Full Text

 

News

Broken meters are no longer a free ride

By Chris Nichols, Daily Planet Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

city will ticket cars parked too long at broken meters, starting June 15 

Berkeley residents will soon be forced to think at least twice about where and how long they park their cars, as Berkeley is changing its parking enforcement policy. 

The policy, passed by the City Council last month, will allow parking enforcement authorities to issue more than one ticket to cars that overstay the allotted time at broken and vandalized meters. 

The new policy is a part of a “multi-pronged approach toward parking enforcement,” said Phil Kamlarz, Berkeley deputy city manager. 

According to Kamlarz, an increase in parking meter vandalism has allowed many residents to park in broken meter spots all day, causing the city to lose up to $1 million in parking revenue. 

The city has currently embarked on a campaign to educate drivers on the consequences of overstaying at these spots by passing out flyers informing residents of the new policy. 

“The purpose of the new policy is to encourage more turnover parking,” said Kamlarz. 

The city, working in cooperation with UC Berkeley, hopes to allow residents sufficient time to adjust their parking habits before the policy goes into effect on June 15. 

“I think it makes good sense and is a good approach,” said Nad Permaul, Director of the Office of Parking and Transportation at UC Berkeley. 

Permaul adds that while the policy is needed, parking options in the city are already limited and that long-term parking garages in Berkeley can be very expensive. 

Permaul also added that the University has worked with the city to get the message out about the new policy and hopefully change the behavior of many who have become accustom to overstaying the maximum time at broken meter spots. 

Along with the extra parking tickets, the city has created a surveillance team to catch meter vandals. 

“Some people think it's okay to vandalize a meter without realizing the consequences. We want them to know it's a serious offense,” said Kamlarz.  

According to Kamlarz, police surveillance teams will watch for meter crimes in high vandalism areas such as near the UC campus.  

“Certain areas will be targeted for high vandalism. Some of the students think it's cool to do this. We need to change part of this culture,” said Kamlarz.  

Kamlarz cited similar programs near Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where student diplomas have been withheld for vandalism. 

If arrested, vandals could face six months in jail and up to $1000 in fines. 

Reaction to the new policy was decidedly mixed among residents. Many expressed concern over current parking conditions and feel increased enforcement will only make conditions worse while others conceded that the city does need to collect parking funds to run the city.  

According to Shayan Bayat, a student at Vista Community College and El Cerrito resident, the bags, boxes and tape placed on broken meters can be deceiving.  

“I've parked in spots where there's been a bag on the meter so I thought I didn't have to pay and still gotten a ticket,” says Bayat. “This just confuses everyone.” 

Bayat said that he spends up to 45 minutes looking for a spot to park in Berkeley, sometimes parking half an hour away. “It's one of the biggest problems in Berkeley, except for rent,” said Bayat. 

Bayat also emphasized the need for a transportation pass for Vista students similar to the one used by UC Berkeley students on AC Transit, citing the high cost of both BART and other transportation options. 

“As long as it's broken, I see it as a free spot,” said Berkeley driver Tim Ware. 

After learning of the new policy, however, Ware commented that he may think twice about parking all day in spaces with broken meters. 

“It makes me nervous,” said Ware. “Sure there's an argument for it, the city has to run.” 

Not all Berkeley residents felt the policy was unfair. According to Edward Lavender there seems to be an overly hostile attitude in Berkeley toward parking enforcement. 

“I don't think you should get away with not paying just because you broke a meter,” said Lavender.  

Other residents say the policy is fair as long as they are not ticketed for parking at broken meters before the maximum time has elapsed. 

Bernard Balan, a UC Berkeley student, says the new policy will probably force a lot of drivers to park in public lots. According to Balan, the city should fix the vandalized meters and not issue tickets at those spots. 

“I don't think the city should do that. I think the city should fix the meter or not hand out a ticket,” said Balan.


One structure has many associations

By Susan Cerny, Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday May 11, 2002

The history of garbage disposal is an interesting and rather shocking one. Our current concern for the protection of the environment was not shared by our forebears. When garbage was out of sight it was considered adequately deposed of; the land, sea and sky were believed able to absorb all the “bad things”. 

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries most of the garbage generated by Berkeley and Oakland was taken by boat and dumped into the ocean. People also burned part of their garbage in stoves, fireplaces, or outdoor incinerators. With the rapid growth of Berkeley after the 1906 earthquake and fire it became necessary to dispose of garbage in a more reliable way. 

A municipal incinerator was considered the best “modern” method of disposing of garbage, and in 1909 one was constructed by an Oakland firm. But after only one trial burn it was discovered that the plant did not operate properly and it was shut down amid some scandal.  

In 1914 a new incinerator was constructed by the San Francisco firm of Griscom-Russell Co. whose design was based on an English model. It is the building pictured here and it once included a smoke stack 150 feet high, which has been removed. The building is unusual because of its ornamental use of concrete and curved Mission Revival-style roof line. It is a distinctive industrial structure, without windows, and marks the location of the city’s northwest boundary. 

The incineration of garbage coexisted with dumping at sea and refuse not completely burned in the incinerator was dumped at the edge of the bay. In 1924 the landfill method of disposal was introduced, and in 1930 the incinerator was closed. Gradually the marsh to the west of the building was filled with garbage. And the filled land became a small municipal airstrip between 1926 and 1936, before the freeway was built.  

During the Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the roadbed for the Eastshore Freeway and created Aquatic Park in the process. To the west of the freeway the Berkeley Marina began taking shape as the landfill garbage-disposal method continued.  

The former Municipal Incinerator had a second use between 1936 and 1980 as a slaughterhouse for the Lewis and McDermott’s meat packing plant. The area around the incinerator was used for hay and feed storage. The use of the windowless incinerator building as a slaughterhouse in this section of Berkeley was a very discreet operation. It is now the centerpiece for a self-storage business and a city landmark.  

 

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


University police need better oversight

- Copwatch
Saturday May 11, 2002

To the Editor: 

We are writing to collectively express our dismay and dissatisfaction with the lack of independent police oversight at the University of California at Berkeley. Without the active presence of an independent police review board we fear that our campus’s police officers are not being held accountable. As students and members of the community patrolled by those officers, we appeal to the duties of your office to address this 

critical situation. 

Officer conduct at demonstrations and in other recent incidents, both on campus and in the surrounding community, brings this issue of accountability to the forefront. 

The current PRB lacks even the simplest tools necessary to deal with the aforementioned incidents. With no budget, no office nor even a telephone, it is not reasonable to expect the PRB to operate effectively (even the police department's internal affairs has a budget). Without the freedom to investigate complaints against officers concurrent to any police investigation, the PRB cannot be truly independent. Without public hearings, there is no hope of accountability. The PRB, with only a single community member, fails to accurately represent the constituency served by this University's police force. The presence of a former UC officer on the PRB runs counter to the notion of independence. How is it that our University, renowned for its high academic standards and a unique liberal atmosphere, has a police review body that is so transparently impotent? 

The following changes are needed: 

— The establishment of a truly independent civilian review board that meets common sense guidelines for effective oversight (such as those enumerated by the ACLU).  

— The establishment of a “Right to Watch” policy that instructs officer to “put the least possible restrictions upon civilian observation of the police,” similar to the City of Berkeley’s policy. 

— The prohibition of the use of the choke-holds and pepper spray against demonstrators. 

These issues demand immediate attention. Officer misconduct not only undermines the public’s confidence in the department, it makes it that much harder for well-meaning officers to do their jobs.  

- Copwatch 

Berkeley


Out & About Calendar

Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002


Saturday, May 11

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

510-525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Events 

Get ready for Mother's Day with the Klutz "Tissue Paper Flower" kit and learn to make tissue paper flowers. Age 8 and up.  

LHS Film- Happy Birthday, Mr. Feynman 

Film Plays Continuously from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

To celebrate the birthday of Nobel laureate, maverick physicist, author, and teacher extraordinaire Richard Feynman, 

LHS presents the film, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. This fifty-minute film presents Feynman telling fascinating 

stories from his life and research. Produced by Christopher Sykes. 

LHS- The Idea Lab 

Opens May 11 

See what LHS is developing as new hands-on exhibits. Test out exhibit prototypes of activities and give your opinion of them. Testing and experimenting is the idea behind the Idea Lab. This new permanent exhibit begins with explorations of magnetism.  

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

$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. 

LHS is on Centennial Drive- 

above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle. 

 

33rd Annual California Wildflower Show 

Exhibit with 150 species of freshly gathered native flowers 

Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1-888-OAK-MUSE 

$6 general admission, $4 senior and students with ID, free for five and under.  

 

Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions 

Live Science Demonstrations 

In this directed activity, children "audition" to be a dinosaur in an upcoming dinosaur movie. They learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. These demonstrations explore recent discoveries, fossils, and how scientists know what they know about dinosaurs 

Monday-Friday at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 

Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m. 

$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. 

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 


‘The Cockettes’ keep turning people on and tripping ‘em out

By Kamala Appel, Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday May 11, 2002

Travel back in time and land in the front row of a Cockettes performance with David Weissman (co-director/producer) and Bill Weber's (co-director/editor) documentary, “The Cockettes,” about the revolutionary drag troupe of the 1960s and ‘70s. 

First-time feature documentary filmmakers, Weissman and Weber combine interviews with live performances to produce a work that will inform and entertain audiences of all stripes and genders. 

Weissman has worked on a number of independent short films that have made their way through the film festival circuit, including “Complaints” and “Song from an Angel”. Weber has spent most of his career as an editor, working on commercials, music videos, and other independent films. Some of his former clients include: Sting, Alanis Morissette, The Grateful Dead, Industrial Light & Magic, Coca Cola, and AT&T. 

Although the two only met in the early ‘90s, they share an affinity through their mutual admiration for The Cockettes that began in the late 1960s, when they were teenagers. Weissman describes this homage as “really good — the movie is told from an experiential point of view from people who were in it.” Weber believes that “it's such a great story that captures so much of a time and place that I liked a lot. And that is a lot of the impetus for me to tell this story. And not so much being a huge influence on other people.” He readily admits that The Cockettes had a major impact on his life. 

Weber and Weissman were not the only ones who were intrigued by The Cockettes phenomenon, Weissman recalls a certain glam rocker who took an interest: 

“One Cockette remembered hearing (David) Bowie on the radio, the first time Bowie came to San Francisco (1970). And the interviewer said to Bowie, 'well, what do you really want to do while you are in San Francisco?' And he said 'well, I want to go see The Cockettes'. 

Weissman wouldn’t mind inspiring new generations with The Cockettes’ story: “We really hope that the movie can reclaim San Francisco's place as being a really vital cultural center of the twentieth century. That's part of San Francisco's history because it was at that time (late 1960s and early 1970s). I mean, the world looked to San Francisco for the newest, the wildest, the freakiest, the most idealistic aspects of youth culture.” 

On a more earthly note, Weissman faced the same challenges many other documentary filmmakers confront, starting with fundraising. 

“Raising money for a doc is just really, really hard.” 

Weissman and Weber started their fundraising efforts with an eight-minute promotional trailer. They were able to raise about half of their money from foundation and corporate grants and the other half from individuals. One San Francisco man who was moved by The Cockettes when he was 15 donated $100,000, a gift that Weissman says made this project possible and earned the donor a producer credit. Other individual grants ranged from $5 to $10,000 and came from a diverse group of donors. The Wells Fargo Foundation gave $50,000 due to a bold internal champion, Tim Hanlen, who recognized the value of the project. They also received a lot of equipment support from a couple of local Bay Area companies: Western Images and Varitel Video. 

Once the money was gathered, a film still had to be made: 

“There is the creative challenge of how do you tell a story. You are not working from a script. You are not working from something that pre-exists as a story. You are taking disparate material and trying to make it into a story. And the lucky thing for us was that we sort of knew very early on what the story was that we wanted to tell. And I don't think that changed very much and with many documentaries that is not the case. I think this is very much thanks to the work that Martin Worman had done (a number of audio tapes) because Martin really gave us a history in a very compelling way. It was incomplete, but it was a very compelling contextualization of The Cockettes story that really served as a template for us.” 

Weissman clearly loves his craft, yet his advice for new filmmakers isn’t entirely upbeat: “It's very hard to be an independent filmmaker. I think you need to have passion, particularly if you are a documentarian. You need to have passion and incredible perseverance and good friends, and a sense of humor.” 

Weissman hopes “The Cockettes” inspires people to think about how they can find more creativity and joy in their own lives. “We hope that it gives people a richer appreciation of that period of time. I think that the Media has really reduced that era to some really wimpy clichés and our hope is that this movie captures some of the richness of the counter culture in San Francisco.” 

He does not want this film to be solely a nostalgic trip. He hopes that viewing this film will relay the message that “this is what happened once, see what you can come up with” today. 

The filmmakers admit they are uncertain what the future holds in store for them, once the two recover from the promotion and distribution of “The Cockettes.” Weber expressed interest in telling the story of a San Francisco hospice founder with a colorful past. Weissman joked that he dreams about snorkeling — but what filmmaker doesn't during the recent aftermath of completing a film? 

And who wouldn’t want to spend a wild night out with The Cockettes? 

 

“The Cockettes” opened May 10 at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Camera in San Jose. It film opens May 17 at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley; and at the Nickelodeon and the Rialto in Santa Cruz.


’Jackets demolish Piedmont to complete regular season

By Jared Green, Daily Planet Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

xThe Berkeley High boys’ lacrosse team wrapped up their regular season with a dominating 19-3 win over Piedmont on Friday, as 13 different Yellowjackets scored at least one goal. 

Berkeley will play its first-round Northern California regional playoff game on Tuesday and are almost assured of a home game, so Friday’s game was little more than a formality. The ’Jackets improved to 13-3 overall and 7-1 in the Shoreline Lacrosse League, while the Highlanders dropped to 5-9. 

Berkeley took over the game quickly, taking a 4-0 lead after less than five minutes. Although they allowed two goals in the first half, the ’Jackets scored 12 straight goals before the Highlanders would score again with five minutes left in the game. By that time, Berkeley head coach Jon Rubin had ordered his players to stop shooting, and the clock was left running for most of the second half due to league rules. 

Jesse Cohen and Cameran Sampson led the ’Jackets with three goals apiece, with Nick Schooler and Jonah Hill pitching in with two goals each. Even the defensemen got into the attack for Berkeley, with Demetrius Sommers scoring a goal to finish the third quarter and Chris May just missing a shot in the fourth. 

Midfielder Crosby Freeman scored two of Piedmont’s three goals. 

Berkeley’s likely opponent in the first round will be Marin Catholic, a team it beat 6-1 on March 28. If the ’Jackets get past Marin Catholic, they would probably face University in the semifinal, with either Bishop O’Dowd or top-ranked St. Ignatius waiting in the championship game. Berkeley’s only losses this season have come to those three teams, although the ’Jackets did beat O’Dowd earlier in the season. 

“I’m nervous because we’re going to have to face at least two of the teams who have beaten us,” Schooler said. “We’re going to have to get through them if we want to win the championship.” 

Schooler and his teammates should have an easy time with Marin Catholic on their home AstroTurf, where they lost just one game this season (to St. Ignatius). But if University wins its first-round game, the ’Jackets would have to hit the road, which has not been kind to them this season. 

“We’re so dominant on our turf, I think we get intimidated by other fields,” Rubin said. “My biggest fear is going to play on grass and my guys being out of it.” 

Rubin thinks his players lose some intensity on the road, and he’s not sure he knows what to do about it. 

“When we’ve lost away games, I think it’s because we weren’t as intense (as the opponent),” he said. “The difference in the playoffs will be blue-collar-type play. The key to the playoffs for us will be how we do on groundballs.”


ZAB lets seminary plan move forward

By Devona Walker Daily Planet Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

Neighbors battling the American Baptist Seminary of the West’s plans to demolish two buildings and expand its campus were given a last chance to voice their concerns at Thursday’s Zoning Adjustment Board meeting, and they spoke in one cohesive voice — asking the board to stop the church. 

On the dividing line of Dwight and Benvenue avenues — where the UC Berkeley campus meets a typical Berkeley residential neighborhood — are two cottages that neighbors want to preserve and that the Landmark Preservation Commission has deemed worthy as “structures of merit.” But church officials say the buildings are being used as an excuse to stop them from expanding their campus. 

In addition, the seminary argued that the city could not landmark its grounds without its consent, but also that the two houses were not worthy of protected status. 

Last night the Zoning Adjustment Board cleared the way for the seminary to demolish the cottages and move closer to its expansion plans. 

Recently City Attorney Manuela Alberquerque also quesitoned the authority of the city to landmark the cottages without the owners’ consent. 

“The city has no right to landmark the buildings,” said David Levy, the seminary’s lawyer. “The code says that a non-commercial property owned by a religiously affiliated association or nonprofit organization cannot be landmarked if the owner objects.” 

Seminary President Ken Russell said his organization has tried to be sensitive to the residents’ concerns and also to properties they consider worthy of landmark status. 

“When we had part of our campus landmarked two years ago [by the city], it was done with the understanding that the corner of the property where these cottages are located wouldn’t be landmarked,” he said. 

“We don’t believe that these have enough historical significance and we need space for expansion on our own campus.” 

This previous agreement, said Levy, is another reason the city does not have the right to interfere. 

“The point of the agreement was to exclude the property now at issue to allow the Seminary to use the property. You know what property is like in Berkeley. They have to make use of what they have,” he added in a previous interview. 

But the neighbors have vowed to continue to fight the expansion of the campus because the buioding is simply not right for the neighborhood. 

Some have even stated that the difficulty they’ve faced in thisd process is indicative of how pro-development the city planning staff and attorney’s office are. 

“[Berkeley city planning staff] decide who needs an environmental impact report or who can get around it with a negative declaration waiver. There are ways to push things through and the city planners make those ways available to developer,” said Sharon Hudson, a vocal oponent of seminary expansion plans. “And some of the legal decisions of the city attorney have led many in the community to call her incompetent. People say that all the time, that she’s incompetent.” 

Hudson said that the city attorney has on several occasions provided bad advice to the various commissions and boards, which have influenced “these civilains into voting on the side of a developer and against the neighbors.” 

City planner Mark Rhoads did not return phone calls for a comment. 

But officials at the seminary have alleged that community resistance is less about the buildings than it is about race. 

Seminary President Russell underscored this complaint and added that the seminary has consistently tried to be good neighbors. 

“We’ve been here since the early 1900s providing a safe, stable space for theneighborhood,” he said.  

Stopping short of calling the neighbors racist, Russell said he is absolutely perplexed by the amount of animosity. Pointing to the school’s racial and cultural diversity, small size and landscaped grounds, he said the seminary should be a neighborhood asset everyone can agree on. 

“I’m just wondering out loud why there’s such resistance to a small, primarily black institution that is an anchor for the neighborhood,” he aaded. 

The Zoning Adjustment Board’s decision to allow the demolition of two cottages in question was not well received by the neighbors. But they have vowed to continue to fight the project.


Mayor Dean is no friend to artists

John Curl
Saturday May 11, 2002

To the Editor: 

It has been reported that Mayor Dean may propose that the city subsidize an artist warehouse co-op. This announcement should not fool anyone into thinking that the mayor is a patron of Berkeley’s artists and artisans. The reality is just the opposite. 

The idea of a city-subsidized artist and artisan warehouse coop was actually proposed last year by Councilmember Linda Maio. She is the one who has taken the lead in protecting our artists and artisans through the West Berkeley Plan, which Mayor Dean has always opposed. It is only thanks to the West Berkeley Plan that our city still has a substantial sector of artists and craftspeople. I am not talking about the upscale downtown Arts District, but the real center of working artists and craftspeople, in industrial West Berkeley. 

The main threat to artists and craftspeople remaining in Berkeley is office development, which drives up studio rents to levels that artists and artisans cannot afford. Unless office expansion is controlled in West Berkeley through zoning, it will drive out working artists and artisans. This is precisely what happened in San Francisco during the dot.com boom. The only reason it hasn’t happened in Berkeley is due to the 1993 West Berkeley Plan, which protects arts and crafts uses by limiting office proliferation. 

However, the West Berkeley Plan has never been adequately implemented by the city, so Berkeley’s artists and artisans remain at risk today. Our artists recently presented a petition with over 200 signatures from the arts and crafts community supporting a temporarily moratorium on new office uses in West Berkeley’s Mixed Use/Light Industrial (MULI) district (the center of artistic/artisanal activity in the city), while the Planning Commission investigates the effects of office expansion and the state of the West Berkeley Plan. Mayor Dean was opposed. On April 29, 2002, the City Council voted 5-4 to approve these interim controls. Dean voted against. 

Dean has been a vociferous supporter of rampant office development in West Berkeley, and an antagonist to industrial retention. In a New York Times article (10/23/99) she derided the West Berkeley Plan: “‘They’re stuck in the 60s,’ Mayor Shirley Dean said of those who stand firm on the city’s manufacturing friendly policies.” 

Industrial neighborhoods have always been home to artists. If we get rid of our manufacturing district, we also get rid of our artists’ and crafts studios. Berkeley’s dynamism rests on our social, cultural and economic diversity. Industrial retention is key to maintaining that diversity, and to making our city prosper. Destroying industrial West Berkeley would greatly accelerate the gentrification spiral, which threatens to transform and sterilize our city into a mere upscale bedroom community. 

Other forward-looking metropolitan cities have come to the same realization. Portland and Chicago now protect their manufacturing bases. Boston has initiated an ambitious industrial retention program, focused on creating the conditions in which industries (and arts and crafts) can grow and prosper. 

Berkeley needs a mayor who appreciates the unique contributions of its working artists and artisans, a mayor who fights to enforce, not to undermine, the laws that help them remain in Berkeley. Shirley Dean is not that mayor. 

Berkeley needs a mayor who appreciates the unique contributions of its working artists and artisans, a mayor who fights to enforce, not to undermine, the laws that help them remain in Berkeley. Shirley Dean is not that mayor. 

- John Curl 

Berkeley 


St. Joseph downs upstart Panthers for BSAL crown

By Richard Nybakken, Daily Planet Correspondent
Saturday May 11, 2002

It was less a contest than a coronation. 

The St. Joseph’s High boys’ volleyball team won the Bay Shore Athletic League title in convincing fashion Friday afternoon, posting a 15-8, 15-6, 15-6 sweep of St. Mary’s High before a raucous home court crowd in Alameda. 

Led by skywalking senior David Gordon and sophomore setter John Dinh, the Pilots (12-4) brushed aside an early challenge from the Panthers, trailing for only two serves after midway through the first game to bring home the championship banner. 

Senior Nic Konnefklatt, sophomore Jonathan Alberti and lanky junior Liam Nohr-Forrester also also contributed key blocks and kills for the champions in an all-around team performance that coach Annie Hansen credited for the win. 

“I was a little bit worried that my guys would come out complacent,” Hansen said, noting that the Pilots, the No. 2 seed, were a perfect 4-0 against the Panthers this year. “But they were all right. We really play our best matches when everybody on the team pitches in.” 

For St. Mary’s (7-9), a dream playoff run ended in a flurry of St. Joseph aces, blocks and kills. Coach Trudi Huber said her squad, which reached the title match after a dramatic, come-from-behind upset of top seed Salesian on Wednesday, felt satisfied simply to have reached the season’s final contest. 

“Well, that was fun, huh?” she said after her team’s humbling performance. “Really, just the fact that we made the game was pretty exciting.” 

For the first 10 points of the game, it looked as though St. Mary’s just might have a chance to stun the Pilots in front of their boisterous home fans. Gaining serve after two Pilot aces, St. Mary’s James Yang reeled off seven straight points to give the Panthers a 7-2 lead. 

After the teams traded service, however, Konnefklatt, Dinh and Gordon settled the Pilots down, responding with 12 unanswered points to put the first game away. The Panthers, left scrambling to get the ball over the net past the tough St. Joe’s front line, looked simply overmatched against a deeper, taller, and more athletic team. 

Down 2-0, the Panthers tried valiantly to mount a third-game comeback in the fashion of their victory over Salesian, as Greg Lai served the team to an early 5-3 advantage. But once again the court vision of Dinh and the aerial acrobatics of Gordon were too much for St. Mary’s to handle, as the Pilots stormed back to a 13-5 lead. Freshman Nick Quintell then closed out the championship to a standing ovation from a cheering throng of parents and fellow students. 

“We just never let up,” Gordon said of his team’s character. “We’ve been down two games and come back, so we know to never let up.” 

The St. Mary’s coach agreed. 

“We went in hoping to pull one off, but there was just no chance against St. Joe’s,” Huber said. “They were just too tough.”


BHS senior running for School Board

By David Scharfenberg Daily Planet staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

Sean Dugar had been thinking about running for the Board of Education for some time. But last weekend, he checked in for one last time with his closest advisers – his parents. 

They were quite supportive. 

“I’m very proud of our son,” said Toni Dugar, mother of the 17-year-old Berkeley High School senior. “He’s very involved. He knows what he’s doing.” 

Dugar, who formally declared his candidacy at the school board meeting Wednesday night, has joined a growing field of candidates for three slots on the board. Incumbents Shirley Issel and Terry Doran, and activists Derick Miller and Nancy Riddle have also declared their candidacies.  

BHS discipline dean and long-time chair of the African-American Studies Department Robert McKnight said he will almost certainly run in November, and nutrition activist Joy Moore has declared her interest.  

Incumbent Ted Schultz has announced he will retire at the end of this term. Board members John Selawsky and Joaquin Rivera are not up for re-election this year. 

Dugar, one of two representatives from the senior class who serves on the BHS student leadership team, has made several appearances at school board meetings this year, criticizing Superintendent Michele Lawrence and members of the board for budget cuts. On March 6, he helped lead 200 students in a walk-out to protest the shift from a seven- to a six-period day next year.  

Lawrence has argued that the move will lead to longer classes and more instructional time over the course of the year, while saving the financially-strapped district some money. But activists, including Dugar, have raised concerns about the reductions in double-period science and electives that will result. 

Dugar said the major theme of his campaign will be increasing the student voice in district decision-making. 

“Education is all about students,” said Dugar. “I just think students should have input on any decisions made about us.” 

As a board member, Dugar said, he would push for an advisory committee composed entirely of students, and would work to place students on all of the other advisory committees. 

“That idea would be very helpful,” said Doran, who welcomed Dugar into the race. “I think it’s fantastic that a student is that committed and thinks he can do the job.” 

“I think Sean’s a great guy and he has a lot of enthusiasm,” said Miller.  

“A lot of candidates entering the race early is a good thing,” he continued, arguing that it will lead to “substantive dialogue” about the issues. 

Dugar said closing the “achievement gap” that separates white and Asian-American students from African-Americans and Latinos would be a chief concern. He said he would boost African-American, Chicano/Latino and other ethnic studies programs to address the problem. 

Dugar said he had mixed views about the movement to divide Berkeley High into a series of themed, small schools – a measure, proponents say, that would help close the achievement gap. 

“I think small schools are a good idea, but there are questions about small schools that haven’t been answered,” he said, raising particular concerns about whether they would lead to racial segregation of BHS students by small school. 

Dugar turns 18 in June, making him eligible to run for the board. He has deferred admission to Johnson & Wales University, a culinary school in Providence, Rhode Island, until the winter. If he wins, Dugars says, he will stay in Berkeley and plans to attend City College of San Francisco. 


Don’t blame Jews for all the world’s ills

Jospeh Moskowitz
Saturday May 11, 2002

To the Editor: 

The recent anti Semitic activities that have taken place in the bay area are forcing old Jews such as myself to speak up or find a secondary tattoo on our forearms. 

I am not the most pious of Jews. In fact, some of my more conservative friends view me as ultra left: I see no problem with eating pork, having a cheeseburger, or accepting gay men and women in our religion. What I do have a problem with are these mad men grabbing the mantel of Judaism way from the vast majority of the Jewish community. 

I see a few Jews lambasting Israel left and right when I walk to get my morning paper. Nazi Joseph Goebbels could not have done a better job at turning Zionism into a “racist” campaign. Jews conservative and liberal alike should be defending Israel in these tumultuous times. When a reporter cries about gunfire from Israel my friends around my neighborhood take great pains to point Israel’s actions out to me. 

This does not bother me, though; I merely scoff and recount the numerous Hamas bombings, suicide and car, that have been leveled against Israel. The problem is not that Israelis are taking actions to defend themselves, but the emphasis that is being put upon Israel's actions as opposed to those of Muslim fundamentalists. If the anti-Israel media outlets would put attacks on the Jews on page one and not 19, the tide of anti-Semitism in the Bay Area and abroad would be greatly curbed.  

In the United States people tend to blame themselves for any misfortune that falls upon them. In the case of the events of Sept. 11, Jews and gentiles from all over the country are blaming U.S. foreign policy. People from all over the country are trying to demonize Israel, and Zionist Jews. This is exactly what Osama Bin Laden wants — pogroms arising because people feel guilt, although unjustified, about Sept. 11. 

Anti-Semites from all over the world are using this time of distress to come out of the anti-Semitic closet. They do not care about Israel; they are merely anti-Semites seizing the day, or self-hating Jews, using this opportunity to don the hair shirt.  

 

- Jospeh Moskowitz 

Berkeley


Encinal downs Berkeley with clutch hitting

Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

ACCAL race tightens up with one week left; Berkeley can clinch title with win over El Cerrito on Wednesday 

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

 

The Berkeley Yellowjackets had a chance to eliminate one of their toughest foes on Friday, but instead they find themselves right back in the thick of a pennant race. 

Eugene Smith’s seventh-inning RBI single gave Encinal High a 6-5 win over the ’Jackets, keeping his team alive in the ACCAL title race. Berkeley dropped to 10-2 in league play (17-5 overall), while the Jets are now 9-3 in the ACCAL (11-11 overall). Both teams have two games left in the regular season. El Cerrito is also 9-3 and faces both teams next week, so the Gauchos will have a large say in who walks away with the title. 

Friday’s game started ominously for the ’Jackets, as starting pitcher Cole Stipovich was touched for two homers in the first inning. Encinal’s Willie Stargell Field is flush with the Bay, and the fierce wind blowing out to right field, combined with a short 326-foot porch, spelled trouble for Stipovich. Nick Loy led off with a high fly over the fence, and Smith followed with a shot off of the wall for a double. Up stepped mammoth lefty Cory Dunlap, who after fouling off three two-strike pitches hammered a monster blast over the wall and onto an adjacent apartment building for a quick 3-0 lead. 

“I think I blocked out the other times I pitched here,” Stipovich said. “But that was just reality crashing down on top of my head. Watching a pop fly go out was a little discouraging.” 

Stipovich settled down, using some defensive help to get through the next two innings without any runs. But Dunlap was looking overpowering on the mound, blowing the ball by the Berkeley hitters. Jason Moore got a run back in the second with a homer to right, his second in as many games, but it took some fielding pratfalls by the Jets to get Berkeley back in the game. 

With one out in the fourth, Encinal shortstop Tony Ellis started the Keystone Kops routine when his throw drew first baseman Scott Tennell off the bag. Even worse, it put Tennell right in the baseline in front of Berkeley’s Matt Toma. The 6-foot, 210-pound Toma, a lineman for Berkeley’s football team, lowered his sizable shoulder into the lanky Tennell, and predictably the ball shook loose. 

Bennie Goldenberg followed with a single that leftfielder Jordan Indalecio played into a double as Toma came around to score. When Moore hit another single, centerfielder DeAndre Green committed the double sin of booting the ball and then throwing it to an unoccupied first base, with Goldenberg crossing the plate and Moore going all the way to third. 

Jeremy LeBeau was up next, and an attempted squeeze bunt clearly went off the batter’s leg into fair territory. But both umpires missed the deflection, and Dunlap held the ball while Moore scored and LeBeau reached first. LeBeau proceeded to score on a stolen base, error and passed ball for a 5-3 Berkeley lead. 

Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering knew his team was fortunate to benefit from the Encinal errors, but wanted to see more offense from his club. 

“I thought we needed to get more runs,” Moellering said. “We took advantage of some mistakes, but I knew the top of their order was explosive, especially in their own ballpark.” 

Even more than the lost lead, Encinal head coach Jim Saunders was concerned with his pitcher’s mental state. Dunlap has displayed a short fuse in the past, and he spent much of the Berkeley rally stomping around the field. But rather than blow up, Dunlap channeled his energy into his pitching, giving up just two more hits the rest of the way. 

“(Dunlap) was close (to blowing up),” Saunders said. “There’s something that clicks with him that I can’t stop. Luckily, he stopped it on his own.” 

Encinal got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on an Indalecio RBI single, but Moellering went for the kill, bringing in ace Sean Souders for the final three innings. The junior lefthander breezed through the fifth, but the Jets tied the game in the sixth when Mike Jones doubled home Green. They needed just two batters to end the game in the seventh, as Loy led off with a single, and Berkeley leftfielder Jon Smith booted the ball to send him to second. Smith’s single ended the game, setting off a team celebration. 

Berkeley can win the league title outright by beating El Cerrito on Wednesday, as they hold a tie-breaker over Encinal. The Gauchos, on the other hand, can win the league if they beat both Berkeley and Encinal. Encinal would win the title if they win on Wednesday and Friday and El Cerrito wins on Wednesday. 

Berkeley’s Jason Moore was confident Friday’s loss wouldn’t start a slide similar to last season, when the ’Jackets lost their last four games and nearly missed the North Coast Section playoffs. 

“It’s no problem,” Moore said. “We’ll just come back against El Cerrito. As long as we win on Wednesday, we still got it.”


Activists target arms race in space

By Jamie Luck, Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday May 11, 2002

‘Star Wars’ isn’t just a movie: 

 

Activists from around the world have gathered this weekend in Berkeley for the annual meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space conference, giving both the public and various group affiliates from around the globe the chance to convene and share information, perspectives, and strategies on preventing the further militarization of space. 

According to the U.S. Space Command’s “Vision for 20/20” report, the Star Wars defense system will consist of 24 orbiting lasers, with the first functional laser platform going up in 2012. The Star Wars program has so far cost the U.S. an estimated $60 billion, and is slated for an additional $8.3 billion this year alone.  

“Space is currently a weapons-free zone, but the launching of a laser platform for missile defense would set the precedent for weapon-ization. It is so much easier to prevent weapon-ization from happening in the first place then to try and dismantle it afterwards,” said Regina Hagen, member of the German-based International Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation and one of today’s plenary speakers. “This would lead to a possible arms race with China and Russia,” she said. 

The United States withdrawal from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibited the deployment of a missile-defense system, sparked protests from the European Union, Russia and China, and officials from over 20 countries criticized the U.S. during an international disarmament conference held in Beijing on April 4.  

“The world is very concerned over this issue. It is not just a few activists. It is the General Assembly of the UN, and the majority in Geneva, who wish to discuss prevention of an arms race in outer space, but the U.S. often prevents a consensus from being reached,” Hagen said. 

The Global Network conference kicked off yesterday with a rally at Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale campus, where the company is purportedly developing space-based laser and other theater missile defense technologies. An estimated 150 demonstrators gathered before company grounds, listening to spontaneous concerts and speeches.  

“We have a very spirited crowd of students and protesters from over 12 countries,” said Bill Sulzman, a protest participant. “This is a very symbolic place to hold a protest — very apropos to addressing the profit-motive behind defense spending.” 

Informational presentations, workshops, and strategy planning sessions have been scheduled for today and Sunday here in Berkeley. Conference registration began 8 a.m. this morning at the Valley Life Sciences Building Auditorium, UCB campus. 

“Saturday’s conference will be an equal amount people talking about what’s wrong with the current picture and what we can do to make it right,” Sulzman said. 

Speakers flew in from all over the States, the UK, India, Japan, Germany, Australia and the Philippines to participate in the conference, and represent varied groups opposed to space-based and nuclear weapons proliferation. Over 20 workshops are being held today on issues ranging from global perspectives, military weapons, spy capabilities, and the environmental impact of star wars programs after keynote speeches by journalist Karl Grossman and activists Stacey Fritz and Kathy Kelly.  

“What’s actually going on is a strong push for missile defense, which most people don’t equate with weapons in space,” said Fritch, head of the Alaska-based No Nukes North. “But ‘missile defense’ is the weapon-ization of space,” she says.  

Fritch’s organization has been lobbying against the U.S. military’s use of Alaska for ABM test and shield sites. Pentagon officials have said they hope to open the first missile shield site in Alaska by 2004. 

Sunday’s strategy session will focus on steps the Global Network can take over the next year to activate people for protests, engage the public and media, and to organize a global appeal to stop missile defense testing, according to Hagen.  

 


Suzanne Vega collects folksongs for 9/11

By Karen Matthews, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

NEW YORK — Folk singer Suzanne Vega lived near the World Trade Center for 10 years and has long been part of a loose group of local artists — the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange — who meet weekly to share music. 

So her latest project is a very personal one: collecting folk songs written by members of the group in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and issuing them as a CD, “Vigil.” 

“These were my neighbors. This was my back yard,” says Vega, 42, best known for the songs “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” from her 1987 album “Solitude Standing.” 

Members of the exchange — including its leader, Jack Hardy, who lost a brother at the World Trade Center — began writing songs about the attack soon after Sept. 11. About the same time, Vega was giving interviews to promote “Songs in Red and Gray,” her first studio release in five years. 

“So I was aware of these songs being written and at the same time talking to a lot of journalists who were asking me about what was happening in New York,” she said. “And so I thought, well, the natural thing to do is to compile the songs into a collection.” 

Just as she was beginning to promote “Vigil,” Vega suffered a personal loss when her brother Tim died on April 29. Tim Vega, a 36-year-old artist, worked at the World Trade Center but called in sick on Sept. 11 — only to die in his sleep from causes his sister declined to specify. 

“There’s a lot of irony in the whole situation,” she said, speaking by telephone from her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. 

“Vigil” includes 20 works by 15 artists, and is the first release of a new label, Conscious Music, started by Vega’s manager, Nancy Jeffries. 

It includes one song by Vega, “It Hit Home”; the other artists are not as well-known. 

Vega chose songs that represented a range of responses to the attacks. 

“The Firehouse,” by Christine Lavin, captures the city’s mood in those first weeks when photos of the missing were posted everywhere. 

“Maybe next year the pain won’t be as sharp/ as it is today,” Lavin writes, “though it will never completely go away/ and we will talk in terms of/ ’before’ and ’after’ the attack/ and wish more than anything/ we could bring those brave men back.” 

In “Spoonfed,” Andy Germak adopts the point of view of people in Afghanistan when the U.S. government dropped both bombs and food on their country. 

“I didn’t ask to be dependent,” he writes. “I didn’t ask to be a hungry baby. I didn’t ask to be spoonfed.” 

Other songs evoke the terrible sight of bodies falling from the twin towers, and the incongruity of terrorists using boxcutters to attack a superpower. 

Production is minimal; mostly just voice and acoustic guitar. Some songs were recorded in the artists’ apartments. 

“It’s about as indie as you can possibly be,” Vega said. 

