UC Berkeley has suspended Students for Justice in Palestine while officials investigate the group’s April 9 takeover of Wheeler Hall. 

Under the terms of the suspension the group, which has called on the university to divest from Israel, will lose certain privileges – including the ability to reserve rooms for meetings and set up a table on Sproul Plaza at the heart of the campus. 

“We think this is a specific attack on activists and free speech,” said Snehal Shingavi, an SJP leader. Shingavi said the move was particularly disturbing on a campus with a history of student activism. 

“This is Berkeley, for goodness sake,” he said. 

“In no way are we trying to silence the group or individuals,” replied Dean of Students Karen Kenney, noting that SJP members will still have the right to speak out and distribute leaflets during the suspension. 

See SUSPEND/Page 34 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest. 

SUSPEND/From Page 1 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest. 

To the Editor: 

I am becoming a citizen of this country which is really exciting because this is a time of big changes.  

More than anywhere else I know good changes happen in this country because people are active. Here I learned how democracy works and I'm honored to be a part of it.  

The problem that concerns all of us more than anything is energy. 

I think that dirty energy is the root of all environmental problems. It affects our air, water, and soil.  

What will we have left? Now we have an excellent opportunity to at least double the amount of clean energy by the year 2010.  

It's our first duty to make this happen, which means to support Senate Bill 532. Everybody should encourage their representatives to vote for this bill. That will be a responsible step of a citizen who cares about their family, the country, and the world.  

- Anastassia Shaitarova 

Berkeley 

They are three unlikely stars of American letters – their unsteady, vulnerable voices can be heard through their writing and on the radio – but David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and David Rakoff are the crowned triumvirate of humor prose. Their published memoirs wrought with witty failure and anxiety have charmed and amused the in-crowd. 

At some point in their creative and professional life, each of the three discovered the most rewarding things they could write about are themselves. Their work has appeared in a variety of print and on-line magazines catering to first-person essays, and their most significant claim to fame has been their regular appearances on the public radio program “This American Life.” On Monday, April 29 they will be reading and speaking for the already sold-out audience at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. 

That these people can write well is evident in their books; the question of whether they can speak well is another issue. Their appearance on a public radio program is anomalous, considering Sedaris’ high-pitched whine, Vowell’s low, droning delivery, and Rakoff’s brittle sarcasm make them ill suited in the public radio tradition of warm, earnest tones. But “This American Life” and it’s ringleader Ira Glass have been striving to lower pubic radio down from its own lofty petard, and the dry irony of these three writers and their unique voices are instrumental to that end. 

The star of the show is headliner David Sedaris, whose best-selling collections “Barrel Fever,” “Naked,” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day” have made him a literary celebrity. Once a professional housecleaner by trade, a North Carolina transplant in Paris via Manhattan, a one-time Santa’s helper, Sedaris’ writings create an image of a pitiable man profoundly out of synch with his surroundings. He so gracefully stitches together the ugly and idiotic antics human beings are prone to, so sparkling is his own defacement, that authenticity is called into question. While reading “Me Talk Pretty One Day” one cannot help but wonder, while chuckling, if his sister really wore padded “fat pants” home for Thanksgiving, or if his redneck brother really greets his aging  

father with a hearty slap on the back and an affectionate, "How are ya, Bitch?" 

His first book, "Barrel Fever," does include pieces of short fiction, but even if all details aren’t the gospel truth his adventures in the strange and the mundane eke out humor from bizarre habits and banal eccentricities. Bathroom adventures included. During a "This American Life" broadcast he related a story from his youth during a Greek summer camp, wherein his pre-adolescent social awkwardness did not allow him to empty his bowels for weeks. Eating in the mess hall, he said, was like "packing a musket." In "Me Talk Pretty One Day" an entire essay, "Big Boy," is about trying to discretely flush "…this long coiled specimen, as thick as a burrito." 

In the essay "A Shiner Like A Diamond," Sedaris writes that his nonplussed father says to him, "What you don’t know could fill a book," and that’s just what Sedaris seems to have done. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" chronicles his inability to teach a writing class, to learn French, to do crossword puzzles, to draw upon an interesting childhood for inspiration (the memoirist tells us "…compared to [his boyfriend] Hugh’s, my childhood was unspeakably dull"), and, amazingly, to speak. From a speech impediment in the fifth grade to his leaden-tongued French, the man who owes his popularity in some degree to his appearance on a syndicated radio program admits his voice is no great shakes, really. 

The voice of Sarah Vowell is not a dollop of honey, either. The young writer who works as a contributing editor on "This American Life," and whose cynical, colloquial prose has been published as "Take The Cannoli" has the voice of a bad hangover. Her grouchy, unenthused delivery has spread the post-hip "This American Life" sound to an array of disaffected imitators.  

Her writing is closest of the three to the spirit of the radio show’s title. Vowell’s essays are often personal struggles to come to terms with the state of American life and how it evolved. Many of the writings in "Take The Cannoli" are investigations of the state of the American timeline, with one hand clutching historical reverence and the other reaching out for cheeseburgers and radio-friendly pop songs. Dashing between glib irony and sober history lessons (see "Michigan and Wacker" – a history of American as seen from a Chicago intersection, or "What I See When I Look At The Face On The $20 Bill") Vowell strikes a note of apology when she admits to crave the pap of pop culture in the middle of her well-informed cultural observations. 

"I’m a meaning junkie," she writes. Her essays have a relentlessly seeking quality, and to read them is to witness her brain stretching to eke out significance from every experience. And while that sometimes makes for interesting writing, it makes her, by her own admission, and irritating travel companion. "I can’t go for more than a few miles without agonizing and picking apart every symbolic nuance of every fact at my disposal." 

From Oklahoma and coming up through Bozeman, Montana and later San Francisco, Vowell’s vision of American is informed by historical curiosity and the ache of a restless country girl. She sets off to stand on the places where, like oracles, the seeds of our culture have spoken: the Chelsea Hotel in New York, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra (Hoboken, NJ), the Sicily of Martin Scorcese, the genocide along the Cherokee’s Trail of Tears, and Walt Disney World. 

Vowell visited Walt Disney World with her friend and stage partner David Rakoff, and the experience comes up in both of their writings. The factory of mouse-ear skullcaps is easy prey for jaded pot shots by culturati, but both Vowell and Rakoff eventually come to a sidelong appreciation for the land that Mickey built.  

See SEDARIS/Page 22 

Like Vowell, Rakoff’s essays are often personal accounts of his travels, but unlike his friend Rakoff is an accidental tourist. The urban, gay, Jewish Manhattanite is constantly going to places where he will feel most uncomfortable and disoriented. 

Preparing to go mountain climbing on Christmas Day, an activity causing him no little consternation, he fixes his ire on his new hiking boots. "I have come to hate these Timberlands with a fervor I usually reserve for people." His cold cynicism produces streams of snide insults and dismissive eye-rolling which is carried in his droll, world-weary voice one comes to expect from an urban, gay, Jewish Manhattanite. 

The title of his collection of writing, "Fraud," is explained in the first essay when he admits the central drama of his life is being a fraud, and then immediately rescinds the remark: "Actually, the central drama in my life is being lonely and staying thin, but fraudulence gets a fair amount of play." With a taste for Xanax and kitsch – as long as it’s ironic (pillows embroidered with golfing slogans must be presented with a wink) – Rakoff is not so biting or so fraudulent as to miss the fascinating and the sublime. 

During a week-long Buddhist retreat for mostly white, mostly middle-aged New-Agers, hosted by questionably authentic Buddhist Steven Segal (star of the action films "Marked For Death" and "Exit Wounds") Rakoff takes time to admire the actual intelligence and humor of the retreat’s ego-centric master. The Christmas Day mountain climbing adventure, after much fretting with his country hosts ("I have very little patience for what is generally labeled ‘charming’"), culminates in a lengthy appreciation for the beauty of unabridged nature; a New Yorker standing on a summit: "the air is clear and cold as vodka." 

While American culture is not wanting in irony and cynicism, nor self-indulgence, these three first-person writers strive, and sometimes succeed, at uncovering their own dualities and vulnerabilities cowering underneath the snappy punch lines capping the ends of their paragraphs. That flicker of warmth in their flawed voices has contributed to their popularity. 

“Diva Ladee Chico” Apr. 27: 9:30 p.m., Thunder and Lightning. $15 - $20. Roundtree’s Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum & Restaurant, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 225-1445 

“An American Tune” May 5: 3 p.m., A work presented by Cantare Chorale, Cantare Chamber Ensemble and Cantare Samaritan Singers. $15 - $22. First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant St., 655-5117 

“Symphony Concert” May 9: 8 p.m., Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performs works by Schubert, Boulez, Wysocki, and Bruckner. $27 - $45, $10 students. Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft between Telegraph and Dana, 841-2800 

“A Tribute to Mahilia Jackson” May 12: 2 p.m., Joshua Nelson, Emmit Powell & The Gospel Elites, The Bay Area Super Choir, and Elder Eric Claybon & Reign. $20- $25. Parks Chapel A.M.E. Church, 476 34th St., Oakland, 654-8758 

“World Dance Salon” Apr. 27: 8 p.m., Chhandam School of Kathak, Fat Chance Belly Dance, and Ka Ua Tuahine Polynesian Dance Company. Free. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

“Buddha, The Path of Light” Apr. 28: Jyoti Kala Mandir presents a classical Indian dance drama in the Odissi style. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 415-974-4313, www.jyotikalamandir.org 

“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.  

“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.  

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831 

“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 photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“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 

“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 

Museums 

Oakland Museum of California “33rd Annual California Wildflower Show” An exhibition featuring native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free children age 5 and under. May 11: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., May 12: 12 - 5 p.m. 

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.

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Bio-Diversity” John Harte, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley. $1. 848-3533. 

Ladyfest Bay Area Presents:  

Ladies Love Trannys 

Featuring such films as “it’s a Boy!”, Life’s a Butch” along with other groundbreaking Trannyfest works centered around the theme of ladies and their multi-faceted love affairs with transgender folks. 

Doors open 7:30 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. 

Artists’ Television Access 

992 Valencia Street, San Francisco 

Tickets $7-$25 (sliding scale) 

For further information: 415-672-0518 or www.ladyfestbayarea.org 

Live Afro-Latino Hip-Hop 

9 p.m. 

Elbo Room 

647 Valencia St, San Francisco 

$8 

O Music Where Art Thou? 

A benefit for the Albany School District Music Program. The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, Laurie Lewis with Nina Gerber, Bluegrass Intentions 

7:30 p.m. (box office opens at 6:30 p.m.) 

Albany High School Gym 

603 Key Route Blvd. 

Albany 

510-559-8474, ehecht@pacbell.net 

Adults $20, 18 and under $10 

Best Road Trips in the USA 

Join author Jaimie Jensen for a slide presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Saturday, April 27

The New School International Family Fair & Raffle 

Capoeira Demonstration, African Dance, Ballet Folklorico, The New School Blues Review and more 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. 

Berkeley 

510-548-9165 

Free 

City Planning and  

Architecture Job Fair 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

UCBerkeley campus, Pauley balloom in the MLK Jr. Student Center 

The leading firms in the business will host presntations about open positions and conduct informational interviews. Open to public. $5. UCBerkeley students free. 

For more information contact Kay Bock at 510-643-9440 or email kbock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

It's a "MALO" 30 Year  

Reunion!  

With Arcelio Garcia, Jr., Jorge Santana, Richard Bean, Pablo Tellez and others!  

A Benefit for Mission High School of San Francisco.  

7 to 11 p.m. 

Mission High School, located at 18th & Dolores Street. 

$15 balcony, $25 the floor 

(415) 206-0577 Latin Zone Productions 

Great Local Adventures 

Ruth Tretbar favorite local haunts 

1 p.m. FREE 

REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

527-4140 

Free 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Poets, writers, comedians, singers and storytellers al come together for this free show. Featuring “Fresh Ink” 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Annual Open Mike Poetry  

Reading 

2-4 p.m. 

Arts Magnet School Poetry Garden 

Milvia and Lincold Streets, Berkeley 

All welcome to read a favorite poem or sit back and enjoy. Free. 

For information contact srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film 

2 p.m. 

Amoeba Music 

1855 Haight St. 

San Francisco  

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

7th Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Conference & Awards Program 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

James Moore Theater 

Oakland Museum 

1000 Oak St. (at 10th) 

Oakland 

510-638-7688 or e-mail tfoch2000@yahoo.com 

$45 & $12 for lunch 

Disaster First Aid Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

to register: 510-981-5605 

Tango Lesson 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Members of BATango will present a free lecture, demonstration and lesson. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org.bpl 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

10 a.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

COPWATCH: Know Your  

Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Learn what your rights are when dealing when the police and FBI. Learn how 

to observe the police on the street and during protests. 548-0425. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Events: What's That Smell? 

National Sense of Smell Day  

Hands-on activities 

* Discovering how smell helps small animals 

* Identifying the smells of various foods and household items 

* Creating a potpourri to take home 

* Tasting jelly beans - with noses blocked and open 

* Investigating how dinosaurs used their sense of smell  

12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 

LHS- Jurassic Park: The Life  

and Death of Dinosaurs 

Through May 12 

Were they gone in a flash? Or did climate changes, disease, and/or overpopulation gradually bring the reign of dinosaurs to an end? We're still asking, theorizing, and dramatizing what happened to these creatures. 

The exhibit features models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the films; an 8' by 10' hands-on dig pit where parts of an Albertosaurus and Dromaeosaurs are buried; and more than 30 skeletons and parts, including fossils that visitors can touch. This is one of the largest collection of traveling dinosaurs ever assembled.  

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle 

Hybrid Adobe building Seminar & Sculpture Workshop 

Learn how to make Hybrid Adobe at a sustainable building seminar 

11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Fort Mason 

Room C260 

San Francisco 

info and registration: 415-776-9800 or 831-648-3539 

Also hands-on workshop on Sunday in San Anselmo  

Call for fees and further info 

Yellowjacket boys, Gaucho girls win  

Berkeley High and El Cerrito High split Thursday’s ACCAL track meet down the middle, with Berkeley winning the boys’ side easily and the Gauchos squeaking out a win from the girls’. Richmond and De Anza also took part in the meet. 

The ’Jackets won every event they entered on the boys’ side. Stephon Brooks, a state finalist in the 400 last season, ran his first league races for Berkeley on Thursday, winning the 200 and 400 and running the opening leg on Berkeley’s winning 4x100-meter relay. The relay win came despite a botched handoff between Sean Young and Craig Hollis, with Hollis leaving early and Young being forced to sprawl out to get his teammate the baton. The ’Jackets won the race by a slim .4 of a second margin. Young recovered from the spill to win the 100 and finish second behind Brooks in the 200. 

Brooks, who trains with his father, didn’t show any ill effects of not competing for most of the season. Berkeley head coach Darrell Hampton said Brooks should be in the thick of things at the state meet again this season. 

“Stephon finally got his grades straight, so I’m happy to have him back,” Hampton said. “He’s a threat to go to state in a couple of different events.” 

Berkeley dominated the distance events despite their runners taking it easy. Their top runners will compete in the Top 8 Invitational at Stanford this weekend, so Alex Enscoe, Spencer Hall and Nic Riley only ran in the 800 on Thursday, finishing in that order to sweep the event. Berkeley also took the top three spots in the 1,600 and Bradley Johnson won the 3,200. 

El Cerrito’s lone victories came from Jason Tom, who was the only varsity runner in either hurdle race. The final tally was Berkeley 73, El Cerrito 44. Richmond and De Anza both scored three points. 

Berkeley’s girls were handicapped by the late arrival of Rebekah Payne. One of Northern California’s top sprinters, Payne didn’t have time to warm up and competed only in the shotput, which she won. 

Payne would have faced stiff competition from El Cerrito, however, in the form of Ashley Lodree and Monique Coleman. Lodree is one of the best high school hurdlers in the country and won both events on Thursday with no opposition. Coleman won both the 100 and 200 in fast times, so Payne was by no means assured of winning any events. But even second-place finishes in three races could have given the meet to the ’Jackets. But Hampton said he’s not taking any risks with his top female performer. 

“Rebekah got here too late to warm up, and there’s no sense in taking a chance on an injury at this point in the season,” Hampton said. 

Berkeley did get wins in the 400, 1,600 and 3,200, and Joy Broussard won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump, but El Cerrito’s dominance in the sprints and hurdles was enough to give the Gauchos a 58-50 win over Berkeley. Richmond finished third with five points, with De Anza claiming three points.

The Board of Education tangled with activists over the multi-million dollar maintenance budget and tabled a change in the hiring process for principals at its Wednesday night meeting. 

Members of the maintenance advisory committee, a citizen group that advises the board, presented a draft of their annual report and argued that the district has made little progress despite a substantial increase in maintenance expenditures this year. 

“It’s very frustrating for the employees and the faculty and staff of the schools,” said Stephanie Allan, a committee member. 

Committee figures suggest a $2 million increase in maintenance expenditures this year, but district officials said they have not verified that figure. 

See SCHOOLS/Page 34 

Committee chair Yolanda Huang said the district has failed to provide proper training and support for custodians, and is months behind schedule in hiring new skilled trades staff. She said hiring delays could threaten the district’s summer maintenance plan. 

“I think we can all agree that things aren’t moving as rapidly as we would like,” replied board member Ted Schultz. “(But) we are making progress in hiring.” 

Lew Jones, manager of facilities planning, said the process for hiring public employees is unavoidably slow but that he expects new tradesmen to be in place by June or July. 

Huang also charged that the district is underutilizing its system for processing work orders. 

“We need to make that system work a lot better,” Jones acknowledged. He said two new office staff members should be on board by June, allowing for better use of the system. 

Jones added that the district has made significant progress in several areas this year – purchasing six new vehicles, going out to bid on largescale playground repairs and launching quarterly inspections of fire alarms and sprinkler systems. 

Jones said those inspections are required by law and that the district, long out of compliance, is now up to snuff. 

Huang and the maintenance committee have long clashed with the board, and board President Shirley Issel castigated the committee for the tone of the Wednesday presentation. 

“I continue to be distressed by the kind of adversarial approach that the maintenance advisory committee is taking with the board,” she said. 

Issel, joined by board members Joaquin Rivera and John Selawsky, said the committee should have presented the board with recommendations, not just criticism. 

Huang replied that the committee has repeatedly made recommendations, only to be ignored by the board. 

Principal hiring process 

The district faces principal vacancies at Berkeley High School, Longfellow Middle School and Rosa Parks Elementary School next year. 

Associate Superintendent for Instruction Chris Lim, filling in for Superintendent Michele Lawrence, asked the board to approve a waiver on its current policy for hiring principals Wednesday night. 

Under Lawrence’s proposal, there would be three screening committees, rather than one. The first committee, composed of staff and community members, would screen resumes and referrals. The second committee, composed mostly of staff, would review candidates’ knowledge of budgeting and educational theory. The final committee, composed mostly of community members, would analyze applicants’ people skills and community involvement. 

Each committee would score the job seekers. The superintendent would interview the top candidates and make recommendations to the board. 

Board members tabled the proposal Wednesday because it lacked specifics about the number of teachers, community members and district staff on the committees. 

“As a board member, it is my responsibility that whenever I approve something I know the details,” said Rivera. 

Lawrence, in a Thursday interview, said she would “resist” naming specific numbers of community or staff members, arguing that flexibility is important to account for absences and illnesses. 

Aroner bill 

Lawrence was absent Wednesday night because she was in Sacramento lobbying for legislation authored by Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, that would forgive a $1.1 million fine the district owes the state and pour the money into consulting services for the Berkeley schools. 

The bill, which would support reform in five areas – pupil achievement, fiscal management, facilities management, personnel management, and governance – sailed through the Assembly’s education committee on a unanimous vote and will appear before the appropriations committee in two weeks. 

The Assembly must vote on the bill by May 31. The state Senate will then have June, July and August to consider and vote on the legislation.

To the Editor: 

An article you published on April 17th, 2002, told how the two oil giants, Shell Oil Co. and Lyondell Chemical Co., were aware of the hazards of the chemical MTBE (a defective product) yet continued to keep it on the market. This highlights the problems with California's current energy strategy. We can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels from the Middle East and other areas, create jobs, and secure our energy future by using our technological know-how to develop newer, cleaner sources of energy.  

Currently only 10 percent of California's energy comes from clean, renewable resources although the potential for wind, solar, and geothermal power is many times greater than that. California decision-makers should commit to doubling our use of renewables to 20 percent of all power generation by 2010. Studies have shown that such a move would boost the state's economy by the addition of 18,000 new jobs and over $7.8 billion in taxes, according to a recent report done by the California Energy Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute. Not only that but a 20 percent by 2010 standard would most likely save consumers millions of dollars on their power bills by steering us away from natural gas price spikes. 

Now that decision-makers can think about our energy future outside of crisis mode, it's time for an energy policy that builds our economy and cleans up our air simultaneously. Let's promote clean, renewable energy. 

- Lauren Perlman 

Fremont

The calamity of September 11 has unleashed a flurry of books – both old and new – that seek to explain the intricacies of the volatile region to a hungry public. Gilles Kepel, author of “Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam”, will discuss his own historical viewpoint tonight at 7:30 at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue. 

A Professor of Middle East Studies at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, and the author of six books, Kepel’s talk will be preceded by an introduction from UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor Lawrence Michalak, also the Vice-Chair for Middle Eastern Studies.  

Originally published in French in 2000 but updated after the September 11th attacks, Kepel spent five years researching the material for “Jihad.” The book is an historical examination into the cultivation of Islamic fundamentalism in the modern era, tracing its rise in the 1960s to its apparent fall in the 1990s. Writing in the introduction that “September 11 was an attempt to reverse a process in decline,” Kepel argues that the kind of radical Islamism espoused by Osama bin Laden and the Ayatollah Khomeini ultimately failed to triumph broadly in the Islamic world due to a breakdown of the interests among its various groups when political power was not gained. 

“The issue in the book is that the movement was strong over the last 30 years, when it was able to mobilize simultaneously different social groups,” Kepel said in a telephone interview before a lecture at UCLA. “On the one hand, the young urban poor, the disenfranchised who had moved from the countryside to the cities, on the other side the pious bourgeoisie people. And as a yeast to provide the ideology which would bring them together (were) the Islamist intellectuals, whether they be the clerics or radical ideologues.”  

The purpose of the book is to try to understand why for instance – Iran being the case in point - the Islamist movements managed to seize power and engineer a revolution, whereas in other cases such as Algeria, in spite of the fact that they had succeeded in their early phase to mobilize a number of people… they at the end of the day did not manage to seize power and were beaten by the military.” 

Kepel asserts that September 11th was not so much a brash assault by a rising group as it was a last ditch attempt by radical Islamists to galvanize a movement that had lost its resonance with its key constituencies. Kepel insists that those attacks failed because they failed to unite the Muslim world in a struggle against the West the way the radicals had hoped. 

See JIHAD/Page 24 

“So my contention is that when they divide - when the radicals go their way and the bourgeoisie moderates go the other - than the movement is not in a position where it is capable of seizing power. Hence, that leads the radicals into a track which is more and more violent over time,” Kepel explains. 

“The ebbing and flowing of the movement over the last three decades had lead to a splitting of that movement nowadays that it is less able to engineer political organization. That leads to the fact that they are still there but they are split and the radicals of the movement say they have leeway to be more and more radical.” 

El Cerrito volleyball completes season sweep over Berkeley 

The Berkeley High boys’ volleyball team was under-manned and overpowered on Thursday against El Cerrito, falling in straight games, 15-6, 15-4, 15-3. 

The games were actually closer than the scores would indicate, but the Gauchos’ high-powered offense kept the ’Jackets from capitalizing on numerous serving opportunities. Michael Gonzalez, last year’s ACCAL MVP, led the way with 15 kills, including seven in both the first and third games. But unlike Berkeley’s one-dimensional offense, El Cerrito has several other big hitters, preventing defenses from keying on Gonzalez. 

“You start seeing the ball coming in that fast from that many different positions, you can’t help but be intimidated,” Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway said. “We’re just not ready to play at that level. We practice at that level occasionally, but we just aren’t used to seeing the ball hit that hard.” 

The one exception to that is Berkeley junior Robin Roach. Roach had 16 kills and just two hitting errors on Thursday, a far cry from his meager output of six kills in the teams’ first meeting. Roach, who had been frustrated by his teammates’ mistakes earlier this season, was more commanding on the court than in the past, a change Caraway sees as a positive sign. 

“For a player who’s been a captain for two years, he’s not been as vocal as I would like,” Caraway said. “But he’s finally taken on that leadership responsibility that goes with being the best player.” 

Roach also had three blocks and 18 digs against the Gauchos, but his outstanding effort wasn’t even close to enough. Outside hitter Sam Fuller had three kills and no other ’Jacket had more than one, not the kind of production that will take the opposition’s focus off of Roach. The pattern was clear: Roach would slam a kill for a side out, but the Gauchos would get serve back with a kill and run off three or four points before the ’Jackets could get the ball back to Roach. 

“Our ball control is just horrendous, has been all year,” Caraway said. “The first contact is killing us every time. Teams find our weakest passer and take advantage.” 

NOTES: Berkeley’s junior varsity nearly pulled a huge upset, losing to El Cerrito 15-6, 7-15, 14-16. The ’Jackets were up 14-10 in the last game but couldn’t find a way to score the point to win the match. Caraway was pleased with the junior varsity’s progress. 

“That match will be a learning experience for those guys,” he said.

Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocay (BOAA) held a vigil last night before UC Berkeley’s Northwest Animal Facility to protest the use of animals for experimentation. Clutching signs and candles, the black-clad protesters stood in silence along Oxford St. between Hearst and Berkeley streets while campus police video-taped the scene.  

The two-hour silent vigil was intended to mourn animals used in scientific research and draw attention to live animal experimentation at UC Berkeley. 

See ANIMALS/Page 34 

“We’re trying to do something a little different then your normal protest,” said BOAA faciltator Christine Morrissey. “We’ve set the tone to be very solemn and mourn the dead animals that have come out of this school. At the same time, we want to promote alternatives to animal research,” she said. 

Demonstrators handed out flyers describing alternative methods to animal research as well as peaceful measures people could take to promote change. Research alternatives cited include in vitro research, bacterial/viral/fungus sampling, autopsy, physical models, mathematical modeling, genetic and clinical research as viable alternatives. The UC has already adopted the in vitro method for antibody production. 

The consensus in all sectors seems to be in favor of substituting new technologies in place of using lab animals, but the feasability and timeline for doing so remain unclear. “People don’t want to [frivolously] use animals for research. Researchers have pets at home and develop strong feelings toward the animals they study,” says Dr. Helen Diggs, a director at UC Berkeley’s Animal Care Facility. “People only use animals for research because they are essential to research. As the scientific community discovers legitimate alternatives to using animals, we embrace them.” 

Diggs cites the UC’s adoption of the in-vitro model of antibody production over the past five years as having spared many live mice, and says she looks forward to similar alternatives. “I think in time we’ll have more success finding alternatives,” says Diggs. “That’s where the BOAA group comes in--they have to encourage young people to get into these fields, get into the labs, and contribute. Don’t just scream at us, come help us find alternatives,” she says. 

See ANIMALS/Page 34 

In Defense of Animals, a non-profit group based in Mill Valley, Ca., has been participating in an ongoing dialogue with BOAA reps and Diggs, who is representing the UC on animal rights issues. “Essentially, we want to work with the UC rather than be adverserial, so we can really advance what’s going on in the research community,” said Erin Williams, communications director at IDA. Williams says there are many existing technologies that can be substituted for live animals, but that the UC has yet to commit funds for their adoption. “Traditionally, new research technologies are underfunded and underutilized. We are trying to work with the university to get them to commit to a gradual, quantifiable reallocation of funds from animal research to non-animal technologies,” she said.  

Though not necessarily driven by compassion, even the business sector has moved toward more humane testing. Companies that sell animals and technologies for testing have shown a significant trend toward cutting down on the percentage of live animals shipped out in favor of cheaper and more efficient non-animal testing technologies. Massachussetts-based Charles Rivers Laboratories, the biggest lab-animal provider in the nation, has seen the lab-animal portion of their business shrink from 80 percent to 40 percent over the last five years, according to a recent article in the Boston Globe. 

BOAA is also calling for the immediate ceasure of using primates for research, but Diggs says that’s not possible. “We can’t just stop the research in progress,” Diggs says. “With primate research, we just can’t suddenly stop working on studies that are having a definite impact on human medicine and having a definite biomedical impact. There’s work going on that needs to continue.” Diggs says they need to find and validate alternatives to using any species for study, and that singling out primates is not constructive. “That’s a form of speciesism,” she says.  

Both the Berkeley City Council and the ASUC (student union) have endorsed BOAA’s requests to the UC. 

In addition, two initiatives have been placed on the upcoming ASUC ballot. One asks for a 5% reduction in animal research by the university, and the second requests that the UC provide alternatives for science students who don’t want to participate in animal dissection. The university currently allows students to opt out of dissections, but has yet to provide an alternative. 

Asked what’s next for BOAA, Morrissey says that though they have had positive discussion with the University through Diggs, their goal now is to try and get a meeting with Chancellor himself, as only he can affect policy change. 

E-mail reporter Jamie Luck at jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

I write in dissent from what seems to be a growing bipartisan chorus favoring high-rise redevelopment as a means to increased amounts of affordable housing, reduced traffic congestion, greater social diversity, etc. 

The April 24 letter by Steve Geller is only the most recently presented of many recent arguments along such lines. 

In theory, more density might produce the benefits so frequently touted of late, but has it worked that way in actual practice elsewhere, and if so, how readily might such experiences be replicated in Berkeley? 

I am skeptical, to say the least. 

It seems to me that if more people want to live in Berkeley than the city can accommodate, the solution should be to build more new communities like Berkeley, not to alter the one we already have.  

To even consider building new Berkeleys probably requires some long and hard thinking about many other matters including Alaskan oil, SUVs, gasoline taxes and railroad infrastructure. 

To devote more attention to broad issues which are both outside Berkeley but also relevant to Berkeley's future would probably be worthwhile, before rushing to flood our downtown with cranes and construction crews. 

- Drew Keeling 

Berkeley 

Friday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 2:30 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

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

Softball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

Swimming – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 3:30 p.m. at Willard Pool 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. College Prep, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Saturday 

Track & Field – Cal Open, 9:30 a.m. at Edwards Stadium 

Women’s Lacrosse – Cal vs. Stanford, 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Football – Cal Spring Game, 2 p.m. at Memorial Stadium 

Softball – Cal vs. Washington, 2 p.m. at Levine-Fricke Field 

Crew – Berkeley vs. Oakland Strokes, 8 a.m. at Oakland Estuary 

Sunday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond

The third week of testimony in the civil suit of Earth First v. The FBI and the Oakland Police Department came to a close Thursday evening with the plaintiffs feeling exuberant over early strides made in their case. 

“We’re kicking their ass,” said Darryl Cherney of Earth First! who was riding in a car along with Judi Bari that exploded due to a time-activated bomb in 1990.  

See EARTH/Page 10 

“Or I should say they are kicking their own asses. The FBI and the Oakland Police Department have totally tangled themselves in their own lies.” 

Bari and Cherney were pursued as suspects in the bombing of Bari’s car and are now suing the FBI for their own vindication in this case, and to “clear the name of Earth First!” 

Last week’s trial included emotional testimony from Lisa Bari, Judi Bari’s 21-year-old daughter. Bari testified to years of watching her mother and the home she shared with her mother searched by FBI agents. According to Earth First! attorneys her testimony goes to show that her mother was being pursued as a viable suspect. 

The defense in this case has countered that Cherney and Bari were being viewed as both suspects as well as witnesses.  

According to Joseph Sher, Department of Justice lead counsel , when an individual is being treated as a victim as well as a suspect it may vary the FBI’s line of questioning and it necessitates a more sophisticated treatment of the crime. 

Sher would not speak to why the FBI first started to view Bari and Cherney as being suspects in their own car bombing, but both sides concede that proving that element of the argument will be essential to the outcome of this case. 

“We have to do three things to win this case,” Cherney said. “We have to prove our innocence, which we’ve done.”  

Cherney went onto say that he doubts that any member of the jury actually believes that either he or Bari intentionally blew themselves up. 

“The second thing we have to do is prove they’ve lied, which we’ve done,” he added. 

Thursday’s court proceedings included the testimony from officers and special agents who were first on scene on May 23, 1990 the day that Bari’s car was bomb. It included the testimony of a special agent from the FBI, who requested a search warrant from the Oakland Police Department and the officer who issued the paperwork to grant the search warrant. The testimony from these two officers conflict with statements that were made 10 years ago and each other. 

Carpenter nails were reportedly found in Bari’s car, and according to the Oakland Police Department the FBI instructed them that these nails were identical to those that were used in the making of the car bomb, and that fact was used as a basis for the Oakland Police Department granting a search warrant. 

However, according to Special Agent Phil Sena this is not the case. 

“I never would have told them that,” he said. 

At several points during the case the two defendants — The FBI and the Oakland Police Department — have appeared to be at odds with each other. At one point, the police department’s attorney even objected to a line of questioning between Sher and an FBI Special Agent. 

“It has been a long time,” said Sher. “And recollections change.” 

