Attorneys for Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney questioned witnesses in the opening week of their case against the FBI and Oakland Police, hoping to establish a timeline of events in the case.  

Lead counsel for Bari and Cherney, Dennis Cunningham, questioned Seeds of Peace activist Shannon Marr and Earth First! organizer Karen Pickett in an attempt to pinpoint the exact times and order of events immediately following the car bombing which left Bari severely injured nearly12 years ago.  

Establishing a timeline is crucial to determining how Oakland police and the FBI decided Bari and Cherney were the bombing suspects.  

“We need to establish that the police did arrest Bari and Cherney when we said they did and that they did it in an inappropriate fashion; that there wasn’t enough information to arrest them,” said Alicia Littletree, member of the Bari and Cherney legal team and Earth First! activist. 

According to Littletree, the first week of the trial has been a success though the larger success may be that the case has finally made it to court. “I’m astounded that we are in court at all. This is only the second time that a grass-roots group has been able to take the FBI to court,” said Littletree. 

Attorneys for Bari and Cherney originally filed a lawsuit against the FBI in 1991.  

Bari, who died of cancer in 1997, and Cherney were organizing Redwood Summer, a series of demonstrations set for the summer of 1990, on the day of the bombing.  

Shannon Marr, a Seeds of Peace activist, and Karen Pickett, an Earth First! organizer, testified this week they were taken into custody and questioned for their association with Bari and for trying to visit Bari in the hospital. Marr, who was driving the car ahead of Bari’s on the day of the bombing, testified that police both questioned her and accused her of planting the bomb.  

“For me, seeing Shannon Marr testify in front of the defendants was really satisfying. She went through so much and was the first one to help Judi after the bombing. I was really pleased with her testimony,” said Littletree. 

According to Earth First!, The Seeds of Peace house, where Bari and Cherney had spent the night before the bombing, was ransacked during a warrantless search following the bombing. 

Attorneys for the FBI, led by Joseph Sher, have focused most of their attention on establishing the credibility of the FBI agents accused of misconduct in the case. In Sher’s opening statements he described the agents as dedicated public servants acting within the limits of the law. 

Sher also described accused FBI Special Agent John Reikes as a dedicated environmentalist, concerned with endangered species. Sher added that while Reikes may disagree with some tactics of Earth First! activists, he had no motivation to frame Bari or Cherney. 

Assistant City Attorney Maria, lead counsel for the accused officers of the Oakland Police Department, emphasized that the officers acted on their best knowledge and evidence available, relying on the expertise of the FBI in matters dealing with explosives and terrorism. 

Both Joseph Sher and Maria Bee were contacted for comment regarding the first week of the trial but did not respond. 

Lead attorney for Bari and Cherney, Dennis Cunningham, was also contacted regarding comment on the first week of trial but did not respond. 

According to Earth First!, Oakland Police Department Officer Paul Slivinski testified that he understood he was “guarding a prisoner,” as he escorted Darryl Cherney out of the hospital at 5 pm on the day of the bombing. Cherney was later questioned and booked at Oakland Police headquarters before being released due to a lack of evidence. 

Alameda County Bomb Squad responder T. J. Roumph’s conclusion that the bomb was placed under the car seat, not in the back floorboard as FBI Special Agent Frank Doyle has maintained, contradicts the FBI’s claim that Bari and Cherney planted the bomb in their car. 

Pictures of the bombed car will be exhibited next week in the attempt to determine the location of the bomb within the car. 

Testimony from defendant Sgt. Sitterud of the FBI will continue Monday along with testimony and the examination of defendant OPD member Sgt. Robert Chenault, OPD Bomb Squad member Myron Hanson, and OPD Sgt. Del Kraft.  

The trial will continue until approximately May 24, 2002, in the Oakland Federal Courthouse, 1301 Clay St., Judge Claudia Wilken’s courtroom (fourth floor). Hearings take place Monday through Thursday, 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. The proceedings are open to the public.

A tool used by historians to trace the history of a city is a special map, called a Sanborn Insurance Map. The maps were published for insurance agents to assess the risks of insuring a particular piece of property and were first published in 1867.  

Sanborn Maps are filled with information. They are large-scale maps drawn 50 feet to an inch. A Sanborn map is printed on heavy rag paper and bound in huge books that are about 2x3 feet. Each page contains about 4 or 5 blocks.  

If a city is large, the map is divided between several volumes. Berkeley, for example, is now divided into four volumes and each volume contains about 100 pages. The earliest Sanborn map of Berkeley dates from 1894 and was only one volume with 14 pages. It only covers the blocks around the downtown train station, the area south of the university and along Shattuck to Rose Street. The other areas of Berkeley were so sparsely populated that there was no need to map it. By 1911 Berkeley had grown so large that the map was revised and divided into two volumes. The next revision occurred in 1929 and was divided into 3 volumes.  

The most important aspect of Sanborn Maps for a historian is that they show the outline of properties and the footprints of buildings and these are fairly accurate. Addresses are also shown. The footprints of structures show porches, turrets and window bays providing clues to the age of a building.  

The maps were color-coded and had symbols for different types of structures. If a building is wood-framed it is indicated in yellow, brick in red. A windmill and water pump is indicated by a circle within a square, and a stable has an "x" through it. If a building was a dwelling it would be indicated by a "D". Fire hydrants and water pipes, including their size, were shown.  

The maps were kept up-to-date by the Sanborn Company who provided changes that their customers (insurance agents and city planning departments) could paste into their maps. When changes and annexations had become extensive, the company issued a new map. By using different editions of these maps the historian can see how an entire city or particular piece of property changed over time.  

The latest Sanborn Map for Berkeley can be viewed at the Building Permit Department on Milvia Street. Older ones are available on-line. 

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

The to Editor: 

On February 19, 2002, the Berkeley City Council voted by strong majority (7-1-1) to change the zoning on the north side of the 1100 block of Hearst Avenue from R3 to R2A. On November 28, 2001, the Berkeley Planning Commission voted unanimously for this zoning change.  

A recent letter to the Planet from the League of Women Voters was sharply critical of these actions, claiming that the Council was responding to neighborhood "nay-sayers". We, the Hearst-Curtis-Delaware Neighbors, would like to refute the League’s mischaracterization of the zoning change, and clarify the facts. 

Our new zoning designation, R2A, allows an additional 22 units of new housing to be added to this small, ten parcel area, which is only one side of one block. That is a 50% increase over what’s there currently.  

This neighborhood is not anti-development. Over the last ten or so years, 10 units of new housing have been added to these parcels, and many more have been added across the street.  

We have welcomed many new neighbors, and will continue to do so. The League’s letter states they favor a moderate expansion of housing. Is a 50% increase not moderate, even more than moderate? 

R3 zoning, which accommodates projects as large as hospitals, was a zoning anomaly and inappropriate for our narrow, local, residential street. This anomaly is very apparent when one looks at the City zoning map. Other areas of the City zoned R3 are areas on major transit corridors (portions of Ashby, College, Alcatraz, Oxford, and Sacramento) and in the immediate north and south campus areas. 

This anomalous zoning designation left us prey to the very kind of inappropriate development that the General Plan seeks to prevent. There are no more empty lots on this block. The more intense development encouraged by R3 zoning promotes the demolition of existing, inhabited, rent-controlled housing. Tenants could be displaced, and long-time rent-controlled units with lower rents could be lost.  

This change in zoning has almost universal support in the neighborhood. Property owners asked that our own properties be rezoned, limiting our own rights to development, in order to protect our neighborhood’s character and quality of life. 

Our neighborhood strongly supports the development and maintenance of affordable housing. Some of us live in it ourselves! The affordable housing complex owned by Resources for Community Development (RCD), which is in the rezoned area, is an anchor in our neighborhood and integral in setting both the social and physical character of the neighborhood. We would not have pursued rezoning if it had jeopardized the RCD complex. 

The University Avenue Area Plan, formally adopted as part of the new General Plan, directs denser development to the Avenue and clearly states "Protect and enhance the lower density character of surrounding neighborhoods."  

Our neighborhood deserves this protection as much as any other.  

Changing a zoning designation in Berkeley was not easy. It required months of time and hours and hours of work on the part of residents, City staff, Commissioners, and elected officials. This change was made carefully and thoughtfully. We are not afraid of change – we worked very hard to effect a positive change for our neighborhood.  

Are we "nay-sayers" or Nimbys? No! We are teachers in the Berkeley Unified School District, nurses, chefs, gardeners, musicians, office workers, and retirees, to name but a few of our professions and jobs. We are students at UC, community colleges, Berkeley High School and Berkeley grade schools. We are young, old, gay, straight, long-time residents and newcomers, renters, homeowners, Black, white, Mexican-American, Japanese-American, Spanish, Ecuadorian, French, and Middle-Eastern-American. We are the very people that the League of Women Voters wants to attract to and keep in Berkeley! We are united in our commitment to keeping our neighborhood a pleasant, safe, healthy, clean place to live and grow.  

We would have expected the League of Women Voters, who have been known for fairness and deliberation of the facts before acting, to have done a little bit more research before issuing their statement. Fortunately, the Planning Commission and the City Council did take the time to analyze the facts. Thanks to their forward-thinking actions, our neighborhood will be better able to retain its essential, attractive, Berkeley character and provide a day-to-day quality of life that keeps us living and working in Berkeley.  

The Hearst-Curtis-Delaware Neighbors 

Rare blend of rural and urban music reaches out to prison population 

WHITESBURG, Ky. — Some call the unusual blend of rural and urban music hillbilly hip-hop. Others call it hick-hop. 

The collaboration of banjos, fiddles and drums set to a beat that would leave a rapper out of breath was created to reach inmates from big cities who are in rural Appalachian prisons. 

Nick Szuberla, director of an eastern Kentucky radio show that caters to those inmates, brought bluegrass and hip-hop musicians together in Whitesburg earlier this month for a live performance on WMMT-FM. Dirk Powell, a banjo picker from Oberlin, Ohio, and Danja Mowf, a hip-hop artist from Richmond, Va., created music that lends itself to both clogging and break dancing. 

“This is the first instance I know of where traditional mountain musicians and hip-hop artists joined forces,” said Rich Kirby, head of June Appal Recordings in Whitesburg. “Both musics have deep roots in tradition, and if you go back far enough you will find the same roots.” 

The mix of genres is meant to show that urban and rural cultures need not clash, said Szuberla, whose hip-hop program “From the Holler to the Hood” airs weekly. 

That message is important in central Appalachia, he said, where urban and rural cultures meet daily in prison. 

“In the past 10 years, prisons have been popping up in rural communities across Appalachia,” he said. “You have inmates from urban areas in the Northeast being shipped 15 hours away from home to these rural communities. What has happened is a cultural clash.” 

For many inmates from cities, even listening to the radio has changed: Country music rules the airwaves in central Appalachia, allowing room only for the occasional rock or oldies stations. 

Szuberla said his station tries to supplement bluegrass and traditional music with hip-hop, punk, heavy metal, jazz, R&B, reggae and, now, the odd new musical blend. 

Appalshop, a media arts center in Whitesburg, is producing a TV documentary about the growth of prisons in Appalachia. The mixture of music will be used as a soundtrack. The radio station and June Appal Recordings also are part of Appalshop. 

Appalshop has tried to preserve and present traditional mountain music as an important part of rural life in Appalachia. In the same way, Szuberla said, hip-hop has become an important part of life for many of the region’s inmates. 

“This collaboration presents a chance to bring artists together who would normally not cross paths, while at the same time bridging communities often viewed in opposition,” he said. 

Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - 1 a.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St. 

A class disaster mental health. 981-5605 

10th Annual Chinese Masters in Martial Arts Series 

8:30 a.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Haas Pavilion  

Day-long event will include competition in contemporary, traditional and internal styles of wushu. The Masters demonstration will begin at 8:00 p.m. 841-1486.  

Rescheduled BPWA Path Walk 

"Boundary Walk" 

10 a.m.- noon, rain or shine 

Join naturalist, Paul Grunland, as he leads an exploration of the Berkeley 

Paths on the Berkeley Kensington Boundary. Meet at Grizzly Peak/Spruce, the reservoir. 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

10 a.m.- noon 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Make Your Own Book 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Albany Library  

1247 Marin Ave. 

In a free hands-on workshop budding authors and artists of all ages can create origami books, "wheel books," photo albums and other types of books. 526-3720. 

Party For Your Health 

10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Corner of M.L.K. and Center St. 

A free community health fair for all ages. Health screenings (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.), information and games, alternative health services, organic and vegetarian food, poetry slam and music. 665-6833, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/publichealth/. 

Gala Tribute to Ali Akbar Khan, in honor of his 80th birthday 

1-5 p.m. 

The Ali Akbar College of Music Orchestra, The AACM Tabla Ensemble (Composed and conducted by Swapan Chaudhuri) and Chitresh Das presents his Chhandam Dancers 

7 p.m. 

Solo Performances by: Lakshmi Shankar, GS Sachdev, Sisirkana Chowdhury, Shittresh Das, Zakir Hussain, Swapan Chaudhuri and performing a duet Alam Khan and Aahish Khan 

Marin Vetran’s Auditorium, Marin Center, San Rafael  

For additional information call: 415-454-6264 or www.aacm.org 

For tickets call the Marin Center box Office 415-472-3500 or Ticketmaster 

Got Lyrics? 

Lyrics Slam Contest 

Cash prize, 1st Place $100, Second place $75, 3rd place $50. 

Bring your poetry, books, note pads, freestyles, your abstract thoughts and your love for the spoken word. 

12:30 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Park (across from Berkeley High) 

Sunday, April 14

Non-religous Meditation Group 

5 p.m. 

Fig Tree Gallery 

2599 8th St. 

428-9466. 

Mike Ruppert on Truth & Lies of 9/11 

6 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Video showing followed by audience discussion. Free. 528-5403. 

Preserving Photographs 

3 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St. 

Sunday, April 14, 

Drew Johnson, Oakland Museum photo curator, will talk on "Preserving  

Photographs.” Part of a five lecture series connected with the exhibit "From the Attic: How to Preserve and Share our Past." 848-0181, http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/. 

Animals in Politics 

noon 

Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St. 

California Coordinator for the Fund for Animals, Virginia Handley, tells about the legislative process in California, the latest news on all the animal bills, and how animal advocates can help pass humane legislation. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Choosing to Add On: The Pros and Cons  

of Building an Addition 

noon - 2 p.m. 

812 Page  

Building Education Center- Free Lecture by Skip Wenz. 525-7610. 

Monday, April 15

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part one of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Parkinson’s Support Group 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

Berkeley,  

For more information, call 981-5190. 

Berkeley Society of Friends (Quakers) 

2151 Vine Street 

Berkeley, Ca 94709 

(510) 843-9725 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

7-9 p.m. 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Peace Builders 

9 a.m. 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends is presenting talks from four inspiring peace builders in April and May, beginning with Melody Ermachild Chavis and Latifa Popal who have just returned from Afghanistan. 527-8475. 

Berkeley Partners for Parks Meeting 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

City Corp. Yard  

1326 Allston Way 

Public invited to discuss and advocate for parks and open space in Berkeley. 649-9874. 

Tuesday, April 16

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part two of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Farm Fresh Choice, Community Produce Stands 

Affordable, high-quality nutritious fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs and apple juice. Organic and low residue produce. Support small independent African -American, Latino and Asian Farmers continue to farm in environmentally sound ways. 

4 to 6 p.m., every Tuesday 

Three Locations:  

The Young Adult Project at Oregon and Grant, Bahia on Eighth Street at James Kenny Park and The Berkeley Youth Alternative. 

Hard-hitting Berkeley takes over first place in Shoreline League 

Staunch defense and penalty killing keyed a huge win for the Berkeley High boys’ lacrosse team on Friday, as the ’Jackets took a big step towards a league title with a 6-2 defeat of Bishop O’Dowd in Berkeley. 

After giving up the only goal of the first quarter, Berkeley (8-2 overall, 2-0 SLL) shut down the high-powered O’Dowd offense for 31 minutes, scoring a variety of goals to go up 6-1. The Dragons’ two top scorers, Pat Bird and Nick Stratton, were nearly shut out, with Bird getting a lone assist on his team’s second goal with the game already in Berkeley’s clutches. 

“Our defense just played great today,” Berkeley head coach Jon Rubin said. “Our philosophy was to make them beat us with tough passes, and we just didn’t let them get near the goal.” 

Rubin awarded the game ball to defenseman Demetrius Sommers, whose frenetic play changed the pace of the game every time the ball found an O’Dowd (1-1 SLL) stick. Sommers created at least 10 turnovers all by himself, and his man-marking of Stratton kept the league’s second-leading scorer completely off the board. The Dragons got just six shots on goal in the game. 

“We knew that they really had two good players on offense, and we needed to shut them down,” Sommers said. “Their other players are mediocre on offense, so we just took (Bird and Stratton) out of the game.” 

Sommers, who was moved to defense last season because of his non-stop motor and hard-hitting ways, seemed to be everywhere against the Dragons, leaving Stratton to lay several huge hits on O’Dowd midfielders in transition. 

“Having Demetrius is like having three extra players out there,” Rubin said. “He plays like a college player, and he’s just a junior.” 

The ’Jackets’ offense sputtered through the first quarter, but Berkeley’s athleticism gave them their first goal. An O’Dowd turnover quickly turned into a Berkeley fast break, with Calvin Gaskin finding Noah Flessell in front of the goal for an easy score to tie the game. After Berkeley won the ensuing faceoff, Nick Schooler added to his league-leading point total with a long shot for a 2-1 lead. 

Berkeley’s next goal came off of and O’Dowd turnover as well. Already a man down on a penalty, the Dragons gave the ball up to Berkeley’s Sam Gellar, who sprinted the length of the field before denting the net. When Jesse Cohen scored off of a spin move with 45 seconds left in the second quarter, Berkeley took a 4-1 lead into halftime. 

Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Berkeley was dealt a serious blow when midfielder Cameran Sampson was penalized for an illegal stick between periods. The penalty put the ’Jackets down a man for the first three minutes of the final quarter, but two careless turnovers by the Dragons and Berkeley’s quick rotation on defense kept O’Dowd from even getting a shot off during Sampson’s penance. Berkeley killed four penalties in the game. 

“Everything’s rosy, and then we get nailed with an equipment penalty,” Rubin said. “But the defense really stepped up and got it done.” 

When Dan Vilar scored on yet another Berkeley fast break with eight minutes left in the game, O’Dowd’s chance at a comeback was dead. Gellar scored again, this time on a long shot, a minute later for a 6-1 lead and a claim on first place in the Shoreline Lacrosse League. 

With the league’s other two teams, College Prep and Piedmont, fielding brand-new programs, the SLL title will most likely come down to the Berkeley-O’Dowd rematch on May 2 in Oakland. Sommers thinks the ’Jackets’ convincing win on Friday gives them a leg up for that game. 

“I think we’ve got it over them mentally now,” he said. “They know they’ll have to step up their game to play with us.”

Ding! Ding! 

It’s round two in the fight to oust Local 1, the Martinez-based union that represents the Berkeley Unified School District’s classified employees, and both sides are swinging. 

Last year Local 39, an AFL-CIO affiliate with offices in San Francisco, attempted to pry away Local 1’s operations and support unit, which represents maintenance workers, food service workers and bus drivers among others. But the effort stalled in a squabble over the expiration date for the current contract. 

This year Local 39 is back, hoping to win representation of the operations unit. A second union, the Council of Classified Employees, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, is attempting to take control of Local 1’s other Berkeley units – the paraprofessional and clerical outfits. 

Local 39 and CCE have both collected enough signatures from Local 1 members to force elections. The Public Employment Relations Board, an independent state body, will send out ballots to union members in the operations unit Monday, and will count the votes May 7.  

Jerilyn Gelt, labor relations specialist for the board, said she expects elections for the other two units to be complete by the end of the school year in June. 

Dissatisfied workers and union organizers for Local 39 and CCE say Local 1 has not provided adequate service. Phone calls go unreturned, they say, and grievances go unfiled. 

“Local 1 has taken people’s dues money and not provided them what they’re supposed to provide – service and representation,” said Stephanie Allan, business representative for Local 39. 

Pat Robertson, a district storekeeper and president of the operations unit, acknowledges that it often takes a few days for “overworked” business agents in the Local 1 Martinez office to return calls.  

Still Robertson, who works in the district and provides day-to-day support for union members, said he is very responsive. 

“I return any call,” he said, noting that he provides union members with his home phone number and pager. 

But Allan said the Local 1 structure, which gives heavy responsibility to full-time district employees like Robertson, limits the quality of representation. If the operations employees choose Local 39, Allan said, she will serve as a full-time, effective representative. 

But Roberston said he spends three to four hours on union business every night and argued that he has been very effective, winning tens of thousands of dollars in back pay for employees. 

Rick Spaid, acting president of the clerical unit, argued that the current crop of Local 1 union leaders have significant experience and are better qualified to represent union members. 

“These people are going to be really new, and not know anything about the district,” Spaid said, referring to CCE, which is attempting to wrest control of his unit. 

But Frank Oppedisano, who is organizing the CCE campaign, said the American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO, who back the CCE, bring a wide range of experience, expertise and political clout to the table that will serve union members well. 

Walter Mitchell, an instructional aide at Berkeley High School who participated in an American Federation training in Washington, D.C. last week, said he has been impressed by the group’s professionalism and political strength. 

But Spaid is not convinced. He said the AFL-CIO’s top leadership will be distant and unresponsive, and argued that CCE and Local 39 should not be targeting workers who are already organized. 

“I’m kind of appalled by these other unions,” he said. “They should really being going out trying to organize new workers.” 

“We go after people who need to be represented,” Oppedisano replied. “We were called in here by classified employees.” 

Several employees interviewed by the Planet said they are ready to make the switch to CCE or Local 39. 

“I do not feel represented by Local 1,” said Samuel Scott, a general maintenance worker for the district, who added that training programs offered by Local 39 make that union an attractive alternative to Local 1. 

But Robertson said the battle for control of the operations unit is a toss-up at this point. Maintenance workers are in the Local 39 camp, Robertson acknowledged, and Local 1 will need the bus drivers and food service workers if it is to win. Custodians, he said, may be the swing vote. 

Safety officers, who almost uniformly support Local 39, are currently in the operations unit and will have an opportunity to vote in the coming weeks. But a Local 1 claim that the officers actually belong in the paraprofessional unit may lead to a challenge of the election, complicating the situation. 

Oppedisano and Spaid both say they are confident of victory in the battle for the paraprofessional and clerical units.  

A letter printed in yesterday’s edition regarding the League of Women Voters was written by Zelda Bronstein, the Chair of the Planning Commission. Below her name the Hearst-Curtis Neighborhood Association was placed inadvertantly. It has come to our attention that Bronstein has no affiliation with the Hearst-Curtis Neighborhood Association. The Daily Planet apologizes for the mistake.

NEW YORK — The third time was the charm for Metropolitan Opera audiences who have been waiting for a chance to hear Vesselina Kasarova. 

The Bulgarian mezzo-soprano, who had canceled two previously scheduled debuts, lived up to her reputation Thursday night as an artist to be reckoned with. Stepping into the Met’s well-worn John Cox production of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,” Kasarova managed to bring something fresh and memorable to the familiar role of the heroine, Rosina. 

As the perky young ward who defies her guardian by marrying Count Almaviva, Kasarova was all sparkling merriment on the surface — but she clearly conveyed the “whim of iron” that lies beneath. 

It helps that she is blessed with a distinctive voice that sounds dusky in the lower register, velvety in the mid-range and still has plenty of power for the high C’s. And her ease in coloratura passages is so great that one never has the sense she is working hard to get through the intricate trills and runs. To the contrary, she uses the ornamentation to convey a sense of Rosina’s playfulness. 

As the amorous Count, Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez repeated the show-stopping performance with which he debuted earlier in the year. He is a true Rossini tenor, with all that implies, both good and bad: a slightly nasal, constricted tone, but an awesome dexterity throughout a wide range. 

Baritone Earle Patriarco made a genial figure as the resourceful go-between, Figaro, and bass Paul Plishka savored every moment as the pompous guardian, Dr. Bartolo. Conductor Yves Abel kept the orchestra bubbling along. 

When going up against a baseball team from a brand-new high school, it’s hard to know what to expect. But even the most cynical observer couldn’t have expected the Bad News Bears to show up. 

Hercules High has no seniors, and apparently none of the talented juniors in the area felt like starting over at a new school. The Titans were a mess, plain and simple, on Friday against Berkeley High, committing eight errors in just four innings on the way to a 13-2 drubbing by the ACCAL league leaders. 

Thanks to the Titans’ ineptitude, Berkeley scored their 13 runs on just five hits. Hercules starting pitcher James Allen issued six walks without getting out of the second inning, allowing the ’Jackets to stroll around the bases at their leisure. Of course, Allen wasn’t exactly getting a lot of help, as his teammates made four errors in the second inning alone. 

The box score for Berkeley second inning went as follows: walk, walk, error, strikeout, walk, single, error, groundout, walk, error, single and error, triple and groundout. It was all the Berkeley players could do to keep from laughing on the bench as they scored nine runs despite hitting just two balls out of the infield. 

After two tough games on Wednesday and Thursday, Friday’s blowout was a relief for Berkeley. They sent junior varsity pitcher Matt Sylvester to the mound, and he threw the entire five innings, giving up seven hits and two runs. He cruised through the first three innings, giving up a lone single.  

“I felt pretty relaxed out there to start the game, which is wierd because I usually struggle early,” Sylvester said. 

The sophomore lefty got into a jam in the fourth inning, giving up a single and double to start, but the solid Berkeley defense bailed him out. Third baseman Chris Wilson threw out Peter Asuelo at home plate on a chopper, and catcher Jeremy Riesenfeld gunned down Allen at second base when he strayed too far off after a single. 

“It’s nice to have a great defense behind you,” Sylvester said. “It makes a hell of a difference.” 

Sylvester may have been off his rhythm as the game progressed by the long stretches on the bench while his team circled the bases. He gave up two runs in the fifth inning, but by then the ’Jackets were ahead by enough that it didn’t make a big difference. 

“Matt proved he can do the job today,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “We were hoping to get a complete game from him. It’s a luxury to have guys come up from JV and pitch some innings for us.”

Scrapbooks, stories, videos, food and memories will be shared next Saturday at the Harmon House Reunion as the members of one of Berkeley’s eclectic communal houses say good-bye to their former South Berkeley residence. The house, a communal living space in Berkeley for working adults, students and graduate students since 1978, has been sold and will be renovated later this year. 

Saturday’s event will reunite former residents of the house, including Sharon Seidenstein, founder of the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, for a final visit to the house that produced stories, marriages and inspiration.  

“There were so many experiences there. I met my husband there, others met their spouses there,” said Laura Menard, former resident of the Harmon House.  

Organizers of the day have asked former members to bring pieces of memorabilia from their time at the house and also plan to bury a time capsule in the yard. Butcher paper will be taped to the side of the house for former and current residents to fill in a timeline of events through the co-op’s 24 year history. 

The house is a large, rustic Victorian dating back to the late 1800s, built in part with redwood lumber. Stalks of bamboo grow to one side of the six and a half bedroom house.  

“There’s so much history to it. There’s a personality to it. I don’t know when we will all be able to get together again. I hope we can capture some of the history with this event,” said current resident Dianne Osborne. 

Osborne says the day will be an interactive one with former and current members encouraged to mingle and reflect on a piece of their lives and a piece of history. Osborne adds that founding member Kathy Thomas will also be attending the afternoon festivities. 

Also planned for the day are a video taping of the event, a large group photo and the passing out of T-shirts to commemorate the final reunion. 

According to Menard, former residents of the Harmon House include a number of working professionals throughout the Bay Area including architects, photographers, lawyers, scholars and massage therapists. Currently, there are seven remaining residents in the house. The Victorian modeled house will be renovated later this year. 

“The great thing about the house was the group shopping and cooking.We had family meals and were introduced to different kinds of cooking by residents from France, Israel and England,” said Menard.“Thanksgiving was always a great time because of cooking and because the the members of the house were like a family.” 

Menard expects a large number of former residents to turn out for the event and an even larger number of memories.Former residents from as far away as Oregon and Iowa are expected to attend the Harmon House’s final reunion. 

The reunion and potluck are planned for Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m.at 1612 Harmon St. (near California Street) in South Berkeley.

When the 45th San Francisco International Film Festival comes to the Pacific Film Archive on Friday, April 19, the “international” of the title proves itself. For two weeks the PFA will screen 34 films and 15 shorts from all points of the globe – from Berkeley to France to Senegal to Israel to China, and ports in between. 

East Bay filmmaker Johnny Symon’s “Daddy & Papa” recently was shown in competition at the most recent Sundance film festival. The documentary about gay fathers is a social and personal look at adoption and family values follows a handful of gay couples raising families, one of which is the filmmakers’ own. It screens at the PFA on Friday, April 26. 

Also on the local front is UC Berkeley graduate student Brett Simon’s “Counterfeit Film,” a short film screening as part of a program of shorts called “Memory Arcade” (Tues, April 30) assembled by those champions of film art, the San Francisco Cinematheque. Simon’s hyper-speed meditation on money, film, and Xerox machines ponders the essence of currency and copywrite in an age of video imagery and Kinko’s.  

Most of PFA’s offerings during the SFIFF look abroad, as Martin Scorcese does in “My Voyage To Italy” ((Sun. April 21), an epic 4-hour tour of Marty’s favorite Italian films which promises to be both a love letter and a history lesson from a man who helped change the course of American film history in the 1970’s. Another man who proved himself of giant of film politics and aesthetics, Jean-Luc Godard, has completed a new work, “In Praise Of Love,” which will screen at the PFA on Friday, April 26. The legendary New Wave auteur whom many people think is retired – or dead – returns musing on the past within the present with a story about a film director auditioning an actress he thinks he has met before. 

Opening weekend of the SFIFF at the PFA begins with a carjacking. A Chilean cab driver is accosted by two men with knives and a proposition: “steer or trunk.” The impoverished cabbie in Orlando Lubbert’s tragicomic “Taxi For Three” (Fri. April 19) chooses to drive the petty thieves from felony to felony, allowing his rectitude to be swayed by the lure of easy money in a country where nothing comes easy. After the wise-cracking thug and his illiterate partner move in with the cab driver’s family and get religion, the cabbie demonstrates the depth of his cruel, ingrained desperation. 

Later Friday night following “Taxi For Three” is Taiwanese master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsian’s “Millennium Mambo,” opening with a tracking shot behind young woman walking a fluorescent-lit pedestrian walkway, the slow-motion tracks every bounce of her long black hair. Her story at the end of the millennium is a poem of cigarettes and nightclubs, violently jealousy and everyday banalities. A far cry from the sullen disaffected-youth indie films of America, Hou Hsiao-Hsian continues his aesthetic re-thinking of narrative film with nuanced camerawork and slow editing patiently drawing out the pace of one young woman’s elations and defeats. Determined to end her destructive relationship when her bank account runs out, the young woman moves through a glacial character arc which the film elicits through seemingly inconsequential events. 

No stranger to slow-paced filmmaking, Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda began his feature film career with the interminably paced “Maborosi” (1995) and followed with the comparably bouncy “After Life” (1998) about a country resort between the world of the living and the afterlife where guests must choose one memory to preserve before their spirit becomes a part of the Eternal. In his newest film “Distance” (Sat. April 20) Kore-eda again focuses on questions of spiritual resolution and doubt as a group of people mourn the death of their loved ones three years after an extremist, suicidal religious cult staged a mass killing. 

Earnest but distracted by their busy lives, the small group reluctantly stays the night in the rural cabin where the cult had once resided, recalling the moment their husbands, wives, brothers, etc joined the cult to seek fulfillment and respite from the emptiness of modern living. Trapped in the same place where the killing was incubated, and inevitably drawn to a kind of wilderness soul-searching, the small group eventually faces the enormity of their loved ones’ spiritual convictions and what could have compelled them to an act of horrendous inhumanity. 

The award for It Doesn’t Have To Look Good To Be A Poignant Film would have to go to “Inner Tour” (Sun. April 21), a documentary about a three-day bus tour shot on shaky, hand-held video that earns its place in the festival by being set in Israel. In 2000, Palestinians from West Bank could not go into Israel without jumping through a very difficult set of hoops to get appropriate papers, but they could sign up for an Israeli bus tour and travel through their former homeland as tourists. 

Shooting before the current escalation of violence in Israel, director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, who called himself a “concerned Israeli with leftist leanings,” has created a film sympathetic to Palestinians who find themselves natives in a strange land. These former land- and business-owners begin their bus ride as foreign visitors doing time-honored tourist activities: with cameras and camcorders they take pictures of each other, visit local museums, and hit on pretty Italian women sightseeing at the beach. But many of these people who live about an hour away have never seen the ocean, and the local museum tells the story of how the Jewish kibbutzes vanquished the Arabs in the 1930’s. When we see a man throw a package of photos over a barbed wire fence to his mother on the other side, as she does to him, and when an elderly man stumbles off into the night crying “I don’t want to see, I don’t want to see,” the film achieves its sad irony of displaced people visiting their own past as restricted tourists. 

Following “Inner Tour” the PFA will show another demonstration of shaky, hand-held camera – but this time as an aesthetic decision – in the realistic fiction from China “Go For Broke.” Using non-actors and a 12-day, “one-take” shooting schedule, director Wang Guangi tells the story of a group of recently laid-off employees who strike out on their own with a remodeling business. The lottery figure largely among these people caught in financial turbulence when Chinese fatalism, luck, and their socialist tradition move into a capitalist system.  

The amateur cast (speaking in brief interviews during the end credit scroll) had all had first-hand experience with being laid off, which Guangi wanted to take advantage of to get closer to truth. Their at times stilted performances are peppered with fortune cookie maxims like “Fortune comes to those who work hard,” and ‘Money lost [to gambling] is spent in vain, money won doesn’t bring happiness.” Nevertheless, the lottery becomes a pivotal device in their fortunes, and their success in business becomes dependant on luck with the numbers. 

Screenings of films from the SFIFF continue at the PFA until Thursday, May 2. Complete screening information can be found at www.sfiff.org or at the PFA website www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.  

Cal hoops signs big man Benson 

Cal basketball coach Ben Braun added some height to offset a rash of defections from his team on Friday, as forward Rod Benson signed a letter of intent to play for the Bears next season. 

Benson, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound power forward who propelled San Diego’s Torrey Pines High School to a 25-4 record and CIF sectional semifinal playoff appearance last season, signed on the dotted line after a late recruiting push by Braun. Braun has lost freshman forward Jamal Sampson to the NBA Draft and sophomore center Gabriel Hughes to a transfer since the end of the season. 

Benson, named first team All-Palomar League and second team All-CIF San Diego Section, averaged 14 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.8 blocks as a senior at Torrey Pines. Recruited by such national programs as UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, Villanova and Pepperdine, the 17-year-old big man was rated as the No. 3 center on the West Coast by TheInsiders.com.  

“We are really excited about Rod’s potential,” said Braun. “He has got some great intangibles-he is athletic, quick and very well coached-and brings a lot of positive qualities to our program. “Rod should have an excellent opportunity to contribute next year. He is also a very fine student.”  

In other recruiting news, Braun also announced today that Alabama’s 6-foot-7 forward Kennedy Winston would not attend Al. Citing family health reasons, the coach said that Cal has granted Winston’s request to release him from his signed national letter-of-intent.  

“It was important to respect the wishes of Kennedy and his family,” said Braun. “We wish him well and hope that he enjoys his college experience wherever he enrolls.”  

Golden Bears fall to Arizona 

The Cal baseball team lost to visiting Arizona, 8-4, Friday at Evans Diamond. The Bears fall to 22-17 and 5-5 in the conference. Arizona improves to 23-14 and 4-6 in the Pac-10.  

Cal struggled pretty much the entire game, falling behind 3-0 and only getting one hit through the first five innings. The Wildcats scored three runs off of Bear starter Trevor Hutchinson (7-4, eight hits, three runs, two walks, four strikeouts), a run off of reliever Travis Talbott in the eighth inning and four unearned runs off of reliever Jesse Ingram in the top of the ninth inning.  

However, Cal had a golden opportunity to get back into the game after scoring two runs in the seventh inning on back-to-back RBI doubles by junior catcher John Baker and freshman third baseman David Nicholson to make the score 4-2. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Bears had the bases loaded with no outs against Arizona reliever Wes Zlotoff. Zlotoff was able to get David Weiner to pop-up to first base, before center fielder Brian Anderson came in to pitch to Cal’s top hitter, Conor Jackson. With a full count, Anderson almost hit Jackson, and Jackson accidentally dribble to ball down the first base line for a pitcher to catcher to first double play to end the inning.  

Down 8-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Bears got within 8-4 on a two-run double by Brian Horwitz.  

Arizona’s winning pitcher was starter Sean Rierson (6-2, 7.0 innings, five hits, two runs, no walks, three strikeouts) and Anderson picked up his third save of the season (1.7 innings, four hits, two runs, two strikeouts).  

Anderson, John Hardy, Ken Riley and Justyn St. Clair had two hits apiece for the Wildcats, whose 13 hits on the day were all singles. Ben Conley, Carson White, Baker, Nicholson and Jeff Dragicevich had two hits apiece for the Bears.  

Cal will face Arizona in the second game of the three-game conference series Saturday at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond.  

Women’s tennis drops another match  

The Cal women’s tennis team dropped its third Pac-10 match in four tries Friday, losing a 4-3 heartbreaker to the higher-ranked Arizona State squad at Hellman Tennis Center in Berkeley. With the loss, the 15th-ranked Bears drop to 11-7 (1-3 Pac-10), while the No. 9 Sun Devils improve to 13-5 (3-2).  

After being swept in doubles, Cal gave Arizona State a run for its money in the latter half of the afternoon. No. 73 Catherine Lynch got her first crack at the top singles court this afternoon, challenging the nation’s 20th-ranked Adria Engel. 

Engel ultimately got the best of Lynch, however, losing 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.  

Jieun Jacobs scored the first point for the Bears in her return from illness, sweeping Cindy Sureephong off of court four, 6-1, 6-3. Jody Scheldt followed with an impressive 7-6, 6-3 win over Lauren Colallio. After the Sun Devils wrapped up their match-clinching fourth point, team captain Christina Fusano hunkered down to put an end to Mhairi Brown’s rally at the third spot, taking a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win.  

Cal completes its 2002 regular season home slate at noon Saturday at Hellman, taking on the visiting Arizona Wildcat squad.  

Cal’s Joyce wins hammer at Brutus  

Cal senior Jennifer Joyce threw a season-best 206-0 to win the hammer competition on the first of two days of the Brutus Hamilton Memorial Invitational Friday at Edwards Stadium.  

Joyce’s best throw of the day came on her final throw of the afternoon and was only three inches shy of her school record of 206-3. She has now won the hammer in five of Cal’s six meets this season and posted a second-place finish at the Stanford Invitational. Stanford’s Jessica Pluth was Joyce’s nearest challenger at 182-6. Also for the Cal women, junior Sheni Russell took fifth with a mark of 172-2, and Tammy d’Artenay placed seventh with a PR of 154-9.

Today is Saturday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2002. There are 262 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.) 

On this date: 

In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. (The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.) 

In 1742, Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland. 

In 1743, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born. 

In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York. 

In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial. 

In 1958, Van Cliburn became the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow. 

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for “Lilies of the Field.” 

In 1965, 16-year-old Lawrence Wallace Bradford Jr. was appointed by New York Republican Jacob Javits to be the first black page of the U.S. Senate. 

In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind. 

In 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an eight-year-old heroin addict named “Jimmy”; however, Cooke relinquished the prize two days later, admitting she’d fabricated the story. 

Ten years ago: 

The Great Chicago Flood took place as the city’s century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River. 

Five years ago: With tanks, sharpshooters and thousands of police deployed to protect him, Pope John Paul II preached forgiveness during a mass in Sarajevo. Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first player of partly African heritage to claim a major golf title. 

One year ago: 

With the crew of a U.S. spy plane safely back in the United States, American officials gave their detailed version of what happened when the plane collided with a Chinese fighter on April 1; the United States said its plane was struck by the jet. (China maintained that the U.S. plane rammed the fighter.) 

Today’s Birthdays: 

Actor Howard Keel is 83. Actor Don Adams is 76. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is 69. Actor Edward Fox is 65. Playwright Lanford Wilson is 65. Actor Paul Sorvino is 63. Movie and TV composer Bill Conti is 60. Actor Tony Dow is 57. Bluegrass singer-musician Sam Bush is 50. Rock musician Joey Mazzola (Sponge) is 41. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 39. Rock musician Lisa Umbarger (Toadies) is 37. Actor Rick Schroder is 32  

LOS ANGELES — MGM has agreed to allow New Line Cinema to parody its James Bond film “Goldfinger” in the title of the new “Austin Powers” sequel. 

In January, MGM successfully petitioned the Motion Picture Association of America to ban the suggestive name of the summer comedy “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” saying it infringed on the title of its 1964 Bond thriller. Both studios reached an agreement Thursday to allow the title. 

Part of the deal stipulated that “any future titles that may be construed as parodies of James Bond titles will be subject to MGM’s approval,” according to a joint statement from the studios. 

New Line’s 1999 sequel “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” was a parody of the 1977 Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me.” 

The Hollywood trade publication Variety reported Tuesday that MGM was negotiating to place an ad for the upcoming Bond adventure “Die Another Day” before the “Austin Powers” film and New Line’s “Lord of the Rings” film. Both studios, however, refused to confirm whether that was part of the final agreement. 

“Austin Powers in Goldmember” debuts July 26. It stars Mike Myers as a toothy, flower-child secret agent and co-stars Destiny’s Child singer Beyonce Knowles as his lover, Foxy Cleopatra. Myers also plays several bad guys, including hairless schemer Dr. Evil and the new villain, Goldmember. 