“Vigil” is available only on Amazon.com. “Eventually, maybe if someone picks it up and distributes it, maybe it will be in stores, but at this point that hasn’t happened,” Vega said. 

“I didn’t want to go to a record company and have to negotiate a deal with them and argue with them about how to present the songs or whether it was a good idea. We just wanted to put it out and put it out quickly and so we decided to do it this way.” 

Proceeds will be donated to Windows of Hope, a charity that benefits the families of restaurant workers who died at the trade center.


Sports shorts

Staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

Cal women’s tennis moves on to Regional Final 

The 12th-ranked Cal women’s tennis team (13-9) advanced to the NCAA Tournament Regional Final today, defeating No. 45 Brigham Young University (10-14), 4-0 in an afternoon match at Hellman Tennis Center in Berkeley. Earlier in the day, No. 25 Fresno State University took down No. 27 Washington State, 4-0.  

Cal’s Raquel Kops-Jones and Christina Fusano, playing for the first time since winning the Pac-10 championship two weeks ago, got things started for the Bears, defeating Dominique Reynolds and Brooke Beverley, 8-4. After Carla Arguelles and Nicole Havlicek clinched the point for Cal, the Bears moved onto singles, winning all three of its completed matches in straight sets. 

Cal and Fresno State will face off Saturday at 11 a.m. at Hellman Tennis Center.  

 

Bears come back to beat Ducks  

After spotting Oregon (23-29, 1-18 Pac-10) a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, No. 5 Cal (46-19, 10-9 Pac-10) came back, scoring all three of its runs in the fourth inning to hold on for a 3-2 win Friday afternoon at Levine-Fricke Field.  

Senior Candace Harper ignited Cal’s comeback trail. The third baseman led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer, her eighth of the year, to right center field. After Veronica Nelson’s pop up, junior Courtney Scott smacked a sharp liner up the middle. Freshman Jessica Pamanian, then blasted the eventual game-winning hit, her third homerun of the year, over the left field fence to give the Bears the 3-2 edge.  

 

Cal baseball snaps seven-game skid with 13-7 win  

The Cal baseball team broke a seven-game losing streak with a 13-7 victory over Oregon State Friday at Evans Diamond. The Bears pounded out 11 hits, including a three-run homer by David Weiner and a grand slam by John Baker, to improve to 27-26 overall and 9-13 in the Pac-10, while the Beavers fall to 30-16 and 9-7 in conference.  

The Bears took control of the contest by scoring two runs in the fourth on an RBI ground out by Nick Medrano and a fielding error by Beaver first baseman Andy Jarvis.In the bottom of the sixth the Bears tacked on four more runs on junior catcher John Baker’s first career grand slam.


History

- The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

Today is Saturday, May 11, the 131st day of 2002. There are 234 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight: 

On May 11, 1946, the first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France. 

 

On this date: 

In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union. 

In 1888, songwriter Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in Temun, Russia. 

In 1910, Glacier National Park in Montana was established. 

In 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later. 

In 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body’s 59th member. 

In 1949, Siam changed its named to Thailand. 

In 1973, charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the “Pentagon Papers” case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct. 

In 1981, reggae artist Bob Marley, 36, died in a Miami hospital. 

In 1985, more than 50 people died when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England. 

In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board. 

Ten years ago: Twelve European countries recalled their ambassadors from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia to protest Serb involvement in Bosnia’s ethnic war. 

 

Five years ago:  

The “Deep Blue” IBM computer demolished an overwhelmed Garry Kasparov and won the six-game chess match between man and machine in New York. 

 

One year ago:  

Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed Timothy McVeigh’s execution from May 16 to June 11 because of FBI mishandling of documents. A jury in Pittsburgh sentenced Richard Baumhammers to death for killing five people in a racially motivated shooting rampage. Miss Puerto Rico Denise Quinones August was crowned Miss Universe. Douglas Adams, author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 49. 

 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Comedian Mort Sahl is 75. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 61. Actress Frances Fisher is 50. Actor Boyd Gaines is 49. Country musician Mark Herndon (Alabama) is 47. Actress Martha Quinn is 43. Actress Natasha Richardson is 39. Country singer-musician Tim Raybon (The Raybon Brothers) is 39. Actor Coby Bell (“Third Watch”) is 27. Actor Austin O’Brien is 22. Actor Jonathan Jackson is 20. 

 


Juan Gabriel tops Billboard Latin

By Adrian Sainz, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Veteran Mexican musician Juan Gabriel won four awards, including top songwriter, and Ricky Martin received special recognition for his charitable works at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. 

Gabriel, who earned five nominations, thanked “everyone for their 30 years of support” and accepted honors for track of the year and airplay track of the year for his hit “Abrazame Muy Fuerte” (Hold Me Tightly). 

The awards presented Thursday night at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts honored the most popular albums, songs and performers in Latin music as determined by sales and radio airplay data published on Billboard’s weekly charts. 

Gabriel also won track of the year for a vocal duo for his duet with Nydia Rojas entitled “No Vale la Pena” (It’s Not Worth It). Gabriel performed a bolero with the upstart group Los Tri-O. 

Martin, among the top Latin performers to cross over to the English-language pop arena, received the special Spirit of Hope award for his charitable works. Past winners of the award include Olga Tanon, Willy Chirino and Los Tigres Del Norte. 

El Gran Combo also won a special honor at Thursday’s ceremony, taped for broadcast Sunday on Spanish-language television network Telemundo. 

Regulars on the salsa scene for four decades, El Gran Combo received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The 13-member group with one of the most renowned horn sections in Latin music released another album this year entitled “El Nuevo milenio — el mismo sabor” (New millennium — the same flavor). 

The awards honored the most popular albums, songs and performers in Latin music as determined by sales and radio airplay data published on Billboard’s weekly charts. 

Cristian won Latin track artist of the year, and Marc Anthony won the artist of the year award for top albums. Anthony’s “Libre” (Free) earned him the prize for male tropical/salsa album of the year. 

Canada’s Celine Dion sang a Spanish song, “Aun Existe Amor” (Love Still Exists), and received a special award for her hit “My Heart Will Go On,” which was the first English-language song to top Billboard’s Hot Latin Tracks chart. 

Velasquez and pop stars Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan were among the female nominees. Velasquez’s “Mi Corazon” (My Heart) won for female pop album of the year and Lopez took home the award for dance single of the year. 

Colombian star Shakira, another crossover success, won the debut Viewer’s Choice Award, while Tanon netted the female tropical/salsa album of the year award.


Sen. Boxer seeks wilderness status for 2.5 million acres in California

The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

WASHINGTON — Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to designate 2.5 million acres of public land in California as wilderness, including national forest areas that the Bush administration has proposed for oil drilling and logging. 

Boxer intends to introduce legislation next week targeting 77 areas across the state. It would be the first statewide wilderness bill since 1984, she said Friday. 

The legislation would halt U.S. Forest Service proposals to drill for oil in portions of the Los Padres National Forest and to do logging in the Duncan Canyon area of the Tahoe National Forest. 

The bill also would expand the Ansel Adams Wilderness area east of Yosemite National Park. 

Boxer expects logging and mining interests as well as off-road recreation enthusiasts to oppose the wilderness designations. 

“Opponents will say this bill will add to public lands. It doesn’t. It just gives them a higher level of protection,” said Boxer, who plans to kick off a campaign for the bill Saturday at the Presidio in San Francisco. 

Boxer has no support at the moment among California’s 20 Republicans in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. 

But Boxer, who plans to seek re-election in 2004, said the process will take time. 

“This bill will be put into law bit by bit, year by year,” she said. 


Celebrating public education: BPEF raises $25,000 at annual lunch

By David Scharfenberg, Daily Planet staff
Saturday May 11, 2002

Donors stuffed envelopes with a record $25,000 for the Berkeley Public Education Foundation Friday afternoon at the organization’s 16th Annual Spring Luncheon.  

The foundation, which poured almost $700,000 and 46,000 hours of volunteer time into the Berkeley schools last year, collected over $100,000 prior to the event in ticket sales, sponsorships and in-kind donations for the lunch. 

The event, held at H’s Lordship’s Restaurant at the Berkeley Marina, drew dozens of business leaders, school officials, city officials and parent activists. 

“This was a wonderful event,” said Mary Friedman, executive director of the foundation. “It’s an opportunity for people from many different parts of the community...to really come together and re-dedicate themselves to a strong public school system and a just society.” 

The foundation offered three awards during the event, including a “distinguished educator” award for Carol Olson, who has taught in the Berkeley schools for 33 years. 

“Carol Olson has sustained my family’s hope in the education system,” said Kate Ulansky, a former Olson student, during introductory remarks. 

Ulansky praised Olson for aggressively pushing her students to succeed. 

“Mrs. Olson was Al Capone and I was one of her lieutenants,” Ulansky said, drawing laughs from the crowd. 

“I don’t know if it could get any better than this,” said Olson, who will retire at the end of the year.  

“I’ve survived nine superintendents and 11 site administrators...Apparently, however, there haven’t been enough business managers or financial geniuses around,” she joked, making reference to the district’s financial woes. 

Olson, who has made use of numerous Education Fund grants throughout her career, was quick to put in a word for the foundation. 

“In today’s test-driven society...it’s this group that stands out, saying, ‘go ahead – dream, teach,’” she said. 

Every year, the foundation doles out dozens of grants to Berkeley teachers for special projects, sponsors specialized fundraising campaigns initiated by community groups, teachers or the foundation itself, and orchestrates the Berkeley School Volunteers program. 

The foundation also honored a group of Fourth Street merchants Friday for organizing an annual event to benefit the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble. That event, a fair including live music, will take place May 19 on Fourth Street from noon to 5 p.m. this year. 

Six students in the BHS Jazz Ensemble, part of a larger group called the San Francisco All-Star Band, set out Friday for a national high school competition in New York City focused on Duke Ellington’s music. 

The band was one of 15 chosen from 149 entries to participate in the “Essentially Ellington” contest at the Lincoln Center. The groups will compete for $11,000 in prizes for school jazz programs. 

The foundation also honored the Hills Project, an arts program that targets at-risk youth. The program, which began in San Francisco, expanded to Malcolm X Elementary School and Longfellow Middle School four years ago.


UC changes Palestinian course listing

Daily Planet Wire Report
Saturday May 11, 2002

BERKELEY — Friday, officials at the University of California at Berkeley blamed the English Department for the listing of a course in which the instructor, an active supporter of Palestinians on campus, suggested that “conservative thinkers” should consider another course. 

The reading and comprehension course is titled “The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance.”  

It is taught by UC Berkeley graduate student Snehal Shingavi, an organizer with the group Students for Justice in Palestine, which was recently admonished by university officials for taking over a school building in April. 

UC Berkeley officials said the course description was a failure of oversight by the English Department in reviewing course descriptions. 

Officials vowed to make sure that, in the future, courses do not discourage qualified students from applying.


E-Trade chairman relinquishes giant pay package

By Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — E-Trade Group Inc. Chairman Christos Cotsakos agreed Friday to relinquish his salary for the next two years and surrender other rich benefits in an effort to quell outrage over a compensation package that made him the brokerage industry’s top-paid executive. 

Cotsakos, E-Trade’s chief executive since 1996, agreed to a more modest contract 10 days after the Menlo Park-based company disclosed that it gave him a 2001 pay package valued at about $80 million. 

E-Trade rewarded Cotsakos against the backdrop of a painful stock market downturn that has battered much of the brokerage industry. Cotsakos has helped insulate E-Trade from the fallout by expanding the online brokerage into banking and other financial services. 

E-Trade still lost $241 million last year and another $276 million during the first three months of this year, a setback the company blamed on special accounting charges. 

E-Trade said it made an operating profit throughout last year, a performance that it credited largely to Cotsakos’ leadership. The company’s 2001 revenue totaled $1.28 billion, up from $73 million annually when Cotsakos first arrived. 

Other brokers trimmed their executives’ paychecks during last year’s market turbulence. 

Last year, Charles Schwab Corp. — the largest online stock brokerage — suspended the bonuses of its co-CEOs, Charles Schwab and David Pottruck. The two men each received $8.1 million bonuses in the prior year. Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch also reduced the pay of their CEOs last year. 

Shareholders still aren’t convinced Cotsakos ranks as the most valuable executive in the brokerage industry. 

Investors expressed their frustration with E-Trade by punishing the company’s stock. The company’s shares dropped by 28 percent in the first few days after E-Trade disclosed Cotsakos’ pay package. 

The stock regained some ground earlier this week, but remains below its price before the indignation over Cotsakos’ contract. E-Trade’s shares fell 17 cents to $5.95 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. E-Trade’s shares peaked at a split-adjusted $36 a little over three years ago. 

“There were some very egregious parts of the arrangement (with Cotsakos) that obviously had to be addressed,” said Judith Fischer, managing director of Executive Compensation Advisory Services, a compensation consultant in Alexandria, Va. 

“But E-Trade should have figured that out before they went public with the details last week.” 

Cotsakos, 53, will face shareholders May 24 at E-Trade’s annual meeting. 

“I have listened to shareowner concerns and want to dispel any doubt that my commitment to the success of this company is unwavering,” Cotsakos said. “I am eager to eliminate the distraction of the compensation discussion so that we can focus on the business.” 

Under his new contract expiring in May 2004, Cotsakos will forgo his salary for the next two years and will receive a bonus “based exclusively on the company’s performance,” E-Trade said. Last year, E-Trade paid Cotsakos a $798,000 salary and a $4.1 million bonus. 

Several other features of last year’s pay package enraged shareholders. 

E-Trade forgave a $15 million loan to Cotsakos, gave him $17.9 million to cover income taxes, contributed $9.9 million to his retirement plan and doled out 4.67 million shares of restricted stock valued at $29.3 million. 

Cotsakos also received stock options with an estimated value ranging between $2.2 million and $5.6 million. 

The new contract requires Cotsakos to return $6 million of his retirement contributions and give back 2 million shares of the restricted stock. 

E-Trade also will pay Cotsakos dramatically less if he loses his job in a takeover. Under the old contract, Cotsakos could have received a $125 million severance package. The new agreement caps his severance pay at $4 million, according to a copy of the contract filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Cotsakos is widely credited for establishing E-Trade as a well-known brand in a short time.


Gap, Inc. faces shareholders, activists

By Mary Perea, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

Workers from Latin America decry conditions at Gap factories 

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After promising better results to shareholders, Gap Inc. management adjourned the company’s annual meeting Friday amid tight security before addressing a small group of workers complaining about conditions in factories outside the United States. 

Representatives of the San Francisco-based clothing retailer took questions from factory workers from Guatemala, El Salvador and South Africa who criticized working conditions at factories from which Gap buys clothes. 

The factory workers, who introduced themselves as shareholders, complained about employee abuse, poor working conditions and very low pay. 

“I’m very proud to sew pants for Gap, but the board of directors should not be proud of what is happening to us,” said worker Maria Luz Panameno, speaking in Spanish. “Gap has abandoned us.” 

The plant where she worked in El Salvador has closed, she said. The plant was not owned by Gap, but produced clothes for the company. 

“It seems like the Gap is punishing us for standing up for our rights,” Panameno said. 

Lauri Shanahan, a senior vice president for Gap, told the workers Gap wants to work with them to resolve issues. Discussing the El Salvador plant, Shanahan said Gap officials “share your concerns and have worked tirelessly about two years with this factory.” 

“We don’t own these factories,” Shanahan said, saying such factories produce clothes for other companies in addition to Gap. 

Gap has compliance teams that monitor such factories, she said. A team was monitoring that factory, and the factory decided to pull out of El Salvador, she said. 

Earlier, Gap management promised shareholders to do better after reporting a 17 percent yearly decline in sales. The company on Thursday reported sales of $962 million for the four-week period that ended May 4, compared with sales of $1.2 billion for the same period last year. 

“Our results for 2001 are particularly disappointing,” said Heidi Kunz, chief financial officer for the San Francisco-based company. 

Millard Drexler, Gap’s chief executive officer, said the company is making management changes such as strengthening merchandising leadership and separating the company’s U.S. and international businesses to allow more focus on each. 

“We’ve come off of the most difficult year in our company’s history, and we’ve learned a lot,” Drexler said. 

Gap also is returning to the products that made it famous — khaki and denim, Drexler said. 

Kunz said Gap could not keep up with store growth over the last few years. 

“We shut off the new store pipeline a few months ago,” she said, adding it will not reopen until the company regains momentum. 


Small wine importers fight to hold share of the industry

By Stefanie Frith, The Associateed Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

SACRAMENTO — Small wine importers fear a bill that would limit distribution of wine into California, backed by a British beverage conglomerate and the wine industry’s trade group, could monopolize the state’s wine market and wipe out their businesses. 

Pushed by Diageo, the multinational corporation that owns Guinness, Seagram, Sterling and Beaulieu Vineyards as well as Burger King, AB 1922 would let only an importer designated by the winemaker bring its brands of wine into California. Diageo also has import rights for hundreds of French wine brands. 

Called a “primary source” law, the proposal would benefit consumers by allowing greater quality control for wine, said a representative from the Wine Institute, an industry trade group. 

Marketing experts and owners of small wine shops disagree, however. Instead of looking out for consumers, Diageo and its allies want to lock up a greater share of California’s huge wine market. 

Diageo is angling to create trade barriers to boost the prices they can get for their brands, said Ira Kalb, a Santa Monica-based marketing consultant. 

“They haven’t been able to create enough identity (in California) and are looking for the government to do it for them,” Kalb said. 

With its purchase of Seagram’s brands last year, Diageo can now claim the No. 1 or No. 2 make in each category of world’s biggest spirits market, the United States. But financial analysts say Diageo paid a premium for those brands and must look for ways to improve its revenues. 

So far, the bill by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, has attracted the support of the biggest players in the state’s wine industry. Along with Diageo, the bill is backed by giant wholesalers, such as Young’s Market and Southern Wine and Spirits. 

It is also supported by the Wine Institute, which represents more than 600 small wineries in California. Top Diageo executives are members of the Wine Institute’s board of directors. 

Diageo officials did not return repeated calls for comment from The Associated Press. 

Wholesalers and Diageo have donated thousands of dollars to Firebaugh and other members of the Assembly, including House Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, and Assemblyman Jerome Horton, a Los Angeles Democrat whose committee approved the bill April 15. 

According to state campaign finance records, these wholesalers have donated more than $80,000 to Wesson and funds he controls, $15,000 to a fund controlled by former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, $2,000 to Firebaugh and about $6,500 to Horton. 

Also, state lobbying records show, Diageo’s United Distillers and Vineyards division has spent more than $100,000 on lobbying expenses during this legislative session. 

Opposing them is the recently created California Fine Wine Alliance, a coalition of small wine importers. They said the bill would cost more than $100 million in retail wine sales each year, and California would lose $10 million in sales taxes. 

The bill would expand California’s primary source law to include wine, meaning importers would need to pay taxes on all wines they bring into the state. 

The law now applies only to distilled spirits, which can only be brought into the state by wholesalers authorized by the alcohol maker. California is one of the few states that does not have a primary source law for wine, said Mike Falasco, a legislative analyst for the Wine Institute. The bill would just make California comply with the rest of the country, he said. 

Thirty-two states have primary source laws for wine, said Bob Frohling, an analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

The bill, Falasco said, would also let wineries better determine who is selling their products and give wineries more control over quality. 

If a customer is dissatisfied with wine, Falasco said, the winemaker wants to know why. “Maybe it’s a bad batch or a bad cork” caused by wine importers storing wine improperly in hot warehouses. 

That’s ridiculous, said Todd Zucker, president of K&L Wine Merchants in Redwood City, a small wine importer. 

Importers take great care in importing wine, storing it in refrigerated boxes and warehouses, Zucker said. Even the $6 and $10 bottles are cared for, because “we can alienate more customers by not taking care of inexpensive bottles.” 

“We would not be able to keep our brands strong if we were constantly selling products that were coming back to us,” Zucker said. 

Firebaugh said the bill is about preserving a brand’s integrity, and small importers could still import wine if they sign an agreement with the wine maker. 

The agreement, Firebaugh said, would require that the product be safeguarded against tampering. This way, the manufacturer would always know who’s selling their wine and where. 

Importers, however, said reaching such agreements would be difficult, because they often import just one bottle from many wineries. 

Assemblyman Dick Dickerson, R-Redding, the only one to vote against AB 1922 during its first hearing in the Governmental Operations Committee last week, said the bill “would hurt small wholesale businesses and small wineries if they had to live under these regulations.” The bill is set to be heard by the Appropriations Committee May 8. 

The bill was approved by the Committee on Governmental Organization with an 18-1 vote. Horton, however, rushed through opponents because the meeting was running late. He did, however, allow the proponents to speak on the bill’s behalf, while the long line of opponents was left to only state their name and affiliation.


Juxtaposed photos yield surprising insights, visual delights

By Peter Crimmins, Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday May 11, 2002

A first glance at the photographs hanging in the entrance hallway of Photolab in West Berkeley could cause some confusion. The well-executed pictures carefully hung along the long, narrow passage are a seemingly random collection of moments and memories with titles like “After the Rain, Old Quebec (Quebec, 1984)” and “Adria at Ebbets Field (Brooklyn, NY, 1950)” and “Cow, Point Reyes National Seashore (Marin, CA, 1995)”.  

The simple and curiously strong compositions come from Stephen A. Fisher, a self-taught Berkeley photographer who, for the last 50 years, has been taking photos of his family, his travels, and the sudden chance inspirations visiting his keen eye. Individually, the quality of the mostly color photos are several notches above the work of an exuberant shutterbug; these are thoughtfully composed portraits and landscapes with a deft sense of energy in the design of a subject placed compellingly in its environment. 

Together, these seemingly random photos represent an exercise in form described succinctly by the show’s title: “Stephen A. Fisher: Images In Juxtaposition.” The hallway of photos, which stretch behind Photolab’s cashier counter and around its printing machine, are presenting pictures in pairs to highlight the similarities of Fisher’s composition techniques.  

Upon entering the building from the sidewalk, the first set of photos begins with “Train to Kuranda (Queensland, Australia, 1997)” wherein Fisher, seated inside a train car moving along a track cut into the side of a mountain, took a photo of the train ahead as it glides dramatically to the left. Next to that picture is another of his wife, Susan, wearing a sundress circa 1965, standing in a patio overlooking Laguna Beach, the seashore sweeping dramatically to the right. The inspiration, Fisher writes in the show’s program notes, comes from an obscure French film called “That Man From Rio” (with “Breathless” star Jean-Paul Belmondo), a farce which had Belmondo hanging from a hotel balcony above the dramatic sweep of Copacabana Beach. 

The clever mix-and-match conceit of the show gets some weight as it reveals expressive nuance from Fisher’s bag of tricks. Three photos of ponds and puddles reflecting the color of the sky create a collage effect in the striking color contrast as a piece of the sky is laid into the land. Nearby on the gallery wall is “Children in the Rearview Mirror (Near Sonoma Coast, 1973)”, a shot of the landscape taken through the window of a moving car, in the middle of which is a mirror reflecting the kids in the back seat. Fisher uses the disjunctive image in the mirror to produce a similar collage effect, contrasting the expanse of land outside with the small confines of the travelers inside. 

Some of these techniques Fisher has been utilizing repeatedly in his amateur photography over the last 50 years. But revisiting his portfolio to put this show together – his first – held some surprises. “It’s really been a revelation to me,” he said. “Sometimes it’s totally unconscious.” Two of his pictures, taken 35 years apart, both show a person, alone, in an environment blanketed in white: fog in one case, snow in another. The feeling is similar, however the artist admits he didn’t realize just how similar until the photos were laid side by side. 

There are two photos of the World Trade Center – both taken out a window from the restaurant on the 107th floor. Both are juxtaposed with other photos to highlight the vertical lines (of trees, of window panes, of the Twin Towers’ shadows) and the contrast of foreground and background. These are the most telling case of how the show’s formalist aim does not allow any one photo to stand on its own. The pairing of the pictures leads the viewer away from any profundity a picture’s subject might provoke in favor of the show’s overarching compare-and-contrast structure.  

A small card is hung among the photos – it isn’t obvious, you have to look for it – describing the nature of juxtaposition. Written by Fisher’s son Jacob Fisher, who has a Ph.D., in rhetoric, it cites culture philosopher Michel Foucault: ‘Space is the metaphor of the possibility that things can be juxtaposed.” 

When asked what that means in laymen’s terms, the father Fisher said, “juxtaposition happens in space, and space itself is a trope. Space is a medium in which you could move things around.” 

The experience happens not just in the somewhat cramped space of Photolab but in the mind of the viewer: the energy frozen in the photos – the soft lighting and rich red color of a hallway in “Pat, St. Francis Hotel” or the physical joy of diving in “Karin, Albany Pool” – vibrate in the mind’s eye when seen together. 

Professionally, Fisher is a psychiatrist, working most of his life in community mental health institutions. His career and his hobby came together in a documentary he made, “Veterans Home, Yountville,” about a state facility in Napa Valley, and once hoped to make a film about the history, evolution and demise of the psychiatric institution as a community. The film would have been called “Town in the Fog.” Fog, said Fisher, is a metaphor of a confused mental state, but it can also be a great comfort, a protection. 

“All of my pictures with people show people in relationship to their environment,” said Fisher, “there’s a harmony between people and environment.” 

This insight sheds a different light on the photos of blanketed whiteness. What might seem to be two men, 35 years apart, stranded in a featureless, colorless isolation could invoke a mental peace, and denote a world wherein its people enjoy a blissful calm, albeit alone. Any one photo might not be able to communicate that. 

 

Stephen A. Fisher’s “Images In Juxtaposition” is on display until June 8 at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644 1400.


Tip of the Week

- Morris and James Carey
Saturday May 11, 2002

On cleaning tubs and showers 

 

You were about to take a shower, but after closer observation of the fiberglass pan, decided it needed cleaning more than you did. You scrubbed and rubbed, but nothing would clean it. Here’s a concoction that should help: Mix two tablespoons of turpentine into a half cup of table salt, scrub with a nylon bristle brush, and be prepared for a shine. Don’t rinse this solution down the drain. Instead, wipe it up with a paper towel. That way you don’t introduce dangerous chemicals into the waste system. After the paper towels have air-dried, they’re safe to discard in the normal fashion. 

 


Old growth forest activists mark fourth year in tree

By Scott Maben, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

LOWELL, Ore. — They’re still here, on plywood platforms and under blue tarps, watching the forest from the treetops and waiting for word that their efforts have paid off. 

Four years ago two young men climbed 180 feet up an old-growth Douglas fir in the Willamette National Forest to block plans to log 96 acres of timber. Protesters say they’ve been there every day since, making it the longest continuous tree-sit against old-growth logging in the Northwest. 

“It really tells you something about the commitment of these guys to protect what’s left of mature and old-growth forests on public lands,” said James Johnston of the Cascadia Wildlands Project, a Eugene-based environmental group. “I know they’ll be out here another four years, if that’s what it takes.” 

The battle, already marked by blockades, arrests and lawsuits, is expected to rage on. 

The U.S. Forest Service has set aside 70 percent of the Clark sale area to protect habitat for the red tree vole — a nocturnal, fir needle-munching rodent that lives in the upper reaches of old Douglas fir trees and is a staple of the northern spotted owl’s diet. 

Still, activists say they’re nowhere near ready to abandon their perches and roadblocks. 

“We want of course to defend this until the sale is canceled,” one of the tree-sitters said. 

Timber industry leaders say they hope to see just the opposite at Clark and other delayed timber sales in the Northwest. 

They’re waiting to see if Bush administration officials will loosen the grip on logging in public forests and restore the original timber volume promised under President Clinton’s much-criticized Northwest Forest Plan. 

Across the region, the forest plan was to provide 20 percent of the historic harvest levels, but instead it has resulted in just 4 percent while the Forest Service surveys for wildlife and the courts consider ongoing legal battles. 

The Clark sale is “exactly the kind of timber sale that scientists thought should go ahead under the Northwest Forest Plan,” said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a Portland-based industry group. 

“It’s an isolated block of mature forest, and because of its small size, it doesn’t have as much importance as other stands that they protected in the plan. That’s why it was proposed for harvest,” West said. 

The timber was sold to Zip-O-Log Mills Inc. of Eugene in early 1998, but the company hasn’t been able to start cutting. It’s now negotiating with Willamette forest officials over the logging cutbacks. 

“The sale has changed substantially because of the numbers of red tree vole nests,” said Rick Scott, the Middle Fork District ranger. “The question is, is it still an economically viable sale?” 

If Zip-O-Log accepts the modified sale, the company could log 29 acres as soon as this year, Scott said. Or the sale could be canceled, if the company and the agency agree it has changed too much. 

“I don’t think this was what they intended when they passed the Northwest Forest Plan back in 1994,” said Jim Hallstrom, president of Zip-O-Log. “It was supposed to smooth things out and speed things up and give the industry some kind of volume that they could count on. And it just hasn’t done that.” 

Last year, timber harvested on the Willamette totaled 17 million board feet — far less than the 138 million board feet promised under the regional forest plan or the revised target of 111 million board feet adopted after the Willamette mapped creekside setbacks and special habitat reserves. 

Forest Service officials in Washington, D.C., are now reviewing which plants and animals they should continue to survey and protect before allowing ground-disturbing projects to move forward on agency lands. 

Environmentalists say they worry that industry pressure could lead the Forest Service to drop the tree vole from the required survey list, possibly returning the Clark timber sale to its original size. 

“The whole process is taking place behind closed doors,” said Leeanne Siart, a biologist in the Eugene office of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, which is at the forefront of environmental challenges in the state. 

Unsure what will happen — or when — the protesters plan to hold their ground in the Fall Creek watershed about 25 miles east of Eugene. 

In the first year, the Clark sale and the protest it spawned led to repeated confrontations between activists and Forest Service officers. In the last couple of years, officials mostly have left them alone. But the activists are still ready for a showdown. 

Approaching the area, visitors encounter crude roadblocks along the twisting spur roads leading to the stands marked for logging. Activists built them from rocks and branches, hoping to slow down anyone who drives in to try to remove them or dismantle their camps. 

Up one tree in a dense stand of old growth, a woman played the flute. On a steep slope in a younger stand of trees, a young man calling himself “Ta” offered to share some of the food he prepared more than 100 feet up the trunk of a fir. 

Fruit Fly, a soft-spoken man with a thick, dark beard, pointed to a tree in the stand that supports a tree vole nest. The Forest Service labeled the nest inactive, which doesn’t prompt a protective buffer, but he believes otherwise. 

Either way, it shows that much is left to be learned about where the animal lives and what it needs to survive, he said. 

“Every inactive nest could very well become active, so what’s the reason to cut it?” he said. 

Fruit Fly, in the base camp this day, also has taken his turn on the doughnut-shaped platforms suspended by ropes high up in the trees. It’s lonely duty, and the wind and rain and cold can make it bleak. 

But he also finds it refreshing and rewarding. 

“Things move a lot slower and you’re kind of living in accordance with the trees and nature and the animals and observing that rather than observing traffic lights and horns and cars and lights and stuff,” he said. “In the upper canopy itself, there’s a whole different type of ecosystem.” 

On the platforms, movement is limited. 

“That’s why it’s probably not good to spend forever in the tree,” Fruit Fly said. “For human beings, we’re not necessarily meant to live in trees like that. Our habitat is different I guess. But it’s a fun habitat to hang out in.” 

It’s also dangerous. A 22-year-old Portland woman died April 12 after falling 150 feet from a platform at the Eagle Creek timber sale protest in the Mount Hood National Forest near Estacada. That timber sale had been canceled three days before the protester’s death. 

Siart said the accident has hit the activist community hard and is still sinking in. Tree-sitters know and accept the risks, but they also are taught to follow strict safety guidelines, such as making sure people use safety lines when they move from one platform to another. 

As part of the Clark protest’s recent four-year anniversary, activists offered training in skills such as tree-scaling basics and safety protocols. 

For now, there appears to be no quick conclusion to the standoff. 

The timber industry has filed suit in federal court in Eugene challenging the legality of the Forest Service’s wildlife survey and management program. Environmentalists have filed their own lawsuit in Seattle, where decisions have tended to favor their causes. 

“I’m disappointed that our political leaders haven’t fixed this problem,” said Johnston of the Cascadia Wildlands Project, “but I’m not surprised the public is still willing to clearly put their lives on the line to protect places like this.”


Orange County doctor jailed in Israel goes on hunger strike

The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

LOS ANGELES — An Orange County doctor jailed in Israel on suspicion of terrorism began a hunger strike Friday to protest his detention without formal charges, his brother said. 

Riad Abdelkarim, 34, is being held at the Petach Tikva Detention Center outside Tel Aviv. He was detained Sunday following a 10-day trip to assess medical needs in the Palestinian territories for the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps. 

His brother, Basim Abdelkarim, said he learned of the hunger strike from Israeli human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel. 

“It’s to protest his detention,” he said, adding he does not know if the jailed doctor is consuming liquid. He said a candlelight vigil is planned for Saturday outside City Hall in Orange, where Abdelkarim lives with his wife and four children. 

Relatives and friends of Abdelkarim have expressed frustration over his arrest. 

“They have made all these accusations. It’s outrageous that they can get away with it,” his brother said. “If they had any evidence they would have charged him.” 

David Douek, a spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, has said officials in Israel won’t reveal the evidence against Abdelkarim because of security concerns. 

A U.S. State Department memo released this week said a judge issued a ruling Monday ordering that Abdelkarim be held for eight days on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization and attempting to fund terrorist organizations.” 

Abdelkarim, born in California to Palestinian parents, is a frequent commentator on Middle East issues who has taken positions against Arab extremism and Israeli army abuses. He was questioned by the FBI after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and wrote an opinion piece in which he condemned being singled out because of his ethnicity and political beliefs. 


National Guard troops leave California airports after months on duty

By Paul Glader, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — Concluding an eight-month operation that involved about 800 troops and cost the state about $40 million, the last of the National Guard units that provided added security at 30 California airports headed back home Friday. 

“Our job there was to protect the public from any untoward activities that might occur and to provide a presence that connoted a trained, armed and disciplined force,” said National Guard Lt. Col. Dick Loesch. 

Gov. Gray Davis ordered the guardsmen into airports around the state to boost security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At a cost of up to $5.5 million a month for payroll and operations costs, Loesch said the overall cost was about $40 million. 

The departure marked the end of insomnia for David Young, Brett Brendix and the rest of the Moon Dogs, a troop of reservists who worked from midnight to noon at San Francisco Interational Airport. 

“We’re ready to go,” said Brendix, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the 12 soldiers on the night shift. 

Brendix said he hasn’t slept well during the day, and is looking forward to being closer to his family in Sacramento. 

“My wife told me she can’t wait until I can be home to help with family responsibilities again,” said Brendix, a father of two. “She’s had to be both mom and dad, and it’s been pretty tough on her.” 

On their last day at San Francisco’s airport, National Guard soldiers reflecting on their months of duty said that one passenger stood out — the naked woman who tried to stroll through an airport checkpoint. 

“A woman got out of the taxi, stripped down to her skin and tried to walk through this checkpoint naked,” said Chief Warrant Officer David Young, pointing to a United Airlines checkpoint. 

The woman was arrested, and the soldiers returned to their mundane routine. 

The soldiers, who wore camouflage uniforms and carried assault rifles, will be replaced with armed police officers. Federal transportation officials hope to hire at least 60,000 screeners to replace private employees at the nation’s 429 commercial airports by Nov. 19. 

At Sacramento International Airport, 50 members of the National Guard who have been staffing security checkpoints since Oct. 12 were feted at a ceremony to thank them early Friday morning. 

“It was a successful mission and the soldiers and airmen were proud to serve,” said National Guard spokeswoman Denise Varner. “But they are happy to go back to their lives.” 

At 4:30 a.m. Friday, the guardsmen were replaced by local sheriff’s deputies from the Sacramento area. About 34 officers will provide security in two different overtime shifts, at 10 hours apiece. 

Although the soldiers are leaving the airports, officials said there is no plan to remove the 100 soldiers who now patrol four bridges from San Diego to San Francisco. 

The troops were deployed in November after Davis said there was evidence of possible terrorist threats on the bridges. 

“The threat is still there,” said National Guard Col. Terry Knight. “Has anyone done anything yet? No.” 

Troops began pulling out of Los Angeles International Airport and other Southern California commercial airports on April 30. By Friday, not a soldier was in sight at the Los Angeles airport, where passenger Robert Wilson said he didn’t believe the troops had a big impact on security. 

“They served as a visual deterrent for would-be troublemakers, but they didn’t make me feel any safer about flying,” he said. 

Guardswoman Alexsandra Serda, 19, said travelers weren’t always pleased with the presence of armed guards standing watch with guns. She said on her first day on the job at the San Francisco airport, an elderly woman shoved a soldier after airport staff took away her two butter knives. 

“A lot of the old ladies tend to get rowdy,” she said. 

Guards said the job was sometimes boring as they stood watching and waiting with their M-16s in hand. Defusing tempers of frustrated passengers was the most common action they saw. But some San Francisco passengers said Friday they will miss the guards. 

“I hate to see them leave,” said Hugh McCullough of Cincinnati, returning from a cruise with his wife, Donna. “I feel more comfortable with them than with the rent-a-cops they will be getting.”


Luxury kitchen and bath products dazzle in Chicago show

By James and Morris Carey, The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

We recently attended the 21st annual Kitchen & Bath Show in Chicago, where — along with 40,000 other industry professionals — we were dazzled by new and exciting products for the two most important rooms in the home. 

Consumers today demand more convenience, style and luxury, and manufacturers have responded with more high-end glamour, personal pampering and make-sense innovations than ever before. The kitchen still is the focal point of the home. If you are in doubt of that, just note where everyone gathers the next time you throw a party. 

Today’s kitchen has evolved into a marvel of a workspace. Nestled amid fine furniture-quality cabinetry and glistening stretches of eye-catching countertop are impressive electronics and appliances. 

The gleaming stainless-steel look still dominates appliances. However, a growing segment of the high-end market now also is offering a spectrum of vibrant bold colors to intrigue buyers and stimulate design imagination. It is indeed stunning to see deep blues, fiery reds and brilliant yellows in designs. 

Electronics, such as high-tech television sets, self-diagnostics and computer-Internet capabilities have made major inroads in the kitchen as well. Energy-efficiency — especially in refrigerators — remains a major industry goal. 

One surprising new trend: kitchens are moving outdoors. Full backyard kitchens — with elaborate grills, refrigerators, warming drawers, wet sinks and dishwashers — now are offered by numerous manufacturers, especially in sunbelt climates. Next time you’re cruising the appliance department, see what companies like Viking, Coleman, Jenn-Air, Thermador, Dacor and Wolf are up to. 