Sher would not comment on whether it was part of his argument that Oakland Police Department was more liable in the civil suit. 

Cherney, however, said he thought that both defedants were attempting to “blame the other guy” in order to exonerate themselves. 

Earth First! attoreny Denniss Cunningham said it was their position that the Oakland Police Department were less responsible of the two parties but not innocent. 

“It is our position that they allowed themselves to be lied to. They were willing dupes in this and that does not mean they are innocent,” Cunningham said. 

This week also included the testimony from the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office who were allegedly called in to help spy on Earth First! 

“The third thing we have to do to win this case is prove there was no basis for the FBI to think that we made that bomb, which will be the hardest part of the case. We have to prove that even though we were hard core and sometime out there activist that we were not violent people,” Cherney said. 

Next week the plaintiff’s will begin this, the last phase of their civil case and the jury will hear testimony from Cherney as well as videotaped testimony from Bari herself that was recorded only five weeks before her death to breast cancer in 1997. 

“The FBI kept trying to delay her deposition. They were basically waiting to depose her after she died. But she finally gave her deposition five weeks before her death.” 

Next week will be the first time that the jury will have heard from the victim’s themselves and will likely be very important emotional elements of the case seeing that a large part of this case is directly related to witness credibility. 

The first phase of the defendant’s case is expected to include the testimony of Gary Philip of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department. Philip, in his deposition, has stated that Earth First! has various factions and that some of the individuals in the environmental organization are very capable of violent acts of terrorism. 

The defense will also try to lay the groundwork to prove to the jury that members of Earth First! were responsible for the bombing of power lines in Northern California. This will go to prove that the Earth First! membership had the ability to make explosives and had done so. 

Week four’s witness list will also include Special Agents John Conway, Steward Daley and Stockton Buck of the FBI as well as Kevin Griswold, of the Oakland Police Department.  

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

In light of the U.S. Senate's disappointing energy bill, the responsibility for securing a clean energy future falls on us. 

With year-round sun, wind, and reservoirs of heat below the earth's surface, California has tremendous potential for clean, stable energy – and it’s time we took advantage of that. SB 532, the California Clean Energy Bill, would require power suppliers to get 20 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources by 2010. The State Assembly will decide whether to approve SB532 within weeks. Let us hope that they do. 

- Cat Hare  

Alameda, CA 

Track & Field – St. Mary’s def. Piedmont and St. Patrick 

The Panthers dominate their BSAL competition once again, losing just two events in the meet. Multiple-event winners include Solomon Welch, Jason Bolden-Anderson, Chris Dunbar, Rudy Vazquez, Leon Drummer, Tiffany Johnson, Danielle Stokes, Kamaiya Warren, Gaby Rios-Sotelo and Willa Porter.

Today is Friday, April 26, the 116th day of 2002. There are 249 days left in the year. 

Highlight: 

On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire killed at least 31 people and sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. 

On this date: 

In 1607, an expedition of English colonists, including Capt. John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. 

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed. 

In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. 

In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. 

In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. 

In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.” 

In 1970, the Broadway musical “Company” opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York. 

In 1980, following an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to rescue the U.S. Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced the captives were being scattered to thwart any future rescue effort. 

Ten years ago:  

Finance officials from the Group of Seven nations, meeting in Washington, endorsed the broad outlines of an economic assistance package for the former Soviet Union. Worshippers celebrated the first Russian Orthodox Easter in Moscow in 74 years. 

Five years ago:  

In his Saturday radio address, President Clinton prepared for the opening of a community service summit by asking Congress to pay for a drive to ensure that every third-grader can read. 

One year ago:  

Ukraine’s communist-dominated parliament dismissed reform-oriented Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and his government, plunging the nation into political chaos.

To the Editor, 

I beg to differ with Josh May’s remarkable contention that “It is not possible to differentiate between a hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews.” 

That is the same sort of specious reasoning used by John Ashcroft; i.e., any criticism of the present administration is tantamount to hatred of the U.S. and its citizens. Hence, that administration is entitled to flout both international and Constitutional law as its leaders serve a higher law to which they are privy. 

Both Israel and the U.S. under their present administrations have become rogue states on the world stage. Ariel Sharon, however, was actually elected. 

- Gray Brechin 

Pt. Reyes Station

SAN FRANCISCO — While Gov. Gray Davis’ efforts to keep Patrick Ghilotti behind bars went all the way to the California Supreme Court, few noticed when at least 16 other sexually violent predators were allowed to disappear quietly into their communities. 

Davis and others maintain that four years of treatment at Atascadero State Hospital haven’t been enough to make Ghilotti, a serial rapist, safe to re-enter society. 

But only four of the 16 other child molesters and violent rapists who left Atascadero’s program received treatment while in custody, according to Nora Romero, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health. 

When Alan Charmatz, who prosecuted Ghilotti’s case, was told that 16 sex predators already have been released from Atascadero, he marveled at the disparity between the attention paid those cases and Ghilotti’s. 

“They’ve let these other people slide away,” he said. “If they really cared about people they’d be keeping track of these other guys and they’d be working with law enforcement to know where they are to help ensure public safety.” 

Only the state’s most dangerous repeat sex offenders are designated as sexually violent predators by the Department of Mental Health and sent to Atascadero after serving their prison sentences. Two independent mental health experts, a district attorney and ultimately a judge or jury must agree the offender remains a threat to society before he is committed to Atascadero for two years. After that, an offender can be released only if two evaluators agree his mental disorder has changed and the patient is not likely to commit acts of predatory sexual violence. The high court ruled Thursday that political officials can’t arbitrarily overrule the evaluators’ findings. 

Ghilotti, the only sex predator to have completed Atascadero’s treatment program, remains in custody pending the fresh look at his evaluations by a trial judge that the high court ordered. 

The 16 were released by judges’ orders or jury decisions. Like Ghilotti, each was determined to no longer be a threat to society. 

“This just goes to show how political this law is,” said Jean Matulis, a lawyer who has defended several sex predators. “The only constitutional justification for holding these guys in the first place is for treatment. But when a person completes the treatment and they still don’t want to release them, I have to ask myself whether it’s really for treatment or to keep them off the streets.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Gray Davis cannot arbitrarily overrule a state law that sets guidelines for freeing rapists and child molesters after they have served their sentences. 

But the justices held up the release of serial rapist Patrick Ghilotti. The 46-year-old Marin County man is the first person to successfully complete the state’s sex predator treatment program, and three mental health evaluators say he no longer poses a danger to society. 

The sexually violent predator law, which went into effect in 1996, enables the state to keep sex offenders locked up indefinitely as long as two evaluators say they’re still a threat and a judge or jury agrees. 

Ghilotti’s case was sent back to a Marin County judge for review. The justices said lower courts can review the mental health evaluations to make sure they comply with state law. 

They also clarified the standards under which an offender can be recommitted. 

The law says a person can be kept locked up if “he or she is likely to engage in acts of sexual violence without appropriate treatment and custody.” The high court defined “likely” as presenting a “substantial danger — that is, a serious and well-founded risk” unless the person is confined. 

But Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, in her dissenting opinion, worried the revised definition will, in fact, lower the bar for commitment to Atascadero State Hospital. 

“A person who has been convicted of multiple violent sex crimes and who continues to suffer from the mental disorder that led to those crimes, would, it seems, always present a ’substantial,’ ’serious’ or ’well-founded’ risk of reoffending,” she wrote. 

The justices also said evaluators can consider whether an offender might seek post-release treatment on his own, but said treatment isn’t required as a condition of release. 

The governor applauded the decision, saying he was “never convinced” Ghilotti was “rehabilitated enough to return to society.” 

But Ghilotti’s lawyer, Ed Farrell, believes the ruling will work in his client’s favor. 

“We’re glad about the part of the opinion that says you can look at whether a person’s going to receive treatment out in the community,” he said, adding that his client continues to take testosterone-reducing drugs. “We don’t think Mr. Ghilotti fits the criteria for recommitment.” 

Ghilotti first was scheduled for release last October after undergoing four years of therapy at Atascadero. But he turned down a court-ordered outpatient treatment program, saying it was too restrictive. 

He came within hours of release again in December when his latest two-year commitment expired. The three independent mental health professionals who evaluated Ghilotti determined he was no longer dangerous, but state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at the governor’s urging, filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to block his release. 

The justices said, in the future, when the Mental Health Department’s director disagrees with the conclusions of its evaluators and believes they conducted them improperly, he can ask prosecutors to seek recommitment. But the ultimate decision remains with a judge. 

“I don’t think the Legislature intended me to just be a rubber stamp,” said Mental Health Department Director Stephen Mayberg. “That seems to be the court’s opinion. Not that I can overrule or ignore the evaluations, but I can raise the question of whether they are legally sufficient or not.” 

The ruling Thursday was 5-2, with two calling for release.

LIVERMORE — A year ago, President Bush asked the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to find out how long it would take to restart nuclear test explosions. 

The Bush administration has said it has no interest in ending the nine-year moratorium, but won’t rule it out if more bomb tests are needed to maintain the reliability and safety of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, particularly as it is reduced to about 2,000 weapons. 

C. Bruce Tarter, who is stepping down this week, figured out that it would take 1-3 years, but he said he also doesn’t expect Bush to resume the tests. 

Tarter told The Associated Press that the only reasons he sees for more nuclear explosions would be either a dramatic change in leadership in Russia, China or other nuclear powers, or a technical surprise in the current stockpile. 

“At this point, my own judgment is that we are unlikely to resume nuclear testing,” he said this week. “There are no technical circumstances yet that would require us to do so.” 

The final report about the logistics of resuming tests is not expected to be ready for a few more months, said Tarter, whose replacement as lab leader is expected to be named Friday. 

On Thursday, Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, said Tarter’s assessment is reasonable. 

“Nothing has changed. We have no indication that the White House is ready to move toward testing,” she said. 

Interviewed on the roof of his highly secure office overlooking the Livermore campus and the browning East Bay hills, Tarter said he’s enjoyed his tenure at the head of the lab. But he said Livermore is at a turning point now, and at 62, he said he simply lacks the energy to put in another four or five years to carry it into its new era. 

Tarter’s energy has been legendary at the lab. Not only does he work long days, but each year he challenges — and beats — his senior managers in a road race. 

“I think it’s healthy to do something new every five or six years,” said Tarter, who has been at the lab since 1967. 

During his past seven years as director, Tarter led the lab’s transition from Cold War-era nuclear weapons development to a wide range of research, both for military uses and such non-defense technologies as the world’s most accurate lathe, built to form large, irregularly shaped mirrors for experimental lasers, and a mechanical truck stopping device designed to stop a stolen or hijacked truck. 

Tarter’s critics, including many anti-nuclear weapons activists, say he still guided the lab toward too much weapons research and development. 

“The weapons program is simply not needed anymore at Livermore,” said Christopher Paine of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s just a waste of taxpayer dollars.” 

During his tenure, Tarter took his biggest hits for time and cost overruns in the construction of a huge laser that will be used to help monitor and maintain nuclear weapons without actual bomb tests. 

That $3.48 billion project has suffered delays and spiraling costs since the Department of Energy first set its budget at $1.1 billion nearly five years ago. The project, which Tarter said is “back on track,” is now scheduled to be fully operational by 2008. 

“Bruce has been an excellent leader during a tumultuous time,” said John McTague, University of California Vice President for Laboratory Management. “The range of complex issues he has encountered and dealt with effectively is truly remarkable.” 

Tarter said he hopes to remain at the lab after stepping down, both to assist the new director and take on several smaller projects, including preparing for the lab’s 50th anniversary this fall. 

But he laughed when asked if he had another three decades left to go, like his colleague down the hall, renowned physicist Edward Teller, or “E.T.” as they call him, who a t 95 is still coming in to the office two days a week. 

“He’s an amazing man,” said Tarter. “I’ll just be glad to be around.” 

The FBI announced Thursday that four Oakland International Airport employees have been arrested on suspicion of failing to disclose prior felony convictions when applying for airport badges that gave them access to secure areas of the airport. 

Thomas Burgess, 36, and Ulysses Walker, 46, both of Oakland, and Donald Coleman, 33, of Berkeley, were arrested Monday and Mario DeAngelo Lloyd, 27, of Berkeley, was arrested Wednesday, authorities said. 

In addition, a federal complaint was filed and a summons issued  

Thursday for Charles Mathis, 33, of Pittsburg. 

All of the suspects are U.S. citizens, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Bruce J. Gebhardt of the San Francisco office. The men were arrested on federal charges of making false statements. The arrests were made at Oakland airport and at the residences of those charged. 

The arrests followed a three-month joint investigation by the FBI, Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration called Operation Tarmac. The operation focused on the falsification of airport badge applications, authorities said. 

The alleged falsification occurred when the suspects failed to disclose prior felony convictions within the past 10 years. The allegedly falsified applications were relied upon by the FAA for issuance of SIDA, or security identification display area, badges. These badges allow the employee unrestricted access to secure areas of the airport, the FBI said. 

SACRAMENTO — A Sierra Nevada conservation group sued the state Thursday over its approval of logging plans by the state’s largest timber company. 

Sierra Pacific Industries dropped plans last year to clear-cut three areas on its El Dorado County properties after Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch previously challenged them in court. 

But the Anderson-based company refiled the plans proposing to use a new practice it termed “visual retention,” which leaves several trees on each acre to soften the visual impact. 

The environmental group sued the California Department of Forestry in El Dorado County Superior Court over its approval of those revised plans. 

“The impact to water and wildlife will be just exactly the same as if they were doing straight clear-cutting,” said Warren Alford, a Sierra Club organizer and member of the forest watch organization. “The cumulative effect will be to have a million acres of tree plantations.” 

He cited the state’s largest landowner’s proposals to ultimately convert 70 percent of its 1.5 million acres to same-age trees. More than 200,000 acres have been cut since 1994, Alford said. 

Forestry Department spokesman Louis Blumberg and company spokesman Ed Bond each said they couldn’t respond to a lawsuit they hadn’t seen. 

But Bond said the company began its visual retention program to leave its cuttings more aesthetically pleasing, and noted it recently sold two pieces of property it determined were better suited for purposes other than logging. 

“I think we’ve been responsive to neighbors’ concerns,” Bond said. The Calaveras County-based conservation group organized two years ago to fight Sierra Pacific’s logging plans near Calaveras Big Tree State Park. 

FOLSOM — California grid officials approved a blueprint for a new wholesale electricity market Thursday, one they hope will withstand the price spikes that sent the state spiraling into rolling blackouts and billions in debt. 

The state is facing a deadline to rebuild the market by September, when federal price caps expire. 

The Independent System Operator also approved a price cap for the California market that mimics the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order. 

Last summer, FERC set the caps after more than a year of exorbitant wholesale energy prices crippled three utilities and led to rolling blackouts on six days in 2001. The state eventually stepped in to buy billions of dollars worth of power when wholesalers refused to sell energy to the near-bankrupt utilities. 

The ISO, manager of the state’s power grid, will submit the plan for the revised market to FERC by May 1. If approved, part of the plan will take effect Oct. 1. 

If FERC doesn’t extend the price caps, the ISO’s short-term plan includes a damage-control cap. 

The FERC price caps and its “must offer” obligation are for the Western region, while similar rules the ISO is considering would require generators to offer any electricity they have available only in California. 

“We are still insisting that priority No. 1 is that FERC extend the market mitigation they put in place last year,” said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle. “If FERC doesn’t extend it, if it truly expires Sept. 30, then the must-offer requirement and the damage control bid cap will go into effect.” 

State lawmakers have also asked FERC to extend the price caps. In a letter to FERC commissioners, 43 Assembly Democrats said California was working to build more power plants and stabilize its market, but it “is still not healthy.” 

The ISO board approved a recommendation by a task force of six state agencies that capped prices at $108 per megawatt hour, the same amount as the current FERC cap. Spot market prices are now averaging $30 per megawatt hour. 

This restructuring of the electricity market differs from the state’s 1996 deregulation market because that first attempt “resulted from a political process,” said ISO Vice President Elena Schmid. 

The new plan was based on “reality, economy and hard experience we all earned in the last four years,” she said. 

ISO Board of Governors Chairman Michael Kahn said its goal is to narrow the market it controls, then scrutinize those transactions to make sure no one is manipulating the market. 

But the California market is still too unstable and undefined to craft a complete restructuring plan, Kahn said. 

Kahn insisted the board’s resolution for the long-term proposal reflected the market as a “hypothetical” design, since the state’s energy market is still evolving. 

The more comprehensive changes to the wholesale market will begin to be implemented in April 2003 and will take about six months to complete, McCorkle said. 

One of those long-term changes would be to require utilities to arrange sufficient power for their customers, plus a reserve. 

Previously, no entity had explicit responsibility to ensure there was adequate power to meet demand, and during the energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 “that responsibility inappropriately defaulted to the ISO,” grid managers said in a memo outlining the plan. 

Kahn said that provision, which wouldn’t take effect until 2004, should be reviewed again before being implemented. 

At the end of this year, the state’s authority to buy power expires, and the utilities will be expected to re-enter the market. 

The state’s two largest utilities are trying to regain financial health by the end of the year, but Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is still in bankruptcy and Southern California Edison is trying to work out details of a settlement with the state. 

With so many changes at the end of this year, Kahn said there is a question about to whom the proposed requirement would apply. 

Study finds that keeping the body hydrated reduces risk of heart disease 

LOMA LINDA — Drinking five glasses of water a day can lower the risk of deadly heart disease, according to a study released Thursday. 

Researchers at Loma Linda University said people who drank five eight-ounce glasses of water daily were about half as likely to die of coronary heart disease as those who drank two glasses or less. 

The benefit was greater than that conferred from drinking a moderate amount of alcohol or taking aspirin, the study said. 

In fact, drinking water appears to confer as much a benefit to heart health “as stopping smoking or lowering cholesterol,” said Dr. Jacqueline Chan, the study’s lead author. 

“This is a really simple method” of preventing coronary heart disease, she said. 

Coffee, soda, milk and caffeinated sodas did not show any statistically significant heart benefits. 

Chan said more research is needed to confirm the findings, but researchers already adjusted the figures to account for other potential factors in heart disease fatalities such as smoking, calorie intake, exercise, blood pressure, and socio-economic status. 

The study, which was to be published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, did not specifically explain how increased water-drinking might lower the risk of heart disease. But it noted that dehydration can elevate risk factors such as blood viscosity. 

The study also suggested that those who drank more water might be more health-conscious. 

However, Chan said drinking more water now couldn’t hurt. 

“There’s no downside to increasing fluid intake,” Chan said. 

The study was based on a 1970s survey of Californians living in Seventh Day Adventist households and on follow-ups. The water study analyzed data from 12,017 women and 8,280 men, ages 38 or older, who had no physician-diagnosed heart disease, stroke or diabetes in 1976. 

It found that in the six years following the original survey, 246 died of coronary disease, and those people were significantly more likely to be water sippers than water gulpers. 

Men who drank five glasses of water or more per day were only 46 percent as likely to die of coronary disease as men who drank two or less. For women, heavy water drinkers were 59 percent as likely to die of heart problems. But unlike men, they saw about the same benefits if they drank only three or four glasses per day, the study concluded. 

Q. I have a humming noise in my water lines, caused by a vibration that results when the tank float valve in my toilet nears shut-off. Is there a way to fix it other than by replacing the float and shut-off valve assembly? 

A. You don’t have to replace the entire valve. You need to replace the gasket within it. It’s an inexpensive repair. Turn off the water to the toilet and flush it. That will empty the tank. Next, remove the shut-off valve cover. How you do this will depend on the brand, however, most have four screws on top. Carefully remove the screw and then the top. Locate and remove the gasket and use the disassembly as a guide for replacement and reassembly. It is almost always easier to replace the entire unit. The humming is the ballcock assembly telling you it has a gasket that is almost completely worn out. 

Q. Jennifer asks: I think my house is haunted. I know I saw it in a Three Stooges movie once. My husband and I recently bought a 100-year-old home. In the process of painting the plaster-walled library we’re running into some bizarre paint problems. The walls were triple painted in a brush pattern — we think within the last 10 years. We bought flat paint and proceeded to apply two coats. After letting them dry we noticed dark stripes down the walls and the whole surface is crackling in 1/8th-inch sizes. We went to the hardware store where we bought the paint and explained our problem. We bought a new primer and primed the entire room. Now the primer is doing the same thing as the other coats — as is a small spot we test-painted over the primer. What can we do now? 

A. We assume the three-color painting detail to which you refer is sponge or splatter paint. We make this assumption because the glaze that is used with sponge or splatter paint — once painted — will render the crackling effect you are experiencing. Now that you know the cause of the problem you need to eliminate it — the cause, that is. The problem will then go away. There are several ways to do this: You can sand, but that’s messy. You can use paint remover — even messier. Or, you can try to encapsulate the problem by painting it with a material that will not be affected by the existing glaze. This we think would be the easiest way to go. Try using a coat of oil-base primer. Do a 2-square-foot area. Water-base will not work. Once it’s sealed with the oil-base primer, any kind of finish coat can be used. If the oil-base primer doesnt work, you would probably be best off covering the walls with a quarter-inch-thick layer of gyp board.

LOS ANGELES — The cost of home ownership in California broke another barrier in March, with the median home price topping $300,000 for the first time, according to industry figures released Thursday. 

Market activity continued to surge during March as sales of preowned homes increased 13.1 percent and the median home price rose 18.8 percent compared with a year ago, the California Association of Realtors said. 

The median home price in the state hit $305,940 in March, up from $289,550 in February. The median price increased 18.8 percent from $257,550 in March 2001. 

The real estate market performed strongly across almost all regions of the state and in all price brackets, with the upper end market showing renewed vigor for the first time in months, said CAR president Robert Bailey. 

“It’s a very opportune time to buy. There’s nothing out there to indicate that this is a bubble or an anomaly,” said Bailey, who owns three independent real estate offices in Santa Cruz. 

Ongoing low interest rates played a key role in driving the market, with buyers wanting to make their move before any increase. Adjustable mortgage interest rates averaged just 5.09 percent in March compared to 6.28 percent a year earlier, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. 

Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates have increased slightly year over year, averaging 7.07 percent in March, compared with 6.95 percent in March 2001. 

Sales of detached California homes totaled 586,230 in March on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, CAR reported. 

That figure compares with 518,410 a year earlier and represents what the total number of home sales would be during the year if sales maintained their March pace throughout the year. 

It would take only 2.3 months to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, compared with 3.5 months last year, according to CAR. 

The torrid pace of the market is good news for home owners, but it raises affordability concerns for others in a state where less than one-third of households have enough money to own a home — the lowest share in the country after New York and Hawaii. 

Experts warn that without affordable housing, it will become difficult for the economy to keep growing. 

“Affordable housing is still one of our biggest challenges,” said Paul Saldana, a board member of the California Association for Local Economic Development and chief executive of the Tulare County Economic Development Corp. “But there is still a lot of affordability in various job centers in the state,” he said, including Riverside and San Bernardino.

NEW YORK — Shares of InVision Technologies Inc., which makes airport luggage scanners, fell Thursday after the Transportation Department reduced the number of such machines it plans to deploy at airports this year. 

Shares also fell, but then rebounded for OSI Systems of Hawthorne, Calif., which makes parts for InVision’s machines. 

Late Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the government now plans to deploy up to 1,100 machines this year in airports. Earlier government estimates called for the installation of more than 2,000 of the machines. 

InVision, based in Newark, Calif., is one of only two Federal Aviation Administration-certified suppliers of the explosive-detection machines. L3 Communications Holdings Inc. is the other. 

On Thursday, Merrill Lynch & Co. cut its near-term investment rating on InVision to neutral from buy. 

InVision shares closed at $23.95, down $3.49, or 13 percent, on Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Volume Thursday was 7.1 million shares, compared to average daily volume of 2 million shares.

After input from citizens and councilmembers, the controversial resolution from the Peace and Justice Commission to divest from Israel and Palestine that contained several items supporting peace processes in the region was picked apart, rewritten, but in the end it was still voted down.  

On Wednesday — the day after the heated debates surrounding the resolution — some councilmembers expressed relief and conveyed a sense that it was time to focus on local issues while at least one member sought to prepare an even stronger resolution. 

Though the council picked apart the resolution, pulling the issue of divestiture completely from the measure, the final version still did not have enough support to pass.  

The final version retained only a few articles from the original draft. It consisted of “support for the use of international peace keepers in Israel and Palestine,” “opposing all violations of law by the governments of Israel and Palestine,” “opposing the sale of weapons to be used against civilians,” and the forwarding of copies of the resolution to Congressional representatives. 

The reconstituted measure failed to gain a positive majority by one vote, which is necessary for any measure to pass.  

Councilmembers Linda Maio, Maudelle Shirek, Dona Spring and Miriam Hawley all voted to pass the measure, while members Margaret Breland, Betty Olds and Kriss Worthington voted against it. Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Polly Armstrong both abstained from voting. 

See IASRAEL/Page 12 

While assenting voters must have felt they had tailored the measure to the community's satisfaction, there didn't seem to be much regret at its failure. “I was hoping we could get a consensus on the items that seemed to be promoting peace,” Hawley said. “But it failing is fine. Taking no action on such a divisive issue is not a bad solution, if we can keep it at that. Anything we do in this atmosphere is very divisive.” 

Armstrong concurred. “Many of these issues unnecessarily divide the city, and are often decided on an emotional basis rather than on understanding,” she said. Armstrong doesn't believe the council should take on foreign policy issues, and as a matter of policy refuses to vote on many issues that Berkeley has no jurisdiction over. 

“Berkeley has enough problems of its own. If we can solve all our own problems, then we can go help Oakland,” she said. “There are people who believe Berkeley is a beacon for the world. But most of the people I come in contact with find the foreign policy stuff to be arrogant and silly.” 

Others believe that resolutions by the city of Berkeley are bound to have some effect.  

But Worthington said he believes passing a resolution that eloquently and understandably capsulizes Berkeley’s commitment to peace and justice to be a valuable tool, and he plans to have a new resolution ready for the next meeting that further specifies what actions the city condemns. 

Dean also spoke up for Berkeley’s practice of weighing in on foreign policy issues. She said that, in union with other voices of dissent, city measures can add to the tide of change.  

She abstained from voting on the resolution on Tuesday night, not because she disagreed with it in spirit, but said the context of this resolution would likekly be misconstrued.  

“This is a situation where the measure stands a 100% chance of being misunderstood. For example, I support the mission of peacekeepers, but first you need a peace to keep,” she said. 

“What we can do is stop the hatred within this city,” Dean said. “The bomb threats, the graffitti, the name-calling, have lately been directed at Jewish students and temples. In September, it was against Arabs or people who seemed Arabic. We get hate-mail directed at African-Americans, Hispanics, gays. If we speak out, promote a civil discourse, and spread the message of “no hate,” then we'll have done something.” 

Steve Friedkin of the Peace and Justice Commission came away from Tuesday's meeting with the same message. “One of the issues brought up last night was that people want to see us take a greater stand against hate crimes in our own community, so I have placed that issue on the agenda for the May 6th commission meeting. I'm basically issuing a challenge to encourage people to write up proposals and submit them to us, preferably before the actual meeting,” he said. Proposals should be sent to the commission's secretary, Manuel Hector, by April 30 at Health and Human Services, 2180 Milvia St., Berkeley 94704; or MHector@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Contact reporter Jamie Luck at jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

The St. Mary’s High baseball team missed a chance to put itself ahead of the BSAL pack on Wednesday, falling apart in the ninth inning to lose, 8-3, to Albany. 

The Cougars (13-5 overall, 6-2 BSAL) scored five runs in the ninth, all with two outs. St. Mary’s reliever Marcus Johnson looked as if he was out of trouble when he got Albany catcher Ian Gordon to hit the ball right to Chris Morocco at third base with two outs and two on, but Morocco bounced his throw to first, hitting teammate Joe Storno in the face as both runners scored.  

After an intentional walk to cleanup hitter Robert Diaz, who hit a go-ahead home run an inning earlier, four straight singles scored three more runs before Doug Fisch struck out to end the inning. 

“We’re not the greatest hitting team in the world, but we know how to take advantage when the other team gives us chances,” Albany head coach Jim Giblin said. “My guys never admit defeat, so we can come back on anybody.” 

Albany’s Lou Worth struck out the side in the bottom of the inning to earn the win. 

“I don’t place the entire game on that one play,” St. Mary’s head coach Andy Shimabukuro said of Morocco’s error. “We had a bunch of chances to score, and we couldn’t come through.” 

Albany starter Tommy Cable went seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits. Both St. Mary’s runs came in the first when Fisch threw away a Tom Carman double-play ball. The Panthers (9-11, 5-2) had runners on base in every inning but the seventh against Cable but couldn’t get anyone across the plate. 

St. Mary’s had three runners thrown out running the bases, including Storno getting caught off of second base twice. Amazingly, five Albany runners were thrown out on the basepaths, including two assists by centerfielder Chase Moore and two pickoffs by Johnson. 

Storno had a solid outing on the mound, allowing a run in the first inning on three singles and a Gordon homer in the third. But with a thin bullpen, Shimabukuro decided to let his starter go out for the eighth inning. Diaz hit the second pitch over the bleachers in leftfield, and Storno was pulled with Johnson coming in from leftfield to shut the Cougars down. 

St. Mary’s tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a scratch run. Moore walked to start the inning against Mike Clement, went to second on an errant pickoff throw and third on a Tom Carman grounder. Giblin pulled Clement in favor of Worth, but Storno came through with a long sacrifice fly to plate Moore and extend the game for another inning. 

“I feel like I have three No. 1 (pitchers),” Giblin said. “If I can see one guy doesn’t have it, I can go get someone else.” 

With the loss, St. Mary’s joined three other BSAL teams, including Albany, with two losses in league play. The league champion and automatic North Coast Section playoff spot will be determined by the BSAL playoffs. The top two seeds will receive first-round byes in the league playoffs, so the jockeying for those two spots should be fierce down the stretch. 

“We just have to try and win the rest of our games and get a bye,” Shimabukuro said. “We can still control that.”

To the Editor: 

It’s that time of year again. The students in Berkeley’s public schools are undergoing the annual round of standardized tests of achievement. Teachers like myself are also undergoing an annual ordeal: administering the tests. For us, this process begins with signing away our academic freedom and our sense of responsibility as educators, in essence handing over our classrooms for several weeks to a testing corporation. 

Pressure increases each year on students and on teachers to get a high score for their school. Schools can be financially rewarded or punished by the state according to students’ average test scores, a process that exacerbates the disparity between rich suburban and poor urban school districts. 

The test format used by California for the past four years is the Stanford Achievement Test Version 9, also known as the SAT-9, along with several other additional test segments. Every year, about a month before administering this test, we are asked to sign a Security Agreement. The stated aim of this agreement is to prevent teachers from copying or repeating any of the test items, thereby altering the objectivity of the data. 

But what does the signing of this agreement really mean for teachers, students, and parents? This security agreement prevents teachers from discussing the contents of the test at all, thereby infringing on our right to free speech and limiting parents’ right to know what is on the tests. The “high-stakes” nature of the current testing system, where so much rides on test averages has created an atmosphere of intimidation and fear for teachers. 

If you are a teacher who is opposed to the testing craze or if you encounter one of the many test items that doesn’t make sense or is culturally or racially biased, there is nothing you can do about it. When you sign the agreement, you essentially waive your right to be critical of the test. And if you are a teacher and you want to keep your job, you’d better sign the form. I recently talked to one of the lawyers from the California Federation of Teachers about refusing to sign this form. He agreed that the requirement to sign the form seemed unfair, but he told me that I’d better not make waves about signing. If I didn’t sign the form, then administered the test, then disclosed contents of the test to parents, the press, or anyone else, I should expect to find myself “flipping burgers next fall.” 

It’s not that I think every single test question is bogus. Many of the test questions do test the kinds of skills that I teach to my students, albeit in a limited multiple-choice format. But I feel that parents and the public have a right to know exactly how students are tested. Academic freedom guarantees that teachers have the right to use their knowledge and training, as well as their conscience to further educational goals above all else. The testing system prevents us from doing that. 

All this secrecy leads one to ask the question, “Why is Harcourt Educational Measurement so sensitive about the contents of this test?” Perhaps it’s because this company, a subsidiary of multinational Reed Elsevier, makes $12 million per year off of California tax payers through the sale of its testing materials. 

I’m a teacher. I want to teach in the best way I know how. I don’t want to teach to a test. I don’t want to give up my right to criticize the contents of this test, which were created by a huge corporation somewhere, far away from my classroom, from my school, from my district, and perhaps even far from my state. Yet I want to keep my job next year.  

- Martha Hoppe 

Berkeley

Blue grass music is alive and well and can be heard in Berkeley and Albany. The Ashkenaz hosts a monthly Fling Ding, where local bluegrass performers jam, as pictured at left on April 17. 

This Friday there’s a special bluegrass performance at Albany High School to benefit the Albany School District Music Program. The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, Laurie Lewis with Nina Gerber, Bluegrass Intentions will be on hand. 

Box office opens at 6:30 p.m. for a 7:30 show. Catch the fun at the Albany High School gym, 603 Key Route Blvd. 

Adults are $20, 18 and under $10  

For more information, call 559-8474 or email ehecht@pacbell.net.