Baseball – St. Mary’s 9, St. Patrick 8 

The Panthers score three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to stay undefeated (4-0) in BSAL play. Pete McGuinness doubles home Manny Mejia for the game-winner as Marcus Johnson picks up the win in relief.

Geek Prom Debuts 

DULUTH, Minn. — If you play lots of video games and are frequently taunted as a “spaz,” a new prom may be just for you. 

The inaugural Geek Prom is planned for Saturday at Duluth’s NorShor Theater. 

“We’re not covering anything up,” organizer Paul Lundgren said. “It’s spastic fits of clumsy dancing.” 

The theme of the Geek Prom is “We are through being cool.” 

“No matter how much of a geek you are, there will be someone there who is a bigger geek than you,” he said. “Unless you end up being King or Queen Geek. And to be the best at anything, that can’t be bad, can it?” 

The night is being promoted as a party for adults who don’t fit in to have some fun with their own kind. And Lundgren said it’s not a slam against geeks. Everyone’s a geek in some way, he said, including himself. 

The evening will include video games where geeks can square off against each other. And Promoter Scott Lunt said the bar will serve drinks named after geek icons, like pocket protectors and Leonard Nimoy. 

Skunk Deters Getaway 

LEWISTON, Maine — Police who were chasing a man after a traffic stop got an unlikely assist from a skunk, who sprayed the suspect in the face. 

Kenneth Rideout, 32, was nailed after he ran into the woods Tuesday night. He was wanted for violating release conditions stemming from a domestic assault. 

The skunk didn’t stop Rideout but it slowed him down enough that police officers were able to catch up with him. 

“It was powerful enough to pretty much incapacitate him,” said police Lt. Tom Avery. 

Officer Eric Syphers arrested the smelly suspect. The squad car reeked by the time the prisoner arrived at the police station. 

“Sometimes we get help from where we don’t expect it,” Avery said. “We’re calling this skunk Officer Pepe LePew.” 

——— 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — There’s a moose on the loose, and Federal Express workers are being told to keep their distance. 

The company ordered its employees at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to stop feeding an orphaned moose calf that had been hanging around the company’s hub. 

While there is some risk the young moose could starve to death, feeding the animal causes an even greater risk, said biologist Rick Sinnott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 

“If it gets aggressive, the only solution we have is to destroy the moose,” he said. 

Sinnott said as long as the calf doesn’t stick around long enough to become dangerous to people, it will eventually find grass and other food to eat elsewhere. 

“It is perfectly capable of moving out on its own,” he said. 

Sinnott said many people are unaware of how dangerous moose can be. They don’t realize that the animals, who can kick their sharp hooves with blazing speed, have killed people in the city, he said. 

“It’s those big brown eyes and the long lashes, and they look so cute,” he said. “I blame it all on Walt Disney and Bambi.” 

Trunks full of art draw admirers to Berkeley Art Museum 

How can one distinguish the subtle differences between the elephants Seng Wong and Arum? It’s all in their brush strokes. 

The pachyderms’ paintings, along with those of 14 other Asian elephant artists, premiered before a local audience at a benefit auction Thursday evening at the Berkeley Art Museum, and will remain on display through July 14. 

For those in attendance, the nearly 50 abstract expressionist paintings evoked reactions as diverse as the paintings themselves. 

But for the elephants this remains a straightforward endeavor. They are painting for survival. 

In Thailand, most domesticated elephants had worked for the past 150 years hauling cut trees from the country’s forests. But deforestation became so rampant that in 1990 the Thai government prohibited all logging. This may save what’s left of Thai forests, but it put approximately 3,000 elephants and their trainers (“mahouts”) out of work. 

The mahouts struggled to subsist. Some sold their elephants to circuses while others eked out an existence by teaching their elephants to do tricks for tourists. 

Little did they know how gifted some of their best log haulers were. In U.S. zoos elephants had been painting for two decades; Ruby, an elephant at the Phoenix Zoo had generated as much $100,000 a year from the sale of her paintings. 

Russian-born, New York-based conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid saw the untapped elephant art market as a potential solution to the plight of Asian elephants and mahouts. 

After learning how to train elephants to paint at an American zoo in 1995, they traveled to Thailand to teach domesticated elephants how to paint and the mahouts how to instruct new elephants in the craft. 

In order to paint, elephants hold a specially designed paintbrush in their trunk, explained Komar. The end of the trunk has a finger-like structure that can grasp the brush and allow the elephants to make strong, controlled stokes. The elephants are given an array of non-toxic water color paints from which to use. It takes an elephant about a half hour to complete a painting. 

Their initial effort in Thailand was so successful, that Komar and Melamid founded the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project. Today, the AEACP supports four elephant art academies in Thailand, as well as one each in India and Indonesia. Most of the paintings are sold to local tourists. Thursday’s auction was AEACP’s third, the proceeds from which are donated to both painting and non-painting elephants in need. 

Komar insists that this is more than simply good charity - it is good art. “There are 15,000 muscles in an elephant’s trunk,” said Komar. “It is a far more sophisticated tool than any human hand.” 

Most elephants do not like to paint, according to Komar, but the approximately three dozen who have mastered the art are a breath of fresh air to the abstract art scene. “Elephants are innocent,” said Komar, contrasting them to human painters who he says paint what the art market encourages. “Elephants paint because they enjoy it, and their brush strokes are more exciting.” 

Komar doesn’t have to convince Maxi Lilley of the art’s merit. A self-described “animal rights person,” she placed a winning bid of $851 on a painting by Add, a Thai elephant. “I honestly believe that this is a beautiful work of art, and the context that an elephant made this makes it more exciting,” said Lilley. 

What struck most observers was how each elephant seemed to have a unique style. Some painted with well-defined organized strokes, while others painted more haphazardly, but each painter seemed to have a distinct technique.  

Arin Fishkin, a graphic designer from San Francisco, was more impressed with the disciplined painters.  

“Some paintings seem random, but in others conscious decisions are being made,” said Fishkin. 

Not everyone at the auction was impressed. “I think it’s rubbish,” said Rikke Jorgenson of San Francisco, who commented that the most frightening thing about the exhibit was that the pictures on the wall looked just like the works of respected artists. 

The art provoked as many questions as it did reactions. Those who were ready to concede that the paintings were, in fact, art, could not help but consider how this conclusion would affect not only how they viewed art, but also how they perceived elephants. 

“When you realize how differently the elephants paint, you realize that there is a personality there,” said Berkeley resident Greg Niemeyer.  

This sentiment is not lost on Komar, who while training elephants and mahouts in Thailand observed that when the mahouts understood that elephants could paint they started to respect them more. “They stopped punishing them because they could see their individuality,” said Komar. 

Painting has proven to be a lucrative business for elephants - officials estimate that Thursday’s auction raised about $15,000. But if their work can continue to affect the attitudes of those who care for them and those who experience their art, the elephants may obtain something even more precious than an income.

LAS VEGAS — Nevada is challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing rule for making Yucca Mountain the nation’s nuclear waste dump. 

The state attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Thursday against the regulatory commission’s November ruling. That ruling established health and safety regulations for storing 77,000 tons of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

“The Yucca Mountain project will not achieve the geological isolation required by the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa in a statement. 

The commission could issue a license for the proposed nuclear waste repository even though it’s fundamentally unsafe from a long-term geologic perspective, said Joe Egan, Nevada’s lead nuclear attorney and a former nuclear engineer. 

“This violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and departs radically from the recommendations of the global scientific community,” he said. 

Officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Energy Department officials have said the site is scientifically sound and have expressed confidence that it can store the radioactive waste safely. 

The commission’s licensing rule for the proposed dump requires the federal Energy Department to demonstrate that radioactive emissions will meet the EPA’s emission standards for 10,000 years. 

Egan argued, however, that the radiation emissions are projected to increase steadily after that because of geologic deficiencies discovered by the Department of Energy in the late 1990s. 

Yucca Mountain is no longer expected to isolate radioactive waste if the manmade packages it’s stored in fail after 10,000 years, Egan said. 

The state also is challenging the Energy Department’s use of water, radiation standards, siting guidelines and the site recommendations by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and President Bush. 

The state has shut off water to Yucca Mountain, but the department switched to a newly built 1-million gallon tank and one small well. 

Gov. Kenny Guinn on Monday vetoed President Bush’s approval of the project, but Congress can override that veto with a majority vote. 

WASHINGTON — Several dozen Air Force cargo planes will be stationed at three California bases, providing hope the installations will remain open in the event of future base closures. 

Twelve C-17s will be stationed at Travis Air Force Base, eight C-17s and eight KC-130Rs at March Air Reserve Base and eight C-130Js at Channel Islands Air Force base. 

“This is great news for California, which has suffered perhaps more than any other state as a result of base closings,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a written statement. 

There have been four rounds of closings since 1988, with California losing more bases than any other state. 

“Because the decision will help ensure that operations at Travis, March and Channel Islands remain viable for years to come, it will also mean a great deal to the local economies and to the people who work and live around these bases,” Feinstein said. 

The new assignments will also mean additional funding for personnel and infrastructure improvements. Feinstein estimated that Travis Air Force Base could receive more than $150 million, while March Air Force Base could see more than $50 million. 

Highlights of Nevada’s volcanic past: 

AGE: Ninety-five percent of Nevada’s volcanism occurred more than 10 million years ago, UNLV geologist Eugene Smith estimated. 

THREAT: The U.S. Geological Survey lists potentially active volcanoes in California, Oregon and Washington, but none in Nevada. Nevada has been far less volcanically active than other Western states in recent geologic time, and its eruptions have been gentler, geologists agree. 

VOLCANIC HOT SPOTS: Lunar Crater and Yucca Mountain have been Nevada’s two most active volcanic fields over the last 6 million years, according to Smith’s studies. At least 14 eruptions have occurred in the Lunar Crater area in the last 1 million years. Eight cinder cones have erupted in the Yucca Mountain field in the last 1 million years, the last about 77,300 years ago. 

YOUNGEST VOLCANOES: Nevada’s only known younger volcanoes are at the Soda Lakes near Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno, geologists say. An explosive eruption created two craters sometime between 1,500 and 10,000 years ago, said Jonathan Price, director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. The craters have since filled with water. 

BACK COUNTRY BYWAY: A Bureau of Land Management Back Country Byway slices through the heart of the 100-square-mile Lunar Crater field, 75 miles east of Tonopah. Regarded by geologists as Nevada’s premier volcanic area, it features more than 200 cinder cones, a relatively young 1,900-acre lava field and its namesake: a massive 430-foot-deep crater formed by an explosive eruption sometime within the last 400,000 years. 

LOS ANGELES — Two Greenpeace activists were sentenced to a year’s probation Friday for taking part in a protest intended to stop the launch of an unarmed test missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base last year. 

Mathias Pendzialek, 35, and Tom Knappe, 35, both of Germany, had pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor conspiracy charge of knowingly entering a military property without authorization 

Initially, the group faced felony charges because they entered the “safety zone” at Vandenberg, located along the Central California coast, during a missile launch connected to the development of a national missile defense system. 

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop the felony charges as part of a deal that required Greenpeace USA to agree to refrain until 2007 from breaking the law at U.S. installations involved in missile-defense work. If the group does, it faces a $500,000 penalty. 

On July 14, 2001, a group of 17 people sailed from San Luis Bay in four boats to an area off Vandenberg where they entered a Coast Guard-declared “safety zone“in hopes of halting the launch of the Minuteman II. 

Greenpeace contends the protest delayed the launch by 40 minutes, but the government said it was only two minutes. ’ 

Before he was sentenced, Pendzialek told U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow that he had a responsibility to peacefully protest to “say no when it is apparent that international laws are being broken.” 

Knappe said, “It was a protest against one of the most ... hazardous projects in the history of mankind.” 

The defense program is intended to develop the capability of intercepting and destroying incoming missiles while they are in space. 

Nine other activists pleaded guilty and received the same sentences earlier. Six others were to be sentenced Monday. 

SACRAMENTO — Authorities arrested a former employee and three others Friday who allegedly stole $1.3 million from the state Employment Development Department by issuing and cashing fraudulent disability insurance checks. 

Maria G. Sandoval, of Lynwood, a former state disability insurance program representative, and three others were charged in connection with several counts of mail fraud, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release Friday. 

Sandoval, 25, allegedly authorized payments to herself and three others using various birthdays and social security numbers. The checks then were deposited into several bank accounts, including those belonging to the defendants, the release said. Also arrested were: Aleajandro Gutierrez, 23, of Norwalk, and Michael Sandoval, 25, and Maria Majia Velasco, 55, both of Lynwood. The defendants were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Sacramento.

SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Toxic Substances Control issued emergency regulations Friday designed to make sure hazardous waste isn’t used by terrorists. 

The new regulations increase reporting requirements whenever there is a discrepancy on shipping manifests for explosive or poisonous wastes. 

The measures apply to hazardous waste facilities that receive shipments of explosive or poisonous wastes from other locations. 

The facilities must report the discrepancies to the department within 24 hours by calling a toll-free number. They have five days to follow with a written report. 

SANTA ROSA — A Sonoma County jury has cleared James Kunstek of elder neglect in the death of an 89-year-old Monte Rio woman. 

Jurors said after the decision was announced Thursday — his 65th birthday — that they felt Kunstek had done all he could to help longtime friend Ruby Griggs, and that she had chosen not to seek other care. 

Kunstek had faced up to nine years in prison. “I’m just happy it’s over. I’ve gone through two years of hell,” Kunstek said. Prosecutor Spencer Brady said he was disappointed, but acknowledged it was a tough case. 

“The photographs were shocking, but the issues were complex,” he said. Kunstek was arrested in March 2000 at the home left to him by Griggs.

TONOPAH, Nev. — At one time, they spewed ash and lava. Now, they slumber in the southern Nevada desert where President Bush wants to build the nation’s nuclear waste dump. 

Eight cinder cones have erupted within 30 miles of the proposed Yucca Mountain site over the past 1 million years, and the desert is dotted with more than a dozen older volcanoes. 

The last eruption was about 77,300 years ago at the Lathrop Wells cinder cone nine miles south of Yucca Mountain, itself a much older volcanic ridge. 

Although federal scientists downplay the volcanic threat to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, a new state-funded study questions the wisdom of entombing 77,000 tons of radioactive waste in what geologists consider a dormant volcanic field. 

“There’s a good likelihood there will be another eruption. It could be tomorrow or it could be sometime in the future,” said Eugene Smith, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas geology professor who headed the study under contract with the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency. 

The repository is strongly opposed by top Nevada elected officials, who have accused the federal government of ignoring safety concerns. The agency is a branch of the Nevada governor’s office. 

Energy Department scientists insist there’s only a 1-in-70 million chance of volcanic activity at Yucca Mountain during the 10,000 years that the radioactive waste must be contained. 

But in an article in the current edition of the Geological Society of America’s journal GSA Today, Smith suggests the Energy Department might be underestimating the volcanic risk. 

Citing rock chemistry as well as recent geochemical and geophysical studies by other scientists, Smith contends the Yucca Mountain area is linked by a belt of abnormally hot mantle to the more active Lunar Crater volcanic field 60 miles to the northeast. 

At least 14 volcanic eruptions have occurred in the Lunar Crater area in the past 1 million years, with the last two forming lava fields about 38,100 years ago. 

Lunar Crater and Yucca Mountain have been Nevada’s most active volcanic fields over the past 6 million years, according to Smith’s studies. 

If the two fields share a common area of hot mantle, Smith argues, volcanic recurrence rates of 11 to 15 events per million years in the Lunar Crater field are possible at Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department now sets volcanism probability at 3.7 to 12 events per million years at Yucca. 

Smith acknowledges his findings about hot mantle will generate considerable controversy among volcanologists. 

“This is the first time someone has proposed linking the two volcanic fields and it will be debated for a while by scientists,” Smith said. If accepted, however, scientists would view a volcanic eruption at Yucca Mountain as more likely. 

Energy Department scientists dispute Smith’s findings, saying they interpret the information differently and view Yucca Mountain and Lunar Crater as two distinct fields. 

Even if Lunar Crater’s higher rate of volcanism is factored into probability models, the chance of volcanic activity at Yucca Mountain still would be unlikely, they said. 

“We believe the two volcanic fields come from different source zones and operate independently of each other,” said DOE geologist Eric Smistad, who heads a federal team studying volcanism at Yucca Mountain. 

“We think we’ve got to the point in our volcanism studies that we’re on solid ground. ... We’re confident that volcanism won’t jeopardize the long-term safety of the repository.” 

But Bruce Crowe, the Energy Department’s top volcanic investigator at Yucca Mountain from 1980 to 1995, said Smith is a credible researcher whose findings should not be ignored. Crowe’s own studies concluded Lunar Crater and Yucca Mountain are separate fields. 

“Obviously, some scientists will say Gene is bringing some bias into the study,” Crowe said. “But I respect Gene for maintaining neutrality and fairness, even though he was under contract with the state of Nevada. I think he falls under the realm of sound science.” 

Smith’s findings will stir controversy partly because volcanic data are notoriously difficult to interpret, Crowe said. But that difficulty also allows conclusions to vary widely while still being considered credible interpretations. 

“I consider Gene’s speculations to be credible,” Crowe said. “They should be looked at carefully.” 

Duane Champion, a U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist in Menlo Park, Calif., said a link between the Yucca Mountain and Lunar Crater fields is possible. 

Another researcher found that volcanic eruptions in the Great Basin have occurred at the same time in places separated by up to 100 miles, he said. The Great Basin is a vast expanse that covers nearly all of Nevada. 

Smith’s findings “lead me ... to be curious about the chemistry arguments he’s bringing to bear,” Champion said. “It’s just a theory now. But I’m quite intrigued he could have merit to the argument.” 

Smith’s study also found that volcanism in the Yucca Mountain-Lunar Crater zone has been episodic, with three peaks of volcanism over the past 9.5 million years and quiet periods in between lasting 1 million to 2 million years. 

Smith said it’s been nearly 1 million years since the last peak of activity, but it’s unclear whether the zone now is at the beginning, middle or end of the current period of low activity. There have been three eruptions in the past 77,300 years. 

“Speculatively, these observations may indicate the end of the current period of low activity and an increase in the rate of eruption in the near future,” he wrote. 

But Smistad said the Department of Energy already has factored the area’s history into its probability models and doesn’t view it as a threat. The department has conducted volcanism studies at Yucca Mountain for more than two decades. 

“Gene is trying to suggest that volcanism is waxing and becoming more active in the Great Basin,” Smistad said. “But our 10 experts took all that into consideration and concluded that volcanism in the Great Basin is waning and dissipating.” 

Both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a federal technical oversight panel will take a position on Smith’s findings after hearing from both sides. 

“It’s surely something we would expect DOE to address,” said Bill Reamer, deputy director of the NRC’s waste management division. “Volcanism and the probability of volcanism is a key issue.” 

SANTA ROSA — A jury broke from deliberations with no verdict Friday in the rape and molestation case against a Santa Rosa priest. 

The prosecutor told jurors not to let the Rev. Don Kimball, 58, walk free from charges he raped and molested two teen-age girls more than 20 years ago. 

“Until this defendant is held responsible for these actions, he remains a danger to society,” prosecutor Gary Medvigy told the jury of nine men and three women. 

Kimball has denied the charges, though he has admitted to having sex with adult women. 

“I’m not here to apologize for him,” said Kimball’s lawyer Chris Andrian. “My job is to present evidence that casts some doubt.” 

The alleged rape victim, Mary Agbayani, who is now 38 and is allowing The Associated Press to use her name, sobbed Friday as Medvigy presented his final statement. After leaving the courtroom, she said she was too upset to talk. 

“I’ve got a lot of emotions right now,” Agbayani said. 

Her mother, Maureen Holden, said she hoped some good would result from the trial. 

“The church is changing. Eyes are beginning to open among the hierarchy,” she said. “One day, families will trust the church again.” 

Kimball’s trial is part of a nationwide purge of decades-old abuse by priests, leading to a renewed debate about celibacy. He is one of about a dozen Catholic clergymen who worked or lived in the Santa Rosa diocese who have been accused of sexual misconduct since 1989. 

Holden still attends Kimball’s former church, where a support group was formed three years ago for abuse victims and their families. 

“The Catholic Church is a business organization,” Holden said. “The Catholic faith is something inside you.” 

Kimball is accused of raping Agbayani on the floor near the altar of the Santa Rosa church in 1977, when she was 14. She claims Kimball arranged an abortion when the priest got her pregnant. He’s also accused of molesting a 13-year-old girl in 1981 in Healdsburg. If convicted, he could face more than eight years in prison. 

The prosecutor reminded jurors Friday that Kimball admitted to former Santa Rosa Bishop John Steinbock in 1990 that he had inappropriate sexual contact with six girls under 18. 

“The best evidence in this case ... was the defendant’s own admissions,” Medvigy said. 

On Thursday, Kimball’s lawyer said the victims embellished their stories. 

“How do we know today where the truth began and where it ended?” he asked. 

Andrian focused on Agbayani’s story. 

“This is a witness who told you she hasn’t always been truthful,” he said. “She wants you to believe that she was molested so all her fabrications and all her lies are going to be excused.” 

Kimball has insisted that the women falsely accused him because they wanted more money from the church — they each have already received about $120,000. 

Medvigy disputed that in court Friday. 

“They’re trying to make a difference, not just get money for themselves,” he said. “They want the Don Kimballs eliminated from the church.” 

The diocese says it has spent $7.4 million on settlements, counseling and attorneys’ fees on sex abuse cases. That includes $1.6 million to settle a 2000 civil suit against Kimball. 

Medvigy tried to show a pattern of abuse by recounting the testimony of six other women who claimed the priest inappropriately touched them during private counseling sessions that often took place in his bedroom. Kimball faces no charges in the alleged incidents involving those six women. 

Kimball was a popular youth minister in the 1970s, a disc jockey who used rock ’n’ roll to impart a religious message. 

Medvigy said young parishioners trusted Kimball. When they came to him in need of help, the prosecutor said, Kimball betrayed them. 

Kimball also faces an April 23 arraignment for allegedly shoving a San Francisco Chronicle photographer’s camera into her face, cutting her cheek and breaking her glasses. He was jailed Tuesday following the alleged assault and released hours later after posting $30,000 bail. 

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County this week agreed to a settlement in the suit involving a San Jose youth whose 1998 attempted suicide left him unable to speak and confined to a hospital bed. 

Shane VanZerr tried to hang himself with a bed sheet when he was 14 while being held at the county Juvenile Hall for burglary and vandalism charges. When a guard discovered him, he had stopped breathing and suffered severe brain damage. 

After years of negotiations, the county agreed to pay his family $3.5 million. 

Shane’s mother, Shelly VanZerr-Terry, alleged in her lawsuit that the authorities failed to treat her son’s diagnosed mental illness adequately. She also claims that her son, who was on suicide watch at the facility, begged a counselor for help and threatened to kill himself the day he made his suicide attempt. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The woman convicted of second-degree murder in the dog mauling death of her neighbor has a new set of defense attorneys and a chance to convince a San Francisco judge she deserves a new trial. 

Superior Court Judge James Warren acknowledged the prosecution’s request for a speedy resolution but granted Marjorie Knoller’s requests Friday because of the case’s “unprecedented” nature. He delayed her sentencing date from May 10 to June 7. 

Knoller was convicted in the January 2001 mauling death of Diane Whipple, a college lacrosse coach who lived next door to Knoller in a San Francisco apartment building. Knoller faces 15 years to life in prison after becoming the first Californian convicted of second-degree murder in such as case. 

The same Los Angeles jury also convicted Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, of manslaughter. He faces up to four years in prison. 

On Friday, Warren also granted Noel’s request to argue for a new trial. 

Warren said by June 7 he will either sentence the two, or grant them a new trial. San Francisco attorney Dennis Riordan, who with two other lawyers will replace Nedra Ruiz as Knoller’s defense team, said the evidence against Knoller was insufficient. 

Ruiz said Friday she was “totally on board” with Riordan taking over. 

During the trial, Ruiz’s dramatic style got her into trouble with the judge. Legal experts questioned her courtroom antics — at one point she got on her hands and knees to imitate a dog. 

“If I made mistakes I’m happy to admit them,” Ruiz told reporters. “I look forward to having Marjorie have a new and fair trial.” 

Prosecutor Jim Hammer said the conviction will stand because the jury carefully considered its decision. “It’s unfortunate Ms. Ruiz attacked the jury and their verdict,” he said. 

SACRAMENTO — Sheriff’s and FBI officials here are investigating a possible hate crime after a Jewish man said he was beaten by two attackers, one who claimed to support Palestine, officials said. 

Erech Olsen, 23, was walking his dog at a Sacramento park about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when he noticed a man wearing a headdress, or kaffiyeh, following him. Olsen, who was wearing a yarmulke, stopped and asked the man what he wanted. 

Olsen said the man asked him if he supported Israel and he told him yes. The man then replied that he supported Palestine and pulled out an electric stun gun, Olsen told authorities. 

The two men struggled over the weapon, which Olsen said he threw to the ground and broke with his foot. A second man then joined the struggle and both beat Olsen, he said, and yelled at him about innocent Palestinian children being killed. 

Resident Maureen Ferguson said she told the men to stop and said the men took the yarmulke from Olsen’s head and threw it on the ground. 

After more yelling, the two men got in a blue van and drove off, Ferguson said. Olsen suffered bruises and a sprained elbow in the attack, Sgt. James Lewis said, adding that deputies did not find the stun gun. 

Olsen said he had been verbally attacked before. 

“There’s a lot of politically and religiously motivated crime here,” he told The Sacramento Bee. “It’s really disgusting that people can use their political beliefs, and twist it, use it for their own purpose and harm innocent people. It makes me sick in my stomach.” 

KATMANDU, Nepal — A bomb exploded near a school in northwestern Nepal on Saturday, killing three children and injuring four others, police said. 

The powerful explosion followed attacks Thursday night by Maoist guerrillas on four towns in western Nepal that left at least 54 people dead. 

The blast occurred in the town of Laltin Bazaar, about 370 miles northwest of the capital, Katmandu, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. 

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion fell on Maoist rebels who have been fighting for the last six years to replace the Himalayan kingdom’s constitutional monarchy with communist rule. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the fighting. 

The rebels have been accused by some human rights groups of indiscriminately attacking security forces and civilians. Rights groups also accuse police of targeting civilians in their crackdown on the rebels. 

Government officials said the rebels killed 48 police officers and six civilians during raids on a police station, the house of Nepal’s security minister, two banks and bus in fighting that ended Friday morning. Security officials patrolling the Nepal-India border, however, told The Associated Press that nearly 100 police officers and civilians were killed in the attacks. 

SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s the talk of Silicon Valley: How did someone break into the voice mail of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s chief financial officer, snag a sensitive message from his boss, Carly Fiorina, and leak it to the local newspaper? 

HP executives were shocked. But experts in phone systems and computer security say they’re not surprised — largely because voice mail is digital and is stored on computers. 

“If you don’t want it publicized, don’t say it digitally,” said Bruce Schneier, founder of Counterpane Internet Security Inc. “Don’t put it in e-mail, don’t record it in a voice mail, don’t put it in a Power Point presentation. Basically, all of this stuff is vulnerable.” 

The issue arose Wednesday, when the San Jose Mercury News reported that a March 17 message Fiorina left for CFO Robert Wayman had been anonymously forwarded to one of its reporters. 

The newspaper printed a transcript of the message and made the audio clip available online. 

In the message, left two nights before shareholders voted on HP’s $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp., Fiorina told Wayman she was worried that Deutsche Bank Asset Management and Northern Trust Global Investments would reject the deal. 

“We may have to do something extraordinary for those two to bring them over the line here,” Fiorina told him. 

The message was particularly timely because HP is being sued over allegations it improperly coerced Deutsche Bank to support the deal. In fact, the lawsuit threatens the entire deal. 

So how could such a sensitive message get out? 

HP executives won’t publicly discuss any theories, and have threatened legal action against the thief if he or she is caught. 

Several scenarios are rather low-tech: Someone close enough to Wayman to know his voice mail password doesn’t like the Compaq deal, found the message and sent it to the Mercury News. Or Wayman wasn’t careful with his password and wrote it somewhere in his office, where someone untrustworthy found it. Or Wayman forwarded the message and it was in turn passed along to a fervent opponent of the merger. 

There are more complicated, more technical possibilities that include such voice mail features as back-door entries for administrators, who can cover their tracks, and on some networked systems, the potential to capture a user’s password. 

As many a geek at Hewlett-Packard well knows, voice mail messages generally are converted into chunks of data that get stored on computer hard disks. 

However, messages do not show up in most systems as discernible files, and are converted back into their original, audible form only when someone enters the mailbox’s password, said Marty Parker, a vice president with Avaya Inc., a New Jersey-based maker of voice and data systems. 

“So even a technician would have to change the password to play a message, and the user would know a password had been changed,” Parker said. And even if a company archives deleted voice mails, “it would take quite a bit of skill and knowledge to abuse the backup system.” 

The breach was a hot topic this week among the engineering and technical minds of Palo Alto-based HP, where employees tend to communicate internally through voice mail more than by e-mail. 

“I’ll guarantee that HP didn’t do everything possible to make their voice mail secure,” Schneier said. Most companies “think about network security — they don’t think about voice. Maybe now they’ll start.”

SACRAMENTO — The state could monitor power plants’ maintenance and operation to make sure plants aren’t being deliberately pulled off-line, under legislation sent to Gov. Gray Davis Thursday. 

Often a third of the state’s plants were down for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance during last year’s power crisis, said the author, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco. 

“Much of it, we believe, was off ...(because) if you can decrease the supply you can increase the demand,” Burton said. 

Several studies and whistle-blowers accused power companies of choking supply to raise prices, helping spark a series of rolling blackouts a year ago. 

Such manipulation cost Californians $6 billion in overcharges the last two years, alleged a report by the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid. Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed eight lawsuits accusing power companies of overcharges. 

Power companies deny deliberate shutdowns. The Independent Energy Producers, a trade group, said plants ran at an unprecedented rate to keep up with soaring demand, often forcing shutdowns for unscheduled repairs. 

An opponent of the bill, state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, said the problem was more a result of the state’s year’s long failure to approve sufficient power plants to keep up with demand. 

The bill is contingent on passage of a companion Assembly bill creating a new state program to assure reliable power will in the future be available from California-based plants. 

The Assembly-approved measure was approved by senators on a 23-13 vote. 

It authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish and enforce maintenance and operation standards for power plants to ensure their reliable operation. 

The PUC already has some such powers, which power companies said is sufficient. But proponents said their bill is needed to clarify and enhance that authority in conjunction with the Independent System Operator.

OAKLEY — A government water-protection agency has denied funding to a coalition of environmental groups that hope to turn farm land into a tidal marsh. 

Groups including the Natural Heritage Institute and the Coastal Conservancy must now revamp their proposal if they want to get a $32.5 million grant for the Dutch Slough preservation plan in eastern Contra Costa County. 

CalFed, the combined state and federal agency, will award $150 million annually for the next three years to projects that protect or rehabilitate watersheds. 

On Thursday, CalFed recommended full funding to 55 of 257 applicants, including one from Richmond. 

“I was expecting them to fund the project outright,” said John Cain, a restoration ecologist for the Heritage Institute. “But it shows good judgment on CalFed’s part if they want to better understand exactly what we’re doing. This allows for more discussion, which will ultimately make a better project.” 

Although the Dutch Slough plan didn’t get immediate funding, the coalition has until the summer to develop the plan further and resubmit the proposal. 

The Oakley city council has opposed the project and threatened legal action. The city designated the dairy farmland for housing and already has big plans for how to spend the fees it would generate. 

Overgrown shrubs may land senior in jail 

PALO ALTO — A 61-year-old woman is facing criminal charges for letting her shrubs grow too high, making her the first person to be prosecuted under a city public-nuisance law. 

The law prohibits any shrub more than 2 feet high in the strip of dirt between a street and a sidewalk. Police and the city attorney say it’s a safety issue, but software engineer Kay Leibrand says she just wants to have a barrier between her house and the busy street. 

She faces a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail for the misdemeanor charge. Leibrand will be arraigned next month. 

“This is about protecting kids who are too small to be seen from being hit by cars,” City Attorney Ariel Carlonne said. 

Carlonne said Leibrand had every opportunity to trim the shrubs. But Leibrand says she won’t do it as a matter of principle. 

Leibrand, who has lived in her house since 1966, said the six-feet shrubs give her some privacy and shield the stone patio where she reads and gardens. 

Oakland diocese speaks out about alleged sexual misconduct of priest 

FREMONT — The Oakland diocese said it barred a priest recently accused of molesting a teen-age parishioner in 1979 from working with children after two boys complained he sexually abused them in 1985. 

The church did not report the abuse to the police, but instead performed their own investigation and sent Rev. Robert Freitas to counseling, diocese chancellor Sister Barbara Flannery said Thursday. He returned to the church with limited duties and was not allowed to have contact with children since 1985. 

Flannery said the diocese only learned of the alleged 1979 abuse last month when the former parishioner, now 37 years old, came forward. This time, the diocese immediately notified police before stripping Freitas, 56, of all ministerial duties. 

Alameda County authorities charged Freitas on Tuesday with one count of committing a lewd act upon a child and one count of oral copulation with a child. He pleaded innocent to the charges earlier this week. 

Police are investigating the possibility that there are as many as four more victims. 

Presidio shaves its staff to save some cash 

SAN FRANCISCO — The organization in charge of running the Presidio has eliminated 62 positions, a company spokesman said Friday. 

Through a hiring freeze, voluntary exits and layoffs, the Presidio Trust cut 13 percent of its 458 employees, said spokesman Ron Sonenshine. 

Congress created the trust in 1996, requiring it to become financially self sufficient by 2013. The staff cut will help the organization drop its yearly operations budget by more than $6 million, to $44.6 million next year, Sonenshine said. 

Roughly $21 million comes from the federal government, with the rest coming from the rents on the 1,100 homes on the property. 

Employees received a severance package equal to six weeks pay. 

LOS ANGELES — Driven by declines in manufacturing, construction and real estate jobs, California’s unemployment rate rose slightly in March to 6.4 percent, according to preliminary figures released Friday. 

The figure marked an increase from the revised 6.2 percent in February, the Employment Development Department said. 

A year ago, the state’s jobless rate was 4.8 percent. 

Despite improvement in the overall economy, a mere 200 jobs were added to nonfarm payrolls in March. 

“In the early stages of a recovery, employers, rather than hiring new workers, will increase the hours of their existing staff,” said Tom Lieser, senior economist for the UCLA Anderson Forecast. “It takes a while to produce a reduction in unemployment.” 

Overall, economists said the latest employment numbers did not provide many clues as to the direction of the state’s economy. 

But trends seemed to confirm that the economy is on a slow upswing and on track to recover more aggressively in the second half of the year. 

“Declines in manufacturing employment, which had been falling rather sharply, appear to be subsiding,” said Brad Williams, senior economist at the state Legislative Analysts Office. 

Williams said he could not tell if the loss of manufacturing jobs had reached bottom. 

“That’s the hope here,” he said. “We had been predicting the manufacturing sector would stabilize by the middle of the year.” 

March brought job gains in the services sector, including 12,100 positions in the motion picture industry. Economists said the gains were likely seasonal or part of a surge in production after new contracts were reached with actors and writers last year. 

The largest losses came in the transportation and public utilities sector, which shed a total of 6,900 jobs. Manufacturing lost 2,000 jobs. 

In a year-to-year comparison, government jobs, primarily in education, showed the strongest growth, increasing by 88,100 positions. 

Manufacturing showed the largest decline, shedding a total of 120,300 jobs in the past year. 

NEW YORK — The New York premiere of “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones,” will raise money for the city’s underprivileged kids and children of the victims of Sept. 11, festival organizers said Wednesday. 

“As a father and filmmaker, it’s my pleasure to offer the film in support of the children of New York City,” said “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. 

The premiere, scheduled for May 12 during the Tribeca Film Festival, will benefit The Children’s Aid Society, which helps the city’s disadvantaged children and has provided millions of dollars in aid to those affected by the terrorist attacks. 

Two private screenings of the latest “Star Wars” prequel will take place that morning for children and their families; the premiere that afternoon will be the fund-raiser to benefit The Children’s Aid Society. Natalie Portman, one of the movie’s co-stars, is expected to attend, as well as Frances McDormand, Karen Allen, Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon. 

Tickets are $500 for the pre-party and screening and $1,000 for the pre-party, screening and VIP seating. 

Premieres of the film will take place in 11 North American cities on May 12, with seats in each theater set aside for underprivileged children. 

“Attack of the Clones,” the second chapter of Lucas’ six-part “Star Wars” saga, also stars Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson. It opens nationwide on May 16. 

The inaugural Tribeca Film Festival (May 8-12) aims to help reinvigorate the Tribeca section of lower Manhattan, one of the hardest hit on Sept. 11. Robert De Niro, co-founder of the festival, based his Tribeca Productions in the neighborhood in 1988. 

On the Net: 

Tribeca Film Festival: http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/ 

Children’s Aid Society: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/ 

“Star Wars” Web site: http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/ 

While I was walking around the 2002 Photo Marketing Association Convention in Orlando, Fla., I felt like a kid in a candy store. Dozens of new digital darkroom tools were introduced and shown. 

Here’s a quick look. You can learn more about them by doing a Web search. Simply type the name of the company in the search window. 

ACD Systems showed its ACDSee 4.0, a program designed for amateur picture-makers who want to do basic image-enhancing and correcting. The program also lets you easily find, rename and organize digital files (which is becoming increasingly important as you store more and more digital images). 

Adobe demonstrated its latest version of Photoshop, Photoshop 7.0. The new professional program, while featuring many of the image-correcting and enhancing tools that have made Photoshop the standard imaging program for professionals, now offers a Healing Brush, for easily removing wrinkles and other imperfections on a person’s face; a File Browser, so you find an image before you open it; and an improved system for creating Web pages. 

Apple was not an exhibitor, but the company’s flat panel displays were attracting attention at several booths. With a resolution of 1600x1024 pixels, the 22-inch Apple Cinema Display is two times sharper and has three times the contrast of most standard displays — making it a useful tool for serious digital photographers. 

Canon was proud of its new S9000 bubble jet printer, which uses six individual ink cartridges to achieve accurate and full color. The printer uses inkjet paper up to 13 x 19 inches. 

Espon had a new printer, too. The Epson Stylus Photo 820 uses Epson’s new Image Matching Technology, designed to produce consistent color from a compatible digital camera to the final print. 

Jasc Software released a program called After Shot, which helps users organize, fix and share pictures from a digital camera. After Shot also offers an automatic stitching feature — for stitching (or splicing) several pictures together for a panoramic image. Slide shows are possible, too. 

Nikmultimedia demonstrated software, nikColorEfex!, that can mimic traditional lens filters, including polarizing, graduated, warming — to name but a few. The company’s nikSharpener Pro! also drew the attention of digital darkroom artists who want to get the sharpest print. 

Ulead announced its DVD PictureShow Imaging Suite — the first complete slideshow-generating software that lets users share digital photos on television. With the program, slideshow projects can be saved onto CDs and DVDs that play on most home DVD players. 

WACOM showed an interactive tablet-flat screen display called the Cintiq that lets photographers work (with a special, pressure-sensitive pen) and see their results directly on a flat screen, much like an artist paints directly on a canvas. The device offers more precise control than a standard tablet — and much more control than a mouse on a mouse pad. 

A closing thought. With all the digital tools and toys that are readily available, some photographers I’ve met recently are more concerned with what happens after a picture is taken, than when a picture is taken. They feel they can fix it up and save it in the digital darkroom. My advice is to start with the very best original possible — and then take it from there! 

Rick Sammon is the host of the Digital Photography Workshop on the Do It Yourself (DIY) cable and satellite network.

Yesterday morning a woman drenched in blood locked herself to the entrance of City Hall demanding that city officials draft a resolution condemning the killing of “babies in Babylon.” 

Susan B. Rodriguez, a local anarchist, said she and three friends drew their own blood and stained her clothes with it, to “shock and educate America’s desensitized society” about the increasing violence in the Middle East.  

“I did it because it needs to be announced to the world that we condemn the whole thing, especially when it comes to children — it’s sad that our children even have to see this blood,” Rodriguez said. “And we all have blood on our hands if we stand still for it. 

“What I said was it’s a ‘Sad day in Babylon when children are blowing themselves up to stop a war. Shame, shame on you, you bastards,” she added, speaking specifically of recent youthful suicide bombers.  

In February, the Israel Security Agency, in cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces, arrested a 17-year-old boy allegedly on his way to carry out a suicide attack against IDF soldiers in Gaza. The boy, Anwar Ahmed Abd al Halak Hamed, was a member of the Abu Rish faction of the PLO's Fatah and admitted that he had intended to attack a motor convoy on the coasttal road.  

On March 30th, an 18-year-old Palestinian girl named Ayat al-Akhras carried a bomb into a supermarket and successfully ignited it killing herself and 17-year-old Rachel Levy.  

Rodriguez said the blood was necessary to remind people here at home what it looked like. 

She made two demands, before giving up the City Hall entrance way. She demanded to speak with Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean and demanded a proclamation condemning the war. 

Rodrgiquez said she felt victorious in the end because both her demands were met and she “held City Hall” for an hour and a half. 

Rodriquez arrived at City Hall at approximately 8:00 a.m. and remained there until 9:30 a.m., stopping city workers from entering through the east doors. But city workers did enter city hall through the other side of the building and the workday was not disrupted due to the demonstration. 

When Dean arrived on the scene, Rodriguez was reportedly calm and cooperative. 

“Other than her appearance there was nothing very alarming. She spoke quite calm and i told her I could certainly agree to a letter and to a proclamation condemning the war, but that I could not agree on any specific wording,” Dean said. 

Dean said she will work on some language for such a proclamation and bring the issue up at the next convenient council meeting. 

“I figure everybody in the city is for peace so we can find some language to express those sentiments,” Dean said. 

