the Land Mines Treaty, the biowarfare treaty, both anti-terrorism treaties, the International Criminal Court. We have been in the minority among industrialized nations in holding these up. We must respect the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Even if Star Wars could work, it will not protect us, as 9/11 proved. We must become the world’s hero. If we spent all the billions earmarked for Star Wars on a Marshall Plan for third world civilians and democratic governments, we would win the war on terrorism. 

We are the world’s largest exporter of weapons. The School of the Americas (new name, same game: torture) must be closed. We must work for worldwide justice, and not for just US. It would also be wise to stop exporting mostly the most vulgar and violent aspects of our culture. 

I am not coming off as the proud patriot that I am. I am so grateful to be American. Today we will call the Senate to stop the tax break for the rich that the House just passed. Some day we will become the greatest nation to ever grace the planet because we are a strong, free and caring people who will educate ourselves and rise to the challenge of creating a fair world. The movement for sustainable life on this planet will grow and flourish because it is so obviously just. When we are healthy and minding our own business except to help good people who want our help, we will be safe and we will rejoice with the world. 

Phoebe Ann Sorgen, Berkeley

As Attorney General John Ashcroft’s warning Monday of a new, “credible” threat of terrorism during the next week further heightened national anxiety, many Bay Area parents said the neighborhood ritual of trick-or- treating will be replaced today by more secure alternatives. 

Oakland resident Nakumba Jackson still hasn’t told her 5-year-old daughter she won’t be going out to trick-or-treat. Instead of taking their normal route through the Oakland Hills, Jackson said, this year they will do a candy hunt in their home. 

“She’ll be upset,” she said, flipping through kids’ spider costumes at Halloween Headquarters on University Avenue. 

Chris Chatmon, director of Oakland’s Eastlake YMCA, said he has encouraged concerned parents to come to the youth organization’s annual Halloween family night, with a haunted house, jumper gym and carnival games, as an alternative to trick- or-treating.  

“Given the buzz and us being at war. It does seem folks are a little apprehensive,” said Chatmon. “We’re providing an alternative.” 

“A lot of parents are using these events as an alternative to trick or treating,” said Eden O’Brien-Brenner, a Berkeley YMCA family program director. 

Erma Montgomery, director of the Oakland YWCA, said she planned to urge parents to stay away from trick-or-treating.  

“If you want your child to have candy; buy it yourself,” she said adding that she won’t hand out treats this year because of the threat of anthrax. 

While spokespeople from local school, police and fire agencies said they are taking normal precautions, some agencies advised parents to stay calm. 

“We don’t expect anything out of the ordinary,” said environmental toxicologist Mark Galvo, at the California Poison Control System, a poison exposure hotline. There have been no reports of anthrax exposure in California, Galvo said. “There’s no real concern.” 

“The public needs to be reassured that everything is going fine,” he said adding that parents should report anything unusual to authorities. 

But Montclair resident Anjuelle Floyd, whose three children won’t be trick-or-treating, said she was afraid copy cats would poison candy. 

“I’m quite pissed off they’re even having Halloween,” said Floyd, clutching a tiny Big Bird costume for her 2-year-old. “We need to wake up and smell the coffee.” 

San Leandro mothers, Tatsuki Hewson and Naomi Ito, originally from Japan, said they will go to their Japanese church for Halloween festivities for safety reasons, and because they are not accustomed to the American tradition. 

“We are always concerned about safety,” Ito said.