“Diva Ladee Chico” Apr. 27: 9:30 p.m., Thunder and Lightning. $15 - $20. Roundtree’s Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum & Restaurant, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 225-1445 

“An American Tune” May 5: 3 p.m., A work presented by Cantare Chorale, Cantare Chamber Ensemble and Cantare Samaritan Singers. $15 - $22. First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant St., 655-5117 

“Symphony Concert” May 9: 8 p.m., Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performs works by Schubert, Boulez, Wysocki, and Bruckner. $27 - $45, $10 students. Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft between Telegraph and Dana, 841-2800 

“A Tribute to Mahilia Jackson” May 12: 2 p.m., Joshua Nelson, Emmit Powell & The Gospel Elites, The Bay Area Super Choir, and Elder Eric Claybon & Reign. $20- $25. Parks Chapel A.M.E. Church, 476 34th St., Oakland, 654-8758 

“World Dance Salon” Apr. 27: 8 p.m., Chhandam School of Kathak, Fat Chance Belly Dance, and Ka Ua Tuahine Polynesian Dance Company. Free. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

“Buddha, The Path of Light” Apr. 28: Jyoti Kala Mandir presents a classical Indian dance drama in the Odissi style. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 415-974-4313, www.jyotikalamandir.org 

“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.  

“Time Out for Ginger” May 10 through Jun. 1: The Actor’s Studio presents the famous comedy that sketches the tumult in a family that includes three teenage daughters, one of whom insists on trying out for her high school football team. $12. Check theater from dates and times. The Actor’s Studio’s Little Theatre, 3521 Maybelle Ave., Oakland 

“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. 

“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. For more information, call 841-4210 or 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” 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 

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831 

“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 photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“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 

“Solos: The Contemporary Monoprint” Apr. 26 through Jun. 15: An exhibition of two modern masters, Nathan Oliveira and Matt Phillips, as well as monoprints from other artists. Call for times. Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, kala@kala.org 

“Komar and Melamid’s Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project” Through May 26: An exhibition of paintings by elephants under the tutelage of Russian-born conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Perpetual Objects” Through Jul. 10: An exhibition of seven large-scale sculptures and two collage drawings by Dennis Leon. Mon. - Fri. 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Gallery 555 City Center, 12th and Clay, Oakland. 

“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 

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. 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 

Oakland Museum of California “33rd Annual California Wildflower Show” An exhibition featuring native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free children age 5 and under. May 11: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., May 12: 12 - 5 p.m. 

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 “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.

Thursday, April 25

Spring Travel Writer’s  

Seminar 

7:30 p.m. 

Architectural Guidebook to the National Parks:  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

For more information, 843-3533 

Graduate Theological Union  

presents a lecture on the  

Moral Status of heterosexism  

and racism in church practice 

5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion Chapel 

1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley 

Traci West, assistant professor of ethics and African-American religion, Drew University to speak ( sponsored by the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry.) 

For more information, call 849-8206. 

Senior Men’s Afternoon 

An impromptu discussion Group of senior gay men meets every 2nd & 4th Thursday. 

1:30-3:30 p.m. 

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-548-8283 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation’s 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for Edward Penhoet, a leader is the Bay Area’s Bio-tech industry and dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.  

6:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Haas School 

510-642-4255 for pre-paid reservations, open to the public, but registration is required 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A Quit Smoking Class 

Six Thursdays April 25 - May 30 

3 - 4:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Berkeley 

510-644-6422, quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Free to Berkeley & Albany Residents, employees and students 

A Woman’s Solo Journey Across the Arctic 

Pam Flowers will share highlights of her expedition. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Sustainable Building & Energy with Richard Register 

6 - 8:30 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

510-548-2220 x 233 

Free 

Friday, April 26

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Bio-Diversity” John Harte, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley. $1. 848-3533. 

Ladyfest Bay Area Presents:  

Ladies Love Trannys 

Featuring such films as “it’s a Boy!”, Life’s a Butch” along with other groundbreaking Trannyfest works centered around the theme of ladies and their multi-faceted love affairs with transgender folks. 

Doors open 7:30 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. 

Artists’ Television Access 

992 Valencia Street, San Francisco 

Tickets $7-$25 (sliding scale) 

For further information: 415-672-0518 or www.ladyfestbayarea.org 

Live Afro-Latino Hip-Hop 

9 p.m. 

Elbo Room 

647 Valencia St, San Francisco 

$8 

O Music Where Art Thou? 

A benefit for the Albany School District Music Program. The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, Laurie Lewis with Nina Gerber, Bluegrass Intentions 

7:30 p.m. (box office opens at 6:30 p.m.) 

Albany High School Gym 

603 Key Route Blvd. 

Albany 

510-559-8474, ehecht@pacbell.net 

Adults $20, 18 and under $10 

Best Road Trips in the USA 

Join author Jaimie Jensen for a slide presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Saturday, April 27

The New School International Family Fair & Raffle 

Capoeira Demonstration, African Dance, Ballet Folklorico, The New School Blues Review and more 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. 

Berkeley 

For information call 548-9165. 

Free 

City Planning and  

Architecture Job Fair 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

UCBerkeley campus, Pauley balloom in the MLK Jr. Student Center 

The leading firms in the business will host presntations about open positions and conduct informational interviews. Open to public. $5. UCBerkeley students free. 

For more information contact Kay Bock at 510-643-9440 or email kbock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

It's a "MALO" 30 Year  

Reunion!  

With Arcelio Garcia, Jr., Jorge Santana, Richard Bean, Pablo Tellez and others!  

A Benefit for Mission High School of San Francisco.  

7 to 11 p.m. 

Mission High School, located at 18th & Dolores Street. 

$15 balcony, $25 the floor 

(415) 206-0577 Latin Zone Productions 

Great Local Adventures 

REI’s Ruth Tretbar favorite local haunts 

1 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Poets, writers, comedians, singers and storytellers al come together for this free show. Featuring “Fresh Ink” 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Annual Open Mike Poetry  

Reading 

2-4 p.m. 

Arts Magnet School Poetry Garden 

Milvia and Lincold Streets, Berkeley 

All welcome to read a favorite poem or sit back and enjoy. Free. 

For information contact srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film 

2 p.m. 

Amoeba Music 

1855 Haight St. 

San Francisco  

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

7th Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Conference & Awards Program 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

James Moore Theater 

Oakland Museum 

1000 Oak St. (at 10th) 

Oakland 

510-638-7688 or e-mail tfoch2000@yahoo.com 

$45 & $12 for lunch 

Disaster First Aid Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

to register: 510-981-5605 

Tango Lesson 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Members of BATango will present a free lecture, demonstration and lesson. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org.bpl 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

10 a.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

COPWATCH: Know Your  

Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Learn what your rights are when dealing when the police and FBI. Learn how 

to observe the police on the street and during protests. 548-0425. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Events: What's That Smell? 

National Sense of Smell Day  

Hands-on activities 

* Discovering how smell helps small animals 

* Identifying the smells of various foods and household items 

* Creating a potpourri to take home 

* Tasting jelly beans - with noses blocked and open 

* Investigating how dinosaurs used their sense of smell  

12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 

LHS- Jurassic Park: The Life  

and Death of Dinosaurs 

Through May 12 

Were they gone in a flash? Or did climate changes, disease, and/or overpopulation gradually bring the reign of dinosaurs to an end? We're still asking, theorizing, and dramatizing what happened to these creatures. 

The exhibit features models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the films; an 8' by 10' hands-on dig pit where parts of an Albertosaurus and Dromaeosaurs are buried; and more than 30 skeletons and parts, including fossils that visitors can touch. This is one of the largest collection of traveling dinosaurs ever assembled.  

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle 

Hybrid Adobe building Seminar & Sculpture Workshop 

Learn how to make Hybrid Adobe at a sustainable building seminar 

11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Fort Mason 

Room C260 

San Francisco 

info and registration: 415-776-9800 or 831-648-3539 

Also hands-on workshop on Sunday in San Anselmo  

Call for fees and further info 

Sunday, April 28

Tibetan Sacred Art Festival 

1-4 p.m. Docent tours 

2 p.m. Play: “The Value of Friends” for children and adults 

8 p.m. Tour of Nyingma Institute & Yoga demonstration  

Noon - 7 p.m. 

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Berkeley 

510-843-6812 

“Sites and Insights” 

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design Alumni Association is offering unique guides of the Bay Area: Berkeley/Emeryville, Pixar Animation Studio’s, Stanford University, San Francisco’s Embarcadero and more. $100 per tour. Call 642-7722 for more information. 

Jyoti Kala Mandir presents an Odissi dance drama titled Buddha, The Path of Light. An ancient, form of sacred dance, Odissi was originally developed in the temple of Jagannath on the eastern coast of India as a form of worship and meditation.  

4:00 pm 

Julia Morgan Theater 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

Tickets are $15 at the door, $12 in advance. Tickets for seniors, students, disabled, and children are $12 at the door, $10 in advance. Preferred seating tickets are $25. Call 415.974.4313 

Body Rhythm 

Swaying tropical rhythms and dancing grooves  

6 to 9 p.m. 

Pacific Coast Brewing Company 

906 Washington St.  

Oakland 

All ages  

Free 

Water For Life 

6 to 9 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The event features Salsa Dance Lessons, Music, Food and a Silent Auction to Benefit WaterPartners International who provide critical support to Honduran and Guatemalan communities in building safe drinking water systems. For further information call: 510-526-5852 

$10-$20 Sliding Scale 

People's Park, 33rd Anniversary: A celebration of the creation and the on-going life of this piece of liberated earth. The day begins with the All Nations Singers and ends with a Maypole & drum circle. 

MC: Wavy Gravy 

Live Music: Jonathan Richman , Shelly Doty X-tet, Upsurge! , 

Funky Nixons, and Carol Denney. 

Speakers: Barbara Lee, Kris Worthington, Terri Compost), Free Speech Sections 

Hosted by Michael Delacour, Andy Lichterman, Karen Pickett, and Ed Rosenthal. 

Poets: Julia Vinograd, Jean Stewart, Goddess, and Kirk Lumpkin. Theater: X-plicit Players. 

12:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.. 

People's Park between Dwight Way, Bowditch St., Haste St., & Telegraph Ave., 

Berkeley 

Free 

(510) 696-0336 

Larry De La Cruz and Anton Schwartz Quintet 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool 

2087 Addison Street  

Berkeley 

Admission: $6-12  

Reservations: (510) 845-5373, swing@jazzschool.com / www.jazzschool.com 

Plant Sale 

California Horticultural Society 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Lakeside Garden Center 

666 Bellevue Ave. 

Oakland 

Free, parking $2 

Berkeley High School has released a blueprint for reform four weeks before a crucial visit by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a Burlingame-based accrediting group which has threatened to withdraw its seal of approval if BHS does not make progress in 11 areas first identified in 1999. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence and members of the Board of Education say the plan marks a significant step forward, and they expressed cautious optimism about continued accreditation.  

But district leaders and high school staff say they have concerns about weak spots in attendance, security and the ninth-grade program. 

“I think the report is well-written and comprehensive,” Lawrence said. “The test will be whether the committee sees that what we say is being put into practice.”  

The current accreditation runs through June.  

See BHS/Page 12 

A WASC team will visit May 19-21 and recommend either terminating accreditation, or extending it by one, two or three years. The WASC commission will review the recommendation and issue a judgment at its June 24-25 meeting. 

WASC has called, among other things, for a unified approach to address the “achievement gap” separating white and minority students, a well-structured planning process, greater cooperation among staff, a new safety and attendance-taking plan, better communication with the community, and improved staff development. 

In March 2001, the organization issued a report criticizing the district for making “spotty” progress in the 11 problem areas.  

After discussions with WASC officials earlier this school year, district officials decided to break up the 11 areas into five, manageable general categories: governance, attendance, discipline, staff development and the ninth-grade program. 

The new plan makes recommendations in all five areas. Some of the highlights include: 

• the introduction of double-period math for struggling ninth-graders 

• an improved curriculum for the ninth-grade Identity and Ethnic Studies course 

• better attendance-taking  

• improved intervention for truant students 

• monthly staff development workshops 

Some elements of the plan are already in place. Earlier this year, for instance, Lawrence put a “shared governance” structure in place at the high school which includes the four co-principals, 12 department heads, the directors of BHS schools-within-a-school, a pair of teachers and a smattering of others. 

“We imposed a governance structure on the school that has allowed it to move forward,” said board President Shirley Issel, arguing that the new team has worked effectively to address several of the concerns raised by WASC, including the basic call for a well-structured decision-making process. 

But science teacher Aaron Glimme, who battled with administrators over science cuts earlier this year, argued that the shared governance structure has not provided an adequate forum for voicing teachers’ concerns. 

BHS also plans to implement a new safety plan in May. Lawrence said measures will include closing down the campus when classes are in session and providing designated areas for students who do not have classes during a given period. The hope is to cut down on students wandering throughout the campus. 

The board has already voted to lay off the high school security manager Barry Wiggan next year and turn over administration to a pair of discipline deans, first installed in January. But that plan has its critics, who claim the deans do not have Wiggans’s expertise. 

Lawrence said her chief concern is attendance. 

“I think we have a ways to go,” she said, arguing that the school needs to do a better job of monitoring attendance-taking and pursuing truant students. But, she said attendance shortcomings should not prevent continued accreditation. 

School board member John Selawsky said BHS has made real strides in improving governance and communications. But he said the school has much work to do on the ninth-grade program. 

“It has been kind of a weak program and I think it still is,” said Selawsky, who has a son in the ninth grade. “I think we could be challenging (the students) a bit more than we do.” 

Selawsky said he was encouraged by plans to offer double-period math and strengthen the Identity and Ethnic Studies course. 

BHS co-principal Mary Ann Valles said staff has already started to bolster the IES curriculum. She added that plans to expand an orientation program for at-risk, incoming freshmen from one week to four marks a positive change. 

Valles said she hopes WASC recognizes the value of these programmatic changes and the overall commitment to change. 

“I have to believe we’ve made so much progress on collaboration, on working together toward common goals,” she said. 

Contact reporter: 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

Last night (Tue., April 23) I witnessed a horrific scene at the Berkeley City Council. In response to the recommendations from the Peace and Justice Commission that human rights be supported in Israel and Palestine, the councilmembers made some startling comments. 

Some claimed that calling on Israel to grant human rights for Palestinians was anti-Semitic! Many claimed that instead of making this call for human rights, we should instead call on “all sides to sit and talk and negotiate.” What kind of foolishness is this? 

It is outrageous to claim that human rights are something that people need to “negotiate over” or that the decades of denial of human rights to Palestinians is some “misunderstanding” that can be resolved by having people sit around and discuss their differences. 

Yes, negotiation and discussion are things will be a necessary and crucial part of any eventual peace and reconciliation process, but human rights are non-negotiable; they are international law!  

Yet, the Berkeley City Council seemed to claim that Palestinians should negotiate with the state of Israel not about substantive issues but for their basic rights. 

It is time that the Berkeley City Council takes simple moral actions to affirm the principle of “basic human rights for all” that all citizens of Berkeley believe in. 

- Sami Kitmitto  

Berkeley  

LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures is spinning a commanding box-office web this summer, with a lineup anchored by that blockbuster-in-the-making, “Spider-Man,” and sequels to “Men in Black” and “Stuart Little.” 

Beyond those three franchise films, the movie studio has Adam Sandler in “Mr. Deeds,” a remake of the Frank Capra classic “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”; the Dana Carvey comedy “The Master of Disguise”; the Jennifer Lopez thriller “Enough”; and the extreme-sports spy caper “XXX,” reuniting star Vin Diesel, director Rob Cohen and producer Neil Moritz, the team behind last year’s surprise smash “The Fast and the Furious.” 

“I’ve never seen such a strong slate from any one studio in any given summer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks the movie box office. “Everything came together for them this summer.” 

It even surpasses Sony’s 1997 summer schedule, when “Men in Black,” “Air Force One” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” propelled the studio to a record box-office haul of $1.26 billion domestically for the entire year. 

Since then, Sony has been a middle-of-the-pack studio at best, lagging well behind recent box-office leaders such as Warner Bros., Disney and Universal. Sony has had a scattering of hits, including the original “Stuart Little” and Sandler’s “Big Daddy,” but plenty of duds, among them “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,” “Ali,” “Jakob the Liar” and “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.” 

Even some of Sony’s hits were qualified successes. 

Sony’s “The Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson, was expected to debut as the No. 1 movie two years ago but was trounced by George Clooney’s “The Perfect Storm,” which went on to gross $182 million compared with $113 million for “The Patriot.” 

“You always try, and we’ve certainly had some hits,” said Jeff Blake, Sony’s head of distribution and marketing. “With ‘Patriot,’ our only crime was losing the weekend to ‘The Perfect Storm.”’ 

Sony is virtually assured of a blockbuster with “Spider-Man,” one of the most anticipated comic-book adaptations ever. The studio already is moving ahead with a sequel, following the same pattern as “Men in Black II” and “Stuart Little 2” by putting the next film in the hands of the same director, Sam Raimi. 

“Episode two is under way,” Raimi said. 

Opening next week, “Spider-Man” stars Tobey Maguire as the web-slinging superhero, with Kirsten Dunst as the romantic lead and Willem Dafoe as the villainous Green Goblin. 

The sequel is expected to begin shooting next year, with Maguire and Dunst signed to reprise their roles. 

Once viewed as quick-cash knockoffs, sequels often are treated more tenderly today, with studios hoping reunions of the original creative teams can produce new installments that match or exceed the revenues of the originals. 

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return for “Men in Black II,” opening July 3, with Barry Sonnenfeld again directing. On “Stuart Little 2,” debuting July 19, Michael J. Fox is back as the voice of the rodent along with the rest of the original cast and director Rob Minkoff. Additions to the voice cast are Melanie Griffith and James Woods. 

“People have recognized the value of sequels commercially for a long time,” Minkoff said. “But I think Steven Spielberg (“Indiana Jones,” “Jurassic Park”) and maybe Bob Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”), they took some of their bigger hits and stayed with them, and that was the critical element. It’s not just taking the title and making another movie, anymore. It’s about making another good movie.” 

Sony also hopes its second-tier slate will produce some hits. Lopez, who has demonstrated good screen presence in so-so movies, could achieve a breakout success with “Enough,” directed by Michael Apted (“The World Is Not Enough”). 

“XXX” looks to have the fast action and youth appeal that made “The Fast and the Furious” a winner. 

Aiming for the lucrative family crowd, “The Master of Disguise” features Carvey at he did best on “Saturday Night Live,” mimicking others. 

And the mix of proven box-office draw Sandler with a beloved Capra tale could be an irresistible lure for audiences. 

The Berkeley City Council passed two resolutions opposing a new Alameda county juvenile facility planned for construction in Dublin. Opponents of the facility say there is no need for a larger facility and that the proposed Dublin location will be inaccessible to most Alameda county families. 

The first resolution was a unanimous vote in opposition to the location of the facility. The Council voted 6 to 2 with one abstention on the second resolution which opposed both the new location and the expanded size of the juvenile hall from 299 beds to 420. 

"With this resolution we are saying to the county take another look at this issue," said Shirley Dean, Mayor of Berkeley.  

Both opponents and supporters of the Dublin facility agree that a new juvenile hall must be built, citing the dilapidated condition of the present San Leandro facility built nearly 50 years ago. 

See JUVENILE/Page 10 

Opponents maintain, however, that alternative programs for youth offenders should be studied instead of building expanded juvenile facilities. 

"Incarceration doesn't have to be the first thing we think of when a juvenile breaks the law," said Keith Carson, a Supervisor for Alameda County and an opponent of the proposed hall. 

Councilmembers Miriam Hawley and Betty Olds decided to vote no on the resolution opposing the facility. Neither Hawley nor Olds favor the location of the proposed facility but Hawley says an expanded hall may be needed in the future. 

"They have compromised. We're building for the future, 30, 40 years down the line," said Hawley. 

Hawley says that the current overcrowded and run down San Leandro facility warrants a new and expanded facility and that the additional space in the new hall can be used for specialized programs and services. 

Many concerned members of the community feel that the current facility is not overcrowded and that the proposal for this new facility lacks the data to prove such a need.  

"One must ask the question what is behind this proposal. It can't be justified by the existing data," said Maris Arnold, a Berkeley resident against the overpolicing of the state.  

Opponents say that transportation costs to the new facility will weigh heavily on many working-class families in Alameda County. A round-trip BART ticket to Dublin ranges from $2 to $8.80. Opponents also fear that families will have to miss a full day's work to travel to the facility. 

According to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council has a responsibility to oppose this new facility given that spending on prisons already outnumbers spending on education. 

"We have to take a stand and be willing to take the heat for this decision," said Worthington.  

Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele believes that the issue is more complex than simply passing resolutions and that the kids are the ones suffering while leaders disagree on a new home for the facility. 

"The children are living in an unsafe facility on an earthquake fault and we need to get them out but there's nobody that wants to help," said Steele.  

According to Steele, neither Oakland nor Berkeley want the facility but each complains that the Dublin facility is too far away.  

"This is a very complex issue, one that can't be solved in sound bites," said Steele. 

"There should have been a study for deterrents to incarceration. That wasn't a part of the study," said Carson. 

Alternate programs including a new ankle bracelet monitoring system have shown signs of progress for juvenile offenders previously incarcerated for non-violent acts such as truancy and behavioral care problems according to Carson.  

"We were very pleased to see that the council passed the resolution because we're looking to Berkeley to raise concern about this issue," said Rachel Jackson, State Field Director of Books Not Bars, a coalition in partnership with Youth Force against the over-incarceration of youth. 

Jackson says that it is important to raise discussion and debate on this issue and that much of the work opposition to the facility has come from the leadership of local youth. 

BNB and the Youth Force Coalition, a group of youth organizations fighting against the oppressive attacks on community, took part in a demonstration at the Alameda County Administration Building April 17. Dozens of students and organizers carried signs and chanted slogans opposing the expanded hall.  

Next up for the proposed facility is a series of environmental impact reports. Construction is expected to start after the reports are assessed. 

Contact Chris Nichols at: chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

I’d like to point out that “Berkeley rejects Israel boycott” was glaringly inaccurate. 

The author implied that the city council vote against divestment from Israel was a close call. I sat in on the city council meeting myself, and this was not true. In fact, the city council did not even vote on the divestment issue. After hearing the public and discussing the resolution themselves, the city council voted on a modified version of the resolution. The modified version entirely excluded the divestment clause, as well as other portions of the original resolution. It was overwhelmingly apparent that the city council opposed the divestment clause, so much so that it would not have been worth even putting it to a vote. 

They recognized that divestment would not be an effective means to promote peace. Its only outcome would serve to increase already stressful tensions here in Berkeley, including offensive rhetoric and anti-Semetic attacks. 

- Hilla Abel 

Berkeley 

John Yoo, a Bush Administration official on loan from UC Berkeley, defended the president’s handling of the 299 alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at a Wednesday appearance at the university’s Boalt School of Law. 

Yoo, who is a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, focused on the administration’s controversial decisions to deny detainees prisoner of war status and try them before military tribunals. 

Yoo has discussed these issues at a series of universities around the country. According to Yoo the tribunals are appropriate because the Sep. 11 attacks were acts of war. And acts of war carry different punitive consequences than criminal acts.  

See BUSH/Page 12 

But UC Berkeley law professor Howard Shelanski worried this reasoning would set a dangerous precedent. Any attack on domestic soil, he suggested, could be construed as an act of war and that would allow the administration to round up hundreds of domestic suspects — like it did in the wake of the Sep. 11 attacks. 

“Is that just an open door for importing the category of war into domestic investigations?,” he asked. 

Yoo said all of the suspects were picked up on immigration violations and provided with lawyers.  

Yoo said the 299 detainees at Guantanamo Bay do not deserve prisoner of war status because they violated the international rules of war, and therefore, do not qualify for the protections laid out in the Geneva Convention. 

Amnesty International, in a report issued earlier this month, accused the White House of violating international law by denying prisoners counsel and failing to provide a reason for detention. But the administration has contended that it is treating prisoners humanely. 

Yoo said the decision to treat prisoners as “illegal combatants” rather than prisoners of war serves three ends. First, Yoo said, “the administration wanted to send an important political message,” separating the alleged Taliban and Al Qaida fighters from the “honorable” soldiers of other countries. 

Second, the decision allowed the administration to deny the prisoners the right to certain privileges enjoyed by POWs, including communal exercise, the right to prepare their own meals and life in barracks, as opposed to individual cells. These group activities, Yoo said, could be dangerous given that several prisoners have suggested that they would kill their captors if they could. 

Finally, Yoo said, illegal combatant status allows the administration to interrogate prisoners about Taliban and al-Qaida activities. If the detainees were POWs, he noted, they would only have to provide name, rank and serial number. 

Contact reporter: 

sharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

A way to understand the conflict in the Middle East is to know Israel wants peace; and Palestinians want Israel. 

- Harry Lieberman 

Berkeley

Today is Thursday, April 25, the 115th day of 2002. There are 250 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 25, 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping. 

On this date: 

In 1792, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine. 

In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal. 

In 1898, the United States formally declared war on Spain. 

In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was $1. 

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany’s defenses. 

In 1945, delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. 

In 1983, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft crossed Pluto’s orbit, on its endless voyage through the Milky Way. 

In 1990, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule. 

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. 

In 1995, show business legend Ginger Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83. 

Ten years ago:  

Islamic forces in Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government. An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale shook northern California. 

Five years ago:  

The prosecution began calling witnesses in Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing trial. A federal judge ruled for the first time that the Food and Drug Administration can regulate tobacco as a drug — but said it couldn’t restrict cigarette advertising. 

One year ago:  

In unusually blunt terms, President Bush warned China that an attack on Taiwan could provoke a U.S. military response. A rescue plane flew out of the South Pole with ailing American doctor Ronald S. Shemenski in the most daring airlift ever from the pole. Ousted Philippine President Joseph Estrada became the country’s first leader to be arrested for alleged corruption in office. Federal regulators ordered limited price controls on California wholesale electricity markets. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Country musician Vassar Clements is 74. Movie director-writer Paul Mazursky is 72. Former Harlem Globetrotter George “Meadowlark” Lemon is 70. Songwriter Jerry Leiber is 69. Actor Al Pacino is 62. Rock musician Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 57. Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) is 57. Actress Talia Shire is 56. Actor Jeffrey DeMunn is 55. Rock musician Michael Brown (The Left Banke) is 53. Country singer-songwriter Rob Crosby is 48. Actor Hank Azaria is 38. Rock singer Andy Bell (Erasure) is 38. Rock musician Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) is 37. TV personality Jane Clayson (“The Early Show”) is 35. Actress Renee Zellweger is 33. Actor Jason Lee is 32. Actress Emily Bergl is 27. Singer Jacob Underwood (O Town) is 22. 

Armed with signs, flyers, food and a woman in a peanut suit, the Coalition of University Employees Local 3 held a lunch-hour rally on the lawn before Sproul Hall on Wednesday to demand an increase in wages for clerical workers from the university.  

Roughly 50 people gathered, some observing, some participating, as ralliers marched in a circle with signs that read "We Deserve Fair Pay" and "Fair Contract Now!!!" and 'Mr. Peanut' handed out flyers protesting low pay and, of course, little bags of peanuts. 

Though the union held a similar rally just two weeks before, this meeting co-incided with the traditional "Secretary's Day," now dubbed "Administrative Professional's Day," and was marked by talk of a strike. 

"The university is simply not listening," said Nora Foster, the Operations and Reserve Manager at the UC Library. "People at the bargaining table are not offering anything more than the 1 percent raise they've had on the table all year, so we are preparing for a possible strike in May," she said.  

The CUE is seeking a 15 percent pay raise over two years, made up of 7.5 percent this year, and another 7.5 the next. The university's budget for 2001-02 only allowed for a 1 percent increase for each of those years, and 3 percent in deferred compensation--which consists of a yearly investment equal to 3 percent of the employees wages that won't be available until retirement. The CUE claims that the deferred compensation is almost meaningless, because retirement benefits require five years to become vested, while the average clerical worker only stays for three years. 

According to an independent audit by Peter Donohue that was commissioned by the union, UC’ clerical workers make an average of 18-30 percent below market wages. UC spokesperson Paul Schwartz earlier stated that clerical wages only lag 8 to 10 percent. Either way, a total raise of 2 percent over two years would not bring wages up to market, a factor that contributes to a 54 percent annual turnover rate. 

Rising in medical co-pays, parking rates, and an inflation rate estimated at 4.5 percent for this year all exacerbate the financial strain on workers. 

The university has cited tough economic times and reduced state revenue as directly affecting the institution’s ability to provide wage increases, but the audit shows UC has $2.1 billion in “unrestricted funds” left over in its budget, more than enough to cover wage increases. 

The union’s ire was further raised when a top administrator at the Berkeley Extension was given an apparent $50,000 raise this year while eighteen clerical workers at Extension have been laid-off since January. This is in addition to a reported shortage of 22 staff in effect since a hiring freeze last year. 

“UC Berkeley claims to be a premier university, yet Cal [State University] Hayward pays their workers more,” said Foster. “It's a kind of moral imperative for the university to support their workers. It's a standard of decency issue. Clearly, when you have people living in substandard housing, struggling to support their families and going into credit debt, than the university is not valueing us as they claim. They should show their respect by paying us fairly for our work," she said. 

The union has been working without a contract since the end of November, 2001. 

Calls placed by the Daily Planet to the university’s human resources, labor relations, and media relations went unreturned Wednesday.  

E-mail reporter Jamie Luck at jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net.

BERKELEY – U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee has been named the winner of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Government Award for 2002, in part for challenging President Bush’s military plans after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 

The award, to be formally announced Thursday, is presented to a politician who embodies the late Oregon senator’s political courage and commitment to justice. 

Lee, the Democrat who represents Oakland and Berkeley, cast the only “no” vote on a resolution passed shortly after the East Coast terrorist attacks, authorizing the nation to go to war. 

See LEE/Page 10 

“It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the Sept. 11 events anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy,” Lee wrote in an essay published shortly after the attacks. “A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent people will be killed.” 

In a prepared statement Wednesday, Lee called Morse “a true inspiration” and said winning an award in his name “is indeed a humbling and remarkable moment.” 

Lee is the eighth person and second woman to receive the award since its inception in 1987. The other woman was the first to receive the award, California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird. 

Lee beat out six other nominees, including finalists Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont. Feingold, a Democrat, has pushed for campaign finance reform. Jeffords made headlines when he abandoned the Republican Party to become independent, changing the Senate’s balance of power. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A Berkeley bicyclist has sued the organizer of the AIDS Vaccine Rides for allegedly misrepresenting how much money raised by the events ends up going to medical research. 

Mark Cloutier, who also is a lawyer, on Wednesday sued Los Angeles-based Pallotta Teamworks in San Francisco Superior Court. He alleged the company has misrepresented and mismanaged the amount of money distributed to nonprofit agencies for AIDS research. 

Pallotta organizes several bicycle rides across the country to raise money for AIDS research, breast cancer research and other causes. 

Cloutier said Pallotta delivered less than one third of the $28 million it received from the Vaccine Rides to charities that conduct AIDS vaccine research. 

“The promise of the AIDS Vaccine Ride was that it would help raise much-needed funds for research and development of a vaccine for HIV/AIDS,” Cloutier said. “I was greatly disappointed and so were many other well-intentioned riders who were misled.” 

Pallotta spokeswoman Janna Sidley dismissed the suit as “wholly and entirely non-meritorious.” 

Cloutier is seeking class-action status for his suit to represent all riders who have participated in the fundraising rides during 2000 and 2001. 

Pallotta Teamworks has been embroiled in another legal battle with the organizers of the AIDS/LifeCycle ride, which scheduled a competing event weeks before Pallotta’s ride June 2-8. 

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center accused Pallotta of mismanaging the event and said they’re better off running it themselves.

SACRAMENTO — A hotly debated bill that would let teacher contract negotiations include textbook and curriculum selection stalled Wednesday night in an Assembly committee. 

The bill, backed by teachers’ unions and opposed by groups representing school boards and administrators, initially fell two votes short of the bare majority needed to pass the 15-member Education Committee. 

But the committee delayed finalizing the vote to give the measure’s supporters time to try to round up additional support as the hearing continued on other legislation. 

Supporters said the bill would give teachers and parents a greater role in determining how schools operate. 

“Teachers care passionately about the success of the students they teach,” said Beverly Tucker, chief counsel for the California Teachers Association. “They are closest to students. They should be equal partners with school boards and parents.” 

But opponents said curriculum issues should not be tossed into contract negotiations. 

“Collective bargaining is a drawn out, expensive process,” said Alfonso Anaya, president of the California Latino Superintendents Association. “Education reform measures do not belong in the collective bargaining process.” 

To ease opposition to the bill, author Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, amended it to give schools two options. The schools could discuss curriculum issues in public collective bargaining sessions, or they could form “academic partnerships” — groups comprised of teachers, parents and school officials — to try to reach agreements. 

If an academic partnership failed to reach a consensus after three months, unresolved issues could be taken to the bargaining table — but those discussions also would have to be public. 

Opponents said even with the amendments, the bill would continue to shift decision-making authority to union representatives who are not held accountable for student performance. 