But Dean did tell Rodriguez that she would prefer to have future conversations in the office and not out on the steps.  

Berkeley has received national attention at times in the past for choosing to cast votes on international issues that they have no jurisdiction over.  

But Rodriguez said she feels it is Berkeley’s responsibility to do so.  

“It’s our birthright as Berkeleyans. We were the first to speak out on many of the issues that people have in life today,” Rodriguez said. “And in the least, this will keep the platform.”

To the Editor: 

My daughter is on the novice women's crew team at BHS. I think it is absurd to even CONSIDER not giving P.E. credit for this sport. These girls get up at 4:30 am every weekday to go to Lake Merritt and practice for two hours. 

They get themselves back to school on time for class. This sport is intense and the practices are year-round and grueling! Crew is very well-organized, well-coached and very educational. Being on the team requires conditioning, nutrition awareness, self-discipline, teamwork and extreme dedication.  

I can't imagine any PE class requiring this degree of effort or imparting this degree of education.  

The team is diverse. Scholarships are available. No one is excluded and a great deal of effort goes into recruiting from the public middle schools. I am extremely proud of my daughter, the whole team, and the organization. Not only are they out there representing Berkeley High School throughout the state, and being excellent ambassadors for our high school and community, they are terrific examples of what can be accomplished at the high school level by women athletes. 

When something works this well it makes sense to nurture it — not to do it harm.  

Cynthia Papermaster 

Berkeley 

NEW YORK — The owners of several Times Square buildings have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the upcoming “Spider-Man” movie for digitally altering a sign appearing in the motion picture. 

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the owners of 2 Times Square allege that Columbia Pictures digitally replaced a Samsung advertisement on the side of the building with one for USA Today. The sign appears three times in the film, according to court papers. 

Samsung is a competitor of Sony, which owns Columbia Pictures. 

“We think it’s inappropriate to substitute your own image for the one that exists,” Anthony Costantini, a lawyer for building owners Sherwood 48 Associates, told the Daily News in Thursday’s editions. 

Heidi Henderson, a spokeswoman for USA Today, said the paper was not paid for having its name appear in the movie; she said the filmmakers simply picked the newspaper’s logo to place on the building. 

A call to Sony was not immediately returned Thursday. 

The Samsung advertisement also was changed in some television commercials promoting the movie with an ad for a wireless telephone company. 

The movie, starring Tobey Maguire as the Marvel Comics superhero, is scheduled to be released May 3. 

Music 

924 Gilman Apr. 5: The Frisk, The Tantrums, Last Great Liar, Intrepid A.A.F., I Decline; Apr. 6: All Bets Off, Time in Malta, Animosity, Breath In, For the Crown; Apr. 12: Missing 23rd, Himsa, Bleeding Through, Belvedere; Apr. 13: Labrats, Damage Done; Apr. 19: Ludicra, Sbitch, Watch Them Die, Beware, Hate Mail Killer; Apr. 20: The Sick, All Bets Off, Vitamin X, Sharp Knife, Dead in the End; Apr. 21: Harum Scarum; Fleshies, Iowaska, Disobedience; Apr. 26: The Lawrence Arms, Taking Back Sunday, Before The Fall; Apr. 27: Pitch Black, Fall Silent, The Cause, The 86ers, As I; All shows begin a 8 p.m., most cost $5. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

The Albatross Apr. 4: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Apr. 9: Mad & Eddie Duran; Apr. 10: Farms in Berkeley; Apr. 13: 9:30 p.m., The Fourtet Jazz Group; Apr. 16: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Apr. 4: Graham Richards Jazz Quartet; Apr. 5: Anna de Leon & Ellen Hoffman, 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Apr. 6: Renegade Sidemen; Apr. 7: Danubius; Apr. 8: Renegade Sidemen; Apr: 9: Singers open mic; Apr. 10: Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet; Apr. 11: Hanif and The Sound Voagers; Apr. 12: Anna de Leon, 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Apr. 13: Ed Reed, 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Apr. 14: Choro Time; Apr. 15: Renegade Sidemen; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Apr. 3: Creole Belles, $8; Apr. 4: Grateful Dead DJ Night w/ Digital Dave, $5; Apr. 5: Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums, $11; Apr. 6: Kotoja, $12; Apr. 7: Wadi Gad, Sister I-Live & The Songbirds w/ the 48th Street Band, $10; Apr. 9: Tim Rigney w/ Flambeau, $8; Apr. 10: Red Archibald & The Internationals, $8; Apr. 11: Alan Winston & The Mosoco Ceilidh Band, $8; Apr. 12: Drums of Passion, $15; Apr. 13: Gator Beat, $11; Check venue for showtimes, 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Apr. 4: Electronica w/ Ascension, $5; Apr. 5: Orixa, American Rebus, $7; Apr. 6: Felonious, Psychokinetics; Apr. 7: Forcing Bloom, $3; Apr. 8: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee; $4; Apr. 9: Filibuster, Mr. Q, $3; Apr. 10: Hebro, free; Apr. 11: Electronica w/ Ascension, $5; Apr. 12: Kofy Brown, Subterraneanz, $7; Stonecutters, $5, Apr. 14: Ted Ekman; Apr. 15: Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Mar. 22: 8 p.m., The Teethe, The Natural Dreamers, Yasi, $3; Mar. 23: 8 p.m., Guest DJs and MCs, $5; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344, Shows are All Ages.  

Cal Performances Apr. 7: 3 p.m., Murray Perahia, classical pianist, $28 - $48; Apr. 28: 3 p.m., The Silk Road Esemble presents music from China and Central Asia, $34; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Apr. 7: Mo’ Fone; Apr. 10: Irish Session; Apr. 14: Stiff Dead Cat; Apr. 17: Go Van Gogh; Apr. 21: The Backyard Party Band; Apr. 24: Vince Wallace Trio; Apr. 28: The Lost Trio; All shows 6 - 9 p.m., free. 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349, www.mrcato.com. 

Dotha’s Juke Joint at Everett and Jones Barbeque Apr. 5, 12, 19, 26: Gwen Avery and The Blues Sistahs, $12, 8 and 10 p.m., 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668. 

Downtown Apr. 5: Danny Caron; Apr. 6: Michael Bluestein Trio; Apr. 7: Gary Rowe; Apr. 9: Aaron Greenblatt; Apr. 10: Dave Mathews; Apr. 12: The Hot Club of San Francisco; Apr. 13: Walter Earl; Apr. 14: Gary Rowe; Apr. 16: Mimi Fox; Apr. 17: Dred Scott; Apr. 19 and 20: Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut; Apr. 21: Gary Rowe; Apr. 23: Aaron Greenblatt; Apr. 24: Dave Mathews; Apr. 26: Joshi Marshall; Apr. 27: Danny Caron; Apr. 30: The Ned Boynton Combo; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810. 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661. 

Fellowship Cafe Apr. 19: 7:30 p.m., open mic, $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar, 540-0898. 

Freight & Salvage Apr. 3: Jimmy Bruno, Bob Reid; Apr. 4: Mighty Mo Rodgers; Apr. 5: Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar, Rick Shea & Brantley Kearns, Apr. 6: Greg Brown; Apr. 7: Dervish; Apr. 10: Martin Carthy; Apr. 11: Bryan Bowers; Apr. 12: Fiddlers 4, Michael Doucet, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky & Rushad Eggleston; Apr. 13: Scheryl Wheeler; Apr. 14: John Gorka; Apr. 15: Bob Paisley & The Southern Grass; $15.50 - $19.50, 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

The Starry Plough Apr. 4: 9:30 p.m., Clumsy Lovers, Missin’ Cousins, Yard Sale, $6; Apr. 5: 9:30 p.m., Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days, Bellyahcers, The Mother Truckers, $6; Apr. 6: 9:30 p.m., 86, Warm Wires, Sonny Smith, $5; Apr. 7: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session; Apr. 8: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music), free; Apr. 9: 9 p.m., Bonnie Price Billy, RainYwood, $12; Apr. 10: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $7; Apr. 11: Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Will Bernard Trio, $6; Apr. 14: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session; Apr. 15: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music), free; Apr. 16: open mic, free; Apr. 17: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $7; Apr. 18: 9:30 p.m., Dallas Wayne, Amy Rigby, $6; Apr. 19: 9:30 p.m., Tempest, Brazen Hussey, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Borealis Wind Quintet Apr. 13: 7:30 p.m., $25 - $35, Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland, 451-0775, www.ticketweb.com. 

The Texas Twisters Blues Band Apr. 20: 9 p.m., Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 663-0440. 

Dance 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“A Fairy’s Tail” through Apr. 7: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. Mar. 16 - 31:Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.; Apr. 4 - 7: UC Theatre on University Ave.; 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org. 

“Merrily We Roll Along” Apr. 5 through Apr. 21: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., BareStage Productions presents a musical comedy told in reverse tracing a famous songwriter and film producer back though his career to his youthful beginnings as a struggling artist. $8 - $10. UC Berkeley. 

Friday, April 12

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Myths About Aging,” Susan V. Mullen, D.C. Chiropractor. $1. 848-3533. 

“Alfred Kroeber and his Legacy” 

Friday, 4-6:15 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30-11:30 a.m., 1:30-3:30 and 4-4:30 

UCBerkeley, Friday Doe Library’s Morrison Room. Saturday Vally Life Sciences Building Room 2040 

Distinguished alumni from UCBerkeley anthropology department explore historical highlights from their department with a course taught by Alfred Kroeber. Free. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Stand in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end  

to the occupation, which will give greater hope for an end to the  

violence. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Still Stronger Women 

Greta Garbo's life, plus movie 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Free. (510) 232-1351 

Saturday, April 13

Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - 1 a.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St. 

A class disaster mental health. 981-5605 

10th Annual Chinese Masters in Martial Arts Series 

8:30 a.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Haas Pavilion  

Day-long event will include competition in contemporary, traditional and internal styles of wushu. The Masters demonstration will begin at 8:00 p.m. 841-1486.  

Rescheduled BPWA Path Walk 

"Boundary Walk" 

10 a.m.- noon, rain or shine 

Join naturalist, Paul Grunland, as he leads an exploration of the Berkeley 

Paths on the Berkeley Kensington Boundary. Meet at Grizzly Peak/Spruce, the reservoir. 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

10 a.m.- noon 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Make Your Own Book 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Albany Library  

1247 Marin Ave. 

In a free hands-on workshop budding authors and artists of all ages can create origami books, "wheel books," photo albums and other types of books. 526-3720. 

Party For Your Health 

10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Corner of M.L.K. and Center St. 

A free community health fair for all ages. Health screenings (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.), information and games, alternative health services, organic and vegetarian food, poetry slam and music. 665-6833, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/publichealth/. 

Sunday, April 14

Non-religous Meditation Group 

5 p.m. 

Fig Tree Gallery 

2599 8th St. 

428-9466. 

Mike Ruppert on Truth & Lies of 9/11 

6 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Video showing followed by audience discussion. Free. 528-5403. 

Preserving Photographs 

3 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St. 

Sunday, April 14, 

Drew Johnson, Oakland Museum photo curator, will talk on "Preserving  

Photographs.” Part of a five lecture series connected with the exhibit "From the Attic: How to Preserve and Share our Past." 848-0181, http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/. 

Animals in Politics 

noon 

Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St. 

California Coordinator for the Fund for Animals, Virginia Handley, tells about the legislative process in California, the latest news on all the animal bills, and how animal advocates can help pass humane legislation. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Choosing to Add On: The Pros and Cons  

of Building an Addition 

noon - 2 p.m. 

812 Page  

Building Education Center- Free Lecture by Skip Wenz. 525-7610. 

Monday, April 15

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part one of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Parkinson’s Support Group 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

Berkeley,  

For more information, call 981-5190. 

Berkeley Society of Friends (Quakers) 

2151 Vine Street 

Berkeley, Ca 94709 

(510) 843-9725 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

7-9 p.m. 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Peace Builders 

9 a.m. 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends is presenting talks from four inspiring peace builders in April and May, beginning with Melody Ermachild Chavis and Latifa Popal who have just returned from Afghanistan. 527-8475. 

Berkeley Partners for Parks Meeting 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

City Corp. Yard  

1326 Allston Way 

Public invited to discuss and advocate for parks and open space in Berkeley. 649-9874. 

Tuesday, April 16

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part two of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Affordable Housing Advocacy Project 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Affordable Housing Advocacy Project is sponsoring a series of Town Hall Meetings to present its annual update of their five year plan. 548-8776 

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Packing Demonstration: how to pack for three weeks, two climates in one manageable carry-on bag. 843-3533 

Brown Bag Career Talk 

YWCA Turning POINT CAREER CENTER 

2600 BANCROFT WAY 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Frank Vargas of Berkeley will speak on the process of gaining employment in the many aspects of city government. $3 

"Self-Built Eco-Homes and Communities in  

Britain and Temple of Human Unity." 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Ecology Center  

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Jeffrey Gale, British Eco-Architect, Permacultural Garden Designer will give a Slideshow presentation. 548-2220 x233. 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

Alameda wins ACCAL track & field meet 

Berkeley High dominated the sprints and Alex Enscoe won the mile and two-mile events on Thursday, but that wasn’t enough to beat the massive Alameda squad as the Hornets won both the boys’ and girls’ sides of an ACCAL double-dual track & field meet on Thursday. 

Enscoe, the ACCAL cross-country champion last fall, won both distance events going away against Alameda, the only other ACCAL school with a strong cross-country program. But only two other Berkeley boys won events, with Germaine Baird winning the 200-meter dash and Sean Young blowing away the field in the 100-meter dash. Young also finished second in the 200 and Baird third in the 400, with both contributing to the Berkeley’s win in the 4x100-meter relay. 

Alameda, on the other hand, swept the top three spots in three events, including both hurdles races, and simply outmanned the competition, scoring 114 points to Berkeley’s 69. Both Richmond and Encinal finished with 15 points. 

The Hornets were even more dominant on the girls’ side, taking 153 points to Berkeley’s 46. Rebekah Payne, Gabrielle Ward and Joy Broussard were responsible for 32 of Berkeley’s points, with Payne winning the 110-meter hurdles and the 200 and Ward winning the 100 while finishing just behind Payne in the 200. Broussard was second in the 100 and third in the 200. 

Berkeley High’s team has been turned upside-down this season, with just two male sprinters (Baird and Young) and the trio of girls representing what has traditionally been a dominating area for the ’Jackets. The distance program, on the other hand, has enjoyed a resurgence with Enscoe leading the way. Head coach Darrell Hampton said that while his short-track events may be coming up short right now, there is hope for the future with a group of younger sprinters. 

“We’ve just got some young numbers right now,” Hampton said. “For the last couple of years we’ve had a real solid sprint corps, but most of them have graduated and we’re depleted at the top level. But we’ve got a few more coming up.”

When Berkeley resident Rob Lipton answered his cell phone on April 1, the voice on the other end made him feel a helplessness known to so many of the Palestinian refugees with whom he was staying 

“Rob, they’re shooting us up,” cried a fellow peace activist.Lipton’s cohorts had situated themselves approximately 15 meters from an Israeli armored division in the West Bank city of Beit Jala. The tense stand off ended violently when an Israeli soldier fired shots in their direction. 

According to Lipton, five peace demonstrators, two Palestinian cameramen and an Italian video photographer were hit when the bullets ricocheted off their intended targets. One demonstrator, an Australian woman was hit directly in the stomach. The protestors retreated from the Israeli front lines and were able to get their wounded medical attention.  

Lipton had originally intended to join his comrades in the daytime march, but decided against it after he was unable to sleep in the face of constant Israeli fire throughout his first night at the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. 

Upon receiving the call, Lipton knew there was little he could do for the injured protestors. 

He contacted the U.S. Embassy for assistance and waited to hear from the field, stoically aware that the difference between finding himself on the receiving end of Israeli fire and his friend’s telephone call was one sleepless night. 

Such was a day in the life of a Berkeley peace activist who had taken his politics to the middle of a war zone. 

It wasn’t supposed to be quite so difficult for Lipton, a 43-year old public health researcher, who had previously worked at refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Cambodia – Thailand border, “I had never been to the region and it seemed like a good opportunity to see what was happening,” said Lipton. 

He and his fellow protestors from the International Solidarity Movement, a one-year old grass roots organization advocating civil disobedience in opposition to the Israeli occupation, had planned a two-week itinerary to provide support for Palestinians. 

“Our original mission was to rebuild demolished houses, harvest olives (from olive groves that were placed off limits to Palestinians), and tear down Israeli blockades,” said Lipton. 

The plan was foiled as Lipton was just setting off for Israel. That night, March 27th, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a Netanya hotel where Israelis had congregated for a Passover seder. Twenty Israelis were killed; it was the deadliest suicide bombing in the conflict’s bloody history.  

When Lipton arrived in Tel Aviv on March 29th, he acted as if nothing had changed. A chartered taxi was waiting for him. He took it to a border crossing, and then had no difficulty hailing a second taxi to Bethlehem’s Star Hotel, where he met up with other ISM activists.  

At the hotel, the activists gauged the severity of the situation, and decided to change their mission. With Israeli troops surrounding Bethlehem and blocking major transport roads as part of their new incursion into the occupied West Bank, ISM shifted its attention from performing acts of civil disobedience throughout the West Bank to trying to protect the local Palestinians from the invading Israeli forces. 

The plan was that if the Israelis knew that there were international protesters in the Palestinian refugee camps they would be more hesitant to attack. The activists were to become human shields for the Palestinians. 

Lipton agreed with the change in tactics, and drew strength from the size and diversity of the ISM contingent. “There were between 70 and 100 activists from the North America, Europe, and Japan,” said Lipton who was surprised to meet grandparents, single mothers and Republican lawyers among the ISM activists. 

On March 31st, Lipton joined a group of ISM marchers to confront an Israeli division in Beit Jala, a city adjacent to Bethlehem. Unlike the march that would end violently the following day, the protesters were only met with stun grenades, which according to Lipton made a loud noise but did no harm. 

While they were face to face with Israeli soldiers, Lipton and several other activists tried to engage them in a conversation about the war. Some troops expressed exasperation with the situation, asking rhetorically what they were supposed to in under such circumstances. Other soldiers were more strident. One soldier told Lipton, “Palestinians kill people because they want to, when we do it, it is by accident.” 

On the evening of March 31st Lipton along with several other ISM activists were assigned to reside at the Aida Refugee Camp. During his two-day stay, Lipton toured the camp, which he compared to a crowded condominium community with narrow streets. The camp was remarkably clean, he observed, but there were holes in some roads from rounds shot out of Apachee helicopters, and several homes were damaged from a March 8th Israeli invasion against alleged snipers. 

Lipton’s arrival proved to be an eye opening experience for everyone involved. At about 6’5” with curly brown hair, his presence could not help but raise a few eyebrows among the camp’s 2,500 inhabitants. When those who talked to him learned that he is an American Jew, they expressed even greater surprise. 

This revelation did not change the warm welcome Lipton found at the camp. “The Palestinians I met made a clear distinction between Israelis and Jews”, said Lipton, who claimed that he did not encounter any racism from the Palestinians he met. 

Lipton was encouraged by most of what he saw at the camp. Although some residents had kalishnikov rifles and expressed rigid opinions, the bulk of the Palestinians he spoke to seemed more interested in ultimately achieving a middle class lifestyle than in seeking revenge against the Israelis. “They didn’t show a lot of rancor towards the Israelis. They just wanted to run their own lives,” said Lipton. 

Home for Lipton in Aida was a children’s center attached to the home of Abu Sroar, a Palestinian who was born in the camp, earned a doctorate in Biology at a French University, but then returned to build the children’s center and a theater. 

“He was a friendly and warm man living in crowded but clean house,” said Lipton who slept on a mat with his host’s elderly parents. 

Nightime at Aida were difficult. Israeli gunfire could be heard throughout both nights and occasionally the shots were directed at the camp as a warning, according to Lipton, who said that he was fortified by how the Palestinians dealt with the constant threat. “The Palestinians are amazing, they are not just surviving, but they are living…they got you by with their grace and kindness,” said Lipton. 

Lipton spent the night of April 2nd back at the Star Hotel, but that did not mean he was free from danger. “Israeli troops were everywhere, said Lipton, who said that one time when he was leaving the hotel, he saw a laser light on his chest. This was a targeting laser from an Israeli soldier who had Lipton in full view. 

On April 3rd, the U.S. embassy was able to provide the evacuation cars that Lipton had requested after he had learned of the violence in Beit Jala two days earlier. While approximately 20 – 30 ISM activists stayed on as shields in local camps, 

Lipton decided to board a car to Jerusalem where he devoted his time to supplying the residents of the Aida Camp with much needed medical supplies. 

Working with the Union of Palestinian Relief Committees, Lipton knitted together a group of people who acquired medical supplies. He then maneuvered his way around Israeli checkpoints, and hand delivered the supplies to the hospital in Beit Jala, from where they were to be sent to the Aida camp.  

Lipton is now en route to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, where he says the mood is equally tense. “There are guards at every bank and every restaurant,” said Lipton. On Saturday, he will fly back to the Bay Area, where he will continue his role as a co-ordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. 

Lipton will return home having witnessed ghastly suffering and violence, but his experience in Aida gives him reason for optimism. “I think the Palestinians want good relations.” “If the Israelis end the occupation in a just way, the region will normalize.”

To the Editor: 

The League of Women Voters is a venerable organization noted for its commitment to fair and candid dialogue about public affairs. It was thus disappointing to read the letter from the officers of the League's local chapter that appeared in the Planet's Easter weekend edition.  

That letter accuses the City Council, the Planning Commission and the Hearst-Curtis-Delaware Neighborhood Association of succumbing to “fear of change,” manifest in the recent downzoning of the 1100 block of Hearst Avenue from R-3 to R-2A. 

The downzoning, the LWV contends, betrays the principles of the Housing and Land Use Elements of the city's newly updated General Plan, approved first by the Commission and then by the Council in the latter part of 2001.  

According to the League, “Those policies and those documents are meaningless, and all those years of study and public input are wasted, if they can be set aside so soon after their adoption.” 

In fact, the downzoning of the 1100 block of Hearst is in keeping with both the letter and the spirit of the revised General Plan. As the League observes, the Plan calls for increased housing to be built along transit corridors. 

But the League then goes on to contend that “Surely, the concept of increasing apartment development along transportation corridors also includes encouraging or at least permitting such development in appropriately zoned areas very close to transit corridors.”  

On the contrary: the new General Plan nowhere encourages or permits new construction on areas “very close to transit corridors” [italics added]. As even a brief visit to the area makes clear, there is a marked difference between San Pablo Avenue and the adjacent 1100 block of Hearst Avenue. The Plan formally recognizes that difference by designating San Pablo as a Major Street and the 1100 block of Hearst Avenue as a Local Street. 

The League also fails to note that the first goal of the Land Use Element is “to maintain the character of Berkeley.” Policy LU-3, dealing with in-fill development, states: “Encourage sensitively designed, thoughtfully planned in-fill development that is compatible with neighboring land uses and architectural design and scale.”  

Policy LU-7, treating neighborhood quality of life, reads: “Preserve and protect the quality of life in Berkeley's residential areas through careful land use decisions.”  

And the first goal of the entire General Plan is to “preserve Berkeley’s unique character and quality of life.” 

The League seems to think that the policies informing the General Plan are perfectly consistent with one another. That is not the case. The goal of increasing housing--especially affordable housing--is in tension with the goal of preserving and protecting the special character of Berkeley, and the distinctive quality of residential neighborhoods in particular. 

In our dense, built-out city, this tension is not going to disappear; it can only be carefully negotiated, project by project, site by site, through the city's discretionary zoning process.  

When it approved the Planning Commission's unanimous recommendation to downzone the 1100 block of Hearst, the City Council successfully conducted just such a negotiation. It balanced the competing goals of new housing construction and neighborhood preservation. 

The League would have us believe that the newly applied R-2A category forecloses any further development on this block. But the R-2A zoning actually permits an additional 22 housing units to be added to the 45 existing units, for a total of 67 units--an increase of about 50 percent. 

In other words, it allows for a moderate amount of change that will respect the medium-density character of the neighborhood. 

A final note: it has become commonplace for advocates of “the sky's the limit” development to accuse their critics of fearing change. What a simplistic charge! Are we really expected to believe that all change is for the better?  

The new General Plan provides a conceptual framework for judicious decision-making that evaluates proposals for development in accordance with the complex, nuanced character of Berkeley's settlement and life. 

Zelda Bronstein, Chair Planning Commission 

Hearst-Curtis-Delaware Neighborhood Association 

In the opening scene of “Human Nature” a new comedy from “Being John Malkovich” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, a pair of country mice use their rodent wiles to outwit a hawk. 

In the film’s sad final image, the furry white critters stand at the edge of a road, trying to leave the wild behind and hitchhike to what they see as the easy life in the Big Apple. 

“Human Nature” is a film about country mice and city mice made by people who clearly have a city mouse sensibility. 

They seem to have a real nostalgia for the great outdoors, but their urbane sense of irony and deadened emotional range prevent them from making a strong endorsement of eschewing civilization for the wild. 

What we get instead is a movie that urges us to be true to our instincts, even if we continue to dwell somewhere far from nature. The film makes its point stylishly, but the point has been made many, many times before, even if people keep forgetting it. 

It’s too bad “Human Nature” isn’t more bold in its criticisms of so-called civilized life, because more flashes of passion from Kaufman could have made this a great movie instead of just a funny one. 

Patricia Arquette stars as Lila, a wilderness writer who has abandoned the big city because of a hormonal disorder that causes her to grow thick hair all over her face and body. But she eventually returns to city life because she wants a man. She finds one, though a very flawed one, in Nathan (Tim Robbins), a behaviorist obsessed with teaching table manners to rodents. 

Nathan’s obsession makes for some of the biggest laughs in the movie. He’s an absurdly stuffy character who uses words like “ergo” on his first date with Lila. 

But the character’s silliness nullifies any hope that the movie will offer a serious critique of modern life. Nathan is such a strawman that there’s no real contest between the civilization he represents and Lila’s great outdoors. 

Fortunately, before we have much time to dwell on this, the plot shifts with the introduction of a feral man who thinks he’s an ape (Rhys Ifans, best known for “Notting Hill”). 

Nathan and his seductive assistant, Gabrielle (Miranda Otto), name him Puff and set out to make him civilized through a series of conditioning experiments that seem straight out of “Clockwork Orange.” 

Puff develops good elocution, proper table manners, and enthusiasm for reading “Moby Dick” in the belief that this will persuade women to have sex with him. But because the terminally repressed Nathan equates sex with savagery, Puff isn’t allowed to act on his impulses. 

“Whenever in doubt,” Nathan explains, “don’t ever do what you really want to do.” 

The rest of the film chronicles Puff’s orientation into civilized life and eventual return to the wild. The conclusion is anything but optimistic — remember those sad little mice? — suggesting that Kaufman and first-time director Michel Gondry aspired to make some grand statement, not just some good jokes. 

If they intended to make a broad point about modern society’s disconnection from nature, they fail. The film is so absurdist that the filmmakers can plausibly deny having such high intentions. But it’s just emotional and stylish enough that they can claim credit for such a statement if anyone happens to pick up on it. 

“Human Nature,” a Fine Line Features release, is rated R for sexuality/nudity and language. Running time: 96 minutes. Three stars (out of four). 

The Berkeley High boys’ volleyball team came close to taking another step forward on Thursday, but instead the ’Jackets may have taken a step in the wrong direction. 

After a thorough beating by league leader El Cerrito on Tuesday, Berkeley came back with a strong effort in the first two games against a team more their speed, Encinal. But although they were within striking distance of the first two games, the ’Jackets dropped both, then collapsed in the final game, winning just three points. 

Even worse, Berkeley’s star player, junior Robin Roach, may have reached the end of his proverbial rope during the loss. He played most of the third game with less than maximum effort, clearly frustrated with his teammates’ errors as well as his own. Head coach Justin Caraway called a timeout to calm his star down, taking him aside for a private conversation, and held a team meeting after the match to deal with the problem. 

“There’s some frustration over a lack of help for our strongest player,” Caraway said. “I’ve seen some internal strife coming, but I thought I’d have another match or two before it finally set in.” 

Roach’s frustration isn’t exactly shocking. After winning a total of one game last season, the ’Jackets are again a young, inexperienced team. Although they won their season opener against De Anza, they have reverted back to their form of old since then, dropping three straight matches to ACCAL opponents. While they had no realistic chance to beat El Cerrito, the league’s two-time defending champion, Berkeley could have come out with wins against Richmond or the Jets, teams that aren’t much more talented than the ’Jackets. 

Berkeley led for most of the first game on Thursday, going up by scores of 5-0, 11-7 and 12-10. But the Jets refused to go away, tying the game each time. With the score knotted at 12-12, the teams traded 10 side-outs before three straight Encinal aces gave them the game. 

“The first ace was my fault for changing the return pattern, and it was a solid topspin serve right on the line,” Caraway said. “But the last two were a player just not being ready for the ball.” 

Encinal jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the second game, but the ’Jackets came back with a five-point run to get within a point. But Berkeley would score just four more points in the entire match, falling 15-10 in the second game before falling apart in the final game. 

“We were pretty competitive in the first two games,” Caraway said. “We just made a couple of little mistakes at the end. It’s mental more than anything else.” 

With just one reserve, Caraway doesn’t have a lot of moves he can make when things start to go bad. Thursday’s match was actually one of the better days for Roach’s supporting cast, as Sam Fuller had five kills and seven digs and Ethan Ashley had four blocks. Roach had a subpar game with nine kills, eight digs and two blocks, but he is so clearly the team’s best player that the opposition keys on him, throwing two or three blockers at him every time he gets near the net. 

“It’s tough when you have to lean on one guy to carry the load,” Caraway said. “Hopefully we can resolve some issues in our meeting and be a better team for it.”

Believe it or not, traffic hasn’t always been a problem in Berkeley.  

That is one of many lessons that David Cohen, executive director, teacher and guitar player for the Bay Area Sustainable Transportation Education Project, or BAYSTEP, imparts to schoolchildren in the Bay Area. 

Cohen, who founded Berkeley bike messenger service Pedal Express in 1994 and started BAYSTEP six months ago, teaches kids about the history of transportation and development in the East Bay, the effects of road construction and automobile pollution on the environment, and the wonders of bicycle transportation. 

Cohen said he sees his work as one step in the development of a larger bicycle culture in the United States. 

“In this country, we’re so obsessed with the automobile, we really haven’t been able to develop an adequate bicycling culture and bicycling infrastructure,” Cohen said.  

At a Thursday morning appearance at Rosa Parks Elementary School, Cohen showed a group of about 60 kindergartners and first-graders a slide show on bicycle use around the world and the history of transportation in Berkeley. 

“Imagine what Berkeley was like a long time ago, when there were no cars,” he said. 

Cohen proceeded to tell the story of a family of mice, living in the forest, who to decide to buy a car from a shady used car salesman named Ziggy the Piggy. The purchase sets off a chain reaction of heavy automobile purchases and road building, ruining the forest. 

In the end, the family moves to a new forest and decides to preserve it. The lesson, Cohen said, is clear. 

“There are places around here that are so important,” he said. “We have to restore them and protect them.” 

At the end of the presentation Cohen showed students a fold-up bicycle, ideal for commuters, and a Christiania Trike. The Trike, made and widely-used in Denmark, is a large tricycle with a container that can carry everything from tools to children. 

Kathy Freeburg, curriculum coordinator at Rosa Parks, said Cohen teaches important lessons about alternatives to automobile transportation – lessons that kids might spread. 

“They can bring the message home to their families,” Freeburg said. 

David Ceaser, gardening teacher at Rosa Parks, said the presentation fits in with his larger effort to encourage a bicycle culture at the school. Ceaser said he hands out trinkets on National Bike-to-Work Day, encourages bicycle use when he discusses fitness and nutrition and sells children low-cost helmets. 

Cohen, who helped start a recycling education program in the Berkeley Unified School District in the early-1990s, made his first BUSD appearance as a transportation educator Tuesday. He said he hopes to expand his work in the district.

The San Francisco Film Society has announced that “Minute Matrimony”by Berkeley filmmaker Yoav Potash is the winner of a Golden Gate Award, given to recognize outstanding film production in the San Francisco Bay Area.  

The film will premiere at the 45th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, the largest and oldest film festival in Northern California.  

“Minute Matrimony” will screen during the San Francisco International Film Festival on: Saturday, April 20 at 1:30 PM and Thursday, April 25 at 7:15 PM at AMC’s Kabuki Theater, 1881 Post St. at Fillmore, San Francisco. 

The outlandish film centers on a simple premise: What would it be like if instead of hamburgers and shakes -the local drive-thru served up weddings and divorces? “Minute Matrimony” dishes up this scenario with plenty of super-sized laughs. 

To officiate such favorites as the Minute Matrimony Value-Pak and the Hassle Free Divorce, a visor-wearing teenage preacher (15 year-old Alex Barker of Moraga) pops out of the drive-up altar/window like a jack-in-the-box. For an extra buck or two, a couple can spice up their ceremony with Jewish, African-American, or gay flavors. Enter dancing rabbis stage left, gospel choir stage right. 

Friday 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Hercules, 3:30 p.m. at San Pablo Park 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Patrick, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High 

Softball – Berkeley vs. Hercules, 3:30 p.m. at Old Grove Park 

Swimming – Berkeley vs ACCAL, 3:30 p.m. at Contra Costa College 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Saturday 

Girls Lacrosse – Berkeley at Stanford Invitational, all day at Stanford University 

Boys Volleyball – Berkeley High Tournament, all day at Berkeley High 

Swimming – Berkeley at Antioch Relays, 9 a.m. at Antioch High 

Softball – Berkeley vs. Mission San Jose, 1 p.m. at Mission San Jose High

The Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday night to restructure the district’s music program, but left the door open for future revisions. 

Under the new plan, next year the district would: 

• cut 1.7 of 11.5 full-time music teacher positions, for an estimated savings of $82,560 

• increase fourth- and fifth-grade class sizes from an average of 10 to a range of 18-25 

• assign two to three teachers to each elementary school, rather than the current four to five 

• expand music instruction, which runs from grades four through 12, to the third grade 

• in the fourth and fifth grades, combine winds, brass and percussion courses into a band class, continue to offer strings under the title of “orchestra,” and possibly replace a “music exploratory” course, featuring singing and recorder lessons among other things, with chorus 

Board members suggested that the staffing reductions, class size increases, assignment of two to three teachers per elementary school, and expansion to third grade are solid changes that will remain in place. But they said the program details for the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade programs are still open to discussion. 

Starting next year, third-graders are slated to take an introductory music course once a week, listening to tunes for pitch and rhythm, learning some basic fingering on the recorder and taking a look at various instruments they might pick up in the fourth grade. 

Board member John Selawsky suggested Wednesday night that the district add some basic voice training to the third grade program to lay the foundation for the proposed fourth-grade chorus program. 

“Voice is the primary and fundamental musical instrument,” Selawsky said, arguing for the change.  

But the fourth- and fifth-grade chorus offering is still up for debate. 

Currently, fourth- and fifth-graders who do not take an instrumental course are in the “music exploratory” class. Board members and administrators say the course is not what it could be. 

“It’s been seen as a dumping ground,” said Suzanne McCulloch, visual and performing arts coordinator for the district, noting that students who drop an instrument, or do not want to play one, gravitate to the course. 

McCulloch, who coordinates the music program, said music teachers have written a curriculum for the class, but have not yet implemented it. 

McCulloch said the district needs to tighten up and adapt the “exploratory” curriculum for the proposed chorus class, and actually implement that curriculum, if the new course is to be successful. 

Board members say they will seek further input from teachers and a board advisory group, the Music Curriculum Committee, before approving the final music restructuring details. 

First reading of new board policy 

Later in the evening, board member Terry Doran objected to Superintendent Michele Lawrence’s plan to dump the board’s jumbled policy manual, which is disorganized and out-of-date, and replace it with a new one that includes the basic policies the district must have on file to be in compliance with state law. 

Lawrence said the new manual is a bare bones document that the board could shape to its liking over the next two years. 

But Doran, the only board member who had read the thick manual thoroughly before Wednesday night, pointed to a series of policies he found objectionable. Doran said they could not possibly be required by state law. 

The policies he cited focused on carbonated beverage contracts, advertising in the schools and metal detectors. “Not on my watch,” Doran said. 

Lawrence was surprised by some of the policies Doran dug up, and thanked him for his thorough reading. Board members plan to read through the document in the coming weeks and suggest revisions before approving the new policy manual. 

Today is Friday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2002. There are 263 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. 

On this date: 

In 1606, England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack. 

In 1862, Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Ga., but were later caught. (This episode inspired the Buster Keaton comedy “The General.”) 

In 1934, “Tender Is the Night,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published. 

In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman. 

In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective. 

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing. 

In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. 

In 1985, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off. 

In 1989, radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pa., at age 52. 

Ten years ago: 

After five years in the making, Euro Disneyland, a theme park costing $4 billion, opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France, amid controversy as French intellectuals bemoaned the invasion of American pop culture. 

Five years ago: 

Undaunted by a cache of explosives found on his travel route, Pope John Paul II plunged into a peace mission to Sarajevo, wading into crowds and declaring, “Never again war.” 

One year ago: 

The 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane arrived in Hawaii after being held for 11 days in China. Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken declared a state of emergency amid the worst outbreak of racial violence in the city since the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The Philippine military rescued U.S. hostage Jeffrey Schilling from Muslim rebels who had threatened to behead him. 

Today’s Birthdays: 

Actress-dancer Ann Miller is 79. Opera singer Montserrat Caballe is 69. Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 62. Actor Frank Bank (“Leave It to Beaver”) is 60. Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 58. Actor Ed O’Neill is 56. Actor Dan Lauria is 55. Talk show host David Letterman is 55. Author Scott Turow is 53. Singer David Cassidy is 52. Actor Andy Garcia is 46. Country singer Vince Gill is 45. Rock musician Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen) is 44. Rock singer Art Alexakis (Everclear) is 40. Folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) is 38. Figure skater Elaine Zayak is 37. Actor Nicholas Brendon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 31. Actress Shannen Doherty is 31. Actress Claire Danes is 23.

Richards helped establish Ohlone Dog Park, and helped Finland get started  

Sixteen years ago, no one had ever heard of a dog park. 

The concept had yet to be discovered — mainly because there were then fewer restrictions as to where dog owners could roam with their four-legged friends. It was Berkeley’s own Doris Richards who helped found the first dog park in the nation, and according to several community members it was also she who first started to get many neighborhood members active and involved in attending City Council meetings. 

This year, Richards relinquished the reins as president of the Ohlone Dog Park Association. The city will install a pre-World War I fire hydrant in the park this spring in her honor. 

“This is Berkeley, we are often first in a lot of stuff,” said Tim McGraw, member of the Ohlone Dog Park Association. “There are more Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners here than any place in the world — other than maybe Stanford. 

“And Doris Richards was the first to create a dog park. She faced the city when they decided there were other uses for that parcel of land. She’s the one that got people out and attending City Council meetings. She created the dog park.” 

McGraw went on to say there had been a few unofficial dog runs or areas where dog owners would frequently allow their dogs to run freely but there had never been a park specifically set aside for dogs and their owners and organized by a group of people to maintain. 

Richards, for the last 16 years, has been president of the Ohlone Dog Park Association and has only recently retired. But says that even in retirement she has a difficulty separating herself from the park. 

“It doesn’t really seem like I’ve retired — they’re always calling up and asking me about things. I guess it’s just hard after having been the one for so long, not to be,” she added. 

Her memory of the early days made the founding of the dog park sound like a spontaneous idea sparked by many, and perhaps organized mostly by Richards herself. At the time, she had two Huskies in need of real outdoors space to exercise and the Bay Area Rapid Transit had just completed construction in Berkeley. This gave the city a parcel of land — unsuitable for housing, incorrectly zoned for development — and the City Council at the time was thinking of how it would utilize the land. It was then that Richards recalls some people saying, “Hey, why not have a dog park?” 

McGraw says that Richards’ real work for the dog park came soon after. 

“She’s someone who does not like the attention, but when I think about the amount of time she has put in to keep the dog park going it just boggles the mind,” McGraw said. “Doris has a history of pushing her agenda only behind the scenes where it matters.”  

McGraw said that dog owners around the world are indebted to Richards even though most of them will never know it. 

The Ohlone Dog Park is located near the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Hearst Avenue, and members of the association boast that it is not only the first of its kind in the United States, but also in the world. 

Initially dubbed an “experiment” by the Berkeley City Council, in its early years it was besieged from all sides, according to McGraw. “Neighbors, the city threatening to shut it down, etc. Doris was always there, organizing responsible dog owners to take a stand anytime the Ohlone Dog Park was threatened.” 

As the popularity of the idea caught on, Richards stayed involved, consulting others on how to start their own dog parks. Under her direction the Ohlone Dog Park Association helped the dog park at Point Isabel get started. She also advised the founders of the Three Dog Parks in Finland on how to go about establishing a public dog park.

Passage could have a $10 million annual impact on the timber industry 

Berkeley may become the first city in the state to support a ballot initiative that would ban the cutting of old trees on lands that are not federally owned, including timber lands and private property. The supporters of the Citizens' Campaign for Old-Growth Preservation have until April 22 to collect nearly half a million signatures to get their initiative on the November ballot, or until May to qualify for the March 2004 election. 

The so-called “Old Growth Preservation Initiative” prohibits the cutting or harming of old trees that were planted in or before 1850, the year that California became a state. 

At a news conference this afternoon, Berkeley Councilwoman Dona Spring said she would present a resolution at the April 16 council meeting that, if approved, would go on the record as saying that the City of Berkeley supports the initiative. 

Spring, who said the world is losing its connection to nature, predicted that the resolution would pass without opposition. 

The issue was trumpeted by the city's Peace and Justice Commission, a rare step given that such an initiative would usually be determined as an environmental concern, not as a social justice issue. 