Remember the new space-age concept oven we recently wrote about that keeps food cold all day and then switches over to cook mode? Well, they’re here. Whirlpool has just introduced the industry’s first refrigerated range. It both cools and cooks on preprogrammed command, and will have delicious piping hot home-cooked meals ready and waiting for you when you get home. For more info visit www.whirlpool.com or call (800)-253-1301. The only thing yet to be made available is the remote-control capability for refrigerated ovens being pioneered by Tonight’s Menu — www.cyberovens.com or (440)-838-5135. 

Turning from dream kitchens to spectacular bathrooms, we can sum things up in two words: “luxury” and “beauty.” 

One striking new trend is glass-vessel sink bowls that rest on countertops or atop thick glass with exposed plumbing. Bowl designs are many, ranging from gleaming steel or glass to hand-painted antique porcelain. When coupled with today’s dramatic faucet technologies, the result is an eye magnet. 

There were more European-styled luxury influences, as well. Wall-mounted “off-floor” toilet systems — with the recessed water tank hidden between wall studs — are gaining in popularity. Water-saving toilets with gravity-fed, anti-clog quiet flush mechanisms now are widely featured. Comfort is also a feature with varied heights, sizes and configurations. Kohler now offers a heated toilet seat. 

Bathing keeps getting better and better. Still No. 1 on the American homeowner’s wish list is the soothing bubbling whirlpool tub. And the innovations and variations keep on coming. One interesting adaptation is the combination of vintage Victorian claw-foot tub styling with all the bells and whistles of new high-tech models made with lightweight, easy-care materials and built-in whirlpool jets. For more info on the Caspian Victorian whirlpool tub by American Bath Factory visit www.americanbathfactory.com or call (800)-454-BATH. 

Another new bathing experience is the Sok Bath (pronounced “soak”) with Chromatherapy by Kohler. The tub has a fully lighted interior surface with eight colors that slowly change underwater. Just dim the lights, and “color” yourself soothed and relaxed. For more info visit www.kohler.com or call (800)-456-4537. 

Overall, there were more commonsense innovations and products than ever before — small touches, that provide convenience and personal luxury. Towel warmers, once a snooty European import, now are cropping up in more upscale American bathrooms, as are floor-warming systems. Another product that is becoming popular is the hotel-style combination shelf and towel bar. Other nifty accessories we liked include the Hy-Da-Plunge recessed bathroom wall cabinet — to keep plunger, toilet brush and cleaner handy, yet out of sight — by Helber Industries — www.hydaplunge.com or (950)-523-6935. And the Never-MT (“empty” — get it?) soap dispenser conversion kit (by Hy-Lite Products) that attaches to your kitchen-sink dispenser pump and draws liquid soap directly from a big family-size soap container in the base cabinet. For info visit www.hy-lite.com pr call (800)-827-3691. 

For more home improvement tips and information visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

 

 

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


Protests spur calls for police reform

By Kurtis Alexander, Daily Planet Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

The take-home message at an impassioned citizens’ forum Wednesday night was that police brutality exists in Berkeley and there’s little that residents can do about it. 

A crowd of nearly 50 UC students and Berkeley residents shared repeated testimony of violent choke-holds and misuse of pepper spray by the UC Police Department, and said that oversight of the controversial conduct was negligible. 

“You and I have no say in how we’re policed,” said Andrea Prichett, a volunteer of the citizen oversight group Copwatch and featured speaker at Wednesday’s gathering. “You try to tell someone you don’t like the way you’re policed, it will fall upon deaf ears.” 

Critics at the jointly-sponsored forum, sponsored by Copwatch and the university’s Student Advocate Office, acknowledged that the campus police department has a board to review citizen concerns but charged that the board is only symbolic, with no intention or power to critique police action. 

UC police, though declining an invitation to attend the forum, disagreed with this assessment. 

“We’ve always thought our review process was adequate,” said Captain Bill Cooper prior to Wednesday’s forum. “I don’t know what has caused the need for this [gathering].” 

Cooper explained that his department has recently enacted a number of “self-analysis” policies. Among them are requiring police to testify before the review board, which was initially optional, and adding a community member to the board. The new policies are slated for review and improvement in 2003, Copper said. 

But critics claim the police board still falls short of its mission. 

“The police review board does not have an office. They do not have a phone number. They do not have a place where complaints can be filed,” explained student Alex Kipnis, a member of the university’s Student Advocate Office and featured speaker. 

“I wish there was a review board, something real, not this Mickey Mouse act,” stated audience member and Berkeley resident Michael Diehl. 

UC’s Cooper conceded that the current police review board is not in full working order, noting that the board has no chairperson to lead it and lacks certain resources. 

Cooper passed responsibility for staffing the board and bringing it up to speed, though, to the university’s chancellor’s office. 

Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell, who oversees campus police and was invited to speak at Wednesday’s forum, was out of town this week and not available for comment. 

“I know they’re working on getting a chair [for the review board],” Cooper noted. 

But critics say the university has moved too slow and, this week, drafted a letter urging Mitchell to take more immediate action. The letter demands that the police review board be given greater muscle, that citizens observing police action not be unduly restricted, and that choke-holds and pepper spray be prohibited. 

The letter comes as community demonstrations are on the rise in Berkeley given the Middle East conflict, and with it, the possibility of questionable police intervention. 

The April 9 demonstration at the university’s Wheeler Hall resulted in 79 arrests and numerous concerns about excessive force, buckling the radar of activist groups. 

“While Berkeley’s municipal police department and even the California Highway Patrol have discontinued the use of chokeholds, the UC Police Department continues to employee this dubious practice,” the letter to Mitchell states. 

Likewise, UC police continue to use pepper spray though city police are not prevented from doing so, the letter adds. 

Wednesday’s forum ended with a pledge among the attendees to remain united and committed to their demands of the university. 

“I hope this is going to turn into something,” said Berkeley resident Aimee Durfee, who said she has lost her faith in police accountability. 

Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington, also present at Wednesday’s forum, vowed his support for civilian rights and sympathized with the group’s demands on police. 

“It’s shocking that they have to ask for this,” he said.


Who’s Left?

- Stephen Dunifer
Friday May 10, 2002

To the Editor: 

A recent announcement from the office of City Councilmember Dona Spring calls for citizen participation in a convention to select a “progressive” candidate to run against current Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean. (The convention took place Saturday, May 4.) This announcement proudly asserts that the last time such an event  

occurred it resulted in the election of two-term Mayor Loni Hancock. 

Given that Dona Spring, who deserves to be known as the Green Party's brown thumb, is the source for this call, this should make the whole process suspect from the beginning. 

Loni Hancock was an unmitigated disaster for Berkeley. 

Her hand-picked choice for city manger, Michael Brown, militarized the Berkeley Police. He embarked on a campaign against dissent in Berkeley and created the police unit known as “The Crowd Management Team.” During that time, supposed progressive City Council members voted for the use of crowd control munitions (rubber and wooden bullets) by BPD. 

These had been used on crowds protesting construction of volley ball courts on People’s Park. At the City Council meeting where the deciding votes were cast, City Manager Brown stood on the stage of the Berkeley Community Theatre and pointed out community activists to be dragged out and arrested, some notable activists such as Carol Denney were hog-tied like farm animals.  

The progressive City Council and Mayor Hancock did nothing to intervene in this gross violation of civil rights and liberties. Loni Hancock pushed through legislation that allowed the most notorious developer in Berkeley, UCB, to ok its own Environmental Impact Report findings, giving up the city's right to review them. 

The City Council committed a clear violation of the voters’ will when it passed Measure N in the mid ‘80s. This ballot measure commanded city officials to take every possible measure to ensure UCB's compliance with existing zoning laws and the General Plan. So far, not one city official has made any effort to enforce the will of the voters expressed in Measure N. 

Mayor Hancock was totally complicit in the university's construction of volleyball courts on People's Park and lied about her involvement repeatedly. A public records request revealed letters from the mayor to the UC Chancellor that detailed cooperative planning efforts between the city and UCB for the construction of the volleyball courts. 

Ms Spring’s record is total anathema to what the Green platform is supposed to stand for.  

Unfortunately, the local Green Party is nothing more than a reelection vehicle for Dona Spring and will not do anything to hold her accountable to the Green Party platform. Ms. Spring was on the committee that drafted the "poor law" proposals used to further legitimize and codify Berkeley's war against the homeless. Further, Ms. Spring, at the behest of local merchants who complained about homeless folks camping out on a bench on Shattuck Avenue, personally ordered city workers to remove the offending piece of outdoor furniture. She voted for the privatization of the city parking garages, depriving union workers of jobs. To avoid offending downtown merchants she voted against HUD money to be used to create low income housing in downtown Berkeley. 

In many critical votes on progressive issues where it came down to her as the swing vote she waffled by abstaining, thus allowing items to defeated by council “moderates.” 

When it comes down to walking the talk, Berkeley “progressives” remain hobbled at the starting line by their own self-serving tendency to compromise at the first hint of opposition and timorous fear of being portrayed as being too radical rather than standing on principle. Not one supposed “progressive” on the City Council has denounced the illegal labor practices employed by certain city of Berkeley departments. Part-time employees of the city do not receive benefits and are limited to fewer than 30 hours per week, the break point between part-time and full-time.  

If a part-time employee works more than 30 hours, they are ordered to carry the extra time over to next week’s time card so they will not move up to full time status and thus become eligible for benefits. Nor have any “progressive” City Council members called for the firing of City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque who, among her many notable endeavors, has done her best to legally justify city actions against the homeless and the undermining of the Brown Act (open meeting laws) by city departments and commissions. 

Anyone who plans to attend this convention should be aware of the hypocritical history of the “progressive left” in Berkeley and how they have attacked, marginalized, and silenced community activists who were  

working for a truly just social agenda and vision. This whole process may be nothing more than an attempt by Ms. Spring to position herself to be selected as the “progressive” candidate for mayor or create a “mandate” for a late entry candidate such as Tom Bates. Ultimately this campaign may be doomed to failure due to the lack of a truly viable candidate, its late start, and the machine-like efficiency of the Shirley Dean campaign to raise funds and consolidate its base of support. Tom Bates would continue the legacy of the Bates/Dellums  

machine which dominated and controlled Berkeley “progressive” politics for the last 15 years. 

 

- Stephen Dunifer 

Berkeley 


Out & About Calendar

Staff
Friday May 10, 2002


Friday, May 10

 

New Sculpture & Paintings by Jody Sears & Michele Ramirez 

Opening reception: Saturday May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. 

Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Ardency Gallery 

709 Broadway 

Oakland 

836-0831, e-mail: gallery709@aol.com 

Free 

 


Saturday, May 11

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

530-0551 

$3 

 

Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Events 

Paper Flower Making 

Get ready for Mother's Day with the Klutz "Tissue Paper Flower" kit and learn to make tissue paper flowers. Age 8 and up.  

LHS Film- Happy Birthday, Mr. Feynman 

Film Plays Continuously from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

To celebrate the birthday of Nobel laureate, maverick physicist, author, and teacher extraordinaire Richard Feynman, 

LHS presents the film, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. This fifty-minute film presents Feynman telling fascinating 

stories from his life and research. Produced by Christopher Sykes. 

LHS- The Idea Lab 

Opens May 11 

See what LHS is developing as new hands-on exhibits. Test out exhibit prototypes of activities and give your opinion of them. Testing and experimenting is the idea behind the Idea Lab. This new permanent exhibit begins with explorations of magnetism.  

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

$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. 

LHS is on Centennial Drive- 

above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle. 

 

33rd Annual California Wildflower Show 

Exhibit with 150 species of freshly gathered native flowers 

Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1-888-OAK-MUSE 

$6 general admission, $4 senior and students with ID, free for five and under.  

 

Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions 

Live Science Demonstrations 

In this directed activity, children "audition" to be a dinosaur in an upcoming dinosaur movie. They learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. These demonstrations explore recent discoveries, fossils, and how scientists know what they know about dinosaurs 

Monday-Friday at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 

Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m. 

$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, May 12

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

530-0551 

$3 

 

Kathy Kallick Mother's Day Concert 

1 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$6.50 kids, $7.50 adults 

 

The Bungalow - Tradition & Transformation 

seminar by Barry Wagner 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 


Monday, May 13

 

Jai Uttal with Bhima-Karma 

A Celebration of Devotion: An Evening of Chanting and Dialogue 

7:00 p.m. 

California Institute of Integral Studies 

1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 

For questions and tickets: 415-575-6150 

www.ciis.edu 

or e-mail info@ciis.edu 

$20 

 

Jewish Partisans: The Unknown Story 

Thousands of Jews escaped the ghettos and work camps and took up arms against the Nazi War machine. 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

848-0237 X 127 

Free 

 

Crossing the Bridge- positive ways to face change & transition. Reflective & energizing workshop rooted in Jewish and cross cultural stories with Ariel Abramsky facilitating. 

May 13, 20 & June 3 

7:00 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

848-0237 X 127 

$45 

 

Book Discussion Group Forming 

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library 

7:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch, Berkeley Public Library 

2940 Benvenue St. 

Free 

 

Buying Land 

seminar by real estate agent Dan Maher 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 


Arts & Entertainment Calendar

Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

 

Friday, May 10 

Live Music - Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Saturday, May 11 

W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert, “The Art of the Spiritual” 

Featuring African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo soprano Vanessa Ayers, tenors Samual McKelton and William Brown, Baritone Autris Paige and bass-baritone Benjamin Matthews, and pianist Dennis Helmrich. 

7:30 p.m. 

Calvin Simmons Theater 

10 Tenth Street 

Oakland 

For tickets: SASE to PO Box 507, Berkeley, 94701, or e-mail: fourseasonsconcerts@juno.com with your name, address & phone number to have tickets held at the box office or call 510-451-0775  

Free - Reserved Seating Required 

 

 

Robin Flower & Libby McLaren 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Live Music - Classic Jazz Singer Robin Gregory with Bliss Rodriguez on piano 

2nd show: Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Due West 

Dynamic traditional bluegrass 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Live Music- Choro Time, Vintage Brazilian Music (20’s), Ron Galen & Group 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

 

Saturday, May 11 

Word Beat Reading Series 

Entertainers of all kinds come together . Featuring readers Rita Flores Bogaert and Ann Hunkins 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

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

Free 

 

English Song Recital  

featuring Kirk Eichelberger, bass, with Christopher Luthi, piano  

7:00 p.m.  

Valley Christian High School, 100 Skyway Drive, San Jose.  

Tickets are available for a $100 tax-deductible donation.  

All proceeds benefit the Discovery Center's educational therapy program. 

 

 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

 

“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, ala@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 

 

 

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.


Repeat performance means end of line for ’Jackets

By Jared Green, Daily Planet Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

Repeat performance means end of line for ’Jackets 

 

 

The Berkeley High boys’ tennis team went into Thursday’s North Coast Section matchup with De La Salle with a pretty good idea of what they were facing. Unfortunately, the ’Jackets couldn’t figure out how to change history. 

After losing 4-3 to the Spartans two weeks ago in a tuneup for the playoffs, fifth-seeded Berkeley (12-4) fell by the same score on Thursday at Club Sport Valley Vista in Walnut Creek, ending their season. The distribution of wins and losses was identical, with fourth-seeded De La Salle (21-2) claiming victory in the No. 1 and 2 singles and doubles and Berkeley cleaning up with wins from their No. 3 and 4 singles and No. 3 doubles team. 

The outcome of the match was decided early, as the Spartans won four of the first five completed matchups. Jim Pucetti was the first to claim a win, beating Jonah Schrogin 6-0, 6-3 in the No. 2 singles spot.  

Next to fall for Berkeley was top solo Nicky Baum, beaten by Mike Reiser 6-2, 7-5. Baum had taken Reiser to a third set in their first meeting, but just couldn’t get going on Thursday. Each player started the match by breaking their opponent twice, but Baum tailed off as Reiser got stronger. 

“I think I could have won either match, but it just didn’t happen for me today,” Baum said. “I broke him a few times, but he just happened to break me right back.” 

The top doubles match was the next to end, with De La Salle’s Ian Hardey and Nick Campbell beating Berkeley’s Ben Chambers and Quincy Moore 7-5, 6-2. The Berkeley side had a good shot at winning the first set, going up 5-4 and holding serve, but some untimely errors gave the Spartan team the next three games for the set. 

“We had a big opportunity there, but I just couldn’t get my serve in,” Moore said. “After that we just lost focus and went down.” 

Breaking the monotony of Spartan victories was the Berkeley No. 3 doubles team of Tak Katsuura and Nick Larsson, who downed Steven Jones and John Voluntine 6-4, 6-4. But just moments later, Ryan Cousins and Pat Tool finished off any hopes for a Berkeley comeback with a 6-4, 6-4 win of their own over Adam Akullian and Shahaub Roudbari in the No. 2 doubles slot, assuring the Spartans of victory. De La Salle will face top-seeded San Ramon Valley, which knocked off University (San Francisco) 6-1. 

“We match up pretty well with San Ramon, although they’re a little deeper than us,” said De La Salle head coach Lenny Lucero. “It won’t be an easy match for them.” 

This is Lucero’s first venture into NCS territory with De La Salle after five years with the program. He said the preview match with Berkeley gave him a pretty good idea what to expect on Thursday. 

“I knew our one and two singles were pretty much sure things, and I was pretty confident in our doubles teams,” he said. “But we barely beat ‘em.” 

The team score was made closer by the final two matches of the day. Both Nate Simmons and Peter Logan knew their team had no chance to win as they entered their third sets, but both had something extra on the line: neither player had a loss on their record this season. 

“It crossed my mind, but I tried not to think about it,” Simmons said of his perfect season. “I just wanted to win to make the score more respectable for my team.” 

Logan finished off James Bloomburgh in a tiebreak, 9-7, beating an opponent who had played at Berkeley High for two years before transferring to De La Salle before his junior year. Logan, however, is a sophomore and never played with Bloomburgh. 

The Simmons-Kevin Schweigert match was the marathon of the day, taking nearly 2 1/2 hours to finish. Their final set didn’t even start until every match but Logan’s was completed. After losing a tiebreak in the second set, Simmons used his conditioning and athleticism to take the third 6-3. 

“I feel like we played well, but (De La Salle) just played a little better,” Berkeley head coach Dan Seguin said. “We were close and I felt like we had some opportunities in the doubles matches, but we just didn’t execute.” 

Berkeley should have a strong team again next season, with Baum, Simmons and Logan all returning, along with the team of Katsuura and Larsson. Seguin said the experience of getting to the second round of the NCS for the first time in several years should help the returning players, and he hopes to provide some better competition next season. 

“Other good teams have a big advantage over us since they play in stronger leagues,” Seguin said. “The ACCAL is all screwed up. Some teams can’t even fill their lineups. I think we do a great job competing with schools like De La Salle when we don’t have the kind of facilities or competition that they do.”


School Superintendent: No August layoffs

By David Scharfenberg, Daily Planet Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

Two new candidates declare for school board 

 

The Berkeley Unified School District will not pursue a second round of layoffs in August – contrary to reports earlier this week – Superintendent Michele Lawrence said at an eventful Board of Education meeting Wednesday night. 

In other developments, the Board voted unanimously to cut the hours of food service employees despite the pleas of several workers; and two new candidates declared for the November school board race. 

Berkeley High School discipline dean and long-time chair of the African-American Studies Department Robert McKnight said he will run. Seventeen-year-old BHS senior Sean Dugar also threw his hat into the ring. 

 

Layoffs 

The issue of August layoffs is tied to a Tuesday decision by administrative law judge Jonathan Lew.  

Lew sided with several Berkeley teachers who claimed that the district had improperly calculated their seniority and as a result issued improper layoff notices in March.  

Associate Superintendent of Administrative Services David Gomez told the Planet Tuesday that the ruling had thrown a wrench in the district’s plan to cut $5.4 million and balance next year’s budget. Lew’s finding, he said, had prompted the district to consider a second round of layoffs in August. 

Berkeley Federation of Teachers president Barry Fike criticized the district Wednesday for considering August layoffs, arguing that it could lead teachers worried about job security to leave. But Lawrence said definitively that the district will not pursue further layoffs this summer. 

“There is not going to be an August layoff,” she said. 

After the meeting, Gomez said his Tuesday comments on the potential for August layoffs had been misinterpreted. 

 

Layoff update 

In March, the district issued layoff notices to 91 temporary teachers and 82 probationary teachers. Temporary instructors are generally new teachers, often on an emergency credential. Probationary teachers are generally first- or second-year teachers with a preliminary or full credential.  

The district started rescinding many of the layoff notices for probationary teachers in April. Some of those who still held pink slips challenged the district in layoff hearings April 18-19, and the Lew decision affects those teachers. 

Lawrence said the district would restore sixteen of the teachers affected by Lew’s ruling. She said her “gut feeling” is that the district will be able to restore all the probationary teachers who have received layoff notices and still balance the budget.  

But the union plans to go to court over layoff notices for as many as 40 temporary teachers in the near future.  

 

Board candidates 

McKnight, in a surprise announcement Wednesday night, said he will run for the school board in November. 

“We have moved beyond the era of protest to the era of process,” he said, declaring that it was time to become more directly involved in the district’s decision-making process. 

In an interview after the meeting, McKnight said he will focus on boosting student achievement if elected to the board. He said the board’s decision this year to cut into double-period science was worrisome and could harm student achievement. 

McKnight said he has deep roots in Berkeley and has received strong support from various African-American community groups.  

Dugar, one of two representatives from the senior class on the high school’s leadership team, said he is running to give students a greater voice. 

“Student empowerment is the solution to the attendance problem, the achievement gap and many other issues facing the district,” said Dugar, who has been sharply critical of Lawrence and the board this year. 

Incumbents Shirley Issel and Terry Doran are up for election this fall. Board member Ted Schultz, who would also be up for re-election in November, will retire at the end of his term, leaving a vacant seat. 

Activists Derick Miller and Nancy Riddle have also declared their candidacies, and nutrition advocate Joy Moore has indicated that she is interested. 

 

Food workers 

Union representatives and food service workers vigorously protested cuts in workers’ hours Wednesday night, arguing that salary and benefit cuts would be too painful and that workers wouldn’t be able to complete all their tasks with less time on the job. 

“You can’t cut the hours,” said Debra Smith, a food service worker at Thousand Oaks Elementary School. “It’s physically not possible to do the work we need to do.” 

Althea Trotter, who works at Jefferson elementary, said a cut from seven to three-and-a-half hours per day would hit her hard in the pocketbook. 

“The three-and-a-half hours can’t pay my rent,” she said. 

Workers and union representatives called on the district to eliminate a new administrative position in the department and reduce the pay of food services director Karen Candito rather than cut back on workers’ hours. Several directly criticized Candito for the hour reduction plan. 

But Lawrence and members of the board vigorously defended Candito’s management. 

“I think our food services director has done an incredibly wonderful job,” said Lawrence, crediting Candito with skillfully handling several hits to the food services budget this year. 

Lawrence said the cuts approved Wednesday were necessary to balance the district’s cafeteria fund. But she acknowledged the effects on employees. 

“I want to continue to tell our community and our employees how very much I regret the budget crisis we’re in,” she said. 

The district will have to negotiate the affects of the cuts with the workers’ new union representatives from Local 39. The new union took control of a portion of Local 1’s Berkeley membership after an election that drew to a close this week. 

One of the chief concerns raised by the employees was that cuts in hours would lead to only partial coverage of benefits. Lawrence suggested that the district and union might explore combining two part-time jobs into one full-time job to ensure full benefits. The draw-back, she said, is that less people would have jobs.


Anti-Semitism thrives in world press

Rachel Schorr
Friday May 10, 2002

To the Editor: 

Many of us are wondering why the news media seems so biased against Israel and as anti-semitic incidents are on the rise here in Berkeley it is especially disheartening for all of us to see the media continually portray Israel in such a negative light. 

Therefore, it is important to point out that it is known that Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud owns over a billion dollars worth of stock in Disney and AOL-Time Warner (which owns CNN, AOL and Time Magazine, to name a few of its entities). He also owns large stakes in Italy's Mediaset, Germany's Kirch Media, Arab Radio and Television and Australia's News Corp. In addition, most of us think of the BBC as being impartial but apparently in Britain it's an open secret that BBC's main reporter in Israel is married to a Palestinian. So much for neutral reporting! 

So next time you hear a Suicide Bomber called a Palestinian "activist" or see the Saudi's slick public relations ads on CNN, the bias won't seem so odd. Please, carefully scrutinize any and all public relations ads and news reports from anywhere in the world. 

 

Rachel Schorr 

Berkeley, CA 

 


Scenes of life & death at home

By Peter Crimmins, Special to the Daily Planet
Friday May 10, 2002

To listen to filmmaker Kevin Epps, the director of “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point,” is to watch him move. He paces, glides, leans and lunges while fielding questions with sometimes elliptical, sometimes impressionistic answers. 

The 33-year-old filmmaker grew up with the players and hustlers on the streets of Hunter’s Point, where communication is based as much on a rapper’s jive and prattle as it is on the way one stands, stares, and moves hands to conceal or infer. Life on the street can be a dance or a hunt, and Epps says he can’t stay away from it. 

The small section of San Francisco usually notable for its toxic Superfund site and its disturbing homicide rate is the home of rivals gangs – West Mob and Big Block – battling for turf and rap status. Epps’s film shows rap music is both the glue and the fuse for the young people living in HP. 

Epps was able to move among and between the two gangs with his camera. He said it was hard, but he is one of them. Or was. When asked how far he has been involved in the “business” of the streets, he kicks his feet behind him, like a cat burying its own mess. Since he was 13 years old he’s been running on the streets of Hunter’s Point, he said, and he still hangs on the block to feel the energy and danger. But he’s a filmmaker, he insists, and not a thug.  

He got into filmmaking through the Film Arts Foundation, a non-profit San Francisco-based film and video makers’ support organization. There he learned the basics of video production, and through determination and serendipitous networking got “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point” completed. 

The video documentary has been shown around the Bay Area at various venues, and this weekend it begins a week-long run at the Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley. The film documents the troubles and the vitality of the often-overlooked black community isolated on a spit of land jutting into the bay, across 3rd Street from San Francisco.  

“Some of these people have never crossed 3rd Street,” said Epps, adding that without jobs or prospects they don’t have much to live for. Nevertheless, the film shows it is still a community. Among the crack cocaine, handguns, and “thug business” are families rooted for generations, businesses, and ambition. Some of the ambition is for crime and a singular drive to make money; others, like Epps, aspire to improve life where they are living. 

The film lays out both the shame and the dignity of Hunter’s Point, from the Pacific Gas and Electric plant polluting the area and the nearby shipyards officially decreed a Toxic Superfund site, to the rappers and hustlers on the street signaling their hometown pride for the camera. 

The streets, Epps said, are a place where anything can happen. His handheld camera is a frenetic eye and ear roaming the housing projects and the corner liquor stores looking for the gesture and the word to describe the fear, injustice, humor, and exuberance of Hunter’s Point. A young man threatens to do ultimate harm on another man if he ever crosses his path again. On a hot summer day a few HP denizens stalk the streets armed for bear with Super Soakers – the bazooka of water guns – ready for a satisfying water fight. Epps delivers a sequence of cars peeling out and turning hot rod donuts through intersections and parking lots. 

And the images are bumped along by a soundtrack, featuring such HP rappers as RBL Posse and Baby Finsta.  

Initially completed last fall, the version of “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point” that will be screened at the Fine Arts Cinema has been re-edited. The film is slightly longer (by seven minutes) and now includes more historical footage of the naval shipyards and accounts of a significant riot in the ‘60s when the citizens rose up against the police. Epps said he wanted to show that the plight of Hunter’s Point hasn’t changed much in 40 years. 

The historical photographs and interviews with journalists and activists fighting for the community anchor the film’s message with thoughtful commentary, whereas the emotion and vitality come from the sometimes incoherent raps and slurs outside. Epps said he included interviews with old winos spending their time watching life from bus stop benches. You can’t watch the street for 50 years, said Epps, and not know something. 

Amid the excitement of the film is a sense of waste, of lives without direction and squandered energy. An inter-title says that during the production of “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point” there were 100 shootings, one of which was captured by Epps’s camera. One of the central tragedies of the film is that Epps’s friend and crew member, Bumper Joe, was killed during production. His funeral is the final act of the film. 

The film has been screened at the Bay View Opera House – the neighborhood theater in Hunter’s Point – and Epps said members of the rival gangs showed up. There was no trouble, he said, as he convinced both sides that the film is about the whole community and “You ain’t got to bow down.” 

He hopes people watching the film will pay attention to gentrification, and wake up to the way blacks are being displaced so that maybe Hunter’s Point will survive Hunter’s Point. 

 

 

“Straight out of Hunter’s Point” plays at the Fine Arts Cinema at 2451 Shattuck Ave. May 10 through May 17.


City staff gets free bus passes

By Kurtis Alexander, Daily Planet Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

Want a ride to work? 

That is the question being put to all city employees as part of an effort to throttle traffic and parking problems downtown. 

At City Hall Thursday, police officers, finance experts, and solid waste managers showed up at a public transportation rally, seduced by the prospect of a free, all-you-can-ride bus pass. 

“It’s convenient to have, and I can use it as a back-up in case my car breaks down,” said city employee Matthew Shiu, who commutes from Oakland every day. 

City transportation planners are proceeding with a trial policy of handing out AC Transit passes to employees, in the hope that the recipients will leave their cars at home. The giveaway, which has attracted 615 employees since it began in December, is part of a year-long experiment to see what role public transit can play in civic life. 

AC Transit is tracking ridership of the employees, via the magnetic strip on the back of each free pass, and will assess the popularity and effectiveness of the program at the end of the year. 

The city of Berkeley, in similar fashion, will determine whether the number of applications for parking permits drops. 

“Everyone who has the pass has been consistently happy,” said Nichele Ayers, senior marketing representative for AC Transit, noting success with the program so far. But Ayers said that having the pass is one thing and using it is another. 

“Our goal now is to get more people to take it out of their wallet and put it in the fare box,” she said. 

Employees lining up for passes Thursday shared the usual list of public transit grievances, and said why they might be disinclined to use the bus system. Topping the list were long rides and infrequent service. 

AC Transit Manager of Public Affairs Victoria Wake was on hand at City Hall to listen to complaints and assure the commuters that public services were improving. 

“We take your suggestions seriously,” she said. 

The city is paying $60 per year for each transit pass given out plus administrative fees, with a cap of $100,000 on the amount that can be paid to AC Transit annually. The face value for each pass is $90 per month. 

City Transportation Planner Cherry Chaicharn said the program is a worthy investment. 

“It’s a good incentive to get people to start realizing their transportation options,” said Chaicharn, noting long-term benefits to traffic, parking, and the environment. 

The transit pass, known as the Eco Pass, is modeled in name and concept after a similar pass originating in Denver, Colo., AC Transit officials said.


‘Underground Zero’ expands America’s consciousness of the 9/11 tragedy

By Peter Crimmins, Special to the Daily Planet
Friday May 10, 2002

Millions of moviegoers across the country cued up last weekend to see Spiderman crawl up buildings and swing through New York City on a strand of webbing. What they did not see, what the filmmakers took great pains to make sure they did not see, was the World Trade Center. Eight months after the Twin Towers fell, who wants to see them? Last fall the media was flooded with horrific images of our nation under terrorist siege; now director Sam Raimi and the studio powers-that-be can hardly be blamed for editing footage of the NYC skyline out of their light entertainment. 

Jay Rosenblatt and Caveh Zahedi, however, are asking viewers to re-experience the arc of the national grieving process in their compendium of short films, plotting the initial shock and subsequent personal, spiritual, and political aftermath. 

Two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, San Francisco-based filmmakers Rosenblatt and Zahedi put a call out to experimental filmmakers across the country to create a one- to 10-minute film or video. The artists’ reactions range from crippling sadness to anger and bewilderment to blame, and an array of associated emotions. Rosenblatt and Zahedi compiled select entries into “Underground Zero,” two 70-minute programs, both of which will be screened for a week-long run at the Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley beginning Friday May 10. 

When major motion picture companies were fretting about how to remove the Twin Towers from their movies, Rosenblatt and Zahedi were preparing to look at them straight-on, this time without the hysteria of news media. “Underground Zero” is not without its own agenda – both Rosenblatt and Zahedi said they have not seen an acknowledgment of America’s responsibility for the attacks in its involvement in foreign countries – and the programs express a need to complicate patriotism and reclaim the power of images. 

“I think after Sept. 11 firemen, fire trucks, policemen, everything has taken on new meaning,” said Rosenblatt in his San Francisco living room. Innocent images of a young child’s birthday party in a park is infected with dread when the partygoers get a tour of a fire engine. The context of Dan Weir’s “Fear Itself” is enough to render the fire engine an icon of martyrdom, and the soundtrack of a flight attendant reciting emergency disaster drills drives the feeling home. 

“New York” by Chel White is a gentle meditation on urban stillness. The gorgeously photographed skylines at dusk are quiet and motionless, save for an occasional speck of airplane moving across the sky in the distance. “After Sept. 11,” said Rosenblatt, “you couldn’t look at buildings and airplanes – especially in the same frame – ever again in the same way.” 

“New York” opens the second program. The two programs differ by their difficulty and accessibility. The selections in the first directly address the attack or the following war on terrorism. The one that does this the most powerfully is “Voice Of The Prophet,” an interview with army veteran Colonel Rick Rescola, filmed in 1998 on the 44th floor of the World Trade Center when he worked as head of security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. After recalling his days in Vietnam combat, he predicts future wars will be terrorist in nature, and warns “we can’t be the world’s top cop.” The tragedy comes at the end via a title card announcing Rescola died on Sept. 11. 

The films of the second “Underground Zero” program point their focus away from Manhattan for a more impressionistic expression of feelings toward buildings, airplanes, television news, and the innocence and vulnerability of children. There are films like Marcel Jarmel’s “Collateral Damage,” wherein she compares the escalating tension in Afghanistan with the growth of her own children; and “End of an Era,” Lucas Saben’s NASA airplane crash-tests overlayed with jubilant, goofball songs by 14 year-old musicians Frankie and Jordan, who sing “Ralphy My Invisible Friend” and “Tongue For A Thumb” (“…everything is A-OK!”). 

“There’s something antithetical between war or violence, and kids,” said Zahedi about the child-oriented films coming out of the terrorist attack. “The juxtaposition of destruction and a child’s consciousness – and, really, beauty of soul – said something about what was going on.” 

Many of the experimental filmmakers – a group of people who are generally politically left-leaning – took on the tricky question of patriotism in a time of crisis. "Strange Mourning" briefly documents an impromptu pro-America demonstration at a Los Angeles intersection three days after the attacks; the cheerleading and "Born In The USA" blaring from a car stereo turned the display of national pride into something akin to a high school pep rally. 

"We saw more patriotism than I expected," said Zahedi about the films submitted, "but we generally didn’t like them. The ones we tended to prefer didn’t have that mainstream, knee-jerk reaction." 

Zahedi’s own piece in the program, "The World Is A Classroom," is a critical look at America’s unapologetic attitude for its own forieng policy crimes. The video documents a class he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute which came to a halt due to a dissenting student. The disruption was appeased by an apology from Zahedi himself. "My film is an allegory for what should be done," explained Zahedi. "I feel there needs to be a respect for and a responsibility taken toward these other people. My film is an attempt to speak out about the lack of that happening." 

Rosenblatt also has a film in the program suggesting a need for more understanding between Americans and Muslims. “Prayer” uses Rosenblatt’s signature technique of manipulating found footage to draw out and impregnate nuances of gesture and expression. Images of Muslim’s at prayer are intercut with those of Western schoolchildren doing the same. “I was trying to find something to have faith in and assuage how I was feeling,” said Rosenblatt. “It’s a film about faith and fear, and there’s a fine line between the two.” 

Although the call for entries went across the country, Rosenblatt said most of the submission came from the Bay Area. The fact of which does not show so much the health of the local experimental film community as it does the inability of New York filmmakers to take up the challenge. Most of the NYC filmmakers felt they did not have the distance from the subject to be able to adequately create something of it, said Rosenblatt. 

Eva Ilona Brezsky’s “China Diary” has the filmmaker suffering from too much distance. The New Yorker was in China the day of the attacks and tried to cut her vacation short to be able to return to Manhattan and ground zero. Rosenblatt could relate. “I’m from New York, myself. There was a feeling of ‘those are my people there.’” 

After 8 months, remembering the single most devastating attack to our national safety since the Civil War might remind us why we might want to step into “Spiderman” to forget about it once in a while. Rosenblatt says, however, there was a range of mixed emotions. 

“Momentarily, it brought the country together. There was actually a nice feeling of collectivity and community. I don’t think it lasted, but it was there initially.” 

The short montage of simple water imagery that makes up Nancy Kates “Vale Of Tears,” is preceded by a quote from Aeschylus which seems to defend the entire program: “…the pain of pain remembered comes again. So does ripeness.” 

 

 

“Underground Zero” plays at the Fine Arts Cinema at 2451 Shattuck Ave. May 10 through May 17.


History

- The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

Today is Friday, May 10, the 130th day of 2002. There are 235 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight: 

On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. 

 

On this date: 

In 1774, Louis XVI ascended the throne of France. 

In 1775, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y. 

In 1865, Union forces captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Ga. 

In 1899, movie musical star Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Neb. 

In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover was given the job of FBI director. 

In 1933, the Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany. 

In 1940, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill formed a new government. 

In 1968, preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris. 

In 1977, actress Joan Crawford died in New York. 

In 1994, the state of Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murders of 33 young men and boys. 

 

Ten years ago: 

Astronaut Pierre Thuot tried but failed to snag a wayward satellite during a spacewalk outside the shuttle Endeavour (however, three astronauts succeeded in capturing the Intelsat-6 three days later). 

 

Five years ago: 

President Clinton signed modest drug-fighting and trade agreements with Caribbean leaders in Barbados. Lebanese of all faiths welcomed Pope John Paul II on his first visit to their country. A powerful earthquake in northeastern Iran claimed at least 2,400 lives. 

 

One year ago: 

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to withhold some back U.N. dues until the United States was reinstated on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The Justice Department handed over thousands of documents it said should have been provided to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s attorneys; because of the blunder, McVeigh’s execution, set for May 16, was postponed. Boeing chose Chicago as the site for its new headquarters, replacing Seattle. The World Wrestling Federation announced it would fold the upstart XFL football league. 

 

Today’s Birthdays: 

Sportscaster Pat Summerall is 72. TV and radio personality Gary Owens is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer Henry Fambrough (The Spinners) is 64. Writer-producer-director Jim Abrahams is 58. Singer Donovan is 56. Singer Dave Mason is 56. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ron Banks (The Dramatics) is 51. Rock singer Bono (U2) is 42. Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is 39. Model Linda Evangelista is 37. Rock musician Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) is 37. Rapper Young MC is 35. Actor Erik Palladino is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jason Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 22. Singer Ashley Poole (Dream) is 17.


A competitive race for Broadway’s Tony Awards 2002

By Michael Kuchwara, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” leads with 11 nominations; “Urinetown” and “Into the Wo ods” receive 10 each 

 

 

NEW YORK — Big musicals, as usual, collected the most 2002 Tony nominations Monday, with “Thoroughly Modern Millie” receiving 11, followed by “Urinetown” and the revival of “Into the Woods” both with 10. 