“You are wrong if you think this bill does not give leverage to unions to take education issues and use them as leverage in (negotiations over) salaries and working conditions,” said Kenneth Hall, a lobbyist for the California Association of School Business Officials. 

The bill comes as educators and politicians struggle with issues of accountability in public education and the increasing use of standardized testing. Gov. Gray Davis said recently he will not sign the bill without significant changes. 

That has angered leaders of the CTA, which is already at odds with some of Davis’ education initiatives, such as accountability and standardized testing, said association president Wayne Johnson. 

The rift comes during an election year in which Davis could use the support of the traditionally Democratic union. The CTA gave Davis about $2 million for his 1998 campaign but has only given him about $62,000 for his re-election bid against Republican Bill Simon. 

“Some of our members are not all that happy with Governor Davis the last three-and-a-half years,” said Johnson. “There has been some pressure to cut back on the large donations, but I suspect that down the road between now and (November) that the CTA will make contributions.” 

Goldberg said bill opponents have twisted its intent. Elected boards will still make the decisions, but teachers will have a greater say in the process, she says.

SAN FRANCISCO — Counties and cities in California may prohibit gun shows on their fairgrounds and other public properties, despite state laws that allow such events, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. 

The decision was expected to set off an avalanche of new such ordinances across the state. In briefs submitted to the court, at least 20 cities and counties had urged the justices to allow such bans. 

Monday’s 6-1 ruling upheld bans passed in 1999 in Los Angeles and Alameda counties amid concerns that gun shows promoted violence and tarred the area’s public image. 

“Alameda County has the authority to prohibit the operation of gun shows held on its property,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote. 

The gun industry argued that local governments are powerless to regulate the industry because the Legislature has authorized gun shows on public property, and the state laws supersede the local ones. 

California’s high court had never before ruled on whether statewide regulation of gun sales leaves room for more restrictive local measures. 

A state appeals court overturned San Francisco’s 1982 ban on handgun possession, saying cities and counties cannot write such laws. But in 1998, another appeals court upheld West Hollywood’s ban on cheap handguns known as Saturday Night Specials, which were legal in other parts of the state. 

Alameda County outlawed gun possession on county property after a shooting at its fairgrounds in Pleasanton. Los Angeles County issued its ban for its fairgrounds in Pomona as county lawmakers decried gun violence.

SACRAMENTO — A Senate budget subcommittee stripped money intended to build California’s first new prison since 1995 on Wednesday, saying the maximum-security facility is unnecessary as the state’s prison population falls. 

Committee members also restored money for five community correctional facilities Gov. Gray Davis had promised to close. 

They disputed the Department of Corrections’ population projections and its inmate classification system, and said the state can’t afford to build a new Delano II maximum-security prison as it faces as much as a $20 billion budget deficit. 

Davis’ administration will fight to reverse the subcommittee’s decisions during budget negotiations this spring, said Youth and Adult Correctional Agency spokesman Steve Green. 

The decisions were made by just two subcommittee members, led by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles. He chairs both the subcommittee and the Senate Public Safety Committee. 

Opening a new 5,000-bed maximum-security prison while closing five low-security privately operated prisons makes sense because the nature of the prison population is shifting, testified Corrections Director Edward S. Alameida Jr. 

“We’re getting a more violent prison inmate coming to our system,” he said. “You’re seeing a transformation in the prison system.” 

There are fewer lower-security inmates because voter-approved Proposition 36 took effect in July, sending first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison, Alameida said. But the number of high-security, violent inmates continues to climb. 

He disputed opponents’ argument that the department can simply add staff and change procedures to change a medium-security cell into a maximum-security cell. And he defended the department’s security classification system as “pretty darn good,” citing a University of California, Los Angeles study. 

Polanco was unconvinced, while subcommittee member Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Santa Ana, said he is concerned the state can’t afford a new prison while imposing massive budget cuts elsewhere. While the committee’s vote stripped out only $1 million in pre-construction money, Polanco said it will save hundreds of millions of dollars in future years. 

The pair also voted to block Davis’ proposal to shutter five of the state’s nine private prisons housing 1,400 short-term inmates to save the state an estimated $5 million a year, after hearing testimony from former inmates and community members. 

Davis’ plan to close the prisons was earlier supported by an Assembly budget subcommittee. 

The five he wants to shut down by June 30 are Baker Community Correctional Facility east of Los Angeles; Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility in Riverside County; Leo Chesney Community Correctional Facility for Women in Live Oak, north of Sacramento; McFarland Community Correctional Facility in Kern County; and Mesa Verde Community Correctional Facility in Bakersfield. 

Supporters of both subcommittee decisions portrayed them as victories over the powerful prison guards’ union that has strongly backed Davis. 

SACRAMENTO — The state Board of Education picked a new standardized test Wednesday to replace the Stanford 9 exam students take each spring. 

The new California Achievement Test, 6th Edition, will measure how well students know subjects deemed necessary by state officials, and the new contractor, the Educational Testing Service, will also develop the California Standards Tests and administer the overall Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program. 

The board voted 6-2 to designate ETS as the STAR contractor for three years, beginning in 2003. President Reed Hastings, Joe Nunez, Robert Abernethy, Susan Hammer, Vicki Reynolds and Suzanne Tacheny voted for ETS, while Nancy Ichinaga and Erika Goncalves were opposed. 

Now, ETS must enter into contract negotiations with the California Department of Education. A contract is expected to be brought to the board in June for final approval. 

ETS already handles the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT 1), and the state’s high school exit exam. 

Each year, the state’s STAR program tests about 4.5 million students. It includes the Stanford 9, a test that compares students with others around the nation. STAR also includes the California Standards Tests, which measure how well students know subjects taught in the state’s curriculum. 

The new, three-year deal with ETS will cost less than the current standardized testing program, which costs $60 million a year. 

Hastings said Wednesday’s vote means the state will have tests that accurately measure “the state’s rigorous academic content standards.” 

When it adopted the Stanford 9 test five years ago, it was the first time the state measured its academic performance against achievement nationwide. 

Until last year, the Stanford 9 had been the single factor in the state’s Academic Performance Index, which measures school progress and provides cash bonuses to schools whose test scores improve. 

Education officials said they always anticipated replacing the Stanford 9, administered by Harcourt Educational Measurement of San Antonio, Texas, after a certain number of years because achievement standards change. Officials also said students and teachers might grow familiar with the same exam. 

The new test will be based on norms established in 2000 or later. Educators and testing experts evaluated four proposals, with ETS and Harcourt emerging as the top contenders. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin had recommended going with ETS instead of an updated version of the Stanford 9 that will debut in 2003.

SACRAMENTO — Land-use planners and government agencies, accustomed to second guessing themselves when saying no to developers, are hailing a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling as a victory for sound planning in California. 

The ruling, defending government rights to restrict development along the Lake Tahoe shoreline, is the “most significant case for government in 15 years,” said Bill Higgins, senior staff attorney for the League of California Cities. 

Higgins and others who regulate what can and can’t be built in California said the ruling eases years of doubts about rights to temporarily ban development while studying its possible consequences. 

Developers and land owners often argue that such delays amount to “taking” their land and sue for financial compensation. 

“We refer to it as the ’chilling effect,”’ said Higgins. “Just the fact that the government prevailed on good planning principles strengthens the resolve of government to engage in these processes.” 

Tuesday, the nation’s highest court defended the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency halt during the 1980s of halting lakeshore development it believed was harming the lake. Hundreds of people who bought lakeshore lots expecting to build on them demanded money when the government stalled them. The court ruled that a development moratorium did not legally amount to “taking” their property. 

Though no current California land-use cases directly mirror the Tahoe situation, planners said the court’s message signals a victory for them. 

“It’s an affirmation of what we’ve been doing,” said Ralph Faust, chief counsel of the California Coastal Commission. 

“We have situations where we look at development and approve development on part of the property and restrict it on other parts,” Faust said. “We’ve always felt it was constitutional, but there’s also been a lingering question. Certainly, we think it’s a positive decision.” 

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, in a statement, called the ruling a victory for “sound planning practices and for the future of police power measures necessary to protect public health and safety.” 

Defenders of private property rights downplayed the ruling. 

“A landowner bringing an ordinary run-of-the-mill taking claim is in the same position today as before Tuesday when the case came down,” said Jim Burling, chief of the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation. He said the Lake Tahoe case differs from most city and county development moratoriums, which are limited to two years. 

Along the lakeshore, winners were savoring their victory. 

“We see this as a turning point for Lake Tahoe,” said Rochelle Nason, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. “It really means we can start to put some property rights issues to rest and begin focusing on conservation and restoration that benefits everybody.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A small software company that has an office in Berkeley is taking on entertainment behemoths, suing nine major movie studios for the right to sell a program that allows the user to copy commercial DVDs. 

St. Louis-based 321 Studios filed a complaint Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The software company wants the court to rule that sale of its software, DVD Copy Plus, is legal and does not violate provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

The DMCA was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998 and addresses the issue of copyright protection for a variety of digital media content. 

“Our stance is that the DMCA is overbroad and unconstitutional,” 321 Studio’s President and CEO Robert Moore said Wednesday. “We just don’t feel that it’s right to tell the American public that they cannot copy their own property.” 

DVD Copy Plus allows the user to make a compressed lower-quality copy of the orginal DVD and burn it onto a blank CD, which can then be viewed in a home DVD player — backing up “Bambi,” if you will. 

A spokeswoman for the the Motion Picture Association of America said the trade group was still looking over a copy of the complaint Wednesday and had no comment. The suit names MGM Studios, Tristar Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Universal City Studios, The Saul Zaentz Company and Pixar Corporation as defendants. 

Moore said he has sold 75,000 copies of DVD Copy Plus since July. The software package is not completely proprietary and contains some software that has been available for free over the Internet, Moore added. 

There is computer code called DeCSS which allows the user to decrypt the Content Scramble System that most commercial DVD movies employ to prevent unauthorized digital duplication. 

Circumvention of the Content Scramble System is prohibited by the DMCA, which reads in part, “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” 

Moore said he isn’t exactly sure what his company’s software does to duplicate DVDs, or if it contains the hotly debated DeCSS code. He said his company does not know if DVD Copy Plus circumvents CSS or merely somehow captures a video stream from the DVD. 

For the user, the software works by turning the DVD movie content into a VCD, or Video Compact Disc format, which is about the quality of VHS tape. It usually takes two blank CDs to hold a DVD movie encoded into the VCD format and the discs can be viewed on many common standalone DVD players. 

He described the small company as more of a customer service company along the lines of Red Hat, a company that distributes a version of the freely available Linux operating system. 

321 Studios also has an offices in Wilmington, Del.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In an endorsement of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s next-generation processor, Microsoft Corp. has agreed to work on adding support for the chip to its Windows operating system. 

AMD also announced Wednesday that it has selected “Opteron” as the name of the new processors designed for servers and workstations. It will keep the Athlon brand name for desktop and laptop models. 

Support from Microsoft was critical for AMD, analysts say. 

With Opteron, AMD hopes to capture business from Intel’s Itanium chip. With the new Athlon, the company is counting on performance boosts that will outpace the Intel’s Pentium 4 processors in desktop computers. 

Microsoft has previously made available a special edition of Windows for Itanium customers. 

“It’s an important first step,”!saie!Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at the research firm Insight 64. “Without Microsoft support, AMD would have really struggled at getting this product established in the marketplace.” 

Like Intel’s Itanium, AMD’s new chips will process information in chunks of 64 bits instead of 32 bits. 

But unlike Intel, which created a new instruction set for Itanium, AMD decided to extend the existing x86 architecture that has been used in computers for decades. 

AMD says all existing software will run on its new chips with no performance degradation, making the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing seamless for customers. 

The next-generation Athlon chips are expected to be available at the end of the year. Opteron chips are scheduled to be ship in the first half of 2003. 

Last week, AMD chief executive W.J. “Jerry” Sanders III testified on behalf of Microsoft in the latest phase of its latest antitrust battles. He denied it was in exchange for Microsoft’s endorsement. 

On Wednesday, AMD declined to discuss what Windows products would support the new processors or when they might be released.

A South Berkeley construction crew was burned early Monday when fumes from a diesel mixture combusted. The crew was working on a new foundation in the basement of a five-unit building at the southeast corner of Milvia and Parker streets. 

Three men were rushed to Alta Bates Medical Center with burns. A fourth chose to be treated at the scene. 

The explosion torched all four walls of the basement and ignited a flash fire, which the four-man crew smothered with a fire extinguisher before fleeing. The men had been spraying a concentration of diesel fuel to lubricate the wooden forms in which they were to pour concrete. The basement was poorly ventilated, and the combination of the accumulated fumes and the spark of a Milkita drill proved explosive. 

Alta Bates spokesperson Caroline Kemp said all three of the men taken to the hospital are in good condition. Two of the men have already been released, while a third, who has burns on his neck, face, arms, and hands – roughly 25 percent of his body – should be released within one day. 

Residents of 2601-2605 Milvia Street experienced the shockwave as it rippled through the building. Three of the five units were empty. 

See BLAST/Page 6 

"My wife and I were standing in the kitchen when we heard the explosion and got bounced," said first-floor resident Paul Fagre. "As we came outside, I saw four men scattering out. Their hair was singed and they were very upset – we were all very upset."  

Jesse Kelly, a 34 year-old second floor resident, was rudely awakened by the blast. "I was asleep on the couch, when suddenly the whole building compressed. I looked out and saw workers running out, covered in dust."  

A neighbor immediately called 911, and within minutes the Berkeley Fire Department sent a first alarm response team of three fire trucks and an ambulance to the scene. "We received report of an explosion at 2601 Milvia at about 10 a.m.," said assistant chief Craig Green. "We sent out a response team to evacuate all the dwellings, brought a hoseline in and ventilated the basement area," he said. "The explosion happened because the basement was not properly ventilated," he said. 

The firemen had to force their way into most of the units, to assure the fire hadn’t spread up through the walls. "We had to check all the units from the top down," said Green. "There’s no fire stops in the walls of most of these older buildings, and the flames will often travel up through the inside of the walls and hit the attic, so after we initially went through the basement, we had to go through all the units," he explained. 

A city building inspector was shortly on scene to examine the structural integrity of the building, which he determined to be safe. A team of P.G. & E. workers then went to work, shutting off gas and electricity to the building and removing the meters, which is standard procedure when the utility infrastructure is damaged. 

It is unclear when the residents will be allowed to return to their homes. The city inspector and P.G.&E. staff discovered several items that were not up to code and that must be repaired or corrected by the building owner before residents can return. Among them was asbestos siding discovered along the ground floor that had been torn loose by the explosion. "It was a relatively small amount, but we can’t leave it out there," said assistant chief David Orth. 

Oreth also cited damaged electrical wiring, improperly sized gas lines and improper water heaters as needing correction to bring the residence up to code. "The major reason they won’t let people back in the building is because the fire alarms won’t work without electricity," Orth said.  

The owner of the building, Mehdi Hosseimi, was not available for comment. Orth said that there is no indication that Hosseimi would be cited for any infraction. 

The Red Cross arrived at the scene by early afternoon to help residents who might need relocation.

Three steps, for most of us, is the distance between the fridge and the cupboard while rummaging for yet another commercial-break snack. But St. Mary’s High track standout Solomon Welch stretches those three steps out a bit. 

Last weekend at the Arcadia Invitational, Welch beat all comers in the triple-jump while setting a new personal record: 48’01.25”. Welch, who has given a verbal commitment to jump for Stanford University next year, remains unbeaten in the event this year. 

Forty-eight feet. Consider this: in three steps, Solomon Welch earns 16 yards - a first down and a half on a football field. He can jump the distance from the free-throw line to the rim easily – three times in a row. Three steps out of the batter’s box, Solomon Welch is a little over halfway to first base. 

Welch’s next three steps could take him anywhere. 

Step one is St. Mary’s, where he is currently putting the finishing touches on a remarkable prep career. Step two is Stanford. And, if all goes according to Welch’s plan, the third step might be the 2008 Summer Olympics. 

“If I jump well at Stanford, and continue to jump well,” Welch says, “then I plan to make it.” 

Plainly stated. But Welch will have to tack on another nine feet to his current personal best (Welch believes he will have to jump 56 or 57 feet) in order to have a shot at the Olympics. In the past two years, Welch has added less than two inches to his triple-jump – his previous best was 47’11.75’’, which he set as a sophomore. Does 55-plus-feet seem impossible? 

“Not really,” says Welch. “I’ve seen the college workouts before, the effort that they put in - if I do that then I should see some positive results.” 

For Welch, it seems possible. He has plenty of people pulling for him. Teammate Kamaiya Warren, an all-state thrower in discus and shot put (she heaves the shot almost as far as Welch can triple-jump), is ebullient when asked about her longtime teammate.  

“Oh joy,” says Warren. “He is funny, and really sweet too, and really smart. I think he’s going to do well – studying, practicing - maybe he’ll even have a social life in there somewhere.” 

Welch, hampered last year by the pelvic bone he broke his sophomore year at the California state meet, believes that he is only now returning to form. He looks forward to learning from Stanford coach Edrick Floreal, and denies accounts that he is holding out on signing a letter of intent to Stanford in hopes of a better scholarship offer. 

“I’m not waiting to see if I can jump farther to see if I can get more money,” he says. “I’m just waiting.” 

Maybe that doesn’t make sense, especially in light of the verbal commitment. But the way he talks about his future at Stanford, it’s easy to believe him. Aside from an athletic career to include the triple jump, long jump, and the 110-meter hurdles, Welch is excited about the academic opportunities offered at Stanford. Son of a best-selling East Bay author, Welch is an outstanding student and intends to study music production and business. 

Welch currently pursues his passion for music with his friend Aaron Brown – together they have formed the fledgling S.W.A.B. (Solomon Welch and Aaron Brown) Productions. 

“Right now we mostly just do house parties,” says Welch. “We’ve been having some computer problems that are keeping us from recording. Eventually I want to own my own record company and be a music producer, in addition to being a professional athlete,” Welch says. 

Lofty goals. Stanford, hip-hop, professional athletics - right now all dreams are believable. For Solomon Welch, even the Olympics are only a hop, skip, and a jump away.

To the Editor: 

California would be the sixth largest economy in the world if it were a nation. Currently California is about 30th in the nation in per-pupil education funding. It is unacceptable for California to rank as low as it does in per-pupil allocation. Mediocrity is not something to aspire to. 

We can talk about mismanagement (which I will be glad to talk about!), encroachments, small school sites, individualized programs, lower class sizes, and all the other "expensive" educational choices and practices this District has engaged in or implemented, but we will always be missing the key point: because so much of our local District1s funding originates in Sacramento, that is where the real budgetary issues begin as well. The overwhelming majority of California1s local school funding comes from the state. 

Twelve thousand dollars for K-12: California1s per pupil allocation should be on a par with the top tier of states, such as Connecticut and New York, which are now in the $11,000 to $12,000 range per pupil. California currently allocates $6,000 to $7,000 per pupil. If Berkeley, with a budget of roughly $90 million, were a district in Connecticut, our budget would be about $150 million. 

Please join the Coalition to Pay Schools Now & Fix School Funding by rallying and lobbying in Sacramento on May 8, 2002, urging our state representatives to maintain and increase funding for our public schools. Berkeley is coordinating efforts with Oakland, San Francisco, Albany, and other Districts and communities to get thousands of people to Sacramento. Buses will be leaving from several places in Berkeley on the morning of May 8. 

Contact Julie Chervin at 843-7166, Jchervin1@aol.com to reserve space on a bus, or Derick Miller at 848-4000, ddm@well.com for more information. 

John Selawsky 

Director, Berkeley Board of Education 

LOS ANGELES — The Rock was ready to rumble at the box office. 

“The Scorpion King,” the WWF wrestler’s starring debut, opened as the No. 1 film with $36.1 million, a record haul for a film opening in April. 

The weekend’s other new wide release, Sandra Bullock’s police thriller “Murder by Numbers,” debuted in third place with $9.3 million. 

The top 20 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. and ACNielsen EDI Inc. are: 

1. “The Scorpion King,” Universal, $36.1 million, 3,444 locations, $10,475 average, $36.1 million, one week. 

2. “Changing Lanes,” Paramount, $11.1 million, 2,642 locations, $4,189 average, $32.8 million, two weeks. 

3. “Murder by Numbers,” Warner Bros., $9.3 million, 2,663 locations, $3,495 average, $9.3 million, one week. 

4. “The Rookie,” Disney, $6.5 million, 2,507 locations, $2,573 average, $53.8 million, four weeks. 

5. “Panic Room,” Sony, $6 million, 2,825 locations, $2,126 average, $82 million, four weeks. 

6. “Ice Age,” Fox, $5.9 million, 2,820 locations, $2,093 average, $159.6 million, six weeks. 

7. “The Sweetest Thing,” Sony, $5.1 million, 2,670 locations, $1,912 average, $16.9 million, two weeks. 

8. “High Crimes,” Fox, $3.9 million, 2,409 locations, $1,628 average, $30.9 million, three weeks. 

9. “Clockstoppers,” Paramount, $2.8 million, 2,188 locations, $1,292 average, $31.8 million, four weeks. 

10. “Frailty,” Lions Gate, $2.17 million, 1,497 locations, $1,446 average, $7.8 million, two weeks. 

11. “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder,” Artisan, $2.16 million, 1,806 locations, $1,196 average, $17.2 million, three weeks. 

12. “Blade II,” New Line, $2.1 million, 1,643 locations, $1,270 average, $77.3 million, five weeks. 

13. “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” IFC Films, $1 million, 241 locations, $4,150 average, $5.8 million, six weeks. 

14. “We Were Soldiers,” Paramount, $892,201, 838 locations, $1,065 average, $75.3 million, eight weeks. 

15. “A Beautiful Mind,” Universal, $854,170, 746 locations, $1,145 average, $168.4 million, 18 weeks. 

16. “Monster’s Ball,” Lions Gate, $793,121, 488 locations, $1,625 average, $28.1 million, 17 weeks. 

17. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” New Line, $771,711, 706 locations, $1,093 average, $307 million, 18 weeks. 

18. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” reissue, Universal, $738,720, 864 locations, $855, $34 million, five weeks. 

19. “Monsoon Wedding,” USA Films, $732,688, 189 locations, $3,877 average, $7.2 million, nine weeks. 

20. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” IFC Films, $597,362, 108 locations, $5,531 average, $597,362, one week. 

Tuesday, April 23

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 at Bonar and Allston Way. 

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. 

Spring Travel Writer’s  

Seminar 

7:30 p.m. 

Entangled Edens: Visions of the Amazon 

For more information, call 843-3533 

City Arts & Lectures, Inc  

Presents: Tony Kushner in  

Conversation with Angie  

Coiro 

6 p.m. Reception; 7-8:15 p.m. 

Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco 

$75, benefitting the ACLU Foundation. Call 415 392-4400 

Adolescent Health Rights 

3:30 - 6 p.m. 

Elihu Harris State Building 

1515 Clay St., Room 2, Oakland 

A forum for adolescents, peer educators and health care providers. Topics include: Minor consent, confidentiality, clinical guidelines and policy, abuse laws, and advocacy. Free. Sponsored by the Department of Health Services, STD Control Branch. 540-2494, jharris1@dhs.ca.gov. 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

Wednesday, April 24

Spring Travel Writer’s  

WorkshopEasy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

7-9:30 p.m. 

1385 Shattuck Ave.  

General Wrap-up session 

Don George, Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Jeff Greenwalk reflect on and discuss the art of writing travel literature. An open question/answer period follows. For more information, call 843-3533 

Toastmasters on Campus Club 

Free, on-going meetings 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. 6:15-7:30pm, 2515 Hillegass  

Ave., Berkeley. Guests welcome.  

A Community Dialogue and  

Lecture on Hinduism 

7:30 p.m. 

Luthern Church of the Cross 

1744 University Ave. 

A presentation followed by a question and answer period. 848-1424.  

Thursday, April 25

Spring Travel Writer’s  

Seminar 

7:30 p.m. 

Architectural Guidebook to the National Parks:  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

For more information, 843-3533 

Graduate Theological Union  

presents a lecture on the  

Moral Status of heterosexism  

and racism in church practice 

5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion Chapel 

1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley 

Traci West, assistant professor of ethics and African-American religion, Drew University to speak ( sponsored by the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry.) 

For more information, call 849-8206. 

Friday, April 26

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Bio-Diversity” John Harte, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley. $1. 848-3533. 

Ladyfest Bay Area Presents:  

Ladies Love Trannys 

Featuring such films as “it’s a Boy!”, Life’s a Butch” along with other groundbreaking Trannyfest works centered around the theme of ladies and their multi-faceted love affairs with transgender folks. 

Doors open 7:30 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. 

Artists’ Television Access 

992 Valencia Street, San Francisco 

Tickets $7-$25 (sliding scale) 

For further information: 415-672-0518 or www.ladyfestbayarea.org 

Live Afro-Latino Hip-Hop 

9 p.m. 

Elbo Room 

647 Valencia St, San Francisco 

$8 

Saturday, April 27

City Planning and  

Architecture Job Fair 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

UCBerkeley campus, Pauley balloom in the MLK Jr. Student Center 

The leading firms in the business will host presntations about open positions and conduct informational interviews. Open to public. $5. UCBerkeley students free. 

For more information contact Kay Bock at 510-643-9440 or email kbock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

It's a "MALO" 30 Year  

Reunion!  

With Arcelio Garcia, Jr., Jorge Santana, Richard Bean, Pablo Tellez and others!  

A Benefit for Mission High School of San Francisco.  

7 to 11 p.m. 

Mission High School, located at 18th & Dolores Street. 

$15 balcony, $25 the floor 

(415) 206-0577 Latin Zone Productions 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Poets, writers, comedians, singers and storytellers al come together for this free show. Featuring “Fresh Ink” 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Annual Open Mike Poetry  

Reading 

2-4 p.m. 

Arts Magnet School Poetry Garden 

Milvia and Lincold Streets, Berkeley 

All welcome to read a favorite poem or sit back and enjoy. Free. 

For information contact srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film 

2 p.m. 

Amoeba Music 

1855 Haight St. 

San Francisco  

Free 

Tango Lesson 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Members of BATango will present a free lecture, demonstration and lesson. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org.bpl 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

10 a.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

COPWATCH: Know Your  

Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Learn what your rights are when dealing when the police and FBI. Learn how 

to observe the police on the street and during protests. 548-0425. 

National Sense of Smell Day  

Hands-on activities 

* Discovering how smell helps small animals 

* Identifying the smells of various foods and household items 

* Creating a potpourri to take home 

* Tasting jelly beans - with noses blocked and open 

* Investigating how dinosaurs used their sense of smell  

12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 

LHS- Jurassic Park: The Life  

and Death of Dinosaurs 

Through May 12 

Were they gone in a flash? Or did climate changes, disease, and/or overpopulation gradually bring the reign of dinosaurs to an end? We're still asking, theorizing, and dramatizing what happened to these creatures. 

The exhibit features models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the films; an 8' by 10' hands-on dig pit where parts of an Albertosaurus and Dromaeosaurs are buried; and more than 30 skeletons and parts, including fossils that visitors can touch. This is one of the largest collection of traveling dinosaurs ever assembled.  

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle 

Sunday, April 28

“Sites and Insights” 

UCBerkeley College of Environmental Design Alumni Association is offering unique guides of the Bay Area: Berkeley/Emeryville, Pixar Animation Studio’s, Stanford University, San Francisco’s Embarcadero and more. $100 per tour. Call 642-7722 for more information. 

Jyoti Kala Mandir presents an Odissi dance drama titled Buddha, The Path of Light. An ancient, form of sacred dance, Odissi was originally developed in the temple of Jagannath on the eastern coast of India as a form of worship and meditation.  

4:00 pm 

Julia Morgan Theater 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

Tickets are $15 at the door, $12 in advance. Tickets for seniors, students, disabled, and children are $12 at the door, $10 in advance. Preferred seating tickets are $25. Call 415.974.4313 

Body Rhythm 

Swaying tropical rhythms and dancing grooves  

6 to 9 p.m. 

Pacific Coast Brewing Company 

906 Washington St.  

Oakland 

All ages  

Free 

Water For Life 

6 to 9 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave 

The event features Salsa Dance Lessons, Music, Food and a Silent Auction to Benefit WaterPartners International who provide critical support to Honduran and Guatemalan communities in building safe drinking water systems. For further information call: 510-526-5852 

$10-$20 Sliding Scale 

People's Park, 33rd Anniversary: A celebration of the creation and the on-going life of this piece of liberated earth. The day begins with the All Nations Singers and ends with a Maypole & drum circle. 

MC: Wavy Gravy 

Live Music: Jonathan Richman , Shelley Doty X-tet, Upsurge! , 

Funky Nixons, and Carol Denney. 

Speakers: Barbara Lee, Kris Worthington, Terri Compost), Free Speech Sections 

Hosted by Michael Delacour, Andy Lichterman, Karen Pickett, and Ed Rosenthal. 

Poets: Julia Vinograd, Jean Stewart, Goddess, and Kirk Lumpkin. Theater: X-plicit Players. 

12:30pm to 6:00pm. 

People's Park between Dwight Way, Bowditch St., Haste St, & Telegraph Ave., 

Berkeley 

Free 

(510) 696-0336 

Larry De La Cruz and Anton Schwartz Quintet 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool 

2087 Addison Street € Berkeley 

Admission: $6-12  

Reservations: (510) 845-5373, swing@jazzschool.com / www.jazzschool.com 

Monday, April 29

Peace Builders, Peace Witness Part III 

7-9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St., Berkeley 

Fran Peavey will speak of reconciliation after ethnic conflicts inspired for her trip to South Africa. Free. 

Blue Vinyl- (Have Siding- Will Travel), Film Screening 

Join Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, Judith Hefland, Co-director and award-winning cinematographer Daniel B. Gold, CO-producer Julia D. Parker, along with local environmental health activists for a provocative evening celebrating art, activism, sustainability “green” building and the indomitable will of a good toxic comedy.  

6 p.m. reception- Museum Restaurant, 7 p.m. screening- James Moore Theatre, 8:45 p.m. Panel Discussion- Museum Restaurant 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak Street 

Oakland 

limited Seating, RSVP a Must, 415-765-7793, complimentary parking available in Museum garage 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film with guest performer, humorist Reed Kirk Rahlmann 

7:30 & 9:30 p.m. 

Minna Street Gallery 

111 Minna St. 

San Francisco  

$10 General, $8 Students 

Tuesday, April 30

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. 

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. 

Tobacco Industry in Foreign Countries 

4:30 - 6:30 p.m. 

22 Warren Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Dr. Ewa Krolikova of the Czech Republic and Mary Assunta of the Consumers Association of Penang in Malaysia share their efforts to fight the Tobacco Industry in their countries. 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

Thursday, May 2

A Taste of Oakland 

5- 7 p.m. 

A celebration of Oakland’s diversity and culture through its ethnic cuisine 

RSVP by April 19, call 839-9000 

The Amigos Chicano Latino Employees Association of the City of Oakland 

Live Music, DJ and a Mexican American singing duo 

11:30 - 1:15 p.m. 

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Oakland 

Free 

A Century of Collecting 

Drawing from 3.8 million objects collected over a century, A Century of Collecting examines artifact collecting as a form of cultural representation. At the same time, the display explains how anthropology museums go 

about their work of preserving and interpreting the world's diverse cultures.  

In conjunction with the exhibit  

A Century of Collecting- Panel Discussion:  

Collecting the World 

A discussion about how three anthropologists  

made their collections for the Hearst Museum. 

A reception will follow the program. 

6:30 PM-8:30 PM 

160 Kroeber Hall 

Ted Schultz, an eight-year veteran of the Board of Education, has announced that he will not run for re-election in November. Nancy Riddle, chief financial officer for Monster Cable Products, Inc. of Brisbane and long-time parent activist, has declared her candidacy for the coming vacancy. 

"Clearly, the financial background that I have – I think it would be a good add to the board," said Riddle. 

Voters will elect three board members in the fall. Board President Shirley Issel, who faces re-election, told the Daily Planet she will run. Board member Terry Doran, who is also up in November, could not be reached by the Planet’s deadline but is expected to seek re-election. 

Schultz and board members John Selawsky and Joaquin Rivera have endorsed Riddle. 

"Nancy’s intelligent, articulate – she’s been following district issues for many, many years," said Selawsky. 

"It would be good to have someone with her talents on the board," added Schultz.  

Issel, who will have to compete with Riddle for a seat if more candidates enter the race, praised her potential rival. 

"The district is particularly in need, at this time, of her kind of financial expertise," said Issel, making reference to the $5.4 million deficit the school system faces next year. "If there’s a seat there for her, I’d love her to have it." 

Schultz, whose announcement has been expected for months, said he is retiring to make room for new people and to spend more time with his family.  

Schultz was reluctant to claim credit for any particular achievements in his time on the board, but said he was happy to have contributed to the district’s early literacy program and campaigns to win passage of Measures AA and BB, which provide construction and maintenance dollars for the district. 

"I enjoy working with Ted," said Selawsky. "He’s solid, he’s steady, he’s unflappable." 