According to commission member Elliot Cohen, the preservation of trees is an question of social justice because the logging of ancient species is detrimental to the well-being of all Californians. 

“This issue is not just an environmental issue,” Cohen said. “It impacts us all.” 

According to the proponents of the initiative, its passing could have an impact up to $10 million annually by reducing the amount of timber harvesting, as well as costing the state $500,000 a year to ensure compliance. 

There is also the possibility of major state costs to pay for any compensation claims by property owners who may sue the government if their land loses property value because of the regulations. 

According to Redwood Mary, a spokeswoman for the campaign, the percentage of timber that would be placed off limits by the initiative is small. With alternatives easily available, she added, there's no need to cut down the older trees. 

“There's no reason to use old growth as a building material anymore,” she said. “We have an option.” 

California voters turned down the Forests Forever Initiative, Proposition 130, a forest reform initiative in November 1990. The timber industry opposed it, Redwood Mary said, and she expects that this initiative will be opposed as well. Already, she added, the lumber industry filed a legal challenge against the initiative in a Sacramento state court, alleging that the language the proposal used was misleading. The challenge did not hold up in court. 

OAKLAND — A public transportation system that carries thousands of people around the San Francisco Bay area is facing budget problems, which could mean job cuts, service cuts or fare hikes. 

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s budget shortfall is nearly $30 million, $10 million more than estimated in January. And it could grow to $61 million next year, BART budget director Rob Umbreit said. 

BART’s board heard the news Thursday, and staff members will draft a plan with options to balance the budget. The reasons for the gap include drops in fares and sales taxes. 

Ridership in March decreased 10 percent compared to the same month last year, and sales taxes fell 13 percent compared to last year’s first quarter. 

BART directors said they would consider fare hikes as a last resort. They also discussed a number of cost-cutting options, such as layoffs, fewer operating hours, running shorter trains, not cleaning as often, reassigning employees to lower paying jobs and leaving vacant jobs unfilled. Directors also will consider whether to charge a $2 fee to park in its lots. 

BART has already done some of those things this year, cutting jobs, eliminating shifts and overtime and shortening trains. 

The BART board must adopt a budget in mid-June. 

SANTA ROSA — The defense spent the bulk of closing arguments picking apart the credibility of two alleged victims of a Roman Catholic priest accused of raping and molesting them. 

Each side made a closing argument Thursday and the prosecution gets the last word Friday in the trial of the Rev. Don Kimball, 58, who is accused of raping the woman behind the altar of a Santa Rosa church in 1977 when she was 14. Kimball also is on trial for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl in 1981 in Healdsburg. 

If convicted, Kimball could face more than eight years in prison. 

The alleged rape victim, now 38, sat through the arguments and said the attack on her credibility did not rattle her. Kimball’s defense attorney Chris Andrian said the victims overstated, embellished and exaggerated their stories. 

The woman, who claims she was raped 25 years ago by Kimball, says she doesn’t care about the verdict in his trial. All she wants is an apology. 

Outside the courtroom she said that “I can live with the verdict.” 

SAN JOSE — A federal judged has ordered control of eight Monterey County water companies to be taken away from the companies, citing violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. 

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice sued Salinas-based Alisal Water Corp., accusing it of failing to monitor water quality, including monitoring for lead and copper levels. 

Running the day-to-day operations of the eight companies will fall to a “receiver,” who also must report to the court with findings about the feasibility of selling the companies. 

The eight companies are Toro Water System, Moss Landing Harbor District Water, Normco Water system, Blackie Road Water System No. 18, San Jerardo Water System, Vierra Canyon Water System No. 30 Langley/Valle Pacifico Water System and Buena Vista Water System. 

Affiliates traded more than 10 million megwatt hours of electricity amongst themselves 

WASHINGTON — Companies controlled by Enron Corp. deliberately drove up the price of power during California’s energy crisis by selling each other large amounts of electricity, according to the head of the state Public Utilities Commission. 

“These were sham transactions, causing the price to rise with each supposed sale,” PUC President Loretta Lynch told a congressional committee on Thursday. “The same individuals were managing these companies. They had the same employees, trading with themselves.” 

In all, she said, five Enron affiliates traded more than 10 million megawatt hours of electricity among themselves in the last three months of 2000, the same time that power prices in California were spiraling out of control. 

Lynch’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee was the latest allegation that Enron manipulated California’s electricity crisis in late 2000 and early 2001. 

No Enron officials appeared at the hearing, called at the request of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and largely sympathetic to the proposition that now-bankrupt Enron was heavily involved in the meteoric rise in power prices. 

“Enron played a key role in what happened to the people of California,” Boxer said. 

One cautionary note came from Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., who said he was “skeptical ... as to whether Enron had any effect on California’s energy crisis.” 

But five witnesses, who also included state Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Santa Ana, and California Power Authority Chairman S. David Freeman, told the committee that Enron initially sought the deregulation of the electricity market in California by falsely promising that consumers’ electric bills would go down, then leaned heavily on federal energy regulators not to step in when power prices began to climb in the newly deregulated market. 

Dunn is leading a Senate investigation into the energy crisis, in which wholesale power rates jumped tenfold, three investor-owned utilities faced financial ruin and Californians experienced rolling power blackouts. 

“The deregulation, led by Enron, has become perhaps the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American consumer,” Dunn said. 

Witnesses told the panel that California and other states will again see soaring power prices if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lifts the caps it imposed last year on wholesale power purchases throughout the West. The caps, credited with helping bring down prices, will expire Sept. 30 unless FERC extends them. 

PASADENA — AT&T Corp. is not renewing its contract as presenting sponsor of the annual Rose Bowl game, company spokesman John Heath said Thursday. The decision leaves the nation’s oldest bowl game without a major corporate backer. 

AT&T’s four-year contract expired after the Jan. 3 Rose Bowl, which this year also was the Bowl Championship Series title match between Nebraska and Miami. 

ABC Sports owns the right to choose who sponsors the annual Rose Bowl. 

“The game is not until next New Year’s, so there’s no real urgency. There won’t be any problems,” Mark Mandel, vice president of ABC Sports media relations, said Thursday. 

The pullout leaves the Rose Bowl as the only game in the four-team Bowl Championship Series without a sponsor. The Fiesta Bowl is sponsored by Tostitos; the Orange Bowl is sponsored by Federal Express, and the Sugar Bowl is sponsored by Nokia. 

The BCS national title game alternates each year between the four bowls. 

The Tournament of Roses Association, which stages the game in Pasadena, does not participate in sponsor negotiations, but does have a final say in the sponsorship. 

Under the deal signed in 1998, ABC paid $19 million each year to the Tournament of Roses to broadcast the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Rose Bowl games, and $20.5 million to broadcast the 2002 game. 

SAN JOSE — Troubled music-swapping service Napster Inc. laid off 30 employees in the third round of job cuts since October, the company said Thursday. 

In a statement, Napster chief executive Konrad Hilbers said the company remains committed to launching a revenue-generating, membership-based service but needs to further streamline its operations. 

“We have full confidence that our remaining team can provide the strategic know-how and technical guidance to effectively prepare for the launch of the new service,” he said. 

No date has been set for the launch, which originally was scheduled for last summer. The company is battling copyright infringement lawsuits and trying to reach licensing agreements with major record labels. 

It’s not clear how many employees remain at the private company. Last month, 10 percent of the work force was cut. In October, 16 employees were let go.  

Napster’s free online trading service, which allowed users to trade digital music files, has been offline since July. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer advocates sued state power regulators in the California Supreme Court on Thursday in hopes of ensuring the public has a say in how much utilities charge for power and gas. 

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights wants to block the Public Utilities Commission from using billions of dollars of ratepayer money to pay the debts of the state’s largest utility — bankrupt Pacific Gas and Electric Co. 

The Santa Monica-based foundation said the commission’s plans for PG&E are just another example of how regulators are negotiating illegal ways to spend ratepayer fees — a charge the PUC flatly denies. 

“The PUC is out of control,” foundation president Harvey Rosenfield said at a news conference outside PUC headquarters. “It has been wheeling and dealing in secret.” 

Last fall, the PUC secretly negotiated a $3.3 billion settlement with Southern California Edison. That settlement allowed Edison to continue charging record-high electric rates through 2003 to help pay debts it accumulated during the state’s power crisis. 

The suit Thursday is the latest in a series in which energy sellers, power plant operators and federal and state energy regulators all are being blamed for California’s energy crisis. The past two years saw power prices soar to record heights, forcing major utilities into debt and plunging the state into rolling blackouts. 

The suit argues that, under state law, it’s illegal to use ratepayer money to pay the utilities’ debts — although that’s what the PUC did with the October settlement. It also points out that record rate increases the PUC approved last spring were earmarked for future power debts. 

Millions of Californians still are paying among the country’s highest power rates even as power prices have plummeted nationally. The state is using the ratepayer money to recoup the $10 billion it spent buying electricity after state utilities lost their creditworthiness. 

The PUC is preparing to file a plan in federal bankruptcy court Monday that would use ratepayer money from PG&E to pay much of the $13.2 billion debt the utility claims. If the state supreme court agrees that the PUC crafted that plan illegally, it would derail the state’s efforts to block PG&E from escaping state oversight — and could stall PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy. 

NEW YORK — To get their children to eat a nutritious meal, some parents hide vegetables in desserts, mask meats in sauces or even dye foods their children’s favorite colors. 

Why not just ask them what they’d like to eat? And while you’re at it, why don’t you ask the kids to help prepare the food, too? 

That’s what Emeril Lagasse did for his newest cookbook, “There’s a Chef in My Soup: Recipes for the Kid in Everyone” (HarperCollins). 

Lagasse says he organized several “cookie parties” for children — toddlers to teens — to find out what tempts them to the table. Then he surveyed their skills. 

Those ingredients were combined to develop the recipes for My-Oh-My Spaghetti Pie, Junior’s Jambalaya and Make-You-Strong Spinach, among others. 

The food, however, isn’t kid stuff. They’re recipes for the whole family to enjoy, Lagasse says, but he’s included some child-friendly incentives such as adding maple syrup to carrots and covering chicken nuggets with cornflakes. 

“Until now, kids haven’t been involved in the cooking decisions or the cooking process so food hasn’t been fun for kids,” says the New Orleans-based chef and host of two Food Network shows. 

But hand a kid some ingredients, a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl and — bam! — you have a chef in the making. Or at least someone who will probably eat whatever it is that he helped cook. 

“In cooking, the end result is always a prize.” 

In his “research,” Lagasse, the father of two 20-something daughters, also noticed a few quirky eating habits, including an apparent aversion to sausage casings. (Acknowledging that he never gave casings much thought before, Lagasse did include instructions in the new book on how to remove them.) 

Adapting “adult” recipes for this book was a gratifying challenge for Lagasse. “I had to be simple and descriptive because of the kids, but it has inspired me to do more simple recipes. We tend to take something simple and delicious, and complicate them unnecessarily,” he says. 

There also are some cooking tasks that kids seem to enjoy more than others, including cracking eggs and zesting fruit. And included on each recipe page is a “caution list,” alerting parents and pint-size chefs to potential hazards such as knives or a hot oven. 

Lagasse says he’s tried to anticipate some kid-type questions and offer some answers: 

—“Why are soft peaks called soft peaks?” Because when beaters are pulled out of well-mixed egg whites, soft mounds form. 

—“Why do dry ingredients need to be sifted?” To make sure there are no lumps. 

The recipes consider that a child’s taste buds often evolve over time, he explains. When he gives the formula for scrambled eggs, he suggests some added chopped ham or bacon “when the kids are ready.” 

But a family’s culinary adventures probably still will come from the head of the house, Lagasse says. “Seventy-five percent of kids will say they hate veggies but sometimes they haven’t even tried the veggies. It’s their parents who hate the veggies.” 

The chef hopes his Oh-Yeah-Baby Glazed Carrots will win over some converts but he’s also realistic: “The vegetables will probably be the least stained pages of the book.” 

Bringing kids into the kitchen is a win-win-win situation: The kids are learning a life skill, parents are gaining helping hands, and the whole family will make some happy memories in the process. 

Make-You-Strong Spinach 

2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach, thawed according to package directions 

3 tablespoons unsalted butter 

1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion 

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic 

1 teaspoon Baby Bam (recipe follows) 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

2 cups heavy cream 

Working over a mixing bowl or the sink, squeeze the spinach in your hands to release any excess liquid. (If your hands are really small, you may have to do this in batches.) Set aside. 

Melt the butter in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring until soft, about 4 minutes. 

Add the garlic, Baby Bam, thyme and salt, and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes. 

Add the spinach to the saucepan and stir to mix well. Sprinkle the flour over the spinach and stir well to combine. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 

Add the cream, stir well, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Using an oven mitt or pot holder, remove from the heat and serve immediately. 

Makes 4 to 6 servings. 

Baby Bam seasoning 

3 tablespoons paprika 

2 tablespoons salt 

2 tablespoons dried parsley 

2 teaspoons onion powder 

2 teaspoons garlic powder 

1 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1 teaspoon dried oregano 

1 teaspoon dried basil 

1 teaspoon dried thyme 

1/2 teaspoon celery salt 

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bow. 

Stir well to combine, using a wooden spoon. 

Store in an airtight container for up to three months. 

Makes about 3/4 cup. 

On the Net: 

http://www.emerils.com/ 

A truly ripe peach is one that makes you jut your head forward with each bite to keep yourself from being showered with juice. You rarely can buy such a fruit, but you can grow it. Get it off to a good start with correct planting. 

Peach trees usually are sold bare-root; that is, they are dug when dormant, and shipped without soil. Unwrap the roots, then soak them in water for a few hours. 

Your tree needs pruning before planting. Trim back frayed or excessively long roots. If your tree is branched, select three or four robust branches to become permanent limbs — the lowest 2 feet from the ground and successive ones a few inches apart and arranged in a spiral up the trunk. Cut away all other branches and the trunk just above the top branch. Shorten saved branches to a few inches in length. If your tree is not branched, cut the trunk back to 3 feet and select permanent branches as the tree grows. 

If a soil test indicates a need for lime or phosphorus, mix these materials into the ground where you’ll dig the planting hole. Farther out, sprinkle these materials on top of the soil to work their way downward by the time roots spread. 

Dig a cone-shaped planting hole two times the spread of the roots and just deep enough to get the roots in the ground. Rough up the soil at the sides of the hole to help roots penetrate the surrounding soil. 

Put enough soil back in the hole to create a mound on which to set the spread-out roots. While holding the trunk, push soil back into the hole, working it in among the roots with your fingers. Once the tree is self-supporting, shovel in additional soil, tamping it gently with your fingers or a stick as you work. 

After you have filled the hole, create a catch basin for water by building up a low dike of soil around the base of your tree 2 feet out from the trunk. Spread compost, then straw, wood chips or leaves as mulch over the ground. Slowly pour enough water into the catch basin to thoroughly drench the soil and settle the tree in place. 

Don’t turn your back on your tree and forget about it. Keep weeds at bay and water regularly the first season, and you should taste your first peaches within a couple of years. 

Report reveals $4.5 million in excess spending, recommends cuts 

Special education parents and members of the Board of Education say they are disappointed by a recent study of the Berkeley Unified School District’s special education program. 

The $5,500 report, prepared by School Services of California, Inc., a well-regarded Sacramento consulting firm, found that the Berkeley Unified School District spent $4.5 million more on special education in 2000-2001 than it received in county, state and federal funding, forcing the district to dip heavily into its general fund. 

The study suggests several budget-cutting measures, including teacher layoffs and reductions in the number of aides hired by the district. 

Some parents and teachers object to the proposed reductions. But the chief concern, among community and school board members, is that the report does not provide new information on district expenditures. 

“It’s been that way for many years,” said board member Ted Schultz, referring to the multi-million dollar special education “encroachment” on the regular budget. 

Virtually every school district in California dips into its regular budget to cover special education costs, according to the study. But the report found that the district’s encroachment for the 2000-2001 budget was more than twice as high as the 1999-2000 statewide average. 

The study notes that encroachment figures are generally higher in the Bay Area than they are statewide, but does not provide actual numbers for neighboring school districts. Board member John Selawsky said that comparison would have been more revealing than a comparison to the statewide figures. 

But school board members and special education parents who pushed for the study last year said encroachment numbers and budget cut recommendations were not their chief concern. What they really wanted was a line-by-line audit of special education expenditures. 

“The report is aimed at the question: ‘how do we save money on special education?’ That’s not the question we were asking,” said board President Shirley Issel. “We were asking, ‘where is the money going?’” 

“We’re very upset about it,” said Julia Epstein, an organizer for the Berkeley Special Education Parents Network, describing the School Services study. “It’s useless, just useless.” 

Epstein said parents requested a financial audit because they were concerned that the district was not spending its special education money wisely in a number of areas, ranging from legal fees to training for instructional aides. 

But Paul Goldfinger, vice president of School Services and author of the report, said his contract with the school district called for an evaluation of encroachment with an eye to potential cuts – not a financial audit. 

“I am not an auditor. I am not an accountant,” Goldfinger said, suggesting that the district, which faces an estimated $5.4 million deficit next year, would be better served examining his recommendations for cuts than paying for an expensive, line-by-line audit. 

Issel suggested that the contract, issued last year under the administration of interim Superintendent Stephen Gladstone, may not have been properly handled in the district office, leading to miscommunication with Goldfinger.  

Current Superintendent Michele Lawrence said she plans to pull the contract and look into the issue. 

Goldfinger recommended several budget-cutting measures in his report, including an increase in caseloads for resource specialist teachers from 24 to the statutory maximum of 28. Resource specialists provide special needs students with extra reading and math support. 

“That would be a concern, although I think I could live with 28,” said Bill Joyce, a resource specialist at Cragmont Elementary School. 

Joyce expressed greater concern with a Goldfinger recommendation to reduce hours for special education aides. 

“My assistant is invaluable,” he said. “I don’t think that’s where we should cut the fat.” 

The school board has already approved a number of special education cuts for next year. In February, the board issued 150 layoff notices, including six special education teachers, two special education administrators and two staff psychologists. 

The district intends to rescind many of the 150 layoff notices in the coming months as the budget picture clears up, but Lawrence said the special education administrator lay-offs will likely remain in place. In the end, she said, one or two of the six special education teachers who received notice will be laid off. 

Lawrence said the district is not planning any more special education cuts for the 2002-2003 school year and she emphasized that many of the recommendations in the Goldfinger report would have to be phased in over several years in order to comply with federal law. But, she said the district is looking at them nonetheless. 

“As we begin to put our ship in order, all aspects of our program are going to come under examination,” Lawrence said. 

Editor: 

The Anti-Jewish agenda of the “Palestinian cause” revealed its ugly head once again on the UC Berkeley campus at Tuesday’s Anti-American/Pro-Palestinian rally. Knowing that a ceremony commemorating the Holocaust was planned for noon, the Palestinian “students” intentionally disrupted the event by using loudspeakers to blare propaganda.  

The Palestinians attempted to cover-up the memory of one of the most tragic events in history, by deliberately drowning-out the Jewish students’ observance.  

Palestinian banners insulting President Bush and attacking American foreign policy only added salt to the wounds they created.  

Peace in the Middle East would have been better served had the Palestinian students been willing to find common ground with American-Jewish students. To cover-up another people’s history will only set-back peace.  

Justin Rosenthal 

Berkeley

Bicycle Maintenance 101 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Rodian Magri will teach participants how to perform basic adjustments on their bikes to keep them in good working condition. 527-7377  

Witnessing War 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall 

A speaking event co-sponsored by Doctors without Borders and UC Berkeley, International Human Rights Law Clinic, Boalt Hall School of Law. 643-7654. 

Scratching the Surface:  

Impressions of Planet Earth,  

from Hollywood to Shiraz 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar. 843-3533 

Grandparent support Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

Malcolm X School Arts and Academics School 

1731 Prince St. 

Room 105A 

For Grandparents/Relatives raising their grandchildren and other relatives. A place to express their concerns and needs and receive support, information and referrals for Kinship Care. 644-6517. 

Oakland Museum Lecture 

“Publishing in the Bay Area and Other Facinating Subjects” 

Behind the scenes in the publishing world with Malcolm Margolin, publisher of Heyday Books 

Free 

1 p.m. 

10th & Oak streets, Oakland 

238-2200, www. museumca.org 

“Working Poor” Demonstration 

noon 

University Ave. and Milvia 

Coalition of University Employees will hold a rally for fair wages, a new contract, and concerns over recent layoffs. Clerical employees at the nine UC campuses and LBL have been working without a contract since Nov. 2001. 376-6289.  

Flyfishing Open House 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers presents the annual Flyfishing Open House and Skills Fair. 524-0428 

Friday, April 12

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Myths About Aging,” Susan V. Mullen, D.C. Chiropractor. $1. 848-3533. 

“Alfred Kroeber and his Legacy” 

Friday, 4-6:15 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30-11:30 a.m., 1:30-3:30 and 4-4:30 

UCBerkeley, Friday Doe Library’s Morrison Room. Saturday Vally Life Sciences Building Room 2040 

Distinguished alumni from UCBerkeley anthropology department explore historical highlights from their department with a course taught by Alfred Kroeber. Free. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Stand in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end  

to the occupation, which will give greater hope for an end to the  

violence. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Still Stronger Women 

Greta Garbo's life, plus movie 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Free. (510) 232-1351 

Saturday, April 13

Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - 1 a.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St. 

A class disaster mental health. 981-5605 

10th Annual Chinese Masters in Martial Arts Series 

8:30 a.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Haas Pavilion  

Day-long event will include competition in contemporary, traditional and internal styles of wushu. The Masters demonstration will begin at 8:00 p.m. 841-1486.  

Rescheduled BPWA Path Walk 

"Boundary Walk" 

10 a.m.- noon, rain or shine 

Join naturalist, Paul Grunland, as he leads an exploration of the Berkeley 

Paths on the Berkeley Kensington Boundary. Meet at Grizzly Peak/Spruce, the reservoir. 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

10 a.m.- noon 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Make Your Own Book 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Albany Library  

1247 Marin Ave. 

In a free hands-on workshop budding authors and artists of all ages can create origami books, "wheel books," photo albums and other types of books. 526-3720. 

Sunday, April 14

Non-religous Meditation Group 

5 p.m. 

Fig Tree Gallery 

2599 8th St. 

428-9466. 

Mike Ruppert on Truth & Lies of 9/11 

6 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Video showing followed by audience discussion. Free. 528-5403. 

Animals in Politics 

California Coordinator for the Fund for Animals, Virginia Handley, tells about the legislative process in California, the latest news on all the animal bills, and how animal advocates can help pass humane legislation.  

Fellowship of Humanity 

12 p.m. 

411 28th Street & 390 27th Street, (between Telegraph & Broadway) 

Oakland 

Tel: 510-451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“Choosing to Add On: The Pros and Cons of Building an Addition” 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

812 Page  

By Author and Instructor Skip Wenz 

525-7610 

Monday, April 15

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part one of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Parkinson’s Support Group 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

Berkeley  

981-5190. 

Building Education Center- Free Lecture 

“What You Need To Know Before You Build or Remodel” 

7-9 p.m. 

Preview of the Homeowner’s Essential Course, presented by builder Glen Kitzenberger - learn to solder pipe and more!  

812 Page 

525-7610 

Peace Builders 

9 a.m. 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends is presenting talks from four inspiring peace builders in April and May, beginning with Melody Ermachild Chavis and Latifa Popal who have just returned from Afghanistan. 527-8475. 

Tuesday, April 16

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part two of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

A typical start by St. Mary’s High’s Joe Storno involves lots of baserunners, lots of pitches and plenty of nail-biting. Luckily for the Panthers, Storno’s outing against Salesian on Wednesday was anything but typical. 

Storno threw a complete game against the Chieftans, striking out eight to lead St. Mary’s to a 4-2 win to take over first place in the BSAL. The Panthers are now 3-0 in league play (7-9 overall), while Salesian dropped to 4-1 (13-3 overall). 

Storno needed just 88 pitches to beat Salesian, surrendering only three hits and walking none. For a pitcher who goes well into triple digits in most starts, Wednesday’s win was remarkably efficient. 

“Having no walks was the key today,” Storno said. “It felt like the fifth inning in the seventh. I could have gone a couple more.” 

Salesian ace Randy Renn wasn’t his usual sharp self, enduring bouts of wildness all game. He walked the leadoff hitter in each of the first two innings, and both scored for 2-0 St. Mary’s lead. Chris Morocco scored in the first when Chris Alfert got caught in a rundown, and Storno doubled home Tom Carmen in the second. 

Carmen himself hit the big blow in the fourth inning. After Chase Moore reached on an error, St. Mary’s head coach Andy Shimabukuro intended to bunt the runner over, but decided to give Carmen one pitch to get a hit. Carmen took advantage, blasting Renn’s first pitch well over the 350-foot sign in left-center for his first home run of the season. 

Storno would make the 4-0 lead stand up. He gave up both runs in the fifth inning, as Anthony Barley and Renn hit doubles, with Renn scoring on a wild throw by St. Mary’s catcher Sean Ayres. But rather than fall back into his old pattern, Storno responded by striking out the side, then setting down the last six Salesian hitters in order. He even contributed on defense, fielding three comebackers in the last two innings, including a diving stop and throw from his knees on a Dar Sefide bunt. 

“That’s actually my favorite part of the game,” Storno said of his fielding prowess. “Most guys like to hit, but I love to field. I love diving for the ball.” 

The Panthers not only took over the league lead, but they also avenged an ugly 13-0 beating by the Chieftans last week in the San Marin Tournament. Shimabukuro said the loss may have actually helped his team in the rematch. 

“I had the feeling (Salesian) might come in over-confident,” he said. “I don’t know if this makes us the league favorites, but it sure feels good to beat the top team.” 

Of course, the Panthers still must get through the rest of the BSAL to assure themselves of a North Coast Section playoff berth. The shaky second starter’s spot, currently a competition between several pitchers, will be key to the team’s success. 

“If we lose Friday (against St. Patrick), this win won’t mean much,” Shimabukuro said. “Nothing’s going to be easy. And if it’s easy, we usually find a way to make it hard.” 

But on Wednesday, Storno sure made it look easy.

Honks from passing cars joined the sounds of whistles, banging pie pans and chants of “What’s outrageous? Unfair wages!” at a noontime rally organized by the Coalition of University Employees in front of the UC Berkeley Extension School on Wednesday.  

CUE, a statewide organization, has been negotiating with the university over clerical workers’ contracts since May 2001. In the most recent round of negotiations, the university has offered clerical workers a 1 percent raise in general salary, on top of the 1 percent general salary raise they negotiated with CUE last year, and a 3 percent raise in the deferred compensation program. But clerical workers don’t think this is enough. 

“I make $1900 a month after taxes. That’s nothing in the Bay Area, with rent as high as it is,” said Denice Kretz, who works at the Extension School.  

“It’s not enough to live on,” she said. 

Kretz also argued that UC clerical workers’ wages were 21 percent lower than the average wages of clerical workers in surrounding areas. 

Other university employees, like John Kelly of the University Professional and Technical Employees union, also came out for the rally. 

“I think we should try to support each other,” said Kelly. “The salary disparity at UC is too wide and it’s really hurting the people at the bottom of the pay scale.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington spoke to the 50-person crowd, expressing support for the union. 

He praised the workers’ “smart and sophisticated” techniques, pointing to the CUE-commissioned economic analysis by Peter Donohue that contradicted much of UC’s analysis of its own budget. 

“Keep up the trouble!” Worthington said. 

Although CUE held a rally for the same cause and at the same location a month ago, the union didn’t feel that rally had made enough of an impression. The last couple of weeks of negotiations have not brought the two sides any closer to a resolution. 

“Why are we holding another one? Because we need to get their attention. No one’s listening,” Kretz said. 

Indeed, Kretz said they chose the Extension School on University Avenue instead of the main campus, because this location would make them more visible. 

“Apparently the university would rather infuriate their employees and have a public demonstration rather than negotiating seriously with them,” Worthington said. 

UC Spokesperson Paul Schwartz, who did not attend the rally, defended the university. He said the university is doing the best it can, given the current budgetary constraints. 

First of all, Schwartz wanted to clarify the figures cited on CUE handouts. UC data suggests clerical wages lag only 8 to 10 percent, not 21 percent, he said. He added that the 1 percent raise figure used by CUE did not factor in the previous 1 percent raise and the 3 percent raise in deferred compensation, amounting to a 5 percent total raise. The $2 billion surplus that CUE keeps referring to? Encumbered by specific use restrictions and therefore not for workers’ salaries. 

He also said that many university employees are working for wages under market value and the university’s current efforts represent an attempt to remedy that gap. But, Schwartz said, that the university cannot offer the clerical workers anything more than the same 2 percent general salary raise offered to all UC employees, including President Richard Atkinson, all ten chancellors and most of the senior management. 

“Given the current budget picture, negotiations won’t move ahead unless there is a move on their side,” Schwartz said. 

But CUE looks as if it will stand its ground. The union held another meeting on Wednesday night to decide whether they should escalate their resistance and go on strike. They are also planning another rally for April 24 and a press conference for mid-May. UC officials and CUE are due to return to the bargaining table on April 25.  

Editor: 

As I usually find such chaos, ignorance, ugliness and absurdity in dealings with American governments (as a natural-born citizen), I would just like to say that, in applying for a passport at the Albany city offices, I found the staff to be highly efficient, knowledgeable and pleasant. Of course, this was a pretty routine matter. Perhaps the federal government will even do their part efficiently in processing this application. It has been mostly the State of California and Bay Area local governments that I have found often to be rotted out to the core. 

Raymond A. Chamberlin 

Berkeley

Duffy, Johnson and Stokes announce their college plans 

What should be a flood of St. Mary’s High track signings started on Wednesday with three Panthers declaring their college destinations. Bridget Duffy, Tiffany Johnson and Danielle Stokes all signed with Division I programs at a press conference at the school. 

Duffy, who finished fourth in the state in the mile last season, will stay close to home, signing to run both track and cross country with Cal. Johnson signed with Maryland, while Stokes reaffirmed her commitment to Cal State Northridge. 

The trio, who collectively hold 14 school track records, are among six Panthers who will compete for Division I programs next season. 

“We’re very proud of all three of these students, both of they accomplishments in the classroom and on the track,” St. Mary’s Athletic Director Jay Lawson said. “These three girls have been superstars for us in both areas.” 

Duffy, a two-time state cross country champion, had never run competitively until her freshman year at St. Mary’s, when a cross-country coach saw her running laps with the volleyball team. Duffy has gone on to set four school track records. She is currently second in Northern California in the mile and fourth in both the 800-meters and the two-mile. 

Johnson was the North Coast Section champ in the 100-meter dash and triple jump last season, but has come on strong in the long jump of late. She won the event at the Stanford Invitational two weeks ago and finished second at the OAL Invitational this past weekend. 

Stokes, who actually signed her letter of intent at the last minute during the early signing period, is in the top two in both hurdles events in Northern California. Her battles with James Logan’s Talia Stewart in the intermediate hurdles have been electrifying, with each competitior coming out with a close win in recent weeks. Stokes has set school records in both events this season. 

The three runners, along with thrower Kamaiya Warren, have led St. Mary’s to its first North Coast Section girls’ championship, and the Panthers could vie for the state title this season. Not bad for a school that only started admitting girls seven years ago. 

“The class ahead of these girls were the pioneers, but this group has gotten us to the elite level,” Lawson said. “We’ve really arrived with them.” 

Warren, along with Solomon Welch and Chris Dunbar, is expected to sign sometime in the next two weeks. Warren is considering Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and UCLA, while Dunbar is leaning towards UCLA but will visit Arizona State next week. Welch has orally committed to Stanford, but is hoping a solid effort at the Arcadia Invitational this weekend will prompt a better scholarship offer from the Cardinal.

Armed with a plastic take-apart human model, oncology nurse Bev Hart-Inkster set about teaching patients and their loved ones how to cope with cancer on Wednesday night. It was the first class in a free, eight-class program, developed by the American Cancer Society, that will take place at the Alta Bates Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

The “I Can Cope” program aims to educate people about cancer in order to help them deal more effectively with all facets of the disease. 

Hart-Inkster hopes class participants will leave feeling empowered.  

“I hope the knowledge they receive – learning, learning and learning – over these eight weeks will help them cope better because they’re not afraid,” she said. 

The first class was merely an introduction, and future classes will deal with issues such as treatment options, legal issues and feelings and relationships. 

Emotions, according to Hart-Inkster, are by far the hardest thing to talk about. 

“It’s not difficult for us to talk to them about the emotional aspects. But it’s very hard for them to face the emotions,” Hart-Inkster said. “It’s easier to talk about the physical aspects of the disease than the emotions.” 

Erda Sanders, an Oakland resident who has been dealing with cancer over the past year, said that she came to learn more about just these issues. 

“I wanted to learn more about dealing with changes in my relationship and how to keep positive when my body keeps betraying me,” Sanders said. 

Nice Cho, who just had extensive surgery for ovarian cancer, appreciated the anatomy lesson at Wednesday’s meeting, but also looked forward to the emotional strategies. 

“I’m here to learn how to cope. Sometimes I get depressed,” Cho said. 

Hart-Inkster said she has seen “a big time difference” in patients and loved ones who have attended the program. 

“It’s not such a mystery anymore,” she said. 

Each “I Can Cope” program is different at every local hospital where it is implemented, according to Luanne Ridgley, who co-facilitates the program with Hart-Inkster. 

For one thing, the guest speakers who attend each class come from the local community. Also, Berkeley audiences seemed especially interested in legal advice, so they added a class called “Mobilizing Resources.” 

“I Can Cope” will take place in at the Maffly Auditorium on the Herrick campus, 2001 Dwight Way, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. during the next seven weeks. Newcomers are welcome, though registration is recommended. Call Ridgley at (510) 204-4895 for more information.

Editor: 

Bush might be kidding us Americans, but he can't be kidding the Israelis.  

They keep on bashing the West Bank while Bush says "you guys get out of there! now! really!" Powell is taking the slow route to the Levant, to give the Israelis plenty of time. 

Bush is also telling the Arabs that it is time to drop the covert support for terror. Now. Really. 

Terror, of course, is the reason the Israelis are bashing the West Bank. Arafat wasn't doing anything to stop the terror; he thought it was working. Sharon thinks the military operations will work too. From past history, it seems likely that both are wrong. 

Since 9/11 (when terrorism came home to the US) Arafat and the Arabs have lost a lot of credibility. Maybe Bush is hoping that Israel will be able to sufficiently beat down the Palestinians that the terror attacks will stop. 

The U.S. is still trying to eliminate Al Qaeda. Maybe it works. 

We haven't had any terror attacks recently. 

Are we safe? Will Israel be safe? Who's kidding whom? 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

Daily Planet Wire Services 

No. 17 Cal almost swept No. 6 Stanford for the first time in 40 years Wednesday afternoon but instead lost a 4-3 decision at the Hellman Tennis Center in front of about 400 fans. The Golden Bears fell to 14-5 overall (2-1 Pac-10), while the Cardinal improved to 17-2 (3-0).  

In February, the Golden Bears ended the Cardinal's 75-match home winning streak with a 4-3 win. The decisive point came from a three-set win by John Paul Fruttero on the No. 1 singles court.  

No. 22 Fruttero played Stanford's K.J. Hippensteel at No. 1 singles for a second time today, but the fourth-ranked Hippensteel battled back for a three-set victory. Fruttero led 4-2 in the third set before losing the match, 7-6, 2-6, 4-6.  

Cal's three points came from wins on the Nos. 4 through 6 courts, including three-set wins from Wayne Wong and Mik Ledvonova. Stanford took the doubles point by winning two of the three doubles matches.

After months of negotiating with Local 2850 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the Claremont Spa is lashing out, alleging that the union has deliberately stalled negotiations. 

A complaint was lodged at the National Labor Relations Board against Local 2850 on Friday, claiming that the union was in violation of the act that requires both the employer and the labor union to engage in good faith collective bargaining.  

“The Claremont Resort & Spa takes issues that affect our employees very seriously,” said Todd Shallan, vice president and general manager of the Claremont. “We have been bargaining in good faith for more than eight months now, and it’s important to our employees that we reach an agreement in a reasonable period of time. We can’t negotiate a deal if the union won’t come to the bargaining table.” 

But union representatives have stated that the recent attack by the Claremont is just a sad and desperate attempt to throw mud and distract attention away from the some 30 issues that the national board will be investigating at the hotel. 

“The Claremont is facing a major complaint being issued against them by the National Labor Relations Board,” said Stephanie Ruby of Local 2850. “The labor board has been investigating the Claremont about their policy of interrogating employees about union activities. And the board has been preparing to issue a pretty major complaint against the union. 

“I think what the Claremont is trying to do is kick up some dust to distract attention away from the fact that they are going to be depicted as a clear law-breaker when they finish investigating them on the national level.” 

Ruby went onto say that the union has been engaging in good faith negotiations with the Claremont. Negotiations took place as recently as last week, she said. Further negotiations will begin as soon as Friday. 

“We have continued to engage in negotiations despite insulting offers of penny raises and health care cost of $300 per month.” 

In a memo dated in March and signed by Shallan, union representatives and the Claremont bargaining unit agreed to a specific number of negotiation dates. The Claremont has categorically denied that their complaint against the union has anything to do with complaints levied against them the by the NLRB. 

“We hoped that mediation might move the parties closer together, but they refused— again and again,” Shallan said. “We’re looking for solutions. We want to get this resolved.” 

Another complaint that Claremont has lodged against the union is that they have refused to allow a mediator into the negotiation room. 

In response, Ruby stated that the union used a mediator in the past when dealing with management at the Oakland Hilton, but added that mediators only work when the two parties are close to coming to an agreement. 

According to Ruby, a mediator would not assist in negotiations at this point because the two parties are too far away from any middle ground. 

“I really think that the Claremont should stop pretending they are a victim here and take responsibility for their illegal conduct and the continue working with us to hammer out this contract for their hard-working employees,” Ruby added.  

For more than three years Claremont has had an agreement with Local 2850 to represent approximately 200 of the spa’s food and beverage employees. That contract expired in January and the Claremont charges that the union has refused to renew it and have been causing those 200 workers to work without a contract ever since. 

Local 2850 and food and beverage employees, in showing solidarity with union workers, have pushed contract negotiations to a back burner until the Claremont deals with the issue of allowing the remaining workforce at the spa to unionize. The detail that seems to stick in the craw of both parties is whether the union will be allowed in by a card check method or by a standard vote-in procedure. The Claremont is pushing for the vote-in method but union representatives have argued that that would allow for an environment of continued corporate intimidation.

Editor: 

Having visited nearly every train station in California, I have concluded that Berkeley's Amtrak station is the worst in the state. 

Words cannot adequately describe the blight underneath the University Avenue overpass. Moreover, the lack of platforms and transit information makes this railway stop very user-unfriendly. 

While Richmond, Oakland, Emeryville, and other cities have built stations, Berkeley has not accomplished much in building a station even though it has money in the bank for the project. 

Perhaps it is the staffing shortage, or a pre-occupation with constructing a parking garage at 4th street, but whatever the reason it is embarrassing for a city that is supposed to be giving 

priority to transit. 

As luck would have it, the old Berkeley rail depot is now up for sale. 

Until recently, this building was the "Xanadu" restaurant. 

The City should give serious consideration to purchasing this historic building and renovating it for the purpose of returning it to its original use (and perhaps adding some retail). 

There are so many cities throughout the country that have successfully renovated old rail depots -- certainly Berkeley can do the same. 

Eric McCaughrin 

Berkeley 

Today is Thursday, April 11, the 101st day of 2002. There are 264 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 11, 1951, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East. 

On this date: 

In 1689, William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain. 

In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba. 

In 1898, President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain. 

In 1899, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect. 

In 1921, Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax. 

In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany. 

In 1968, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

In 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. (The astronauts managed to return safely). 

In 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control. 

In 1981, President Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt. 

Ten years ago: The Russian Congress of People’s Deputies rejected an appeal by Russian President Boris Yeltsin for another six months to carry out his reforms, ordering him to select a new Cabinet by July (however, a compromise was worked out a few days later.) 

Five years ago: The Air Force announced that despite an intensive nine-day search, it couldn’t find a bomb-laden A-10 warplane that had disappeared with its pilot during a training mission over Arizona. (The plane’s wreckage was later found in a Colorado mountainside.) In Italy, fire damaged the 500-year-old San Giovanni Cathedral, home of the Shroud of Turin, which some consider Christ’s burial cloth. 

One year ago: Ending a tense 11-day standoff, China agreed to free the 24 crew members of an American spy plane after President George W. Bush said he was “very sorry” for the death of a Chinese fighter pilot whose plane had collided with the American aircraft. A stampede at a packed soccer stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, killed 43 people. 

Today’s Birthdays: 

“Brenda Starr” creator Dale Messick is 96. Fashion designer Oleg Cassini is 89. Former New York Gov. Hugh Carey is 83. Ethel Kennedy is 74. Actor Johnny Sheffield is 71. Actor Joel Grey is 70. Actress Louise Lasser is 63. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman is 61. Movie writer-director John Milius is 58. Actor Peter Riegert is 55. Actor Bill Irwin is 52. Country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 45. Songwriter-producer Daryl Simmons is 45. Actor Lucky Vanous is 41. Country singer Steve Azar is 38. Singer Lisa Stansfield is 36. Rock musician Dylan Keefe (Marcy Playground) is 32. 

OAKLAND — Two very different views of what happened after Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were injured in a 1990 car bombing have emerged as lawyers laid out their case for federal jurors this week. 

An attorney for Cherney and Bari’s estate — Bari died of cancer in 1997 — says FBI agents and Oakland police were “out to get” the radical group Earth First and tried to frame them for the bombing. 

But attorneys for the lawmen on Wednesday portrayed them as dedicated professionals. 