Yet it’s a competitive, wide-open race for both best play and best musical on Broadway. And the nominations for best play couldn’t be more diverse. 

“Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a murderous sibling rivalry, goes against “Metamorphoses,” Mary Zimmerman’s evocative retelling of the myths of Ovid; “Fortune’s Fool,” an adaptation by Mike Poulton of a comedy by 19th century Russian playwright Ivan Turgenev, and Edward Albee’s “The Goat,” a disturbing yet often funny look at a most unusual love affair. 

“It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” Albee said Monday, musing about best-play nominations. “And since all awards are comparative, how do you do pick one? I think they should nominate the four most interesting and leave it at that.” 

Winners will be announced June 2. 

For best musical, “Millie,” the saga of a fresh-faced Kansas girl trying to make it in 1920s New York, faces “Urinetown,” the sardonic spoof about paying to use bathroom facilities; the ABBA-inspired London hit “Mamma Mia!” and “Sweet Smell of Success,” a dark tale of a vindictive New York gossip columnist. 

Both “Millie” and “Sweet Smell” are based on well-known films, while “Mamma Mia!” found its inspiration in the pop hits of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, both of whom received Tony nominations for best orchestrations. 

Unlike “The Producers,” last year’s record winner, none of this year’s musical nominees got unanimously favorable reviews, so taking the top musical prize would boost their fortunes. Only “Mamma Mia!” — the story of a young woman’s search for her real father — has proved to be a hot ticket in New York and on the road. 

Competition will be fierce in the best-actor category, too. Alan Bates, who scored with a riotous drunk scene in “Fortune’s Fool,” was nominated along with Billy Crudup, who plays the touching title character in “The Elephant Man; Liam Neeson, an honorable Pilgrim farmer in “The Crucible”; Alan Rickman, a bored yet deeply in love sophisticate in “Private Lives” and Jeffrey Wright, one of the two brothers in “Topdog/Underdog.” 

Kate Burton received two Tony nominations — one in the actress category (for playing “Hedda Gabler” in a revival of the Ibsen classic) and a second in featured-actress slot (for portraying a sympathetic English actress in “The Elephant Man”). 

Burton also has an interest this year in another Tony — the prize given to best regional theater, which will go to the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. Her husband, Michael Ritchie, runs it. 

“It was a good morning in our household,” Burton said with a laugh. 

Burton’s competition for best actress: Lindsay Duncan, “Private Lives”; Laura Linney, “The Crucible”; Helen Mirren, “Dance of Death”; and Mercedes Ruehl, “The Goat.” 

“Morning’s at Seven,” which received nine nominations, previously won the revival award in 1980. The gentle Paul Osborn comedy, first seen on Broadway in 1939, could do so again. The other revival nominees are “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s drama about the Salem witch trials; the British farce “Noises Off,” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives.” 

The musical-revival category is sparse, with only the Trevor Nunn-directed production of “Oklahoma!” and “Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical in competition. 

Vanessa Williams, who plays a glamorous witch in “Into the Woods,” received a best actress-musical nomination, her first. The others in the category: Sutton Foster, an ambitious flapper in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”; Louise Pitre, the iconoclastic mother in “Mamma Mia!”, and two stars of “Urinetown,” Nancy Opel and Jennifer Laura Thompson. 

John Cullum, who already has two Tonys, is up for a third for his role as the villain in “Urinetown.” Also nominated in the actor-musical category: Gavin Creel, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”; John Lithgow, “Sweet Smell of Success”; John McMartin, “Into the Woods”; and Patrick Wilson, “Oklahoma!” 

Among those passed over for nominations were Kathleen Turner and the rest of the cast of the much-maligned stage version of “The Graduate,” Andrew Lloyd Webber and his little musical “By Jeeves,” and such critically lauded performers as Ian McKellen and Bill Pullman. 

The Broadway season began disastrously last September after the attacks on the World Trade Center. An aggressive marketing campaign by the League of American Theatres and Producers helped revive business as Broadway got ready for a busy spring. Yet business has not rebounded as buoyantly as expected; so the New York theater looked for another hit as big as “The Producers” — and none arrived.


News of the Weird

Staff
Friday May 10, 2002

Students play with their food 

 

TUCSON, Ariz. — University of Arizona students who would rather toss tortillas than their mortarboards during graduation are being urged to leave the edible disks at home. 

University President Peter Likins has asked students not to bring the tortillas to fling into the air at Saturday’s ceremonies because he said it’s a waste of food and is culturally offensive to some people. 

Patti Ota, the school’s vice president for executive operations, will try to talk students out of their tortillas at the door, using food bank boxes to play on their guilt. 

Tortillas emerged at commencement ceremonies during the late 90s, university officials said. 

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was greeted with flying tortillas as she addressed the class of 1999. Later she told graduates at Georgetown University about her Arizona experience. 

“There, the solemn tradition is to throw tortillas around like Frisbees during the commencement speech. It’s a little unusual, but it does keep you alert,” she said. 

 

Candidate can’t spell ‘accountability’ 

 

BOSTON — It wasn’t quite Dan Quayle misspelling “potato,” but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shannon O’Brien made her own spelling goof last week. 

O’Brien, the state treasurer, was at a debate when another candidate, Steve Grossman, said most city politicians are so out of touch with voters they don’t even know how to spell the word “accountability.” 

The comment wasn’t specifically directed at O’Brien, but she took the bait to prove she could spell it — and got it wrong. 

O’Brien, a former state lawmaker whose husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have all worked at the Statehouse, left out the second “i” in accountability. 

Later in the day, O’Brien admitted her mistake. 

“I am so embarrassed,” she said. “I just hope that my sixth grade teacher doesn’t read about this, because I was a star speller in his class.”


Berkeley celebrates 50th anniversary of ‘Beowulf’ marathon

By Michelle Locke, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

BERKELEY — It’s an event that may have “the cool of scratched LPs, plaid polyester pants or schnauzer-shaped salt and pepper shakers,” frets organizer Pat Schwieterman. 

Still, the read-aloud “Beowulf” marathon is an epic gathering, especially this year as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, more or less (hey, things got a little fuzzy in the ’60s), at the University of California, Berkeley. 

“Part of what’s so entertaining about the ’Beowulf’ marathon is exactly the fact that there’s nothing traditionally entertaining about it — just a bunch of people reading in a language none of them can really understand ... for hours,” says Schwieterman, a graduate student in English. 

First, a primer for those who don’t have “The Medievalist’s Handbook” on their night stands. 

“Beowulf” is the first known major poem written in a European vernacular language, Old English to be precise. It was spoken long before that, so it’s not clear exactly when it was composed. The only known manuscript is a 1,000-year-old battered relic at the British Library that was licked by the flames of a 1731 fire. 

The story follows the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from a man-eating monster named Grendel and from Grendel’s even more unpleasant mother. The warrior becomes a leader and then, at the end of his life, musters his strength for one last stand against a fierce, gold-guarding dragon. His allies turn tail, save for Wiglaf, the valiant youngster who helps Beowulf win his last battle. 

“It’s a poem about heroism that takes the hero seriously but also it’s not ironic, which is such a relief in the 21st century,” says Michael Drout, a “Beowulf” fan and assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. 

Drout, partly inspired by the Berkeley event, helped organize a read-aloud “Beowulf” event at the International Congress on Medieval Studies held at Western Michigan University this month. Drout wasn’t too sure what reception he would get but found himself “absolutely swamped with e-mail.” 

The No. 1 query: “Can I bring mead?” 

“It’s a stereotype, but an accurate stereotype of the Anglo-Saxonist,” Drout says cheerfully. 

Schwieterman, who doesn’t drink, will admit to no more than a “certain conviviality” at the Berkeley event. 

These “Beowulf” readings can get rather loopy. 

One professor who “was apparently quite a ham,” would act out portions of the story as the reading progressed, complete with props. “He would have little packets of ketchup ready that he would pop at the right moment when someone had just taken an ax blow and just fall flat to the floor.” 

Melodrama can be tricky, though, especially for those with an imperfect grasp of Old English. 

A few years ago, a participant who read with more style than comprehension thought he was reading Beowulf’s big moment, “so he delivered it in this booming, stentorian voice. After, everyone was chuckling and it was, ’What? What?”’ 

The poor fellow had been reading the part of the Danish queen. 

Chuckles are allowed at the marathon; smirks are frowned on. “I won’t say that nobody has ever smirked but it’s certainly not encouraged,” says Schwieterman. “The marathon is a thoroughly democratic event.” 

Some marathons have crossed over to anarchy. 

One year, the event fell on May 5 — the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo — so in recognition, organizers started the reading in Spanish. 

“Then other people insisted on reading in French and Italian and German languages. So we had the famous multilingual ’Beowulf’ that year. After a few hundred lines, all but one stubborn participant settled down and read the Old English. One person persisted in reading in French ’til the end.” 

This year’s event starts Friday at 6:30 p.m., and is expected to take the usual four hours. 

It’s the 50th anniversary, based on accounts of a 1952 event, but it may not be the 50th marathon — it has been said that anyone who remembers the 1960s wasn’t there and that appears to be true for “Beowulf” marathon history. No one seems to know much about whether the marathon was a regular event during the 1960s, a time when students were campaigning for Free Speech and against the Vietnam War in thoroughly modern English. 

Schwieterman is hanging his hat on the 1952 event. Beyond that, he says, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” 

Attendance has swelled in recent years, particularly after a recent translation by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney cracked the best-seller lists. 

In the mid-1990s, as few as five people showed up. Last year, there were close to 50. This year, Schwieterman is thinking about rationing the poem’s 3,182 lines; the usual system is to have people sit in a circle and read until they get tired. 

The secret to the poem’s appeal is that “frankly, it’s a masterpiece of literature,” says Schwieterman. “It really is brilliant. There’s a musicality to the language, a vigor in the alliterative lines that you just don’t have in modern English language poetry. That’s one of the things that reading the poem out loud brings out — this rugged music the poem has.” 

Beautiful, but strange.


Little Hoover group condemns housing shortage

By Jim Wasserman, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

SACRAMENTO — California’s Little Hoover Commission added itself Wednesday to a chorus of voices vilifying California’s shortage of housing that average residents can afford. 

The commission, concluding a year-long study, criticized state government for failing “to seize every opportunity to spur the development of homes, particularly for low income-Californians.” 

In doing so, the commission joins groups such Housing California, the League of California Cities and the Building Industry Association of California in growing alarm over conditions afflicting millions of residents. 

While acknowledging the effects of economic prosperity in driving up housing costs, the commission — an independent state oversight agency — put most blame for the housing shortage on “mounting consequences of failed policies.” 

Commission Chairman Michael E. Alpert, a retired San Diego securities lawyer, noted, “It is not too late and the problem is not insurmountable.” The Little Hoover Commission calls for a state crackdown on cities that don’t accept their share of housing, recommends more housing on former industrial sites known as “brownfields” and urges smarter use of federal and state subsidies. 

“The state can no longer simply encourage and hope that more than 500 local jurisdictions collectively do what is in the best interest of California and some of its most vulnerable citizens,” the report states. State government, it adds, “must assume a far more assertive stance than it has in the past.” 

State housing officials say California, second only to Hawaii in housing costs, is falling nearly 100,000 units short of annual demand. The shortage is greatest in apartments and condominiums for lower-income renters, forcing more than two-thirds to pay more than half their income for rent. Nearly all spend more than 30 percent of their monthly paychecks for housing. 

Among options, the commission points to a bill pushed by Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, to withhold state funds from cities that block affordable housing. The bill, SB910, passed the Senate last year, but has been stalled for months in the Assembly. 

Dan Hancock, retired president of the Bay Area building firm, Shapell Industries of Northern California, acknowledged opposition to the bill by cities and counties intent on controlling how they grow. But he said the economic downside of unaffordable housing for millions of California workers is equally critical. 

The commission cited the Bay Area city of Emeryville as a role model for putting new housing on old industrial sites.


California doctor arrested after visiting Palestinian refugee camp

By Sandra Marquez, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

LOS ANGELES — Family, friends and coworkers know Riad Abdelkarim as a dedicated doctor and father of four who eats too much fast food, roots for the Anaheim Angels and has a caring bedside manner with patients. 

His name also carries a new connotation: suspected terrorist. Abdelkarim remains detained in Israel after his arrest following a 10-day visit to a decimated Palestinian refugee camp. 

Israeli officials won’t reveal the evidence against the Orange County doctor, citing security concerns. But a judge’s statement recorded in a U.S. State Department memo said Abdelkarim is “being accused of membership in a terrorist organization and attempting to fund terrorist organizations.” 

Those who know him are perplexed and angered by the accusation, but his past provides some clues as to why Israeli authorities may have taken an interest in the 34-year-old doctor of internal medicine. 

Abdelkarim is a frequent commentator on Middle East issues who was questioned by the FBI after the terrorist attacks and wrote an opinion piece in which he condemned being singled out because of his ethnicity or political beliefs. 

He also is a former board member of the Holy Land Foundation, which had its assets frozen in December after the Bush administration charged it as being a front for the militant group Hamas. The group is responsible for the Tuesday suicide bombing that killed 15 at a pool hall in a Tel Aviv suburb. 

Dr. Basim Abdelkarim of Torrance does not believe his brother’s past affiliation with the group is cause for his arrest in Israel. He said U.S. authorities have not arrested any members of Holy Land, the largest Islamic charity in the United States. 

“I think that’s an excuse,” he said. “He was a board member for the group for one year. He stepped out of that organization ... My brother was not there to represent this group.” 

Rather, supporters said Abdelkarim was on a mission to assess medical needs in the Palestinian territories for the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps and his own recently founded children’s charity, Kinder USA. 

They say the trip was consistent with a lifetime of civic responsibility for the former high school valedictorian who graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles before attending medical school at UC San Diego. 

After medical school, he completed his residency and internship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in his hometown of Torrance. 

In September 2000 he became a partner in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Anaheim. 

His brother said Abdelkarim keeps so busy he survives on a diet of In-N-Out burgers and chicken nuggets, but he still finds time to attend Angels baseball games and go to the movies with his family. 

“Other people would rather be on the golf course,” said Khalid Turaani, 36, of Washington, D.C., who sits with Abdelkarim on the board of the group American Muslims for Jerusalem. “I see him as a humanist. He has his own career. He writes. He is verbal about his concerns. He writes about other issues besides the Palestinian issue.” 

In correspondence home, Abdelkarim said his visit to the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli forces last month killed at least 52 people, had a profound effect on him. He described “a horrible, foul, spine-tingling odor,” as well as and a sense of shame. 

“I feel an uncomfortable mixture of sadness, grief, anger and shame. I also feel guilt,” he wrote in an e-mail sent to family and colleagues. “My tax dollars helped pay for those bullets... When I tell camp survivors that I’m from the United States, I am ashamed. I, too, am responsible for this.” 

Nobody could have witnessed the destruction without having a strong reaction, said Rushdi Cader, a San Luis Obispo doctor who invited Abdelkarim to accompany him on the fact-finding mission for the medical organization. 

Cader also was detained at Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday but was freed after six hours. 

“When we went to Jenin, all I can say is that place is like Ground Zero. They bulldozed buildings with people still inside them. When you go through there, you smell rotting corpses,” he said. “I am an emergency room doctor. When I went through that camp, I could not go through without crying.” 

Cader rejects the suggestion that the emotional experience may have pushed Abdelkarim from activism to terrorism. 

Instead, he believes Israel may have wanted to suppress the information the doctors gathered — including detailed accounts of casualties — at a time when U.N. investigators were prevented from conducting a probe. 

Susan Cassidy, 47, a registered nurse who has worked with Abdelkarim the past two years, called him an exemplary doctor who travels to the Middle East to help despite the risks. 

“He spends a lot of time with each patient that he sees. A lot of physicians don’t do that,” she said. 

She spoke out to show “there are other people who believe in him and are concerned about him besides Middle Easterners.” 

His four children, ages 12, 9, 5 and 3, had blown up balloons for their father’s welcome home party Sunday and were waiting for their mother, Wijdan, to pick up a cake when Israeli authorities called to say he had been arrested. 

Since then, family friend Kathy Mostafaie has pitched in to try to ease tensions. 

“His 5-year-old, Ali, is constantly asking me, ’Why is my dad not home?,” she said. “His 12-year-old daughter needs help with her homework. ... They are frightened; they need their dad.”


Census changes cut into numbers of some Hispanic groups

The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

LOS ANGELES — Changes in census forms between 1990 and 2000 led to huge undercounts of several Hispanic nationalities, a study released Thursday estimates. 

Without the changes, more than 1 million Salvadorans, Dominicans, Guatemalans and people of other nationalities would not have identified themselves in Census 2000 simply as “other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino,” according to the study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Latino think tank. 

In greater Los Angeles, the number of people of Central American ancestry is nearly 50 percent higher than Census 2000 reported, the study found. 

“We knew all along there were a lot more of us than the census counted,” said Carlos H. Vaquerano, executive director of the Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund in Los Angeles. 

Representatives of some Hispanic ethnic groups have said that their lower-than-expected Census figures could have implications in areas including public funding, political representation and immigration policy. 

Census 2000 surprised many observers because nearly 18 percent of Latino respondents put themselves in the generic “other” Latino category. In other government surveys, only about 10 percent of Hispanics identified themselves that way. 

The study said the reason for the difference was likely a change in the way the census asked the question of Hispanic origin. 

In both 1990 and 2000, Hispanics who were not Cuban, Mexican or Puerto Rican had to write down their ancestry — instead of just making a check mark — for their national origin to be counted. 

But in 1990, the write-in space was accompanied by these instructions: “Print one group, for example, Argentinian, Colombian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard, and so on.” In 2000, the space simply read, “Print group.”


Phone companies can end profit-sharing

By Jennifer Coleman, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly approved a bill Thursday that would suspend rules requiring California’s two largest telephone companies to share part of their profits with their customers. 

The California Public Utilities Commission opposes the bill, by Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, saying it would restrict its ability to regulate SBC Pacific Bell and Verizon. 

“The Legislature is getting itself involved in ratemaking” which is the job of the PUC under the state Constitution, said Commissioner Jeff Brown. 

The bill would freeze until 2007 a regulatory framework that’s currently in place for Verizon and Pac Bell, the companies that provide phone service for most Californians. It would turn into law a 1998 PUC decision to suspend the profit-sharing rule for one time. 

But the PUC and other opponents say the bill would suspend a tool regulators can use if they find the companies have made too much money off ratepayers. 

Wright said the PUC won’t be powerless to rein in telephone rates because it can still review the companies’ finances and use that information to set rates. 

“As the Legislature, we should say what the policy is, and it’s the job of the PUC to implement that policy,” Wright said. 

Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, also supported the measure, because he said the bill shifts the risk to shareholders and away from ratepayers if a company doesn’t perform financially. 

The measure was sent to the Senate on a 64-1 vote. 

Brown said Wright’s bill would take authority away from the commission “and places it in the hands of the Legislature, which is not a rate-setting, rate-designing body.” 

But a former PUC commissioner who helped design the new framework in the late 1980s said it was a radical departure from the earlier cost-of-service rate system, and was meant to evolve. 

“It was clear from the outset that sharing was a temporary thing until we got a handle on how things were going to work in practice,” said Mitch Wilk, a PUC commissioner appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1986. 

The new framework was designed to protect ratepayers from any losses by the phone companies, Wilk said. 

“As soon as you reintroduce sharing into something like this, you put ratepayers right back on the hook for the risk,” he said. 

Every three years, the PUC audits the companies and makes changes to the framework. In its latest triennial audit of Pac Bell, the PUC found the company had understated their 1997-1999 earnings by nearly $2 billion and should refund $350 million to its customers. 

The Office of Ratepayers Advocates, the independent arm of the PUC that represents consumers, has pushed to reinstate the profit-sharing rule because of those audit results. 

Pac Bell disputed the audit’s finding, and said the framework has benefited California customers.


Sun CEO outlines Java-powered future

By David Enders, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

DETROIT — Connecting employees to each other is one of the most important factors in making a business competitive, Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc., said Thursday in a speech peppered with jabs at the software company’s rival, Microsoft Corp. 

McNealy, who outlined his plan for competing with Microsoft by creating a more flexible office network, gave a keynote speech at the Michigan IT Summit in Detroit. 

He also offered his vision for an office with a virtual, downloadable desktop accessible anytime, anywhere. 

“I have access to 100 percent of what I need to run Sun from a Java browser,” he said. “I love it because I get a lot more work out of employees.” 

The advantage over Microsoft’s network, he said, is that employees would be able to access it with multiple interfaces — not just Microsoft programs, the way Microsoft’s office network is set up. 

“They have a secret handshake for every piece,” he said. 

A message seeking comment was placed Thursday with Microsoft. 

McNealy has been a vocal critic of Microsoft. Earlier this year, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun filed a lawsuit against the software giant, claiming it was using a monopoly position to damage Sun’s Java programming language. 

McNealy also stressed the importance of building an online directory of customers. 

“Every company needs to beat its competitors into getting all the rich and/or smart folks into that directory,” McNealy said. “If you can react faster, you’re going to win.” 

Sun, which makes high-end networking computers and software, was hard hit as dot-coms collapsed, telecommunications companies slowed spending and competition increased. 

“I’m kind of happy the bubble’s over,” McNealy said. “There was a something-dot-com for everything.” 

McNealy said part of the dot-com collapse was companies’ failures to build customer directories properly, by beginning with their own employees. 

“The big mistake is that everybody wanted to go sell something online,” he said. “The employees are the most important.” 

The company expects to return to profitability in the current quarter. 


Click and Clack Talk Cars

Tom & Ray Magliozzi
Friday May 10, 2002

Dear Tom and Ray: 

My wife owns a 2001 Lexus RX300. Recently, we received a letter from Lexus on the subject of “engine oil gelling.” The following is an exact quote from the letter: “Engine oil gelling occurs when old, dirty oil becomes thick and no longer adequately lubricates the engine. If not properly maintained, it can lead to severe engine damage. Oil gelling is solely a maintenance issue, and we are not aware of any situation in which a properly maintained vehicle has experienced mechanical problems associated with this condition.” I have never heard of “engine oil gelling.” I am wondering whether this is a smokescreen for Lexus dealers who have used a higher-viscosity oil than is recommended by the manufacturer? What is your opinion on “engine oil gelling”? -- Reinhold 

RAY: What's our opinion on engine oil gelling? We're in favor of it! Hey, we've got boat payments to make, too. 

TOM: This is not a smokescreen for Lexus dealers, Reinhold. It's a smokescreen for the Toyota Corporation (makers of Lexus), which seems to be having a problem with its most popular engines. 

RAY: What it's tastefully calling “engine oil gelling,” other people are calling “sludge.” The facts are in dispute. As you state, Toyota says “Sludge Happens” -- and that it only happens to people who don't change their oil and who do a lot of stop-and-go driving.  

TOM: But other independent engineers claim that there is a design problem that causes some Toyota engines (mostly 3.0-liter V6s) to sludge more frequently than other manufacturers' engines. And furthermore, it shouldn't happen on low-mileage engines. What happens is that the oil turns into a paste, and the engine dies due to lack of lubrication.  

RAY: We haven't done any engineering analysis ourselves, so everything we say about this is simply our opinion (are you Toyota lawyers happy now??), but it certainly looks like -- whatever the cause -- Toyota handled it poorly by trying to blame it on its customers. 

TOM: Well, the customers didn't like that, and they kept on complaining. Eventually, Toyota decided that the bad PR it was getting from all the noise about its sludgy engines wasn't worth what it would pay to fix the engines, so it changed its policy.  

RAY: Now Toyota says that, even though it's STILL your fault, it'll fix any sludged engine for free for eight years if you attest that you've changed the oil on time.  

TOM: Toyota has also announced that it's making a manufacturing change to the V6 engine at the factory to help prevent its customers from ruining future engines. Not that there was any problem with the engine. It's just fixing it anyway. 

RAY: The vehicles covered are any Toyota or Lexus from model years 1997 to 2002 that use the 3.0-liter V6 engine, and any Toyota from 1997 to 2001 that uses the 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine. 

TOM: It's worth keeping in mind that, at least so far, Toyota reports about 3,400 sludgy engines out of about 3.3 million sold. So these are still excellent cars, in our opinion, and we'll continue to recommend them.  

RAY: Still, Toyota should have come out right away and said: “We're sorry. You bought a Toyota because you thought it would be worry-free. This is an unusual problem on a new car, and it shouldn't have happened. We'll fix it.” It took Toyota too long to do that.  

TOM: We don't expect car makers to be infallible. We just expect them to own up to their mistakes. Hey, how hard can that be? We have to do it every week!  

 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I have a solution to the tailgating problem. I've heard that you can make flames shoot out of your exhaust pipe by drilling a hole and putting a spark plug a few inches from the end. Then, by connecting it to the battery and a switch, you could make a sort of flamethrower. I would just like to know if this is a bunch of baloney or not, without having to ruin my exhaust to find out. -- Kwong 

TOM: It's an interesting idea, Kwong, but unfortunately, it's a bunch of baloney. 

RAY: There are two problems. One is that, on modern, fuel-injected cars, by the time the exhaust gets to the end of the tailpipe, there's nothing in it to burn anymore. Cars are so efficient these days that all of the hydrocarbons have long been burned up by then. 

TOM: And the second problem is that, even if there was gasoline to burn in the exhaust, the battery wouldn’t provide enough power to fire a spark plug. You need about 20,000 volts, which normally come from the coil. 

RAY: So I suppose if you really wanted to make this work, you could tap another spark-plug wire off the coil and run it back there.  

TOM: And a fuel line, too! 

RAY: Unfortunately, Kwong, this really doesn’t make sense. So if you really want a flamethrower, skip the auto-parts emporium and drive right to the army-surplus store.. 

 

 

Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk section of cars.com on the World Wide Web. 

 

(c) 2002 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman


Q & A

By Morris and James Carey
Friday May 10, 2002

 

Q: Marty asks: My well pump does not hold pressure unless the water is in use. The well is about 25 feet from the pump and that line is laying (running) flat on the ground about four inches below the grass. The pump and the tank are new. What is making it not hold pressure? 

 

A: When a pump system isn’t holding pressure it usually means there is a leak or the foot valve is clogged or faulty. All it takes is a pinhole-sized leak to bring your system down. Your local well company can pressure-check the system for holes and usually make the proper repair in a few hours. If all or part of the system is new, it probably is still under warranty. Most warranty repairs are free. That your supply line is four inches beneath the surface alarms us. It should have been laid at least 18 inches below grade. Shallow pipes often are damaged during annual and semiannual cultivation. 

 

Q: Jeff asks: I have stripped the paint from and sanded the woodwork in my bathroom. I am having a problem with a small amount of paint bleeding through the stain. It was not visible before I applied the stain, but appears as the stain dries. How can I solve this problem? 

 

A: You are now a bona fide wood refinisher. You have learned how difficult it is to completely remove all the paint from wood. Fact is, two to three coats of paint stripper must be applied and brass-brushed away after you are certain that you’ve removed all the paint. This is because narrow strips of paint always remain beneath the surface and between the wood fibers. 

 


This old lighthouse – a revival story

By Jennifer Coleman, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

ST. GEORGE REEF, Calif. — First, the fog delayed the volunteers trying to restore a 110-year-old lighthouse by carrying a 5-ton lantern by helicopter over the cascading Pacific Ocean. 

Then came the rain, and the plan to move the lantern which had been shattered two years earlier during a similar effort was put off again. Volunteers were left to wonder when they would have another chance. 

But the next morning, Guy Towers and the rest of his restoration team saw the rain weaken. They made their move, and soon the helicopter hovered in the drizzle, picked up the lantern room and carried it to St. George Reef Lighthouse as about 100 spectators huddled in the Crescent City harbor. 

For fans of a lighthouse that has seen plenty of disasters, it was what they hoped was more than a break in the weather. They hoped it would signal the revival of a lighthouse that once steered seafarers away from the ship-eating reef. 

If successful, the restoration by the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society could create a tourist attraction in a forgotten corner of California whose logging and fishing industries have long faded. 

Sitting six miles off the far northwestern coast, the 150-foot lighthouse cost $704,000 to build and started operating in 1892. Named after the dragon-slaying St. George, it sits surrounded by the “dragon rocks” that tore the bottom from the steamer Brother Jonathan in 1865 and killed 166 passengers and crew. 

The lighthouse built to tame the rocks was the most expensive built by the federal government. The deadliest, too. 

Between then and 1975, when it was replaced by a buoy, the lighthouse saw five of its workers die, including three U.S. Coast Guardsmen killed in 1951 when their boat capsized as they left the rock. 

Replacing the 16-sided, 12-foot-high lighthouse dome has bedeviled Towers and the other volunteers. Bad weather kept them from making the helicopter trip; no one wanted to risk $60,000 for the cost of the dome and the helicopter for a failure. 

When it’s done, the society will have turned the St. George Reef Lighthouse into the only one of three offshore lighthouses in the world that will be open to the public. Once there, visitors will learn more about its turbulent history. 

Crescent City’s other lighthouse, the Battery Point Lighthouse, still lights the harbor. It’s an easy walk to the museum there, but it’s only accessible at low tide. 

The only way to the St. George Reef Lighthouse is by a six-minute helicopter ride low over the ocean. 

The iron railings that once surrounded the deck of the lighthouse have rusted into the sea, leaving an ideal landing pad for the helicopter. 

There are seven levels from the basement where the original coal-fired engines ran the lighthouse to the lantern at the top that housed the rotating lens. 

Inside, the old paint peels in large patches from the damp ceilings and cement walls. Much of it was lead-based, so the workers have to be careful while removing the paint, volunteer Terry McNamara said. 

The upper deck just below the lantern room is more than 130 feet above the rocks, encircled by bands of rust that 110 years ago were scrolling cast-iron railings. 

Lightbulbs are run off a gas generator. When they sputter, Towers or one of the volunteers who happen to be on hand race down the 90 narrow, spiraling stone steps to refill the fuel. If the lights go out, the steep stairwell goes as dark as a mine. 

A retired social worker, Towers first became interested in lighthouses in the early 1980s when he discovered the Punta Gorda lighthouse in Humboldt County. He then embarked on a two-decade obsession, in which he once spent three years cataloging the world’s lighthouses. 

In 1986, after he had moved to Crescent City, he learned the government readied to sell the lighthouse as scrap. Towers and several friends formed the nonprofit preservation society and then spent 10 years getting government approvals to take jurisdiction over the lighthouse. 

He worked closely with Bob Bolen, a retired airline mechanic who was instrumental in removing and transporting the lighthouse’s giant Fresnel lens in 1983. The 18-foot rotating lens now sits in the Del Norte County Museum. 

Bolen, who gets around in a wheelchair these days, paid the $24,000 the society needed to finish the restoration work on the dome and hire a helicopter to bring it back to the lighthouse. 

For that, he got the best view of the lantern room’s return — the front seat of the chase helicopter trailing the sky-crane. 

It was the second time the dome was transported in the past two years. 

In April 2000, a donated helicopter lifted the lantern room from the lighthouse and carried it to shore. But as the sky-crane lowered the dome, the helicopter came in too low, dragging the iron and glass room along the beach in Crescent City harbor. 

“It was a crumpled mess,” said Alice Towers, Guy’s wife. 

But that disaster turned into a blessing, Towers said, as the publicity led to more donations. Also, the room had broken in the right places. 

Its top survived, and the rest of the room was rebuilt with stainless steel, not cast iron, and polycarbonate, not glass. That saved about 5,000 pounds, Towers said, although it still weighs a hefty 10,000 pounds. 

As the helicopter lifted the lantern room for its second flight, Towers and a half-dozen volunteers waited on the rock at the top of the lighthouse for the sky-crane to hover, then lower the dome. Cables trailed from the room that would be threaded through holes in the ledge to guide it to its proper position. 

Towers grabbed the first line and wrapped it around his arm. The helicopter rose, taking Towers with it. 

“It was like I was ringing a bell, riding the bell up and down.” 

The 32 bolt holes lined up perfectly. “The sweetest sound I’ve ever heard was when that lantern room set and it made that ’clunk,”’ he said. 

After the lift, Bolen was helped out of the helicopter, all smiles. 

He and other volunteers will start raising money to replace the rusting railings in time for a planned opening this fall. 

Wildlife officials restrict travel to the lighthouse between June 15 and Oct. 15 when sea lions are mating so tours will be offered in the spring and fall. Towers hopes to eventually have a helicopter stationed in Crescent City to take visitors for day trips. 

The time and money to revive the lighthouse will be worth it, Bolen said. 

“To me, they’re monuments to our forefathers who came to our country and to the men who didn’t make it,” Bolen said. “They didn’t make it because they didn’t have lighthouses.” 

 

 

On the Net: 

St. George Reef Lighthouse: http://www.northerncalifornia.net/culture/lighthouses/sgrlps/


Tulips flourish on their own schedule

By Lee Reich, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

Tulips often disappoint after their first show of blooms. That first show reflects the skill of the commercial bulb grower because the flower buds form the season before blooms open. 

After that first season, you have to provide conditions for good repeat bloom. The healthier the leaves and the longer they can do their work, the better the blossoms will be the following season. 

Tulip leaves have a relatively short time in which to do their job. Anything that prolongs the time they remain green will help pump more energy into the bulbs. This is why so many bulbs are grown in Holland, where springs are long, cool, and moist. Over on this side of the Atlantic, a good site will keep the leaves healthy and productive. The best site is sunny, with soil that is well-drained and reasonably fertile. 

Following bloom, allow the foliage to naturally yellow and wither. The leaves will look unsightly, so some gardeners plant annuals to hide the aging bulb foliage from sight, or bind the bulbs’ leaves into a compact, unobtrusive bundle with rubber bands. However, both these techniques sacrifice to some degree next spring’s blooms because the leaves no longer are bathed in maximum sunlight. The only way to avoid the sight of the yellowing leaves without harming next year’s blossoms is to dig up each bulb with a good ball of earth and replant temporarily in an out-of-the-way, sunny spot. 

Even under the best of conditions, tulip flowers still will diminish with time as daughter bulbs that form around each mother bulb begin to crowd each other. Garden tulips are so prone to fizzling out after a season that many gardeners grow them as annuals, replanting new ones each autumn. (This also solves the problem of unsightly foliage — just cut off the leaves after the bulbs finish flowering.) 

Overcrowded bulbs can be revitalized by dividing them. When the foliage has just about disappeared, dig up the bulbs, separate them and store them dry for replanting in autumn. Undersized bulbs will not flower for a couple of years growth, so are best planted in a nursery row. 

An alternative is to plant tulips that more reliably bloom year after year without fuss. “Species” tulips are famous for their capacity to bloom year after year. Even among “garden” tulips, certain varieties, such as Clara Butt, William Copeland, and Reverend Ewbank, bloom for many years without division — if growing conditions are good.


Rolling Stones announce another world tour in spectacular fashion in NYC

By Nekesa Mumbi Moody, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

NEW YORK — The Rolling Stones staged an eye-popping spectacle that drew fans and media from around the globe — and they haven’t even gone on tour yet. 

The rockers, whose tours have been among the top-grossing concerts ever, announced another jaunt around the world in grandiose fashion Tuesday, circling New York’s sprawling Van Cortlandt Park in a yellow blimp emblazoned with their red tongue trademark. 

“We had a very interesting first-time experience on the airship,” Mick Jagger said after emerging from the blimp. “We had a really good time on it.” 

The tour, their first since their top-grossing 1999 tour, will mark the band’s 40th anniversary. It will kick off on Sept. 5 in Boston. 

When asked why the band was heading out once again — they haven’t even begun working on new material for the album — Jagger joked: “Either we stay at home and become pillars of the community, or we go out and tour. We couldn’t really find any communities that still needed pillars.” 

The tour is expected to rake in millions of dollars. The Stones already hold the record for the highest-grossing concert tour ever with their 1994 tour, which brought in $121.2 million, according to Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar, a concert trade magazine. 

“Any year that they have toured, they have produced the biggest tour of that year,” said Bongiovanni. 

This time around, the band will play clubs as well as stadiums and arenas. 

Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood looked as if they were having plenty of fun even before the news conference began. The foursome boarded the blimp at the park and circled the area for about 15 minutes before landing. 

They had even more fun at the news conference, cracking jokes as reporters asked questions. 

When one asked if they would do any songs from the past, Richards said: “The set list is a bit down the road. It just depends if we can remember them.”


School activists go to Capitol Berkeley educators and supporters stake claim to state budget

By David Scharfenberg Daily Planet staff
Thursday May 09, 2002

One hundred Berkeley parents, students and school officials joined 1,000 Bay Area activists at the State Capitol Wednesday calling on Governor Gray Davis and the state legislature, who face a deficit as high as $22 billion, to avoid education cuts. 

“We’re here to remind our state representatives that we won’t tolerate this and it’s unacceptable,” said Board of Education member John Selawsky, discussing the potential for cuts. “We have to fund our public schools.” 

In January, Davis proposed a small increase in K-12 education funding for next year. But the governor will release a budget revision May 14 that will serve as a new blueprint for the legislature. With estimates of the state’s deficit growing, activists fear he will recommend education cuts.  

Hilary McLean, Davis’s chief deputy press secretary, played down the activists’ concerns. 

“(Davis) has pledged on numerous occasions that he is going to do his best to protect the investments we’ve made in education,” she said.  

There is talk in Sacramento that the governor may ask the legislature to suspend Proposition 98, which provides a baseline of funding for the public schools, in an effort to make cuts. Again, McLean played down the idea. 

“It’s certainly something the governor doesn’t want to see happen,” she said. 

Activists had strong words for Davis and the legislature in speeches from the Capitol steps. Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, mocked the notion of a “shortage” of state funds. 

“This is the sixth largest economy in the world,” Fike said. “What we do have is a shortage of wisdom in how to distribute the wealth.” 

But McLean said activists, including dozens of students, should recognize everything Davis has done to fund education since he took office. 

“Hopefully these are students who are up on their history and up on their math,” McLean said, noting that education spending has increased by 34 percent under the Davis Administration. 

Berkeley activists had appointments with staff members of several state legislators. In meetings throughout the day, Berkeley residents called on representatives to raise taxes on the wealthiest two percent to help close the deficit, avoid education cuts and, in the long run, increase per pupil spending from roughly $7,000 to $12,000 per year. 

Staff members were generally receptive, activists said, but in some cases were reluctant to endorse tax increases. McLean said the governor does not want to raise taxes this year. 

State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner has endorsed a temporary tax increase on the wealthiest 2 percent and cancellation of the vehicle license fee rebate. But these measures and other “revenue enhancements” would raise $7 to $8 billion, Hemann said, and would only partially offset cuts – in education and everywhere. 

“A lot of things are on the table,” Hemann said. “We’re attempting to get our hands around a huge deficit.” 