See BUSD/Page 6 

Riddle, the mother of two children in the district, currently serves as vice-chair of district’s budget advisory committee and co-chair of the planning and oversight committee for the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project, a special local tax devoted to the schools that is expected to bring in $9.67 million this year. 

Riddle also serves on the district’s Student Assignment Committee, which is grappling with issues of diversity and integration in the face of state law and a series of court cases that prohibit school assignments based on race. 

As a board member, Riddle said, she would be committed to diversity and closing the "achievement gap" that separates white and Asian students from African-Americans and Latinos. 

See BUSD/Page 6 

A parent group called the Coalition for Excellence and Equity made a strong push earlier this year to convert Berkeley High School into a series of small schools in the fall of 2003, in part to address the achievement gap. The board majority tabled the proposal, arguing that the concept needs more study and the district needs to face its financial crisis first. 

Riddle praised the handful of schools-within-a-school that already exist at Berkeley High, but said she is not ready to put wall-to-wall small schools in place. 

"I think the programs we have are great," she said. "But I think we have some work to do before we make the leap to all small schools." 

When it comes to the fiscal mess, Riddle, who has a master’s degree in finance and international business from UC Berkeley, said former Superintendent Jack McLaughlin is partly to blame. 

"I think we had a superintendent awhile back that wasn’t focused on those areas," she said. 

Riddle was reluctant to criticize the board, but suggested it might have moved more quickly to head off the financial crisis. 

"I think the board was slow in realizing how serious it was," she said. But, Riddle quickly added, the McLaughlin administration had a role to play because it did not provide the board with clear budget information. 

Riddle said she supports the cuts the board has made in recent months to address the deficit. Her only criticism, she said, is the lack of public input solicited by the board. 

Riddle said public process will be a top priority if she is elected. 

"We need to play with ideas a whole lot more before we make a decision on the perfect solution and then spend a lot of time debating it," she said.

To the Editor:  

The Berkeley Athletic Fund, a non-profit organzation supporting Berkeley High’s athletics programs, was founded in 1985 as public schools in California were reeling from the full impact of Proposition 13 cutbacks. A group of dedicated parents stepped up to save the athletics program, or at the least, to help keep the program alive. 

A look at today’s problems is a deja vu from the past. Of particular concern, among many, to the Berkeley Athletic Fund is the school district’s decision to lay off athletic department employee Richard Cherry. 

Mr. Cherry has worked for the school through four of the last athletic director administrations. Without his assistance the athletic director’s job would be virtually impossible to manage - over 1,000 athletes playing on over 60 teams (includes frosh, JV and Varsity), the largest high school athletics program in the nation. The BUSD’s payroll title for Mr. Cherry is "Locker Room Supervisor/Equipment Manager." However, he has for all those years performed the duties of an on-site manager of the BHS athletics program, and his notoriety and visibility have earned him the working title of "Assistant Athletics Director." 

Here’s a quick look at just a few of Mr. Cherry’s responsibilities:  

- Day-to-day management of the site 

- Processing team schedules for all sports (frosh, JV and Varsity) 

- Arranging photo sessions for all the teams (JV and Varsity); * Arranging away transportation for all teams 

- Overseeing all permits for outside rental of the athletic facilities, e.g., Jr. Olympics 

- Contact person for CIF officials in arranging North Coast Regional competitions between the top high school sports teams at the end of each season 

- Directing the organization and set-up in staffing and equipment for all BHS athletic events.  

- Richard Cherry’s many duties make him much more than an equipment manager and locker room supervisor. If those were his only job duties, there would be no athletic-run events at Berkeley High. 

The fact that the CIF (the state’s top high school organization overseeing high school sports) and other outside event planners come to him to schedule events, which in fact the high school makes money from, gives him the status of an assistant athletic director. 

Cherry has earned the respect of all who work with him. Although he has never been recognized by the school district as a permanent employee, Mr. Cherry is integral and invaluable to the stability of Berkeley High’s athletic program, regardless of whether teams are cut, or the budget for the program is cut.  

The Berkeley Athletic Fund is very concerned that the school district in attempting to bring down its "figures" is not considering the long-term detrimental effect laying off Mr. Cherry will have on Berkeley High’s athletics program. Mr. Cherry deserves more attention and respect than it would appear the district is giving him. 

The Berkeley Athletic Fund  

It’s the environmental catastrophe no one seems to know about – the degradation of the world’s islands – and a Berkeley group is addressing it head-on. 

"You read about places like the Amazon," said Duane Silverstein, executive director of Seacology, a Berkeley-based environmental group. "But you never read about islands." 

In the past 400 years, according to Silverstein, over 50 percent of all animal extinctions and 90 percent of all bird extinctions worldwide have taken place on islands. 

International travel, global fishing fleets and transnational corporations have brought snakes, rats and other foreign elements to the islands of the world, he said, spelling doom for species that went for centuries without natural predators. 

See ISLANDS/Page 6 

"Islands aren’t islands anymore," Silverstein said. "The isolation that once protected their ecosystems has evaporated." 

Silverstein said the world has focused little philanthropic activity on islands since they are "small and distant." But Seacology, founded nine years ago in Hawaii by ethnobotanist Paul Cox, takes a creative approach to protecting island habitats. The organization pays for a local project – a school or access road – in exchange for a promise to protect the environment. 

"We are attuned to the realities that these island people face," said Paul Felton, a Seacology board member who manages a medical venture fund in San Francisco. "They’ve got to make a living too." 

Felton said the local development helps to ensure the success of the environmental project – protecting a section of rainforest or coral reef. 

"If you get people to buy in, you can leave with some level of confidence that it will be maintained," he said. 

Cox started the organization on the spot nine years ago when he was studying 30,000 acres of rainforest outside the village of Falealupo, Samoa, Silverstein said. 

The Samoan government threatened to withdraw a group of school teachers if the village did not build an adequate school, and the chief moved to chop down the forest in order to pay for the project. 

Cox offered to raise the money to build the school in exchange for a signed covenant, vowing to protect the forest. The village built its school with Seacology money and several years later erected an elevated canopy walkway in the rainforest as part of an "eco-tourism" project to generate income for the village.  

In the last year, Seacology offered villagers in Waisomo, Fiji, money to build a community center in exchange for a 10-year pledge to enforce a no fishing zone in the local coral reef. And, on Sept. 11, Silverstein agreed to provide funding to villagers in Mangaia, Cook Islands to build a walkway around a lake in exchange for a pledge to refrain from development on the lake’s edge. 

After the founding project in Samoa, Cox operated Seacology as a volunteer organization. But two and a half years ago Silverstein became the group’s first staff member after leaving a high profile post as executive director of the San Francisco-based Goldman Foundation. 

Silverstein’s one condition for taking over – the office had to be within walking distance of his Berkeley home. 

Silverstein’s solid reputation as executive director of the Goldman Foundation, which issues the annual Goldman Environmental Prize – the "Nobel Prize for the environment," has attracted growing support to the small organization.  

"He’s just got such a long background," said James Sandler, one of 18 Seacology board members. "He’s seen a lot of what’s effective and what’s not." 

Board members, who contribute a minimum of $10,000 per year to Seacology, account for a significant chunk of the group’s $1 million annual budget.  

Foundation grants, individual gifts and a $180,000 annual payment from the NuSkin Corporation – a commission for skincare products developed by Cox – round out the organization’s budget. 

As the organization builds and serves a growing number of island communities, Sandler said, he envisions a "critical mass" of villagers and activists who will push for the sort of environmentally-friendly economic projects Seacology promotes on a global scale. 

"That is the dream," he said.

To the Editor: 

As a child I attended the Saturday matinees at the El Cerrito Theater and it is a cherished part of the living history of this little city. As a Californian I have watched city fathers throughout the East Bay demolish historical structures in the name of progress, erasing forever what is fast becoming a fairly shallow fund of historical landmarks. One need only look as far as the local historical society to see what we have let slip through our fingers. Hmmmm, whatever happened to that old adobe? Oh, yeah, a dog track.  

The evaporation of baby boom communities has ravaged the fabric of our neighborhoods. The institutions that held us together, such as schools, lost their ability to bind people together as families and their children left the community. Our cities struggle daily with the effort to create great community but seem to see taxable commerce as the only way to do it. The heart of the business district in El Cerrito contains a theater which holds more hearts and memories of neighbors than anything you could construct. Don't fritter that away for a few pieces of silver. 

Michael Mejia 

Richmond 

Today is Tuesday, April 23, the 113th day of 2002. There are 252 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

April 23, 1564, is believed to be the birthdate of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later, also on April 23. 

On this date: 

In 1348, King Edward III of England established the Order of the Garter. 

In 1789, President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York. 

In 1791, the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa. 

In 1896, the Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York City. 

In 1899, Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg. 

In 1940, about 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez, Miss. 

In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.) 

In 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke (negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version). 

In 1995, sportscaster Howard Cosell died in New York at age 77. 

In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he’d been framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70. 

Ten years ago:  

Fighting erupted in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo just hours after the warring parties signed a truce amid sniper fire. McDonald’s opened its first fast-food restaurant in the Chinese capital of Beijing. 

Five years ago:  

Doctors at the University of Southern California announced that a child was born in late 1996 to a 63-year-old woman on hormone therapy. Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, again apologizing for racial comments about Masters winner Tiger Woods, withdrew from the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. The military confirmed that two pieces of wreckage found on a snowy Rocky Mountain peak were from the Air Force warplane that had vanished on a training mission over Arizona. 

One year ago:  

USS Greeneville Cmdr. Scott Waddle was given a letter of reprimand as punishment for the submarine collision that killed nine people aboard a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actress Janet Blair is 81. Actress-turned-diplomat Shirley Temple Black is 74. Actor Alan Oppenheimer is 72. Actor David Birney is 63. Actor Lee Majors is 63. Actress Sandra Dee is 60. Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is 55. Actress Blair Brown is 54. Writer-director Paul Brickman is 53. Actress Joyce DeWitt is 53. Actor James Russo is 49. Actress Judy Davis is 47. Actress Jan Hooks is 45. Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 42. Actor Craig Sheffer is 42. Rock musician Gen is 38. U.S. Olympic gold medal skier Donna Weinbrecht is 37. Actress Melina Kanakaredes is 35. Rock musician Stan Frazier (Sugar Ray) is 34. Country musician Tim Womack (Sons of the Desert) is 34. Actor Scott Bairstow is 32. Actor Camryn Walling (“The Agency”) is 12. 

To the Editor: 

Church-goers don’t really live longer than the rest of us (Daily Planet 4-4-02). It just seems longer. 

Carol Denny 

Berkeley

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Police are looking for three very unwelcome wedding guests. 

Two men and a woman were caught on surveillance tape at an Erie conference center stealing a basket containing wedding cards and money that police estimated at $5,000 to $20,000. 

Deepika Segu and Robert Lofgren were in the midst of their 90-minute Indian ceremony on Saturday when the three thieves, dressed as wedding guests, struck, police said. 

The couple’s friend and wedding planner, Melissa Taylor, said she saw the man who stole the basket but couldn’t run fast enough to catch him because she’s eight months pregnant. 

“It’s just instinct. I turned, I saw him. I knew he shouldn’t have the basket and I just took off after him,” Taylor said. “I’m just mad I couldn’t waddle fast enough. I used to be pretty quick.” 

DALLAS — Maybe the caffeine keeps him going. 

John Winter Smith didn’t just awaken one morning and decide to visit every Starbucks in the world. As he puts it, “It built up steam gradually.” 

Smith, 30, said his mission may have been sparked by a conversation with a Starbucks employee about the company’s plan to have 2,000 stores by 2000. 

By January 1998, he was scanning phonebooks in search of uncharted Starbucks. In August 1999, he hopscotched across the United States and Canada for three weeks, taking time out only to attend a few concerts. 

In late 1999 he started a Web site, delighted with a Starbucks manager’s suggestion that he photograph each store and post the pictures. 

And, no, he says, the stores are not all the same. Even though they share standard design elements, at least one item — maybe a lamp or wall design — differs slightly. Some display local artwork or incorporate design elements from a pre-existing building.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Al Gore used Earth Day to unleash his harshest criticism of President Bush since losing the White House to him, saying the administration’s environmental policies serve “special interests instead of public interests.” 

“America is only as healthy as the air our children breathe, the water they drink and the earth they will inherit,” Gore told about 200 Vanderbilt University students and environmental activists Monday. 

“But instead of embracing the bipartisan national consensus to improve our environment, the Bush administration has chosen to serve the special interests instead of the public interests and to subsidize the obsolete, failed approaches of the past instead of the exciting new solutions of the future.” 

The speech countered one given earlier in the day by Bush, who briefly hiked the snowy Adirondack Mountains in New York before calling for mandatory limits on the power plant emissions that cause the acid rain that plagues the picturesque region. 

The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments were a start, “now we should do more,” Bush said. 

Gore said Bush’s “clean skies” initiative would ultimately allow more emissions than permitted under current law. 

“What kind of world are we building when parents of little leaguers have to be more worried about them catching their breath than catching a fly ball?” Gore said. “Yet instead of working to reduce air pollution, the Bush administration’s so-called ‘clean skies’ initiative actually allows more toxic mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur pollution than if we enforce the laws on the books today.” 

Gore, who was joined on stage by his wife, Tipper, also criticized the Bush administration for favoring increased domestic oil production over conservation. 

“We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil so that America can not be held hostage to global chaos and tinhorn tyrants like Saddam Hussein,” Gore said. “But what’s their solution? Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” 

Gore, who has not said whether he will challenge Bush again in 2004, has spent much of his time in Tennessee, teaching at two Nashville area colleges and campaigning on behalf of Democratic candidates. 

He wrote the environmental book “Earth in the Balance” while vice president under Bill Clinton.

WILMINGTON, N.Y. — After a muscle-burning walk through snowy Adirondack Mountain woods, President Bush defended his environmental record on Earth Day and dismissed a chorus of Democratic critics, including former rival Al Gore. 

“Hadn’t paid attention to him,” Bush said of the former vice president he narrowly defeated in 2000. 

His gray hair dampened by snowflakes, Bush shrugged his shoulders when asked about Gore criticizing his environmental record. “That’s why I have not paid attention to him,” he replied curtly. 

Gore, dubbed the “Ozone Man” by Bush’s father, is emerging from political hibernation to lead Democratic attacks on Bush’s environmental stands. Speaking at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee shortly after Bush’s remarks, he accused the White House of giving polluters undue influence. 

Bush and his allies are “threatening to take us back to the days when America’s rivers and lakes were dying, when the skylines were some days not visible because of the smog, and when toxic waste threatened so many communities around America,” Gore said. 

Though Bush refrained from confronting any of his critics, the presidential schedule here Monday reflected concern among advisers that he could be vulnerable on the environmental issue. 

Before the cameras, Bush pounded nails into a tiny bridge spanning a creek, tested water from the churning gray Au Sable River, repaired a muddy trail and staked out a camp site. His face red with exertion, Bush pounded a 10-inch nail into a log with the flat side of a splitting maul — the sharp edge swinging within a whisker of the presidential forehead. 

Mission accomplished, he hoisted the maul above his head and heaved a heavy sigh. 

“Get them moving,” he said with a laugh, pointing the tool to journalists. “That way I don’t have to nail so many of these things.” 

Later, the president spoke to local residents who gathered at a Whiteface Mountain Lodge after White House aides moved the speech indoors because of chilly weather. 

“For three decades, we’ve acted with clear purpose: to prevent needless and at times reckless disregard of the air and the water and the soil and the wildlife. This commitment has yielded tremendous progress,” Bush said. 

Bush has asked Congress to impose mandatory limits on industry production of three kinds of pollutants, and to let companies work out how to achieve them through a system of earning and trading credits. The pollutants are acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide, smog-causing nitrogen oxide and mercury, a toxic chemical that contaminates waterways and goes up the food chain through fish to people. 

His “clear skies” plan, which Congress has yet to consider, can “significantly reduce smog and mercury emissions as well as stop acid rain,” Bush said. 

Gore said the president was on the wrong track. 

“Instead of working to reduce air pollution, the Bush administration’s so-called ‘clean skies’ initiative actually allows more toxic mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur pollution than if we enforce the laws on the books today,” he said. 

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman and White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who accompanied Bush aboard Air Force One, said Gore had his chance to help the environment. 

Still, Bush seemed to give the Clinton administration some measure of credit when he said environmental advances were made “at a time when our economy and population grew dramatically.” 

The dueling speeches, a replay of 2000 and perhaps a harbinger of 2004, came as Democrats seek to refocus voters on issues they cared about before the Sept. 11 attacks such as health care, education and the environment. 

For the first time since the attacks, Bush appears at least slightly vulnerable in such areas. His sky-high wartime poll numbers have dipped slightly and his pollster at the Republican National Committee warned in a memo recently that “movement downward has begun..

NEW YORK — The nation’s recycling movement has been steadily expanding for three decades — so much that it has become almost standard practice for people to separate their paper, plastic and glass. 

But in the nation’s biggest city — and the one that produces the most garbage — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to temporarily do away with most recycling in an effort to close a nearly $5 billion budget gap. 

It’s a notable retreat from the recycling movement and one that has been trashed by critics. Despite the opposition and the plan’s major political hurdles, Bloomberg stuck with the proposal when he released a new version of his budget last week. 

Bloomberg would suspend the recycling of glass, metal and plastic for 18 months at an estimated savings of $56.6 million. The city collects more than 320,000 tons of recyclable glass, metal and plastic annually, but Bloomberg said it does the job inefficiently. 

“The recycling program is not, with the exception of paper, saving the ecology of the world very much. And it is very expensive,” said Bloomberg, who unveiled the proposal in his initial budget in February. 

Environmental groups say they are unaware of any major American city that has scaled back its recycling program. 

“To stop recycling would be to turn the clock backward,” said Suzanne Shepard of the New York chapter of the Sierra Club. “Recycling and waste reduction are the cornerstones to reducing this city’s waste stream.” 

The plan still faces approval by the City Council, where members have expressed opposition. State law also requires curbside recycling, so a suspension could face legal challenges as well. 

City Council member Michael McMahon, head of the council committee on sanitation and solid waste, said the city has never fully committed to its decade-old recycling program. He fears that if the city suspends the program, it would disappear forever. 

“I’m very discouraged that in this tough budgetary time, they use that as an excuse to kill the program,” said McMahon, a Staten Island Democrat whose borough was home to the city’s recently closed landfill. 

The city ships its trash out of state, and the New York Public Interest Group said that increasing the volume of trash will simply invite higher per-ton disposal rates. 

But the Bloomberg administration insists the recycling program is both costly and ineffective. 

The cost of glass, metal and plastic recycling is $240 per ton, according to the mayor’s office; simple trash disposal runs about $130 per ton, accounting for the savings. The city would continue its paper recycling program, which runs about $87 a ton. 

The Department of Sanitation, which operates the program, estimates 40 percent of the city’s glass, metal and plastic waste is not suitable quality for recycling — so the material goes to a landfill anyway. 

In addition, the administration says the current program of collecting and sorting recyclables is labor-intensive in a city with unusually high labor costs. It suggests the suspension would allow the city to reconstitute the recycling program to make it more efficient. 

It’s not the first time a city in New York state has discussed halting recycling. 

On Jan. 1, 2000, the small city of Amsterdam about 30 miles northwest of Albany became the first municipality in the nation to officially drop its recycling program to help the cash-strapped city’s finances. 

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued and Amsterdam officials then resumed recycling rather than face potential penalties, including massive fines. 

Spitzer has been offering expertise to New York City on the matter, but his spokesman said earlier this year that the office didn’t plan on suing the city.

SAN FRANCISCO — California will save $3.5 billion on its long-term energy pacts, state officials said Monday, under reworked terms on eight contracts with four power companies, including San Jose-based Calpine Corp. 

Calpine and Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corp. also agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle complaints filed with federal regulators that the companies charged illegal prices during California’s power crisis, state officials said at a press conference here to announce the renegotiated contracts. 

The settlement ends the state’s investigation into Calpine and Constellation, “who were willing to renegotiate their long-term contracts,” Attorney Bill Lockyer said in a statement. The two companies “were found in our investigation to have committed smaller violations compared to other energy companies.” 

In total, the state trimmed eight contracts with four companies that were originally worth $15 billion, reducing that amount by about 23 percent to $11.4 billion. 

The new contracts include stronger language that will ensure new power plants get built, said Barry Goode, Gov. Gray Davis’ chief counsel. In Calpine’s contracts, for example, the state can withhold grants or even terminate one deal, if the company doesn’t meet construction milestones. 

“One of the things we wanted to do in these contracts is cinch more tightly the building of these plants,” he said. 

Calpine’s Chief Operating Officer Jim Macias said the new agreements “resolve questions and uncertainty surrounding our contracts.” 

Calpine curtailed its ambitious expansion plans recently after a sharp decline in electricity prices, coupled with the fallout from Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy, saddled the company with a deteriorating credit rating. 

The company ended last year with $12.7 billion in debt, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in March. 

Calpine’s four long-term deals were worth $11.7 billion and made up about 25 percent of the power the state arranged under the contracts. The longest deal, a 20-year contract with Calpine, will be cut to 10 years. 

The state signed 56 long-term power deals last year at the height of the power crisis. The California Department of Water Resources began buying energy 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 has credited the long-term deals with taming the market and provide reliable supplies. 

Since the contracts were signed, 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 FERC 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 had asked that the contracts’ costs cut by $21 million. 

While the state gets more flexible terms in the restructured deals, Calpine will benefit from having solid contracts, Macias said. Additionally, the state will no longer seek refunds from Calpine through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the myriad of state energy agencies agreed to not challenge the “reasonableness” of the new contracts. 

S. David Freeman, chairman of the state’s Power Authority, led negotiations on the first batch of power deals, and participated in the effort to improve them. 

When the first contracts were negotiated, generators “had a gun to our heads,” he said. The state’s negotiators on the reworked deals “didn’t have a gun they could hold to the generators’ heads, but the terms they have worked for represent a vast improvement from what we did a year ago.” 

In a statement, Davis said he would still press federal regulators to investigate allegations that power companies manipulated the market in California. 

The remaining generators “that refuse to renegotiate contracts signed when the markets were dysfunctional, we’ll see them in court and at FERC,” he said. 

SACRAMENTO — Lawmakers on Monday sent the governor a bill raising unemployment benefits for workers who lost their jobs following the Sept. 11 attacks, but a partisan fight will delay the increases for months. 

The measure would provide $540 million in higher benefits to nearly 1.16 million Californians who were out of work between Sept. 11 and Jan. 1 by making them eligible for increases that took effect this year. 

Those increases raised maximum weekly benefits from $230 to $330. 

“This would send a strong message that ... we will do everything we can to repair those injured by a terrorist attack,” said the bill’s author, Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-San Fernando. 

The bill initially included urgency language that would have allowed it to take effect immediately after it’s signed by Gov. Gray Davis, who supports the increases. 

But Republicans refused to back the legislation last week in the Assembly, preventing supporters from putting together the two-thirds majority needed to approve the bill with urgency language. 

That means it won’t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns a special session called by Davis in January, in part to make the unemployment increases retroactive. There’s no indication now when the session will end. 

Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said before supporting the bill Republicans wanted guarantees that $937 million in federal funds would be used for unemployment benefits instead of other programs. 

He said the “clear intent” of Congress was that the money should be used to ease the squeeze on employer-funded unemployment insurance funds, but Alarcon’s bill earmarks only $600 million for that purpose. 

He predicted Democrats would try to use the remaining $337 million for other government programs, although he said he didn’t know which programs they might have in mind. 

“It’s unfortunate that these benefits are going to take a while to kick in because the majority party wants to give over $300 million to bureaucrats in state government,” Brulte said. 

Alarcon said it would take approval of another bill to use the remaining $337 million for something other than unemployment benefits, but Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Riverside, said Democrats have enough votes to do that. 

“I think it’s obvious what’s going on here,” he said. 

The California Taxpayers Association, a business-oriented group, opposed the bill, arguing that it would provide increases to far more than the 15,000 California workers who lost their jobs because of the Sept. 11 attacks and would help employees even if they had found new jobs. 

But Alarcon said even if previously out-of-work employees had found new jobs they still needed the increases.

YUMA, Ariz. — It’s 2:30 a.m. and Francisco Perez Marez wakes to his alarm. He’s had six hours of sleep. 

When he leaves for work from his home in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, an hour later, it will be 15 hours before he returns home. 

An hour and a half after waking, Marez is in another country. He leans against a brick wall under the still-lingering moon. Around him, hundreds of Mexicans scurry about in San Luis, Ariz., where white buses are everywhere and makeshift taco shops feed the fieldworkers. 

Campesinos, which means fieldworkers in Spanish, start crossing the border before 4 a.m. six days a week. It’s five hours before Marez will start getting paid, but he waits patiently. He is one of the first from his crew at the bus stop. “It’s a lot of time we have to wait, but what can you do?” Marez said, as he waited in the cold and the dark. 

Marez catches a taxi to the border and crosses. Just before 5 a.m. the bus is boarded and heads north. 

The first stop is to pick up the portable toilets for the workers to use throughout the day. Next, they stop for water and then, at a bakery for Mexican sweet bread, coffee or tamales. After everyone on the bus has had a chance to eat, the bus stops to fill up on gasoline. Finally, they reach the lettuce fields on the Quechan Indian Reservation, but it’s still too cold out to work. “The plants will break if there’s frost,” Marez said. 

Some of the campesinos wait inside the casino for the frost to melt. A few of them eat while others spend time gambling. But Marez said he doesn’t like to play here. Rather, he waits outside, talking with co-workers. He keeps his face buried deep in his jacket for warmth. 

After six stops, four hours after Marez got on the bus, they are in the fields. He is the first one up on the trailer, distributing the hoes to his fellow workers, pausing every once in a while to rub his hands for warmth. 

But the ground is still too cold and the workers wait another half-hour before they begin work. 

It’s been six hours since he woke up, five hours since he got on the bus to work and Marez still hasn’t made a penny. Every week, he spends more than 30 hours just getting to work. 

On a call from a foreman, the campesinos form a type of human comb. All 40 of them stretch out around 15 rows of lettuce and then head north walking at about the same pace. 

Their job this morning was to thin the lettuce. The work is tedious. 

The campesinos walk slowly because a major part of their job is visual. They eye the sprouts carefully, determining which ones should be removed to ensure a healthy, well-spaced crop. Most of the sprouts can be taken away with the hoe. 

For eight hours a day, six days a week the workers pull plants out of the ground. 

Marez is 46 years old. He has been working in the fields for eight years. 

He said he’s worked installing cable in Phoenix and smiles when he tells the story about the time he installed the cable for former Phoenix Suns’ star Charles Barkley. Marez quit that job because, even though it paid more, the cost of living greatly exceeded that of his home in San Luis Rio Colorado. 

Besides, he said, he was too far from his family. Marez is single but lives with his mother, sister and nephew in a three-room house. 

The company Marez works for pays him $5.50 per hour. In the Mexican fields it would take him a whole day to make $5.50. 

But this company doesn’t offer benefits. One of Marez’s co-workers, Luis Torres, said he works at a nightclub in Mexico to get insurance for his children. The nightclub stays open until 4 a.m. and one day a week Torres has to stay awake for more than 24 hours. 

Torres gets off work from the fields around 7 p.m., heads to the club around 10 p.m., works until 4 a.m. and gets back on the bus to the fields. 

Esteban Sanchez, the supervisor for the company Marez works for, said it’s easy for Mexicans to find work in San Luis during the agricultural season, but unemployment rates soar when the season slows down during the summer. 

Marez said he usually rests in the summer and cleans his home or does yardwork. 

The workers joke around in the fields and Marez is always making his co-workers laugh. A couple of the campesinos even wear radios hanging from their belts to work to a rhythm. 

As the morning cold turns warm under the afternoon sun, the campesinos shed layers of clothing. Their hands are tough and worn from the wooden handles of the hoes. 

Marez dabs sweat from his brow with a handkerchief at the end of the day when everyone is called back to the bus with a “ya” from the foreman. 

Marez seems to enjoy his work in the fields. He smiles through most of the day. But when he has finally made the long trip back to the border, he doesn’t waste any time getting home. Crossing into Mexico doesn’t take much effort. The checkpoint guards ask no questions and no identification is required. 

After a taxi ride that cost him another half-hour’s pay, a brief walk down an alley leads to a little store in front of Marez’s home. His family sells candy to some of the neighborhood children to make a little extra money. 

It’s 6:30 p.m. and Marez is finally sitting down to dinner. 

He jokes with his nephew and relaxes for a couple of hours. At 8:30 p.m. he’ll go to sleep for six hours, to get up and do it all over again. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Counties and cities in California may prohibit gun shows on their fairgrounds and other public properties, despite state laws that allow such events, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. 

The decision was expected to set off an avalanche of new such ordinances across the state. In briefs submitted to the court, at least 20 cities and counties had urged the justices to allow such bans. 

Monday’s 6-1 ruling upheld bans passed in 1999 in Los Angeles and Alameda counties amid concerns that gun shows promoted violence and tarred the area’s public image. 

“Alameda County has the authority to prohibit the operation of gun shows held on its property,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote. 

The gun industry argued that local governments are powerless to regulate the industry because the Legislature has authorized gun shows on public property, and the state laws supersede the local ones. 

California’s high court had never before ruled on whether statewide regulation of gun sales leaves room for more restrictive local measures. 

A state appeals court overturned San Francisco’s 1982 ban on handgun possession, saying cities and counties cannot write such laws. But in 1998, another appeals court upheld West Hollywood’s ban on cheap handguns known as Saturday Night Specials, which were legal in other parts of the state. 

Alameda County outlawed gun possession on county property after a shooting at its fairgrounds in Pleasanton. Los Angeles County issued its ban for its fairgrounds in Pomona as county lawmakers decried gun violence.

ALBANY, Ga. — Charles Batten turned a few goats loose on his cow pastures 10 years ago to keep weeds down. They do a great job, but these days they’re more valuable for their meat. 

Demand for goat meat has grown steadily in the past 10 years and Batten, whose herd has grown to about 200, is banking that it will continue as more immigrants move here from goat-eating regions such as Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. 

“Consumers of goat meat are practically everywhere except North America and we’re working on them,” said Batten, president of the new Sunbelt Goat Producers Cooperative. 

Farmers throughout the South are turning to goats for diversification and relief from the low prices they have been getting for traditional crops such as cotton. 

Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and North and South Carolina already supply the bulk of the nation’s meat goats, said Will Getz, a goat specialist at Georgia’s Fort Valley State University. 

Texas is the nation’s largest producer, with Tennessee and Georgia taking turns for second place. To promote production in Kentucky, the state’s agricultural development board provides cash assistance to farmers who want to diversify. In North Carolina, goat sales have soared to at least $6.6 million annually. 

Goat meat is lean and higher in protein than chicken. And it costs about the same as beef — around $2.89 a pound for cubes, $7.89 for chops. 

“It’s mild meat,” Batten said. “Most animals are harvested at less than a year old while the meat is light in color and very tender.” 

Demand for the meat is estimated to be growing at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per year. Experts say domestic consumption far exceeds production. Many new immigrants are shocked when they can’t find goat in the grocery store. 

It is prepared in many different ways, including goat kabobs, curried goat, jerked leg of goat, grilled goat chops and barbecued goat steaks. 

University of Georgia specialists estimate that between 2,500 and 3,000 goats are needed each week just to supply the Atlanta market. 

Batten said the co-op should be able to handle 1,000 per week. 

“In the Atlanta area, there’s a tremendous market,” said Chris Ferland of the university’s Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. “There’s a Baltimore market and a huge New York market. Goat buyers are coming to Georgia and Alabama and they’re trucking them to the Northeast.” 

So far, the co-op has attracted 198 shareholders, each agreeing to provide a certain number of goats per year, Batten said. By forming a co-op, producers get to keep a larger share of the profits — money that would have been paid to processors and other middlemen, he said. 

The co-op’s goat and sheep processing plant in Tennille should be up and running in time for its first shipment of goats in July. 

Although goat ranching could be a profitable venture, Ferland said it’s not likely to take over some of the mainstream crops. 

“It’s not going to replace row crops,” he said. “But if done right, there are opportunities to make the goat enterprise profitable.”

NEW YORK — Oxygen, the cable television network for women that began with great fanfare two years ago, is barely being seen. 

During March, the first month that Nielsen Media Research has measured Oxygen’s ratings, the network was watched by an average of 63,000 people during prime-time. 

That compares to the 2.4 million people watching Lifetime, its chief competition, during the same period, according to Nielsen. 

Oxygen, the brainchild of former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne and backed by investors like Oprah Winfrey, initially had trouble finding cable systems to carry it. It’s now available in 40 million of the nation’s 100 million television households. 

“We grew from 14 million to 40 million in less than a year,” spokeswoman Laura Nelson said Monday. “There’s just no way that ratings can follow that kind of explosive growth.” 

There’s usually a lag between when networks show up on cable or satellite systems and when viewers get used to watching it, she said. 

Nelson said the unusually low ratings won’t cause Oxygen to change its programming plans.

NEW YORK — A decade after “Dateline NBC” got in trouble for staging a collision to illustrate fire dangers in a General Motors truck, the newsmagazine and automaker have apparently made peace. 

Rick Serviatis, president of the automaker’s in-house advertising firm, GM Media Works, was a guest Monday at a luncheon thrown by NBC to mark the newsmagazine’s 10th anniversary. 