“What you won’t hear is evidence that any of these six people had any hostility to preserving the environment,” said attorney Joseph Sher, who is representing the six current and former FBI agents being sued by Bari and Cherney. “What you won’t hear is that the information the FBI shared with the Oakland police was false.” 

Bari and Cherney were driving in Oakland in May 1990 when a bomb went off under Bari, who was at the wheel. She suffered a crushed pelvis and Cherney suffered cuts. 

After the bombing, the two were arrested and named as the main suspects. However, the district attorney later determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute and no one was charged in the bombing. 

Bari and Cherney subsequently filed a civil suit claiming false arrests, illegal searches, slanderous statements and conspiracy. 

A key issue is an assertion by law enforcement early on that the bomb was in the back seat of the car and Bari and Cherney had to have known it was there, said Dennis Cunningham, who is representing Cherney and Bari’s estate. In fact, the bomb was hidden under Bari’s seat, Cunningham said in his opening statement Tuesday. 

He said the way the bomb was rigged to go off, Cherney and Bari would “have had to be crazy” to drive around on top of it. 

Officials also said a bag of nails found in Bari’s car matched those taped to the bomb. However, the nails on the bomb were of a different type, said Cunningham. 

One of the first witnesses was Shannon Marr, who was driving the car ahead of Bari’s on the day of the bombing. At the time, Marr was a 19-year-old working with a pro-environment group called Seeds of Peace. 

Marr cried softly Wednesday as she recalled getting out of her car after the explosion. 

“It was one of those weird times when everything just turns into a slow-motion movie,” she said. “I went around and talked to Judi. She was just saying she couldn’t breathe.” 

Cunningham showed the jurors photos of the battered Subaru and its ripped-open front seat. 

Marr said she was taken to the Oakland police department and questioned by officers Robert Chenault and Michael Sitterud. 

She said she talked to the officers for about an hour but the interview ended abruptly when Sitterud told her, “We know that you planted the bomb.” 

Marr said she demanded a lawyer and a phone call but was told she didn’t have those rights because she was not under arrest. 

After that, Marr said, she was left in the locked interview room. Her voice trembling with tears, she recalled pounding on the door and yelling to be let out. She said Sitterud came back at one point and said, “What’s the matter with you, little girl? Is your conscience getting to you?” 

Marr said she was not allowed to leave the station until the end of the day. 

Maria Bee, who is representing the former and current Oakland officers — one has retired and one now works for a different city — described the three as careful policemen who acted in good faith. 

“Each and every decision the Oakland investigators made was reasonable and proper based on the information that they had developed and what they had been told,” she said. 

The case, being heard in Oakland federal district court, is expected to last about eight weeks. 

Two of the 12 jurors indicated Wednesday they wanted to be excused, one due to potentially lost pay and another due to problems understanding English. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken told lawyers outside the presence of the jury that she may excuse those jurors if it becomes obvious they are not needed — a verdict can be returned by fewer than 12 jurors. However, she told the jurors in question it was too late to restart the selection process and they would have to serve as agreed. 

As the trial began Wednesday, Sher acknowledged the disparate views being presented of what took place in May 1990. 

“Your task, I think is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” he told the jury. The difference, he said, is “you don’t get a picture in advance. You get several pictures.” 

LOS ANGELES — Anti-Semitic incidents declined sharply across the United States in 2001, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday as it released a report covering 40 states and the District of Columbia. 

Acts of vandalism targeting Jews and Jewish institutions had the largest decline. California, New York, New Jersey and Texas had the biggest drops in incidents reported to the ADL’s 30 regional offices and law enforcement, said the report by the organization whose programs are designed to counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. 

A total of 1,432 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in 2001, compared to 1,606 in 2000. The survey said California had the largest decrease to 122 from the previous year’s 257. In New York there were 408 incidents in 2001, down from 481, New Jersey had 192, a drop from 213 in 2000, and Texas had a decline from 40 to 20. 

“It is clear that the American people did not buy into the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that blamed Jews for the September 11 attacks,” said Aaron Levinson, ADL interim regional director in Los Angeles. “We believe that the decline is partly because of heightened awareness of security issues in Jewish communities.” 

But the reports of more than 1,400 incidents keeps the ADL “deeply concerned,” Levinson said. “It takes only one act of anti-Semitism to affect an individual and an entire community.” 

The most serious incident cited by the ADL during 2001 was an arson fire causing minimal damage at a synagogue in Tacoma, Wash., shortly after Sept. 11, following a graffiti incident at the same location days earlier blaming Jews for the terrorist attacks. No arrests have been made in those incidents.

Ironically, the new anti-Semitism sweeping the globe could resolve part of Israel's dilemma of ruling a rebellious majority population of Palestinians on the West Bank. 

Synagogues throughout Europe and Australia have been vandalized and burned to the ground, stoning attacks on French Jews are so common they don't even make the news anymore, and anti-Semitism in Britain has been described as an acceptable sentiment in high-society London. 

Jews worldwide are asking again, "Where can we go if this hatred against us continues?" The answer, from Argentina to France, may increasingly be, "Israel." Just as a massive influx of Jewish refugees into Israel in 1948 created a large enough Jewish majority to end Arab claims to such previously Arab cities as Haifa and Jaffa, so too would a Jewish majority in the West Bank turn the tables on the current Palestinian independence movement. 

Predictably, the worst violence has come from local Arab communities, in an attempt to "get in on the action" of the Islamic world's anti-Israeli jihad. Fundamentalist Islam has replaced the Catholic Church as the world's main protagonist of anti-Semitism. But, moral considerations aside, Diaspora Arabs would be wise to reconsider their strategy of turning foreign capitals into battlegrounds in the Israel-Palestinian war. 

Historically, there is nothing like anti-Semitism to push Jews to Israel. 

Anti-Semitism, not religious messianic fervor, was the original motivator behind the Zionist movement in the mid-19th century. Cool-headed secularists concluded that Jews would continue to be a pariah group as long as they were the guests of foreign hosts. 

The main body of original Jewish settlers were from Poland and Russia, countries with long, shameful histories of anti-Jewish violence. Even in Germany, where Jews enjoyed tremendous affluence and social acceptance prior to the Nazi period, many sought refuge in Palestine once their fortunes had changed. Many waited too long; had a State of Israel existed in 1940, six million lives would have been saved. 

The wisdom, practicality and even morality of retaining Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank is a matter of great debate among Israelis and among Jews worldwide. But the debate only exists because of the fact that Diaspora Jews have forsaken that area, known to many Israelis as Judea and Samaria. If 5 million British, French and Argentine Jews had flooded into the West Bank following the 1967 war that left Israel in control of that territory, there would be no debate today about its “status.” 

Nowhere is the renewed anti-Semitism more ominous than in France. 

Spokespeople for the French Jewish establishment speak openly of their fear of another Krystallnacht (the organized anti-Jewish riots that tore through Germany on one night in 1938, causing untold loss of life and property, and the destruction of countless synagogues). Though the Moslem grand mufti of Paris has decried local attacks as “barbaric” and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac has denounced the violence as “unworthy of France,” their words won't necessarily stop the current, “grassroots” variety of anti-Semitism. 

France is home to 750,000 Jews, and the community is known to be one of the most Zionistically minded in the Jewish Diaspora. French is still an important enough language in Israel that one can reasonably “get by” without knowing Hebrew or English. And the memory of the 1940 Vichy government, which turned over more than 100,000 French Jews to the Nazis, is still fresh in the minds of the Jewish community. If the threat of violence from French Moslems continues to rise, the community may have no qualms, and no choice, about fleeing to Israel. 

Another current example of a Diaspora community turning its eyes to Israel is Argentina. Like France, Argentina's 200,000-strong Jewish community has strong Zionist activity, and the country has a history of anti-Semitism. Argentina has provided a safe haven for more Nazi war criminals than any other country on Earth, including top-level “final solution” architect Adolf Eichmann and the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. 

The 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires is proof enough of significant anti-Semitic sentiment in Argentina. The current economic crisis has already sent more than 4,000 Argentines to Israel, a number that could rise dramatically with a wave of anti-Jewish attacks. 

A massive aliya (group immigration) from France and Argentina would be welcomed by Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister and architect of the settlement map. Many in Sharon's ruling Likud party have been critical of former prime minister and colleague Yitzhak Shamir for failing to populate “the territories” with ex-Soviet Jews when they first started arriving from the Soviet Union in 1989. Together, the million Jews who currently live in France and Argentina could help Sharon start to rectify what has been seen as Shamir's mistake. 

Israeli settlers currently face massive domestic and international pressure to leave their homes, and Israeli leaders face a moral dilemma of ruling over a vast Arab population. Were Jews to achieve majority status, or even demographic parity in the West Bank, the moral problem of “occupying” the land would disappear, perhaps along with international demands for Israel to withdraw. 

With high enough numbers of Jewish immigrants, Israel would no longer have to worry about the “demographic problem,” and could reasonably be expected to grant full citizenship rights to the 2 million West Bank Arabs without jeopardizing the Jewish nature of the state. In other words, Jewish democracy would finally be extended to the West Bank. 

Friedman (andye_friedman@ hotmail.com) is a freelance writer who recently lived in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Berkeley Rent Board receives more than 300 inquiries a week ranging from very specific questions about individual units, to broader questions about rent control in general. In this column we will reproduce some of the more interesting questions and answers. Our topics will include permissible rent ceilings, the effects of vacancy decontrol, permissible grounds for eviction, habitability of units, the rules concerning security deposits and other issues of interest to renters and property owners. You can e-mail the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board at rent@ci. berkeley.ca.us with your questions, or you can call or visit the office at 2125 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA. 94704 (northeast corner of Milvia/Center Streets) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, between 9 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., and on Wednesday between noon and 4:45 p.m. Our telephone number is (510) 644-6128. Our Web site address is www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent/. 

Question: 

Our landlord is slow to make repairs. Many of the things we can fix ourselves, like patching a hole in the screen door, replacing a kitchen faucet held in place with duct tape, and even rebuilding the rotting back steps. Can we go ahead and do these repairs ourselves and deduct our expenses from the rent? 

Answer: 

If you think your landlord would rather have you make repairs so he doesn’t have to bother with them, write a letter asking if he will allow you to do these repairs and deduct the costs from rent. 

If he does not approve, consider whether you can proceed with the "repair and deduct" remedy provided in California Civil Code section 1942. 

Use of this remedy is limited: 

• You must first give the landlord written or oral notice of the problem, and allow him or her reasonable time to make the repairs; 

• The problem must substantially violate the habitability standards defined in Civil Code sections 1941.1 (see below); 

• You must not have interfered with the landlord’s attempt to fix the problem and the problem must not have been caused by tenants or their guests; 

• You may deduct no more than one month’s rent at a time, and you may not use this remedy more than twice in twelve months. 

We strongly advise that you give notice to your landlord in writing of the repairs needed, and keep a copy for your records. Provide a reasonable date by which he should make the repairs, and advise that you will make the repairs (or hire someone to do them) and deduct the cost from rent if he doesn’t meet the deadline. The law presumes that 30 days is reasonable. If the problem is an emergency, such as flooding or a backed-up toilet, you will want to call the landlord immediately, but follow up that oral notice with a letter confirming your conversation. Also, it is reasonable to request that emergency repairs be fixed in less than 30 days. 

If you or someone you hire does the work, we recommend that you photograph or videotape the problem before and after it is repaired. Once the work is completed, you may deduct the costs from the next month’s rent. Be sure to send the landlord copies of all receipts. 

As for the items you mentioned, a small hole in the screen door doesn’t seem to warrant the use of repair and deduct, but your landlord should be willing to agree to let you make the repair and reimburse you for materials. The broken kitchen faucet and rotting stairs appear to be substantial violations; however, the cost to fix the stairs could exceed more than one months’ rent. 

Landlord responsibilities under Civil Code section 1941.1 

You may use the repair and deduct remedy if your unit or building is substantially lacking one or more of the following: 

• Effective weatherproofing of roof and exterior walls, including unbroken windows and doors 

• Plumbing and gas facilities in good working order 

• Hot and cold running water and connection to a sewage disposal system 

• Heating facilities in good working order 

• Electrical lighting, wiring and equipment in good working order 

• Building and grounds free of debris, garbage, and rodents and other pests 

• Adequate number of garbage containers 

• Floors, stairways and railings maintained in good repair 

For more information on using the repair and deduct remedy, contact the Repair and Deduct Self-Help Hotline at (800) 806-8111. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco district attorney has sent a letter to the head of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco asking for any information on sexual abuse by clergy members or church employees in the past 75 years. 

District Attorney Terence Hallinan sent the letter earlier this week, and while he would not discuss specifics, he told KTVU-TV that “it certainly was not a Christmas card.” 

Archbishop William Levada released a written statement saying Hallinan had requested “information concerning reports of suspected or known sexual abuse” by church employees over the last 75 years. 

“Archbishop William Levada responded promptly with a hand-delivered letter to Mr. Hallinan indicating that the Archdiocese will voluntarily cooperate with the ... request,” the statement read. 

In Cincinnati, the prosecutor has done something similar — first sending a letter, then a subpoena asking for information pertaining to allegations of possible sex crimes. The church there has turned over the material. 

But that step likely will not be taken in Santa Clara County, where the district attorney’s office told KTVU that if it did that with the Catholic Church, it would have to do so with all religions. Alameda County has no plans to send a letter either, saying the reporting system is working there.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis announced his opposition Wednesday to a hotly debated bill that would allow teachers to bring curriculum choices and textbook selection to the collective bargaining table. 

He said teachers should have a greater role in curriculum decision making, “but not in a way that links it to collective bargaining.” 

“I don’t want textbooks held hostage to issues involving wages,” Davis told reporters. “The collective bargaining process is the appropriate forum for negotiating wages and so forth, ... but we want textbooks in the hands of kids.” 

Davis was asked about a bill by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, that would allow teacher contract negotiations to include discussions of course content, textbook selection and other instruction issues. 

School officials strongly oppose the bill, saying those decisions should be made by elected school boards. The measure is backed by the 330,000-member California Teachers Association. 

Goldberg said there may be other ways to give teachers a bigger voice in curriculum decisions, but she won’t amend the bill unless opponents agree to negotiate. 

Davis’ opposition may block the bill this year, but it will be reintroduced until school administrators agree to give teachers a bigger role, she said. 

“We are going to have a war for a long, long time or they can say, ‘Of course, teachers are professionals. Of course, we want to be partners with them,’ Goldberg said. 

“The private sector has figured out you can’t make all the decisions at the top and get all the decisions right.” 

The bill is scheduled to be considered next week by an Assembly committee. 

SANTA ROSA — A judge delayed closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of a priest accused of rape and lewd conduct so she could question jurors about their knowledge of an incident in which the priest allegedly assaulted a newspaper photographer. 

The Rev. Don Kimball was arrested Tuesday for allegedly striking the photographer in the face outside the courtroom. That led a defense attorney to seek a mistrial in the rape case, which had been set for closing arguments Wednesday afternoon. 

Kimball, 58, is on trial for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl behind the altar of a Santa Rosa chapel in 1977 and molesting a 13-year-old girl in 1981 at St. John’s Rectory in Healdsburg. He faces more than eight years in prison if convicted. 

Kimball was jailed Tuesday and released hours later after posting $30,000 bail. He allegedly shoved the camera into the face of San Francisco Chronicle photographer Penni Gladstone. The former youth pastor is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday for the alleged assault. 

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Gayle Guynup, who on Wednesday morning dismissed an unrelated motion for a mistrial involving the testimony of a witness, was expected to poll jurors Wednesday afternoon in a hearing regarding a second mistrial motion filed by Kimball’s attorney. 

The attorney, Chris Andrian, said Guynup would question jurors about how much they heard or saw about Tuesday’s incident. 

Gladstone was waiting in the hallway Tuesday to snap Kimball’s picture as he left for lunch recess. Cameras were not permitted in the courtroom. 

“He just came at me with his fist,” she said. “I saw the whole thing happening through the camera.” 

He then allegedly grabbed the camera and threw it, hitting reporter Clark Mason of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, said Press Democrat managing editor Bob Swofford. 

“He was walking up behind Kimball when this happened,” Swofford said. ”(Kimball) grabbed the camera off the photographer and threw it to the side. Clark happened to be in the line of fire.” 

Gladstone went to the hospital for X-rays and a tetanus shot after suffering a cut under her right eye. She said she was bruised, but nothing was broken except her glasses. Mason was not injured. 

“I’ve been in some rough situations,” Gladstone said. “Last year in Guatemala we were carrying machetes around, and then you get decked by a priest.” 

Chronicle executive editor Phil Bronstein said the incident was upsetting, but it’s also one of the hazards associated with working as a journalist. He said there were no immediate plans to take legal action. 

“It was ugly. I think we’re dealing with people who are clearly pretty volatile,” Bronstein said. “Our main concern is Penni.” 

Gladstone’s camera was not broken, and she was able to salvage some pictures. 

More than a dozen people witnessed the incident and called out for help before authorities restrained Kimball. He was taken to the Sonoma County Jail. 

Kimball no longer performs priestly duties, but has not been defrocked. He denies all charges and said his only sexual involvement was with women who were older than 18, according to Andrian. 

The Associated Press 

MERCED — The California Farm Bureau has intervened in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups to stop a three-year air pollution exemption granted to farms. 

The suit was filed against the federal Environmental Protection Agency in February after it extended the state’s agriculture exemption for another three years. Environmentalists say the exemption is illegal under the federal Clean Air Act, which requires all major pollution sources to seek federal permits. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing the suit. Under the intervention process, judges would be required to consider legal briefs submitted by the Farm Bureau in their final judgment. 

The Farm Bureau supports the EPA extension, saying there is no scientific proof that agriculture is a major source of pollution. 

Scientists first need to quantify the amount of pollution generated before regulating farm emissions, said Cynthia Cory, the Farm Bureau’s director of environmental affairs. 

“What are (farms) emitting, are they emitting enough, does it warrant changes?” she said. “Does it warrant permitting, does it require changing?” 

Kevin Hall, air pollution director for the Sierra Club’s Tehipite chapter, a plaintiff in the suit, said the Farm Bureau is trying to derail the process. 

“The continuing refrain that we need more science is an empty one,” he said. “The science is in, the sources are known. It’s time to get to work on the problem.” 

Brent Newell, an attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment representing two environmental groups in the suit, said Tuesday the agricultural exemption unfairly excludes an entire industry. 

“Industrial agriculture pollutes like industry and should be regulated as such,” he said. 

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has emission studies of air pollution from agricultural sources, but the study is several years old and needs improving, said Evan Shipp, a district air pollution meteorologist.

924 Gilman Apr. 12: Missing 23rd, Himsa, Bleeding Through, Belvedere; Apr. 13: Labrats, Damage Done; Apr. 19: Ludicra, Sbitch, Watch Them Die, Beware, Hate Mail Killer; Apr. 20: The Sick, All Bets Off, Vitamin X, Sharp Knife, Dead in the End; Apr. 21: Harum Scarum; Fleshies, Iowaska, Disobedience; Apr. 26: The Lawrence Arms, Taking Back Sunday, Before The Fall; Apr. 27: Pitch Black, Fall Silent, The Cause, The 86ers, As I; All shows begin a 8 p.m., most cost $5. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

The Albatross Apr. 13: 9:30 p.m., The Fourtet Jazz Group; Apr. 16: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring. com. 

Anna’s Bistro Apr. 11: Hanif and The Sound Voagers; Apr. 12: Anna de Leon, 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Apr. 13: Ed Reed, 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Apr. 14: Choro Time; Apr. 15: Renegade Sidemen; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Apr. 11: Alan Winston & The Mosoco Ceilidh Band, $8; Apr. 12: Drums of Passion, $15; Apr. 13: Gator Beat, $11; Check venue for showtimes, 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Apr. 11: Electronica w/ Ascension, $5; Apr. 12: Kofy Brown, Subterraneanz, $7; Stonecutters, $5, Apr. 14: Ted Ekman; Apr. 15: Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cato’s Ale House Apr. 14: Stiff Dead Cat; Apr. 17: Go Van Gogh; Apr. 21: The Backyard Party Band; Apr. 24: Vince Wallace Trio; Apr. 28: The Lost Trio; All shows 6 - 9 p.m., free. 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349, www.mrcato.com. 

Dotha’s Juke Joint at Everett and Jones Barbeque Apr. 12, 19, 26: Gwen Avery and The Blues Sistahs, $12, 8 and 10 p.m., 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668. 

Downtown Apr. 12: The Hot Club of San Francisco; Apr. 13: Walter Earl; Apr. 14: Gary Rowe; Apr. 16: Mimi Fox; Apr. 17: Dred Scott; Apr. 19 and 20: Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut; Apr. 21: Gary Rowe; Apr. 23: Aaron Greenblatt; Apr. 24: Dave Mathews; Apr. 26: Joshi Marshall; Apr. 27: Danny Caron; Apr. 30: The Ned Boynton Combo; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810. 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661. 

Fellowship Cafe Apr. 19: 7:30 p.m., open mic, $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar, 540-0898. 

Freight & Salvage Apr. 11: Bryan Bowers; Apr. 12: Fiddlers 4, Michael Doucet, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky & Rushad Eggleston; Apr. 13: Scheryl Wheeler; Apr. 14: John Gorka; Apr. 15: Bob Paisley & The Southern Grass; $15.50 - $19.50, 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

The Starry Plough Apr. 11: Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Will Bernard Trio, $6; Apr. 14: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session; Apr. 15: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music), free; Apr. 16: open mic, free; Apr. 17: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $7; Apr. 18: 9:30 p.m., Dallas Wayne, Amy Rigby, $6; Apr. 19: 9:30 p.m., Tempest, Brazen Hussey, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Borealis Wind Quintet Apr. 13: 7:30 p.m., $25 - $35, Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland, 451-0775, www.ticketweb.com. 

The Texas Twisters Blues Band Apr. 20: 9 p.m., Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 663-0440. 

“Merrily We Roll Along” Apr. 5 through Apr. 21: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., BareStage Productions presents a musical comedy told in reverse tracing a famous songwriter and film producer back though his career to his youthful beginnings as a struggling artist. $8 - $10. UC Berkeley Choral Rehearsal Hall, 72 Cesar Chavez Center, 642-3880. 

“Pericles, Prince of Tyre” Through May 4: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., William Shakespeare’s tale of lost hopes and love regained. Directed by Jon Wai-keung Lowe. $14. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, 234-6046. 

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Apr. 12 through May 11: Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Eugene O’Neill’s story of the Tyrone family. Directed by Jean-Marie Apostolides. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., 528-5620, www.actorsensembleofberkeley.com.  

“Homebody/Kabul” Apr. 24 - June 23: Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Tony Kushner’s play about a women who disappears in Afghanistan and the husband and daughter’s attempts to find her. $38-$54. Call ahead for times, 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.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. 

Pacific Film Archive Apr. 12: 7:30 p.m., Untitled; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“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, www.atelier9.com. 

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

“Open: Objects” through May 4: An exhibition featuring sculptural objects by Los Angeles artist Karen Kimmel. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

“Urban Re-Visions” Apr. 4 through May. 4: A two-person exhibition featuring the colorful anthropomorphic sculptures of Tim Burns and the figurative/narrative paintings of Dan Way Harper. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Quilted Paintings” Through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black-and-white photograys of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“East Bay Open Studios” Apr. 24 through Jun. 9: An exhibition of local artists’ work in connection with East Bay Open Studios. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland, 763-9425, www.proartsgallery 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Apr. 4: Helen Caldicott reads from her new book “The New Nuclear Danger”; Apr. 5: Adair Lara reads from “Hold Me Close, Let Me Go: A Mother, a Daughter, and an Adolescence Survived”; Apr. 6: Sue Mingus reads from her memoir “Tonight At Noon”; Apr. 9: David Davidow reads from “The House of Blue Mangoes”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Eastwind Books Apr. 20: Noël Alumit reads from “Letters to Montgomery Clift”; 2066 University Ave., 548-2350.  

Poetry 

Berkeley Public Library’s Teen Playreaders Apr. 13: 2 p.m., A multilingual poetry reading in honor of National Poetry Month. Free and recommended for age 10 and older. North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, 981-6250, www.infopeople.org.bpl.  

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Apr. 3: Jerry Ratch, Richard Grossinger; Apr. 10: Brandon Brown, Brian Glaser; Apr. 17: Marilyn Chin, Morton Marcus; Apr. 24: Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Kurt Brown, Sandy Diamond; Apr. 28: 3 p.m., National Poetry Month Celebration featuring Gerald Stern, Willis Barnstone, Kazuko Shiraishi, $5; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted, $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading Apr. 13: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. Claremont Library, 2940 Benvenue, 527-9905, poetalk@aol.com. 

PoetrySquish Apr. 25: 8 p.m., spoken word, poetry, prose and voice event. Club Muse, 856 San Pablo Ave., Albany, 528-2878. 

Call for Poems: Apr. 20 deadline: one poem, 21 lines or less, with name and address, Celestial Arts, PO Box 1140, Talent, OR 97540 or enter online, www.freecontest.com. 

Call for Spiritual Poems: Apr. 15 deadline: one poem, 20 lines or less, Free Poetry Contest, 3412 - A, Moonlight Ave., El Paso Texas 79904 or enter online, www.freecontest.com.  

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

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. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

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, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Mar. 16: 1 - 4 p.m., Moviemaking for children 8 years old and up; Mar. 20: Spring Equinox; “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

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

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

SACRAMENTO — State hydrologists lowered their Sierra snowpack runoff predictions Wednesday from just a week ago, based on recent dry, warm weather. 

Conditions are particularly dry in the south, where the Tule River drainage is predicted to have just 51 percent of its average runoff from snow melt between now and July. 

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began suggesting residents conserve water last week based on a low snowpack in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range, though the department said supplies should be adequate through the summer. About half the city’s water comes from Sierra runoff. 

Things improve farther north, to a high of 83 percent of normal runoff for Lake Shasta and the Mokelumne River, the California Department of Water Resources said Wednesday. 

Runoff projections are down an average of 3 percent statewide since a week ago due to the dry weather. Snowmelt at higher elevations was ahead of normal because of warmer temperatures. 

Projections had dropped an additional average 5 percent between March 26 and April 1. 

The department noted that some precipitation was forecast this weekend in the northern Sierra, but temperatures were expected to remain above average. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/iodir/B120UP 

LAS VEGAS — A new wrinkle in digital television’s sluggish introduction goes far beyond the current dearth of programming and the high cost of the special TV sets needed to view it. 

Consumer activists are up in arms over Hollywood studios’ campaign for standards that would restrict viewers’ rights to record digital programs. Such standards could make HDTV sets sold today obsolete because the sets are not hard-wired to protect copyrighted films and TV programs. 

Last week, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell urged broadcasters, programmers and TV makers to voluntarily take steps to speed the transition from analog to digital television. 

The top four networks and cable programmers were asked to provide interactive features or multicasting options with 50 percent of their prime-time schedule by the fall. By next January, Powell wants affiliates of the big four networks in the top 100 markets to broadcast pristine digital signals. 

Television makers, meanwhile, are being asked to include digital tuners in their sets on a staggered schedule, with half of the larger sets equipped by Jan. 1, 2004. 

The “Powell Plan,” as it’s being called at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, is being widely welcomed, especially by the local stations that missed a deadline to begin broadcasting digital signals. 

About 300 stations met the May 1 deadline, but 800 have asked the FCC for extensions. 

The digital TV conundrum stems from consumers reluctance to buy expensive HDTV sets while there is a dearth of digital programming. In turn, programmers have been slow to convert to digital because so few viewers can receive the signal. 

One thorny issue sidestepped by Powell, however, was copyright protection. 

Legislation introduced last month by U.S. Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., would require broadcasters, studios and equipment makers to develop anti-piracy standards within a year. 

Such standards could require new sets to scramble or otherwise alter signals to prevent programs from being copied and distributed over the Internet. 

Those efforts have spurred the creation of two new groups to advocate for current owners of high-definition television sets and to push for a so-called “Consumer Technology Bill of Rights.” 

“The concern — which some of the more critical have called paranoia — in Hollywood is that people will spend endless hours copying programs for their friends,” said Dale Cripps, publisher of HDTV Magazine. 

He and others formed an advocacy group this week to educate the public on the benefits of HDTV and lobby Congress to speed the transition to digital television. 

Meanwhile, a group of studio personnel and TV manufacturers has been meeting in Los Angeles to develop standards for digital broadcasts, including the establishment of a digital code, or flag, that will tell televisions, computers and recording devices how to handle copyrighted material. 

Critics of the effort say one element is missing in the discussion — consumers. 

“Consumers have yet to be involved in any of these discussions affecting how they use the equipment they legally purchased,” said Joe Kraus, who last month formed an advocacy group called DigitalConsumer.org. 

Kraus, who also co-founded the Web portal Excite, said he is concerned that the standards could rob consumers of their “fair use” rights to record programs for later viewing or make copies of broadcasts or music for playback in another device. 

Ultimately, observers say, the digital television transition will be led by consumers, who so far have purchased more than 2 million high-definition televisions but otherwise have not been quick to spend $5,000 or more on one of the new sets. 

Jack Breitenbucher, vice president of the Hitachi division that sells digital cameras and production equipment to broadcasters, says sales of cameras and other production equipment to broadcasters have also been painfully slow. 

“People are dragging their feet,” he said. “They’re waiting for the consumer to create the demand, and so far the consumer doesn’t care.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. electric bills may drop a bit this summer after state power regulators voted to increase “baseline” allotments — the amount of electricity California households receive at the lowest electric rate. 

Tuesday’s decision by the Public Utilities Commission will have varying effects within the 10 baseline regions throughout PG&E’s Northern and Central California territory, the utility said. Baselines for customers of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. remain unchanged. 

The change lowers each month’s bill by $3.27 for an average PG&E customer using 500 kilowatt-hours per month said Christy Dennis, a PG&E spokeswoman. 

Those customers who never surpassed the old baseline won’t see any change, though it could lower bills for those who exceed it, she said. Under last year’s record rate increases, electricity costs progressively more as a customer uses more. 

However, PG&E will have to collect the $90 million it will lose through the change — likely by slightly raising other rates to compensate. 

Climate and household size are factors in a region’s baseline. A family living in the desert typically has a higher baseline than a family living on the breezy coast to account for the cost of air conditioning. 

Controversy over baselines grew last spring, when the PUC levied record rate hikes onto millions of utility customers, which don’t take effect unless a customer’s electricity use exceeds the baseline amount by 30 percent. 

Utility customers have complained that current baselines penalize families who live among single people, as baselines represent an area’s average power use. Others are upset that hot and temperate climates sometimes are in the same baseline, which has meant little financial relief for those in hotter areas. 

Highlights of the “Consumer Technology Bill of Rights” proposed to Congress by DigitalConsumer.org: 

— Users have the right to “time shift” content they have legally acquired. For example, viewers can tape a show and watch it later. 

— Users have the right to “space shift” content they have legally acquired. This means copying music on a CD to a portable player to be listened to while jogging, working out at the gym, etc. 

— Users have the right to make backup copies of content. 

— Users have the right to use legally acquired content on the platform of their choice. For example, watching TV on a computer or listening to music in digital form on a portable player. 

UC Berkeley police arrested 79 pro-Palestinian activists Tuesday afternoon, capping a day of protests against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and University of California investment in Israel. 

The arrests came after activists occupied the foyer of Benjamin Ide Wheeler Hall on campus, demanding to meet with UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and the UC Board of Regents about divestment. 

Police escorted some of the protesters from the foyer and dragged others as activists, seated in a tight circle, chanted “Shame on Police” and “Viva! Viva! Intifadah!” 

Dozens of other protesters, barred from the building by UC Berkeley police, banged on the doors and chanted supportive slogans.  

“We don’t negotiate under these circumstances,” said UC Berkeley Assistant Chancellor John Cummins, who noted that the Regents, rather than UC Berkeley, will have to make any decision on divestment. 

“I think UC should have negotiated with us,” responded Chris Cantor of Students for Justice in Palestine, the primary organizer of the day’s events. “They purposely shut down all avenues of communication.” 

“If they were serious about us meeting with the Regents, why don’t they set up a meeting?,” added Gregory Hoadley of SJP. 

Activists estimate that UC has invested about $7 billion in companies, like General Electric and Nokia, that do substantial business in Israel. They say they are building a student movement on UC campuses throughout the state to advocate for divestment.  

Regent John Davies, reached by the Planet Tuesday night, said he had no position on UC investment in Israel. Attempts to reach other Regents were unsuccessful. 

Protesters also called on the administration to issue a statement of solidarity with Bethlehem University, a UC Berkeley sister school that protesters claim is under siege by Israeli forces. 

“At the least, they could have made a statement,” said Hoadley. 

Cummins said the university is unaware of the sister school situation and will look into it further. 

Captain Bill Cooper, spokesman for the UC Berkeley Police, said all 79 protesters were charged with trespassing, six with resisting arrest and one with assaulting an officer. UC Berkeley police released 78 of the protesters after issuing citations, Cooper said. The remaining protester was 23-year-old Roberto Hernandez, a student suspected of assault, he was turned over to the Berkeley Police Department. 

Activists moved the protest to the city jail after the Wheeler Hall arrests were complete and posted $5,000 bail for Hernandez, according to Captain Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

Cummins said the district attorney will decide whether to prosecute the activists, but that UC Berkeley would encourage authorities to look at the matter closely. 

“We would hope that if there is a violation of the law, they would take it seriously,” said Cummins. 

Last year, police arrested 32 pro-Palestinian protesters, including 19 students, who occupied Wheeler Hall and made similar demands. UC Berkeley officials said none faced prosecution. 

Cummins said, no matter what the district attorney decides, the university may suspend the students involved. About three-quarters of the arrested protesters were students, according to Cooper. 

The Wheeler Hall occupation, which began around 1 p.m., followed a noon rally on UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza that drew a crowd of about 600. 

The protest was part of a national “day of action” that included pro-Palestinian events at San Francisco State University, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and Columbia University in New York City, according to wire reports. 

The event commemorated the April 9, 1948 massacre, by Israeli paramilitaries, of Palestinian townspeople in the village of Deir Yassin. This year, the Deir Yassin anniversary coincided with Yom HaShoa, the Jewish day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust. 

Jewish students huddled under a tent on Sproul Plaza, a hundred feet from the pro-Palestinian rally, and read the names of Holocaust victims to mark the occasion. 

Randy Barnes, a UC Berkeley senior and leader of Israel Action Committee, a campus group, noted that the Deir Yassin massacre took place over the course of three days, from April 9 to April 11, and argued that Students for Justice in Palestine should have postponed their day of protest to respect the victims of the Holocaust. 

“This is a moral outrage,” said Barnes. 

Jewish student leaders said they were particularly upset that pro-Palestinian activists compared the current conflict in Israel with the Holocaust. 

“Using the Holocaust to compare to what is happening now is trivializing our history,” said Devora Liss, a UC Berkeley sophomore who grew up in Jerusalem. 

But pro-Palestinian activists, who held a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Holocaust and other massacres at the start of the noon rally, said it is important to take a stand against all forms of “ethnic cleansing.” 

“That was ethnic cleansing,” said Suemyra Shah of SJP, referring to the Holocaust, “and what is happening today is clearly ethnic cleansing.” 

But some members of the Jewish community found not only the timing but the volatile nature of the protest unsettling. 

“I as well as many other members of the Jewish community support the rights of any group to articulate their concerns, but it is incumbent upon them to do so in a way the contributes to the peace of our community,” said Adam Weisberg, executive director of the Hillel Center. 

Though there were no reports of anti-Semitic rhetoric being espoused by the protesters, Weisberg thought some might walk away angry enough to lash out. 

“I was concerned that the SJP’s rhetoric was such that some people might feel so angry at the target of that rhetoric — which is Israel — and walk away from it and act on those they feel are supportive of Israel,” Weisberg said. “And doing so would add to the already unsettling environment for Jewish students and members of the Jewish community.”  

The Tuesday protest and war of words came just a day after Chancellor Berdahl called for a peaceful debate between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activists on campus. 

UC Berkeley issued a statement Tuesday evening noting that Berdahl was pleased with the “civil” events on Sproul Plaza, but “disappointed” by the Wheeler Hall occupation.  

NEW YORK - Natalie Coughlin, a 19-year-old sophomore swimmer at Cal, was one of five finalists for the 72nd Annual AAU James E. Sullivan Memorial Award that recognizes the top amateur athlete in the nation. The award was presented to skating’s Michelle Kwan at the ceremony at the award’s new presentation site, The New York Athletic Club, Tuesday night in New York City.  

Coughlin (swimming) was a finalist along with Michelle Kwan (skating), Mark Prior (baseball), Sean Townsend (gymnastics) and Alan Webb (track and field). The finalists were selected based on their qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism in the year 2001.  

“It is great to be among these athletes,” said Coughlin. “Seeing all of their accomplishments, it is an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of the Sullivan Award.”  

In her most recent competition March 21-23 at the 2002 NCAA championships in Austin, Texas, Coughlin was simply spectacular in earning NCAA Swimmer of the Year honors for the second year in a row. She won three individual national titles, breaking NCAA, American and U.S. Open records in all three events. Coughlin won the 100 backstroke (49.97, first woman to swim under 50 seconds), the 200 backstroke (1:49.52) and the 100 butterfly (50.01). She also broke the NCAA, American and U.S. Open record in the 100 freestyle, swimming a time of 47.47 as the lead-off leg of the Bears 400 freestyle relay.  

In her brief career, Coughlin has set two world records, 24 American records, is a two-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year, has won six individual NCAA titles and was recently named the recipient of the 2001-02 Honda Sport Award Winner for swimming.  

“Being a finalist for the Sullivan Award is an honor for Natalie, the University and the sport of swimming,” said Cal head coach Teri McKeever. “It acknowledges her collegiate and international successes over this past year. Natalie is not only a world-class athlete, she is a quality individual and someone who epitomizes the spirit of a true student-athlete.”  

Considered the “Oscar” of sports awards, the AAU James E. Sullivan Award has been presented to prominent athletes, including last year’s recipient, Olympic golf medallist Rulon Gardner. Others include: Chamique Holdsclaw (1998), Peyton Manning (1997), William “Bill” Bradley (1965), Dan Jansen (1994), Janet Evans (1989), Jim Abbott (1987), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1986), Greg Louganis (1984) and the late Florence Griffith-Joyner (1988).  

The AAU James E. Sullivan Memorial Award has been presented annually by the AAU since 1930 as a salute to the founder and past president of the AAU, and a pioneer in amateur sports, James E. Sullivan. The winner of the AAU Sullivan Award receives a bronze replica of the original trophy that depicts the figure of a runner carrying a laurel branch mounted on a black pedestal.

The number of hate crimes occurring in Berkeley is appalling and deeply disturbing. Today, a member of my staff heard the hate and threats left on the answering machine of a prominent local rabbi. Last Thursday, two clearly identifiable Orthodox Jews were severely beaten, anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed on trash cans, and a brick was thrown through a window of Hillel House.  

Friday’s newspaper carries a story that Jewish students were also beaten up last semester, and that Hillel had been vandalized with vulgar language painted across the front. I heard from students at a Jewish community dinner say they are afraid to walk through Sproul Plaza even during broad daylight because they will be called names or someone will spit on them. 

Last week, a hateful message against African Americans and gays was painted across a house in West Berkeley. It apparently stayed there for several days.  

A few weeks ago, Hispanic attorneys and organizations in Berkeley and elsewhere received hate mail laced with white powder. Fortunately this wasn’t anthrax, but the message of hate and fear was unmistakable. 

Residents told me of storekeepers who are Middle Eastern or Indian being called names. I followed up with the storekeepers, and found at least some that are willing to say this is true.  

This is shameful.  

Whether directed at members of our Jewish, Hispanic, Indian community or any individual, these actions reflect poorly on all of us. As one community we must say in no uncertain terms—THIS STOPS NOW! 

Berkeley, if it stands for anything, must be free of this disgrace. It must be a place of civil discourse. A place where ideas can be expressed with respect for others and without fear of reprisal for engaging in the debate. Sending hate mail is not free speech because it shows no respect for the rights and feelings of others and is frequently done behind the mask of anonymity. People must feel they can express their ideas, practice their beliefs and explore issues wherever they are in our community, and do so without fear of reprisal for who they are. People just might learn something from each other where an exchange of ideas can occur in safety.  

What can we as individual do?  

We can do a lot. Let us each, by example, set a community standard that hate has no place in our community. Let us each speak out against those who spread hate rather than light. Make it known that we do not tolerate ethnic slurs or hateful behavior toward others. Let us each instill into our children the values of respect for others and civil behavior as the way to settle disputes. Let us each pledge here and now to be a part of the solution, not the problem. Each one of us must be a part of making Berkeley a community free of hate. 

Shirley Dean 

Mayor

NEW YORK — Angered at Amazon.com for offering used editions of current books, the Authors Guild is urging members to remove links on their Web sites to the online retailer. 

“Amazon’s practice does damage to the publishing industry, decreasing royalty payments to authors and profits to publishers,” the Guild said in a statement Tuesday. 

“We believe it is in our members’ best interests to de-link their Web sites from Amazon. There’s no good reason for authors to be complicit in undermining their own sales. It just takes a minute, and it’s the right thing to do.” 

The Guild urged members to link their sites to Barnesandnoble.com and, “especially,” BookSense.com, the online site for independent booksellers. 

“Obviously, selling used books alongside new ones could hurt sales of new ones,” said Barnesandnoble.com CEO Marie Toulantis. “And, strategically, it doesn’t work for us. Our focus is on new titles.” 

Amazon, which began selling used copies of new books in November 2000, defended its policy Tuesday. 

“It encourages customers to explore authors or genres they might not otherwise try because of the price,” said spokeswoman Patty Smith. “That ends up helping authors and publishers.” 

The Guild has protested before, without urging specific action from members. In December 2000, it sent a joint of letter of protest with the Association of American Publishers to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. An Amazon spokesman at the time offered a similar defense, saying everyone would benefit in the long run. 