The rally drew activists from Oakland, San Francisco, Albany and Contra Costa, tied together in a loose coalition called The Coalition to Pay Schools Now and Fix School Funding. Some thought the rally was a bit chaotic. 

“It wasn’t necessarily as organized as it should have been,” said Tiffanie Hester, a senior at Berkeley High School who made the trip to Sacramento. 

But organizers said they got their message across. 

“It was a good start,” said Derick Miller, president of Berkeley’s PTA Council and candidate for school board. Miller said the challenge will be to build long-lasting relationships with legislators. 

Selawsky said he hopes the coalition will continue to make lobbying trips to the Capitol, and build a regional movement for education funding. 

“That’s our job right now,” he said.


History

Thursday May 09, 2002

Today is Thursday, May 9, the 129th day of 2002. There are 236 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight: 

Five hundred years ago, on May 9, 1502, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. 

 

On this date: 

In 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified. 

In 1926, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly over the North Pole. 

In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia. 

In 1945, U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately. 

In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approved a pill as safe for birth control use. (The pill, Enovid, was made by G.D. Searle and Co. of Chicago.) 

In 1961, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a “vast wasteland” in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters. 

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon. 

In 1980, 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse. 

In 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president. 

 

Ten years ago:  

President George H.W. Bush, back in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised in a radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled Congress on proposals to help American cities. 

 

Five years ago:  

During a visit to a rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain. 

 

One year ago:  

China sought U.S. understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane to fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the aircraft flew again over Chinese territory.  

“There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, and not as many separate ones.”  

— Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt (1918-1981) 

 

 

Today’s Birthdays:  

CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace is 84. Actor-writer Alan Bennett is 68. Actor Albert Finney is 66. Actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson is 66. Musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 65. Producer-director James L. Brooks is 62. Singer Tommy Roe is 60. Singer-musician Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco) is 58. Actress Candice Bergen is 56. Singer Clint Holmes is 56. Actor Anthony Higgins is 55. Singer Billy Joel is 53. Rock singer-musician Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick) is 52. Actress Alley Mills is 51. Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) is 40. Rapper Ghostface Killah is 32. Singer Tamia is 27. Rock musician Dan Regan (Reel Big Fish) is 25. Actress Rosario Dawson is 23. 

 

- The Associated Press


Apartheid & genocide practiced by Palestinians

Thursday May 09, 2002

To the Editor: 

As the Daily Planet reported, last Thursday the banned Students for Justice in Palestine – using the subterfuge of another student organization's name – held a rally at UCB. Having been in the audience, I can safely say that the verbiage spouted there stood reality on its head. 

The loaded term “genocide” was attributed to the Israelis. Yet while Israel chooses not to use its modern air force to decimate Palestinian civilians, the PLO's covenant, along with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, calls for the elimination of Jews from the Middle East. Indeed, you will find advocacy of genocide against the Jews in grade school books from Syria to Saudi Arabia to Gaza. 

SJP brands Israel an “apartheid society,” yet it is the sole country in the Middle East where Arabic women are permitted to vote. On the other hand, as in other Arabic societies, women are treated as third-class citizenry in Gaza and the West Bank. Indeed, the real apartheid is the treatment of Palestinian women. This includes the not uncommon “honor murders” of daughters who transgress the wishes of their fathers. In Israel, such homicides are punished, while in Palestinian-dominated Jordan and the territories, the murder of said teenagers is either ignored or the perpetrator is given a slap on the wrist. In sum, if SJP is going to brand a society as “apartheid,” they need look no further than the treatment of women in the Palestinian territories. 

Finally, SJP bandies about “human rights violations” with every other sentence. But while they wring their hands over the alleged massacre in Jenin, the investigative group Human Rights Watch has disclosed that this is nothing more than typical Palestinian propaganda. 

In fact, true human rights violations lie elsewhere. The abrogation of human rights is manifest in the treatment of Palestinian children who, from kindergarten on, are both taught that their sworn duty is to “kill Jews” and that there is no higher calling than that of the suicide bombing “martyr.” Given this measure of child abuse, can there be but little wonder that Palestinian children volunteer to be suicide bombers when they become teenagers? 

In sum, the Palestinians have created a pathological society where women and children are regularly abused by their own people. So when SJP uses such toxic terms, they should look first to apply them to those on whose behalf they provide such noxious propaganda. 

 

- Daniel C. Spitzer 

Berkeley


Thursday May 09, 2002

 

Wednesday, May 8 

 

Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

 

Y'All & David Roth 

Traditional, original & topical, contemporary folk music 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Thursday, May 9 

 

Live Music - Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Shana Morrison 

Celtic / blues acoustic fusion 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

David Widelock Jazz Duo, guitar and bass 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

Friday, May 10 

Live Music - Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 11 

 

W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert, “The Art of the Spiritual” 

Featuring African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo soprano Vanessa Ayers, tenors Samual McKelton and William Brown, Baritone Autris Paige and bass-baritone Benjamin Matthews, and pianist Dennis Helmrich. 

7:30 p.m. 

Calvin Simmons Theater 

10 Tenth Street 

Oakland 

For tickets: SASE to PO Box 507, Berkeley, 94701, or e-mail: fourseasonsconcerts@juno.com with your name, address & phone number to have tickets held at the box office or call 451-0775  

Free - Reserved Seating Required 

 

 

Robin Flower & Libby McLaren 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Live Music - Classic Jazz Singer Robin Gregory with Bliss Rodriguez on piano 

2nd show: Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

 

Due West 

Dynamic traditional bluegrass 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Live Music- Choro Time, Vintage Brazilian Music (20’s), Ron Galen & Group 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

849-ANNA 

 

 

Wednesday, May 8 

Robert Boswell reads from "Century's Son" 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's Book Store 

2454 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley 

845-7852 

Free 

 

Saturday, May 11 

Word Beat Reading Series 

Entertainers of all kinds come together . Featuring readers Rita Flores Bogaert and Ann Hunkins 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

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

Free 

 

English Song Recital  

featuring Kirk Eichelberger, bass, with Christopher Luthi, piano  

7:00 p.m.  

Valley Christian High School, 100 Skyway Drive, San Jose.  

Tickets are available for a $100 tax-deductible donation.  

All proceeds benefit the Discovery Center's educational therapy program. 

 

 

Exhibits  

 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

 

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

 

“Open: Objects” through May 4: An exhibition featuring sculptural objects by Los Angeles artist Karen Kimmel. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

 

“Urban Re-Visions” 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 

 

Poetry 

 

 

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.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Thursday May 09, 2002

Wednesday May 8 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30- 3:00 P.M. 

Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Puppet show for children age 3 to 10 to learn about germs and their effects on the body. Free.  

For more information: 510-549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org 

 

Thursday, May 9 

 

FBI & Local police: Partners in Repression 

Forum, Speakout & Music 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall, 1924 Bonita 

Berkeley 

For Info: Copwatch, 510-548-0425 

$5-$15  

 

Consumers’ Rights, Problems and Legislation 

Speaker Tom Vacar, consumer editor, KTVU, Channel 2 

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

Albany 

For more info: 510-843-8824 

Free 

 

Community Budget Workshop 

Berkeley Unified School District 

Budget & Finance Advisory Committee 

Subject: California State Budget Process & the J200 Budget Format 

6:30 p.m. 

Longfellow Arts & Technology Magnet Middleschool 

Auditorium 

1500 Derby St. (at California) 

Berkeley 

Free 

 

Native Californian Cultures 

A major focus of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology has been the Native peoples of California. Today, with 260,000 catalogue entries, the museum preserves the world's largest and most comprehensive collection devoted to the region. In this gallery, we present an overview of Native Californian cultures demonstrating the great diversity of the Californian peoples. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

children 16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

 

Judeo-Christian Values in Islam? 

What are the humanistic values inherent in Islam? How has history colored western views of Islam? etc. 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

$5 

 

Friday, May 10 

 

New Sculpture & Paintings by Jody Sears & Michele Ramirez 

Opening reception: Saturday May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. 

Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Ardency Gallery 

709 Broadway, Oakland 

510-836-0831, e-mail: gallery709@aol.com 

Free 

 

Saturday, May 11 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

510-525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

33rd Annual Calif. Wildflower Show 

Exhibit with 150 species of freshly gathered native flowers 

Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1-888-OAK-MUSE 

$6 general admission, $4 senior and students with ID, free for five and under.  

 

Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions 

Live Science Demonstrations 

In this directed activity, children "audition" to be a dinosaur in an upcoming dinosaur movie. They learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. These demonstrations explore recent discoveries, fossils, and how scientists know what they know about dinosaurs 

Monday-Friday at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 

Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m. 

$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. 

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

Sunday, May 12 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Kathy Kallick Mother's Day Concert 

1 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$6.50 kids, $7.50 adults 

 

The Bungalow - Tradition & Transformation 

seminar by Barry Wagner 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Monday, May 13 

Jai Uttal with Bhima-Karma 

A Celebration of Devotion: An Evening of Chanting and Dialogue 

7:00 p.m. 

California Institute of Integral Studies 

1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 

For questions and tickets: 415-575-6150 

www.ciis.edu 

or e-mail info@ciis.edu 

$20 

 

Live Music - Renegade Sidemen, with Calvin Keyes, Dave Rokeach & friends 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Jewish Partisans: The Unknown Story 

Thousands of Jews escaped the ghettos and work camps and took up arms against the Nazi War machine. 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

Free 

 

Crossing the Bridge- positive ways to face change & transition. Reflective & energizing workshop rooted in Jewish and cross cultural stories with Ariel Abramsky facilitating. 

May 13, 20 & June 3 

7:00 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

$45 

 

Book Discussion Group Forming 

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library 

7:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch, Berkeley Public Library 

2940 Benvenue St. 

Free 

 

Buying Land 

seminar by real estate agent Dan Maher 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Tuesday, May 14 

Brown Bag Career Talk 

Ask a Career Counselor 

Noon- 1 p.m. 

YMCA Turning Point Career Center 

2600 Bancroft Way 

Berkeley 

$3 

 

Open Mike for Singers, with Ellen Hoffman Trio 

8 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849- ANNA 

 

Open Mic - Northern California Songwriters Association 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

 

Wednesday, May 15 

Live Music - Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Kane's River plus Don't Look Back 

Bluegrass double-bill 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Thursday, May 16 

Ben Bonham Farewell Party 

Leading lap & pedal steel guitarist says bye to the Bay Area. 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Just Friends Jazz Quartet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

An evening with Woodcarver Miles Karpilow 

Carver of the Berkeley Public Library new local history room gates. 

7 p.m. 

2090 Kittredge St. at Shattuck 

Community Room 

Free 

 

Business After-hours Mixer 

Sponsored by Emeryville Chamber of Commerce & Industries Association 

5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 

Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto 

1919 Forth St., Berkeley 

ECCIA members $10, Prospective members $20 

 

Friday, May 17 

Poet Piri Thomas and drummer Owen Davis featured for an evening of poetry, music and spoken word with Open Mike. 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall Cafe 

1924 Cedar St. 

Berkeley 

$5 - $10 requested 

 

Live Music 

Anna De Leon & Ellen Hoffman- Jazz Standards, 2nd show: Bluesman Hideo Date, guitarist 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Tom Rush 

Classic Folk 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$18.50 advance, $19.50 at the door 

 

Basic Electrical Theory & National Electrical Code 

Seminar by Redwood Kardon 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Saturday, May 18 

Word Beat Reading Series 

Featuring readers Dancing Bear and C. J. Sage 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

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

Free 

 

Strawberry Tasting & World Harmony Chorus 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

 

Children's Movies 

Fern Gully (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Writer as Publisher: Independent Publishing Seminar 

Learn how at this all day seminar. 

9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Asian Cultural Center 

Pacific Renaissance Plaza 

388 Ninth Street 

Oakland 

510-839-1248 or www.writeraspublisher.com 

 

The Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus third annual spring concert, "Turn the World Around" Celebration of spring and welcome to summer with love songs and traditional favorites. 

May 18, 8 p.m., Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland and 

May 19, 7 p.m., Crowden School, 1475 Rose St.  

Suggested donation is $15 at the door; $12 in advance. (510) 239-2239, ext. 2576, www.oebgmc.org.  

 

Music Fair & Special Family Concert 

A delightful day of free performances, demonstrations, contests and entertainment! Oakland Youth Chorus, Purple bamboo Orchestra, Skyline High School Jazz Combo, Tim Cain, Instrument Petting Zoo & More. Explore musical Instruments, music schools & camps, Local Choirs & orchestras and other music resources. 

Family Concert 2 p.m.  

Calvin Simmons Theatre 

Music Fair Noon-5 p.m. 

Henry J Kaiser Convention Center Arena 

Oakland  

510-444-0801, www.oebs.org 

Concert $7 adults, $5 under 18, music fair- Free 

 

Margie Adam 

Singer, composer, pianist, activist 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door 

 

Saturday, May 18-19 

3rd Annual Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar 

The Berkeley Buddhist Temple 

Featuring Bay Area and National Taiko drumming ensembles and Kenny Endo from Hawaii 

 

Sunday, May 19 

Jazz On 4th 

6th Annual jazz on Forth, a benefit for Berkeley High School Performing Arts. Balloons, Raffle, Face Painting. Free Live Performances by The Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble & Combo, Big Belly Blues Band, Jenna Mammina Quartet, Jesus Diaz with Sabor A Cuba. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. 

Forth Street Between Hearst and Virginia 

For more information 510-526-6294 

Free 

 

Hurricane Sam with Matt Eakle 

Blues, jazz, boogie-woogie piano 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Children's Movies 

Fern Gully (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Monday, May 20 

Live Music- Renegade Sidemen, with Calvin Keyes, Dave Rokeach & friends 

8 p.m., 2nd show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Build Your Dream-House for a Song 

(and own it free & clear in 5 years), author David Cook. 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Tuesday, May 21 

The Art of Practice with Tom Heimberg 

Violinist with the SF Opera, Tom offers an overview that applies to all instruments. 

Musicians Union Local 6 

116 Ninth St. at Mission 

San Francisco 

415-575-0777 

$10 and free to local 6 members 

 

Strawberry Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

 

Open Mic 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

 

Wednesday, May 22 

Yonder Mountain String Band  

Hard Chargin' bluegrass 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$19.50 advance, $20.50 at the door 

 

Healthful Building materials 

Seminar by Darrel DeBoer 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Thursday, May 23 

Berkeley Opera Presents 

Vivian Fine’s The Woman in the Garden 

One of America’s most highly regarded composers, Vivian Fine, has crafted a libretto from the writing of four women artists; Emily Dickinson, Isadora Duncan, Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf. Solos, duets, trios, and quartets express these innovative, non-conforming rebels, individual musings and struggles, revealing both social isolation and spiritual community of their artistic lives. Singers are supported by a nine-piece chamber ensemble 

8 p.m.  

Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar (at Arch St.) 

$30 General, $25 Senior, $15 Youth and Handicapped, $10 Student Rush 

Charge by phone: 925-798-1300 

Information: 510-841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.com 

 

An Evening of Poetry: Aidan Thompson 

7:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benevue Ave. 

Free 

 

John Reischman & the Jaybirds 

Mandolin virtuoso & red-hot bluegrass ensemble 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Fishbowl: "Everything you always wanted to know about the opposite sex but were afraid to ask" An opportunity to ask anonymous questions in a confidential and supportive environment. 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

$8-$10 

 

Attic Conversions 

Seminar by architect Andus Brandt 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Saturday, May 25 

Word Beat Reading Series 

All kinds of entertainers come together. Featuring Kera Abraham and Ruth Levitan 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Free 

 

Alice Waters "Chez Panisse Fruit" book signing 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

 

Children's Movies 

Pinnochio (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

6th Annual Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival 

Everyone's welcome to participate in covering Solono's sidewalks with chalk art. Featuring refreshments and entertainment.  

Registration at Peralta Park, 1561 Solano Ave. Berkeley. 

For more information: 510-527-5358, www.solanoave.org. 

Free 

 

Cain & Abel- 1st Annual Stop the Violence Gospel Festival 

In Memory of Children Killed by Senseless Violence 

St. Andrews Baptist Church Gospel Choir, Family in Unity Gospel Choir, Our lady of Lourdes’ Men Gospel Choir, Lorrain Taylor, Michael Nelson, Praise Dancers, Testimonials, Display of Homicide Quilt, presentation by Students of Malcolm X Academy, Sermon by Rev. Ishmael Burch Jr., LeDoursey’s “Gone But Not Forgotten” Sky, Ronald DeVoyce Blackburn’s From-the-Cradle-to-the- Grave memorial candles, The Homicide Names Banner and Holman “Bob” Turner’s photographs of parents at the graveside or location where their child was killed. 

Noon- 6 p.m. 

St. Andrews Baptist Church 

2565 Post Street (at Lyon) 

San Francisco 

415- 292-5157 or 415-346-6500 

Free- contributions and donations appreciated 

 

Saturday & Sunday, May 25 & 26 

19th Annual Himalayan Fair 

Outdoor celebration of the great Mountain Cultures! Authentic Himalayan Art, craft, Music & Dance, exotic food & stage entertainment. Benefits Himalayan Grassroots projects. 

Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-5:30 

Live Oak Park 

Shattuck & Berryman 

$5-$7 Donation 

 

Children's Movies 

Pinnochio (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Wednesday, May 29 

Paul Geremia 

Country Blues 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Thursday, May 30 

Bob Dylan Song Night 

An evening of Dylan Songs revisited 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$12.50 advance, $13.50 at the door 

 

Friday, May 31 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, 1958 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

 

Blue Riders of the Purple Sage 

Classic cowboy harmonies 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Saturday, June 1 

50th anniversary of the Little Train at Tilden Regional Park 

Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas in Berkeley 

For more information, call 544-2200 

 

Sand Castle and Sand Sculpture Contest 

9 a.m. for participants registration 

9- 12 p.m. (Judging starts at noon) 

Crown Beach, Otis and Shore Line Drives 

Alameda 

For more information, call 521-6887 or 748-4565 

Free 

 

The Bluegrass Intentions 

Innovative traditionalists 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Sunday, June 2 

Diablo Symphony Orchestra 

Verdi Spectacular! 

Soloists: Lyric soprano Karen Anderson, soprano Aimee Puentes and tenor Min-sheng Yang. Conducted by Barbara Day Turner 

2 p.m. 

Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts 

1601 Civic Center at Locust Dr. 

Walnut Creek 

925-7469, website: www.dlrca.org 

Tickets $8, $15 and $18 

 

Casey Neill 

Celtic American folk roots 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Anthropology Museum Opening  

Native Californian Cultures - Family Day 

Sunday, June 2, 1:30 PM- 3:30 PM  

Hearst Museum Courtyard 

Storytelling, children's games and basketry 

with Julia and Lucy Parker. Julia Parker, a cultural  

interpreter, supervises the Indian Cultural Program  

in Yosemite. Lucy Parker is a traditional artist who 

crafts jewelry and baskets as well as games. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

 

Thursday, June 6 

Spencer Bohren 

New Orleans Bluesman 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Friday & Saturday, June 7 & 8 

Cats & Jammers 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

 

Sunday, June 9 

Traditional Persian Music Concert  

Hossein Alizadeh and Madjid Khaladj 

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley 

7:30 PM 

$22 

925-798-1300, www.theatrebayarea.org. 

 

Austin Lounge Lizards 

Unbashed Texas Lunacy 

5 p.m. & 8 p.m. shows 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

JUNE 9-12 

The 2nd Annual California Bluegrass Association MUSIC CAMP 

Nevada County Fairgrounds, GRASS VALLEY, CA  

INSTRUCTORS: 

Banjo-- Pete Wreck and Avram Siegel, Fiddle-- Laurie Lewis and Jack Tuttle, Mandolin--John Reischman and Tom Rozum, Guitar-- Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce, Dobro-- Sally van Meter Bass--Trisha Gagnon, Old-time fiddle-- Bruce Molsky, Old-time, guitar-- Tom Sauber, Old-time banjo-- Evie Ladin, Autoharp-Ray Frank 

Beginner and intermediate instrumental classes; jam classes; electives including vocal harmonies, music theory, band rhythm, critical listening, clogging, and more! 

http://www.cbamusiccamp.org 

 

Monday, June 17th 

Lesbian, Gay, Bi- Sexual, Transgender National Day to Honor loved ones lost on 9/11  

The LGBT National Day of Honor, about creating a Day when all Lesbian,  

Gay, Bi- Sexual, Transgendered, & questioning people and our supporters,  

can come together to help further our fight against continued second class  

citizen treatment in the United States.  

For more information, call 802.859.9604 

 

 

Friday, June 21 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The Mummy, with Boris Karloff, 1932 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

 

Saturday, June 22 

Summer Solstice Celebration 

Live Music & Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Friday, June 28 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

 

Saturday, June 29 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Stanford Jazz Festival, June 29-August 10 

Early Bird jazz for kids and families with Jim Nadel & Friends 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m. kids 8-12 

Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford Campus  

Free 

 

July 6 

Stanford Jazz Festival 

Hirahara/Sickafoose/Amendola Trio 

8 p.m. 

Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford Campus  

With Art Hirahara on Piano, Todd Sickafoose on Acoustic Bass and Scott Amendola on drums, this Bay-Area based Trio draws on the eclectic influences and masterful playing of its members to re-interpret jazz standards and bring fresh, new compositions to the bandstand. 

$20 General, $18 Students/Seniors/PAJA members 

 

Saturday, July 13 

Peach / Stone Fruit Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

15th Anniversary Derby Street Farmers Market 

Live music and & stone-fruit and peach tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

 

Saturday, August 10 

Tomato Tastings 

Tastings and cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Tuesday, August 13 

Tomato Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

 

Saturday, August 24 

Cajun & More 

Four Live Bands, crafts fair, Cajun food, dance lessons, micro-brewery beer & dance floor. 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Saturday, September 8 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Saturday, October 12 

Indigenous People's Day Pow Wow, Indian Market & Fall Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Tuesday, October 15 

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

 

Saturday, October 26 

Pumpkin Carving & Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Saturday December 7, 14, 21 

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Saturday December 14 

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

 

Saturday December 21 

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free


Panthers shake off rough start to down Piedmont Win in regular-season finale earns St. Mary’s a first-round bye in BSAL playoffs

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Thursday May 09, 2002

The St. Mary’s High baseball team clinched second place and a first-round bye in the BSAL playoffs with a dramatic 7-5 win over Piedmont on Wednesday. Joe Storno shook off a first-inning three-run blast by Piedmont’s Peter Boyle to go the distance for the win. 

St. Mary’s (12-12 overall, 8-3 BSAL) got the meat of their runs in the fourth inning, scoring five times despite getting just two hits. Moore led off with a single and Storno walked, but Tom Carman hit into a third-to-first double play, and it looked as if Piedmont starter Nikhi Aurora would get through the inning unscathed. But the hurler’s control problems came back to bite him as he walked Jeff Marshall and Marcus Johnson on eight pitches to load the bases. 

Up stepped shortstop Manny Mejia, the bottom of the St. Mary’s order. The diminutive Mejia had a great at-bat, fouling off three two-strike pitches before hitting a bouncer that Piedmont third baseman Danny Rossi couldn’t handle, allowing Storno to cross the plate with the Panthers’ first run of the game. Chris Morocco followed with a long single off of the short rightfield fence, driving in Marshall and Johnson to tie the game. 

Aurora should have been out of the inning already, but more bad defense turned the tide. Pete McGuinness hit a flyball to left-center, and centerfielder Rand Thygeson called off his leftfielder before muffing the ball, setting off a wild sprint by the St. Mary’s baserunners that ended with two runs scoring for a 5-3 Panther lead. 

Aurora put the blame for the rough inning on himself. 

“I just lost my control and couldn’t get it back,” he said. “After walks, that’s when bad defense happens because the defense relaxes. It was all my fault.” 

Boyle’s first-inning home run, a massive shot over the high fence in rightfield, started things off on a sour note for Storno and the Panthers, but Shimabukuro said he wasn’t worried about his pitcher. 

“I wasn’t worried about Joe, I was worried about us putting the ball in play and getting some runs,” Shimabukuro said. “Our offense didn’t do as well as it could. We were swinging defensively early in the count and not getting any good shots.” 

The Panthers chased Aurora in the fifth. Moore and Storno started things with back-to-back singles, and Aurora walked Carman to load the bases before leaving the game in favor of Alex Danoff. Danoff got out of the inning with minimal damage, with Moore scoring the only run on a Marshall groundout. 

The Highlanders (14-7, 7-3) tried to mount a comeback of their own in the fifth, but could only get two runs across. Mac Conn led off with a double that kicked up chalk on the leftfield line, and Storno lost Olson on a free pass, bringing Boyle to the plate with a chance to tie the game. Storno’s steady diet of outside fastballs and curves paid off with a strikeout, and Ryan Tovani popped out for the second out, but Jay Carson hit a cheap double off of the shallow rightfield fence, scoring Conn and Olson to get the Panthers within a run. 

Morocco added an insurance run in the sixth, leading off with a solo homer to left off of Danoff for his third RBI of the day.  

With a little extra breathing room, Storno made the lead stand up, although the Highlanders did get two runners on in the bottom of the seventh before Jon Cox struck out to end the game. Mejia also made a huge play in the seventh, taking a one-hop screamer from Boyle and turning it into a double play. 

Storno had a typical outing, giving up 10 hits and two walks but fighting every inch of the way after getting a break from pitching last week. The first-round playoff bye is probably more important to the Panthers than any other team, since Storno is their only experienced pitcher. He will throw in the semifinal game on Wednesday, and if St. Mary’s advances to the championship game, even Shimabukuro couldn’t say who will take the mound for the Panthers. 

St. Mary’s almost had to wait until Friday to learn their postseason fate, thanks to an odd bit of scheduling that has half of the BSAL’s teams playing 12 games and half playing 11. If Salesian had beaten first-place Albany on Wednesday, they could have claimed second place with a win over John Swett on Friday, as they would have had an extra win. But the Chieftans made it easy on the Panthers, falling 7-2 to Albany.


AHA project tabled by City Council Senior housing postponed

By Kurtis Alexander Daily Planet Staff
Thursday May 09, 2002

Developers of a planned housing project, slated to add 40 affordable units to Berkeley’s limited housing stock, are convinced that city officials are giving them the runaround and say seniors are bearing the brunt of the delays. 

“We’ve redesigned our project four times [as a result of city board and committee recommendations] only to have it thrown out the window at the Council level,” said Kevin Zwick, project manager for the nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates. 

AHA’s pending project calls for senior-only rentals at 2517 Sacramento St. that will go for as little as $200 per month, and at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the project’s consideration was postponed two weeks. 

“With every delay, we see the most at-risk seniors at greater risk of being homeless,” Zwick claimed. He also said the project’s approval is running up against a summer deadline for valuable state funding subsidies. 

Council’s unanimous decision to push the project to their May 21 meeting came after three hours of heated debate over whether the project is designed adequately. 

Several dozen residents of the south Berkeley neighborhood, who have tracked the project through its three years of development, were present Tuesday to make their case that the development, in its current manifestation, is too dense and too tall. 

“Neither myself nor other opponents of this project object to affordable housing,” said neighbor Howie Muir. “The chief problem with the project lies in the overwhelming and inappropriate physical scale of the project.” 

Neighbors claimed that the size of the project wasn’t in keeping with the area and would present a host of parking problems. 

After Tuesday’s meeting, Muir expressed sympathy for the developers and the changes they have been required to make, but said that during the planning process, neighbors have not always been kept abreast of what was going on and deserve to have their concerns addressed. 

“In December, they added more units and another floor [after meetings with the city],” he said. “The city can’t do that without a hearing.” 

The estimated $8 million project currently stands at four floors, with the newly-planned level bumping the total number of units up from 35 to 40. 

Also on hand at Tuesday’s meeting were dozens of members from Berkeley’s senior community, who took the project delays personally. 

“I don’t know why [the neighbors] are complaining about parking now. It’s never been an issue before,” said Fredia Smith, a 50-year Berkeley resident and member of the city’s Commission on Aging. 

“We need more senior housing,” echoed Lanora Young, also on Berkeley’s Commission on Aging. “I can’t tell you when the last time a senior housing project was approved but its been more than three years.” 

Fatigued after 56 speakers worth of mixed opinion, City Council recommended that a mediator work with neighbors and housing advocates over the next two weeks to seek agreement. 

“I think there is an opportunity to reach a compromise between both sides,” said Mayor Shirley Dean. “But we don’t have a lot of time,” she added, noting that the deadline for state housing aid is approaching. 

Developer Zwick applauded the mayor’s diligence, but was not as thrilled about the idea of compromise. 

“We’ve been making neighborhood and design considerations for years,” he said. “Any private-market developer would have walked away be now.” 

Neighbors were also a bit leery. 

“I think there is room for compromise,” said Muir. “But I don’t understand why the developers are hanging fire over five units.” He hopes that the next two weeks will result in the elimination of plans for the five-unit fourth floor.


News of the Weird

Thursday May 09, 2002

Suspect brings 

drugs to court 

 

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A suspected drug dealer must not have had anywhere to stash his crack cocaine and marijuana, authorities said, so he brought it with him — to court. 

Duron Ford, 19, had a court appearance Monday on drug possession charges. Knowing Ford was due in court, officers approached him in the courthouse to serve a warrant on an unrelated case. 

As police closed in on him, Ford reportedly said, “Man, I got the blow on me.” 

After 10 police officers corralled Ford in the hallway of the Fayette County courthouse, they found he was carrying about two grams of crack cocaine and some marijuana. 

“We would hope that they have enough brain cells to know not to bring illicit drugs into the courthouse,” said Ford’s court-appointed attorney, Jeffrey Witeko. 

 

Cucumbers contain pot 

 

ONTARIO, Calif. — Cucumber boxes — filled with tons of marijuana — spilled from a produce truck that overturned as it exited a freeway, police said. 

After the truck dumped its entire load of cucumber boxes, Ontario police found the boxes concealed nearly 5,000 pounds of marijuana. 

Police are searching for two men who fled from the truck, which was involved in a hit-and-run accident shortly before it overturned. Nobody was hurt in the accident. 

- The Associated Press


Make UC pay for city services

Thursday May 09, 2002

To the Editor: 

The city's ability to challenge UC expansion is not as weak as some would have us believe. 

The recent decision not to sue over north-side development is an excellent example. The city attorney claims that Berkeley can do nothing to stop the development because the university enjoys sovereign immunity, which permits it to develop without city permission. 

But sovereign immunity does not prevent the city from suing over environmental impacts. If Berkeley had filed suit over environmental impacts, even with a weak case, we could have done better.  

An important thing to keep in mind about sovereign immunity is that it cuts both ways. Yes, the university can develop without our permission, but it also must bear responsibility for that development. Berkeley has no obligation to provide free or subsidized services, and could control the expansion by simply insisting that the university pay its fair share. I do not suggest Berkeley cut off emergency services, but non-emergency services are a different story. 

For example, Berkeley spends approximately $44 million for sewers every five years. With a population of 100,000 people, approximately 30,000 of whom are students, the university should pay approximately one-third – over $14 million dollars! But under sweetheart deals approved by the city attorney, the university will pay less than $1.5 million during that five-year period! This means Berkeley homeowners subsidize the university to the tune over $4 million annually – and that's just for sewer service. 

To make matters worst, deferred sewer maintenance is a disaster waiting to happen. If sewers are not properly maintained, damaged pipes could flood neighborhoods, harm the environment and spread disease. 

While the City Council has foolishly agreed not to sue the university on environmental grounds, Berkeley still retains the right to raise other issues, such as having the university pay full cost for city services, and limiting expansion to what was promised in the university's 1990 Long Range Development plan. But the agreement was written up to say the city would not sue on any aspect of the north-side expansion. The City Council should therefore insist the agreement be rewritten. If the university refuses to agree to rewrite the agreement, the city could selectively stop providing non-emergency services until it pays up. 

Those in government – such as Linda Maio, who made the substitute motion that we not sue the university; and City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, whose sweetheart deals are costing taxpayers a fortune – have a lot to answer for, especially to homeowners, whose hefty sewer bills are helping finance university expansion. 

Insisting the university pay its fair share would discourage further expansion, and enable Berkeley to free millions of tax dollars for parks, libraries, health care and other services, and that would benefit all Berkeley's residents, including the students. 

- Elliot Cohen 

Berkeley  

 


Earth First! concludes prosecution against FBI, police Bari details bombing trauma

By Chris NicholsDaily Planet Staff
Thursday May 09, 2002

An emotional day in the Earth First! trial against the FBI and Oakland Police Department concluded Wednesday with videotaped testimony from the late Judi Bari, one of two environmental activists suing the FBI and OPD for mishandling their 1990 car bombing in Oakland. 

In the video Bari, who died of cancer shortly after concluding her taped testimony in 1997, expressed the lingering pain and fear she experienced as a result of the bombing.  

“I now know pain is physical. I never knew pain like that in my life,” said Bari. 

Bari explained that being wrongfully accused as a suspect in the bombing, a charge later dropped due to lack of evidence, led to a loss of credibility among environmental groups and destroyed much of her work involving Redwood Summer, an environmental campaign planned for the summer of 1990. 

Attorneys for Bari and fellow Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney said Bari's videotaped testimony shows that there were damages as a result of the FBI and OPD's mishandling of the case. 

“Part of our assignment is showing damages. The failure to protect her [Bari] was part of why she was still terrified,” said Tony Serra, an attorney for Bari. 

The 80-minute tape, played both Tuesday and Wednesday, along with tapes of news reports on Earth First! shortly after the bombing in 1990, concluded the plaintiffs portion of the case. 

The tape also included Bari's fears over continued death threats and the distress caused by two searches of her residence by the FBI and OPD. 

Defense counsels for the FBI and OPD objected to many points on the Bari tape but did not directly ask Bari any questions at the time of her testimony. 

After the Bari taped concluded, the defense counsel gave opening arguments, denying conspiracy charges, and called witness Albert Brewer of the OPD to the stand. 

Maria Bee, attorney for the OPD defendants, questioned Brewer, an officer for 21 years at the time of the bombing, about his involvement in the case. 

As the first officer at the scene, Brewer said he asked the occupants of the car if they were injured. Brewer also testified that the passenger in the car said to him “someone threw a bomb in the car.” 

Attorney for the plaintiffs, Robert Bloom questioned Brewer about his memory of the conversation with the occupants in the car and also asked Brewer whether or not he tried to find suspects while at the scene. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim that both the FBI and OPD failed to thoroughly investigate the crime scene and possible leads in the case, leaving Bari as the lone suspect in the bombing, citing Brewer's failure to canvass the scene for suspects until 30 minutes after he arrived. 

Captain Tim McKinley, a former Special Agent with the FBI, testified Wednesday that he was the first member of the FBI to respond to the scene. 

When asked by the defense why he would respond to a report of a car bombing, McKinley explained that a bombing “might well fall into the interest of the FBI.”  

Though the plaintiffs in the case have made efforts to show that the bomb was planted under the front seat of the car and ripped through the front floorboards, McKinley testified that the hole was under and to the rear of the front seat. 

The location of the hole is a critical part of the trial because the FBI claim that the bomb was knowingly being transported by Bari and Cherney in the back seat of their Subaru and not planted under the front seat as the plaintiffs claim. 

In an attempt to diffuse any conspiracy theory, that the FBI was involved in planting the bomb, McKinley explained that he was a “minimal presence at the scene” and had never heard of Earth First! or Judi Bari before the day of the bombing.  

McKinley explained that at the time of the bombing he had been working on a case involving organized crime, narcotics and specifically the Hell's Angels motorcycle group. After hearing the news bulletin about a bombing on Park Boulevard in Oakland, and knowing that a number of Hell's Angels members lived just a few blocks away, McKinley decided to proceed to the scene.  

McKinley also testified that after arriving at the scene he made phone calls to the Oakland FBI office and was told that “some people with Earth First! were traveling to Santa Cruz and were going to do something big.”  

Serra concluded his questioning of McKinley Wednesday by asking whether a rivalry existed between the FBI and the ATF or the police for jurisdiction at a bomb scene. McKinley denied that a rivalry existed and added that the FBI often takes the lead in such an investigation. 

“It could well lie in the primary jurisdiction of the FBI,” said McKinley. 

The defense plans to call several more witnesses Thursday. The case is expected to go to the jury for a final decision by the middle of next week.


Mayoral Convention was uplifting

Thursday May 09, 2002

To the Editor: 

I attended Saturday’s Mayoral Convention, and I found City Councilmember Betty Olds’ depiction of the event in Tuesday’s Daily Planet interesting. 

As far as I know, Ms. Olds did not attend the event, yet she described it as “disgusting.” 

The convention I attended was uplifting, beginning with songs in both English and Spanish, followed by Reverend Marvin Peoples’ invocation. Respected members of our diverse communities – including the arts, neighborhoods, commissions, and boards – stepped forward to share their reasons for wanting a new leader for our beloved city. 

Citizens of integrity who had put their names forward as potential candidates were nominated and gave speeches. Each candidate, including one who announced at the convention, spoke of her/his visions for a better city government.  

The convention was one of hope. As UC Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Emeritus Russ Ellis said when he introduced Tom Bates, there are moments in history when the time is right for change. 

“It is Berkeley’s time! It is Tom's time!” 

I knew of Tom Bates when I was still living further south in Santa Barbara. Environment was a topic of regional concern in the 701s, and we environmental pioneers followed the records of state legislators. Assemblyman Tom Bates stood out as a leader in sponsoring and supporting bills to protect the environment. When I moved to the Bay Area, living in San Francisco for most of the 801s, I envied my friends across the Bay who could elect and re-elect representatives of stature like Ron Dellums and Tom Bates. After Tom left the state assembly in the mid 901s, he quickly offered his experience and energy to projects designed to help our local communities. As a participant in the movement to bring better nutrition to Berkeley residents and specifically to school-aged children, I have had the pleasure of working with Tom as he lends his incredible talents to this effort.  

What distinguishes Tom from other successful politicians is his compassion and his graciousness. When I witness Tom interacting with Berkeley citizens, no matter who they are, he engages them with respect. I am so thrilled that he has stepped forward as a candidate for all the people of Berkeley and will bring that respect to our government. 

 

- Pam Webster  

Berkeley 

 


Woman loses race with railroad and survives

Jamie Luck/Special to the Daily Planet
Thursday May 09, 2002

A 25-year-old woman was probably happy to receive a citation Wednesday from the Union Pacific Police, particularly since she was alive and well enough to accept it. 

Oakland resident Nikkca Young drove her silver Toyota Corolla around the railroad crossing arm at 3rd and Addison streets around 12:15 p.m., ignoring the flashing red lights, and within a moment felt the impact of a freight train traveling at 48 mph. 

 

The southbound Burlington Northern local train stopped further down the tracks from the crossing where it cruised through the tail-end of Young’s vehicle, and fortunately no-one onboard was injured. After a brief examination by the Berkeley Fire Department, Young herself was released. 