The survival of “Dateline NBC” was thrown into considerable doubt by the 1992 truck incident, which led to the resignation of an NBC News president and replacement of the newsmagazine’s management. 

Instead, “Dateline NBC” recovered and has been a strong ratings performer. It now airs three times a week. 

Not only did Serviatis attend the lunch, he was given a seat at a table between NBC Chairman Robert Wright and “Dateline NBC” anchor Jane Pauley. 

Wright, in a speech, noted Serviatis’ presence, joking that “GM was such a part of the early promotional scheme.” 

Serviatis declined to comment about the invitation, and a GM spokesman in Detroit did not immediately return a call. 

LOS ANGELES — Univision Communications Inc. is programming its Galavision cable channel to appeal to different audiences than its two broadcast networks. 

The programming change is part of Univision’s broader goal of using its three networks to attract Spanish speakers who watch mostly English language television. 

Galavision’s main programming is Mexican League soccer. The new schedule, which will roll out in stages beginning April 29, includes sports programs, a live morning news program and an afternoon variety show featuring games and audience participation. 

Galavision will still feature Mexican League soccer and will also show rebroadcasts of World Cup Soccer games in prime time. 

The new offerings come three months after Univision launched a new network, TeleFutura, which offers counter-programming in prime time to distinguish it from the popular soap operas known as telenovelas running on its own network and its chief rival, Telemundo, which was recently purchased by NBC. 

The goal, the company said, is to give Spanish speakers more choices and attract new viewers. 

“With 35 million Hispanics in the United States, it made no sense not to have more services,” said Ray Rodriguez, president of Univision Networks, which is based in Miami. “So we added TeleFutura to start that process. We’re giving Hispanics a third choice with Galavision now.” 

Weekends will feature an expanded block of children’s programs and more sports, including boxing. 

With the changes, Univision will have a strategy in place to attract female viewers with popular soap operas on Univision, younger viewers with action films on TeleFutura, and those seeking more choices with Galavision. 

Rodriguez said his goal is to reach the 23 million Hispanics for whom Spanish is their first language. 

“The audience is huge,” he said. “They are watching English language television because they don’t have a choice.”

Prospective students and their parents flooded UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza Saturday taking in the sights and sounds of Berkeley and gathering information, advice and tips on college life at the annual Cal Day.  

Trolley cars carried fresh-faced Cal admits and their eager parents down Bancroft Avenue along the southern portion of the UC Berkeley campus while the Cal band played fight songs by Wheeler Hall and a group of dancers from Cal's Dance Works jived to Michael Jackson's “Beat It.” 

Saturday's day-long event included information sessions on housing, student life, academic outreach, financial aid and a speech by Chancellor Robert Berdahl extolling the virtues of a Cal education and the quality of the faculty and resources at UC Berkeley. 

“The day has been very well organized. There's something for everyone here,” says Evelyn Elliot, the parent of a prospective Cal student. 

Parents received special attention at the Cal Parent information booth. Jim Mullen helped answer questions commonly asked by many parents at Cal Day, including concerns about housing, transportation and safety.  

“I think there's a lot of enthusiasm today and a lot of them (parents) are excited,” says Mullen.  

Mullen says that some students are still trying to decide between other schools like UCLA and UCSD and Cal. He says that Cal Day gives those students a great chance to see what Berkeley has to offer.  

“There's nothing like this anywhere else. UCLA doesn't have anything like this. This is a unique event,” expressed Mullen. 

A wide-array of Cal clubs set up tables at Cal Day, speaking with new admits and handing out fliers. Olivia Campbell from UC Berkeley's chapter of the National Organization for Women cited the importance of spreading the word about her club's presence on campus. 

“We want to let people know we are here. This is the first year of the club and previously there hasn't really been a feminist group on campus,” said Campbell. 

Danielle Smith of the Cal Gun Club says she's seen a great response from Cal students in the first semester of her club.  

“We've had quite a few people coming up to the table today. We've had 60-members join so far this semester,” says Smith. 

Smith says the Cal Gun Club plans to rent out a shooting range soon and continue to defend their second amendment rights. 

Other groups at Cal Day included the Iranian Students Cultural Organization.  

ISCO president Melody Mohebi says her group hopes to provide awareness of all aspects of Iranian culture including movies, poetry and dance.  

“This is one of our biggest membership events of the year. We've had a lot of people, a lot of alumni, come up and tell us they appreciate the fact that there's a more conservative presence on campus,” says Robb McFadden, former President of the Berkeley College Republicans. 

McFadden says that conservatives are not always allowed to assert their opinions on campus but that Cal Day has provided an opportunity to pass out more than 1000 copies of their publication, the California Patriot.  

Resting on a bench outside of Dwinelle Hall, Henry Chang said that he planned to tour Bechtel Hall and the rest of the engineering school with his son Steven. 

“Today has been very informative. There are some things I wish I had known before today but my overall impression is today has been very good,” says Chang. 

“We want to bring the history of the university to a broader understanding, to bring the past to individuals,” says Ann Lage, a member of the editorial board of the Chronicle of the University of California, a journal of University history.  

The journal, associated with UC Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education, produces three journals per year each covering aspects of University history including the environment, social protests and the influence of women on the University of California. 

“Things have run really smoothly today,” says Justin Hsiao, a member of Cal's visitor organization services, a branch of the public affairs department on  

campus. Hsiao says visitors have asked questions regarding housing and parking, many wondering about parking cars while at the dorms.  

Hsiao noted that some visitors have also asked questions about academics, though most people simply needed directions to the next event at Cal Day. 

Other activities planned for the day included an ROTC flight simulator demonstration, a panel presentation on “The War on Terrorism: Military Tribunals and the Case of John Walker Lindh,” sponsored by the Rhetoric Department, a football scrimmage with the Golden Bears at Memorial Stadium and “Adventures in Gender,” a discussion on gender themes by members of the Sociology Department. 

The juggernaut that is Cal rugby continued its quest for a 12th consecutive national championship with a 63-6 demolition of Ohio State in the Elite Eight on Sunday at Witter Field. The Bears allowed just two penalty kicks in the game and shut out the Buckeyes in the second half. 

Cal’s record improved to 17-0 on the season, while Ohio State fell to 18-3. If the Bears win their last two games at the Final Four in Virginia Beach, Va. in two weeks, they will complete head coach Jack Clark’s first undefeated season at Cal. 

The Buckeyes managed to stay close for the first 30 minutes of the game, trailing just 15-3. But when Cal All-American Kort Schubert broke through the middle of the Ohio State defense to set up a Jacob Waasdorp try on the half-hour, it was the beginning of the end for the visitors. The Bears scored again immediately off of the ensuing kickoff, with Alex Houser touching the ball down for the try, and just like that it was 29-3.  

Houser scored again four minutes later, chasing down a Matt Sherman kick in the corner of the end zone to make the score 36-3. Ohio State managed to get on the board once more before halftime, but the penalty kick would be their last score of the day. 

None of the Ohio State players had faced Cal before Sunday, and they came away impressed by the country’s best college team. 

“They were just ready to go from the first whistle,” said captain Martin Snider. “They have a plan for everything. They don’t get rattled at all no matter what you do.” 

It was more of the same in the second half, as the Bears scored five more tries and showed tremendous ability to take advantage of Buckeye mistakes. A quick restart by scrumhalf Joel DiGregorio from an Ohio State penalty gave prop Mike McDonald a chance to show off his agility, tip-toeing down the sideline before diving into the end zone.  

Minutes later, an Ohio State scrum just deep in their own end turned into a disaster as a pass went out the back of the end zone, and Cal converted the ensuing five-meter scrum into another score. 

Cal’s starters were raring to go after watching their backups beat Middle Tennessee State, 43-10, in the first round on Saturday. With such a powerful program, Clark knew he could afford to rest his starters for Sunday’s game without risking a loss in the playoffs. 

“Everyone wants to be in there when it’s single-elimination,” McDonald said. “But it’s a huge advantage for us to have 13 pairs of fresh legs in there when the other team all played hard yesterday.” 

Schubert, one of the best players in school history, got a special thrill when Clark pulled him from the game just before the final whistle. The Cal crowd gave the senior a standing ovation as he came off the Witter pitch for the final time in what has been a stellar career. 

“It just feels great to get a big win and play well in my last home game,” Schubert said. “We really fired on all cylinders today.” 

The Bears will face Army in the Final Four on May 4, with San Diego State and Wyoming matching up on the other side of the bracket. Cal must be considered an overwhelming favorite to win yet another national championship. Saturday’s 33-point difference was the closest an American team has gotten to the Bears this season, and Clark has said he thinks this year’s team could bethe best he has ever coached, not bad considering he has overseen 18 national champions. 

“We just need to focus on the little things for the next two weeks,” Schubert said. “We’re hot right now. It would take a really good performance from a really good team just to get close to us.”

To the Editor: 

President George W. Bush has decided to brand anyone who uses violence against the US or our allies as evil "terrorists," as if terrorism was somehow alien and un-American. The truth is the United States was founded on terrorism and genocide directed at the indigenous peoples who lived here before the European invasion. Our distant relatives even used germ warfare against native Americans by selling them smallpox infected blankets. 

In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln used terrorism to win the Civil War by unleashing General William Tecumseh Sherman to march across Georgia, burning everything in his path in his famous march to the sea to break the will of the Confederacy. During World War 11 Franklin Delano Roosevelt used terrorism by targeting civilian populations in the mass firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo. Later President Harry S. Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In these premeditated attacks against civilian populations literally hundreds of thousand of "innocent civilians" were burned alive. In Vietnam American forces used napalm to destroy whole villages that were suspected of containing just a few Vietcong. Remember the American slogan that "sometimes you have to destroy a village in order to save it." American soldiers were given permission to shoot anyone who was running away from them, be they Vietcong or just innocent and justifiably scared farmers. 

Palestinians are using "terrorism" to fight the Israeli Jews who stole their land and homes because that is all they can afford. They do not have an army, tanks, or aircraft and they have tried everything else. Palestinians first tried letting their children throw stones at Israeli troops, who simply shot them by the hundreds, and the US still supported Israel. Israel started the 1967 war, not the Palestinians, as Israel launched the surprise attack against Egypt by destroying Egypt’s air force on the ground. Even Menachem Begin later admitted that Israel started the war with the aim of gaining new land for Jews to settle. The US has financially bankrolled the destruction of Palestine and the enslavement of the Palestinian people by our continued massive financial aid to Israel, which has over the years far exceeded 100 billion dollars. Japan only waged a hit and run attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor, yet we responded by purposefully burning alive massive numbers of Japanese civilians. What would Americans do if we were attacked, invaded, enslaved, and humiliated for over 35 years, with no end in sight to our suffering? 

The only way to end this conflict so for the United Stated to join with its European allies and Russia to force a peace agreement. Israel must be made to retreat to its original 1967 borders and not be allowed to destroy any improvements to the land (homes, buildings, etc.) as it has in the past when it gave back territory to Egypt. Acting legally through the United Nations we can threaten Israel with a full embargo of arms, oil, and consumer goods. 

Israel would not last a week under an embargo and they would be forced to agree to the UN sponsored peace settlement. The Palestinians would have to give up their hopes for the right of return to Israel itself, but Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to the new Palestinian State made up of the West Bank and Gaza. The US and all its allies should then donate billions to rebuild the new Palestine and to construct a wall between Palestine and Israel to keep the parties out of contact and conflict. Syrian would get back the Golan Heights and the Arab States would sign peace and trade agreements with Israel.  

This peace plan would be fully legal, moral, fair, and quick. The current Bush policy of keeping hands off while continuing to finance Israel’s theft of Palestinian territory is two faced and immoral. America has created the atmosphere for terrorism to flourish and only America can end this cycle of violence by doing the right thing. 

The Bush Administration is currently interested in more violence, more hypocrisy, and more actions that are guaranteed to make the rest of the world hate us.  

America deserves the world’s wrath because we are liars and hypocrites and we are proud of our own crimes. We have mixed up the cult of Zionism with the Christian Right Wing and the result is an unholy axis of arrogance that is destined to bring the world more acts of terror committed by both sides. We are fighting a racial and religious war against Moslems but we are too dishonest to admit the truth of our actions. Americans need to end all their self-serving talk about freedom and admit terrorism has been as much an American tradition as apple pie and baseball. 

Christopher Calder 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco spent little time Friday on a bid by the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to raise new arguments about why it should be allowed to dispense medical marijuana. 

Instead U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer devoted most of a hearing to discussing how to respond to the Justice Department's request to close out the case in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the club last year. 

Breyer opened the session by saying he wanted to figure out whether a permanent injunction against the club would be needed in addition to a summary judgment requested by the government. 

“Assuming I enter judgment in favor of the government, is it necessary to enter an injunction?” Breyer asked Justice Department attorney Mark Quinlivan. 

Quinlivan said the department did want a permanent injunction to prevent the four-year-old case from dragging out several more years.  

While seeming to give scant encouragement to the club, Breyer took the case under submission at the end of the hearing and said he will rule at a later date on requests from both sides. 

The Oakland cooperative is one of a number of medical marijuana clubs that sprang up after voters passed an initiative, Proposition 215, that allows patients to use marijuana upon a doctor's recommendation. 

The federal case before Breyer began as six civil lawsuits filed by the Justice Department in 1998 to halt the marijuana operations of six Northern California clubs. The suits claimed that federal anti-drug laws override the state law. 

Last year, the Oakland club lost its initial attempt at a defense  

when the U.S. Supreme Court, overruling a federal appeals court in San Francisco, declared that federal law does not allow a”medical necessity” exception for providing marijuana to seriously ill patients. 

The club has now asked Breyer to consider exceptions based on other grounds, such as a patient's right to seek medical treatment and the state's right to regulate commerce within its own borders. 

The cannabis club wants Breyer to dissolve or modify a preliminary injunction now in effect, while the government has asked for a summary judgment and a permanent injunction. 

The state Attorney General's Office also weighed in on the case Friday, with Special Deputy Attorney General Taylor Carey urging Breyer to try to reconcile the federal and state laws in a way that would enable patients to possess marijuana.  

Outside of court, the Oakland club's executive director Jeff Jones said the cooperative is continuing to identify patients and conduct educational activities. He said the club has 10,000 member patients who have updated their files within the past year. 

Two of the other clubs sued by the Justice Department — the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana and the Ukiah Cannabis Buyer's Club — still exist, but have never been found to have violated the injunction. 

Two others, the Cannabis Cultivators Cooperative of San Francisco and the Santa Cruz Cannabis Buyers Club, no longer exist, but remain defendants in the government's summary judgment motion, attorneys said. The sixth club, the former Flower Therapy Medical Marijuana Club in San Francisco, is defunct and has been dismissed from the case. 

On the strength of senior Jocelyn Forest’s one-hit, 15-strikeout performance, the No. 8 Golden Bears upset No. 1 Arizona, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at Levine-Fricke Field, marking the first time California has swept the desert schools in a weekend series dating back to the inception of Pac-10 softball in 1987.  

The Bears (42-14, 8-4 Pac-10 also handed Arizona its first back-to-back losses of the season, while Cal remains undefeated (7-0) at home.  

For the third consecutive day Cal struck first, as junior Courtney Scott came through in the clutch once again. Freshman Kaleo Eldredge drew a lead off walk to start the first inning and advanced to second on junior Kristen Morley’s conference-leading 22nd sacrifice bunt of the year. Junior Veronica Nelson was intentionally walked for the sixth time this weekend, and Scott came through with a RBI single that dropped into left center.  

Forest shut the Wildcats down for the first three innings. After Lovie Jung led off the game with a ground out to second, Forest proceeded to strikeout eight consecutive UA batters, spanning three frames. Jennie Finch evened things up for the Wildcats however, driving a liner over the centerfield fence for the equalizer.  

Not to be out done, the Bears answered back in the bottom of the fifth as senior Candace Harper blasted a solo homer, her sixth of the year, over the left field wall for the game-winning run.  

Forest pitched seven innings, walking just one and allowing just the solo shot to Finch in addition to her 15 k’s, which marked her 15th double-digit strikeout performance of the season. Jenny Gladding fell to 16-5 on the season as she gave up nine walks and five hits, while striking out nine batters.  

The resurgent Bears are now just a half game behind Arizona (41-7, 8-3 Pac-10) and UCLA for first place in the conference. Cal has an opportunity to stay in the hunt for the Pac-10 crown as No. 2 UCLA and No. 9 Washington come into town next week with one game against the Bruins on Friday and a two-game series with the Huskies on Saturday and Sunday.

To the Editor: 

As a nursing student specializing in gerontology, I see firsthand the expenses of cutting funding to organizations supporting the elderly. Such budget cuts not only result in expense emergency room visits for preventable injuries, but also place tremendous strain on families caring for elderly members. The 2000 United States census reported 35 million Americans over the age of 65 with those over 85 increasing by 38%. Society needs to adjust and accomodate the needs of this growing population, not cut funding as Alameda County has quietly done. While such cuts may not make national news, individuals need to pay attention and rally in support of the local services 

that enable communities to keep vulnerable populations out of harm's way and off the streets. More complete coverage of April 20-21, 

2002's article on funding cuts for elderly programs would be appreciated. (It seems that Bruce Gerstman's article was cut off midsentence.)  

Petrice P. Kam 

UCSF Nursing Student

Past and present generations of Harmon House residents gathered Saturday to touch base with old friends, to share stories and memories and of course eat food and at what may be the final reunion at the historic Berkeley communal house.  

Former residents from as far away as Iowa and Minnesota mingled with current residents at the house, a Queen Anne Victorian established as a cooperative in 1978, comparing their experiences and time at the South Berkeley residence.  

The current women's only cooperative has served throughout its 24 year history as a residence for a diverse mix of graduate students and working adults.  

Steve Doig, a resident of Harmon House from 1985-91, first came to Berkeley as a graduate student in the school of chemistry in 1984. After a year in Berkeley, Doig investigated a number of local cooperative houses but found the people and sense of community at Harmon House to be the right fit.  

“The thing about Harmon House was the interaction of the residents. We had a house dinner every Thursday night. Food was a central thing,” says Doig. 

Doig and other Harmon House residents described house trips to the Sierras and to the beach along with hikes up to the Berkeley hills to watch the sunset after dinners. 

Many current and former residents cite the continuity at Harmon House as a reason for the strong emotions and sense of attachment to the rustic six and a half bedroom living space. Residents commonly spend 6 or 7 years at the house growing together and sharing many of life's ups and downs. 

“When they sent me the notice in Minnesota I said to myself I would love to see those folks again,” says Doig. 

Much of the planning for Saturday's reunion was the work of current resident  

Diane Osborne. Osborne and other current residents taped butcher paper near the entrance of the house for past and present residents to fill in a timeline of events throughout the cooperative's 24 years. 

Members recorded move in and move out dates on the timeline along with the date of the founding of Harmon House's Morals Committee in 1986 and the first of Harmon House's annual Masquerade Ball in 1997.  

With the possibility of the house being up for sale in the near future, organizers hoped to gather former residents to share bits and pieces history before it was too late. 

“The thought of leaving is a scary one. We felt like all the energy we put  

into the house would be lost and that everyone else's energy would be lost as well,” says Osborne. 

Organizers asked former members to bring pieces of memorabilia from their time at the house for a time capsule to be buried in the back yard. 

At least four marriages resulted from meetings at Harmon House, residents say. Former residents Laura Menard and Jay Tharp met and were married after meeting at the house. Menard, a resident of the cooperative from 1981-83, says she was immediately attracted to the community at Harmon House. 

“I wasn't one of the university intellectuals at the house, I was a working person, but I still fit in and had many great experiences at the house,” says Menard.  

For Menard, the Harmon House holds a special meaning not only to her but to a good portion of her family.  

“Not only did I meet my spouse here but I introduced my brother to his wife as well and my son even had his first birthday right here at the house,” says Menard. 

Much of the afternoon reunion was devoted to the sharing of history. A table in the front room of the house displayed pictures, scrapbooks and a packet of papers detailing the architectural heritage and historical facts about South Berkeley and more specifically the original Lorin neighborhood. 

A copy of papers from an 1888 edition of the Oakland Esquirer displayed pictures of the original 250 Queen Anne Victorian houses in the Lorin neighborhood of which approximately half remain today. 

While Berkeley has been a place of social activism for some time, former residents of the house describe Berkeley as a quieter place twenty years ago.  

“It wasn't a very turbulent time. There were some political issues but I don't think there was a great deal of activism,” says Mitty Cass, resident of Harmon House from 1986-87.  

According to Menard the South Berkeley neighborhood has had a history of crime and was not always the safest location. The neighborhood experienced a rash of drive-by shootings in recent years prompting the erection of a number of street barricades throughout the area. 

Included among the articles of Harmon House and South Berkeley history at the reunion was Altars in the Street, Melody Ermachild Chavis' documentary of South Berkeley's experience with violence and racism and efforts at healing community suffering. 

After a group photo shoot of all reunion attendees, current and former residents gathered in the coop's back yard to answer a Harmon House quiz and relate stories and memories from years gone by. 

Members of the reunion discussed and debated answers to such questions regarding Harmon House initiation rites, famous revolutionary posters and favorite dinner time topics of discussion. 

Stories detailed the great rat invasions of '92 and '99 and a mold abatement process involving a very “E.T. like” evacuation of the downstairs garden room due to a poisonous mold growing on the ceiling.  

At the end of the day as the food had been eaten and the time capsule full of house history was buried, old friends related their final stories and said good-bye to each other and to a house full of shared memories. 

The No. 1 ranked Cal men’s varsity eight defeated No. 6 Wisconsin by five seconds in dual racing on the Redwood Shores Lagoon, April 21. The undefeated, defending IRA National champion Bears covered the course in a time of 5:40.43.  

“Absolutely solid performances by both our crews today,” said coach Steve Gladstone. “I’m happy with the look of the boats and the speed of the boats.”  

In the varsity event, Cal and Wisconsin both got off to strong starts and the Bears edged out to the slimmest of margins through the 500-meter mark. Cal continued to press the pace, but the Badgers hung tight and were still withing striking distance-only a half length down-as the crews crossed the 1000. Cal’s varsity eight, however, erased all hope for the Badgers with a fast second 1000 going on to win by 5.3 seconds.  

“Wisconsin really went out strong and were right with us at the first 500,” said Cal coxswain Mike Vallarelli. “We stayed in our own boat and executed our race plan. We started to move away in the second 1000 and just kept pushing through the finish.”

YORBA LINDA — A 125-acre fire apparently sparked by illegal fireworks came dangerously close to homes on the eastern edge of Yorba Linda on Sunday evening, but winds pushed it northeast into a state park and no evacuations were required, authorities said. 

The flames came within about 200 feet of the homes in a residential neighborhood on the edge of Chino Hills State Park before moving safely into the park, authorities said. The fire was 20 percent contained Sunday night. 

“We had a lot of residents calling that could see smoke and flames pretty clearly from their homes,” said Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman Kymbra Fleming. 

Two 15-year-old boys were arrested for investigation of using illegal fireworks and were released to the custody of their parents, Fleming said. 

The fire broke out just after 5 p.m. on a brush-covered hill. Northeasterly gusts of 5- to 10-miles-per hour pushed the flames away from the homes as night fell, but firefighters stationed engines nearby as a precaution. 

About 130 firefighters were battling the blaze. 

Meanwhile, in Riverside County, two adults and one juvenile were in custody for allegedly starting a fire that scorched 150 acres in heavy brush in San Timoteo Canyon, north of Moreno Valley. 

There were some scattered homes in the area, but they did not appear to be in danger, said Riverside County Fire spokeswoman Joanne Evans. 

The fire was reported at 4:23 p.m. and six hours later was still burning out of control. Officials had no estimate of when it would be contained. 

About 260 firefighters and 22 engines were on the scene. Firefighters were hampered by blustery conditions, but winds died down as the evening progressed.

Tuesday 

Swimming – Berkeley vs. Hercules, 3:30 p.m. at Hercules High 

Boys Volleyball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 5 p.m. at Richmond High 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. Piedmont, 6:30 p.m. at Piedmont High 

Wednesday 

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

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

Softball - Berkeley vs. De Anza, 3:30 p.m. at Old Grove Park 

Boys Tennis – ACCAL Tournament, TBA 

Thursday 

Track & Field – Berkeley vs. ACCAL, 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Track & Field – St. Mary’s vs. BSAL, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High 

Boys Volleyball – Berkeley vs. El Cerrito, 5 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Girls Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. Foothill, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Friday 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

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

Softball - Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

Swimming – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 3:30 p.m. at Willard Pool 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. College Prep, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High

ALBANY, Ga. — Charles Batten turned a few goats loose on his cow pastures 10 years ago to keep weeds down. They do a great job, but these days they’re more valuable for their meat. 

Demand for goat meat has grown steadily in the past 10 years and Batten, whose herd has grown to about 200, is banking that it will continue as more immigrants move here from goat-eating regions such as Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. 

“Consumers of goat meat are practically everywhere except North America and we’re working on them,” said Batten, president of the new Sunbelt Goat Producers Cooperative. 

Farmers throughout the South are turning to goats for diversification and relief from the low prices they have been getting for traditional crops such as cotton. 

Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and North and South Carolina already supply the bulk of the nation’s meat goats, said Will Getz, a goat specialist at Georgia’s Fort Valley State University. 

Texas is the nation’s largest producer, with Tennessee and Georgia taking turns for second place. To promote production in Kentucky, the state’s agricultural development board provides cash assistance to farmers who want to diversify. In North Carolina, goat sales have soared to at least $6.6 million annually. 

Goat meat is lean and higher in protein than chicken. And it costs about the same as beef — around $2.89 a pound for cubes, $7.89 for chops. 

“It’s mild meat,” Batten said. “Most animals are harvested at less than a year old while the meat is light in color and very tender.” 

Demand for the meat is estimated to be growing at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per year. Experts say domestic consumption far exceeds production. Many new immigrants are shocked when they can’t find goat in the grocery store. 

It is prepared in many different ways, including goat kabobs, curried goat, jerked leg of goat, grilled goat chops and barbecued goat steaks. 

University of Georgia specialists estimate that between 2,500 and 3,000 goats are needed each week just to supply the Atlanta market. 

When a prestigious scientific journal backed away from a study that found genetic contamination in Mexican corn, it was a big public relations victory for the biotechnology industry. 

But the public debunking of the work of an outspoken opponent of genetic engineering also renewed questions about the increasing role that industry plays in funding academic research. 

Much is at stake for biotech companies, which are planting more genetically modified plants each year around the world even as they battle consumer skepticism. 

Their victory in the Mexican corn debate helped compensate for several embarrassing revelations that genetic experiments had escaped to the wild — despite repeated promises that such tinkering was tightly controlled. 

Researchers now splice foreign genes into a wide variety of plants to enhance desirable traits such as herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. Supporters envision growing more food for a hungry world. But the science involved troubles many who say the consequences of such tinkering are unknown. 

The journal Nature’s publication of the corn study in November created a furor. Ignacio Chapela and David Quist of the University of California, Berkeley, found that maize in the Mexican state of Oaxaca contained traces of genetically modified DNA widely used by U.S. biotech companies. 

In 1998, Mexico had banned the planting of genetically modified corn to protect its indigenous maize. 

Nature’s publication of the study almost immediately galvanized the Biotechnology Industry Organization into action. Led by the lobbying group, sympathetic scientists inundated the journal with complaints that the study’s science was sloppy. They also denounced Chapela and Quist as politically biased. 

Nature eventually published the criticism this month after receiving what it considered to be compelling evidence that the researchers had not conclusively proven that contamination had occurred. 

Despite this episode, many biotech proponents concede that co-mingling of natural and genetically modified plants is almost inevitable, and even critics of Chapela and Quist say it’s possible that genetically engineered corn has in fact mixed with native maize in southern Mexico. 

But they argue that any contamination is safe and may even benefit the local varieties by boosting their resistance to herbicides and insects. 

“The fact is that the biotech traits really don’t pose any unique risk to the local maize,” said Eric Sachs, director of scientific affairs for Monsanto Co., a St. Louis-based biotechnology company. 

Monsanto made a similar argument last week to the Food and Drug Administration after it learned that its Canadian canola seed has trace amounts of genetically modified material unapproved in the United States. 

Monsanto wants the U.S. government to declare any food contaminated by the unapproved canola seed fit for consumption, arguing that its gene tinkering is safe. 

Chapela, an assistant professor up for tenure this year, argues that his academic reputation is under attack because he continues to speak out against a growing private-sector involvement in academic research. 

In 1998, Chapela led an unsuccessful campaign against a five-year, $25 million deal Berkeley signed with Novartis Corp., a Swiss-based agriculture giant. A Novartis spinoff, Syngenta, now oversees research in Berkeley’s department of plant and microbial biology. 

In exchange, Syngenta gets first commercial rights to much of the research in the department. Researchers who accept Syngenta’s money are barred from showing some of their work outside the university without permission, which Chapela and others say limits academic freedoms. 

The deal polarized the campus. Some welcomed the money as a godsend that has brought their research to a higher level; others saw it as a dance with the devil. 

The university recently commissioned Michigan State University to study the deal’s effect and issue a report, which is awaited by several other institutions said to be considering similar deals. Corporate support of an entire college science department remains unique: most universities do receive corporate funding but the money is dedicated for individual projects only. 

The Berkeley department chair, Andrew Jackson, receives $100,000 a year from the deal for his research. He says it has benefited faculty and students with extra equipment and research they couldn’t afford to do otherwise. Jackson said his research decisions have never been influenced by the deal. 

But Chapela still considers it unethical, and says the money forces Berkeley to focus most of its energies on biotechnology at the expense of more traditional crop sciences. 

His supporters allege Chapela is the subject of “academic intimidation” and a “McCarthyist campaign” instigated by a biotechnology industry that is increasing the amount of genetically modified crops grown around the world each year. 

Chapela’s critics deny that charge and say Chapela wouldn’t be in the position he is now if he conducted his study more carefully. 

Jackson called Chapela’s continued campaign against the Novartis deal upsetting, but said the Mexican corn debate is based on scientific disagreements.

SAN FRANCISCO – An 11-year-old boy was severely mauled by a neighbor’s pit bull, an attack that came just a day after a 5-year-old Monterey girl died after being attacked by her family dog. 

The boy was taken to Marshall Hospital in Placerville for surgery and was listed serious condition Sunday. The boy’s family requested that the his identity not be published. 

In all, three children in Northern California were viciously attacked by dogs since Thursday. 

While the spotlight case of the fatal dog attack on San Francisco’s Diane Whipple recently drew to a close with a jury’s guilty verdict, the vicious dog attacks continue. 

The Placerville attack occurred late Saturday as the boy went to a neighbor’s home to seek advice on caring for his own dog, according to Lt. Kevin House of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department. 

After no one answered the door, the dog came around from the side of the house and attacked him. 

“The dog chased him down and pulled him down by the leg and started chewing on him,” House said. 

“When the dog attacked him he screamed for his mother. She was able to get the dog off of him by kicking it,” House said. “As the mother was carrying him into the house the dog jumped on him again.” 

The mother began kicking the dog again until it finally released. The boy suffered serious bite wounds to the head, face, back and torso. 

Animal control officers later found the dog, which became aggressive toward them. Authorities then shot and killed the dog at the scene. 

The keeper of the pit bull works at a veterinarian hospital, House said. Authorities were not able to locate her Saturday night or Sunday morning to interview her about the attack. 

House said he expects to forward a recommendation for criminal prosecution to the county district attorney’s office on Monday or Tuesday. He said neighbors have reported the same dog chasing them into their homes in that unincorporated area of Placerville, called Pollock Pines. 

Saturday’s attack was the third vicious dog attack on a child in Northern California in as many days. 

The 5-year-old Monterey girl had been walking with her grandmother and brother in a field when a lizard startled them Friday afternoon. In the commotion, at least one of the family’s two large Rottweilers pounced, biting her head and body, police spokesman Randy Taylor said. 

She was immediately taken to the hospital, but died later Friday night. 

That mauling came less than 24 hours after a 5-year-old Salinas girl was attacked by her family’s Doberman pinscher. That girl was mauled so severely Thursday that part of her scalp was pulled from her skull, which the dog also fractured. 

She was admitted to the intensive care unit at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital Thursday in critical condition, but by Sunday was stable and in good condition, according to a hospital nursing supervisor. 

The Monterey County dogs involved in attacks were all impounded. 

SANTA CLARA – Paramount’s Great America theme park was evacuated and closed an hour early Saturday night after several fistfights broke out, leaving several parkgoers injured, officials said. 

Gerry Soud, a spokesman for Paramount Theme Parks, said the altercations occurred as crowds swelled during a step dance competition sponsored by KMEL 106.1, a Bay Area radio station that plays hip-hop music and rhythm and blues. 

Soud said park officials decided to shut the gates early and clear out the crowds as a safety precaution. As they streamed into the parking lot, however, hundreds of parkgoers began jumping on cars, prompting the arrival of Santa Clara police dressed in riot gear. 

The owner of a service station near the park said several teens looted his store, spilling candy in the aisles and smashing bottles of champagne outside. 

Soud was unsure how many people visited the park on the warm, sunny day. Great America has not previously been evacuated to his knowledge, he said. 