Used editions are traditionally associated with out of print or obscure titles, but Amazon customers can get old copies of current, popular books. 

For example, anyone interested in this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, Richard Russo’s “Empire Falls,” can buy it in hardcover for $18.16 or used for $12.35. Michael J. Fox’s “Lucky Man,” which just came out, is available in hardcover for $16.07 or used for $14.99. 

Amazon itself does not sell the book. Instead, customers are allowed to offer used editions through the online retailer. Amazon collects a 99 cent fee for each sale, plus 15 percent of the purchase price. Neither the author nor publisher receives royalties. 

The actual impact is difficult to assess. 

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Author’s Guild, acknowledged he had no statistics indicating that used books were detracting from sales of new ones. “Maybe it has been negligible, but that may not be the case a year from now,” he said. 

Smith said about 15 percent of all Amazon sales in the final quarter of 2001 — including videos, CDs and other products — came from used purchases. But she did not have a percentage for books and could not cite an author or genre helped by the availability of used editions. 

The Authors Guild, the nation’s largest society of published authors, represents more than 8,000 writers and their estates. Aiken said more than 700 have Web sites. 

——— 

On the Net: http://www.authorsguild.org 

Wednesday, April 10

Toastmasters on Campus Club 

6:15 - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave. 

Free, on-going meetings 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.  

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar 

Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Award-winning poet, travel writer, author of Namako: Sea Cucumber and The Hand of Buddha) 

Topic: Mechanics of Travel Writing 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

For more information 843-6725 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil  

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley 

415-285-9734 

A Community Dialogue and  

Lecture on Islam 

7:30 p.m. 

Lutheran Church of the Cross 

1744 University Ave. 

A presentation followed by a question and answer period. 848-1424.  

Proposed Amendment to  

Zoning Ordinance 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Proposal to prohibit the use of sharp material on top of fences in residential districts. Proposal to modify the Zoning Ordinance Amendment Process. 705-8189. 

Disaster Preparedness Awareness Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Speakers share their disaster experiences. Real life earthquake group activities. 883-5280, disasterresistant@ci.berkeley.ca.us.  

Day of Silence Project 

In support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, The U.S. Student Association and 300 participating schools across the country will spend the day in silence. 

Call (202) 347-8772 for more information. 

Thursday, April 11

Bicycle Maintenance 101 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Rodian Magri will teach participants how to perform basic adjustments on their bikes to keep them in good working condition. 527-7377  

Witnessing War 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall 

A speaking event co-sponsored by Doctors without Borders and UC Berkeley, International Human Rights Law Clinic, Boalt Hall School of Law. 643-7654. 

Scratching the Surface:  

Impressions of Planet Earth,  

from Hollywood to Shiraz 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar. 843-3533 

Grandparent support Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

Malcolm X School Arts and Academics School 

1731 Prince St. 

Room 105A 

For Grandparents/Relatives raising their grandchildren and other relatives. A place to express their concerns and needs and receive support, information and referrals for Kinship Care. 644-6517. 

Oakland Museum Lecture 

“Publishing in the Bay Area and Other Fascinating Subjects”, behind the scenes in the publishing world with Malcolm Margolin, publisher of Heyday Books 

Free 

1 p.m. 

10th & Oak Streets, Oakland 

238-2200, www. museumca.org 

“Working Poor” Demonstration 

noon 

University Ave. and Milvia 

Coalition of University Employees will hold a rally for fair wages, a new contract, and concerns over recent layoffs. Clerical employees at the nine UC campuses and LBL have been working without a contract since Nov. 2001. 376-6289.  

Flyfishing Open House 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers presents the annual Flyfishing Open House and Skills Fair. 524-0428 

Friday, April 12

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Myths About Aging,” Susan V. Mullen, D.C. Chiropractor. $1. 848-3533. 

“Alfred Kroeber and his Legacy” 

Friday, 4-6:15 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30-11:30 a.m., 1:30-3:30 and 4-4:30 

UC Berkeley, Friday Doe Library’s Morrison Room. Saturday Valley Life Sciences Building Room 2040 

Distinguished alumni from UCBerkeley anthropology department explore historical highlights from their department with a course taught by Alfred Kroeber. Free. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Stand in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation, which will give greater hope for an end to the violence. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Still Stronger Women 

Greta Garbo's life, plus movie 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Free. (510) 232-1351 

Saturday, April 13

Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - 1 a.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St. 

A class disaster mental health. 981-5605 

Peter Miguel Camejo, Green Party candidate for governor, will attempt to distinguish himself from Democrat Gov. Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon tonight at 7 p.m. at an event sponsored by the UC Berkeley Campus Greens. 

Camejo, the chairman and co-founder of a socially responsible investment company, will be returning to the university he left without a diploma more than 30 years ago. Camejo was denied a degree in American history, he said, because he helped lead anti-war protests in 1968. 

At tonight’s event in 60 Evans Hall, he will be asking for an apology and an honorary degree, in addition to spelling out his political views. 

“Peter Camejo has strong roots to UC Berkeley,” said Howard Chong of the Campus Greens. “We’re glad to have him here.” 

“I’ve heard him speak before and what’s really impressed me is his commitment to society and social change,” Chong said. 

Indeed, this is what Camejo hopes to emphasize when he comes to Berkeley. 

“The Democrats and Republicans are letting the market drive issues,” Camejo said. “The market doesn’t solve social issues. It creates problems.” 

The Green Party, he said, is depends entirely on volunteers. The only contributions it accepts come from individuals, not businesses or political action committees. 

Camejo added that the Green Party also differs from left-leaning groups like the Democrats in Green candidates’ level of commitment to education and affordable housing. He also called Davis and Simon “soft on crime” for not prosecuting white-collar criminals who play fast and loose with employees’ pensions. The Greens, he said, think traditional “tough crime” measures such as the three-strikes rule, the death penalty and racial profiling don’t work. 

Camejo condemned Democrats and Republicans alike for uncritically backing President George W. Bush in recent months. 

“The Green Party opposes all terrorism,” he said. “Terrorism in response to terrorism is not the answer. It actually increases the danger of all Americans. And Davis and Simon agree with what President Bush does.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he was glad Camejo was coming to campus, though he will be unable to attend Camejo’s talk. 

Worthington said he admired Camejo for his forward-thinking ideas on energy, support of labor unions and ecological principles. “These are good ideas that won’t happen this year, but it’s good that you can hear them first here in Berkeley, California.” 

Worthington has endorsed both Camejo and Davis, but left the question of whom he will vote for to be decided closer to election day. 

“If it’s close, I’ll vote for Gray Davis. If Davis is leading substantially, I’ll vote my heart,” he said. 

Although he said that he is like many others in Berkeley who are split between pragmatism and idealism, he liked the option of a third candidate. 

“He’s someone to be excited about. Gray Davis is not only boring, but not that progressive,” Worthington said. 

The Berkeley boys’ volleyball team got a good look at league power El Cerrito on Tuesday, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant for the ’Jackets. El Cerrito pounded them early and often, winning 15-1, 15-4, 15-7. 

El Cerrito started the match with a 7-0 run, as the two-time defending ACCAL champs made it clear there would be no upset by the visiting ’Jackets. The Gauchos allowed Berkeley just one point in the first game, a Robin Roach serve that El Cerrito couldn’t return over the net. 

“I think in the first game my guys were a little shocked at the speed of (El Cerrito’s) offense,” Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway said. “Once we saw what we were up against, we calmed down and did a little better.” 

The ’Jackets didn’t really recover until well into the second game, with the Gauchos out early again to a 9-0 lead. The streak was broken when an El Cerrito player went into the net on a spike attempt, and the ’Jackets managed three more points in the game before falling. 

“We just got stuck in a few rotations and gave up a lot of points,” Caraway said. “If we can limit them to one or two points per rotation, we’ll have a chance to compete.” 

Berkeley had trouble getting any offense going, not a surprise since they have only one real offensive threat in Roach. The junior had six kills, a low total for him due to some poor passing by his teammates, and Berkeley had just two other kills in the match. Ed Peszewski, playing his first game for the ’Jackets, showed a spark on defense, getting four blocks in the match, including one on last year’s league MVP, Michael Gonzalez. Gonzalez finished the match with 19 kills, 4 blocks and 6 digs. 

The final game went back and forth as the Gaucho offense sputtered. Berkeley kept it close until they were down 5-4, but the Gauchos rolled out a 9-0 run to pretty much put the match away. The ’Jackets did show some signs of life, getting three points before El Cerrito could finish them.

To the Editor: 

Re: The League of Women Voters letter. 

I am disappointed to read that the stewards of our sacred nonpartisan voting resources have taken a stand on a 13-parcel land-use determination by our City Council. Could this be the same group that we turn to before an election for fair and impartial guidance on the issues? My personal confidence in the League of Women Voters will never be the same. 

Berkeley is a "city of neighborhoods" - so it says on a sign downtown. When someone buys or rents a home or apartment, they not only judge the individual property, but the neighborhood. Within this context, they can decide what their reasonable expectation is for that neighborhood, and what it will mean to their quality of life. Neighborhoods like yours, Ms Nickel, in the highest hills, have different concerns than those in the flats, but we all must consider what makes our neighborhoods livable. 

I have lived in the same central Berkeley neighborhood for almost 50 years. I have seen a lot of change – but not all change is for the better. Berkeley has gone from a suburban college town to a bustling city. We no longer let our kids walk to school – we crisscross town with them in tow to school and activities. We no longer shop at the small corner grocery stores or take the bus downtown to Hink’s Department Store. The university (which we all do appreciate) has become the 800-pound gorilla, with more students, staff, faculty, and more research than education, bringing tens of thousands of bodies into our midst, impacting every corner of the city with expansion and traffic.  

The new General Plan’s Land Use and Housing Elements that Mayor Shirley Dean and the council minority OPPOSED, foresees a diligent planning process to encourage the housing that few dispute we need. We need more opportunities for people to purchase homes, more group-living situations, more senior housing, and more affordable housing for students. Let me say that one again because it is VERY important – we need more AFFORDABLE housing for students – they don’t qualify for most affordable units. We need the university to live up to its responsibility to provide housing. 

As a member of the city’s Design Review Committee, I know over 1,000 new apartment units are in the pipeline now, meeting our "fair share" as set by the Association of Bay Area Governments in one year instead of five! At 2.2 people per unit, those will accommodate an additional 2,200 people. With the undercount of the 2000 census short 4,500 in one part of town alone, we are well on our way to a density even the League should consider adequate.  

Berkeley is a fully built-out city – it has been for decades. In the 1950s and ‘60s when Victorians and brown shingle homes were out of fashion, hundreds were destroyed to build the ticky-tacky apartments all over town. The resulting backlash brought the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, which now prevents the removal of housing in neighborhoods, and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which protects the city’s historic resources. The city learned that neighborhoods cared about their character and quality of life. While we accommodate the needs of our community, we must be thoughtful and considerate of the reasonable expectations of all neighborhoods. 

Carrie Olson 

Berkeley 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated two cottages on the American Baptist Seminary of the West as “structures of merit” Tuesday, effectively entangling the city in a potential lawsuit. 

“We’re happy. They did the right thing,” said Benvenue Neighbors Association member David Baker, one of more than 10 neighbors to speak at the public hearing. 

The BNA has advocated for landmarking the two late 19th-century houses. The seminary has strenuously objected. 

David Levy, a lawyer for the prominent law firm Morrison & Foerster, which represents the seminary, called the LPC’s actions illegal and ill-advised. “What they’ve done is assign the city a potential lawsuit,” Levy said after the decision was made. 

He wasn’t threatening the city, Levy said, but did want it to know that this would not be the end of the case. He believed his clients would appeal any decision other than a rejection of the landmarking application.  

The public hearing was opened on March 4, but the LPC continued the discussion this month pending advice from the city attorney’s office on whether the city had jurisdiction to landmark the property. California General Code section 37361 - more commonly known by its legal name “AB133” - exempts noncommercial property owned by a religious institution from being landmarked without the institution’s consent. 

Assistant City Attorney Zach Cowan wrote the statement from the city attorney’s office, which was circulated March 21. After examining the legislative history of AB133 - the only court case challenging the law, city ordinances and the participation of parties involved in the landmark application - Cowan concluded, “The LPC therefore has no legal authority to designate either property under the LPO [Landmarks Preservation Ordinance].” 

The neighbors, however, felt that the city should not shy away from confronting state law that they believe has been misapplied. Their argument hinged on the definition of “noncommercial.” 

Baker told the LPC Tuesday night, “This is a case where a law that applied to poor church congregations was egregiously expanded.” 

UC Berkeley Extension school, he said, was going to be using the new seminary space, and paying a pretty fee for it. 

“I urge you not to allow a cash cow to be built,” he said. 

Another neighbor, Sharon Hudson, urged the LPC to take on AB133, because the definition of “noncommercial” in the law has never been clear, in her opinion. Even though the city attorney argued that the seminary’s property fulfilled the requirement for being “noncommercial” according to the California Supreme Court opinion in East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. v. State of California, she disagreed. Hudson said that the Supreme Court did not really define the word, but only speculated on its meaning in a footnote. 

She therefore urged the LPC and the city of Berkeley to challenge the law. “This will not be an isolated case,” she said. 

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” Hudson said. 

The neighbors also argued that the houses were worthy of landmark status because they provide context for other houses in the neighborhood. The two cottages, built by a janitor, help to show what working-class life was like on a block that a range of professionals called home, they said. 

Levy was the lone representative of the seminary at Monday’s meeting. Aran Kaufer, who works for the developers of the seminary project, informed the Daily Planet on Friday that his company and the seminary believed they had already followed all the rules and did not feel it was necessary to come to the LPC meeting. 

Pointing to the city attorney’s written statement, Kaufer said, “The directive to the LPC is unmistakable. We have nothing further to add and thus, the seminary is only sending one representative to Monday’s meeting, our attorney, David Levy.” 

At Monday’s meeting, Levy urged the LPC to follow the city attorney’s legal advice and reject the landmarking application because it was out of the commission’s jurisdiction.  

“The city attorney’s opinion is clear. The law is clear. The one published, decided, established case on this law is clear,” Levy said. Moreover, he added, the cottages were not worth landmarking. 

When the LPC asked him whether the seminary intended to use the space for commercial purposes, Levy pointed to the Supreme Court opinion which said that rental property could qualify as a religious institution’s noncommercial property. 

Commissioner Becky O’Malley urged her fellow commissioners to consider the city attorney’s opinion as just that – an opinion. 

“I tend to agree that this is an opportunity in the hands of the right litigator to test the law. It’s an important question for Berkeley since a great deal of Berkeley is owned by one institution or another,” said O’Malley. 

“Lots of other quasi-religious organizations are going to come out from under their rugs and we’ll be sorry we didn’t take a stand,” she said. 

Commissioner Jeffrey Eichenfield agreed with O’Malley, but added that he thought that the question was likely to be decided by a different body of city government. 

“I think we should vote the way we want on landmarks and then it will go to City Council,” he said. He added that he would like to see the cottages designated as structures of merit. 

Cowan’s response was that all city agencies have to comply with state law, so the LPC would have to take responsibility for its own actions. 

Commissioner Monica Rohrer, pointing to the arguments that the cottages were part of the historic fabric of a flagship neighborhood, suggested an alternative or an overlay to the proposed designation of a single house. “Why not an application for a historic district?” she asked. 

Other commissioners agreed and the LPC briefly considered continuing the public hearing. But the LPC then realized that the Permit Streamlining Act required action by the ZAB by April 22. 

After a five-minute break to pin down the language for their decision, the LPC decided to make two motions, both put forth by O’Malley. The first assumed that the LPC had the right to designate and designated the Thompson cottages as structures of merit under the landmarking ordinance. Councilmember Carrie Olson explained why the cottages were worth such a designation, calling out their contribution to social context and highlighting architectural features such as the eaves. 

Using language from the landmark application, she said the cottages were “oases of beauty and historical value.” 

This motion passed 5-0. Richard Dishnica, Burton Edwards and Rohrer abstained because they did not believe that the LPC had jurisdiction. Doug Morse was not present. 

The second motion assumed that the LPC might not have jurisdiction to designate the houses as structures of merit. O’Malley moved that, for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act and other governmental reviews, the cottages should consider the cottages as historical resources for the reasons stated in the first motion. 

This second motion passed 5-0. This time, only Edwards and Rohrer abstained, because Dishnica had left. 

A third idea had been floated by Ann Meredith, an artist looking for affordable housing for other artists. She offered to move the historical houses onto a lot and renovate them. But neither the neighbors, the LPC nor Levy expressed interest in Meredith’s idea.

Boys Tennis – Berkeley 5, De Anza 0 

Berkeley stays undefeated in ACCAL play (4-0, 6-1 overall) with an easy win over De Anza. None of the ’Jackets lose a set, and the doubles team of Quincy Moore and Ben Chambers win 6-0, 6-0 to stay undefeated on the season, along with junior Nate Simmons, who beats Cyrus Nikanjam 6-1, 6-1. No. 1 single Nicky Baum has the longest match, winning 6-4, 6-2 over Calvin Shen.

Today is Wednesday, April 10, the 100th day of 2002. There are 265 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage. 

On this date: 

In 1847, American newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary. 

In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated. 

In 1925, the novel “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published. 

In 1932, German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected, with Adolf Hitler coming in second. 

In 1952, 50 years ago, the MGM movie musical “Singin’ in the Rain,” starring Gene Kelly, was first released. 

In 1963, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to surface off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives. 

In 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union joined some 70 nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare. 

In 1974, Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel. 

In 1981, imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won election to the British Parliament. 

In 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks. 

Ten years ago: Financier Charles Keating Jr. was sentenced in Los Angeles to nine years in prison for swindling investors when his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed (however, Keating’s convictions were later overturned). Comedian Sam Kinison was killed in a car crash outside Needles, Calif., at age 38. 

Five years ago: A federal judge struck down the Line-Item Veto Act, a law that let the president strike specific items from bills passed by Congress. (The U.S. Supreme Court later set aside the judge’s ruling; however, the nation’s highest court ultimately struck down the veto as unconstitutional in 1998.) Onetime fighter pilot and former POW Pete Peterson was confirmed by the Senate as the first postwar U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. 

One year ago: Republican Jane Swift took office as the first female governor of Massachusetts, succeeding Paul Cellucci, who’d resigned to become U.S. ambassador to Canada. The Netherlands legalized mercy killings and assisted suicide for patients with unbearable, terminal illness. Rap star Eminem was placed on two years’ probation for carrying a concealed weapon outside a Michigan nightclub. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Harry Morgan is 87. Country singer Sheb Wooley is 81. Actor Max von Sydow is 73. Actress Liz Sheridan is 73. Actor Omar Sharif is 70. Sportscaster John Madden is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bobbie Smith (The Spinners) is 66. Sportscaster Don Meredith is 64. Reggae artist Bunny Wailer is 55. Actor Steven Seagal is 51. Folk-pop singer Terre Roche (The Roches) is 49. Actor Peter MacNicol is 48. Rock musician Steven Gustafson (10,000 Maniacs) is 45. Singer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is 44. Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 43. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 42. Actor Jeb Adams is 41. Olympic gold medal speedskater Cathy Turner is 40.  

Rock musician Tim “Herb” Alexander is 37. Singer Kenny Lattimore is 32. Blues singer Shemekia Copeland is 23. Actor Ryan Merriman is 19. Singer Mandy Moore is 18. Actor Haley Joel Osment is 14.

Wedding invitation causes anthrax scare 

BELLA VISTA, Ark. — Cheryl Haas thought her wedding invitations were quite romantic. Postal service inspectors, the fire department and sheriff’s deputies did not. 

The post office was closed Monday for about an hour while investigators determined the white grains that escaped from one of Haas’ envelopes were harmless. 

The invitation was for a wedding on a Wyoming beach. 

Haas, 37, of Broomfield, Colo., said she never meant for her letters to cause alarm. The closing was the third time one of the invitations to the June 29 wedding at Glendo Reservoir has raised concerns the white sand might be anthrax spores. 

Haas said she got the sand from a Home Depot store and she thought it would be OK to send it in the invitations. She said the envelope was clear, included confetti and had a return address. 

Deaf, blind man has a green thumb 

DETROIT — Roderick Gordon may not be able to see or hear, but that hasn’t stopped him developing his green thumb. 

Gordon, the first blind and deaf person to enroll in the Michigan State University master gardener program, recently finished the 12-week course. 

He was one of 34 students in the class, which met for four hours weekly. The master gardener course is open to all who can complete it, plus the required 40 hours of volunteer work. 

At each class session, two interpreters assisted Gordon. While lecturers described the details of plant diseases or lawn maintenance, the interpreters moved their fingers and palms against Gordon’s, translating spoken words into information he understands. 

Gordon, 50, who had tumors that cost him his vision at age 27 and his hearing at 35, grew up in Jamaica where he worked as a machinist until his sight became impaired. 

Interviewed through interpreters, Gordon said he is considered totally blind and profoundly deaf but “I still have what God wants me to have.” 

The master gardener program “was a very remarkable course. I would recommend it to anyone in Michigan,” said Gordon, who plans to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers on his balcony this year. 

——— 

DENVER (AP) — Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, is known around the league as a baseball hitter’s heaven. Vegetarians say it doesn’t strike out either. 

A survey by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ranks Coors Field the No. 2 vegetarian-friendly ball park in the nation, behind Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. 

“The Rockies’ mile-high ball park has gone the extra mile for vegetarians,” PETA said, citing the stadium’s offerings of chef salad, veggie wraps, bean burritos and veggie subs. 

Tropicana Field was cited for its gardenburger, French fries, fruit smoothies, garlic knots, peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, black beans and rice, vegetable stir-fry and pasta. 

The SkyDome, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Network Associates Coliseum, home to the Oakland A’s, rounds out the top four parks. 

“It’s time for all ball parks to step up to the plate and offer veggie dogs and other veggie fare,” PETA said on its Web site this week. 

LOS ANGELES — A physicist who served as chief scientist for NASA was appointed chancellor of the University of California at Riverside on Monday, becoming the second Hispanic to head a campus in the system’s 134-year history. 

France A. Cordova, 54, emerged as the top contender for the job following a nationwide search involving 200 candidates and a fierce lobbying effort by students, activists and politicians to have a Hispanic appointed to the post. 

“She has a truly distinguished scientific career,” said UC President Richard C. Atkinson, who denied politics played a role in the hiring decision. “Frankly, I think other people were more aware of the campaign than I was.” 

UC regents, meeting in a special session by telephone Monday, voted 16-0 to approve Cordova. In making their decision, they were prohibited by Proposition 209 from considering race or ethnicity. 

Cordova, currently vice chancellor for research at the University of California at Santa Barbara, becomes the second Hispanic to head a UC campus. Poet and educator Tomas Rivera led Riverside from 1978 until his death in 1984. 

Cordova told reporters she was “humbled” by the appointment, adding she looks forward to building on UC Riverside’s multicultural enrollment, where 22 percent of students are Hispanic. 

“Enhancing diversity is very important to me,” said Cordova, who reflected on her own education. “Let me take you back to my childhood. I was thrilled by the beauty of science. But when I was in grade school, I did not have mentors.” 

The daughter of a Mexican father and Irish-American mother, Cordova was the first female Hispanic student from her high school to be accepted at Stanford University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in English. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1979. 

The oldest of 12 children, she was born in Paris and grew up in La Puente, a suburb just east of Los Angeles. 

After receiving her degree, Cordova became a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 1993, she was named chief scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She was named one of “America’s 100 brightest scientists under 40” by Science Digest magazine in 1984. 

Despite her achievements, Cordova is reluctant to become a poster child for the Hispanic activists who lobbied on her behalf. “I am just the happy person that got selected,” she said. 

She replaces outgoing Chancellor Raymond Orbach, who is resigning to direct the U.S. Department of Energy’s office of science. She will earn a yearly salary of $265,200, and begins July 1. 

Professor Armando Navarro, who chairs Riverside’s ethnic studies department, sees in Cordova an opportunity to set future education policy. 

“What’s at stake here is not so much the present, but the future,” Navarro said. “Within the next 20 years, Hispanics will constitute a new majority in California. And yet, in positions of power we are being excluded, particularly in higher education.” 

The lobbying effort to get a Hispanic named chancellor extended to Washington, where the 18 Hispanic members of Congress sent a letter to the University of California Board of Regents. Hispanic state legislators and leaders of some 15 national Hispanic advocacy organizations also lent their support. 

“This kind of synchronicity of the Latino political gears is unprecedented,” said Navarro. “This transcended the boundaries of California. This caught the imagination and the fervor of a lot of people.” 

Navarro said national interest was fueled by a phenomena he dubbed “the browning of America.” In the case of California, 34 percent of the population, or 12 million people, are Hispanic. Systemwide, Hispanics comprise 11 percent of the student population at the 10 UC campuses. 

“Regardless of skin color, ultimately what’s most important is the delivery of policies that are fair for everyone,” Navarro said. 

Lisa Bari, daughter of the late Judi Bari, spoke at a press conference after day two of the Earth First! trial against the FBI. “We all hope this is going to work and this is going to clear my mother’s name,” said Bari, 21, who just graduated from UC Berkeley in December 2001.  

Alicia Littletree, an Earth First! organizer, was pleased that a grassroots organization could challenge the federal government on a shoe-string budget. 

The environmental group is challenging the FBI’s handling of a 1990 car-bomb attack in which Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were arrested. Bari’s estate and Cherney are suing the FBI and the Oakland Police for false arrest, illegal search and seizure and violations of First Amendment rights.  

Lead counsel Dennis Cunningham was optimistic about the trial Tuesday, after finishing jury selection and delivering his opening statement. The evidence, he said, is clear. “They were trying to get Judi Bari, Ray Charles could’ve seen it,” Cunningham said. Tomorrow, the FBI will deliver its opening statement.

CHICAGO — Another big client from its home city and affiliates in three more countries — Brazil, Chile and Poland — have joined the fast-growing parade of those fleeing Arthur Andersen LLP. 

Walgreen Co. was one of at least nine public companies to dump Andersen on Tuesday, according to Atlanta-based Auditor Trak. That brings the total of defections this year to 157 — more than 100 since the company was indicted last month on a criminal charge of obstruction of justice for destroying Enron records. 

Oracle Corp. also fired Andersen on Tuesday, announcing it is going with Ernst & Young instead. 

“Unfortunately, we believe we are forced to change auditors given the breakup that started to occur within Arthur Andersen’s global practices in the past few weeks,” said Jeffrey Henley, Oracle’s chief financial officer. 

Meanwhile, after announcing plans for 7,000 U.S. layoffs, struggling Andersen continued to try to split off its tax and consulting businesses for badly needed cash. 

Andersen spokesman Patrick Dorton confirmed that the San Francisco leveraged-buyout firm Fox Paine & Co. had signed a memorandum of intent to acquire the entire tax unit. The Wall Street Journal reported that the tentative deal for 4,000 staff and 450 partners would be for $800 million to $900 million. 

“Any transaction that we consider will be consistent with the reforms we have outlined and part of our plan to build the audit firm of the future,” Dorton said. He did not give details of the agreement and a Fox Paine spokesman declined comment. 

The deal would top last week’s tentative agreement with Deloitte & Touche for an unspecified number of Andersen tax partners to join that rival firm. 

Walgreen, which said in January it was extending its 76-year relationship with Andersen because it had full confidence in its auditors, announced it will replace the struggling company with a firm yet to be selected. 

The drugstore chain, located in suburban Deerfield, Ill., indicated its board made the move after monitoring Andersen’s situation for several weeks. It paid the accounting firm about $500,000 in fees last year. 

Also on Tuesday, Stamford, Conn.-based International Paper Co. said it decided to replace Andersen with Deloitte & Touche LLP. 

Walgreen follows Sara Lee, Abbott Laboratories, Northern Trust and Brunswick among other Chicago-area Fortune 500 companies that have severed decades-long relationships with the Enron auditor since a criminal indictment was announced against the firm on March 14. 

Industry analyst Arthur Bowman said there are likely to be many other client defections from Andersen soon. 

“Even though it’s the end of the usual season for auditor changes, there are lots of companies who are right on the edge making decisions,” he said. 

Andersen affiliates in more than a dozen countries have now cut deals to join competing firms. 

On Tuesday, Andersen partners in Chile and Poland announced separately that they will join Ernst & Young. Andersen’s Brazilian affiliate, meanwhile, said it is merging with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. 

SAN JOSE — A judge in Delaware has left open the possibility that dissident Hewlett-Packard Co. director Walter Hewlett still can torpedo the company’s $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. 

Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III ruled Monday afternoon that there is merit to Hewlett’s lawsuit accusing HP of improperly enticing a big investor to back the deal and making false statements about the progress of the complex merger plans. 

The case is set for trial April 23, even as an independent proxy firm continues to count the ballots from last month’s shareholder vote — and both companies press ahead with their integration plans in hopes of closing the deal late this month or in early May. HP believes it won the vote by a “slim but sufficient” margin. 

HP attorneys had asked in an unusual Sunday morning hearing that Hewlett’s suit be thrown out, saying in part that the heart of what he alleges is not illegal even if it did happen. 

The company said Monday it respected Chandler’s decision, but remained confident that “once the facts are heard, we will prevail. ... We remain optimistic we will be able to complete the merger on our current schedule.” 

Hewlett contends that HP’s edge of less than 1 percent of its 2 billion shares would have vanished if not for a late switch in position by the investment arm of Deutsche Bank, one of the company’s biggest stockholders. HP had opened up a line of credit with Deutsche Bank just days before the vote, and Hewlett believes the company threatened to take future business away. 

The judge said Hewlett will have the significant burden of showing that Deutsche Bank was actively coerced by HP management into voting for the merger. 

Hewlett also claimed that HP made misleading statements during the proxy fight about the progress of the Compaq integration plans and the new company’s ability to hit its stated cost-cutting targets. 

Without ruling on that claim, Chandler did note that a company cannot give out false information that is material to stockholders and then “obtain protection by describing that lie as a forward-looking statement.” 

Hewlett, a son of an HP co-founder, frustrated the company with his vigorous five-month fight against the Compaq deal and was not renominated for another term on the board after he filed his lawsuit March 28. 

Hewlett’s advisers released a statement saying the family trust he represents was pleased with the judge’s decision and grateful he took up the issue so quickly. 

HP shares rose 29 cents to close at $17.41 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, where Compaq shares fell 31 cents, to $9.28. 

Despite the decision to let Hewlett’s case continue, the companies did have some positive news. Compaq said it would meet or beat Wall Street forecasts for its first fiscal quarter when results are announced April 18. 

The Houston-based company said revenue would be about $7.7 billion, slightly ahead of analysts’ current forecast of $7.6 billion, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.hp.com 

http://www.compaq.com 

Hewlett’s opposition site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

In response to vandalism at the Jewish student center and attacks on Jewish community members during the last two weeks, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl called for a civil discourse and a safe environment for discussion at the university on Monday morning.  

Berdahl’s press conference was timed in anticipation of the Holocaust commemoration by Jewish students that began Monday night and a rally for Palestinian rights scheduled for noon today. While the Middle East has always been a contentious political issue for Berkeleyans, the recent escalation of violence in the Middle East has also heated up parties on both sides of the issue here. 

“We do not expect everyone to think alike. We expect people to disagree. We expect people to express their differences forcefully. While we cannot prevent people from saying ugly and hurtful things, hateful statements, whether anti-Jewish or anti-Arab, are reprehensible,” Berdahl said. 

Berdahl added that the university would not tolerate any action that threatens anyone’s physical well-being. Acts of violence, vandalism and personal attacks will be treated as criminal actions. 

“It is our responsibility to protect the rights of all members of the campus community to pursue their reason for being here – the work of teaching, learning and research – uninterrupted by anyone,” he said. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, which was vandalized on March 27, was glad the chancellor supported Jewish students on campus and said Berdahl has always taken a stance against hate crimes. 

“I think he has made it clear that he is deeply committed to seeing a university community where painful, divisive issues can be handled in as responsible and peaceful way as possible,” Weisberg said. 

Weisberg said that the recent rise in antisemitism has generally created a greater sense of concern among Jewish students at Berkeley, but they do not plan to change their yearly Holocaust commemoration. 

“I think recent events make it more personal, but this program is a very upsetting program for most people generally. It’s the closest they can get to the terrible thing that happened to so many people 50 years ago,” he said. 

Ronen Gradwohl, a 20-year-old Cal student, said he wasn’t worried about his personal safety, but was worried about attacks on the Jewish community.  

“Antisemitism and anti-Israel protests often get mixed together. I have no problem with anti-Israel protests because what Israel is doing is a two-sided issue. But antisemitism is different and not acceptable,” Gradwohl said. 

But Palestinian activists felt that Berdahl’s response to antisemitism was incomplete. 

“While I respect the chancellor’s call for discussion and openness, I find it surprising that he didn’t admonish students who have been connecting Students for Justice in Palestine to terrorism and antisemitism. I think he missed an opportunity to set the record straight,” said Snehal Shingavi of SJP. 

He said that the SJP had been slandered by students quoted by KRON TV and the San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Students for Justice in Palestine have repeatedly condemned antisemitism and violence, but the first finger pointed is always at a group that advocates for human rights in Palestine,” he said. 

Shingavi said that his group plans to proceed with their noontime rally at Sproul Plaza as part of a National Campus Day of Action for Palestinian Rights. 

“Berdahl’s statement doesn’t really affect us. We’re going to have a demonstration for Palestinian rights. We have no intention of escalating the tension. We just want the right for our voices to be heard,” Shingavi said.

SEATTLE — Art Howe wanted to talk about his left fielder’s defense, too. 

“How about Jeremy Giambi?” the Oakland Athletics manager said. “What a catch, huh? That was the game-saver he made right there.” 

Rookie Carlos Pena hit his fourth home run, and Eric Chavez returned to the lineup with a homer and three RBIs as Oakland beat the Seattle Mariners 6-5 Sunday night. 

Tim Hudson (1-0) pitched six solid innings, allowing one run and four hits. But Giambi, not known for his defense or speed, made sure Hudson was a winner. 

With the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh, Giambi hauled in Mike Cameron’s long drive with a fine running catch on the warning track to preserve a 3-2 lead. 

The A’s were surprised their left fielder made the play. Giambi wasn’t. 

“I was going to try,” he said. “The wall wasn’t going to get in my way. Huddy threw a heck of a game and that would have been the turning point in the game if that ball would have got in there.” 

Cameron, a Gold Glove center fielder, thought he had a three-run double. 

“I didn’t think he was going to get to it,” Cameron said. “I thought it was in the gap. But he made a good play, a real good play.” 

The A’s took two of three from their AL West rivals in a series matching teams that reached the playoffs the last two seasons. 

When the Mariners tied the major league record with 116 wins last year, they went 10 series into the season before losing one. Toronto won two of three in early May. 

“We will bounce back,” Cameron said. “If we don’t, we’re in trouble.” 

Playing without injured slugger Jermaine Dye and missing Chavez for two games, the A’s out-homered the Mariners 6-2. Oakland has hit 11 homers to three for Seattle. 

Chavez, a Gold Glove third baseman, was back in the lineup as the designated hitter after missing three games because of tightness in his lower back. 

He came through with his second homer of the season and a two-run double. 

Pena connected for a two-run shot off Jamie Moyer (0-1) in the fifth for a 2-1 lead. Chavez’s solo shot made it 3-1 in the sixth. 

Chavez came into the game with a .364 career batting average (4-for-11) against Moyer. 

“That’s probably one of the main reasons why I was in the lineup,” Chavez said. “If I didn’t have good numbers against him, Skip probably would have had me sit out another day.” 

Chavez added a two-run double in the eighth off Arthur Rhodes. 

Trailing 6-2, the Mariners made it close with three runs in the eighth on Ichiro Suzuki’s two-run triple and Mark McLemore’s sacrifice fly. 

Billy Koch, Oakland’s seventh pitcher, got the final four outs for his second save. 

Jeff Cirillo, who was 1-for-5, stranded seven runners. He hit .143 (3-for-21) in his first week with the Mariners after coming over in an offseason trade with Colorado. 

A career .311 hitter, Cirillo was visibly upset after the game. 

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities,” he said. “It’s hard to explain.” 

Seattle manager Lou Piniella was asked if he was considering fiddling with his lineup. 

“Fiddling with it?” he replied. “I don’t own a violin. What am I going to do? We just started the season. Let these guys play.” 

Hudson wiggled out of bases-loaded jams in the fourth and sixth. 

“I got some lucky breaks,” he said. “I really had to bear down. That’s a good-hitting ballclub. I was holding my breath pretty m uch the whole game.”

Editor: 

As a patron of Berkeley’s arts and culture community, I am thrilled that the zoning board this week voted to issue the use permit so that The Gaia Building’s new cultural venue can begin construction. The collaboration of GAIA, Shotgun Players, Central Works, and various arts and educational uses at The Gaia Building will greatly enrich the downtown arts district menu of offerings. 

As many book lovers already know, our beloved GAIA Bookstore is alive and flourishing as the GAIA Arts and Cultural Center. The active community that  

formed around the bookstore has been gathering in The Gaia Building’s spectacular 7th-floor rooftop/solarium room, where stunning views and an elegant Italian villa-like roof garden are the setting for GAIA’s author events, art exhibits, film screenings, writing salons and lectures. And the indefatigable community builder Patrice Wynne is still the energy behind it.  

Many more events are planned for the larger performance area downstairs (still under construction), when GAIA begins programming later this year. 

I believe I speak for many in the revitalized GAIA community in expressing gratitude to Patrice Wynne and Gaia Building developer Patrick Kennedy, for without their long-term collaboration, GAIA, this quintessential Berkeley institution, might have faded away. 

(To stay informed of GAIA Arts and Cultural Center Events call 848-4242 or e-mail: gaiaartsculturalctr@earthlink. net). 

Susan Page 

Berkeley

Tuesday, April 9

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part two of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Center for Middle Eastern Studies 

340 Stephen’s Hall, University of California at Berkeley 

Center for Jewish Studies and the UC Berkeley welcomes Robert Alter, on rhetoric in Deuteronomy and collective memory; Galit Hasan-Rokem, on midrash between experience and myth; Ron Hendel on memory and the Hebrew bible; Dina Stein on rabbinic discourse and the destruction of the temple and Yair Zakovitch on post-traumatic memory. 

9-5:30 p.m. 

Sultan Room 

For more information, call 649-2482. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Workshop 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave.  

The Fire Escape is Locked For Your Safety 

Wednesday, April 10

Toastmasters on Campus Club 

6:15 - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave. 

Free, on-going meetings 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.  

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar 

Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Award-winning poet, travel writer, author of Namako: Sea Cucumber and The Hand of Buddha) 

Topic: Mechanics of Travel Writing 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

For more information 843-6725 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil  

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley 

415-285-9734 

A Community Dialogue and  

Lecture on Islam 

7:30 p.m. 

Luthern Church of the Cross 

1744 University Ave. 

A presentation followed by a question and answer period. 848-1424.  

Proposed Amendment to  

Zoning Ordinance 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Proposal to prohibit the use of sharp material on top of fences in residential districts. Proposal to modify the Zoning Ordinance Amendment Process. 705-8189. 

Disaster Preparedness Awareness Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Speakers share their disaster experiences. Real life earthquake group activities. 883-5280, disasterresistant@ci.berkeley.ca.us.  

Thursday, April 11

Bicycle Maintenance 101 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Rodian Magri will teach participants how to perform basic adjustments on their bikes to keep them in good working condition. 527-7377  

Witnessing War 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall 

A speaking event co-sponsored by Doctors without Borders and UC Berkeley, International Human Rights Law Clinic, Boalt Hall School of Law. 643-7654. 

Scratching the Surface:  

Impressions of Planet Earth,  

from Hollywood to Shiraz 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar. 843-3533 

Grandparent Support Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

Malcolm X School Arts and Academics School 

1731 Prince St. 

Room 105A 

For Grandparents/Relatives raising their grandchildren and other relatives. A place to express their concerns and needs and receive support, information and referrals for Kinship Care. 644-6517. 

Oakland Museum Lecture 

“Publishing in the Bay Area and Other Facinating Subjects”, behind the scenes in the publishing world with Malcolm Margolin, publisher of Heyday Books 

Free 

1 p.m. 

10th & Oak Streets, Oakland 

238-2200, www. museumca.org 

In 1995, the year the Oklahoma City federal building was razed by an ex-soldier with a truckload of fertilizer, a small news item from a San Diego suburb surfaced in papers and on televisions across the country. A man named Shawn Nelson stole an army tank and went on a 23-minute joy ride through Clairmont, plowing over parked cars and streetlights like they were children’s toys. 

Video images of the tank, caught by a helicopter following the tank, were as disconcerting in pictures of destruction as they were disorienting: why is there a tank roaming a quiet American suburb? 

San Diego-native Garrett Scott, then a graduate student in Milwaukee, Wis., was told by a colleague about the odd story. The next day, Scott learned it happened in San Diego. “Everything clicked,” remembered Scott. “Of course he stole a tank in Clairmont.” 

That realization was the impetus for Scott’s first film project, “Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story,”, which will be screening this evening at the Pacific Film Archive.  

What was for the rest of the nation a freakish news item to chuckle about around the water cooler was a culminating gesture after a decade of social and economic decline in American’s military-industrial communities. 

Clairmont was established in 1952 as a residential community to cheaply house soldiers and factory workers after World War II. The Cold War insured a steady supply of federal money for manufacturing plants, trickling down to the factory workers who owned homes via the G.I. Bill. Like many small towns sparked by the military spending boom, Clairmont was a hard-working, blue-collar, conservative suburb where every generation’s expectation was to go into the military or get a comfortable, lucrative factory job. 

That expectation changed when the Berlin Wall came down. “Consequently you have an interruption in this cycle of continuous generations going in and out of the factories and building San Diego,” said Scott. 