“To walk away from something like that with no serious injuries is remarkable, but I wouldn’t count on it happening again,” said Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney. “People should not think that surviving such an accident is a common occurence.” 

Union Pacific investigator Ed Jesus, who has only been on the Alameda County beat for the last two months, said it is the second such accident he has seen in Berkeley. 

Though a crowd of Berkeley’s police responded quickly to the scene and made the initial inquiries, the case fell within Union Pacific Police’s jurisdiction, so Jesus took over. When asked how frequently such accidents occur here, one officer responded “with irritating regularity--but don’t quote me on that,” and winked.  

The explosive sound from the incident brought workers from local businesses, who gathered around to survey the scene. “Never race a train,” admonished one bystander.  

According to a study done by the California Public Utilities Commission in 1999, the last available year for railroad accident statistics in the state, 204 railroad crossing accidents were reported, with 23 resulting in fatalities and 73 injured. California holds the second place in the nation for the most vehicle-related railroad accidents.


Berdahl sued for fraud

By Devona Walker The Associated Press
Thursday May 09, 2002

A law degree from the University of California Berkeley may soon turn into a huge headache for Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl. Former student activist and current environmental attorney Rick Young has filed a lawsuit against the chancellor claiming that he has made fraudulent statements to the public about parking and housing issues. 

To some the lawsuit may seem a bit like tit-for-tat, as the university recently sued Young over some of his more zealous protesting activities — which include the sledge-hammering of an automobile near campus. University spokesperson Marie Felde characterized it as “a very curious lawsuit.” 

And Young himself has even conceded that it is in part a “payback” for being sued by the university. 

But the point of law, if proved by Young, could potentially have larger implications.  

Young is accusing Berdahl of lying and misleading the public about how much housing the university has created for its students and how many parking spots it has been forced to give up.  

“I’ve told both of these guys (Chancellor Berdahl and Transportation Director Nadesan Permaul) they need to rectify their errors, and they’ve chosen not to do that — so I’m suing,” Young said. “You can’t say anything that’s likely to mislead. He told the public that the university lost 1,000 parking spots but they lost 64 parking spots. He also said ‘we’ve achieved 3,200 to 3,400 beds’ and that is entirely untrue.” 

Young says he believes the university has a responsibility to be a role model in the community and make an effort to create housing along transportation corridors and cut down on commuter traffic — from both students as well as staff. He also says he has attempted to get the chancellor to correct past statement but that the chancellor was largely unresponsive. 

“He didn’t even give me an answer. He just says what he wants and does what he wants because he thinks there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” Young said. “ But I’m doing something about it.” 

From the university’s standpoint, the lawsuit has not been viewed yet, so there was very little to comment on.  

But Felde did say, however, that she believes winning the lawsuit is not Young’s purpose for filing it. 

“[Young] seems to have something of a personal crusade against Chancellor Berdahl,” she said. 

Winning in court would be an uphill battle for Young.  

Jan Whitaker of the First Amendment Coalition said she is unsure if the “fair business practices” rule that Young uses as the basis for his “fraud” lawsuit would necessarily apply to statements made by the chancellor. 

The spirit of the law protects consumers from companies that make false claims about products. It is unknown whether a judge would extrapolate that to apply to intangibles such as housing.  

“He’s clearly trying to cast himself in a very positive light,” Young said about Berdahl’s statements. “And the truth needs to come out. 

“It’s incredibly significant that the leader of the university has said something that is not true and has refused to run a statement clearing it up,” he added. 

However, the spoken word, printed words and product guarantees are not measured the same.  

If Young is successful in proving his case that an official statement made by Chancellor Berdahl was “fraudulent,” a conscious attempt to mislead the public and an overstatement of services provided to the public, it would seem that the same rule would apply to cross the board — appointed and elected officials, police officers, corporate execs and perhaps even mail carriers would then be held “legally” responsible for telling the truth. 

Another obstacle would simply be whether or not Berdahl ever made the statements.  

University documents do not show that Berdahl has ever made the assertion that the university has created 3,200 new housing units. But documents do show that the university has prematurely counted unfinished units into its overall housing stock.  

Young says he will be serving the Chancellor with papers within the next 30 days.


Oakland may get juvenile hall instead of Dublin

The Associated Press
Thursday May 09, 2002

OAKLAND, Calif. — Plans to move juvenile hall to Dublin may be on hold following an announcement by Alameda County’s sheriff that he’s closing the North County adult jail in Oakland. 

The surprise announcement by Sheriff Charles Plummer at a budget meeting sparked debate among county and city officials over whether the juvenile facility should be moved into the North County jail instead. 

Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb was against the idea. 

“I would lead the protest against that idea personally,” Bobb said Tuesday. “To put it in a high-rise facility is about as inhumane and insensitive as I can think of.” 

But county officials were willing to discuss the idea. Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker said Tuesday she wanted to know if there would be adequate space for classrooms, and what the cost of bringing the building up to code would be. 

The county has a $33.1 million state grant to build the new juvenile hall facility in Dublin. It’s unclear whether the grant could be used to remodel the adult jail.


Intuit to acquire payroll software

The Associated Press
Thursday May 09, 2002

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Personal finance software maker Intuit Inc. said Wednesday it will buy small business payroll processor CBS Employer Services Inc. for $78 million in cash and stock. 

Mountain View-based Intuit plans to give its small business customers the option of using the payroll service with its QuickBooks software. 

Intuit’s shares rose $2.41 to $39.56 during early trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Founded in 1966, Fort Worth, Texas-based CBS Employer started as a small business accountant before it branched into payroll services during the 1980s. The company’s CBS Payroll subsidiary has about 13,000 small business customers. 

The deal, expected to close by July 31, will increase Intuit’s annual revenue by more than $30 million, but it isn’t expected to affect the company’s earnings during the first year after the takeover. 

CBS Payroll will be blended into Intuit’s existing payroll services, a process that could result in layoffs, Intuit said. The company said it’s still too early to tell how many workers might lose their jobs as it eliminates overlapping operations. 

The combined payroll processing center will operate major processing centers in San Bernardino and Reno, Nev.


Atty. Gnl. Lockyer received $50,000 for his campaign Oracle donation returned

By Steve Lawrence The Associated Press
Thursday May 09, 2002

 

SACRAMENTO — Attorney General Bill Lockyer returned $50,000 in campaign donations Wednesday to the Oracle Corp., saying he didn’t want the money to undermine his investigation of a state contract signed by the computer company. 

Lockyer said the donations didn’t create a conflict of interest for him, but he also said he didn’t want Republican criticism of the contributions to weaken public confidence in his office. 

“Full, fair, nonpartisan and nonpolitical investigations have always been the standard for this office,” he said in a written statement. “Returning the campaign contributions from Oracle will help ensure that partisans don’t undermine public confidence in the integrity of the ... investigation.” 

Lockyer is looking into a $95 million, no-bid contract that Oracle signed last year to provide the state with database software. The deal was initially touted as a way for the state to save at least $16 million through volume purchases. 

But the state auditor says the contract could end up costing the state up to $41 million more than if it had not signed the contract and kept its previous software supply arrangements. 

The agreement has also come under fire because Oracle gave Gov. Gray Davis a $25,000 contribution a few days after the contract was signed last year. 

Davis said Wednesday that he would wait “until all the facts are in on Oracle” before deciding whether to return his donation. He has denied there was any link between the contribution and the state’s willingness to sign the contract. 

Lockyer made his announcement as Davis’ budget director, Tim Gage, met with Oracle representatives for about 90 minutes to talk about rescinding the contract. 

“We are proceeding promptly and carefully to unwind this contract and we appreciate Oracle’s cooperation in this effort,” Gage said. 

More meetings are planned but have not been scheduled, said Sandy Harrison, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance. 

Lockyer received a $25,000 donation from Oracle in December 2000 and another $25,000 contribution from the Redwood Shores-based company in June 2001. 

Lockyer’s Republican opponent in the November election, state Sen. Richard Ackerman, R-Fullerton, said last week that Lockyer should drop his investigation because of his campaign support from Oracle. 

Other GOP lawmakers have urged the U.S. attorney’s office to launch its own investigation of the contract.


Mideast crisis drives up oil prices

Daily Planet Wire Services
Thursday May 09, 2002

NEW YORK — Crude oil and products futures rallied sharply on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday as U.S. crude inventories declined and Middle East tensions flared anew after two Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel. 

The nearby June crude contract soared $1.22 to $27.85 a barrel. Gasoline for June delivery rose 0.49 cent to 78.77 cents a gallon, while heating oil gained 1.54 cent to 67.40 cents a gallon. 

The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude inventories fell by a surprisingly large amount in the week ended May 3. The U.S. Department of Energy reported an even larger draw early Wednesday. 

Crude stocks declined by 4.5 million barrels to 321 million — slightly above last year’s level — as imports fell by 686,000 barrels a day and refinery utilization rose 0.3 percentage point to 93.2 percent of operable capacity, the American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday. Early Wednesday, the Department of Energy reported that crude stocks fell by 5.5 million barrels, while refinery utilization jumped by 1.8 percentage points to 96.3 percent of capacity. Total stocks reverted to a deficit, the DOE said, and are now 5.5 million barrels below the 325.5 million reported last year. 

The market shrugged off bearish gasoline data. Gasoline stocks rose 3.9 million barrels to 214.4 million, the API reported, more than most analysts expected. Gasoline stocks increased as demand fell to 8.3 million barrels a day from 9.3 million barrels a day a week earlier, the API said. The DOE reported a more moderate increase in gasoline stocks of 2.2 million barrels. 

Fears that the fragile Israeli peace process may unravel in the wake of the latest deadly suicide bombing also permeated the market, increasing the war premium. 

“You hit good inventory numbers and you’ve got more tensions in the Middle East,” said analyst Bill O’Grady, of AG Edwards. 

Natural gas futures for June delivery rose 7.3 cents to $3.746 per 1,000 cubic feet on Nymex. In London, Brent crude from the North Sea was trading 62 cents higher at $26.03 per barrel. 


House approves Bush’s Yucca nuclear waste dump

By H. Josef Herbert The Associated Press
Thursday May 09, 2002

WASHINGTON — Ignoring protests from Nevada, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly embraced President Bush’s decision to bury tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste in volcanic rock 90 miles from Las Vegas. 

The lawmakers by a three-to-one margin approved a resolution to override a veto by Nevada of Bush’s plans to develop Yucca Mountain as the central repository for 77,000 tons of used reactor fuel and other highly radioactive waste accumulating in 39 states. 

Opponents, including Rep. Dick Gephardt, the Democratic leader, argued that it would be too risky — especially after last September’s terrorist attacks — to ship the waste across the country by truck and rail. 

But supporters of the radioactive dump argued that the waste poses a greater risk if it remains at more than 130 locations, including at 103 commercial power reactors. Half of the House Democrats joined all but a handful of Republicans in supporting the president’s decision, approving the resolution 306-117. 

“Where are my colleagues who are advocates for states’ rights, local control?” asked Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. He maintained that the Energy Department has failed to ensure that the waste would be kept safely isolated for the expected 10,000 years some of its isotopes will be dangerously radioactive. 

In Nevada, Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, said, “We will continue our battle in the U.S. Senate and on parallel track in the courts.” Three lawsuits already are in the courts, challenging the Yucca plan. 

After Bush announced in February he would seek a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the Yucca facility, Nevada vetoed the selection under a provision of the federal nuclear waste law. Congress must override the veto by late July if Bush’s decision is to stand. 

“Certainly the Senate will take note of the overwhelming bipartisan support the Yucca Mountain project has received in the House,” said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. He expressed confidence that the Senate will endorse the project and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will find that it meets standards for health and safety. 

Supporters of the site said Yucca Mountain had been studied for two decades at a cost of nearly $7 billion. 

It is “scientifically proven safe” and as a single, central storage facility is preferable to “the current hodgepodge” of locations now holding the waste, said House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois. His state has 11 power reactors, most of any state, and a growing waste problem. 

But Gephardt argued that even with the Nevada dump “we’d still have nuclear waste stored around the country decades from now” and thousands of shipments of nuclear material on highways and rail systems. 

Abraham called the concerns about waste transport “baseless allegations” and said that over the past 30 years nuclear waste has been carried more than 1.6 million miles without a harmful release of radiation. 

“Currently more than 161 million people live within 75 miles of a nuclear waste storage site,” said Abraham. 

Power reactors generate about 2,000 tons of used reactor fuel annually with about 40,000 tons already kept in reactor pools and — in a small number of cases — concrete bunkers. Several thousand tons of waste also is kept at federal facilities as part of the nuclear weapons complex. 


Judge challenges teacher layoffs

By David Scharfenberg Daily Planet staffJudge challenges teacher layoffs
Wednesday May 08, 2002

BUSD recovery plan thrown into chaos 

 

An administrative law judge issued a ruling Tuesday siding with more than 20 Berkeley teachers who have challenged their layoff notices, wreaking havoc on the district’s $5.4 million recovery plan. 

Judge Jonathan Lew found that the district made a number of errors in determining the teachers’ seniority, according to district and union sources who saw the ruling, throwing into doubt the district’s ability to lay them off. 

Layoffs are at the center of the district’s plan to make up an estimated $5.4 million shortfall next year and Associate Superintendent of Administrative Services David Gomez worried that the Lew ruling may prevent the district from following through on eight to 10 layoffs. 

“We’re sweating bullets here,” said Gomez, noting that the district will have to search for alternative cuts. 

Gomez, who emphasized that Berkeley Unified will not have a full grasp on the ramifications of the ruling until officials meet with legal counsel on Thursday, said the district may have to initiate a second round of layoffs in August to make up for the reversal. 

Earlier this year, the district pushed to meet a March 15 legal deadline to inform certificated employees, including teachers, that they may be laid off next year. 

LAYOFFS/From Page 1 

 

But Gomez said state law allows the district to layoff certificated personnel in August if the state provides a “cost of living adjustment” in state funding of less than two percent. Gomez said that adjustment is scheduled to be 1.6 percent. 

Further program cuts are also a possibility, he said, but officials will attempt to avoid them. 

“We’re already down to the bone marrow,” Gomez said. 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said the union was “quite pleased” with the ruling. He said the district can avoid further layoffs if it provides strong retirement incentives, inducing veteran teachers to leave the profession early. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said the district would offer incentives a few weeks ago, in the form of lump sum payments, but has not provided details. Fike urged the district to talk specifics, especially in the wake of the Lew decision. 

“The results here underscore the need for the district to come out with an announcement on retirement incentives and leave incentives immediately,” he said. 

Board of Education President Shirley Issel said she was worried about the prospect of a new round of layoffs in August. 

“It introduces new uncertainties for current staff,” Issel said. “If we can be issuing layoff notices as late as August, it would seem to me it could make people feel very insecure about their positions.” 

Issel said that sense of insecurity could hurt the district’s ability to retain current staff. 


The Berkeley Party is Out of Touch

Kirstin Miller
Wednesday May 08, 2002

To the Editor: 

If the Berkeley Party has its way, planning for the future in context with the rest of the world won’t be allowed anymore. 

The Berkeley Party, a group mostly comprised of local architectural preservationists who seem to want to return to the first half of the 1900s, is circulating a height initiative that would be more appropriately called a “short” initiative. This group would make it a law to keep all the buildings in town at no more than four stories. They want this in order to stave off anything they would consider out of scale with their tastes. 

Their lack of concern for anything except their own particular aesthetic is alarming, provincial and even elitist. They even try and wrap their antiquated logic in green by telling people that keeping things low is better for the environment! (Of course, when the Berkeley Party talks about the environment, they are referring exclusively to their own front and back yards.) 

If Berkeley were the only city on the planet, then perhaps the Berkeley Party could one day almost return to the past. Everyone could live in little bungalows and play tennis in the afternoons. All the low-income people who live in apartments – students, artists, other people needing housing and real environmentalists who care about humanity’s future on a larger scale – would magically disappear once and for all. Complex issues like the dynamics and reality of sprawl, global warming, species extinction, commuting, housing, jobs, children growing up, diversity, culture, vitality and commerce wouldn’t bother them anymore and interrupt their pleasant lives. 

But the rest of the world isn't going away, and Berkeley can't return to the past. However, it could eventually become an even more pleasant and healthy city than it was in 1900. What the Berkeley Party COULD be secretly enjoying in the future is reduced traffic and congestion throughout the city and a more pedestrian, vital, lively and vibrant community with even quieter and more peaceful neighborhoods. This can begin to come about if we place some taller, well-designed, car-free-by-contract buildings in the city transit centers where people will be able to live and work without depending on the automobile. 

There are many of us in Berkeley who are advocating for appropriate density and diversity where people can live car-free lifestyles. We picture a range of heights that are “in scale” with the type of form and function that works for a particular place. A height of 20 stories wouldn’t be right for Berkeley, but a few building of 10 or 12 stories would be right in the downtown, alongside other buildings of various heights. Would you rather have row upon row of only four stories, or a variety of heights clustered in central transit areas, some one or two, some five or six, and a few ten or twelve? Which sounds more interesting, and in fact, better at providing views and different sun angles and allowing for diversity and creativity in design and function? 

Some people love to study the past and preserve as much of it as they can in an attempt to honor and celebrate what came before. Of course, someday TODAY will be the past too, and what will we have to show for it? Will we be accused of trying to return to a distant past that is no longer in context with our time while we flat out ignore the real needs of the people of today? The Berkeley Party is itself out of context with the rest of the community and is certainly out of touch with the rest of the world. 

Those of us who honestly care about people, housing, diversity, the environment and the future, here and everywhere, should join with other land use, transit, housing and environmentalist groups to tell the Berkeley Party that their height initiative is elitist and exclusionary, anti-environmental, and plain old boring. If only they would open their minds a little bit more and be able to realize that a few taller buildings in town will actually help bring about more of what they really want to see in their neighborhoods – reduced traffic and the potential to save and even create more open space elsewhere. 

 

- Kirstin Miller 

Berkeley  


Out & About Calendar

Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002


Wednesday May 8

 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30- 3:00 P.M. 

Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Puppet show for children age 3 to 10 to learn about germs and their effects on the body. Free.  

For more information: 510-549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org 

 


Thursday, May 9

 

FBI & Local police: Partners in Repression 

Forum, Speakout & Music 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall, 1924 Bonita 

Berkeley 

For Info: Copwatch, 510-548-0425 

$5-$15  

 

Consumers’ Rights, Problems and Legislation 

Speaker Tom Vacar, consumer editor, KTVU, Channel 2 

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

Albany 

For more info: 510-843-8824 

Free 

 

Community Budget Workshop 

Berkeley Unified School District 

Budget & Finance Advisory Committee 

Subject: California State Budget Process & the J200 Budget Format 

6:30 p.m. 

Longfellow Arts & Technology Magnet Middleschool 

Auditorium 

1500 Derby St. (at California) 

Berkeley 

Free 

 

Native Californian Cultures 

A major focus of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology has been the Native peoples of California. Today, with 260,000 catalogue entries, the museum preserves the world's largest and most comprehensive collection devoted to the region. In this gallery, we present an overview of Native Californian cultures demonstrating the great diversity of the Californian peoples. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

children 16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

 

Judeo-Christian Values in Islam? 

What are the humanistic values inherent in Islam? How has history colored western views of Islam? etc. 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

$5 

 


Friday, May 10

 

New Sculpture & Paintings by Jody Sears & Michele Ramirez 

Opening reception: Saturday May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. 

Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Ardency Gallery 

709 Broadway 

Oakland 

510-836-0831,  

e-mail: gallery709@aol.com 

Free 

 


Saturday, May 11

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

510-525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Events 

Paper Flower Making 

Get ready for Mother's Day with the Klutz "Tissue Paper Flower" kit and learn to make tissue paper flowers. Age 8 and up.  

LHS Film- Happy Birthday, Mr. Feynman 

Film Plays Continuously from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

To celebrate the birthday of Nobel laureate, maverick physicist, author, and teacher extraordinaire Richard Feynman, 

LHS presents the film, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. This 50-minute film presents Feynman telling fascinating 

stories from his life and research. Produced by Christopher Sykes. 

LHS- The Idea Lab 

Opens May 11.


Arts & Entertainment Calendar

Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002

 

Wednesday, May 8 

Robert Boswell reads from “Century’s Son” 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Book Store 

2454 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley 

510-845-7852 

Free 

 

Saturday, May 11 

Word Beat Reading Series 

Entertainers of all kinds come together . Featuring readers Rita Flores Bogaert and Ann Hunkins 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

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

Free 

 

 

“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.  

 

 

“What Cats Know”  

Saturday, May 4 - June 9. 

By Lisa Dilman. Directed by Rebecca J. Ennals. Four thirty-somethings play a game of gotcha with unexpected consequences.  

Thursdays- Saturdays 8 p.m. $20, 

Sundays 7 p.m.- Pay what you can 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

883-0305 

www.transparenttheater.org 

 

Impact Theatre’s “Love Is The Law” 

May 10 - June 8. 

La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 

World-premiere of Impact Theatre’s new romantic comedy play featuring David Ballog. 

For more information and reservations: 464-4468, www.tickets@impacttheatre.com 

$12 general, $7 students  

 

“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. 

 

 

Wednesday, May 8 

Y’All & David Roth 

Traditional, original & topical, contemporary folk music 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Thursday, May 9 

Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Shana Morrison 

Celtic / blues acoustic fusion 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

 

 

David Widelock Jazz Duo, guitar and bass 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Friday, May 10 

Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 


Depth pulls Berkeley High tennis through NCS match

By Jared Green, Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002

’Jackets face rematch with De La Salle in second round on Thursday 

 

The Berkeley High boys’ tennis team won its first North Coast Section game in at least three years on Tuesday, beating Montgomery High (Santa Rosa), 5-2. 

Berkeley’s deep roster once again made the difference, as the fifth-seeded ’Jackets (12-2) lost the top two singles matches but rallied to sweep the doubles matches and win the No. 3 and 4 singles. Every match went just two sets, including two doubles matches that ended on tiebreaks. 

Nate Simmons used his topspin serve to dominate Mike Marinelli at the No. 3 singles, winning 6-1, 6-2. Also a basketball player for Berkeley High, Simmons came to the net often and used his athleticism to get up for Marinelli’s lobs. When Simmons stayed on the baseline, he ran his opponent all over the court with accurate groundstrokes. 

“I wanted to come into the net as much as possible, and I was pretty effective moving him from side to side,” Simmons said. 

Berkeley’s other singles victory came in a baseline battle, with Peter Logan coming out on top, 6-3, 6-0, over Montgomery’s Justin Strachan. Logan played patiently, returning nearly every shot Strachan hit and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. Logan’s win clinched the victory for Berkeley, putting the ’Jackets into the second round for the first time under coach Dan Seguin. 

“Our matches usually don’t come down to me having to win,” Logan said. “But after I won the first set, I didn’t really feel any pressure. I felt like I had (Strachan) down.” 

The ’Jackets were happy to get a home NCS match for the first time, as postseason trips to powerful Campolindo ended the past two seasons. Montgomery (12-4) came in unseeded as the North Bay League champs, while Berkeley earned the No. 5 seed by going undefeated in ACCAL play. 

Seguin said the home match had another effect: the presence of the Berkeley High administrator (required for all NCS matches). 

“All the time I’ve been here, this is the first time we’ve gotten anyone from the school at one of our matches,” Seguin said. “And today it was just because someone had to be here.” 

Although the Vikings kept the match close with wins from No. 1 single Henry Hasegawa and No. 2 Justin Neel, Berkeley’s dominance of the doubles matches made the matter moot. Berkeley’s top team of Ben Chambers and Quincy Moore made short work of Steve Houghton and Matt Huntsberger, 6-2, 6-4. 

The most dramatic matchup came at the No. 2 doubles, where Adam Akullian and Shahaub Roudbari needed a second-set tiebreak to down Montgomery’s Matt Moorehead and Greg Neel. After winning the first set 6-3, the Berkeley team went up 3-0 to start the tiebreak, but Moorehead and Neel came back for a set point at 6-5. But Akullian and Roudbari rallied to win the next three points, giving the ’Jackets a much-needed victory. 

“I thought we were going to go to a third set for sure,” Akullian said. “But I think we got more focused as the tiebreak went on, when we really needed it.” 

With a Berkeley win already sewn up, the No. 3 doubles match didn’t have much drama. The Berkeley team of Nick Larsson and Tak Katsuura won regardless, 6-4, 76 (7-4). 

The ’Jackets’ opponent in the second round will be De La Salle High (Concord), the No. 4 seed. The two teams met two weeks ago, with the Spartans pulling out a 4-3 win with victories in the top two singles and doubles matches. Seguin thinks the match could go either way. 

“(De La Salle) is the deepest team we’ve played this year. They’re like us: solid all the way through the ladder,” Seguin said. “But we could’ve easily won two of the matches we lost. I feel like we could have played better, and it was still close.” 

The second round match will be played at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday at Club Sport Valley Vista in Concord, De La Salle’s home court.


Council snubs soccer field

By Kurtis Alexander, Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002

An outpouring of soccer dads and youth donning baseball caps at Old City Hall Tuesday night was not enough to persuade city leaders to push for more athletic fields in the community, at least where the sports activists wanted them. 

In a decision split largely along political lines, City Council adopted a recommendation by progressive Councilmember Dona Spring urging more sports fields along Berkeley’s waterfront, but discouraging fields on neighboring Albany shores. 

“I don’t think it takes into account all the needs of youth in Albany and Berkeley,” said Berkeley resident Federico Chavez, a member of the Albany-Berkeley Soccer League. Citing a need for more sports fields, Chavez claimed Berkeley’s Council should have recommended fields in Albany, not just Berkeley. 

Council’s recommendation comes as a regional planning team finalizes plans for an 8.5-mile-long park along the East Bay waterfront, dubbed the Eastshore Park and in development for decades. 

Park planners are in the process of soliciting comments for the park’s development from the cities that the park will pass through, which include Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, and Richmond. But because the land is state-owned, recommendations by City Councils are not binding, only advisory. 

Berkeley’s call for no sports fields at the Albany Plateau, while criticized by some, was praised by a newly-formed grassroots group called “Let it Be.” 

The group wants the area, once a landfill and now a primitive, yet popular recreation point, to remain the way it is now and claims to have circulated a petition garnering 1,200 signatures. 

“It’s been functioning the way it is now for years,” said Berkeley resident Sasha Futran, noting its heavy use by hikers, kayakers, dog-walkers, and birders. Futran applauded Council’s recommendation to not develop the land. 

Council’s position comes in direct contrast to the current plan put forth by the Eastshore Park planning team. Currently, sports fields are slated for the Albany Plateau and not in Berkeley. 

Park planner Donald Neuwirth said that a variety of factors such as the suitability of conditions for sports fields as well as habitat-preservation goals played into their current, though tentative, plan. 

Berkeley’s recommendation for sports fields along its shores identified the privately-owned Golden Gate Field properties, the North Basin, and Brickyard Cove as possible sites. 

Council’s recommendation also urged planners to minimize the number of parking lots, eliminate the possibility a high-impact promenade and increase the level of protection of the sensitive Berkeley Meadow, near the Berkeley Marina. 

Last night’s meeting was the last of the comment sessions held by park planners on the current plan. A revised plan is expected this fall, which will be up for final consideration by the California Department of Parks and Recreation in November. 

In addition to State Parks, the East Bay Regional Park District and the California State Coastal Conservancy are partnering agencies involved in the park’s 20-year development. 

 

Contact reporter: 

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net


Berkeley kids need more soccer fields

- Guy Petraborg
Wednesday May 08, 2002

To the Editor: 

Congratulations to the Berkeley City Council in recently voting 9 to 0 in support of support of the California Native Tree Initiative for the protection of old growth forests on state and private lands in California. Similarly strong leadership from the Council is needed right here in Berkeley, right now by representing the interests of all Berkeley residents in your support of the Eastshore Park and its preservation, conservation, and recreation objectives. 

Having such a unique and naturally rich park developed as part of the urban landscape of the East Bay will be a treasure to residents and visitors alike for decades to come. The vision of the Eastshore Park and its strategy of using high-value natural areas for preservation, moderate-value natural and man-made lands for conservation and environmental improvement, and low-value man-made landfills for multi-use recreational purposes including sports fields is laudable. 

The Eastshore Park vision is very fitting to the mixed natural, unnatural landfills, and urban/industrial setting that exists within and immediately adjacent to the park boundaries, respectively. 

As a parent and resident of Berkeley, a member of the Albany-Berkeley Soccer Club Board of Directors (ABSC), and President of the Alameda-Contra Costa Youth Soccer League (ACCYSL), which provides recreational soccer opportunities to almost 3,000 boys and girls of Berkeley and surrounding communities, I am very excited about having the Eastshore Park in our community. The local soccer community is on the order of 10,000 to 15,000 members in size and is supportive of developing limited landfill areas at portions of the Albany Plateau and Berkeley Lands North Basin Strip as part of the Eastshore Park. Petitions supporting the Eastshore Park and limited sports field improvements to landfill areas as part of the park will be delivered to the City Council illustrating the breadth of community support for the Eastshore Park, its objectives, and limited development of 'inland' portions of existing landfill areas at the Albany Plateau and North Basin Strip on Berkeley Lands. 

A city of Berkeley study determined that 11 more recreational sports fields were necessary to adequately serve the recreational needs of its population. Only two fields have been built since that study was completed. Nine more fields are needed in Berkeley! Yet, there are only a couple potential field sites that might practically be developed in the densely, well-developed, urban setting of Berkeley. Therefore, improving the inland portions of landfill areas at the Albany Plateau and Berkeley's North Basin Strip is not optional, it is a mandatory need of this community.  

Please add your voice to the City Council's support of the Eastshore Park Concept Plan with recreational sports fields at the North Basin Strip. The residents of Berkeley and the youth of the Bay Area will benefit for decades to come. 

 

- Guy Petraborg 

Albany-Berkeley Soccer Club 


Asthma serious problem in East Bay

By David Scharfenberg, Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002

One in 10 Alameda County residents suffered from asthma in the past year, well above the statewide average, according to a new study released Tuesday. 

The California Health Interview Survey, conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the California Endowment and the California Department of Health Services, found that 10.1 percent of adults and children in Alameda County report experiencing asthma symptoms at least once a year, compared to 8.8 percent statewide. 

“That does seem striking to us,” said E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA center and co-author of the study. 

Brown said there are no definitive explanations for the higher rate in Alameda County. But statewide, the study found that blacks and low-income adults are more likely to suffer from asthma.  

Dr. Poki Namkung, Berkeley’s director of public health, said a large African-American population and concentrations of poverty in Alameda County probably play a role in the higher-than-average rate. 

 

“Asthma clearly is a disease of poverty,” she said, suggesting that inadequate access to health care and poor living conditions play a role. 

Scientists do not know what causes asthma, but have identified several environmental “triggers” for attacks, including air pollutants, dust mites and cockroaches. 

Namkung pointed to a recent study of asthma hospitalization rates, by census tract, which indicates that West Berkeley residents have higher incidences of asthma than other Berkeleyans. Namkung said proximity to the highway, and vehicle pollutants, is partly to blame. 

The 2001 California Health Interview Survey found that, while 8.8 percent of Californians, or approximately 3 million adults and children reported experiencing asthma symptoms in the last year, a full 11.9 percent report that they have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives. The nationwide average is 10.1 percent. 

The survey also found that African-Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives living in California reported that they had been diagnosed with asthma at much higher rates than whites, Latinos and Asian-Americans. 

Over 21 percent of African-American adults said they had been diagnosed, compared to 14.3 percent of whites, 11.7 percent of Asian-Americans and 9.7 percent of Latinos. 

The study also found that 136,000 adolescents, ages 12-17, who experienced asthma symptoms missed one or more days of school per month. 

The report called for expanded health care coverage to cope with asthma, warning that a lack of adequate management of the disease only leads to expensive emergency room visits. The study also called for improved surveillance of the disease on the state and local levels, and a concerted effort to reduce exposure to asthma triggers. 

The California Endowment, one of the study’s co-sponsors, officially launched its $12 million, three-year Community Action to Fight Asthma initiative Tuesday with the release of the survey. 

The Endowment is providing a $450,000 to twelve different projects around the state, including the Oakland/Berkeley Asthma Coalition based at the Ethnic Health Institute at Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center. 

The coalition plans to offer asthma education in the Berkeley and Oakland public schools and in Oakland public housing. Dr. Michael Lenoir, an Oakland allergist involved in the project, said education is a vital tool. 

“Most people suffer needlessly because they don’t know they can be better,” Lenoir said. 

Megan Webb, director of the Regional Asthma Management and Prevention Initiative in Berkeley, which is overseeing five local projects funded by The California Endowment, said the programs will also include removal of environmental triggers and attempts to shift the policies of local institutions to accommodate asthma sufferers. 

Changing a school’s schedule for mowing the lawn, for example, can have a marked effect, Webb said. 

 

Contact reporter at: scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net


Lawsuit challenges City Council districts

By Kurtis Alexander, Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday May 08, 2002

Who thought the voter redistricting process was over? Not Merrilie Mitchell. 

The Berkeley resident has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that boundaries set for City Council districts in March were unjustly established and thus should be reconsidered. 

The suit resurrects a debate argued earlier this year about how to best redraw council jurisdictions, given new census data, to equalize their size and protect political blocs within them. 

The new districts are slated to be put into effect for the first time this November, with four City Council positions up for vote. 

Mitchell argues, in her state Superior Court suit received by the city on Friday, that the newly-drawn districts are based on inaccurate census information. Furthermore, she contends that the City Council did not hold the legally-required public hearings before the new districts were approved. 

But City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said Mitchell’s suit has “no merit.” She claimed the city redrew the districts in compliance with the law, and that the two public hearings held on the matter were a sufficient number. 

“[Mitchell] seems to be saying that because the council responded to the public and made changes [to the redistricting plan] that they should have had another hearing. I don’t read the law that way,” Albuquerque said. 

In regard to Mitchell’s claim that bad information was used to make the districts, Albuquerque said that the city had no choice. 

“The charter requires us to use the census numbers. We have no discretion,” she said. 

In the suit, Mitchell claims that census inaccuracies were “well known to the City of Berkeley since the City of Berkeley has filed a lawsuit to challenge the undercount,” estimated by some to be between 4,000 and 10,000 residents. Yet, the city proceeded to draw new districts despite bad information, she said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, though the most outspoken critic of the redistricting process in March, said the “paths and battle scars” from the debate need to be left behind. 

“Holding it up in court is no solution,” she said. 

Spring acknowledged that the census numbers were probably inaccurate, but agreed with Albuquerque that nothing could be done about it at this point. 

“The census department is not going to give us new numbers,” she said. 

The city has 30 days after the April 26 filing to respond to Mitchell’s suit, and Albuquerque indicated every intention of fighting it. 

Mitchell was not available for comment yesterday. 

 

Contact reporter: 

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net


History

- The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

Today is Wednesday, May 8, the 128th day of 2002. There are 237 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight 

On May 8, 1945, President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe. 

 

On this date: 

In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. 

In 1846, the first major battle of the Mexican War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas, resulting in victory for Gen. Zachary Taylor’s forces. 

In 1884, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, was born near Lamar, Mo. 

In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for “Coca-Cola.” 

In 1958, Vice President Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru. 

In 1962, the musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opened on Broadway. 

In 1970, construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York’s Wall Street. 

In 1973, militant American Indians who’d held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered. 

In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to the “Son of Sam” killings that had terrified New Yorkers. 

In 1987, Gary Hart, dogged by questions about his personal life, including his relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

 

Ten years ago:  

President George H.W. Bush wound up two emotional days in riot-ravaged Los Angeles, promising to work harder in Washington to enact a “common-sense agenda” of conservative proposals to help urban America. 

 

Five years ago:  

President Clinton assured Central American leaders during a summit in Costa Rica that they need not fear mass deportations of immigrants who’d sought refuge in the United States during U.S.-backed conflicts. After months of railing against Democrats for taking foreign money, the Republican Party announced it had returned $122,400 in contributions from a Hong Kong company. 

 

One year ago:  

China protested the resumption of U.S. surveillance flights off its coast and said it would refuse to let the United States fly out a crippled Navy spy plane. Pope John Paul II began the final leg of a historic pilgrimage as he arrived in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta. 

 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Comedian Don Rickles is 76. Environmentalist Sir David Attenborough is 76. Author Peter Benchley is 62. Singer John Fred (John Fred and His Playboy Band) is 61. Actor James Mitchum is 61. Country singer Jack Blanchard is 60. Jockey Hall-of-Famer Angel Cordero Jr. is 60. Singer Toni Tennille is 59. Jazz musician Keith Jarrett is 57. Singer Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 51. Rock musician Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) is 51. Rockabilly singer Billy Burnette is 49. Actor David Keith is 48. Actor Stephen Furst is 48. Rock musician Alex Van Halen is 47. Actress Melissa Gilbert is 38. Rock musician Dave Rowntree (Blur) is 38. Country musician Del Gray is 34. Rock singer Darren Hayes is 30. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 27. Singer Ana Maria Lombo (Eden’s Crush) is 24. Actress Julia Whelan (“Once and Again”) is 17. 

 


Earth First! activist sings testimony

By Michelle Locke, The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

OAKLAND — Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney strummed a guitar and sang “Spike a Tree for Jesus” as he finished testifying Tuesday in a lawsuit claiming he and fellow activist Judi Bari were framed by police and FBI agents. 

Cherney and Bari were injured in May 1990 when a bomb went off in their car. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis. 

The two were arrested within hours, but no charges ever were brought. 

Cherney and Bari subsequently filed a federal civil lawsuit against nine current and former Oakland policemen and FBI agents alleging false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. 

Bari died of cancer in 1997, but her estate is pursuing the lawsuit. 

Since the trial began in early April, the Cherney-Bari team has tried to show that investigators were “out to get” the activists, ignoring evidence indicating they weren’t responsible for the bombing. 

At the time of the arrests, for instance, officials said the bomb was in the back of the car where it would have been visible to Bari and Cherney. But an analysis later showed the bomb had been shoved under the front seat. 

Attorneys representing the investigators have tried to show that at the time of the bombing Earth First! had a reputation for dangerous behavior such as driving spikes into tree trunks that could shatter a logger’s chain saw. 

Testifying Tuesday, Cherney tried to play down the group’s reputation, saying he had never engaged in sabotage and he and Bari had publicly renounced tactics such as tree spiking. 

Cherney admitted telling the news program ”60 Minutes” that if he had a terminal illness he would strap dynamite to himself and blow up a dam or the corporate offices of a lumber company after hours. But he said he immediately regretted and retracted the statement. 

In cross examination, Justice Department attorney Joseph Sher tried to show that Cherney did support sabotage. 

Sher showed the jury copies of album covers made by folk singer Cherney, including one called “They Don’t Make Hippies Like They Used To,” that showed cartoon figures of Cherney and Bari, who played fiddle on the tape, with a burning bulldozer in the background. 

Among the songs on that tape was “Spike a Tree for Jesus,” which Cherney sang for the jury under redirect questioning from his attorney, Dennis Cunningham. 