Calls to the Santa Clara Police Department were not immediately returned Saturday night.

SACRAMENTO – The chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee and other lawmakers plan to call this week for the state to halt its plans to build a new maximum security prison at Delano. 

“California doesn’t need another prison, California can’t afford another prison, and Californians don’t want another prison,” Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, said in a statement. 

He and other lawmakers as well as prison opponents plan to call for a series of Department of Corrections budget cuts during a news conference Tuesday. That’s a day before Polanco chairs a budget subcommittee to consider about $1 million in new prison pre-construction money sought in Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed budget. 

Youth and Adult Correctional Agency spokesman Steve Green invited the lawmakers to tour crowded maximum-security prisons, and to interview a correctional officer at Susanville’s High Desert State Prison who in June “was nearly stamped to death by a maximum-security inmate who was not in a maximum-security facility. She’s going to be in therapy for two years.” 

About 9,400 maximum-security inmates are not in maximum-security facilities, including 480 who are housed dormitory-style in prison gymnasiums for lack of space, Green said. Even if the 5,000-bed Delano II prison opens as scheduled in 2004, he said the state will be short an estimated 6,000 maximum-security beds. The department predicts the maximum-security population will grow from 25,000 to 29,000 in five years. 

Lawmakers doubt those numbers, said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley. She and other lawmakers plan to call Tuesday for Davis to review the state’s security level classification system. 

“There are real questions being raised ... whether we’re identifying prisoners appropriately,” she said. 

Dan Macallair of the Justice Policy Institute contended that 18 percent of high-security beds, more than 10,000 of them, are filled with low security inmates. He argued the department will have a surplus of high security beds through 2005. 

Green welcomed a legislative review of the department’s figures. 

Even based on the department’s numbers, the department is predicting 23,000 fewer inmates than when lawmakers approved the new prison in 1999, Polanco said. A Kern County superior court judge earlier this month gave the department permission to solicit Delano II construction bids, after ruling in June that more environmental studies were needed. 

The state’s overall prison population dropped by 4,355 inmates to 157,142 during the second half of last year, according to new figures released by the department. 

That’s the biggest six-month drop at least since 1980, and is based on a voter-approved initiative that sends first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison or jail. However, the department lowered its long-term projections for the number of inmates who will be diverted by the Proposition 36 initiative. 

The move to build Delano II comes as the administration attempts to shut down five private prisons that supporters contend are the cheapest prisons to operate. Davis can fulfill a promise to shut down the private prisons in large part because of the drug treatment initiative that took effect July 1. 

Aroner and Polanco are trying to build a coalition of Hispanic and women lawmakers to oppose the Delano II prison, which would be the first new prison since 1995. Opponents estimate it will cost $595 million to build and operate the new Delano facility. 

While stopping Delano “is at the top of the list,” Aroner said, the lawmakers will suggest other money-saving changes, some of which will eventually be considered by the budget subcommittee she chairs. 

She said California should follow the lead of other states that are looking for alternatives to building new prisons. 

For instance, she said nonviolent inmates and prisoners over age 65 could be moved to community facilities, and one of California’s women’s prisons could be closed because drug offenders are being diverted by Proposition 36. 

In addition, she said many immigrants convicted of California crimes could be returned to their homelands to serve their sentences. While Davis is suggesting a similar program for immigrants, he’s not being aggressive enough, Aroner contended: “You go home where you belong,” she said. “It’s enough to fill five prisons.”

CAMARILLO – Gasoline prices edged down a fraction of a cent over the past two weeks, despite tensions in oil-producing regions like the Middle East and South America, an analyst said Sunday. 

Friday’s weighted price per gallon for all grades and taxes was about $1.46, down just over half a cent from two weeks earlier, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 gas stations nationwide. 

The decrease — the first since Feb. 8 — could be a sign that gasoline prices, which generally spike during the summer months, may have peaked, said analyst Trilby Lundberg. 

“At the very least the gasoline price hikes have been stalled,” Lundberg said. “And this is despite dramatic headlines out of two key oil producing countries — Iraq and Venezuela.” 

Iraq has threatened to cut off oil shipments for a month to protest the Israeli military action in the West Bank. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, survived a military coup attempt that lasted just one weekend.

SAN FRANCISCO – As Congress and President Bush have debated whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, three indigenous spokespeople have devoted their days to ensuring the potential effects on the land, its wildlife and their people are not overlooked. 

Jonathon Solomon, Sarah James and Norma Kassi are members of the Gwich’in nation and live north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory. They have testified before Congress, negotiated agreements to protect wildlife, and traveled the world to raise awareness and support of their fight against plans to open the 1.5 million acre coastal plain of the Alaskan refuge. 

Their work was rewarded Monday with the Goldman Environmental Prize, given annually to people around the world who strive to protect the environment by the San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Foundation. The three winners will receive $125,000. 

The refuge’s future concerns the Gwich’in because the coastal plain is the annual calving ground for the Porcupine caribou herd, which numbers more than 120,000. 

While the tundra may seem a desolate place, it is home to the caribou and a variety of other wildlife, including peregrine falcons, musk-oxen, polar bears and millions of mosquitoes. 

The Gwich’in, whose name means “caribou people,” hold the caribou sacred and rely on them for food and clothing. Their spiritual beliefs center on the deer • they call the plain where the caribou give birth “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” 

The recognition was especially sweet for the three environmentalists after the Senate rejected an amendment Thursday in the president’s energy bill that would allow the drilling. 

“Basically, this is another hurdle we’ve gone over,” Kassi said. “We foresee a lot more pressures for oil and gas from our lands.” 

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, has said domestic oil production would cut the need to import oil from the Middle East, an argument backed by the energy industry and many politicians. Surveys in recent years show about 70 percent of Alaskans support drilling in the reserve. But the three critics say the nation’s leaders also must consider the welfare of local residents. 

“They’re using development there as national security,” Kassi said. “Our national security is the caribou.” 

Their work has drawn attention from all over the world to the 19.6-million-acre refuge. Some say, their activism has helped snag the proposal’s progress. 

“I certainly think that it’s slowed it down,” said Lon Sonsalla, city administrator for Kaktovik, the only town within the coastal plain. “And it’s not that we exactly disagree with everything that they say.” 

Sonsalla said the residents of Kaktovik do not want to see anything disturb the caribou either, but believe the drilling can proceed without any disturbance and provide jobs. 

“We want to have a better future for our children and our grandchildren, and we don’t want to see the land or the caribou come to harm,” Sonsalla said. “We’ve seen what’s happening in Prudhoe Bay, and it hasn’t bothered them. We’ve kind of changed our opinions that these things can coincide.” 

But the Gwich’in aren’t convinced, and believe most Americans feel the same. 

“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is very sacred to our people,” Kassi said. “The American public has spoken through their senators to say that.” 

Despite the various interests involved in the decision, James says people have been willing to listen to the message they bring from the indigenous people. 

“We have to tell the truth, and it’s one people can relate with,” she said. “It goes beyond protecting the caribou and the Gwich’in way of life. It’s for their children.” 

Solomon helped negotiate an agreement between the United States and Canada to protect the Porcupine caribou herd; James has traveled the world to draw attention to the cause; and Kassi has met with government officials, environmentalists and has organized conferences to urge people to oppose drilling. 

The fight isn’t over. Before the Senate’s vote Thursday, the House approved ANWR development. Bush hasn’t indicated whether he will approve any energy plan that doesn’t include drilling approval. 

Other winners include: 

• from Africa: Fatima Jibrell, Somalia. Jibrell is working to prevent the massive logging of Somalia’s old-growth acacia trees to make charcoal and is speaking out against the overfishing by foreign fishermen of the Somali coast. 

• from Asia: Pisit Charnsnoh, Thailand. Charnsnoh is an ecologist who has worked to restore and protect Thailand’s coast from the effects of heavy fishing and increased logging. 

• from Europe: Jadwiga Lopata, Poland. Lopata is promoting Poland’s family farms with ecotourism in hopes of protecting open space and wildlife habitat. 

• from Islands and Island Nations: Alexis Massol-Gonzalez, Puerto Rico. Massol-Gonzalez helped block mining in the mountains of central Puerto Rico and was able to have the area declared a mining forest preserve. It became Bosque del Pueblo and is a community-managed, government-owned preserve. 

• from South and Central America: Jean La Rose, Guyana. La Rose has worked to stop mining upriver from the Mazaruni River, which has degraded the quality of the river, and to win the rights of indigenous people over the land that includes the river. 

A speech by a “pro-life feminist” on the UC Berkeley campus Friday afternoon sparked a stand-off between activists from both sides of the abortion debate. 

Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, a Washington D.C. advocacy group, spoke on the steps of Sproul Plaza while students and local activists waved signs and exchanged shouts. 

Foster focused much of her speech on the pro-life politics of early feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and painted her group as the inheritor to their legacy. 

“The early American feminists worked to outlaw abortion in this country,” she said. “I stand here proudly to continue the tradition.” 

Foster argued that the United States should outlaw abortion and focus on providing women with the legal and social services they need to raise children. 

Kody Hilton, volunteer coordinator for the California Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League in San Francisco, said the pro-choice movement supports the provision of all the services advocated by Foster, but that legalized abortion should remain in place as well. 

Christina Hioureas, co-president of the UC Berkeley chapter of the National Organization for Women, said feminism is about choices and Foster is seeking to eliminate a choice. 

“She’s not a feminist,” Hioureas said. 

But Nora Ludden, an Oakland resident and member of Feminists for Life, said the group is taking the strongest approach to women’s rights. 

“Pro-choice is begging for scraps instead of calling for real change,” she said, arguing, like Foster, that the focus should be on developing a wide spectrum of support services for women that would make abortion unnecessary. 

Foster will speak at a pro-life conference on the UC Berkeley campus today that will train high school and college activists to form advocacy groups, raise money and argue pro-life positions 

The Berkeley High baseball juggernaut continued to roll over opponents Friday afternoon, riding a two-hit gem from starting pitcher Cole Stipovich to a convincing 5-1 victory against El Cerrito High. 

The crafty senior southpaw escaped some uncharacteristically shoddy fielding in the first inning and a slight bout with wildness in the sixth as the Yellowjackets (14-4 overall, 6-0 ACCAL) ran their unbeaten string to 12 with the win. El Cerrito, which had hoped to join the ‘Jackets atop the league standings with a win, fell to 4-2 in ACCAL play and 11-5 overall. 

Two weeks after Berkeley trounced a less than full-strength El Cerrito squad 12-2 in the San Marin Tournament, an anticipated showdown between two of the league’s better teams never materialized, as the hot Berkeley bats once again cuffed around an opposing moundsman. 

Rightfielder Jeremy LeBeau, who reached on an error and scored in the second inning, delivered the knockout blow in the fifth, a booming triple to deep centerfield that plated two runs. Centerfielder Bennie Goldenberg added two hits, a run and an RBI. 

Gaucho ace Kenny Salyer, a burly senior who will attend San Jose State University on a baseball scholarship next fall, surrendered five runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. 

Though some Berkeley players speculated that El Cerrito had deliberately rested key players during the tournament in an effort to surprise the ‘Jackets during the regular season, head coach Tim Moellering said his team hadn’t paid attention to the rumors. 

“We didn’t focus on that too much,” Moellering said. “We consider El Cerrito to be one of the better teams in the league, and we knew they were going to come at us with a better team than at the tournament.” 

El Cerrito coach Brian Nichols said the difference came down to fundamentals. 

“They just executed a little bit better offensively and defensively than we did,” he said. “You can’t give a good team opportunities like that and expect to win. Kenny (Salyer) threw good, but we just didn’t execute, plain and simple.” 

Whatever the cause, the final result obscured a worrisome start for the Yellowjackets, who allowed two of the first four Gaucho batters to reach base on misplayed ground balls. Stipovich never abandoned his game plan, however, inducing centerfielder Jamont’e Cox to ground to first to end the threat. 

The ’Jackets then promptly jumped on top in the second inning. With one out, LeBeau struck a high chopper to third. El Cerrito third baseman Randy Minix rushed his throw, skipping it past first baseman Jake Lucas and allowing LeBeau to scamper to second. 

After a ground out, Goldenberg hit a line drive double over the head of stumbling leftfielder Josh Harvey, scoring LeBeau. Sam Geaney then lashed a fly ball just inches past the outstretched glove of rightfielder James Cannon, driving in Goldenberg with the second Berkeley run. 

From there, it was all Stipovich. Changing speeds with a funky three-quarter delivery, the ‘Jackets number two hurler kept the El Cerrito hitters off balance, inducing numerous ground balls and relying on a rejuvenated Berkeley defense. 

The sneaky lefty finally appeared spent in the sixth. After he walked two of the first three batters, Moellering made the kind of slow walk out to the pitcher’s mound which usually signals the end of a hurler’s day. 

“I thought he was losing it because Cole has outstanding control,” Moellering said later. “I was stalling for time, and told him to assume this was his last hitter.” 

The unflappable Stipovich apparently received a different message. 

“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t tired,” he said of his sixth-frame wildness. “I might have been overthrowing. Coach came out and slowed me down a little bit.” 

Stipovich needed only five pitches to dispose of the next two hitters, both on ground balls, squeezing out of the two-on, one-out jam allowing only one run. The lefty then finished up strong in the seventh, retiring three El Cerrito batters in order to put the game in the books.

To the Editor: 

I hope you are aware of the need to improve the quality of the copy editing in The Berkeley Daily Planet. I have almost come to look forward to finding amusing, perplexing or embarrassing bloopers in your headlines and articles, but sometimes the errors are disturbing. 

Most important, please ensure that staff members at least read the articles before they write the headlines! 

I was disturbed to see the April 17 headline "Claremont anti-Semite suspect sketched" above an article in which a police sergeant stated clearly that the crime (an assault) was probably a simple robbery, and there was no evidence that it was a hate crime or had anything to do with anti-Semitism. The article did not quote any opposing opinion. Maybe the copy editor thought the article should have contained an opposing opinion, but the purpose of a headline is not to argue with the article. I realize that the April 5 account of this assault quoted witnesses who believed it was anti-Semitic, but that is really not relevant to the headline of the later article. (That earlier crime report, in another blooper, was misleadingly headlined "The Jews are attacked near campus" instead of "Two Jews attacked near campus.") 

I think it is especially important for your articles and headlines to be consistent and accurate when you are writing about sensitive issues such as racism, anti-Semitism or ethnic bigotry, to avoid fanning flames of fear, suspicion or anger. 

On a lighter note, an amusing April 12 headline stated that "Berkeley may ban cutting old growth forest: Passage could have $10 million annual impact on the timber industry." (There sure must be a lot of old growth timber in Berkeley, eh? No, the article was actually about a statewide ballot measure that the Berkeley City Council might support.) 

I am sure your staff all winced reading the front page headline on April 15: "List of opponents for Mayor Dean dwindle" (instead of "dwindles"). 

On the positive front, I think you have stopped writing "jews" instead of "Jews." Thanks. I remember noticing on March 18, for example, that Jews were called "jews" throughout a letter you published (which was supportive of Israel) and in the headline of an adjacent opinion piece (which was about Jewish criticisms of Israeli policy), but remained "Jews" throughout the opinion piece. I know, that is a very confusing sentence! Well, it was a very perplexing moment for me; I thought maybe you had just printed the letter as written and it contained the error (but I am sure you agree with the standard newsroom practice of quietly correcting errors in spelling or capitalizing in letters you print). Then I started to get paranoid, wondering whether somebody in the newsroom was trying to insult Jews by "lowering their case" (so to speak). But eventually I concluded it was just lack of attention at the copy desk. 

I know there are more important things to worry about, but we readers do notice these errors. And as you can see, sometimes they disturb us in unforeseen ways! And even when the errors are not serious, they do affect our judgment about whether your paper should be taken seriously. 

(P.S. I am assuming that the task of copy editing includes headline writing as well as checking articles for style, grammar and consistency; please forgive me if other staff are responsible for these matters.) 

- David Couch 

Berkeley 

By David Scharfenberg 

Daily Planet staff 

State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, is working on legislation that would forgive a $1.16 million fine the Berkeley Unified School District owes the state for filing a staff development form late, and pour the funds into auditing services and reform efforts. 

Under the Aroner plan, $700,000 would go to a state agency called the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, or FCMAT, to support reform in five areas – pupil achievement, fiscal management, facilities management, personnel management, and governance. 

The balance – roughly $460,000 – would be used by the district to implement reforms proposed by the state agency. 

FCMAT is already providing financial advice for the district, which faces a $5.4 million deficit next year. Under the Aroner plan, the agency would remain in place next year, develop an improvement plan by July 1, 2003, and file periodic status reports on district implementation through June 2005. 

The district began making fine payments last year, and Aroner has attempted twice to win forgiveness, only to run into opposition from the Davis administration.  

Aroner says the new bill, drafted largely by FCMAT and negotiated with Davis’ Department of Finance, has a much better chance of passage. 

The legislation, which will be heard by the Assembly’s Education Committee Wednesday, also includes forgiveness of a $790,000 fine the Emery Unified School District owes the state for failing to properly document the certification of two teachers. 

“It’s good news,” said Jerry Kurr, Berkeley Unified School District’s associate superintendent of business, describing the bill and its apparently strong prospects for passage. 

Kurr said the district, which has already shelled out $580,000 in fine payments, was originally hoping to win forgiveness of the remaining $580,000, not the full amount. Now, he said, the district will realize a benefit on the full $1.16 million. 

Members of the Board of Education and community activists were generally pleased with the proposed legislation. 

“It’s an exciting development,” said school board President Shirley Issel. “I’m really pleased.” 

“We would rather have had the money with no strings attached, but this will make us spend some money where we need to spend it,” added Nancy Riddle, a parent who serves on the district’s budget advisory committee. 

Carol Wilkins, who also serves on the budget advisory committee, said the bill appeared to be “a constructive attempt to respond to the district’s current circumstances.” 

However, Wilkins said she has some concerns that a full $700,000 would go to FCMAT, and only $460,000 to the district for reform. 

“Why so much for them and not as much for us?” she asked. 

Wilkins added that, while she has been pleased with FCMAT’s work in district thus far, she has concerns about a lengthy stay. She said it is important that Berkeley decision-makers, guided by Berkeley values, direct district policy in the long term. 

“Is this someone else making decisions for us?,” she wondered. 

Wilkins said ultimately, despite her concerns, she believes local control will remain in place. 

The legislation calls for the following specific improvements, among others:  

•better accounting and internal control procedures 

•improved building maintenance 

•training for school board members  

•skills development for staff  

•a community relations plan

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

CROCKETT – The St. Mary’s High baseball team has been playing tough all season, winning their first five BSAL games with clutch hitting, adequate pitching and just a smidgen of luck. But when they finally lost to John Swett on Friday, it was a doozy. 

Swett scored seven runs in the fourth inning, including two three-run homers, on the way to pounding the Panthers 13-3. St. Mary’s dropped to 9-10 overall, 5-1 in the BSAL with the loss, while the Indians improved their record to 11-8 and 3-5 in league play. 

St. Mary’s got a rare ineffective outing from ace Joe Storno, who left the mound after giving up 10 runs, including the first blast in the fourth by Mike Santos. Storno had been carrying the Panthers, winning all three of his league starts before Friday. 

“We know it’s going to be difficult with only one pitcher we can rely on,” St. Mary’s head coach Andy Shimabukuro said. “I thought Joe would pitch a little better, but (Swett) swing the bats very well.” 

Storno wasn’t the only one to blame for the loss. The Panthers committed several pratfalls in the field, making their pitcher’s job that much harder. Although they were only charged with three errors, the Panthers gave away outs on several occasions.  

The four-run Indian second inning came courtesy of just two hits, both singles. After Steven Della Cruz led off with a single, Chris Gomez bunted the ball right back at Storno. Storno bobbled the ball but still tried to get Della Cruz at second base, throwing late and not getting an out. After a sacrifice sent the runners to second and third, Tony Thomas hit a grounder up the middle. St. Mary’s second baseman Chris Alfert got to the ball but bumped into shortstop Manny Mejia and threw the ball away, allowing both runners to score and sending Thomas to second.  

Cole Adams followed with one of his four singles, and Santos hit a sacrifice fly to center. Storno neglected to back up the throw to home, which got by catcher Sean Ayres. Storno chased the ball to the backstop and tried to get Adams at third, but his errant throw allowed Adams to score the fourth unearned run of the inning. 

“It’s a struggle for us just to get outs, and we can’t afford to give up extra outs on errors,” Shimabukuro said. 

The Indians put the game away in the fourth. Jiminez led off with a double, and Thomas laid down a perfect bunt to reach base. Adams singled again, scoring Jiminez, then Santos knocked Storno out of the game with a high drive to center that just cleared the fence and centerfielder Chase Moore’s leap.  

It looked as if reliever Ryan Bahado-Singh would shut off the rally, inducing two flyball outs, but he walked the next two batters. Gomez hit the first pitch he saw from Bahado-Singh on a line over the leftfield fence. 

“We’ve hit everybody. It doesn’t matter who we face,” Swett head coach Ron Spini said. “We don’t care if it’s your ace or your bullpen.” 

The Panthers didn’t allow another run, but it made little difference as they just couldn’t get their bats going against Della Cruz or reliever Ed Davila. While St. Mary’s did get nine hits, they left 12 runners on base. Spini said his pitchers are finally giving the hitters some support. 

“We’ve given away far too many runs,” he said. “Walks have just killed us. A team that’s hitting .360 and made six errors in seven games should be better than 3-5, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.” 

The Indians are focused on reaching the BSAL playoffs, which would require finishing in sixth place or better. Spini feels that if it does make the playoffs, his team could sneak up on some of the higher seeds. 

“I’ve been telling the players that all the things that have gone against us don’t matter any more,” he said. “I don’t like the playoff system, but if we’re in the postseason we’ve got as good a shot as anybody.” 

St. Mary’s, on the other hand, still controls its own destiny. The Panthers play the only other team with one loss, Albany, on Wednesday. 

“It all starts over on Wednesday,” Shimabukuro said. “If we come back and win that one we’ll be back in the driver’s seat.”

To the Editor: 

Given the deluge of bad news reported in the Daily Planet and television about the financial problems of the Berkeley Unified School District, which appear to only get worse, the Board of Education owes Berkeley's citizens a comprehensive explanation of the current state of local public education and what, if anything they are actually doing to correct their real problems. Consider the following flood of bad news.  

First it was announced that the BUSD faces a 6 to 7 million dollar deficit. Given that the BSEP tax now exceeds $10 million per year and a $4 million per tax of maintenance was recently passed. BUSD has $14 million per year more than a comparably sized California school district, adding contributions from the excellent Berkeley Educational Foundation, it is difficult to understand how the BUSD has created such a large deficit! TV news coverage informed us that teachers were being overpaid; in fact former and deceased teachers were still being paid! I guess Berkeley's salary schedule has a unique "Dead and Gone" column. It was also reported that bond revenue was being used to pay salaries, some much for the "oversight" promised when ever BUSD money measures appear on the Ballot to reassure voters. Then we have the results of an audit. The news report about the audit doesn't address any of the reported problems; rather it expands the problems by noting "inadequate monitoring of the district's self-insurance, adult education and cafeteria funds" while not specifically stating that this finding usually equates to raiding the identified funds. 

One Board member did notice that the problem areas noted in the audit were repeats from the prior year's audit! By the way, doesn't the Alameda County Board of Education get copies of the BUSD's audit? It was reported that the latest of the almost endless parade of school finance experts is working hard but warns that many of the problems will likely be repeated on the next audit. Then the BUSD commissioned a study by school services of California which further expanded the problems when it reported that state funding of special education fell $4.5 million short of needs of the children. 

Board Member Ted Schultz admitted that this has been going on for years. The report also stated that most California school districts raid their general funds due to inadequate state funding for special education. Given a TV report last week that state funding to support existing class size reduction will be reduced sufficiently so that some districts are considering increasing class size, the BUSD's problems may only get worse. One wonders what was the basis of Governor Davis's primary campaign ads claiming to have dramatically increased Educational Funding. 

The suggestion that the BUSD's problems are due even in part to an antiquated computer system has angered many people. In the last decade computer processing and storage have increased so drastically that new terms were necessary to identify the huge increases. 

These huge increases, with little or minimal cost increases, coupled with the dot-com collapse, have made computer equipment and trained people available to install it available at very modest prices. What appears to be missing is the desire to fix the problem. 

It is further discouraging to read that the Board's focus, perhaps rightly is so negative. The cost reduction of closing the Franklin Elementary School provides Berkeley was a positive opportunity. Why not use this facility we have paid for to provide temporary rooms for teachers, firefighters, and police? Given that the cost of living in Berkeley is frequently cited as a recruitment problem, by providing a bed for a teacher or police officer that does not live in Berkeley to spend a night reduces their commuting requirements and costs and reduces local congestion. I am suggesting beds in areas separated by privacy screens, not permanent partitions, these are adults, and while there are details to be worked out, it appears that Franklin could be used to make Berkeley more attractive to teachers, police, and firefighters.  

John Cecil 

Berkeley

By Chris Nichols 

Special to the Daily Planet 

With smiles on their faces and culture all around, members of Berkeley’s Black Repertory Group use theater as a tool in constructing a better community. "The theater is used as a means to uplift the individual and in turn uplift the community," said Mona Vaughn Scott, Executive Director of BRG. 

Started as a drama program at Downs Memorial United Methodist Church in 1964, BRG is the oldest African-American theater group west of the Mississippi. 

Though founder Nora Vaughn never envisioned BRG as a professional theater, the repertory group has produced over 100 plays by such African-American writers as Langston Hughes, Charlie Fuller and Ishmael Reed since being launched as a community theater in 1967. 

BRG lists as its purpose to facilitate personal development and self-esteem using theater as a tool and to encourage an awareness of and encourage Black Culture by providing an outline through Black Theatre. 

Vaughn Scott emphasizes that BRG is also committed to encouraging youth involvement in theater productions. The group speaks to local high schools and provides on the job training and internships to local youth interested in theater. 

According to BRG, young people and the youth workshops have always been at the heart of the theater’s mission. The theater has been the starting ground for the careers of many black actors in the Bay Area. 

Throughout its history, BRG has also been committed to cutting-edge social, cultural and health issues through its Health Education Through Theatre program. BRG was one of the first theater groups to sponsor a group of HIV-positive actors as well as taking on such issues as teen pregnancy, violence and delinquency prevention, and adolescent hypertension. 

Despite the cultural significance of the repertory group, in the past some community members and city officials have been critical of BRG’s management and operations. A 1998 city audit concluded that the group was missing minutes for meetings, lacked time cards and had board policies that were inconsistent with other publicly-funded organizations. 

BRG had also been criticized by other theater groups for not fully utilizing its current facilities – leased to the group by the city at $1 per year – and for attracting only sparse crowds to its 250 seat theater. 

According to Mayor Shirley Dean, the repertory group has moved past these problems. "I think they’ve made considerable progress," said Dean. "The audit didn’t find any serious financial problems, mostly things like missing minutes and time cards." 

Critics claimed BRG’s Board was made up predominantly of family members of Vaughn and did not include enough members of the community. "It’s my belief that all of these issues have been cleared up, the board has now been expanded." 

According to Dean, the City of Berkeley has worked to strengthen and preserve the theater’s place among community members. "It has roots in this community that are irreplaceable," said Dean. 

Many were afraid that after the death of founder and director Vaughn the theater’s success and strength might diminish due to internal problems. "Nora wasn’t able to be as strong a voice as she got older, they got into some tangles and people feared that Nora’s vision had disappeared," said Dean. 

Dean said that the theater group has made great strides in eliminating this fear and continues to enrich the lives of individuals and the community itself. 

Currently, BRG is presenting "In Search of a Legend," a tribute to Josephine Baker, written and conceived by Johnny Land. Producer Al Yates said he looked to BRG to take on this presentation because he "knew they would be open and welcome to a show of this type." 

Yates said the show was not picked up by other theaters but that BRG has given it a chance. "It’s a universal story and it’s being told that way," said Yates. 

Yates said that BRG Director Mona Vaughn Scott, daughter of founder Nora Vaughn, has been very receptive to the show. 

Land, a foremost historian on the life of Baker, said each show has sold out and received standing ovations. "The word of mouth has been great, the word is getting out mostly through fliers and the invitation of personal friends," said Land. 

"In Search of a Legend," the musical story of a little black girl from St. Louis who took Paris by storm, will run at BRG through Sunday, April 28. Land and Yates hope to extend the run of the musical at BRG or take it to a new location after April 28. 

Land and Yates also hope to continue with their "Sassy Diva" cabaret show and are pushing for a university circuit tour. 

The Berkeley Repertory Group theater is located at 3201 Adeline St. The phone number for tickets is 510-652-2120. 

Cal softball upsets No. 6 ASU 

No. 8 Cal matched its conference win total from 2001 after just 10 league games with a 3-2 win over No. 6 Arizona State Friday afternoon at Levine-Fricke Field. 

Cal (40-14, 6-4 Pac-10) started off things early, in the bottom half of the first inning. Freshman Kaleo Eldredge reached on an error by Missy Hixon and was moved to second on junior Kristen Morley’s team and conference-leading 20th sacrifice bunt of the season. Senior Candace Harper then doubled to left center to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.  

In the second inning, the Sun Devils (35-11, 5-4 Pac-10) surrendered two runs on three fielding errors. Freshman Jessica Vernaglia led off with a bouncer to the pitcher, but Erica Beach threw the ball wide to first allowing Vernaglia to reach safely. After a Kristen Bayless sacrifice bunt that moved Vernaglia to second, Eldredge singled to right and advanced to second on a wild throw to first by right fielder Kirsten Voak, bringing home Vernaglia from second.  

The third and final run came on an awkward play, as Morley laid down a bunt single. She got caught in a pickle trying to attempt second base, but advanced as Hixon dropped the ball on an exchange for her second miscue of the contest. Morley reached second, while Eldredge rounded third to score.  

ASU charged back in the top of the fourth as Kara Brun smashed a solo homer, her team-leading seventh of the year, over the centerfield fence. With two outs, Beach drew a walk and Nichole Thompson hit a RBI double to left center to bring in pinch runner Amber Turner.  

Junior Jen Deering collected her 12 win of the season and has won the last 10 of her 11 decisions. She went four innings, striking out four, walking three, while scattering two hits. Freshman Kelly Anderson came on in the fifth and pitched three shutout innings. She fell into a bases loaded jam with two outs in the sixth inning, but struck out Adriana Garcia to come out unscathed. 

The win was Cal’s sixth win over a ranked opponent. The Bears now brace for top-ranked Arizona as the Wildcats come in for a two-game set, Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.  

Men’s tennis avenges USC loss 

The No. 19 Cal men’s tennis team avenged a 4-3 loss to USC three weeks ago, upsetting the 13th-ranked Trojans (18-6, 4-2 Pac-10) 5-1 Friday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Center.  

By winning two of the three doubles matches, the Golden Bears (17-6, 4-2 Pac-10) took an early 1-0 lead. In only their second match together, Ben Miles and Conor Niland were the first team off the court, winning their match 8-6 on the second court. Clinching the doubles point on the first court, the No. 26-ranked team of John Paul Fruttero and Robert Kowalczyk upset the No. 7 team of Ryan Moore and Nick Rainey, 8-6.  

Using the momentum from the doubles matches, Cal took the first set in five of the six singles matches. Closing out his match first, Wayne Wong routed USC’s Daniel Langre on court five, 6-2, 6-1. Next was Fruttero, playing on court one. Coming off an upset of the No. 1 ranked player in the country on Monday, Fruttero continued his dominating play by beating the Trojan’s Andrew Park, 6-3, 6-3.  

With a 3-0 lead, the Bears needed only one of the remaining four matches for a victory. Coming through to secure the upset was freshman Conor Niland. After losing the first set, Niland stormed back to win the next two in a convincing fashion, defeating Prakash Armitraj, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. With the match already decided, Robert Kowalczyk’s match with Nick Rainey on court four was suspended, while Mik Ledvonova gutted out a long match on court six, prevailing 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. The only loss of the day for Cal came on court two where Balazs Veress lost to Ryan Moore, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

By Bruce Gerstman 

Special to the Daily Planet 

Helping the elderly in the East Bay just got more expensive. 

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to authorize the Alameda County Agency on Aging to decrease by about $70,000 grants to local groups that serve the elderly. 

"We were instructed by the state to reduce the allocation," said Joe Rodriguez, director of the agency. 

When a reporter told the Berkeley-based Alzheimer Services of the East Bay, which runs a day care service for Alzheimer’s patients, that the new budget meant an $8,500 cut for the agency, the executive director said she was not surprised.  

"Last year we had a decrease, too," said Karen Grimsich. After 14 years of a steady $166,000-a-year budget from the state, the group’s funds were slashed by $6,500 last year. 

Grimsich said families cannot afford the $75 daily charge to use their day care, so they use state funds to subsidize the rest. She said families pay as little as $17 each day, and more often about $40-50. "Now we're going to have to fund-raise," to subsidize the service, she said. 

"We do make up the difference, but these nonprofits like us end up holding the bag," Grimsich said about services for the elderly. "What are you going to do, not take care of them?" 