Shawn Nelson was one of the many homeowners in Clairmont affected by these economic and social changes. He is the mysterious and absent center of Scott’s investigation of the town’s demise. Nelson didn’t survive his joy ride. After beaching the tank on a freeway’s concrete center divider, pursuing police opened the hatch and fired into the tank, killing Nelson. 

Nelson’s friends and neighbors trace a posthumous picture in “Cul de Sac,” supplying speculation and theorem to his actions while acting out of portrait of Clairmont. Scott said in his interviews he heard of government surveillance and Black Helicopter conspiracy theories. The film also takes us to a 25-foot mineshaft behind Nelson’s own backyard where he thought he had a gold vein. 

The mineshaft is shown in archival news footage wherein a local television reporter broadcast live from Nelson’s backyard after the rampage. Taciturn and irate neighbors, by turn, speak circularly or yell profanities at the reporter as if he were a prospector encroaching on a weirdly inhospitable wilderness. 

While making “Cul de Sac,” Scott learned firsthand the eccentricities of the depressed town. Clairmont, like all of San Diego and it’s surrounding counties, was at that time steeped in the drug crystal methamphetamine, a kind of speed that can be cooked up in crude labs and had reached epidemic proportions in San Diego in the 1980s and ‘90s. 

“People were animated or nervous and changed the subject every four or five seconds,” said Scott about many of the subjects featured in the film. “It can be confusing, and it was very confusing during the initial interviews. Then I started realizing everyone was high.” 

“Cul de Sac” does not mock or judge its subjects. The documentary’s cool investigation surrounding the “hot” imagery of the tank’s rampage is an earnest presentation of an eroding faith in government — a distrust that might be quietly eating away patriotism in other communities but burst on Clairmont with a gesture of “great symbolic power.”  

“The people who live in Clairmont feel tremendously alienated,” said Scott of the once-middle-class residents slipping into lower economic straits filled with drugs and crime. “This life was in stark contrast to their childhood. A lot of cloudy animosity was focused on the government as the main agent behind their alienation.” 

So, why did Shawn Nelson do it? Why would an ex-soldier whose income had been largely determined by government spending steal a tank for 23 minutes of pointless destruction? It can’t be easily or succinctly answered. Scott says that’s why he made the film. “The image of the tank in the suburbs is loaded in so many ways.”

Berkeley Police Chief Dash Butler says many things may be levied at the police department, but crookedness isn’t one of them. 

“It’s not in their make up, it’s not something that’s in our organizational environment that is accepted,” Butler said, adding that if police officers do not do their job in the city of Berkeley there will be carnage on the streets.  

But Monday, once again, the conduct of Berkeley Police Department officers were questioned. Two of the department’s special enforcement unit, high-profile narcotics and vice detectives, who, according to Butler, are on the frontlines of the fight against against crime, have been singled out by members of the community for crossing the line. 

Deborah Anne Cooper and Deborah Williams, employees of Clothes Spin on Sacramento Street said Monday they witnessed officers Crais Lindenaugh and Peter Hong wrongfully arrest of an unidentified African-American male and the apparent planting of evidence in the man’s vehicle. 

“We were standing within three feet of them,” Cooper said. “It was badge No. 129. He took him out of the car, put him in handcuffs. I looked inside the car and didn’t see anything on the car seats. Later, the police officer says to him, ‘You’ve got cocaine spilled all over the car.’  

“That’s when I saw all the powder spilled in the car,” she continued.  

Deborah Williams, another employee of Clothes Spin, said she also found the behavior of the officers somewhat suspect. 

“They must have planted that on him because he didn’t have nothing on him,” she said. 

This is not the first time allegations have sprung up regarding the behavior and performance of Lindenaugh and Hong. A narcotics investigation eventually ending up in the hands of the Police Review Commission was also tied back to the policing of Lindenaugh and Hong. Andrea Prtichett, a member of Cop Watch, a nonprofit police watchdog group, was deeply involved in the investigation of several allegations against the two officers — particularly that several apartments were destroyed during a narcotcs sting operation. The allegations in that situation were substantiated. 

“My first direct contact with officer Lindenaugh was through the Police Review Commission hearings. When I went through the UA apartments there was no doubt that they were destoryed, cabinets torn out of their place, everything was trashed. And Lindenaugh’s only explanation was that when you are looking for a booger size pievce of heroine you have to be very thorough and leave nothing unturned,” Prtichett said. “Basically substantiating the fact that they weren’t really looking for drug dealers but drug users.”  

But Butler argues that the vicing of drug use, drug trafficking, prostitution and theft is quite often a preventative measure for murder, asssault and rape.  

“We need to knock down drug trafficking because along with trafficking goes homicides, assults and all those other things,” Butler said. 

He also stated that there was no doubt in his mind whatsoever that the officers have in the past and continue to behave reputably. 

Head of the SEU, Capt. Allen Huyen echoed Butler’s remarks and stated that if he thought there was anything wrong with the policing of Lindenaugh or Hong he would personally have them removed. 

Butler offered a possible explanation to why the complaints seem to follow the two officers.  

“These guys are chasing the dope dealers. One way to get the black jackets off your back is to make personnel complaints against them.” Bulter said. 

“I can’t say we don’t do things wrong or make mistakes, but I can say that we have exceptional screening and recruiting. 

“These young fellows who have to deal with these dealers and drug traffickers have a tough road because just as being police officers is our job in life dealing drugs is theirs. And we have a choice to either make people in Cop Watch happy or people in the community happy.” 

City Councilmember Kriss Worhtington says that now more than ever it will be important for the city to fully utilize the Police Review Commission, Berkeley’s independent police governing arm. 

The citizen-run commission, has no official executive powers, but in the past it has created political and moral pressure upon the city to act. 

Recently there has been an unusuable amount of change on the commission. And Wrothington said in the past the commission has been the subject of manipulation by conservative members of the City Council. 

“I don’t think it is accurate to sat that is the case now,” Worhtington said. “But a few years ago, there was a concerted effort to abolish several commissions.” 

Worthington also stated that he personally finds it very curious that the same officers’s names keep creeping up in relationship to misconduct. 

“It gives one pause,” Worthington said. “In order to have the faith of the people we have to have a strong department. I would think it is very important that all the folks who have seen and heard this kind of stuff do their best to report it.” 

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net

SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings’ penchant for the dramatic apparently doesn’t extend beyond the court. They’ve taken much of the excitement out of the final days of the NBA’s regular season. 

With two weeks of perfect play, the Kings have roared past the champion Los Angeles Lakers and the rest of the league, all but wrapping up the NBA’s best record and their first Pacific Division title since moving to Northern California. 

Eight straight victories, including a perfect six-game road trip, have confirmed that the high-flying Kings (57-19) are more than entertaining: they’re legitimate contenders to the Lakers’ throne. 

“We expected to be in this position, but it’s pretty amazing when you finally get there,” said guard Bobby Jackson, a top candidate for the NBA’s Sixth Man award. “We’ve just been playing extremely well. Every time we go out, we expect to come away with another win.” 

After the Lakers’ gritty 97-96 victory at Arco Arena on March 24, Sacramento led L.A. by a half-game. Both teams expected a prolonged fight for the division crown, with a season-ending April 17 rematch at Staples Center possibly deciding it. 

But with a 116-82 drubbing of New York on Sunday night, the Kings stretched that lead to 3 1/2 games and reduced their magic number to three for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. With Shaquille O’Neal out of the lineup, the Lakers lost to the Celtics and the Nets last week. 

With just six games to play — all in California, and two against moribund Golden State — the Kings are likely to render that upcoming showdown with the champs all but meaningless except as a preview of a likely postseason meeting. 

“We’re playing well now, and I’m just going to go with this,” coach Rick Adelman said. “We’re playing with a lot of focus. This team has had a mission. When we went on that road trip, we wanted to establish ourselves. Now, we keep telling them that we’re in a position to do something special.” 

Franchise records for team excellence are falling almost daily in Sacramento. The Kings have more victories (57), home victories (34) and road victories (23) than any team in the franchise’s 54-year history. 

What’s more, the Kings are doing it with large doses of their famed style. The Knicks were in awe — and down by 43 points early in the third quarter — after Sacramento’s display of passing, shooting and flair. 

“We came into a place where we were meeting the No. 1 team,” Knicks guard Allan Houston said. “You have to play the perfect game.” 

Indeed, the Kings are nearly unbeatable (34-4) at home. Indiana was the only Eastern Conference team to win in Sacramento this season, and Dallas — which visits Arco Arena on Sunday — is the only other team that hasn’t succumbed in front of the Kings’ frenzied fans. 

“We expect to win now,” said Chris Webber, whose play has steadily improved despite constant questions about his collegiate involvement with a Michigan booster now under federal indictment for allegedly giving money to players. 

“This team comes into games expecting to win and be successful. We’ve matured a lot. We’re getting that feel and that confidence back.” 

The Kings still don’t know how they’ll avoid the fate of last spring’s regular-season champion, however. San Antonio was a league-best 58-24, but the Spurs were swept out of the Western Conference finals by the Lakers, just as the Kings were in the previous round. 

Sacramento might win the regular season, but nobody at Arco Arena — where the smell of the Kings’ mediocre history is fast disappearing — is taking any of this spectacular success for granted. 

“We’ve just got six games left,” Adelman said. “We’ve just got to win three of them, and we don’t have to worry about anybody else.” 

Editor: 

It is fuzzy-thinking that stands like a great boulder in the path of open discussion about the development of our community, not fear of change, as the League of Women Voters asserted in their 30-31 March letter. It’s a pity that the League’s "intensive study of housing in Berkeley" does not appear to have included the General Plan. If it had, the League would have noted, with respect to the re-zoning of the 1100 block on Hearst St., that the block’s density was not reduced by change from R-3 to R-2A zoning: both are "medium-density" under the General Plan, equating to 20-40 units per acre (same as under the 1977 Master Plan). What did change was the size of the building envelope possible without a Use Permit and public hearing. If proposed development is compatible with the surroundings, it surely will win approval. 

When the League laments that "our children,…those who work in Berkeley schools, in health care, in shops, restaurants, theatres and in all other services that make our city livable" will have no place to live because of "nay-sayers," who does it think lives on Hearst NOW?  

While northern California’s third densest city (official pop. 102,743) has some more room to welcome new residents, the League’s narrow assertion of a population decline over the last 3 decades has a broader context: 1) U.S. Census numbers show that virtually all of the decline occurred between 1970 and 1980, and 2) it is common knowledge that the Census missed some 4,500 students and several thousand other residents, thus suggesting that the City’s real population is probably close to the U.S. Census’s 1999 estimate of about 109,000—only 5,000 short of Berkeley’s all-time high. 

The General Plan (and its EIR) targets Berkeley’s future population at about 116,000, which is two-thirds more dense than Oakland is today. Yet, we estimate that the current densities discussed in the General Plan would embrace as many as 129,000 (at virtually the density of Chicago)! In how dense and congested a Berkeley will our children want to live? Berkeley is receiving applications for housing construction at over three times the pace necessary to meet General Plan and ABAG "fair share" housing goals. The City has been approving projects at an average180% of the new General Plan guidelines and now ponders almost a dozen proposed projects averaging almost 200% the those guidelines. Such unplanned densification betrays promised policies and the shared vision of the community. 

Will balancing jobs and housing more closely in Berkeley reduce commuting and congestion? Possibly. But that easy assumption is belied by the 57% of employed Berkeleyans who continue to commute to work outside Berkeley in spite of the present substantial surplus of Berkeley jobs over employed residents (a ratio ABAG expects to reach 42% by 2005). Where people choose to work and live is shaped by far more than just mutual proximity of jobs and homes.  

This community has provided a disproportionately generous share of housing over the decades. Housing is a regional issue, and a challenge to be shared particularly with those communities that are significantly less densely housed than Berkeley is now. Berkeley’s current housing has, on average, 59% more units per acre than Oakland, 74% more than Emeryville, and is more than four times as dense as Hayward! 

Berkeley, an already built-out city, cannot unilaterally solve the housing crunch. Yet, its contributions, past, present and planned for, deserve more credit than the League bestows.  

Howie Muir  

on behalf of the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations 

Berkeley Police are still investigating a sexual assault that occurred about 8 p.m. on Saturday. The incident reportedly happened at the Marina, though BPD spokesperson Capt. Bobby Miller would neither confirm nor deny the location, for fear of endangering the ongoing investigation. 

Miller said the suspect is described as a 25-year-old Latino male, standing 5 feet, eight inches tall and weighing 180 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes. Police believe the man was wearing blue jeans and a silver collar chain. 

The victim, a 40-year-old woman who lives in Oakland, called the police at 9:10 p.m. She was offered a ride by the suspect in a brown, 1970s-era, two-door car while shopping for groceries in East Oakland. She said she was then driven to the marina and raped twice. 

While it is unclear how she got from East Oakland to the Marina, Miller said, “It was certainly not through her own doing.” 

The detective bureau just began its investigation Monday, and has not yet arrested anyone, said Miller. Anyone with information about the case should call the sex crimes detail at (510) 981-5735.

Editor: 

Cal admitted 208 fewer applicants to the freshman class, a 2.7 percent decline from last year. Also, very few white males are getting in--more than two percent less than last year. They made up well over half the undergraduate population when I started Cal. Now, they're practically extinct--about 15 percent--from four times that percentage previously.  

There's no mention of any kind of minorities in the Daily Planet article, except the "underrepresented" kind. It's difficult to sort out, since the number of applicants isn't mentioned either.  

Richard Thompson,  

Cal alumnus 

Korea

Tuesday, April 9 is the 99th day of 2002. There are 266 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 9, 1942, American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulated to Japanese forces; the surrender was followed by the notorious “Bataan Death March” which claimed nearly 10,000 lives. 

On this date: 

In 1682, French explorer Robert La Salle reached the Mississippi River. 

In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. 

In 1939, singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

In 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. 

In 1947, a series of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 169 lives. 

In 1959, NASA announced the selection of America’s first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. 

In 1963, British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen. 

In 1965, the newly built Houston Astrodome featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees. (The Astros won, 2-to-1.) 

In 1993, the Rev. Benjamin Chavis was chosen to head the NAACP, succeeding Benjamin Hooks. 

In 1996, in a dramatic shift of purse-string power, President Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law. (However, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the veto as unconstitutional in 1998.) 

Ten years ago: Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges; he is serving a 30-year prison sentence. Britain’s Conservatives scored a come-from-behind national election victory, becoming the first British political party to win four straight elections this century. 

Five years ago: The CIA apologized to Gulf War veterans for failing to do a better job in supplying information to U.S. troops who blew up an Iraqi bunker later found to contain chemical weapons. Social Security officials pulled the plug on an Internet site that provided individual earnings and retirement benefit records amid privacy concerns. 

One year ago: President George W. Bush sent Congress details of his $1.96 trillion budget for fiscal 2002, in which he targeted scores of federal programs to make room for his 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut. American Airlines’ parent company acquired bankrupt Trans World Airlines, becoming America’s No. 1 carrier. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Stargell died in Wilmington, N.C., at age 61. 

Today’s Birthdays: Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is 76. Naturalist Jim Fowler is 70. Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 69. Actress Michael Learned is 63. Country singer Margo Smith is 60. Country singer Hal Ketchum is 49. Actor Dennis Quaid is 48. Humorist Jimmy Tingle is 47. Golfer Severiano Ballesteros is 45. Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 37. Actress Cynthia Nixon (“Sex and the City”) is 36. Rock singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox) is 33. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 23. Actor Ryan Northcott is 22. Actress Kristen Stewart (“Panic Room”) is 12.

Editor: 

According to Anthony Downs in his article Causes of Recent Increases in Traffic Congestion, to reduce traffic congestion requires either decreasing the benefits of automobile ownership or increasing that of the alternative options. By imposing charges on the already limited parking and issuing parking tickets frequently, Berkeley does a good job in discouraging driving. However, the city fails to provide adequate alternatives for people who are willing to get rid of their cars. 

Riding bike is one option to travel around in Berkeley, but bike lanes are often absent. Bicycles attempting to share the narrow, side-parked road with other cars results in dangerous situations and the slowing down of traffic due to yielding. Indeed, riding bike would be a desirable traveling option if it were safer. 

To reduce automobile travel, John Levy in his book Contemporary Urban Planning states that public transit needs to be improved. (p194) The scheduled frequency of buses in Berkeley ranges from every 15 to 30 minutes during weekdays. Nonetheless, to totally replace the use of automobile, transit service needs to be more frequent and reliable than what we have right now. Sparse distribution of bus-stop, long traveling time and unreliable schedule obstruct people from giving up driving. 

Some people, like Levy, might argue that public transportation is far from self-sustaining. Levy believes that for it to run properly requires a population density of at least two thousand persons per square mile. (p194) It is understandable that the city cannot provide better public transit due to the lack of users. However, if the city decides to restrict its growth and reduce automobile ownership at the same time, it needs to be more affordable and self-sufficient. Supermarkets for everyday need should be located within walking or short bus-taking distance in the residential area in Berkeley. 

Berkeley’s transportation planning needs to re-think in the direction of providing more and better alternative modes other than driving. Taking away citizens’ privilege to drive without giving them a substitutable traveling option is totally unjust. Penalty alone is not enough to make people to give up driving unless they have a comparable option. I sincerely hope the City of Berkeley can make wise use with their income from issuing parking tickets. 

Ching Lam 

Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO — The government fought a two-pronged battle in the drug war Monday, arguing in a federal appeals court that it can ban hemp foods and strip doctors of their licenses for recommending marijuana. 

In the case brought by the hemp industry, the Drug Enforcement Administration asked a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let it outlaw food products containing hemp. The court last month blocked the DEA from enforcing a ban it enacted in October, pending the outcome of the case. 

Hemp is an industrial plant related to marijuana. Fiber from hemp plants long has been used to make paper, clothing, rope and other products. Its oil is found in body-care products such as lotion, soap and cosmetics and in a host of foods, including energy bars, waffles, milk-free cheese, veggie burgers and bread. 

DEA attorney Daniel Dormont said the government banned food made with hemp because “there’s no way of knowing” whether some products may get consumers high. 

Hemp food sellers say their products are full of nutrition, not drugs. They say the food contains such a small amount of the active ingredient in marijuana that it’s impossible to get high. 

In October, the DEA declared that food products containing even trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol — the psychoactive chemical known as THC that is found in marijuana and sometimes in hemp — were banned under the Controlled Substances Act. 

The DEA ordered a halt in the production and distribution of all goods containing THC that were intended for human consumption. The DEA also ordered all such products destroyed or removed from the United States by March 18, but the 9th Circuit suspended that order so it could decide whether federal law may classify hemp food as an illegal controlled substance such as heroin. 

The court did not indicate when it would rule on either the hemp case, or a separate medical marijuana case judges also heard Monday. 

In that case before the same three-judge panel, the Department of Justice asked the court to lift a 2000 order that prohibits the government from threatening to revoke doctors’ federal licenses to dispense medication if they recommend marijuana to sick patients. 

Justice attorney Michael Stern said doctors are interfering with the drug war and circumventing the government’s judgment that marijuana has no medical benefits. 

Doctors who recommend marijuana in the eight states that have medical marijuana laws “will make it easier to obtain marijuana in violation of federal law,” he said. 

Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, told the court that the government was trying to stifle doctor-patient interactions. 

“That is speech that is protected by the First Amendment,” he argued. 

The case stems from an order by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who prohibited the Justice Department from revoking doctors’ licenses to dispense medication “merely because the doctor recommends medical marijuana to a patient based on a sincere medical judgment.” Alsup’s order also prevents federal agents “from initiating any investigation solely on that ground.” 

The case was an outgrowth of Proposition 215, which California voters approved in 1996. It allows patients to lawfully use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. 

Following the measure’s passage, the Clinton administration said that doctors who recommended marijuana would lose their federal licenses to prescribe medicine. He said the doctors would be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid and could face criminal charges. 

Other states with medical marijuana laws include Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. 

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court said clubs that sell marijuana to the sick with a doctor’s recommendation are breaking federal drug laws. Several pot clubs continue to operate in cities including San Francisco. 

In February, the government raided one San Francisco club and agents shut down a West Hollywood cannabis club in October. 

The cases are Hemp Industries Association v. Drug Enforcement Administration, 01-71662 and Conant v. Walters, 00-17222. 

HOUSTON — Enron Corp. couldn’t maintain its illusion as a swaggering energy giant without help from nine investment banks and two law firms, said attorneys who added them as defendants in a securities fraud lawsuit in Houston. 

“This fraud could not have been accomplished by a few corporate executives, no matter how dishonest or energetic they may have been,” lead attorney William Lerach said as the amended lawsuit was filed Monday. 

The 500-page complaint, filed on behalf of large investors and led by the University of California, said the banks and law firms raked in massive fees while financing and approving sham deals that hid debt and inflated profits. 

A second suit, on behalf of employees and retirees who lost their 401(k)s loaded with company stock when Enron collapsed, also named several banks and a law firm as defendants in a 294-page amended complaint filed Monday. 

Enron collapsed into bankruptcy last year, leaving thousands of workers jobless, amid a maze of alleged accounting abuses. 

“There were certainly rotten apples at Enron, but they couldn’t have done it without the active participation of professionals — lawyers, accountants and Wall Street,” said Steve Berman, the Seattle attorney in charge of the employees’ case. 

Both suits name Merrill Lynch & Co.; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Credit Suisse First Boston; and Citigroup Inc. The investor suit also names Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC); Bank of America Corp.; Barclays Bank PLC; Deutsche Bank AG and Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. 

Both suits name Enron’s chief outside law firm, Vinson & Elkins in Houston, and the investor suit also names Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis. Both also added Andersen Worldwide to the defendant list. 

The suits allege that the banks’ knowledge of questionable partnerships and other transactions gave them an inside view of Enron’s financial condition as they sold securities to investors. 

Those partnerships and transactions, backed by Enron stock and in part developed and funded by the banks, could hide debt and inflate profits as long as Enron maintained a high stock price, the lawsuits said. 

But when shares dropped, debt payments were triggered. The banks injected cash into Enron through various deals that the company used to maintain its image as a profit powerhouse, the suits said. 

Regarding the law firms, the suits allege that they knowingly approved questionable partnerships and financial deals and either wrote or approved false or misleading filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

“It defies logic to say that we profited from our relationship with Enron when we’ve already announced exposure of $2.6 million and losses so far of $453 million. We were damaged as well,” said J.P. Morgan spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau. J.P. Morgan is Enron’s largest creditor. 

“We believe there is no basis for this claim and we intend to vigorously defend against it,” said Merrill Lynch spokesman Joe Cohen. 

The other banks declined to comment or didn’t return calls. 

Andersen Worldwide said Monday that only its U.S. member firm did Enron work, and it “is the only proper defendant in claims relating to that audit opinion. Changes in Arthur Andersen LLP’s situation cannot be used to justify baseless claims against Andersen Worldwide SC or individual member firms.” 

Kirkland & Ellis said Monday the investor suit was “filled with flagrant misstatements,” and the firm “never represented Enron, had no responsibility for the accounting judgments ... and never invested in any of the partnerships or transactions at issue.” That firm and Vinson & Elkins said their work would be deemed proper when the facts are out. 

Enron spokesman Mark Palmer declined comment. 

The original investor lawsuit was filed in December shortly after Enron went bankrupt. It targeted current and former Enron officials who sold more than $1 billion in stock from October 1998 through last November. It also named Arthur Andersen, which was indicted last month for destroying Enron-related audit documents. 

Lerach said further investigation pointed to liability on the part of the banks and law firms. 

But experts said Andersen, facing the indictment, an exodus of clients and global partners and layoffs of 7,000 employees, doesn’t have the cash to settle big claims. The banks do. 

“They might have been included in the action anyway, but now with Enron and Arthur Andersen struggling financially, the bankers and lawyers are perceived as the remaining sources of funds that might pay off Enron’s shareholders,” said Frank Velie, a former New York federal prosecutor who now specializes in securities law and white-collar crime. 

Plaintiffs’ attorneys also have to prove participation, such as orchestrating a fraud scheme or writing false disclosures, said Joel Seligman, dean of the Washington University School of Law. 

“The real challenge is to discover whether those facts can be proven or if you’re dealing with someone who was passive and just read false information prepared by someone else,” he said. 

LOS ALTOS HILLS — Federal and county officials are investigating the cause of a fire that gutted a church with a large Middle Eastern congregation, forcing churchgoers to pray for peace in the street. 

A team from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was brought in Sunday to examine cause of the three-alarm fire that destroyed the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer. A passerby reported the fire to authorities just after 4:30 a.m. that day. 

Santa Clara County Fire Department spokesman Steve Gubber said the federal government’s presence is standard procedure for all church fires. The team includes a sniffing dog specially trained to detect fire accelerants, such as gasoline and chemicals to determine whether arson was the cause. 

The Reverend Samer Youssef said the church had not received any threats. The congregation worshiped at Cupertino’s St. Steven’s Antiochian Orthodox Church. Parishoners later stood outside the lost church to pray and hold a candlelight vigil 

“This is a house of god, and someone who’d want to set fire to a house of god — what kind of a person is that?” Youssef said. 

It took about 55 firefighters more than two hours to contain the fire, Gubber said. No one was inside the building, and no injuries were reported. The fire engulfed the church and later caused its roof to collapse, which will make it difficult for investigators to determine the cause, he said. 

The church did not have a sprinkler system and investigators believe the smoke alarm was not activated at the time the fire erupted.

WASHINGTON — Republican senators may abandon a vote in the Senate on oil drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, believing they would fall well short of the votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster, congressional and administration officials said Monday. 

Some senators believe they may have better success in getting the measure approved in negotiations later with the House, which already has voted for development of the refuge, these Republicans said. And a poor showing in the Senate could hurt those chances. 

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, made clear through a spokesman that he still intends to press the case in the Senate and is preparing an amendment to the energy bill that would open the refuge to oil development. 

Democrats have pledged to block the proposal and Republicans have come nowhere close to the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Some GOP senators are worried that they might not get even a majority. 

If that’s the case, according to several congressional sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, Republicans feel it may be better to make a stand when the Senate and House Energy bills are blended in a conference of both chambers. The House bill, approved last summer, already includes oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also known as ANWR. 

There are at least six Republicans who have gone on record opposing drilling in the refuge. So far only four Democrats have publicly said they favor oil and gas development there. 

According to government geologists, the 1.5 million acres of the refuge’s coastal plain may contain more than 11.6 billion barrels of oil in dozens of fields. That would be nearly as much as has been taken from the Prudhoe Bay oil field just to the west of the refuge. 

But to try to get wider support, some Republican senators have begun toying with the idea of scaling back lease sales to only the northwestern third of the coastal plain, where geologists believe 80 percent of the oil may be located. 

Drilling opponents, including Democratic Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry, in the past have said such scaled back development still threatens the refuge and would be strongly opposed. 

On Monday, the Interior Department produced a biological analysis that concluded that if oil development were limited to the northwestern one-third of the 1.5 million acre coastal plain, there would be minimal impact on the calving activities of Porcupine caribou — one of the issues most concerning to environmentalists. 

The new analysis was ordered after a government study, examining 12 years of research, concluded that caribou and other wildlife on the coastal plain were at risk and might be adversely affected by oil development. 

While the Bush administration still is urging oil lease sales in the entire 1.5 million acre plain, a senior Interior official suggested the new analysis would bolster the case for scaling back. 

A spokesman for Lieberman, Andy Kovacevich, said the senator questions the latest study’s conclusion that scaled-back development would protect the caribou. He said while the limitations would avoid serious impact in calving areas, the study did not take into account the fact the caribou usually migrate into the northwestern third of the coastal plain after giving birth. 

The Bush administration, meanwhile, pointed to Iraq’s announcement it would suspend oil exports for 30 days as evidence that the Arctic refuge should be opened to oil drilling. 

The Iraqi action “should remind us again of how our economy and national security are vulnerable to decisions made by countries abroad,” said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. 

Environmentalists have rejected the energy security argument, noting that no oil would flow from ANWR for 10 years. A recent Energy Department study suggested even then it would reduce imports only slightly. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: http://www.r7.fws.gov/nwr/arctic/arctic.html 

Arctic Power: http://www.anwr.org/ 

Alaska Wilderness League: http://www.alaskawild.org/ 

After a long and arduous wait, Earth First!, the environmental action movement, will have its day in court to sue the FBI and the Oakland Police Department for alleged civil rights violations. 

“We hope to see justice served. A victory in the case would be a significant  

benefit to not only to the Earth First! movement but for democracy itself,”  

says Dennis Fritzinger, a 20-year veteran of the Earth First! movement.  

Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were nearly killed on May 24, 1990 when a car bomb exploded under their seats as they drove through Oakland. 

Bari and Cherney began a lengthy legal battle against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department in 1991. Bari and Cherney accused the authorities of mishandling the investigation of the bombing by ignoring evidence and focusing suspicion too narrowly on the activists themselves. Bari and Cherney charged the FBI and the OPD with false arrest, illegal search and seizure and conspiracy to violate free speech rights. 

“I think this is an important time right now to stand up for civil liberties.  

We can't be intimidated by the FBI,” says James Ficklin, an organizer for Earth First!'s video collective HAVC. “Part of this case is to clear the name of Earth First!, but the larger part is social justice.”  

Many of Earth First! believe the FBI placed a cloud of suspicion above their heads with the charges and consequently tarnished the reputation of the organization.  

“Not enough people know the facts about the case because the mainstream media has spread misinformation. It is definitely an uphill task to educate the  

general public,” says Ficklin. 

But a true strike forward in that education process would be a victory in court. 

“A defeat would mean that the FBI can get away with anything. It would be a  

defeat for democracy,” says Fritzinger. 

“This is a battle, but the war is never ending, it is much broader,” he added. 

Supporters of Earth First! have been raising funds to support the lawsuit. They promise not to settle the case for money, but to allow the court to decide one way or another. 

The trial opens today before Judge Claudia Wilken at the U.S. District Court in Oakland. 

The two activists were organizing Redwood Summer, a series of peaceful protests against the destruction of old-growth forests, the day the bomb exploded. Cherney said he and Bari had received death threats. 

An anonymous letter writer claimed responsibility for the bombing in The  

Press Democrat of Santa Rosa soon after the event. The individual condemned Bari’s environmentalist views on religious grounds and described the construction and placement of the bomb in detail. 

Investigators sought criminal charges against Bari and Cherney nonetheless. The two were charged as Bari recovered in intensive care from a crushed pelvis, dislocated back, nerve damage and permanently numbed sexual organs. The FBI later dropped the charges due to lack of evidence. 

Earth First! has gained a reputation as one of the most outspoken, energetic environmentalist groups. Some members believe that reputation led to a conspiracy on the part of the FBI and police to wipe out the organization. 

Cherney insisted that Earth First! never injured anyone, and has a clear code of non-violence. He said he has never committed sabotage. 

Both sides claim a desire to uncover the truth behind the case. 

Attorneys defending law enforcement have sifted through thousands of pages of documents and conclude that the Earth First! claim is “long on arguments regarding conspiracies and short on proof.” 

Lawyers for the FBI and Oakland Police Department concede that the investigation of the bombing may have been flawed, but maintain that authorities had good reason to suspect the activists, and acted in good faith. 

For Earth First!, this case represents an opportunity to regain what has become a tarnished reputation. Despite her crippling injuries, Bari's greatest concern was always for the continued success of Earth First!'s environmental campaign to draw public attention to the crises facing the natural world. Bari died of cancer in 1997; her estate remains a party to the suit. 

According to spokesperson Robert Perez of the California League of Conservation Voters, Earth First!'s direct action approach including demonstrations and protests, represents only one avenue of expression regarding environmental causes. Perez explains, “There are numerous ways to express yourself. We have chosen the political arena, recommending candidates with environmental agendas and holding them accountable with our scorecards showing how they vote on environmental issues.” 

Perez claims that while his organization has remained in the political field,  

there is more than one way to make change happen as reflected by the efforts of Earth First! Perez cites, however, that the California League of Conservation Voters has not encountered conflict in its relationship with law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. 

Special Agent Andrew P. Black of the San Francisco Bureau of the FBI declined to comment on the Earth First! trial until the case had reached a conclusion. 

According to the Earth First! hotline, a kickoff demonstration is planned for noon on Monday at the Oakland courthouse. There will be both speakers and  

musicians at the event. Supporters of Earth First! are encouraged to proceed into the courthouse after the demonstration in a silent and respectful manner to show support for the case. 

A fund raiser for the trial was scheduled for Sunday night at Longhall including food and film shorts about the Judi Bari and the Earth First! case including the screening of “Viva Judi Bari.” 

Additional Film Screenings in memory of Judi Bari will be held April 20th at  

7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Church at the cross of Cedar and Bonita. 

To the Editor: 

This past week, the Hillel building was vandalized. This was not the first time hatred has touched the Jewish community at Berkeley. Students have been beaten and spat at, all within recent memory. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism has happened in the past and will inevitably happen in the future. 

Next week, Jews worldwide will commemorate the memory of the 6 million European Jews who were systematically exterminated during the 1940s. The Holocaust did not happen overnight. Years of brushed-off anti-Semitism and denial enabled the Jews to be oblivious until the very last minute, until they were forced to face the ghastly chimneys of Auschwitz concentration camp. 

Not only must we remember the victims, we also must remember the circumstances that brought to their annihilation. Every time a hate crime was committed, someone chose silence. Today, we too are looking the other way while a deplorable crime has been committed in the heart of our community. 

If we close our eyes to the hatred and do not act to eradicate it, we are no better than Europe; turning away while human beings were being slaughtered. 

Devora Liss 

Berkeley

Monday, April 8

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part one of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Tuesday, April 9

Respite Caregiver Volunteer Training 

9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 

Catholic Charities 

433 Jefferson St., Oakland 

Part two of a two day training for anyone interested in becoming a respite care volunteer. 768-3147, betty@cceb.org 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

9-5:30 p.m. 

Sultan Room 

Center for Middle Eastern Studies 

340 Stephen’s Hall, University of California at Berkeley 

Center for Jewish Studies and the UC Berkeley welcomes Robert Alter, on rhetoric in Deuteronomy and collective memory; Galit Hasan-Rokem, on midrash between experience and myth; Ron Hendel on memory and the Hebrew bible; Dina Stein on rabbinic discourse and the destruction of the temple and Yair Zakovitch on post-traumatic memory. 

For more information, call 649-2482. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Workshop 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave.  

The Fire Escape is Locked For Your Safety 

Wednesday, April 10

Toastmasters on Campus Club 

6:15 - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave. 

Free, on-going meetings 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.  

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar 

Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Award-winning poet, travel writer, author of Namako: Sea Cucumber and The Hand of Buddha) 

Topic: Mechanics of Travel Writing 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

For more information 843-6725 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil  

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley 

415-285-9734 

A Community Dialogue and  

Lecture on Islam 

7:30 p.m. 

Luthern Church of the Cross 

1744 University Ave. 

A presentation followed by a question and answer period. 848-1424.  

Proposed Amendment to  

Zoning Ordinance 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Proposal to prohibit the use of sharp material on top of fences in residential districts. Proposal to modify the Zoning Ordinance Amendment Process. 705-8189. 

Disaster Preparedness  

Awareness Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Speakers share their disaster experiences. Real life earthquake group activities. 883-5280, disasterresistant@ci.berkeley.ca.us.  

Thursday, April 11

Bicycle Maintenance 101 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Rodian Magri will teach participants how to perform basic adjustments on their bikes to keep them in good working condition. 527-7377  

Witnessing War 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall 

A speaking event co-sponsored by Doctors without Borders and UC  

Berkeley, International Human  

Rights Law Clinic, Boalt Hall School of Law. 643-7654. 

Scratching the Surface:  

Impressions of Planet Earth,  

from Hollywood to Shiraz 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Spring Travel Writer’s Seminar. 843-3533 

924 Gilman Apr. 12: Missing 23rd, Himsa, Bleeding Through, Belvedere; Apr. 13: Labrats, Damage Done; Apr. 19: Ludicra, Sbitch, Watch Them Die, Beware, Hate Mail Killer; Apr. 20: The Sick, All Bets Off, Vitamin X, Sharp Knife, Dead in the End; Apr. 21: Harum Scarum; Fleshies, Iowaska, Disobedience; Apr. 26: The Lawrence Arms, Taking Back Sunday, Before The Fall; Apr. 27: Pitch Black, Fall Silent, The Cause, The 86ers, As I; All shows begin a 8 p.m., most cost $5. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

The Albatross Apr. 9: Mad & Eddie Duran; Apr. 10: Farms in Berkeley; Apr. 13: 9:30 p.m., The Fourtet Jazz Group; Apr. 16: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Apr. 8: Renegade Sidemen; Apr: 9: Singers open mic; Apr. 10: Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet; Apr. 11: Hanif and The Sound Voagers; Apr. 12: Anna de Leon, 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Apr. 13: Ed Reed, 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Apr. 14: Choro Time; Apr. 15: Renegade Sidemen; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Apr. 9: Tim Rigney w/ Flambeau, $8; Apr. 10: Red Archibald & The Internationals, $8; Apr. 11: Alan Winston & The Mosoco Ceilidh Band, $8; Apr. 12: Drums of Passion, $15; Apr. 13: Gator Beat, $11; Check venue for showtimes, 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Apr. 8: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee; $4; Apr. 9: Filibuster, Mr. Q, $3; Apr. 10: Hebro, free; Apr. 11: Electronica w/ Ascension, $5; Apr. 12: Kofy Brown, Subterraneanz, $7; Stonecutters, $5, Apr. 14: Ted Ekman; Apr. 15: Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cal Performances Apr. 28: 3 p.m., The Silk Road Esemble presents music from China and Central Asia, $34; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Apr. 10: Irish Session; Apr. 14: Stiff Dead Cat; Apr. 17: Go Van Gogh; Apr. 21: The Backyard Party Band; Apr. 24: Vince Wallace Trio; Apr. 28: The Lost Trio; All shows 6 - 9 p.m., free. 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349, www.mrcato.com. 

Dotha’s Juke Joint at Everett and Jones Barbeque Apr. 12, 19, 26: Gwen Avery and The Blues Sistahs, $12, 8 and 10 p.m., 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668. 

Downtown Apr. 9: Aaron Greenblatt; Apr. 10: Dave Mathews; Apr. 12: The Hot Club of San Francisco; Apr. 13: Walter Earl; Apr. 14: Gary Rowe; Apr. 16: Mimi Fox; Apr. 17: Dred Scott; Apr. 19 and 20: Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut; Apr. 21: Gary Rowe; Apr. 23: Aaron Greenblatt; Apr. 24: Dave Mathews; Apr. 26: Joshi Marshall; Apr. 27: Danny Caron; Apr. 30: The Ned Boynton Combo; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810. 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661. 

Fellowship Cafe Apr. 19: 7:30 p.m., open mic, $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar, 540-0898. 

Freight & Salvage Apr. 10: Martin Carthy; Apr. 11: Bryan Bowers; Apr. 12: Fiddlers 4, Michael Doucet, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky & Rushad Eggleston; Apr. 13: Scheryl Wheeler; Apr. 14: John Gorka; Apr. 15: Bob Paisley & The Southern Grass; $15.50 - $19.50, 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

The Starry Plough Apr. 8: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music), free; Apr. 9: 9 p.m., Bonnie Price Billy, RainYwood, $12; Apr. 10: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $7; Apr. 11: Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Will Bernard Trio, $6; Apr. 14: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session; Apr. 15: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music), free; Apr. 16: open mic, free; Apr. 17: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $7; Apr. 18: 9:30 p.m., Dallas Wayne, Amy Rigby, $6; Apr. 19: 9:30 p.m., Tempest, Brazen Hussey, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Borealis Wind Quintet Apr. 13: 7:30 p.m., $25 - $35, Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland, 451-0775, www.ticketweb.com. 

The Texas Twisters Blues Band Apr. 20: 9 p.m., Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 663-0440. 

“Merrily We Roll Along” Through Apr. 21: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., BareStage Productions presents a musical comedy told in reverse tracing a famous songwriter and film producer back though his career to his youthful beginnings as a struggling artist. $8 - $10. UC Berkeley Choral Rehearsal Hall, 72 Cesar Chavez Center, 642-3880. 

“Pericles, Prince of Tyre” Through May 4: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., William Shakespeare’s tale of lost hopes and love regained. Directed by Jon Wai-keung Lowe. $14. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, 234-6046. 

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Apr. 12 through May 11: Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Eugene O’Neill’s story of the Tyrone family. Directed by Jean-Marie Apostolides. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., 528-5620, www.actorsensembleofberkeley.com.  

“Homebody/Kabul” Apr. 24 - June 23: Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Tony Kushner’s play about a women who disappears in Afghanistan and the husband and daughter’s attempts to find her. $38-$54. Call ahead for times, 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.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. 

Pacific Film Archive Apr. 8: 3 p.m., Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 7 p.m., In the Realm of the Senses; Apr. 9: 7:30 p.m., Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412

Girls shine for St. Mary’s at OAL Invitional, while Panther boys continue to improve 

The St. Mary’s girls continued their outstanding start to the track & field season on Saturday at the OAL Invitational, as they won five individual events and one relay. 

The meet, held at Edwards Stadium on the Cal campus, was host to most of Northern California’s top teams and was a good warmup for the Arcadia Invitational next week, which will draw the state’s top performers. 

Danielle Stokes had the most impressive day for the Panthers, winning both hurdles races and running in the team’s second-place sprint medley team. Saturday was yet another showdown between Stokes and James Logan’s Talia Stewart in the intermediate hurdles, and Stokes came out on top by a scant .04 of a second. Stewart beat Stokes last weekend at the Stanford Invitational, putting up the best time in the state so far this season, but the St. Mary’s senior made it hard to pick a favorite at Arcadia. 

“It feels good to beat her today, but our times weren’t as fast as (at Stanford),” Stokes said. “I hope for a personal record more than worrying about who I’m running against.” 