The song, which derives its title from the assertion that “loggers killed Jesus,” since wood was cut down to make the cross, was warmly received by the many Cherney-Bari supporters in the audience. But there were some unsmiling faces on the jury. 

Earlier, Cherney testified he was stunned when investigators said they suspected him of bombing his own car. 

“I have never lit a firecracker in my life, and to be accused of being a bomber was completely incredible,” Cherney said in federal district court. 

When the bomb went off, “there was a crack. There was a noise, a loud sound, and my head started to ring,” Cherney said. “It was like a sitar was in my head.” 

Two young people ran up to the car yelling, “It’s a bomb!” Cherney said. “That’s when it clicked in my mind that somebody had tried to make good on one of those death threats.” 

Cherney is one of the last witnesses in the case. His attorneys began showing a videotaped deposition of Bari and planned to finish showing the tape Wednesday.


Earth First! rally after trial

Daily Planet Wire Services
Wednesday May 08, 2002

OAKLAND, CA — Following the trial hearings on Thursday, a press conference will be held in front of the Oakland Federal Courthouse (1301 Clay St.) featuring members of the Judi Bari Solidarity Coalition: Medea Benjamin Global Exchange, San Francisco; Randy Hayes, Rainforest Action Network; Gar Smith, Earth Island Institute; and Juliette Majot, International Rivers Network. 

The speakers will voice support for the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit and discuss the larger implications for civil rights in America. 

In addition to the speakers, written statements of support will be provided from Bonnie Raitt, Holly Near, Jello Biafra, Starhawk, Howard Zinn, Faith Petric, and other public figures.


California Supreme Court hears tobacco cases

By David Kravets, The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — According to the tobacco industry, sick or dead smokers in California cannot sue cigarette manufacturers for any smoking-related injuries sustained before 1998. 

The industry made that argument Tuesday to the California Supreme Court. The court’s seven justices, during two hours of argument, seesawed on whether the industry’s interpretation of vague legislation was correct. 

The outcome of the dispute could certify California as the nation’s most tobacco- friendly state. Or it could place the Golden State in line with the rest of the nation’s states, which allow the sick and the estates of the dead to sue the companies for smoking injuries. 

A Morgan Stanley industry research paper released Monday said if the industry were to “suffer a complete loss” before the high court, “manufacturers would technically be no worse off in California than they are in any other state.” 

The report, however, added that a loss could result in a larger caseload against the industry and perhaps expose it to “liberal” juries of San Francisco and Los Angeles, where panels have already awarded millions of damages against the industry. 

Those awards are on hold pending the outcome of Tuesday’s arguments. A decision is expected within 90 days. 

California’s highly convoluted tobacco dispute begins with a 1988 state law, pushed by the industry, that immunized cigarette manufacturers from suits by smokers. But a decade later, California lawmakers changed the law, citing evidence alleging that the tobacco industry made cigarettes more addictive and that it marketed to youth. 

At issue is whether the 1998 change was retroactive to allow smokers to sue for injuries sustained during the 10-year period between 1988 and 1998. Also in dispute is whether that 1988 law banning suits altogether applied retroactively to all times before 1988. 

“It’s unfair to change the rules after the game has been played,” argued Joseph Escher III, a lawyer for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. The attorney for the maker of Camels argued that, since the new laws were so vague, the companies must be immune for all injuries before 1998. 

But the justices were unsure. 

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar said smoking illnesses normally take decades to manifest. Under the industry’s interpretation, lawsuits couldn’t be filed for years after 1998, she said. 

“How can this statute be effective?” she asked. “You have to wait 20 years to pass to sue?” 

Justice Marvin Baxter suggested it may be unfair, or “fundamentally wrong” to allow suits to proceed against the industry for a time period when the government said they were immune. 

Attorney Madelyn Chaber, who represents a dead Santa Clara smoker whose estate is seeking the right to sue, told the justices that the 1998 law said smokers could sue for damages for any time period. The legislation, she said, was “to right that wrong.” 

Other justices suggested that smokers might be able to sue for injuries sustained at any time except for the 10-year period between 1988 and 1998. 


High-speed rail bill races past first hurdle

By Steve Lawrence, The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

SACRAMENTO — A bond measure to begin construction of a 700-mile high-speed rail system linking California’s major cities easily passed its first test Tuesday, but the plan faces bigger obstacles down the road. 

The proposal by Sen. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, was approved 8-1 by the Senate Transportation Committee despite claims by one critic that it would “suck taxpayers into a boondoggle of mind-boggling proportions.” 

Supporters countered that high-speed rail has worked well in Europe and Japan and will be badly needed in California if, as predicted, the state’s population explodes over the next several decades. 

“I applaud this effort,” said Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena. “I think it’s the wave of the future.” 

The system would link the Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento areas with trains running at top speeds of more than 200 mph. 

Costa’s proposal, if approved by lawmakers, the governor and voters, would allow the state to borrow money by selling bonds to help pay for the first leg of the system, between Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

Costa hasn’t yet amended the measure to specify the amount of bonds that could be sold, but he and other supporters have described it as a $6 billion plan that would pay for construction of about half of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line. 

Proponents expect the rest of the money to come from the federal government and possibly private sources. Revenue from the first link would pay for extensions to San Diego and Sacramento, they predict. 

“If you look at examples in Europe and Japan, they never built all of their systems at once,” Costa said. “You never have the financial wherewithal to build it all at once.” 

Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, contended the plan would lead taxpayers into a “boondoggle of mind-boggling proportions,” saying the money would be better spent on building more freeways. 

But Scott said the trains would be safer, more convenient and less polluting than airplanes or cars for long-distance travel. 

He said it would be quicker to travel between Sacramento and his Los Angeles-area district by high-speed rail than to fly, counting the time required to get in and out of airports. 

Costa’s legislation could face tougher tests down the road. 

The bill only needed a simple majority to get out of the 15-member Transportation Committee, but it will have to get two-thirds votes to pass the full Senate and Assembly. That means it will need some Republican support, which may be difficult to muster. 

There is also concern at the Capitol that lawmakers have already put more than $15 billion in bond measures on this November’s ballot and that it might be better to delay the high-speed rail proposal until 2004.


Accounting firms, consumer advocates wrangle over reform

By Jennifer Coleman, The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

SACRAMENTO — A fight between public-interest groups and the powerful accounting industry is building in California’s Legislature, following Congress’ approval of a bill consumer advocates call a “red herring of reform” of auditors and accountants. 

At issue are three bills, all inspired by the collapse of energy giant Enron and the alleged accounting fraud, that would change accounting rules and limit the activities of accountants and auditors. 

An Assembly committee approved one bill Tuesday, and consumer groups hope the other two will pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee Wednesday. 

But the accounting industry is doing everything it can to stop them, as it has unleashed a mass letter-writing and telephone call campaign to legislators. Assembly members on the Business and Professions Committee have received hundreds of letters from accountants — from sole practitioners and employees from four large accounting firms. 

“It’s a truly impressive lobbying effort,” said Jerry Flanagan of the California Public Interest Research Group, “except that they all say the same thing.” 

Flanagan said his group and others are pushing for the California bills, because a bill passed last month in Congress “lacked any new reforms. California is our chance to get these reforms into place.” 

Anything passed in California could then ripple across the nation, said Assemblyman Lou Correa, an Anaheim Democrat who chairs the Business and Professions Committee. “As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation.” 

If passed and signed by Gov. Gray Davis, the bills would prohibit some consulting-auditing relationships that firms have now and require them to keep records for seven years. 

Correa, author of one of the bills targeted by the accountants, compared the lobbying effort to “thermonuclear war. Every day I turn around and they’ve hired a new lobbyist.” 

Correa’s committee approved a bill by Assemblyman Howard Wayne, D-San Diego, on a 6-3 vote. That bill mirrors recommendations from the state Board of Accountancy and would prohibit auditors from going to work for publicly traded companies they have audited for two years after they performed those services. 

Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, an accountant, called the Wayne and Correa bills a “political ploy” and an attempt to regulate companies under federal jurisdiction. 

Congress, not California should made the necessary changes in accounting, Campbell said. “California doesn’t have separate accounting standards than the rest of the nation, nor should it.” 

State legislatures throughout the nation are considering accounting and auditing bills, said Sheri Bango of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the national trade organization that sets professional standards. 

States shouldn’t have “different standards than other places in the country,” Bango said. “Especially where it may conflict with what Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed.” 

The SEC considered a “global ban” of non-auditing services by accountants as part of reforms it passed last year, but rejected that idea, said Jesse Choper, a professor at University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. 

Choper testified Tuesday against a fourth bill, this one offered by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, which would ban those relationships in state law. 

Choper testified on behalf of four major accounting firms — Deloitte and Touche, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst and Young. Burton’s bill, he said, would violate the U.S. Constitution because it would interfere with federal regulators’ oversight of the industry. 

That shouldn’t keep California from enacting a tougher law “to protect our people,” Burton said. “To think the SEC is the fount of all wisdom boggles me.” 

California’s status as the world’s fifth-largest economy makes it necessary for the state to protect investors, Flanagan said. 

Congress’ efforts to strengthen investor and consumer protections have “turned to mush,” Correa said, and state lawmakers “are here to do what’s good for the state of California. And frankly, I don’t know how having better audits could be bad for business.” 

The accounting industry, however, said the bill would force “nearly every California business to hire at least two CPAs to obtain the same services now performed quite aptly by one — doubling business costs and resulting in significant inefficiency.” 

Correa disagreed, saying that businesses who need both services are already paying for both. 

Accountants aren’t fighting a bill by Assemblyman Dario Frommer, which would require auditors and accountants to save records for seven years, said Michael Ueltzen, past president of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. Cal-CPA represents 27,000 accountants in California, about 2,000 of which work for the “Big Five” firms. 

There is no state requirement that accountants or auditors save documents. The industry’s standards are generally such that papers should be saved for at least five years, but the state has no way to enforce that. 

“If that restores some trust, then that’s fine,” Ueltzen said. “But it’s interesting, there’s only one state in the U.S. that has a record retention regulation and that’s Texas.” 

The law obviously didn’t keep records from being shredded at the Houston headquarters of Enron, the corporate bankruptcy that inspired these bills, Ueltzen said.


Protesters reject plea bargain Pro-Palestine group reinstated

By David Scharfenberg Daily Planet staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

 

UC Berkeley officials reinstated Students for Justice in Palestine Monday afternoon, but only after issuing an official admonishment to the group that led the April 9 occupation of the university’s Wheeler Hall. 

In a separate development, activists rejected an offer by Alameda County Assistant District Attorney John Adams to drop trespassing charges against 71 of the 79 protesters if they pled guilty to a disturbing the peace infraction, which would carry a small fine and no jail time. 

“We would have to plead no contest or guilty, and we’re not guilty,” said SJP leader Hoang Phan, describing the decision to reject the plea bargain. “We have right on our side.” 

The university temporarily suspended the group April 24 pending an investigation of the Wheeler Hall takeover. Under the terms of the suspension, the group was not allowed to reserve classes or space on campus to meet or protest, and could not set up an informational table on Sproul Plaza.  

The group flaunted the restrictions in recent weeks, setting up a table one day and reserving space to demonstrate under the name of a different student group. 

In a statement to the press Monday, UC Berkeley announced that it had concluded its investigation and decided to admonish SJP for “the disruption of classes” in Wheeler Hall. But, the statement read, “the group’s priveleges as a registered student group were reinstated.” 

“I can’t say that I’m grateful to the university because it did the wrong thing in the first place,” said SJP member Will Youmans. “Hopefully this represents a change in the way the university deals with student groups.” 

Although the university reinstated SJP, Director of Student Judicial Affairs Neal Rajmaira wrote in his letter of admonishment that the group had violated five sections of the Student Code of Conduct, including “unauthorized entry to, possession of, receipt of, or use of any University property” and “obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, student disciplinary procedures or other University activity.” 

The decision to reinstate the group will have no bearing on the university’s handling of the individual students arrested at Wheeler Hall. Those students face disciplinary action ranging from probation to a one-year suspension. 

Students made up 41 of the 79 arrested April 9. 

 

Plea bargain  

Last week, 71 of the 79 protesters were arraigned on charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace. Seven defendants were also charged with resisting arrest and one, 23-year-old student Roberto Hernandez, was charged with assault and battery. 

Adams offered the plea bargain to the 71 protesters facing lesser charges Friday afternoon during a pre-trial conference with lawyers for the defendants and Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carol Brosnahan. Adams did not offer a plea bargain to the other eight defendants. 

Half of the defendants appeared in court Monday afternoon and Brosnahan set a June 10 trial date in the Oakland branch of the Alameda County Superior Court. She indicated that she will set a June 3 trial date for the other half this afternoon. 

Eighty protesters gathered at the Downtown Berkeley BART station an hour before the Monday hearings and marched on the courthouse. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington attacked the university and district attorney for pursuing the case and said the City Council will vote on a resolution May 14 calling on the district attorney to drop the charges. 

Former Berkeley mayor Gus Newport also spoke out for the group and called on students and residents to step up pro-Palestinian protests. 

“We ought to close that goddamn university down,” he said. “If Berkeley can’t mount a movement at this time, the United States is doomed.”


Record

The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Today is Tuesday, May 7, the 127th day of 2002. There are 238 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight 

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France. 

On this date: 

In 1789, the first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President and Mrs. George Washington. 

In 1812, poet Robert Browning was born in London. 

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia. 

In 1915, nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast. 

In 1939, Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. 

In 1941, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded “Chattanooga Choo Choo” for RCA Victor. 

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces. 

In 1963, the United States launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite. 

In 1975, President Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover. 

In 1994, Norway’s most famous painting, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from an Oslo museum. 

 

Ten years ago:  

President Bush visited riot-scarred Los Angeles. The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on its maiden voyage. A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise received enough votes for ratification as Michigan became the 38th state to approve it. 

 

Five years ago:  

The Army accused its top enlisted man, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Gene McKinney, of sexual misconduct. (At his court-martial, McKinney was acquitted of sexual misconduct, but found guilty of obstruction of justice.) Chrysler Corp. and United Auto Workers agreed to a new contract, ending a damaging 28-day engine-plant strike. 

 

One year ago:  

“Great Train Robber” Ronnie Biggs, who had eluded capture for decades following his prison escape in 1965, returned to Britain, where he was arrested and jailed to complete the 28 remaining years of his sentence. California electricity grid operators ordered statewide rolling power blackouts. 

 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actor Darren McGavin is 80. Singer Teresa Brewer is 71. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is 70. Football Hall-of-Famer Johnny Unitas is 69. Singer Jimmy Ruffin is 63. Singer Johnny Maestro is 63. Actress Robin Strasser is 57. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 56. NBC newsman Tim Russert is 52. Actor Robert Hegyes is 51. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling is 48. Actor Michael E. Knight is 43. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 41. Rock singer-musician Chris O’Connor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 37. Actress Traci Lords is 33. 


Jews have legitimate claim to Israel

Tuesday May 07, 2002

To the Editor: 

Perhaps a short review of the history of the Middle East is in order. 

The Jews have been organized as a religion and have lived in stable agricultural settlements in the Middle East for thousands of years. When the Roman conquerors showed up about two thousand years ago, they renamed Judea as “Palestine” in an attempt to erase the Jewish domination of the region. 

Over the last two thousand years many different groups have invaded and dominated the region. Among these invading groups were the Romans, the Byzantines, the Persians, the Arabs, the Oomayyad Caliphs of Damascus, the Abbassid Caliphs of Baghdad, the Fatimid Caliphs of Cairo, the Byzantines (again), the Seljuq Turks, the Christian Crusaders, the Mameluk Sultans of Egypt, the Mongols and most recently the Ottomans in 1517. 

After the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918, the League of Nations awarded Britain the Palestine Mandate, which encompassed the region bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Two years later, the British split off the region east of the Jordan River, which comprised about eighty percent of the original land area of the Palestine Mandate, called it Transjordan, and bestowed it to Emir Abdullah idn Hussein and his descendents to rule. It should be noted that this new country, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was largely peopled by native Palestinian Arabs. Thus was born the first Palestinian state back in 1920.  

After World War II, the new United Nations organization authorized the creation of a Palestinian state and the Jewish state of Israel from the remaining western portion of the Palestine Mandate. The neighboring Arab countries: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, decided to militarily oppose this U. N. action. They told the resident Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes after which the Arab armies would “drive the Jews into the sea.” They almost succeeded, but finally the Israelis won their war of independence and were firmly established their new country in the Middle East. When you start a war and then lose, you may lose some or all of your original territory. Thus, in 1949, the Arab Palestinian refugees were confined to Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank areas. 

Again in 1967 and 1973 the Arab countries attempted to invade and destroy Israel. They failed again. In the 1940s the Arab countries refused to take in the Palestinian refugees, although there was room for additional settlers and immigrants in Syria and Iraq. The Arab countries much preferred to keep the Palestinians in refugee camps, festering on the borders of Israel.  

The Arabs have a long tradition of antipathy towards the Jews and of treating the Jews as second-class citizens. The Muslim religion sanctified this prejudice into its religious text, the Koran. In that writing, the Muslims were given explicit permission to raid Jewish settlements and to steal from Jewish homes. Please see Joan Peter's brilliant book, “From Time Immemorial” (Harper & Row, 1987) for extensive documentation of this and other information. 

In the late 1940s, as Israel was being created, the Jews were being forced to flee from Arab countries in the Middle East. Jews fled from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Aden. In Saudi Arabia, the Jews had long since been killed off or driven out. The Jews were forced to leave their homes, their businesses and much of their personal property without any compensation. To date there has been no movement towards compensation to the Jews who were forced to leave the Arab countries in the late 1940s. 

Perhaps it is time for the Palestinians and other Arabs to grow up and recognize Israel’s legitimate right to existence in the Middle East. It is time for Palestinian schools to put Israel on their maps. Hatred is a dead–end street. It is time for Palestinians to start to build their own society and stop trying to destroy that of their neighbor. 

 

– James K. Sayre 

Oakland 


Arts & Entertainment Calendar

Tuesday May 07, 2002

 

Monday, May 6 

 

Renegade Sidemen, with Calvin Keyes, Dave Rokeach & friends 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Tuesday, May 7 

 

Live Music - Singers’ Open Mike, Ellen Hoffman on piano 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

 

Wednesday, May 8 

 

Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

 

Y’All & David Roth 

Traditional, original & topical, contemporary folk music 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

Thursday, May 9 

 

Shana Morrison 

Celtic / blues acoustic fusion 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door 

 

David Widelock Jazz Duo, guitar and bass 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

Friday, May 10 

 

Live Music - Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

The Waybacks 

Acoustic mayhem, album release celebration 

Doors 7:30, show 8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. 

510-548-1761 

$16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door 

 

Saturday, May 11 

 

W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert, “The Art of the Spiritual” 

Featuring African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo soprano Vanessa Ayers, tenors Samual McKelton and William Brown, Baritone Autris Paige and bass-baritone Benjamin Matthews, and pianist Dennis Helmrich. 

7:30 p.m. 

Calvin Simmons Theater, Oakland.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Tuesday May 07, 2002

Tuesday, May 7 

Finding & Assessing "Fixer-Uppers Seminar 

Led by Michael Hamman 

7 to 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St., Berkeley 

$35 

 

Robert Boswell reads from "Century's Son" 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's Book Store 

2454 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley 

510-845-7852 

Free 

 

The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate 

The Independent Policy Forum, Harry V. Jaffa  

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

100 Swan Way, Oakland 

RSVP 510-632-1366 

$10 (members), $14 (non-members), $35 (including book) 

 

Wednesday May 8 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30- 3:00 P.M. 

Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Puppet show for children age 3 to 10 to learn about germs and their effects on the body. Free.  

For more information: 510-549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org 

 

Thursday, May 9 

FBI & Local police: Partners in Repression 

Forum, Speakout & Music 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall, 1924 Bonita 

Berkeley 

For Info: Copwatch, 510-548-0425 

$5-$15  

 

Consumers’ Rights, Problems and Legislation 

Speaker Tom Vacar, consumer editor, KTVU, Channel 2 

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

Albany 

For more info: 510-843-8824 

Free 

 

Community Budget Workshop 

Berkeley Unified School District 

Budget & Finance Advisory Committee 

Subject: California State Budget Process & the J200 Budget Format 

6:30 p.m. 

Longfellow Arts & Technology Magnet Middleschool 

Auditorium 

1500 Derby St. (at California) 

Berkeley 

Free 

 

Native Californian Cultures 

A major focus of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology has been the Native peoples of California. Today, with 260,000 catalogue entries, the museum preserves the world's largest and most comprehensive collection devoted to the region. In this gallery, we present an overview of Native Californian cultures demonstrating the great diversity of the Californian peoples. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

children 16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

 

Judeo-Christian Values in Islam? 

What are the humanistic values inherent in Islam? How has history colored western views of Islam? etc. 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley 

510-848-0237 X 127 

$5 

Friday, May 10 

 

New Sculpture & Paintings by Jody Sears & Michele Ramirez 

Opening reception: Saturday May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. 

Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Ardency Gallery 

709 Broadway 

Oakland 

510-836-0831, e-mail: gallery709@aol.com 

Free 

 

Saturday, May 11 

 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

510-525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Events 

Paper Flower Making 

Get ready for Mother's Day with the Klutz "Tissue Paper Flower" kit and learn to make tissue paper flowers. Age 8 and up.  

LHS Film- Happy Birthday, Mr. Feynman 

Film Plays Continuously from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

To celebrate the birthday of Nobel laureate, maverick physicist, author, and teacher extraordinaire Richard Feynman, 

LHS presents the film, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. This fifty-minute film presents Feynman telling fascinating 

stories from his life and research. Produced by Christopher Sykes. 

LHS- The Idea Lab 

Opens May 11 

See what LHS is developing as new hands-on exhibits. Test out exhibit prototypes of activities and give your opinion of them. Testing and experimenting is the idea behind the Idea Lab. This new permanent exhibit begins with explorations of magnetism.  

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

$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. 

LHS is on Centennial Drive- 

above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle. 

 

33rd Annual California Wildflower Show 

Exhibit with 150 species of freshly gathered native flowers 

Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1-888-OAK-MUSE 

$6 general admission, $4 senior and students with ID, free for five and under.


Mavericks victory evens playoff series with Kings

By Greg Beacham The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Steve Nash and the Dallas Mavericks silenced the cowbells by beating the Sacramento Kings at their own thrilling game. 

Nash scored a career playoff-high 30 points and had eight assists, and Dirk Nowitzki added 22 points and 15 rebounds as the Mavericks evened their Western Conference semifinal series with a 110-102 victory Monday night over the top-seeded Kings. 

Game 3 is Thursday night in Dallas. 

Until the Kings fell into a 3 1/2-minute scoreless drought in the final minutes that allowed the Mavs to pull away, it was a constantly entertaining, end-to-end game — the kind everyone expected from the NBA’s highest-scoring teams, even under playoff pressure. 

Raef LaFrentz, who was terrible in Game 1, broke a 93-93 tie with a dunk and a layup set up by Nash with 3:07 left. LaFrentz finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. 

As Chris Webber complained after missing the Kings’ next shot, Nash motored to the other end for an acrobatic layup. A minute later, Nash fed Nowitzki for a dunk that gave Dallas a prohibitive lead, though the teams traded free throws for the final three minutes. 

Every minute seemed to bring another alley-oop dunk or a long jumper, and every fan at Arco Arena — dozens of them packing the cowbells that brought complaints from the Mavericks in Game 1 — must have left the building hoarse. Point guards Nash and Mike Bibby both had outstanding games, with Bibby recording 22 points and seven assists. 

Neither team grabbed a significant lead in the second half, but Sacramento’s defensive breakdowns made the difference. The Mavs, fueled by good ball movement, got dozens of open shots and uncontested rebounds to win for the fourth time in five games at Sacramento. 

Webber had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Sacramento. The Kings’ three-game winning streak ended with their fifth loss in their last eight home playoff games dating to last season. 

Held to 12 points in Game 1, Nash came out firing along with his teammates. He hit four 3-pointers and was 12-of-18 from the field, trading baskets with Bibby in the first three quarters before taking over in the fourth. 

Nick Van Exel scored 14 of his 19 points in the first half for Dallas. Michael Finley went 2-for-10 from the field, but had 11 points and 10 rebounds. 

Peja Stojakovic, who had 26 points in Game 1, went 5-for-19 from the field and finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Hedo Turkoglu had 15 points in a reserve role. 

Dallas coach Don Nelson threw the Kings a changeup in the starting lineup when he substituted veteran forward Johnny Newman for Eduardo Najera, who broke his thumb during warmups before Game 1. 

But Newman and his teammates didn’t stop the Kings from opening the game with a fearsome display of offensive firepower. Bibby, whose first trip to the playoffs has been encouraging but inconsistent, had his streaky jump shot in top form, hitting three 3-pointers among six consecutive baskets.


Bates nomination ruffles opponents

By Kurtis Alexander Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Jubilation from the weekend’s mayoral nomination of Tom Bates is being tempered by the critical reactions from political opponents. 

Centrists in Berkeley’s political community are criticizing Saturday’s nominating convention – held by a more progressive constituency – as combative, unnecessary and unproductive to city politics. 

“To start the campaign off the way they did is just disgusting,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. The centrist councilmember cited incriminating remarks made at the convention, labeling the mayor as “vicious” and “vindicative.” Olds called the tone of the meeting “wrong.” 

The progressives are setting the stage for an ugly race, she said. 

The nomination of Bates, a former state Assmeblyman, came Saturday with an overwelming majority of nominating ballots from the Coalition for a New Mayor. The decision ended a long and anxious search among progressives for a candidate who could run competively against eight-year incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean. 

Selection of the 20-year Sacramento vetaran not only prompted centrist opponents to take the defense this week, but instilled uncertainty as to whether the mayor would stack up against the long-time Assemblyman. 

“Certainly, Mayor Dean would have walked all over the other people who are being considered,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong. Now it’s going to be a race, she said. 

Armstrong called Bates a “good man”, and acknowledged his experience as a state legislator, but said the long-time politician may not be be mainstream enough to defeat Dean in November. 

Dean, maintaining the alleged high ground of her colleagues, has refused to comment about her opponent, and said she would run a stong campaign regardless of the competition. 

But criticism emerged from the center about the Bates family having too much control over Berkeley politics. Bates is married to Loni Hancock, two-term Berkeley mayor and Democratic candidate for the District 14 state Assembly seat, Bate’s former position. 

“Do they want to look like the Clintons or what?” challenged Councilmember Olds. “I don’t think it’s right for one family to have all that power.” 

Political analyist Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Government Studies, said family ties would likely work to Bate’s advantage this November. 

“Berkeley was a key base for Loni [in the Assembly race primary] and presumably a lot of the same people can be mobilized for the city race,” he said. 

Cain noted Bates is the “best shot” that the progressives have of unseating Dean in November. He said how Bates decides to position himself, in regard to the issues, will determine the strength of his appeal. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has pledged the support of his large and vocal progressive following to Bates, stood by Saturday’s criticism of the mayor. 

“The reason we put together a convention [in the first place] is because there are hundreds of people who are eager to have a new attitude [in the mayor’s office],” he said. 

“And the incumbent’s negative campaigning has been going on week after week, month after month,” he added. 

Worthington noted that Bates did not attack his November rival at the convention, but merely stated his opposing viewpoints.


News of the Weird

The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Payback not enough 

 

SIMPSON, Pa. — More than 50 years ago, a thief stole $20 from Michael Langol’s college room. The money has been returned but Langol isn’t satisfied. 

Langol is now obsessed with tracking down the remorseful thief. He hasn’t even cashed the money order yet. 

In January, Langol got a money order for $500 — along with a note in which the sender confessed to the crime but only identified himself as a former classmate at Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tenn. 

Langol traced the money order’s serial number to the Cleveland area. He then contacted Tusculum’s alumni office to get a list of fellow students who might fit the bill. 

The search has so far proved fruitless. 

“I think I have it narrowed down to two guys,” said Langol, now 70. “My wife doesn’t want me to, but I’m going to find out who it is.” 

Langol said he had reported the missing cash to college authorities, but the investigation turned up no suspects. Soon after, he dropped out, got married, started a family and owned and operated a successful masonry business in northeastern Pennsylvania. 

But he never forgot about the stolen cash. After all, $20 was a lot of money in 1951. 

“Back then, $20 was like a day’s pay,” he said. “I remember buying a seersucker suit in Tennessee for $17.” 

 

Unpaid bill gets costly 

 

SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. — A $6.34 plumbing bill nearly cost a World War II veteran the roof over his head. 

Before an alert friend noticed, James Provensano, 81, was almost evicted from his subsidized apartment because he neglected to pay for repairs. 

The friend paid the bill, and the eviction notice for Provensano’s home at Garden Apartment was rescinded. The notice arrived on April 12, giving two weeks for payment, and was paid on the 17th. 

“When they start doing things like that, I get furious,” Provensano said last week. “I was furious, I was mad.” 

Eviction proceedings are initiated if a tenant does not pay a bill — regardless of the amount — and does not ask for a hearing within 14 days, said Frank Chavers, executive director of Brevard Family of Housing Authorities. 

Provensano said he had a leak from a kitchen drain, which was fixed. Months later, the notice of eviction came, showing he had failed to pay the $6.34 bill. 

 

Grass greener with paint 

 

SANTA FE, N.M. — The drought-stricken city of Santa Fe — which has restricted outdoor watering to once a week — doesn’t have to worry about the green grass at the Santa Fe Auto Park. 

With good reason — it’s paint. 

“The grass sod we put in last year has more or less died, and we just had it colored green with some paint,” said George Woolard of Santa Fe Chevrolet. “It’s not a whole lot of grass. It’s just a little bit of grass. But now it’s green.” 

Monty Mitchell, general manager of Premier Motorcars, said the four automobile dealerships that own the park decided to paint the grass to save water. 

It looks so realistic Mitchell expects complaints. 

“I’m sure we’ll wind up with a few phone calls from citizens concerned about water use,” he said. 

Last week, a painting crew freshened the landscape, spray-painting about 2,500 square feet of dead or dying grass at the business’ entrance. 


Berkeley kids need a soccer field west of I-80

Tuesday May 07, 2002

To the Editor: 

My name is Murray Bruce. I live and vote in Berkeley. I have two daughters who both play soccer and I have been a volunteer coach for six years. There is an acute field shortage in Berkeley and Albany. An ideal location for additional fields is west of Interstate 80 where the air is fresh. 

Our children our most precious resource. Let's help them when we can. This is a great opportunity to improve their lives. Please do your best to help new fields become a reality. 

 

- Murray Bruce 

Berkeley 


Fresno athlete dies after accident

The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Curtis Williams, paralyzed from the neck down while playing football for the University of Washington in October 2000, died Monday. He was 24. 

Williams died at his brother’s home in Fresno, Calif., Washington athletic department spokesman Jim Daves said. 

Williams, who played safety, was injured in a helmet-to-helmet hit in a game against Stanford. He had spinal-cord surgery and was left with no voluntary muscle movement. 

The Washington Huskies dedicated their victory over Purdue in the Rose Bowl in January 2001 to Williams, wearing his initials on their jerseys. Williams attended the game. 

Williams returned to the school last month to watch the Huskies’ annual spring game, his first trip back since the injury. 

He was six classes short of earning his degree from Washington in American Ethnic Studies.


Thousands to rally for schools

By David Scharfenberg Daily Planet staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

With the state facing a deficit as high as $22 billion, about 250 Berkeley residents are expected join over 1,500 Bay Area activists in Sacramento Wednesday, calling on the state legislature to spare the education budget. 

“It is important, in this budget climate, for Sacramento to understand how passionate the community is about funding for education,” said Berkeley Board of Education President Shirley Issel, who will make the trip. 

Issel said she is concerned that state cuts could force the district, which is already slated to chop $5.4 million next year, to make deeper reductions. 

“The idea of making further cuts is just unthinkable,” she said. 

Busloads of officials, activists and students from the Oakland, San Francisco, West Contra Costa and Albany school districts are expected to join in the Wednesday action. 

Governor Gray Davis has already proposed $487 million in cuts to K-12 education next year. With estimates of the state deficit growing, the governor will issue an eagerly-awaited budget revision on May 14. 

 

“The governor has always said his top priority is education, and we’re going to do what we can to protect it,” said Sandy Harrison, spokesman for the governor’s Department of Finance, declining to offer any specifics about the revision. 

Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, said she expects the governor to recommend further education cuts.  

Aroner said she will push for two “revenue enhancements” that would prevent the need for cuts. First, she called for a temporary increase in taxes on the wealthy, generating $1.5 billion. Second, Aroner said the state should rescind the vehicle license fee rebate during the budget crisis, yielding about $4 billion. 

Julie Chervin, a parent activist who has been coordinating the Berkeley lobbying effort, said many participants will endorse the revenue enhancements on Wednesday. The group will also call for an increase in per pupil spending, in the near future, from roughly $7,000 to $12,000. 

Chervin and other activists acknowledged that an increase in spending is not likely soon, given the budget deficit. But they said they are confident they can prevent cuts next year. 

“I think consumers always have an impact on the legislature and the governor,” Aroner said, arguing that a large teacher rally two years ago led to an increase in education funding. 

Berkeley residents will also push for legislation, authored by Aroner, that would forgive a $1.16 million fine the district owes the state and pour the money into fiscal consulting services and reform. 

The bill, which also provides targeted relief to the Emery Unified School District, has already passed the Assembly’s Education Committee and will be up before the Appropriations Committee Wednesday. 

Aroner’s legislative director Hans Hemann said he expects the Appropriations Committee to endorse the bill by May 23. 

Buses will leave from Berkeley High School and all three of the district’s middle schools Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. Organizers are asking for a $15 donation, but will not turn away people who can’t afford the fee. 

Berkeley board member John Selawsky, a chief organizer of the Wednesday event, said activists will have to keep up the pressure after the lobbying day. 

“We have to continue lobbying and not have it be the flavor of the month,” he said. “That’s the risk we face – you have a big event and then everyone goes home.”  


Patrick Kennedy creates space for disabled Berkeleyans

Tuesday May 07, 2002

To the Editor: 

I commend Patrick Kennedy for his insight and vision in regard to the theater/apartment complex downtown (the “Gaia Building”), particularly because it will be largely accessible to the disabled. The New Arts Theater will be another contribution to create more “Berkeley Space.” Berkeley space is cultural space, artistic space, space for low-income residents, and accessible and livable space for the disability community. 

As a disabled resident it gives me great pleasure to see an active developer like Kennedy creating space for low-income/disabled students and residents to find nearby, affordable, and livable housing. His work is vital for me and others. Twenty percent of his units are set aside for low-income and disabled residents. 

Graduating from Cal and trying to join the community is not easy. Finding 

accessible housing in Berkeley is very difficult and finding livable accessible apartment near campus is next to impossible. The spaces that Panoramic Interests have created are award winning designs that have taken access seriously. 

We can not overlook that quality of life that starts with the home. And it is this quality of life that Kennedy brings to our disabled community members. We should all support the creation of this space because for some of us this space did not exist before. 

- Victor Pineda 

Berkeley 


Duncan wins NBA’s most valuable

By T.A. BADGER Associated Press Writer
Tuesday May 07, 2002

San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan, among the NBA’s leaders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, has won the league’s Most Valuable Player award, a league source said Monday. 

The five-year veteran outpolled New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd by a narrow margin, the source said on condition of anonymity. 

Voting by a panel of 126 media members took place before the playoffs began.Duncan’s selection will be made public on Thursday.


Earth First! activist testifies against FBI, OPD

By Chris Nichols Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney took the stand for the first time Monday in his high-profile case against members of the FBI and Oakland Police Department. 

Cherney and fellow Earth First! activist Judi Bari were injured and arrested as suspects in a car bomb explosion in Oakland in 1990 before later having charges against them dropped due to lack of evidence. Their suit claims that law enforcement officials mishandled their case and wrongfully arrested them. 

During his first day of testimony, Cherney explained that he and Bari, who died of cancer in 1997, had been romantically involved as well as allied in their legal battle against the FBI and OPD. 

“We were Siamese twins joined at the lawsuit,” said Cherney. 

Dennis Cunningham, lead attorney for Earth First!, questioned Cherney regarding his past and the nature of the Earth First! movement, perceived by some members of the FBI and OPD as an environmental terrorist organization. 

Cherney detailed his work as a politician, folk singer and environmental activist with the Earth First! movement, a movement without strict organization or a board of directors. He explained that Earth First! participated in rallies, demonstrations and campaigns against local logging companies such as Maxam Corporation and Pacific Lumber Company. 

Susan Jordan, former attorney for Bari, also testified Monday as one of the plaintiff's final witnesses in the case. Cunningham questioned Jordan regarding Bari's condition following the bombing.  

According to Jordan, Bari was under extreme distress following her injuries and repeated searches of her residence by the FBI and OPD. 

Robert Sher, lead counsel for the FBI, questioned Jordan regarding Bari's request for immunity during the investigation. Jordan explained that Bari wanted to consult with her attorney and have questioning videotaped.  

Monday's testimony also included a videotape of FBI Agent Walter Hemje, supervisor of the Oakland bomb investigation.  

Cunningham questioned Hemje as to whether the FBI regarded Bari as a witness or victim or suspect in the case. According to Hemje, Bari was regarded as both a witness and victim as seen appropriate during the investigation. Cunningham continued to question Hemje regarding Bari's status in the investigation in an attempt to prove that Bari remained the only suspect in the case despite the fact that charges against her had been previously dropped due to a lack of evidence. 

Cunningham also questioned Hemje regarding efforts made by the FBI to evaluate death threats made against Bari. According to Hemje, a number of the threats presented in case held little value. When asked whether a picture of Bari with rifle cross hairs across her face might have been a threat, Hemje explained it could be perceived that way.  

In an attempt to refute charges the FBI failed to investigate other leads, Hemje testified that many of Bari's associates with Earth First! were uncooperative during the investigation. Hemje claimed that both Betty Ball and Michael Sweeney, associates of Bari, would not speak to investigators without first speaking with an attorney.  

Under questioning from Sher, Hemje also claimed that evidence in the form of an anonymous letter submitted to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat claiming responsibility for the bombing was less than authentic. 

"My recollection is that it was contrived," said Hemje. 

Hemje further disputed claims that the FBI was not interested in following leads in the case by explaining that not all leads were recorded.  

"We don't keep a record of weak leads. If it is a strong lead then we will," said Hemje. 

Cunningham finished his questioning of Hemje by asking whether there ever was evidence at any time during the investigation to show Bari to be a suspect in the case. Hemje responded by saying no.  

Cherney's testimony will conclude Tuesday and will be followed by three additional witnesses and finally a videotape of testimony given by Bari. According to Cherney, attorneys for the defense did not want the video tape to air, feeling that it would be very emotional and moving for the jury. 