The funding comes from the state's Community Based Service Program, which will now give away about $1 million less than last year, said Rodriguez. That means Alameda County will lose 3.18 percent, or about $19,000, of the $600,000 it generally gets. 

California is now struggling to soften a deficit estimated at more than $17 billion. And the state is trying to find ways of trimming costs, said John Carr, the assistant director of external affairs for California's department of aging. 

"We didn't reduce funding for programs. Only for operating costs," Carr said. 

The budget analyst team that focuses on aging was in Stockton at a conference and could not be reached for comment. 

Today is Saturday, April 20, the 110th day of 2002. There are 255 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 20, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools. 

On this date: 

In 1812, the fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 73, becoming the first vice president to die while in office. 

In 1836, the Territory of Wisconsin was established by Congress. 

In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria. 

In 1940, RCA publicly demonstrated its new and powerful electron microscope. 

In 1945, during World War II, allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart. 

In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada. 

In 1972, the manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon. 

In 1978, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed. 

In 1980, the first Cubans sailing to the United States as part of the massive Mariel boatlift reached Florida. 

In 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Littleton, Colo., as students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher and wounded 26 others before taking their own lives. 

Ten years ago: 

The Russian congress adopted a resolution affirming Russia’s membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States in a victory for President Boris Yeltsin. Defending champion Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya became the sixth three-time winner of the Boston Marathon, while Russia’s Olga Markova won the women’s division. 

Five years ago: 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escaped indictment in an influence-peddling scandal, with prosecutors saying they lacked evidence. Hwang Jang Yop, a high-ranking North Korean defector, arrived in South Korea, ending a 67-day odyssey that began in China. 

One year ago: 

A Peruvian air force jet shot down a small plane carrying American missionaries in Peru’s Amazon jungle region, killing Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter, Charity. President Bush attended his first international summit as leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s 34 democracies met in Quebec to advance plans to create the world’s largest free-trade zone; police in riot gear clashed with protesters. Two therapists were convicted in Golden, Colo., of reckless child abuse in a young girl’s suffocation death during a “rebirthing” therapy session. (Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder were later sentenced to 16 years in prison.) 

Today’s Birthdays: 

Bandleader Lionel Hampton is 94. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 82. Actress Nina Foch is 78. Singer Johnny Tillotson is 63. Actor George Takei is 62. Actor Ryan O’Neal is 61. Rock musician Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band) is 54. Actress Jessica Lange is 53. Singer Luther Vandross is 51. Actor Clint Howard is 43. Actor Crispin Glover is 38. Country singer Wade Hayes is 33. Actor Shemar Moore is 32. Rock musician Mikey Welsh is 31. Actress Carmen Electra is 30. Actor Joey Lawrence is 26. 

LOS ANGELES — The World Trade Center lives on in a handful of new films whose makers left intact their pre-Sept. 11 footage of the twin towers out of respect for the dead and defiance of the terrorists who destroyed the buildings. 

In the weeks after Sept. 11, there was a rush to excise shots of the trade towers from such comedies as “Zoolander” and “Serendipity.” Studios and film-makers felt the images would be too wrenching so soon after the terrorist attacks. 

But other movies that came out late last year such as “Vanilla Sky” and “Sidewalks of New York” included shots of the trade center. As time passes, film-makers say they sense audiences are better prepared to handle the sudden appearance of the vanished towers on screen. 

“I think it’s like our memories of a loved one,” said director Sam Raimi, who left images of the trade center in his upcoming adaptation of “Spider-Man.” “Probably right after the death of someone we love, it’s sometimes hard to look at their pictures. Then later, there’s a need to look at them.” 

A “Spider-Man” trailer that included images of the World Trade Center was quickly pulled last fall, and the action sequence depicted in that ad has been cut from the movie. But Raimi said it was important for him to leave the skyscrapers in other shots. 

“I didn’t want to erase the image of the twin towers,” Raimi said. “They’re seen throughout the course of the movie, because we didn’t want the terrorists to win.” 

Last weekend’s top box-office draw, “Changing Lanes,” included brief flashes of the trade center. “World Traveler,” a road-trip drama starring Billy Crudup and Julianne Moore that opens Friday, features a prominent skyline view of the trade center early on and a gorgeous nighttime view of the towers near the end. 

A&E home video releases another reminder of the towers April 30 with “The World Trade Center: A Modern Marvel,” a History Channel documentary completed a few months before Sept. 11 on the construction of the skyscrapers. 

“It references the events of Sept. 11, but it’s not about those events,” said Jason Campbell, marketing director at New Video, A&E’s distribution partner. “The program really is a love letter to the trade center.” 

The original script for “Men in Black II,” due out in July, included an action scene toward the end that would have showed the trade center in the background. Director Barry Sonnenfeld said that after Sept. 11, it was shifted to a rooftop with the Statue of Liberty on the horizon. 

“Men in Black II” co-star Will Smith said he thinks people are increasingly able to view trade-center pictures with wistful affection instead of pained memories. 

“Just the other day, I looked at a picture from two years ago with my kids,” Smith said. “We were at the Statue of Liberty with the twin towers in the background, and it really did feel good seeing the towers standing.” 

As the towers collapsed Sept. 11, audiences were watching “World Traveler” in a morning screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Freundlich subsequently decided the trade-center images were appropriate for the film, which recounts a man’s journey to reclaim his soul. The final shots of the towers come in a dream sequence in which the man fantasizes happy endings for the troubled people he’s encountered on a cross-country ramble. 

“Him imagining everyone he met along his journey as healed, as whole again, and here’s this shot of the World Trade Center. Somehow, I felt it was paying respect to those events,” said Freundlich, who added that he’s heard only positive reaction about the images from audiences at advance screenings. “It reminds them of an innocence before Sept. 11. It is a little bit painful, but it doesn’t leave a sour taste. It’s a little bittersweet.” 

“It just worked, and I wanted it there as a symbol of my belief in the city,” Freundlich said. 

Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, writers and stars of the current romantic comedy “Kissing Jessica Stein,” went the opposite route, shooting new Manhattan overviews to replace trade-center footage. 

Their film screened Sept. 10 at the Toronto festival and again Sept. 12, the second screening drawing pained gasps from the audience when the trade center appeared, they said. 

“When those images came up, it really was like a kick in the solar plexus,” Juergensen said. 

“It seemed more generous and progressive to go back and shoot other buildings that still stand and speak to the beauty of New York, present and future,” Westfeldt said. “Our decision had to do with moving forward and sort of honoring how strong and noble and resilient New Yorkers have been.” 

SACRAMENTO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to consider for the first time in a decade how 18 commonly used pesticides may affect endangered salmon and woodland plants. 

Agency officials said they will conduct the review under a lawsuit settlement they will sign a Friday with three California environmental groups that sued over the EPA’s approval of the pesticides, which are used in fields, forests, orchards and to control weeds along highways and irrigation canals. 

Several million pounds of the pesticides are used each year on California almonds, walnuts, grapes, apples, lemons, plums, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli and rice, the environmental groups said, citing California Department of Pesticide Regulation statistics. Use is concentrated throughout the Central Valley and along much of the Pacific Coast. 

The EPA agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, and to analyze the pesticides’ effect on seven salmon species and 33 endangered forest plants. The agency also agreed to find ways to minimize the pesticides’ effects on the endangered species. 

“These species are close to extinction and pesticides continue to pollute their habitat, but the EPA hasn’t even begun to take action,” said Patty Clary of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics. CATS joined the Environmental Protection Information Center and Humboldt Watershed Council in the lawsuit. 

Three of the pesticides have been detected in waterways at levels that may be toxic to fish, the suit contends. They are carbaryl, used on apples, strawberries, tomatoes and lawns; chlorpyrifos, used on apples, broccoli, walnuts, almonds and lawns; and diazinon, used on lettuce, almonds and plums and lawns. 

The environmental groups argued EPA’s failure to consult with its fellow federal agencies on the pesticides’ effects violated the federal Endangered Species Act. 

KATMANDU, Nepal — Having just finished breakfast, a team of mountaineers in Nepal were robbed by Maoist rebels who allowed their victims to bargain over the amount to be stolen and then wrote out receipts. 

This account of the April 5 incident was given by climber Raymond Coughron, an energy management consultant from Berkeley, California, on the Web site Everest News on Friday. 

It was the first reported case in which mountaineers have been robbed by the rebels — who draw their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung — since they began their violent campaign in 1996. 

Coughron was quoted as saying that, initially, the guerrillas demanded $64 plus cameras, binoculars and altimeters. 

However, after some discussion they settled for $128 per member, but none of their gear. 

The report said climbers from two other mountaineering teams were also robbed and forced to hand over the same amount of cash by the rebels. 

"After our expedition paid and were given a receipt for money received, the Maoists went to the Swiss expedition and repeated the exercise. The Spanish expedition were approached the night before," Coughron said. 

He said the guerrillas were armed with grenades and an automatic rifle. 

“It was clear that these five Maoists were not alone. In the surrounding forests many hundreds of their comrades could be seen," Coughron added. 

The incident happened while the team was on its way to a base camp on Mount Makalu, the world's fifth-tallest peak at 27,760 feet.

SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Bell customers are less than thrilled with the service they’ve been getting since SBC Communications agreed to buy the company in 1996, according to a recently released survey. 

Pac Bell customers in 19 regions of the local phone service provider’s territory said service had declined since 1995, while customers in four areas said service had improved. 

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates, the consumer advocacy arm of the California Public Utilities Commission, conducted the survey and released the results this week. 

Nearly a third of Pac Bell customers said that repair times and installations involved long waits. Seven years ago, only 19 percent of customers surveyed reported such problems. The consumer advocate office also found customer dissatisfaction when dealing with Pac Bell office personnel. 

Pac Bell denies its performance has suffered in recent years. 

“We are doing better in achieving service quality results than at any time in the past several years,” Chuck Smith, president of network operations for Pac Bell, said earlier this week. “We’re focused on delivering the difference to our customers and we’re proud of our performance.” 

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates sent out 7,200 surveys to a random selection of customers and received roughly 900 responses. 

The exhibition, on display at Traywick Gallery through May 4, marks new ground for a process artist who has documented the marginal events of everyday life, not through the lens of the camera, but via the unlocked complexity of photographic paper.  

Working primarily with black and white paper, the processes Breuer has engineered for composing his “photographic sketches” are remarkable both for their simplicity and their harshness.In the darkroom, he often exposes his paper to an array of items.Milk, Windex, bread, mold, and other objects adopted from familiar routines are recorded on to the paper.  

But Breuer has learned that he can make paper react to stimuli other than light.In different works he subjects the paper to heat guns, drills, irons, knives, and sanders.These devices enable Breuer to manipulate the paper’s emulsion, drawing color from black and white paper and generating a final image whose design is as interesting as its process.  

For his current exhibition at the Traywick, Breuer employs similar processes, but expands his repertoire to include color photographic paper and untreated drawing paper.The new mediums allow Breuer to revisit past methods to create new designs in different settings.  

“It is a challenge to maintain the necessary amount of surprise,” said Breuer who has worked in this realm of photography for over ten years.“As you get to know your material intimately the responses become more predictable.Working with different recording devices and different formats is a way to keep the unknown in the process.”  

Breuer executed two works at the gallery.In both, his processes not only generated an intriguing image on the paper, but also scarred adjacent gallery walls.  

In “Untitled, Zapped” Breuer connected two live wires plugged into an outlet on the gallery’s wall, and then touched them to the drawing paper on the wall, creating a sketch that looks like a meteor zigzagging its way through space.“I have worked with electricity for quite a while, but photographic paper has always been too fast to record the results properly,” said Breuer.  

The sketches exude a mysterious quality.Breuer chooses to name all of his work “Untitled”, but offers the observer a written clue as to how the sketch was created. 

“I don’t want to direct the viewer too much,” said Breuer.“There is no right way or wrong way to see a piece.”  

“Untitled,(C-38) chromogenic paper, sanded” at first glance looks like a photograph of a star-filled sky.But on closer inspection, the pellets of light layered on the negative’s surface are so fuzzy that the image best resembles what might be seen when one stares directly into cupped hands placed directly over one’s eyes.  

To achieve this affect, Breuer used sand paper to abrade the surface of the chromogenic paper and then developed the picture as a negative.  

Breuer’s art displays a softness and elaborate richness that belie its origins.Not surprisingly, he acknowledges that he makes aesthetic choices in his work.“I consider much of my work a walk a long this line: (between) the desire to control the outcome and the realization that these impulses need to be held in check.”  

NEW YORK — A Wall Street TV showdown began Friday night as financial journalist Louis Rukeyser returned to the air. 

Less than a month after his unexpected exit as host of public television’s “Wall $treet Week,” he was back with a brand-new show, “Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street,” on financial cable network CNBC. 

“Well, as I was saying when I was so rudely interrupted,” he began, wearing his avuncular smirk, “welcome back.” 

“How has Wall Street behaved in my brief, unintended three-week absence?” he continued. “The financial markets went on a three-week crying jag, ending only this week .... Purely a coincidence, I’m sure.” 

The 69-year-old Rukeyser is poised directly opposite “Wall $treet Week,” the program he created 32 years ago then quit last month rather than go along with producer Maryland Public Television’s plan to demote him and bring in younger hosts. 

The format for Rukeyser’s new show seemed almost identical to his old show — a leisurely and gentlemanly chatfest with market experts discussing financial affairs, conducted in what looked like a woody, leathery salon. 

Over on PBS at the same time, “Wall $treet Week” was hewing to somewhat the same format, but instead of Rukeyser, it was Ray Brady, formerly of CBS News, who filled in. 

Taped a couple of hours before airtime, Rukeyser’s new show originates from CNBC studios in Fort Lee, N.J., while “Wall $treet Week” continues from MPT headquarters in Owings Mills, Md. 

It was in March that MPT created a firestorm by announcing plans to modernize the show and naming Fortune magazine editor Geoffrey Colvin as host. That revamped version, to be unveiled in June, will be called “Wall $treet Week with Fortune.” 

Longtime fans of Rukeyser were aghast at the news, but immediately Rukeyser put himself on the market and, April 9, announced he would set up shop at CNBC, which is offering the program to PBS stations as well. 

Despite being a commercial network, CNBC is airing his show with underwriter support and no advertising interruptions — the same sort of arrangement public television enjoys. Shrewdly hedging its bets Friday, Oppenheimer Funds partially underwrote each rival show. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Ward Connerly proposes a California so colorblind that government officials would not be allowed to classify people by race. 

Voters will get to decide as early as November whether they share that vision. A signature drive ending Friday appears to have gained enough support to put his Racial Privacy Initiative on the state’s ballot. 

Six years ago, Connerly’s Proposition 209 abolished affirmative action in California. His latest ballot measure would ban state and local governments from recording race. Critics say the change would wreck anti-discrimination efforts in law enforcement, public health, education and other areas. 

Connerly believes gathering race data does not help people, and certainly cannot prove discrimination. The NBA, he said, is disproportionately black, but “does that mean the NBA is discriminating against whites or Asians or Latinos?” 

The proposition does sound good to Ricardo Guajardo, a 20-year-old Mexican-American student at the San Francisco Academy of Art. 

“It’s none of their business,” Guajardo said. “We’re all people whether we are black, white or Asian. We should all be treated equally.” 

Of course that’s true, say Connerly’s critics, but the data helps the state spot areas where whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians are treated differently by everyone from loan officers and landlords to teachers and doctors. 

“It’s a little bit like burning books to me,” said Carmen Nevarez, a doctor and medical director at the Berkeley-based Public Health Institute. “Why would you take a piece of information that’s useful and say it’s against the law?” 

Ailments such as breast cancer, diabetes and asthma afflict each race differently, Nevarez said. Eliminating race from the patient’s chart could obscure a disease cluster among one racial group and delay its treatment. 

On Friday, Connerly’s American Civil Rights Coalition will submit nearly 1 million signatures in support of his Racial Privacy Initiative. If state and county agencies certify by June 24 that 670,000 of the names are legitimate, voters will decide in November. 

Otherwise, it’s spring 2004, which Connerly would prefer. He doesn’t want the initiative to become a wedge issue in the governor’s campaign leading up to this November. 

The delay would also allow for a more aggressive publicity campaign. Connerly said he’s already raised and spent $2 million, but much of that went to professional signature-gathering firms. 

Those firms failed to get the million-plus signatures that could have enabled them to use a faster, statistical method of qualifying the proposition, so each of the state’s 58 counties must review the signatures. 

Connerly said he thinks the counties will meet the June deadline for the November ballot, but he’ll be happier if they miss it. 

“I don’t know if now’s the right time or not,” Connerly said. “All I can say, is if not now, when?” 

For critics, the answer is never. 

Veronica Keiffer, a 26-year-old diversity consultant in Fremont, said Connerly’s idea is good — in principle — but ultimately naive. 

“We are a race-based society,” said Keiffer, the daughter of a white mother and a black father. “To say, ‘Let’s just not use race, we’re not going to use those terms anymore,’ is pretty much saying, ‘I’ll pretend you’re like me and race doesn’t matter,’ when we know it does.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Bell customers are less than thrilled with the service they’ve been getting since SBC Communications agreed to buy the company in 1996, according to a recently released survey. 

Pac Bell customers in 19 regions of the local phone service provider’s territory said service had declined since 1995, while customers in four areas said service had improved. 

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates, the consumer advocacy arm of the California Public Utilities Commission, conducted the survey and released the results this week. 

Nearly a third of Pac Bell customers said that repair times and installations involved long waits. Seven years ago, only 19 percent of customers surveyed reported such problems. The consumer advocate office also found customer dissatisfaction when dealing with Pac Bell office personnel. 

Pac Bell denies its performance has suffered in recent years. 

“We are doing better in achieving service quality results than at any time in the past several years,” Chuck Smith, president of network operations for Pac Bell, said earlier this week. “We’re focused on delivering the difference to our customers and we’re proud of our performance.” 

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates sent out 7,200 surveys to a random selection of customers and received roughly 900 responses.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Sun Microsystems Inc. posted a slim third-quarter loss that beat Wall Street expectations by a penny, though the company — still faced with slumping demand for high-powered network servers and workstations — had sequentially flat revenues. 

The company also said Thursday afternoon it planned to cut 1,000 jobs from its staff of roughly 39,000 over the next six to nine months. The layoffs will come through attrition, performance reviews and paring redundancies, the company said. 

For the three months ended March 31, the Palo Alto-based network equipment maker reported a net loss of $37 million, or a penny per share, on revenues of $3.1 billion. In the comparable period last year, Sun earned $136 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenue of $4.1 billion. 

Excluding one-time items, the company said it lost $26 million, or a penny a share, compared to a profit of $145 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-ago period. 

Analysts were projecting a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $3.2 billion for the third quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Sun officials said the economic environment is still challenging, but the company still expects to return to profitability in the current quarter as previously forecast. 

“My take is that activity level is increasing, but you still have to fight for every deal,” Ed Zanders, company president and chief operating officer, told analysts during a conference call. “Every CIO is forced to do more with less.” 

After strong growth during the high-tech boom, Sun was hit hard as large companies reduced spending and dot-coms shut down. 

But Sun has been executing well in controlling costs and introducing new products, said Eric Rothdeutsch, analyst with Robertson Stephens. Yet with demand still weak, the company’s revenue is inevitably affected, he said. 

“They’re doing the right things,” and that should help the company sustain profitability from the current quarter onward, said Brent Bracelin, a Pacific Crest Securities analyst. 

In addition, if IT spending starts to pick up again in the second half of the year as some industry observers expect and companies continue to migrate toward even higher-end servers, Sun is in a good position to benefit, analysts say. 

“Folks are coming up on three-year maintenance contracts that are starting to expire, and they’re looking to move from, say, 10 servers down to five, and that plays well into Sun’s core market,” Bracelin said. 

Shares of Sun rose 29 cents to close at $8.52 in regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and fell 27 cents to $8.25 in after-hours trading. 

For the nine months ending in March, the company said it lost $648 million on revenues of $9.1 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company earned $1 billion on sales of $14.2 billion.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A former senior vice president for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. claims in a lawsuit that the computer chip maker’s top two officials humiliated him and forced him out because he is an Arab-American. 

Walid Maghribi’s lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in San Jose claims the discrimination started after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Maghribi said AMD’s president, Hector Ruiz, and its founder and chief executive, Jerry Sanders, made ethnic slurs and gave him demeaning tasks that led him to quit his job on March 1 after 16 years with the company. Ruiz is set to succeed Sanders as CEO this year. 

AMD spokesman John Greenagel called the lawsuit “utterly without merit” and said the Sunnyvale-based company would fight it. 

Maghribi made more than $1.5 million in salary and bonuses with AMD last year, according to records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

He contends Sanders began to treat him poorly after learning that Maghribi, who was born in Lebanon, is an Arab and a Muslim, and said the CEO withdrew his support for a business deal Maghribi was overseeing. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Wednesday it has raised its guidance for 2002 and the first two fiscal quarters of the year, citing stronger sales, better-than-expected gross margins and the success of its cost-management initiatives. 

The San Francisco home-product retailer also declared a 2-for-1 stock split, payable May 9 to shareholders of record April 29. The company hopes to improve market liquidity and demonstrate its confidence in the long-term growth of its brands through this move. 

Williams-Sonoma has about 57 million shares outstanding. Shares of Williams-Sonoma were up $5.49, or more than 11.5 percent, to close at $52.85 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. 

For the 2002 fiscal first quarter ending May 5, Williams-Sonoma expects to earn 17 cents to 19 cents a share, up from a previous view of 3 cents to 4 cents a share and analysts’ consensus estimate of 4 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. 

It expects first-quarter revenue of $465 million to $475 million, up from an earlier estimated range of $461 million to $471 million. 

In the first quarter 2001, the company earned $492,000, or 1 cent a share. 

“This is the strongest first-quarter performance in the history of the company,” Chairman Howard Lester said in a release. 

While boosting its guidance, Williams-Sonoma also revised its previous fourth quarter and 2001 financial results, citing changes to its accounting of revenue recognition. 

The firm’s decision follows much-publicized Securities and Exchange Commission inquiries on revenue-recognition practices in various industries. 

Williams-Sonoma worked with the SEC and decided to recognize revenue when it delivered for all merchandise shipped to customers from its distribution warehouses. 

As a result, earnings for the fourth quarter and 2001 declined $1.01 million, or 2 cents a share, putting revised fourth-quarter earnings at $69.4 million, or $1.18 a share, on revenue of $778 million. 

On March 11, the company posted initial fourth-quarter earnings of $70.4 million, or $1.20 a diluted share, on revenue of $787.4 million. 

The plans to establish Eastshore State Park, the swath of coastal greenbelt that stretches from the foot of the Bay Bridge to Marina Bay in Richmond, is taking a somewhat cohesive form. Entitled the “preferred park plan,” it is ready for the next stage after a Tuesday presentation in Berkeley. The city will be receiving it with a special meeting composed of the City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and the Waterfront Commission this Tuesday, April 30, 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way.  

The Eastshore Park Planning Team will be updating the community of local governing boards and citizens on planning efforts to date. This is the last stop in a series of five local briefings this month presented by the commission, which has already briefed Emeryville, Richmond, Albany and Oakland. The plan incorporates input from all the communities gathered during previous meetings, and was last open to Berkelian’s input at the March 21 regional workshop. 

“A brief overview will again be given covering the whole of the park,” said senior planner Deborah Chernin. “And then we’ll focus more on the details of the [Berkeley] area. Each city has their own specific issues, and this will be the last workshop before we draft the general plan,” she says. Local issues that have come to the forefront include access points, questions over sports fields, parking lots, traffic circulation and the impact on creeks. 

After the draft plan is hammered out, with the last adjustments from the Berkeley community in place, it will enter the environmental review stage. “The next step from here is for the EIR [environmental impact report] to be conducted, and then it will go to the state parks commission,” says Chernin. The EIR, and indeed the whole process of development and implementation of the park, are sponsored by a partnership of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the East Bay Regional Park District, and the California State Coastal Conservancy. 

In addition, a special meeting of the city council will be held earlier, at 5 p.m., at the same location to recieve a presentation of the city’s next biennial budget from city manager Weldon Rucker.

Earwax, you’re history 

BEND, Ore. — Justin Letlow’s invention lets people peer where many don’t care to look: into the ear, and upon the things that dwell there. 

The 39-year-old from Bend invented the Ear Mirror, a device for inspecting and cleaning the outer ears. 

Letlow has received a patent for the Ear Mirror, which resembles a dental instrument with two round, small, adjustable mirrors joined by a flexible plastic handle. 

Holding one mirror close to the ear and the other in front of the eye, the user can see quite clearly into every nook and cranny. 

“I invented it to prevent earwax embarrassment,” Letlow says. 

He hopes his invention will soon be de rigueur in toiletry kits. 

“Everybody has two ears,” says Letlow. “I can’t think how many times I’ve been watching a game on TV, and they zoom in on the coach, and here’s this big old piece of earwax.” 

Taxi ride to jail  

NEW YORK — Two burglars fleeing from an apartment with stolen goods hailed the wrong taxicab — namely, the one driven by an undercover police officer, police said. 

Lt. Jagdeshwar Jaskaran, on routine patrol in a yellow cab, stopped for two men who were acting suspicious as they tried frantically to hail a taxi on Tuesday. Jaskaran said they drew attention to themselves because one was on a bicycle and the other appeared to be hiding behind a van. 

The man hiding behind the van approached the cab and told Jaskaran he wanted to go to the Bronx. When Jaskaran identified himself as a police officer, the man on the bicycle fled. 

The first suspect, a 17-year-old, was arrested carrying a video camera that was allegedly stolen, police said. 

Jaskaran said the two suspects and one other had just broken into an apartment by climbing from the roof to the fire escape, where they removed an air conditioner and pried the security bars from a window. 

In addition to the video camera, the burglars took a VCR, a stereo and jewelry from the apartment, Jaskaran said. 

Police were looking for the two missing suspects. 

——— 

LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Thirty years after enrolling at Utah State University, an Idaho dentist — who happens to be a congressman — will finally get his undergraduate degree next month. 

On May 4, Rep. Mike Simpson will don cap and gown and with 3,236 other graduates will be awarded a diploma. His will read “bachelor’s of science in pre-dentistry.” 

“I was accepted to dental school while still an undergraduate,” said Simpson, 52. “I’d always intended to complete the paperwork needed to finish my bachelor’s degree. But I was busy with dental school, then dental practice, family, and starting a political career, and, well, the years just flew by.” 

The Republican entered the Washington University School of Dental Medicine in St. Louis in 1974, and, upon graduation, joined his father and uncle in the family practice in Blackfoot, Idaho. His political career began in 1980, when he was elected to the Blackfoot City Council. 

Simpson was missing some credits at Utah State, said Randy Simmons, a political science professor who learned of the congressman’s situation while touring Capitol Hill to promote his school. 

Simmons said transfer agreements already were in place to give Simpson undergraduate credit for classes he took at Washington University. 

“No strings were pulled,” Simmons said. 

——— 

DETROIT (AP) — Attention bargain-basement car enthusiasts: The Yugo is back. Sort of. 

A decade after the discount car was last imported to the United States from Yugoslavia, an American entrepreneur plans to import a successor to the Yugo — tentatively called the ZMW. 

Malcolm Bricklin, who first brought the Yugo to the United States in 1985, said he has signed a deal with former Yugo manufacturer Zastava Motor Works of Serbia, Forbes reported on its Web site. 

Bricklin, 63, said he expects to import the first ZMWs in about a year. He said his new company, to be called Zastava Motor Works USA and headquartered in New York, could sell 60,000 cars in its first year. 

The ZMWs will come in a two-door, four-door, convertible and pickup truck models, ranging in price from $5,000 to $10,000, Bricklin said. 

That would make the ZMW the cheapest car on the market, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association in McLean, Va. The lowest-priced cars currently sold in the United States cost more than $9,000. 

“This will be the first time in the last decade that someone could go out and buy a new car with a new car warranty for half the price of the lowest-priced car out there,” said Bricklin. 

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Well after midnight, police who hadn’t been paid in four months pulled over a vehicle at a checkpoint on a barely lit street. But it wasn’t money they were after. They asked the car’s Western passengers for help getting artificial limbs. 

One of the policemen, Mohammed Tahir, a 42-year-old whose right leg was severed by a Russian mine in the 1980s, wanted a more comfortable prosthesis. He hobbled around with a crutch in one hand and a Kalashnikov rifle in the other. 

His colleague, 20-year-old, Mohammed Khan, lost his left hand to a boobytrap when he was a child. He also lost two fingers on his right hand, and his gun dangled from a strap around his neck, the muzzle resting in the crook of his maimed arm. 

“I can still shoot an RPG,” or rocket-propelled grenade, Khan said proudly. 

“Help us. He needs a hand, I need a leg,” Tahir, a veteran of several Afghan conflicts, said in a diffident, subdued tone. 

The patrol waved on the car after the travelers assured them they would relate their plight to a foreign medical group that helps Afghanistan’s war victims. 

Cruising the streets of Afghanistan’s second-largest city at night offers a window on a culture of tension and suffering, guns and commanders who control their own turf. 

Early Saturday morning, there were 11 checkpoints manned by Afghan security forces on the nine-mile stretch of road between the U.S. military base at the Kandahar airport and downtown. 

Typically, soldiers — some in uniform, many in civilian dress — signal the few cars on the road to stop, flicking a flashlight on and off. Some hang a rope across the road as a crude barrier. They peer in the windows of vehicles, sometimes search passengers and occasionally invite them to share tea on the side of the road. 

The city has been relatively quiet since the overthrow of the Taliban late last year in a U.S.-led war. But local officials believe Kandahar’s role as a former stronghold of the Islamic militia makes it vulnerable to unrest by Taliban or al-Qaida remnants. 

Security has been especially tight in the city since Wednesday, when an assailant shot an American soldier in the face on a crowded street. The soldier was expected to recover. 

The week before, unidentified assailants fired a rocket at the office of Kandahar’s governor, Gul Agha, where U.S. Special Forces troops are garrisoned. The rocket missed and there were no injuries. 

Elite U.S. soldiers still patrol Kandahar, but witnesses say they are traveling more often in convoys of three or four vehicles. Previously, single cars carrying Special Forces members were often seen. 

Afghan soldiers, more familiar with the area, are now accompanying the Special Forces on all their patrols, said Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the local government. 

Early Saturday, a police car with a flashing red light on the roof was parked in the middle of the road near the governor’s office. The driver was changing a flat tire. 

The police and soldiers who patrol the main roads at night work for commanders loyal to the governor, many of whom staked their claims during the early, chaotic days after the Taliban departed. 

The chief of the area patrolled by disabled Tahir and Khan got his post by seizing the district’s police station when anti-Taliban Afghan fighters first entered the city. 

The governor rewarded the commander, Lalai, by allowing him to retain control of the station, a two-story building with strings of flickering, colored lights on the roof. 

Six Afghan police riding two to a motorcycle stopped a vehicle early Saturday along the airport road. Their only question: “Whose group are you with?” — referring to the units controlled by Kandahar’s many commanders. They waved the vehicle ahead after the driver told the officer, “We’re not with any group.” 

Most police and soldiers have not been paid, receiving only food for their work. Mohammed Aga, commander of a checkpoint at a bridge near the airport, said his 30 men have no car and cannot chase vehicles that bypass their post and veer into the surrounding desert. 

But what they lack in transportation, they make up in weapons. Soldiers manning checkpoints all around Kandahar say that if cars don’t stop, they have orders to open fire. 

Julia Morgan was a remarkable woman and an exceptional architect. Not only was she the first woman to be admitted to the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, she was also the architect of San Simeon, the fabulous "castle" built by William Randolph Hearst, near San Louis Obispo, which is now a state park.  

Born in Oakland in 1872, Morgan graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1894. Before moving to Paris in 1896, she worked for Bernard Maybeck. After two years of study she was accepted and entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1898. In 1902, after gaining an Ecole certificate, she returned to California and worked in the office of John Galen Howard, the University of California, Berkeley architect.  

Shortly after receiving her state architects' certification in 1904, she opened an office in San Francisco with Ira Hoover and immediately began a forty-year career as an architect and would design more that 600 buildings and several building complexes such as San Simeon, Asilimar and Mills College. She died in 1957. 

Julia Morgan's early career coincided with the years of Berkeley's most rapid growth. With her early university connections she immediately had many clients who engaged her to design homes in Berkeley. In one small neighborhood alone, she designed approximately 20 houses and one church (Old St. John's,1908, now the Julia Morgan Cultural Center) between the years of 1905 and 1914 and most of them are still standing.  

On Sunday, May 5 the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will hold its annual house tour in a neighborhood just west of the former Schools of the Deaf and Blind, now Clark Kerr Campus, where several of these early Julia Morgan homes were built.  

The area, known as the Kearney Tract, was almost entirely built between 1904 and 1915 just after the electric streetcar line was opened along College Avenue. Among the 14 homes that will be open on May 5 two were designed by Julia Morgan, while others were designed by Clinton Day, Edward Seely, Stone & Smith, Joseph A. Leonard, William Wharff and F. E. Armstrong. Most are excellent examples of Berkeley's version of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Usually sheathed in unpainted brown shingles, their Arts and Crafts interiors are noteworthy for their use of wood and attention to detail. 

For further information please call 841-2242.  

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