Stokes cruised to a win in the 300-meter hurdles, winning by nearly 10 yards despite it being the first time she has run the race this season. 

The other double on the girls’ side came from a thoroughly unsurprising source: Kamaiya Warren. One of the state’s top throwers, Warren easily took the shotput and discus titles on Saturday, but the manner in which she did so was a change-up. After setting personal records in the shotput at the previous two meets, Warren struggled in the event, while she had her longest throw of the season, 150’5”, in the discus. The senior had no explanation for the reversal, although a lack of serious competition in either event may have thrown her off. 

“I’ve been practicing both events the same amount,” she said. “My coaches told me I’ve been thinking about technique in the discus too much, so I just let it go today.” 

Bridget Duffy won the other individual title for St. Mary’s in the 3,200-meter run. Duffy ran out to a quick lead and set the pace for the first four laps, then fell back to the pack before pulling away on the final lap. St. Mary’s distance coach Dennis Mohun indicated that wasn’t exactly Duffy’s game plan, but she still won the race going away despite sitting for nearly six hours between events. 

After setting a new state mark in the distance medley at Stanford last weekend, the Panthers were the clear favorite in the 4x800-meter relay on Saturday. But no one could have predicted that Duffy would give her team an 80-meter lead after the opening leg, and her teammates just had to maintain that margin. Gabriela Rios-Sotelo, Willa Porter and Parris Vega did just that, finishing the race with the third-fastest time in the state. Mohun said his team might have challenged the state mark if they had been pushed at all by the competition. 

The only disappointment on the girls’ side was that they didn’t take the team title, due to the heavier weight given to the relays, which James Logan dominated. 

“We had come stellar individual performances today,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “We have a lot of quality, but we can’t match the depth of Logan (which has more than 3,000 students while St. Mary’s has just over 600).” 

Tiffany Johnson finished second in the long jump with an 18’3” effort, the same distance as her winning jump at Stanford. She scratched out of the triple jump due to some stiffness, and came in sixth among a stacked field in the 100-meter dash. But Lawson is optimistic about next week’s big event. 

“A lot of times you feel like you have a lot of potential going into a season, but right now all the girls are performing at their best, getting personal records,” Lawson said. “We can’t be in any better position heading down to Arcadia.” 

The St. Mary’s boys managed to avoid any disaster like Steve Murphy’s two false starts at Stanford, but got just two wins, both from Solomon Welch.  

The Stanford-bound senior has yet to lose a jumping event in California this season, winning both the long and triple with good jumps in the early rounds. While he wasn’t pleased with his efforts on Saturday despite winning both events, Welch said he’s ready to face the tough field at Arcadia. 

“My best competition will all be there, even some guys who can out-jump me,” he said. “I like to have competition.” 

Welch was left out of the 100-meter hurdles due to a paperwork error, and felt that hurt his jumps. 

“When I run hurdles, that’s when I get my personal records (in the jumps), because it gets me into a running mode,” Welch said. “I’m not really happy with my marks. I’ve been jumping that far since I was a sophomore.” 

The boys’ sprint medley team matched the girls’ second-place finish in the sprint medley, then finished second in the 4x200 relay as well, but the Panthers didn’t do much individually. Jason Bolden-Anderson had their highest singles finish, third in the 100-meter hurdles. Chris Dunbar continued his slow return from a pair of hamstring injuries, running in the slow flight of the 400-meter race, and Omarr Flood and Courtney Brown were deterred by the absence of the 200-meter dash at the Invitational. 

“This was the first meet where I felt like we’re beginning to run well,” Lawson said of the boys. “I feel like training-wise, we’re still a few weeks away from getting to the top of our game. By early May, we should be able to show some people something.”

Berkeley celebrates grand re-opening of larger, renovated Central Library  

Thousands of residents, travelers and especially students swarmed the grand re-opening of the Berkeley Public Library Saturday morning, evoking images of student demonstrations of the past while setting the stage for future student book reports of the future. 

By the time the library opened the crowd was so dense that it took some 20 minutes to get everyone inside the state-of-the-art five-story facility. 

Mayor Shirley Dean conveyed popular sentiment when she asked the attentive audience, "Is this a great library?” 

“Great cities make great libraries and great libraries make great cities,” Dean said. “This will serve the library-hungry community for the next 50 years. Here you will find the answers and the questions.” 

As Dean beamed, members of the street theater group Wise Fool dazzled onlookers, towering above them on stilts. On the backs of the Wise Fools’ shirts, green signs read simply, “Berkeley Public Library.” 

Standing at the podium addressing the thousands of people, library trustee Kevin James thanked the hundreds of workers for the hundreds of thousands of working hours they put in. 

“Every single member of that staff has made significant contributions,” James said. 

James also thanked the residents of Berkeley: “Our informed public is essential to a democracy.” 

James challenged naysayers who say “that libraries are becoming obsolete (and that) Berkeley is too divided politically and culturally to accomplish anything.” 

Ten-year journey 

Central Library’s renovation began in 1992. Architect Cynthia Ripley was commissioned to study methods of expanding and modernizing the landmark building, which is listed the National Register of Historic Places. It was concluded that the original reading room, lobby and two-story reference and children’s rooms should be renovated, and 70,000 square feet added. 

Berkeley approved $30 million in project funding when it passed Measure S in 1996. Additional funds were also raised toward the $39 million total. 

Saturday’s huge turnout comes on the heels of a large-scale public relations and advertising campaign involving 4,000 personal invitations and announcements to every home in Berkeley - a city of more than 100,000 residents - according to Library Manager Diane Davenport. 

“I’m not sure we knew that there would be this many,” Davenport said. “We are here for a public that really supports us.” 

The old library closed in November 1998, and reopened a year and a half after initial projections – but to open arms. 

An analysis in 1998 ranked Berkeley first in per-capita library usage among the state’s 33 largest cities. That statistic was underscored by such regular users as Esther Davies. 

“I’ve been waiting for this with my nose pressed to the door,” Davies said. 

Historical site 

The Berkeley Public Library originated on Shattuck Avenue in 1893 as a storefront and has undergone numerous transformations and expansions since. In 1931, during the Great Depression, the library was moved to its current location. Its Art Deco architecture, spawned in Paris in the 1920s, recalls other American buildings such as those in the trendy South Beach section of Miami Beach, Fla. 

The temporary Berkeley Public Library, located at 2121 Allston Way, closed on Feb. 28. The new facility, at 2090 Kittredge St., shines in contrast to the older architecture surrounding it. Inside, two large columns provide the backdrop to the windows that go several floors up above the front doors. 

Thousands of people filled in behind the windows and viewed the mixing of new construction and what is left of the old library, including the oak tables and restored marble. 

Among the swarm of people young and old was Project Manager Elena Engel, carrying a big smile and a bouquet of flowers. 

“We knew people were dying to come and see the library,” Engel said. “People in Berkeley are going to really enjoy this.” 

Of particular enjoyment to many of the attendees were the seven miles of bookshelves containing books, videos, CDs, cassettes and DVDs, among other material. Internet-accessible computers are spread throughout the public areas and in an electronic classroom, showcasing a merger of new and old research and educational methods. 

Alice Walker’s “goddess” 

The public enthusiastically welcomed renowned author and keynote speaker Alice Walker to the Reading Room on the second floor. The crowd grew so large that people were listening to her speech on the stairs to the first floor. Cheers came frequently, often from people who could not even see Walker on stage. 

“I’m really glad to be in a city that is guarded by women,” Walker said. “The library is always protected by a goddess. The goddess of attainable knowledge lives in this building.” 

The community will be worshipping that goddess in the coming years. 

To the Editor: 

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) recently released their 2001 National Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard claims to demonstrate which elected officials had a pro-environment voting record in 2001 and which did not. However, important environmental votes were actually ignored in the scorecard while other issues, including abortion and campaign reform, were included. 

Non-environmental votes included opposition to limiting federal family planning grants to overseas organizations to those that do not carry out abortions and support for Sen. John McCain's campaign finance reform bill. 

This rigging of the scorecard resulted in artificially high scores for liberal elected officials while providing support for the liberal stance on abortion and campaign reform. 

The LCV's scorecard betrays LCV's liberalism and seems to be designed to provide high “environmental” scores to liberal elected officials and lower ones to moderates and conservatives, regardless of their votes on the full range of environmental issues. 

I'm tired of the media promoting liberalism in the guise of protecting the environment. This “scorecard” from the League of Conservation Voters is just one more example. 

Danny W. Critser 

Berkeley 

Israeli government officials have blocked approximately half of the messages originating from the Berkeley-based Web site www.progressiveportal.com, but founder Steve Freedkin is still looking for alternative avenues to get them through. 

During wartime, free speech is quite often deeply debated; its limitations are at times questioned; some would even argue that its spirit is trampled upon. But the question remains, when does the right of one to speak freely violate the civil liberties of another or, as it is often argued in Washington, D.C., threaten national security? 

For Steve Freedkin, this argument is a moot point. His Web site www.progressiveportal.com is a medium to send messages to Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. government officials — and communication with public officials is not the same as with private citizens. 

But even still, as the reporting of anti-Semitism increases in light of the intensified conflict in the Middle East, some may wonder if free speech is being misused.  

Though Freedkin says he does not feel the responsibility to read through the hundreds of thousands of messages that move through his portal, would he be more willing to act if hatred and not peace were the dominant theme? 

Freedkin has received one message from a member of the Israeli legislature in response to the many thousand e-mail messages he has received thanks to Progressive Portal and it was quite civil in tone, according to Freedkin. 

“He says I appreciate your messages but we are fighting for our lives,” Freedkin said paraphrasing the message. 

At present, Freedkin is exploring various technological avenues to get the messages through, and says that he believes he has found a way to deliver the majority of them. But he says that after he delivers them, he will not launch a similar campaign. 

He also concedes that his portal has occasionally been used to spout hateful messages. 

“It’s part of the democratic process, it’s speech,” Freedkin said. “Sure, there’s a certain amount of responsibility but not enough to where I have to sift through hundreds of thousands of messages to ensure that one or two of them are not violent in tone. Progressive Portal provides a sample text but users are allowed to edit the message and replace it with their own. The sample text for the letters to officials of Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, and the United States calls for all sides to de-escalate the violence. Users may edit the text as they wish before sending. 

“I’m perfectly willing to allow an occasional person to use Progressive Portal whose ideas are different from mine.” 

But more than 100,000 messages have already gotten through to members of the Israeli legislature as well as Palestinian diplomats, U.S. President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell. At present, it appears that only the Israeli government officials have blocked the messages; Progressive Portal operators discovered this on Friday. Freedkin said that a number of Israeli officials are continuing to receive the messages. 

“Some of them have been locked out but we are looking for a way to get them in,” Freedkin said. “They have only locked out certain avenues of getting our messages to them.” 

In fewer than nine days, more than 200,000 messages were sent by users from around the world, according to Freedkin.  

Freedkin stated he has not received any complaints about hateful messages coming across his portal this time around but did receive complaints when it was used last year to help dismantle the board of the Pacifica Radio Network. 

And he said he has not read anything that is derogatory to the Israelis as a people or the Palestinians as a people. 

“It appears the Israeli government began blocking messages from our system to many of its addresses at approximately 9:53 a.m. Pacific time on Friday,” said Brent Emerson, System Administrator of TechForPeople.net, the Oakland-based Internet service that hosts Progressive Portal and several other non-profit Web sites. 

“Approximately 52,765 messages have been blocked,” Emerson added. “However, quite a few Israeli government addresses have not been blocked, and those messages continue to be delivered.” 

To the Editor: 

Social Security is a system in crisis. While today there are enough taxes coming in to pay current benefits, a little more than a decade from now that won’t be the case.  

The only way to save Social Security for generations to come, and give all Americans a better deal on their payroll tax dollar, is to enact individually owned and controlled personal retirement accounts (PRAs).  

Current retirees have put decades of trust in Social Security, and any reform should not affect them. However, younger workers need the power of compound interest that only private capital markets can provide. 

Some politicians try to scare seniors by saying that PRAs will mean a cut in benefits—nothing could be further from the truth. PRAs ensure that Social Security will be around for decades to come, and that the draconian payroll tax hikes or benefit cuts that will be needed without reform can be averted. 

Troy Lister 

Berkeley 

To the Editor: 

Today is Monday, April 8, the 98th day of 2002. There are 267 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. 

On this date: 

In 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. 

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration was approved by Congress. 

In 1946, the League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time. 

In 1950, ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London. 

In 1952, President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike. 

In 1970, the Senate rejected President Nixon’s nomination of G. Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died at his home near Mougins, France, at age 91. 

In 1981, Gen. Omar N. Bradley died in New York at age 88. 

In 1990, Ryan White, the teen-age AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18. 

In 1994, Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27. 

Ten years ago: Tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news conference that he had AIDS, saying he was forced to go public because a newspaper had inquired about his health. (Ashe died in February 1993 of AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49.) 

Five years ago: The space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth, ending a mission cut three-quarters short by a defective generator. The Vatican chose Archbishop Francis George of Portland, Ore., to head the Archdiocese of Chicago, succeeding the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro died in Danbury, Conn., at age 49. 

One year ago: U.S. officials said President Bush was sending a letter to the wife of a missing Chinese fighter pilot as a humanitarian gesture. (The pilot’s plane had collided with a U.S. spy plane, forcing the spy plane to make an emergency landing in China.) Tiger Woods won the Masters for his fourth straight major title in a span of 294 days. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Former first lady Betty Ford is 84. Opera singer Franco Corelli is 79. Comedian Shecky Greene is 76. Lyricist Fred Ebb is 69. Actor Klaus Lowitsch is 66. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh is 65. Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek is 62. Singer J.J. Jackson is 61. Singer Peggy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 61. Actor Hywel Bennett is 58. Actor Stuart Pankin is 56. Rock musician Steve Howe (Yes) is 55. Actor John Schneider is 48. All-Star catcher Gary Carter is 48. Rock musician Izzy Stradlin is 40. Singer Julian Lennon is 39. Rock singer-musician Donita Sparks (L7) is 39. Rapper Biz Markie is 38. Actress Robin Wright Penn is 36. Actress Patricia Arquette is 34. Rock singer Craig Honeycutt (Everything) is 32. Rock musician Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five) is 31. Actor Taran Noah Smith is 18. Actress Kirsten Storms (“Days of Our Lives”) is 18.

For over a month, the City of Berkeley has posted barriers on the 2200 block of Derby Street reading “no parking” for a certain period in front of six of our houses. At the end of the period they added two weeks to the prohibition. They did this a third time. During this time no work was done. Now they have changed the signs to “no parking” until Dec. 2. 

Still no work has been done and no one in the city has responded to numerous calls asking what is going on. 

Parking is very tight in our neighborhood and the loss of spaces creates a big problem. 

This may seem a small matter affecting only a few people but it is indicative of the city's complete indifference to its citizens. They have an obligation to at least explain their plans. 

Nancy Ward 

Berkeley 

To the Editor: 

With the U.S. as mediator, the suppression of the Palestinian people cannot end because the United States is not a neutral party. The United States is Israel's financial sponsor and Israel serves as a permanent United States surrogate for military dominance of the oil dictatorships of the area. The United States does not support a free and independent Palestine. 

Three decades ago the Vietnamese communists refused to negotiate with a succession of South Vietnamese governments because they knew that the United States was behind those governments and that they needed to expose that reality in order to gain a settlement. Once Henry Kissinger was negotiating at the table in Paris the Vietnamese knew that they would get the U.S. troops and bombers out of Vietnam. 

In Palestine the situation is different but the same. Different because Israel is not a U.S. puppet. It is a U.S. surrogate. Israel must be at any peace table as an independent nation, but the way to peace is still with the United States and Israel at the same side of the table out in public, not with the United States pretending to be peace mediator. 

Mediation isn't even the correct terms for this negotiation process. Destruction of Palestine as a people and culture will continue until there is a neutral arbitrator to guarantee a just two state political settlement. 

So far the United Nations seems unwilling to tell the United States to move to one side of the table and cut the bull. 

Marc Sapir 

LOS ANGELES — Escalating violence in the Middle East over the weekend spurred heated demonstrations throughout the state and across the country Sunday afternoon, with protesters screaming chants, torching flags and even scuffling over their beliefs. 

Some 2,000 demonstrators waved signs and chanted “Arafat’s a Terrorist!” at a raucous pro-Israel demonstration outside the federal building in west Los Angeles. 

At one point pro-Palestine counter-demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags tussled with demonstrators, but police said there were no reports of major disturbances. 

In San Francisco, close to 500 pro-Palestine demonstrators took to the streets near San Francisco State University for several hours, yelling chants, burning paper Israeli flags and even grabbing an Israeli flag out of the hands of a passing motorist who lofted it from her sunroof. 

“Sharon, Sharon you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” they screamed to a chorus of honks and beeps from passing cars. One Israel supporter carrying the country’s flag charged the crowd, prompting police to break up a brief scuffle that followed. 

Fresno police investigating 51-year-old woman’s claim of 1969 incident 

FRESNO – Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, already under fire for his handling of sexual abuse allegations against other priests in the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese, is now confronting accusations of his own. 

Lt. Michael Guthrie of the Fresno Police Department confirmed Saturday that an investigation involving Mahony was under way. Mahony said he was cooperating fully with police. 

Flora Mae Hickman, 51, of Fresno, claims she was molested by Mahony while a student at San Joaquin Memorial Catholic High School in 1969. But contacted Saturday, Hickman offered no details of what she claims Mahony actually did. 

Mahony revealed the accusation, and denied it, in a three-page statement on Friday night. 

“My personal integrity and reputation demand that I take all possible steps to refute this false allegation,” Mahony said. 

Mahony’s statement came as more accusations against Catholic priests surfaced nationwide, including Saturday’s admission by the Sacramento Diocese that 14 priests have been accused of sexual misconduct with children over the past 30 years. 

Mahony issued his statement after a Los Angeles radio station obtained and quoted from church e-mails about abuse cases that refer briefly to the woman’s claim, which she first made to the pastor of St. John’s Cathedral in Fresno on March 20. 

Hickman told The Associated Press on Saturday she was knocked unconscious while fighting with students and woke to find the “bottom” portion of her clothing removed and Mahony, then a monsignor in Fresno, “over her.” 

Hickman also said she is taking medication for depression and has been told by a psychiatrist that she is a paranoid schizophrenic. She said she could not remember many details of what happened. 

The AP does not normally identify alleged victims in sexual assault cases, but Hickman gave permission for her name to be used. Her name was also included in Mahony’s statement. 

On Thursday, confidential e-mails between Mahony and his staff, including his lawyers, were obtained by radio station KFI. The e-mails contained numerous references to the sexual abuse scandal and Mahony’s concerns about the way the archdiocese was responding to it. 

Attorneys for the archdiocese lost a late-night court hearing Thursday to keep KFI and the Los Angeles Times from quoting from the e-mails. 

Despite saying she could not remember details, Hickman insisted Saturday the charges are true and that the incident caused her to lose her faith. 

“I’m not making this up. I know this is a serious allegation. This has been eating at me. I did call police when I was out of high school. They didn’t believe me,” she said. 

Hickman also told of another incident involving Mahony during which she claims he hit her. Both incidents occurred between 1969 and when she graduated in 1970, Hickman said. 

A 1970 San Joaquin Memorial Catholic High School yearbook contains a photo of Hickman, confirming she was a member of the graduating class that year. 

Mahony, 66, became the head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1985 and was elevated to Cardinal in 1991. 

The internal e-mails he wrote during the past two weeks reveal his concerns over the church’s response to sexual abuse allegations in the archdiocese, which serves 5 million Catholics in three Southern California counties. 

Los Angeles police have said they are investigating reports that the diocese has removed six to 12 priests accused of sexual abuse in cases dating back 10 years. The e-mails suggest the number of priests removed is eight. 

In one e-mail, Mahony wrote that the archdiocese erred in failing to turn over the names of three of those priests to police. 

“It was a huge mistake on our part,” Mahony wrote on March 27 to his attorney, Sister Judith Ann Murphy. “If we don’t, today, ’consult’ with the detective about those three names, I can guarantee you that I will get hauled into a grand jury proceeding and I will be forced to give all the names, etc.” 

The names of the priests have now been turned over to police. 

Church officials said the e-mails were illegally obtained. FBI officials said they were investigating but would not provide further details Saturday.

SANTA CRUZ — A proposed peace park has spawned a heated battle among residents, prompting the city council to hire a professional facilitator to calm tensions. 

The bitter debate started when the city approved $93,000 to improve the downtown Town Clock traffic island and dedicate it to lifelong peace activist Doug Rand, who died of a brain tumor two years ago. 

One side of the debate wants to memorialize Rand and civilian war casualties through an interpretive display containing war rubble. 

The others don’t want public funds devoted to a park they say isn’t really about peace, but is actually an officially sanctioned anti-war demonstration. 

Since the park was approved, the city has received negative e-mails, calls and letters about the proposed park. Critics have collected 500 signatures demanding more discussion. 

Above all, critics say, the park is suffering from bad timing. Even before the park was proposed, some Santa Cruz residents were furious at the council’s consideration of an anti-war resolution following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which did not pass. 

Since the attacks, many peace activists say they’ve been forced to defend themselves against charges of being unpatriotic. 

But others say that extreme pacifism is a part of life in Santa Cruz. 

“We have a surfing sculpture, a golf course, a skate park,” said Sue Powell of the city-appointed Peace Park Committee. “A peace park is just one part of the fabric of our city. The belief behind it is the belief of a segment of the community. It belongs here.” 

SACRAMENTO – Through complaints with the federal government and a mobilized cadre of lawyers, the state of California is trying to shed some of the long-term power contracts tying it to much higher than market rates. 

When he made the deals last year, Gov. Gray Davis called them a force to stabilize the state’s volatile energy market. Since then, however, the state has tried a variety of tactics to poke holes in those contracts and get a better deal. 

But that’s happening in a tenuous utility environment in which many companies are wallowing in Enron-related accounting problems and trying to stabilize their sagging finances. 

San Jose-based Calpine Corp. has four of 56 long-term contracts with the state, worth about $11.7 billion of the $43 billion total. Those deals have Calpine set to provide about 25 percent of the power under the long-term contracts. 

But the Department of Water Resources has been negotiating hard with Calpine to change the terms. Both sides said Friday they had no deal. 

“We are close, but we’ve been close before,” said Oscar Hidalgo, DWR spokesman. 

However, since the deals were signed, Calpine has faltered. Standard & Poor’s downgraded its credit rating to junk status, because of its large debts and concerns renegotiated energy deals with the state could cut badly needed revenues. 

That means Calpine really has nothing to offer the state, said University of California, Irvine, economist Peter Navarro. Any new deal Davis would reach with Calpine would have little meaning. 

Calpine, spokesman Bill Highlander said, is still “very stable.” 

The state started buying power in January 2001, after three utilities amassed billions of dollars in debts due to high wholesale costs and couldn’t buy energy for their customers. Davis said the long-term deals tamed the market and provide reliable supplies. 

Since then, wholesale electricity prices have dropped to less than half the $69 per megawatt hour average of the long-term deals, leading critics to say the state was rolled by the power companies and stuck consumers with a decade’s worth of high prices. 

In February, the state asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to review some of the deals, saying the power sellers charged unfair prices and used illegal tactics to drive them higher. The state Electricity Oversight Board and the Public Utilities Commission want the contracts’ costs cut by $21 million. 

Energy sellers say the contracts are fair given the cost of energy at the time. Instead, said Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers, the state has buyer’s remorse, which is discouraging companies from investing in California. 

Also, fallout from the collapse of bankrupt energy giant Enron is making it hard for generators to find money to build power plants, Smutny-Jones said. That could lead to another energy crunch in two or three years. 

Concern over a future shortage of generation is why the state tied about 70 percent of the long-term contracts to the building of new plants, Hidalgo said. 

Whether the contracts actually require energy companies to build a plant is open to interpretation. A recent Bureau of State Audits report found the contracts “typically do not impose the substantial penalty of termination for failure to build such generation ...” 

That hasn’t stopped DWR attorneys from telling Sempra Energy Resources, which holds a $7 billion deal, that it hasn’t lived up to its contract and may lose it because it hadn’t brought a 300-megawatt power plant online by April. 

Sempra responded by saying that plant could have been part of a larger, cleaner facility being built in Bakersfield. Sempra just decided not to operate the smaller plant while the larger one was being built, spokesman Tom Murnane said. 

Also, Murnane said, the contract doesn’t require Sempra to build anything, while the state claims the contract requires the company to have the plant working now. 

In fact, Hidalgo said, the promised new plant was the reason the state agreed to pay Sempra $160 a megawatt hour. 

Sempra president Michael Niggli said the state is just playing “political games” to break the contract. 

Sheldon Shultz, the owner of a biomass plant in Soledad, agreed. 

The DWR canceled a five-year, $35 million contract with Soledad Energy last week, saying the company had only supplied 30 percent of the power they were supposed to sell the state in the last several months. 

A mechanical problem has slowed production at the plant, Shultz said, and would have been fixed soon. 

Instead, he said, the state gave him a “take-it-or-leave-it offer” that would cut Soledad’s rate to below cost. That’s because of “the political pressure on the governor and the governor’s pressure on the agency to do something.” 

Among California’s power woes, his 13-megawatt biomass plant “isn’t on anyone’s radar,” he said, but since the state is his only customer, he shut the plant down and laid off 21 workers. “We’re a mouse in a battle of elephants and I guess we didn’t get out of the way.”

LOS ANGELES – Executives of Edison International were given bonuses in 2001 after the company, parent to troubled utility Southern California Edison, climbed out of debt and dodged bankruptcy. 

Chief executive John Bryson received compensation of $3.2 million in 2001, including his $950,000 salary, a bonus of $1.35 million and other compensation, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

In 2000, Bryson was paid only his salary, compared with salary and bonus totaling $2.16 million in 1999. He received 1.27 million stock options in 2000. No options were awarded last year. 

Stephen Frank, chief executive of SoCal Edison, received $1.2 million in 2001, including his salary of $611,000 and a bonus of $585,000. Frank received only his salary in 2000. 

In awarding Bryson’s bonus, the board of directors’ compensation committee cited his “solid and focused leadership in guiding the companies through the California power crisis.” 

In light of that crisis, the board decided not to award merit salary increases to company executives in 2002. 

After plunging into debt in 2001 for power purchased the previous year, Edison was able to pay its creditors last month. The utility accumulated significant revenue after it settled a federal lawsuit with the California Public Utilities Commission. 

That deal maintains rate increases for electricity for several years until Edison returns to creditworthiness.

If art is born from struggle, life has offered a master painter’s environment to Palestinian children growing up during the Middle East conflict. 

Nine-year-olds who participated in a famous art therapy project in the 1980s depicted shootouts between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants and drew scenes as stark as their titles: “Soldiers Chaining and Blindfolding Everyone in Jazalon School Yard,” one is titled; “Beating One Child and Shooting Another” a second is named. 

In “Confrontation on the Road Between Qaiqilya:” 11-year-old Valentina Afif showed a helicopter, a tank and Israeli troops converge and fire on a group of Palestinians, their arms high in surrender. 

“Eighty to 90 percent of these kids have lived in violence all their lives,” said Mona Halaby, one of the women who is bringing some of the drawings to Nexus Gallery at 2701 Eithth St. for a May 18 fundraiser for relief efforts. “It is very important for us to stop them from leading violent lives as adults.” 

Halaby, a third-grade teacher at Park Day School in Oakland and two of her friends from the school, Jaleh Bisharat and Cathy Shields are trying to do just that by raising $50,000 to help the Middle East Children’s Alliance build a secular kindergarten in Gaza Strip and to help Doctors Without Borders support a medical clinic for Palestinian women in a Bethlehem refugee camp. 

Halaby asked Bisharat and Shields to help her after attending a fundraising dinner for the local Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association at which 30 – 35 women gave $20,000. “I couldn’t believe the success of that,” Halaby said. “I had never seen women get together and do something so powerful.”  

The three women formed Joining Hands and kicked off their efforts with a March dinner at Halaby’s house. So far they have rasied $20,000 from some 70 friends.  

Though Joining Hands focuses on providing humanitarian relief to Palestinians, its founders stand for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied land and the just resettlement of Palestinian refugees. 

“There will be peace if the occupation ends,” said Halaby, who grew up in Egypt and whose mother and husband are Palestinian.  

“What they want is peace as long as there is land to be peaceful in,” said Bisharat whose husband is Palestinian and who in 1985 and 1999 spent extended periods of time there.  

Some 780,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes during and after Israel and Palestine’s 1967 war and three times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed since the most recent uprising began in September 2000, Bisharat said. “Their day to day life resembles apartheid,” she said. “I can tell you there’s no hope.” 

Several of the drawings to be displayed next month poignantly reflect these issues. Two are simply called “Home” and another, by six-year-old Uns Duwalk, is called “Occupation.”  

Children from four to 14 years of age did the drawings in the late 1980s, as part of a project organized by Palestinian artist Kamal Boullata. The drawings first hung at the United Nations in 1988, and were then published in the 1990 book Faithful Witnesses, which is no longer in print.  

The Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance, an advocacy and relief group helping Palestinian children in Israel and children in Lebanon and Iraq, purchased some of the United Nations’ collection and now houses it at its 905 Parker Street office. 

The art was the backdrop of the first dinner at Halaby’s house and, the women hope, will attract more donors to the Nexus Gallery on May 18. Admission is $10, but larger donations will be accepted.  

The women said that $25 buys books and toys for a child who would otherwise go to a school run by Hamas, the Palestinian organization that claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing during last week’s Passover celebration that killed 19. The bombing and several more since then has touched off Israeli incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory in which many more Palestinians have been killed. 

“What we’re trying to address is to prevent there being a generation of traumatized children,” said Bisharat.  

“They don’t want their children brainwashed at the age of five and becoming a suicide bomber by the age of 16,” Halaby said. 

Doctors Without Borders, an international organization providing free healthcare in war torn areas, reported that since the most recent uprising began, a hospital providing care to Palestinians has been shelled, ambulances have been denied entrance to many road-blocked areas and medical personnel have been targeted by Israeli troops.  

“So many women are widowed or their husbands captured or in prison,” Halaby said. “They need a safe place to meet (the new clinic), a safe place to give birth.” 

Shields, who does fundraising for Park Day School, said the reaction to Joining Hands has been “heartwarming.” “It really doesn’t take heavy political analysis to get behind this,” she said. “I think it really touched a chord.” 

Colorado mayor tried cocaine, marijuana 

OAK CREEK, Colo. — Newly elected Mayor Kathy Rodeman has been arrested more than a dozen times, admits having tried cocaine and marijuana, and recently wrestled a man to the ground in a bar fight. 

Rodeman, whose nickname is Cargo, insists that her past won’t get in the way of her ability to govern this town of 800 people 110 miles northwest of Denver. 

“I’ve made my share of mistakes. I’m not perfect,” said Rodeman, a 30-year resident. “But I don’t judge others. I don’t think I’m better than anyone, but I know no one’s better than me.” 

Rodeman’s past didn’t seem to bother town residents, who gave her 64 percent of the vote last week to defeat incumbent Deb VanGundy. 

“They voted for what I believe in, not for my run-ins with cops,” said Rodeman. 

Rodeman’s critics say her criminal past makes it difficult to take her seriously. 

“This has just labeled us as the scum bucket of the county,” said Calvin Morrow, who lost a bid for mayor a few years ago. 

“I don’t minimize my behavior but I am not a bad guy,” Rodeman said. 

That behavior included driving with a suspended license and a conviction for drinking and driving. A drug possession charge in 1999 was later dropped. 

Bank declares  

customers dead  

DURHAM, N.C. — More than 400 customers of Central Carolina Bank have been declared dead because of an apparent banking error, and it’s keeping them from receiving their Social Security benefits. 

The bank is resurrecting those accounts. 

CCB spokeswoman Eileen Sarro said Tuesday that the customers accidentally declared dead were people who formerly had accounts with First Union in western North Carolina and the Savannah, Ga., area. 

CCB acquired the accounts when it bought the 37 First Union branches in February. First Union had to sell the offices to meet banking regulations after it merged with Wachovia. 

“We have had some bumps in the transfer,” Sarro said. 

The Social Security payments for April that the bank was supposed to deposit in customers’ accounts were returned to the government because the CCB computer indicated that those customers were dead. 

“I was just dumbfounded,” said customer Dora Sumner of Asheville. “Clearly, I was alive.” 

Social Security payments for May should be deposited without problems, Sarro said. The mix-up affected 417 accounts, most in western North Carolina counties. 

Horsemen ride through Wal-Mart, leave droppings  

EL DORADO, Ark. — Frontier justice and modern retailing collided when police arrested two men for riding horses through the food section of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. 

Store workers told police early Sunday the men rode horses through the store, then led officers to a large pile of horse manure just inside the entrance. 

Officers were able to stop John Glenn Carelock, 20, and were trying to coax Clinton Evers, 23, from his horse when Evers rode off, with officers in pursuit. 

Police said Evers was swinging what appeared to be either reins or a rope at deputies. When police yelled for him to stop and dismount, he responded by yelling an obscenity. He fled into a wooded area, and was later caught on a nearby road. 

Evers was arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication. Carelock was booked for public intoxication. Both men were released on citations to appear in Municipal Court. 

Safe opened after half a century  

MEDFORD, Ore. — A bank safe locked shut for decades has been sent to a convention of expert safecrackers in Nevada who say they’re confident they can open the rusted, century-old box. 

The two-chamber safe was installed in the basement of the First State Bank of Eagle Point in 1911 and remained there until 1954. It was donated last year to the Eagle Point Museum by a private collector who only had one of the combinations. 

Organizers of the Safe and Vault Technicians Convention, meeting this week in Reno, Nev., were among security specialists across the nation and in Canada — all on the right side of the law — who contacted museum curator Barbara Hegne asking for a crack at the safe. 

A recent article about budget problems in the city of Oakland noted that Oakland city council members “resented” the fact that they were being asked to make decisions regarding which programs to cut, and which to save. Let’s hope the Berkeley city council doesn’t feel that way about making tough decisions, since substantial budget cuts are on the horizon 

— and in an election year, yet. 

The city Manager’s report to council on budget results for the first six months of the fiscal year included bad news about unexpected revenue shortfalls of $1.8 million dollars, and an explanation of what was being done about it. Some of the decreases are related to general economic conditions, while others can be reversed with increased effort on the part of city staff and council. 

Starting next year, the situation gets worse. Due to unexpected increases in expenditures, mostly tied to the statewide Public Employee Retirement System, the city’s General Fund deficit could be over $2 million by June 2004, about $6 million the following year, and $8 million in the year ending June 30, 2006. 

General Fund dollars, which are somewhat less than half of the total city budget, are those not designated by law for specific purposes. Nearly half of the General Fund dollars are budgeted for police and fire services. 

Revenue Reductions: Current ($1.8 million) and Future 

Of the $1.8 projected revenue shortfall for the current year, the components most closely related to regional economic conditions are also those most likely to continue over the next five years. More than a third of the $1.8 million is due to a decline in Utility Users’ tax revenue. Berkeley residents paid lower utility bills this year than last year, resulting in lower taxes, and the city expects this trend to continue. Transit Occupancy Tax revenues, based on hotel receipts, are down about $700,000. The city assumes that the sharp decline in travel since Sept. 11 will not be reversed soon. 

About $600,000 in lost income is due to a lack of traffic enforcement (ticketing). The report ties this to delays in hiring traffic enforcement staff, and expects this revenue to rebound next year or sooner. However, projected losses from broken parking meters have increased since the six-months’ review was published, and this may also affect ticket revenue. 

Expenditures: Annual estimates increased by $5.9 million for 2006 

The financial status report to council disclosed three components to the steep increase in expenditures. Health insurance accounts for estimated annual increase of half a million to a million, reflecting industry cost increases of up to 20 percent. There does not appear to be much the city can do about that. 

Costs for Workers’ Compensation benefits, now $5.6 million annually, excluding the payroll, temp agency, and overtime cost of replacing “lost time,” “continue to increase at an alarming rate,” according to the report. This could cost the General Fund an additional $850,000 to $950,000 annually over the next five years. 

Having worked on a labor/management committee, which partnered with Human Resources to produce a series of training sessions for city supervisors on workers’ compensation this year, I’m aware that the city is attempting to control these costs. Nevertheless, it’s clear that a great deal more can and should be done to reduce avoidable claims. 

The big ticket item on the expenditure side, though, was the abrupt reversal of fortunes (and of estimates of future costs and earnings) of the California Public Employees Retirement System. 

City employees, as members of PERS, enjoy a defined benefit plan. Cost to California cities for funding this plan is determined on a statewide basis, year to year. The estimates provided by PERS for what Berkeley’s share would be over the next twenty years recently skyrocketed. 

Unfortunately, PERS did not reveal this information until after the city had completed negotiations with Fire and Police employees for their contracts, benefits, and retirement packages for the next few years. 

PERS’ projected costs for Police and Fire benefits alone are now escalating for each year. By the year ending June 2006, the increase beyond their previous estimates will be $3.9 million annually. 

Planning Ahead 

While the reductions in revenue are expected to remain steady, the increases in expenditures due to revised PERS rates and the increasing workers’ comp costs will be accelerate each year over the next four years. With a little luck, some chewing gum and baling wire, the city could approve a budget for next year that manages to put off the inevitable for a year or two. 

But that way lies disaster. This really is the time for some careful scrutiny and some tough decisions. It’s painful for council, for staff, and for the residents who depend on city services, when popular programs have to be cut. But other cities have found that budget cuts can be effected with fewer service reductions if they are carefully planned for and implemented before getting to a crisis point. Investing now to prepare for reductions, and deciding now which programs to eliminate or reduce may be politically unpopular, but is the only way to avoid more drastic changes two and three years from now. 

Questions? Comments? Ideas for the Audit Plan? Please e-mail the city Auditor at hogan@ci.berkeley.ca.us, mail to 12180 Milvia Street, 3rd floor, 94704. Audit reports available on line at ci.berkeley.ca.us/Auditor

SAN FRANCISCO — Levi Strauss & Co. said Monday it will close six U.S. plants and lay off 3,600 employees, or 22 percent of its work force, as the long-slumping company looks overseas to produce blue jeans that became a piece of Americana. 

With the decision, San Francisco-based Levi’s took another step down the path of other major clothing makers that have lowered prices and boosted profits by farming out production to Latin America and Asia, where costs are dramatically lower. 

After it completes the latest closures in October, Levi’s will have shut 29 U.S. factories since the company’s sales started crumbling in 1997. The plants to be closed between June and October are in San Francisco; Blue Ridge, Ga.; Powell, Tenn.; and the Texas cities of Brownsville, San Benito and El Paso. 

The purge will leave Levi’s with just two U.S. plants, both in San Antonio — a striking retrenchment for a 149-year-old company that used its blue denim jeans popularized during California’s Gold Rush to create one of America’s best-known brands. 

Both company and union representatives said the jobs were casualties of global competition. 

“It’s unfortunate Levi’s had to give in to competitive pressure like this,” said Bruce Raynor, president of the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees that represents workers at four of the factories. 

“This is a painful but necessary business decision,” said Levi’s CEO Philip Marineau. “There is no question that we must move away from owned-and-operated plants in the U.S. to remain competitive in our industry.” 

Raynor and other labor leaders blamed Levi’s cutbacks on U.S. government policies that make it easy for manufacturers to save money by moving production overseas. 

“When Levi’s aren’t being made in the United States, it says a lot about manufacturing trends that have become a threat to the U.S. economy,” said Greg Denier, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents workers at the two other plants. 

Even as its sales sagged, Levi’s maintained wages ranging from $9 to $14 per hour at its U.S. plants, Raynor said. That commitment put Levi’s at a competitive disadvantage with rivals like the Gap, Guess and Ralph Lauren that use foreign contractors that frequently pay workers less than $1 per hour. 

Privately held Levi’s didn’t disclose how much it will save from the cutbacks, but the company plans to pour some of the extra money into marketing, spokesman Linda Butler said. 

The company is trying to woo back consumers after five consecutive years of sales declines that reduced annual revenue from a peak of $7.1 billion to $4.3 billion in fiscal 2001. 

Levi’s warned in January it would probably close some of its remaining U.S. plants, and the details revealed Monday were in line with analyst expectations. 

“They made a valiant effort to be a good corporate citizen for as long as they could, but they had to do this,” said industry analyst Jeff Stewart of Wachovia Securities. “It was just getting too expensive for them to do business here.” 

About 3,300 workers will lose their jobs at the six factories. The company also plans to jettison 300 of the 530 workers at one of the remaining San Antonio plants. The cuts come from a worldwide payroll of about 16,600 workers. 

Levi’s also will lay off about 645 European workers later this month after it closes to two Scotland plants, Butler said. 

The U.S. workers affected by Levi’s plant closures will be hard pressed to find jobs at equal wages because many only have high school degrees, Raynor said. 

Levi’s workers in San Francisco and Tennessee will receive $2,200 “transition” payments in addition to severance pay based on their years of service, Butler said. The company is still negotiating the severance packages at the other four plants. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.levistrauss.com 

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE – A family has criticized a judge’s sentence for a man accused of a 2000 hit-and-run accident that killed a 66-year-old woman here. 

The family of victim Guia Orbeta of Daly City said El Dorado Superior Court Judge Jerald Lasarow’s sentence last week was too lenient. 

Lasarow sentenced David Burnam, 43, of Stateline, Nev., to six months in county jail and five years probation in what he called “one of the hardest cases I’ve had to deal with as a judge.” 

Orbeta was left unconscious with a head injury on a sidewalk along U.S. Highway 50 in September 2000. The mother of six children later died at a local hospital. 

“We are very unhappy with the decision,” son Gaudioso Orbeta told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. “We feel he got away with murder. We feel like we’ve been victimized again.” 

“I want this man who killed my mom to go to state prison because the only time I could forgive him is when he is six feet under the ground,” added daughter Marilyn Rodriguez.