Cherney added that attorneys for the defense object to almost each point on the video, interrupting each sentence in Bari's testimony. 

The video of Bari will conclude the plaintiff's portion of the case. Attorneys for the FBI and OPD plan to call approximately 18 witnesses in the next three to four days. Jury deliberations are expected to start by the middle of next week. 

The trial takes place at the Federal Courthouse, 1301 Clay Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. 


Superior Court upholds eviction of Berkeley man

By Chris Nichols Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

A jury upheld an eviction order against long-time Berkeley resident Larry Menard, despite claims that Menard and his family are being forced out in an attempt to remove residents and raise rents at the 2327 Prince St. apartment building. 

The 12-member-jury, in Alameda Superior Court, voted unanimously to uphold Berkeley landlord Behrouz Mazandarani’s order to quit, served to Menard and his family in December of last year. 

According to Behrouz, the eviction order was based on a series of nuisance charges against Menard. He claimed that the 18-year resident had broken the lock on the front door of the building, removed plywood and broken a door to the roof and failed to keep his golden-retriever mix, Flammeche, on a leash inside the building. 

Neighbors, along with the Menard family, have protested the eviction order, signing petitions and writing letters to Behrouz in support of Menard, his wife Cathy and their 15-year-old son, Loic.  

Members of the Halcyon Neighborhood Association urged Mazandarani to reconsider his eviction order citing Menard’s good reputation and his participation in improving the Halcyon neighborhood, organizing park cleanups and crime watch activities. 

"They have been wonderful assets to our neighborhood. I’m very upset to see this injustice take place and it is clearly an injustice," said Nancy Carleton, HNA co-chairperson. 

Menard claims that Mazandarani, who purchased the building in November of 1999, has served five separate eviction notices since taking over and is systematically evicting all long-term residents in the building. 

Behrouz, however, denies charges that he is seeking to evict long-term residents and raise rents, emphasizing that he has charged below market rent on a number of units in the building. 

“The claims are completely untrue,” says Mazandarani.  

Mazandarani claims that Menard’s case is not a part of larger conspiracy but about Menard’s repeated destruction of property, violations of building policy and charges that Menard has intimidated other residents and Mazandarani himself. 

“I’m afraid he would harm me. I’m afraid he would harm other residents,” said Mazandarani. 

According to Menard’s lawyer, Ira Jacobowitz, Mazandarani is blaming Menard for destruction of property caused by a previous tenant, Zach Henderson, already evicted by Mazandarani.  

Jacobowitz says that Menard has admitted to removing plywood nailed to the door leading to the roof but that inspectors from the Berkeley Fire Department had ordered that the plywood be taken down because it created a fire hazard. 

Mazandarani claims that the support of neighbors and character issues are irrelevant in this case because Menard’s neighbors do not know all the facts.  

According to John Barry, a current resident of the building, he did sign the petition supporting Larry Menard but was concerned most about the welfare of Menard's family, not Menard himself. 

“I'm not a huge fan of Larry's. I do like the family. I wish they were staying and I wish Behrouz would cut them some slack,” said Barry. 

Barry also said that he offered to act as a mediator between Menard and Mazandarani but that Menard told him not to talk to Mazandarani. 

According to Mazandarani, only the opinions of the members of the jury count in this case. 

“The case of eviction usually takes two days but this jury had eight days to hear evidence from every angle, to examine everything from the boiler to the roof to the front door. The result was a unanimous decision,” said Mazandarani.  

According to Mazandarani, Menard was caught on tape tampering with the front door and walking on the roof by a camera Mazandarani set up himself. Mazandarani says the tape was not used in court because Menard agreed to admit to tampering with the door. 

Both Menard and his wife Cathy Aubron claim Mazandarani lied continuously while in court adding that he repeatedly changed his accusations as the trial went on. 

“Not to be trapped in his own lies he became very evasive,” said Aubron. 

According to Mazandarani, Menard’s work as a tenant’s rights supporter made him a difficult resident to deal with. Mazandarani explained that Menard’s contribution to the building was to gather support against him and not to improve living conditions. 

“He has certain needs to be against landlords. He has needs for making landlords look bad and making himself the savior of the tenants,” says Mazandarani. 

Menard, with the support of neighbors and family, says that he has worked to make the building safer and cleaner and that Mazandarani is the one that has allowed for conditions to deteriorate. 

“He wants to make life as difficult as possible, to intimidate you, to make you have no rights,” said Menard. 

In response to accusations of past eviction orders, Mazandarani notes that he was able to quickly resolve a dispute with a previous tenant. Mazandarani claims this resident owned a pitbull and that the animal had had a history of four attacks on humans. According to Mazandarani, the resident rid herself of the animal and was allowed to stay at the residence and Mazandarani dropped the eviction order. 

Neighbors, including Carleton, tell a different tale, accusing Mazandarani of bribing long-term residents with money in order to leave, a claim Mazandarani denies. 

David Arnold, the previous owner of the building at 2327 Prince St., says he has mixed feelings toward Menard.  

"I found him to be a good tenant in that he paid his rent on time and kept his place neat, but found him very abrasive also," says Arnold. 

Arnold claims that Mazandarani did pay Henderson to leave the building but that Henderson willingly agreed to take the money and leave. 

The Superior Court denied Menard and his family a stay on the eviction, forcing them out by Monday. 

The Menards managed to secure a new residence in downtown Oakland on Sunday.


Oakland murder rate on the rise

By Paul Glader The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

OAKLAND, Calif. — City leaders are looking for solutions after a rash of unrelated weekend slayings left six young black men dead. 

“There are far too many African American men being killed in our city,” said city manager Robert Bob, who added Monday that the city’s black community should take more responsibility. “Our enemy is inside us. It’s not the KKK of years past. It’s in us and we have to rise up and take charge of our destiny.” 

Bob said homicide detectives heard residents laughing and partying across the street from the scene of one of the slayings Saturday, where 18-year-old Lamar Brown was killed and two others were seriously wounded. 

That brings the number of homicides this year to 37, which is 12 more than at the same time last year. The city is on pace to have more than 100 homicides this year, up from about 87 homicides last year. The city had 175 homicides in 1992. 

The increase threatens to mar the city’s 150th anniversary and to reverse Mayor Jerry Brown’s four years of crime reduction in the city once known as a West Coast capital of drugs and murder. 

“It’s our goal and the mayor’s goal and the city manager’s goal to see that cut by 50 percent,” said Police Chief Richard Word. 

To combat the rising homicide rates, Word said police would begin stepping up patrols in West Oakland, where at least one of the weekend shootings happened. He also asked for help from community organizations. 

“We are not reaching the young men in high-risk situations,” he said. 

Police had made no arrests in any of the cases by noon Monday. Word said five of the six homicides were drug related, and three of the six victims were on probation. 

“That’s a bug in my side,” Word said, noting that about 7,000 probationers are on the street unsupervised. 

Word said drugs are connected to about 80 percent of crimes in the city and have been a clear trend in this spring’s homicides. He notes stronger drug enforcement by police sometimes make competition and tensions higher among drug dealers and users. 

“We are seeing a lot of robberies of drug users or dealers that are going unreported,” Word said. “Then we are seeing retaliation.”


State attorney says Oracle contract looked dubious

By Jennifer Coleman The Associated Press
Tuesday May 07, 2002

SACRAMENTO — A lawyer for the state Department of General Services testified Monday that she had grave concerns about a $95 million software contract with Oracle Corp. that she first saw the day it was signed. 

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearings led by Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter, examined the state’s six-year, $95 million, no-bid contract to buy and administer database management software from Oracle. 

A state auditor’s report criticized the contract, saying it could waste as much as $41 million — not save $111 million as Oracle claimed. 

In addition, there was pressure to complete the deal by the end of Oracle’s fiscal year on May 31, 2001, said Cynthia Curry, a senior staff counsel for the Department of General Services, one of three state agencies that signed off on the contract. 

Several top aides to Gov. Gray Davis were slated to testify Monday about how the botched deal was reviewed before it was signed, and whether the governor was told about it. Among them was Elias Cortez, the state technology chief suspended last week. 

The deal was one of “literally hundreds of transactions” the state makes each month without his approval, Davis said Monday. “So this is one of scores of those transactions that take place without my knowledge.” 

The hearings come as the state’s finance director began talks with Oracle Corp. to discuss killing the contract. 

Finance Director Tim Gage will meet soon with Oracle executives to negotiate an end to the state’s contract, said Steve Maviglio, press secretary for Gov. Gray Davis. The talks could take up to two weeks. 

“I am determined to rescind this contract so the taxpayers don’t have to pay one additional penny and I’m confident we can do that,” Davis said. 

A legal adviser to the General Services Department, one of the three state agencies to approve the contract, Curry said she first saw it at 5:30 p.m. on May 30, 2001, the day it was signed. 

“There was no way I could review that contract in any manner of time to advise DGS,” said Curry. “It was just not a good document for the state to move forward on.” 

The contract was “cut and pasted” from other documents, with conflicting language, Curry said. 

Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-San Fernando, asked Curry why she hadn’t called the governor to stop the contract if she had concerns. 

“If my job is to throw myself in front of the director’s pen and stop this ... I don’t think I’m in the position to stop people appointed by the governor from doing what they think is their jobs,” Curry said. 

Republican critics have suggested the contract is at least an example of incompetence by the Davis administration and that it may also involve corruption. 

State campaign finance records show Davis’ re-election campaign reported a $25,000 contribution six days after the contract was signed. The contribution check was delivered by an Oracle lobbyist, Ravi Mehta, in a Sacramento bar to Arun Baheti, Davis’ chief technology adviser. 

The governor’s office has a written policy against administration officials accepting campaign donations. Baheti has since resigned, as did DGS chief Barry Keene, who signed the contract. 

Curry testified that she had to ask Mehta to leave a meeting between state officials and Oracle in July, as the parties worked to amend some terms of the contract. 

Last week, Oracle officials said they would end the contract with the state, and on Saturday officials from Logicon Inc., the company packaging the software with Oracle, said they, too, would drop the contract. 

Logicon, which stands to earn $28.5 million from the contract, prepared the cost-saving estimates that state officials relied upon when negotiating the deal, State Auditor Elaine Howle said. 

Oracle has disputed Howle’s report, saying she severely underestimated the state’s future database needs. 

The state Senate could vote this week on a bill by Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, that would prohibit technology consultants from bidding on contracts they helped draft, legislation that would specifically deal with Logicon’s role. 

Davis and his predecessor, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, have vetoed similar bills.


Tom Bates says he’ll run for city mayor

By Matthew Artz, Daily Planet Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Former Assemblyman wins progressive nomination at Saturday’s convention 

 

A nominating convention called to consider several possible candidates to run against Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean in November transformed into a giant pep rally on Saturday as roughly 225 people filled the South Berkeley Senior Center to declare support for veteran politician Tom Bates. 

Chants of “Run Tom Run” gave way to optimistic cries of “Win Tom Win” after the former state Assemblyman stepped to the microphone and accepted the mayoral nomination. 

“I want a city government that I can be proud of,” said Bates who presented himself as a conciliator who would reach across factional lines. “I want to take my experience, knowledge and energy and put it together for the people of Berkeley.” 

Bates’ acceptance of the nomination ended weeks of speculation about whether or not he would run. Before his confirmation, progressives had long debated who, if anyone, would be the best candidate to beat the two-term moderate incumbent. 

At the Saturday’s convention, Bates outlined a vision for Berkeley in which neighborhoods are livable and defended from the incursion of chain stores, pedestrians and bicyclists can move about safely, affordable mixed-use developments replace unsightly or abandoned buildings, and the city restores its claim as an innovator in the environmental movement and education. 

Bates represented Berkeley in the state Assembly from 1976 to 1996 until term limits forced him to retire. 

He is married to Loni Hancock, the former two-term Berkeley mayor and current Democratic Party nominee for Bates’ former Assembly seat.  

Bates touted the usefulness of his connections in lobbying for the city. “Berkeley needs a mayor who understands the problems and can go to Sacramento and Washington to make sure our schools are sound and our children get the best possible education,” he said. 

If elected, Bates promised that his first priority would be to enact public campaign finance reform, which was recently defeated by Berkeley’s City Council.  

“It is time to take the corruption out of the system,” said Bates, who will oppose an incumbent in Dean with a hefty campaign war chest. 

In the weeks preceding the convention, it was uncertain whom the progressives would select to face Dean in November.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington had widespread appeal among progressives, but with his seat up for election this year, he would have had to surrender his council position to run.  

A Worthington loss, coupled with a moderate victory in his district could have catapulted Dean’s faction into a 5-4 majority in council. Currently, the progressives maintain a 5-4 majority on the council. 

Faced with this prospect, the progressives led by Worthington made a full court press to get Bates into the race. 

“Tom’s been deluged with hundreds of people calling him up begging ‘you have to do this for the sake of the city’,” Worthington said.  

After consulting with family and friends, Bates finally decided last week to heed the call. “I love this city very deeply and I want to make a contribution,” said Bates who had worked during his six year retirement from politics to improve children’s nutrition in the Berkeley and Oakland public schools, and to lobby BART to provide discounts for students under 18. 

For the progressives, Bates appears to be an ideal candidate. My not running is a testament to the talent and character of Tom,” said Worthington. 

Bates’ connections and name recognition achieved through more than 20 years in politics should enable him to raise funds to run a competitive campaign, and having previously won his assembly district with as much as 80 percent of the vote, he stands out as someone who can reach out to unaffiliated voters, while maintaining the support of the more ardent progressives. 

Unifying the progressives has never been a simple task. In every mayoral election since 1982 there has been at least one fringe candidate on the left, and in 1994, the participation of three leftist candidates contributed to Dean’s ultimate victory in a runoff.  

“It’s absolutely critical to unseat an incumbent to have a unified group of people,” said Bates. “I’m flattered I’m the person they’ll rally behind.” 

In maintaining his base of support, perhaps Bates’ surest ally is the level of disenchantment for Dean among those on the left.  

The convention was the largest political gathering in Berkeley in over ten years, according to Rob Wren, planning commissioner. Those in attendance enthusiastically applauded when speaker after speaker criticized the current mayor’s policies, and derided her as a divisive force in Berkeley politics. 

“Tom is more moderate than some of the progressives, but people are more ready to embrace that to defeat Shirley Dean,” said Wren. 

The attendees clearly came to embrace Bates. However, when Russ Ellis, vice chancellor emeritus of Undergraduate Affairs at U.C. Berkeley gave Bates’ introductory speech and repeated the refrain “It’s Tom’s time!” many convention-goers had to wonder exactly what time Bates had because he had yet to arrive on the premises. 

After the convention voted to nominate Bates by acclamation, there was a brief moment of confusion about what to do in the nominee’s absence. But Bates then strode into the hall, smiling, wearing a Panama hat, ready to take the progressive mantle against Dean in November. 

The mayor, after hearing the news of Bates’ candidacy, appeared unaffected, noting that in her estimation, the progressives have always been united. “It doesn’t matter who my opponent is,” Dean said. “I’m going to run hard on what I’ve done and what I plan to do.” 


Mayor’s pick for peace commission is flawed

-Will Youmans
Monday May 06, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

I am not sure what Mayor Shirley Dean was thinking with her latest round of appointments to the Peace and Justice Commission. 

One of the them, Micki Weinberg, plans on joining the Israeli military after he graduates. He said it was “a moral responsibility.” 

This statement is testimony to a willingness to be on the firing end of a bullet that kills an innocent Palestinian child. 

Just yesterday, an Israeli tank officer shot a woman and both of her kids because he saw shadows lurking in the bushes. Amnesty International wrote that the same army Weinberg plans on joining is known for its regular“unlawful killings, destruction of property and arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment.” All of these are violations of “international human rights and humanitarian law.” 

In a recent opinion piece, he wrote Israel must “purge” the Palestinians. “Arafat” and even civilian “perpetrators” of the Palestinian uprising “must be rooted out.” His plagiarism of George Bush is just one of the many indications of his antipathy to peace and justice. 

After Colonel Micki Weinberg is done demolishing a home in a Palestinian refugee camp, I will pay for Mayor Dean to fly there to explain to there-displaced refugee family what an advocate of peace and justice he is. 

 

-Will Youmans 

Berkeley


Out & About Calendar

Staff
Monday May 06, 2002


Monday, May 6

 

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

Proposed landmark designation to the UC Theater, 2018-2036 University Ave. Public Hearing to consider designation.  

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst at Martin Luther King 

Free 

 

Live Music 

Renegade Sidemen, with Calvin Keyes, Dave Rokeach and friends 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 


Tuesday, May 7

 

Live Music  

Singers’ Open Mike, Ellen Hoffman on piano 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 


Wednesday May 8

 

Germbusters Puppet Show 

2:30- 3 p.m. 

Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Puppet show for children age 3 to 10 to learn about germs and their effects on the body. Free.  

For more information: 510-549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org 

 

Live Music  

Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 


Thursday, May 9

 

FBI & Local police: Partners in Repression 

Forum, Speakout & Music 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Bonita, Berkeley 

For Info: Copwatch, 510-548-0425 

$5-$15  

 

Consumers’ Rights, Problems and Legislation 

Speaker Tom Vacar, consumer editor, KTVU, Channel 2 

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library 

1247 Marin Ave., Albany 

For more info: 510-843-8824 

Free 

 

Live Music  

David Widelock Jazz Duo, guitar and bass 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

Community Budget Workshop 

Berkeley Unified School District 

Budget & Finance Advisory Committee 

Subject: California State Budget Process & the J200 Budget Format 

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley High Alternative High School 

Multi Purpose Room 

2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Berkeley 

Free 

 


Friday, May 10

 

Live Music  

Pete Englehart / Doug Brown Jazz Duo 

Second show: Bluesman Hideo Date 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA 

 

New Sculpture & Paintings by Jody Sears & Michele Ramirez 

Opening reception: Saturday May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. 

Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Ardency Gallery 

709 Broadway, Oakland 

510-836-0831, e-mail: gallery709@aol.com 

Free 

 


Saturday, May 11th

 

W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert, “The Art of the Spiritual” 

Featuring African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo soprano Vanessa Ayers, tenors Samual McKelton and William Brown, Baritone Autris Paige and bass-baritone Benjamin Matthews, and pianist Dennis Helmrich. 

7:30 p.m. 

Calvin Simmons Theater 

10 Tenth Street, Oakland 

For tickets: SASE to PO Box 507, Berkeley, 94701, or e-mail: fourseasonsconcerts@juno.com with your name, address & phone number to have tickets held at the box office or call 510-451-0775  

Free - Reserved Seating Required 

 

9th Annual KFOG KABOOM! 

Free Concert- Headliner Boz Scaggs along with Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise and Zero 7. Expo area of food, drinks interactive sponsor exhibits and continuous performances for families on the Children’s stage. At 9 p.m. more than 7 tons of Fireworks burst over the Bay, choreographed to a soundtrack on KFOG 104.5 San Francisco and 99.7 San Jose. 

4 p.m. 

San Francisco Piers 30-32 

Free 

 

Impact Theatre's Love Is The Law 

La Val's Subterranean Theatre 

World-premiere of Impact Theatre's new romantic comedy play featuring David Ballog. 

For more information and reservations: 510-464-4468, www.tickets@impacttheatre.com 

$12 general, $7 students  

 

English Song Recital  

featuring Kirk Eichelberger, bass, with Christopher Luthi, piano  

7:00 p.m.  

Valley Christian High School, 100 Skyway Drive, San Jose.  

Tickets are available for a $100 tax-deductible donation.  

All proceeds benefit the Discovery Center's educational therapy program. 

 

Word Beat Reading Series 

Entertainers of all kinds come together . Featuring readers Rita Flores Bogaert and Ann Hunkins 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

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

Free 

 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

510-525-2716 

 

Children's Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave., Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

 

W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert, “The Art of the Spiritual” 

Featuring African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo soprano Vanessa Ayers, tenors Samual McKelton and William Brown, Baritone Autris Paige and bass-baritone Benjamin Matthews, and pianist Dennis Helmrich. 

7:30 p.m. 

Calvin Simmons Theater 

10 Tenth Street, Oakland 

For tickets: SASE to PO Box 507, Berkeley, 94701, or e-mail: fourseasonsconcerts@juno.com with your name, address & phone number to have tickets held at the box office or call 510-451-0775  

Free - Reserved Seating Required 

 

Live Music  

Classic Jazz Singer Robin Gregory with Bliss Rodriguez on piano 

Second show: Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet 

8 p.m., second show 10 p.m. 

Anna’s Bistro 

1901 University Ave., Berkeley 

510-849-ANNA


Lady ’Jackets beat O’Dowd for unbeaten league season

By Jared Green, Daily Planet Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

The Berkeley High girls’ lacrosse team defeated Bishop O’Dowd, 6-1, on Saturday to clinch the Golden Gate-Shoreline Lacrosse League title with an undefeated league season. Senior Elena Krieger led the way for Berkeley with three goals. 

O’Dowd (4-2 GGSLL) actually got the scoring started at Cal’s Memorial Stadium when Anne Marie Cecconi found teammate Tiffany Lee open in front of the Berkeley net after a long stretch of pressure. But that was the last goal the Dragons would get as Berkeley goalie Rosie Gibson had a stellar second half with nine saves, including three on penalty shots. 

“I wasn’t really worried when (O’Dowd) scored,” Berkeley head coach Rebecca Meyer said. “The only thing I was worried about was that we might mentally psych ourselves out. But I knew we could be strong and come back and score.” 

Gibson did an excellent job of not giving up rebounds, but the same couldn’t be said for O’Dowd goalie Jovan Tucker. Tucker did a good job on initial shots, but often couldn’t get the ball to stay in her cradle. Berkeley scored its first goal on a rebound, with Krieger picking up the loose ball and firing it past Tucker. 

“Elena was the key today,” Meyer said. “She played great on offense and defense.” 

The Lady Yellowjackets (10-4 overall, 6-0 GGSLL) also took advantage of the slower O’Dowd players with fastbreaks. Off of a quick restart, Veronica Searles passed to Sacsha Atkins-Loria, who raced up the sideline before dumping the ball to Kate Walstead. Walstead dropped the ball, but had time to pick it back up and score for a 2-1 edge. 

Another restart found Walstead feeding Atkins-Loria for an easy shot, then Joanna Hoch bounced a shot past Tucker just before halftime, and Berkeley was up 4-1. 

The second half was a defensive battle, with nearly 20 minutes going by without a score. Gibson was on fire coming out of halftime, making eight saves during the scoreless stretch to make sure the Dragons couldn’t cut the Berkeley lead. 

Two goals in 32 seconds sealed the deal for the ’Jackets. First Atkins-Loria put the ball to the front of the O’Dowd goal, where Krieger made a great catch before turning and beating Tucker high. Krieger finished her hat trick on a penalty shot seconds later, and Berkeley had the league championship all sewn up. 

Berkeley will now enter an eight-team postseason tournament. Possible first-round opponents include Monte Vista, Miramonte and Thatcher.


One person’s trash is another ’s treasure

By Matthew Artz Daily Planet Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Recycling is theme 

at Berkeley art show 

 

Visitors to Saturday’s Trash to Treasures reception discovered a miniature bed spread made entirely of used tea bags, a giant bug made of assorted metals hanging from the ceiling, and a mysterious looking woman with a snake in her hands, holding court in the back corner on a throne of objects that she finds too many uses for to ever throw away. 

The annual junk-art exhibition is put on by the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse and what it lacks in pomp, it more than makes up for in energy, originality, and eco-consciousness. 

The 10th annual exhibition, on display through May 17 at the Outback Store in Berkeley, at Sacramento and Dwight streets, showcases 123 works by children, adults, families, and professional artists, all of whom use materials that would have usually found their way to the local landfill or dump.  

 

The organizers worked with local schools and sent out community-wide invitations for entries, which were ultimately selected by a panel of judges. Winners were selected in eight categories ranging from early elementary school student through professional artist.  

“This is meant to be a venue of diverse people that all see with a vision of how to transform trash into treasure,” said Valerie Raps, event co-coordinator.  

Emma Ramstad, who recently moved from Minnesota, was excited to contribute. She used cardboard and broken CDs to create a miniature art car parade, a technique she first learned as a child when she accidentally crushed a farmer’s lawn mower under her tractor and made him a replica mower out of cardboard.  

“It’s so cool to have the East Bay Depot to make recycled art and then to get a place like this. It’s very exciting,” said Ramstad.  

This is the first year the exhibition is at the Outback Store. Its nine-year affiliation with the Oakland YWCA ended when that building’s gallery space was converted for other uses.  

The site has been vacant for over a year, while Berkeley leaders decide what to do with the land, but in keeping with Trash to Treasure’s theme the organizers are creatively re-using it for this year’s show. 

The site also provides extra space to accommodate the exhibition’s first performance art installation by Orunamamu, which means “Morning Star” in a Nigerian dialect. 

Orunamamu is a retired Berkeley teacher, who became a full-time storyteller operating from the porch of her Rockridge home. For the exhibition, she has moved many on the objects from her home to the art space to show children that there is a story, and a hidden significance behind many of the objects people throw away.  

“A lot of things that are wasted could be used if we re-imagine what we could do,” said Orunamamu who flaunted a small snake on hand and a small mat or “magic carpet” woven from magazines in the other. 

Asked if she considered herself a pack rat, the storyteller replied that she was a collector, because pack rats pick up anything, but a collector only takes things to use for a purpose. 

A central theme of the exhibition is collaborative art, especially among adults and children. Joyce Slim, an art instructor at Franklin State Preschool, and an entrant in past shows decided to work with her 3- to 5-year-old students, and her friend Sherron Longfeather for this show. 

Their project, “What A Wonderful World” is a tribute to Louis Armstrong’s famous song, and features a figurine of the jazz great on top of a bike rim, set above seven figures of children made from tin and plastic containers, each representing a different theme from the song. 

Slim has been recycling art with children for several years, and has found that even preschoolers can understand the message embedded in the art. “Their concept light turned on when they saw the things being attached,” said Slim. “They made the connection that ‘hey that’s my apple juice box.’”  

Slim is hopeful that in addition to giving a stage for this inventive art, Trash to Treasure will change the perspectives of visitors of all ages. “These things are around us and we can use them to create something to bring joy to others.”  


Pro-Palestine group stoops to new low

-Maya Aizenman
Monday May 06, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

Last week’s protest by university group Students for Justice in Palestine was none other than a true testament to the fact that the group has already lost its credibility and is desperately trying to gain more supporters after alienating much of campus with their repeated disruption of classes. SJP has really hit rock bottom when they are trying desperately to make a connection that this is turning back to the pre-1964 no-free-speech days on this campus. SJP had the right as a student group to reserve one of the many reservable campus places such as Sproul every day of the school year and protest every single day under the code of conduct for student groups. They instead chose to violate the campus rules and are upset when the university has taken action against them. So what is their current action? A speaker at the rally, Hatem Bazian, a leader in the MSU, gets up on Sproul and tells the crowd “to take a look at the type of names on the building around campus --- Haas, Zellerbach and decide who controls this university.” Therefore when all else fails for them and they refuse to take responsibility for their own actions, they blame the Jews. Hey why not? It worked before. 

 

-Maya Aizenman 

U.C. Berkeley student


Sports shorts

Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Panthers shine at MOC 

The St. Mary’s High track & field squad had a good day at the Meet of Champions in Sacramento on Saturday with four wins, including three from the boys’ side. 

Solomon Welch pulled off yet another double win with first-place finishes in the long jump and triple jump, although Robert Banks of Woodcreek jumped an identical 46’05” in the triple jump. The biggest surprise of the day was a win by the boys’ 4x100 relay team, which finished in a blazing 41.87, their fastest time of the year and the seventh fastest in the state this season. 

Kamaiya Warren was her usual dominating self, winning the discus and taking second in the shotput. Danielle Stokes continued her season-long duel with Talia Stewart of Logan High, finishing behind the sophomore in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles to finish second and third, respectively.  

 

Berkeley girls finish second at ACCAL championship  

The Berkeley High girls finished second at the ACCAL track & field championship on Saturday in Hercules, while the boys limped home with a fourth-place finish. Alameda High swept the meet, more than doubling Berkeley’s point on the girls’ side and topping Pinole Valley, 153-120, on the boys’ side.  

Berkeley’s Alex Enscoe continued his dominance in the distance events, winning both the 1,600 and 3,200. 

 

Individual performances not enough for ’Jackets  

Berkeley High’s swim teams both came in second behind Alameda at the ACCAL swimming championships at Contra Costa College on Saturday. 

Berkeley sophomore Dominic Cathey won by four seconds in the 200 individual medley, taking more than a second off of his personal best with a time on 2:00.38. Cathey also won the 500 freestyle. Nick Easterday also won two events for the ’Jackets, nipping Alameda’s Terry Fukichi in the 50 free and 100 free.


Salvation Army expected to close

By Kurtis Alexander, Daily Planet Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Worshipers seeking a spiritual lift at the Salvation Army service yesterday came up a bit short. 

Sunday-morning regulars were greeted with news that their 13-year facility, at 1535 University Ave., may soon be up for sale. 

According to chairperson of the Berkeley Salvation Army Advisory Board Bill White, administrators from Sacramento informed the board this weekend that low attendance would likely be grounds for closing the center. 

“This is a step backward for us,” he said. “When people think about the Salvation Army, they have always thought Berkeley and all the work that’s been done here.” 

Salvation Army administrators are expected to make a formal announcement about the closing on Wednesday, White said. Officials at the Sacramento divisional headquarters could not be reached for comment. 

The Berkeley Salvation Army, in addition to its regular Sunday morning worship service, provides a number of resources for the community. Access to free food, shelter, and clothing, counseling on employment and personal issues like drug addiction, and direct monetary aid and vouchers are among their services. 

Once the group’s facility is sold, White said the organization will likely move to a smaller, rented space somewhere in town. 

However, White added that the chaplain and manager of Berkeley’s Salvation Army, Captain Terrance Wright, would be transferred to a new post, and 

the organization’s new quarters would likely discontinue worship services. 

“And the sale is not only going to affect the Salvation Army,” he continued,” but other programs as well.” 

Berkeley’s Head Start, a nonprofit serving children of low-income families, as well as the city’s Police Activities League, a program also serving youth, operate out of the Berkeley Salvation Army building too. 

Berkeley’s Salvation Army board is planning an “emergency” meeting for Tuesday to develop a strategy to counter Wednesday’s expected announcement. 

White said he hopes Sacramento officials will reconsider selling their facility, but said he’s doubtful that Wright would stay and worship services would continue. 


Don’t believe the hype of progressive politicians

-Stephen Dunifer
Monday May 06, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

A recent announcement from City Councilmember Donna Spring called for citizen participation in a convention to select a progressive candidate to run against current Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean. This announcement proudly asserted that the last time such an event occurred it resulted in the election of two-term Mayor Loni Hancock. Given that Donna Spring, who deserves to be known as the Green Party's brown thumb, was the source of this call, this should make the whole process suspect from the beginning. 

Loni Hancock was an unmitigated disaster for Berkeley. Her hand-picked choice of City Manger Michael Brown militarized the Berkeley Police. He embarked on a campaign against dissent in Berkeley and created the police unit known as The Crowd Management Team. During that time, supposed progressive city councilmembers voted for the use of crowd control munitions - by police. These had been used on crowds protesting construction of volley ball courts at People’s Park. At the City Council meeting where the deciding votes were cast, Brown stood on the stage of the Berkeley Community Theatre and pointed out community activists to be dragged out and arrested. Some notable activists such as Carol Denney were hog-tied like farm animals. The progressive City Council and Mayor Hancock did nothing to intervene in this gross violation of civil rights and liberties. 

Loni Hancock pushed through legislation that allowed the most notorious developer in Berkeley, the university, to OK its own EIR findings, giving up the city's right to review them. This proved a clear violation of the voters’ will, as expressed with passage of Measure N in the mid 80's. This ballot measure commanded city officials to take every possible measure to ensure U.C. Berkeley’s compliance with existing zoning laws and the General Plan. So far, not one city official has made any effort to enforce the will of the voters expressed in Measure N. Mayor Hancock was totally complicit in the University's construction of volley ball courts at People's Park and lied about her involvement repeatedly. 

Spring’s record is total anathema to what the Green platform is supposed to stand for. Unfortunately the local Green Party is nothing more than a reelection vehicle for Spring and will not do anything to hold her accountable to the Green Party platform. Spring was on the committee that drafted the "poor law" proposals used to further legitimize and codify Berkeley's war against the homeless. Further, Spring, at the behest of local merchants who complained about homeless folks camping out on a bench on Shattuck Avenue, personally ordered city workers to remove the offending piece of outdoor furniture. She voted for the privatization of the city parking garages, depriving union workers of jobs. To avoid offending downtown merchants she voted against HUD money to be used to create low income housing in downtown Berkeley. In many critical votes on progressive issues where it came down to her as the swing vote she waffled by abstaining thus allowing the item to be defeated by council moderates. 

When it comes down to walking the talk, Berkeley progressives remain hobbled at the starting line by their own self-serving tendency to compromise at the first hint of opposition and timorous fear of being portrayed as being too radical rather than standing on principle. Not one supposed progressive on the City Council has denounced the illegal labor practices employed by certain city of Berkeley departments. Part-time employees of the city do not receive benefits and are limited to less than 30 hours per week, the break point between part time and full time. If a part-time employee works more than 30 hours, they are ordered to carry the extra time over to next week’s time card so they will not move up to full-time status and thus eligible for benefits. Nor have any progressive city councilmembers called for the firing of City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque who, among her many notable endeavors, has done her best to legally justify city actions against the homeless and the undermining of the Brown Act by city departments and commissions. 

 

-Stephen Dunifer 

Berkeley


Cal falls to Stanford despite records

Daily Planet Wire Services
Monday May 06, 2002

Cal put forth its best effort but was swept at the Big Meet for the second year in a row Saturday at Edwards Stadium. On men’s side, the Cardinal won 94-69, marking its first victory at Cal since 1966. The Cardinal women posted a 101-62 victory.  

“(The streak) meant a lot to the kids on different teams,” said Cal Director of Track and Field Erv Hunt. “You always want to win, but it’s amazing that it’s been that long of a time (since Stanford won in Berkeley). To win something that many times is pretty amazing.”  

The Golden Bears had less athletes entered than Stanford in many events, but those that competed had arguably their best meet of the year. Among those that scored, 18 personal bests were set by Cal athletes. Additionally, the Bears posted three of the six Big Meet records set Saturday. The teams also combined to set three school records - two for Cal and one for Stanford.  

“Kids really stepped up and did a great job,” said Hunt. “Stanford just had too many people. There were a lot of really good performances. You can’t ask for them to do better than their best.”  

The most impressive of all of the records set in the 108th Big Meet (23rd for women) came from Cal senior Jennifer Joyce. The Vancouver product broke her own Canadian record and school record in the hammer by winning the competition with a throw of 214’0”, bettering her previous Canadian record of 212’7” set two weeks ago at the Mount SAC Relays. Joyce, who ranks second in the nation in the hammer this year, also shattered her previous hammer Big Meet record of 200’4” from 2000.  

Three other seniors and one junior accounted for the several of the other Cal highlights. Senior Bubba McLean won the pole vault by eclipsing the 18-foot mark for the first time in his career. He cleared an NCAA provisional 18’0.5”, becoming only the third Cal athlete to ever clear 18 feet. McLean broke the previous Big Meet record of 17’8.5”, set in 1991 by Brent Burns. Burns and Clarence Phelps are the other two 18-foot pole vaulters in Cal history.  

“You kind of knew (an 18-foot clearance) was coming,” said Hunt. “This was a good time to get it. It was pretty exciting.”  

Senior Marielle Schlueter finished second (NCAA provisional: 10:22.38) in the 3000-meter steeplechase and bettered her previous Cal record by almosts eight seconds.  

Senior Erin Belger, who entered the meet with the second-best mark in the nation in the 800, easily won the event Saturday with a new personal best and NCAA automatic time of 2:04.39. Stanford’s Ashley Wysong was second in 2:06.94.  

“She wasn’t pushed really,” said Hunt of Belger. “She can go faster. That’s for sure. She’s setting herself up to make a run at the NCAA championship.”  

Cal swept two events Saturday - the men’s javelin and the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Junior Joe Berro claimed top honors in the javelin with a modern era Big Meet record of 220’2”. That distance was a personal record, an NCAA provisional qualifier and ranks second on the Bears all-time list. Sophomore Deanna Slaton also posted a PR of 1:00.05 to take first in the 400-meter hurdles.  

Overall, Cal won 12 events - six men’s and six women’s - and nine of the victories came with personal best performances.


Earth First! bombing trial nears conclusion

By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
Monday May 06, 2002

Twelve years after two Earth First! activists were arrested in the bombing of their own car, investigators facing accusations of false arrest have sharply different recollections of the case. 

Two of the three Oakland police officers named in the suit filed by Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari say they were heavily influenced by FBI agents who came to the scene of the 1990 bombing and told them the two victims were tied to domestic terrorism. 

FBI agents, meanwhile, maintain it was Oakland police who pushed for the swift arrests. 

Cherney is expected to take the stand Monday in Oakland federal court as his attorneys wrap up their case. Attorneys for the lawmen expect to call only a few more witnesses and the case could go to the jury by mid-month. 

Bari and Cherney were driving in Oakland in May 1990 when a bomb went off under Bari, who was at the wheel. She suffered a crushed pelvis and Cherney suffered cuts. 

Hours after the bombing, the two were arrested and named as the main suspects. However, the district attorney later determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute and no one was charged in the bombing. 

Bari and Cherney’s civil suit claims false arrests, illegal searches, slanderous statements and conspiracy. 

Attorneys for Cherney and Bari’s estate — Bari died of cancer in 1997 — have tried to show that FBI agents rushed to the scene and took the lead in the investigation, telling police Cherney and Bari were linked to power line sabotage. 

At the time of the arrests, officials said the bomb was in the rear of the car where it would have been visible to Bari and Cherney. 

But jurors have heard from David Williams, the FBI’s former chief bomb technician at the agency’s crime lab in Washington, D.C., who said it was clear the device had been shoved under the driver’s seat. 

Williams testified that a switch, a cheap pocket watch and a motion device would have all had to be triggered before the bomb could detonate. The Cherney-Bari team says the pair would have been crazy to drive around on top of the bomb with the switch pulled and the timer activated. 

Two of the three Oakland policemen named in the suit testified they relied heavily almost exclusively on FBI information. 

However, retired FBI agent Frank Doyle denied Oakland police claims he told them the bomb must have been clearly visible. He also denied telling officers that nails found in the back of the car matched nails wrapped in duct tape around the bomb. 

On Thursday, former Oakland Police Lt. Mike Sims testified Oakland police did take the lead in the investigation. 

Sims, now working in the Tracy department, said he still believes Bari and Cherney knew the bomb was in the car but didn’t realize it was armed. 

 


Bears lose 8th game in a row

Daily Planet Wire Services
Monday May 06, 2002

STANFORD – In a game that followed the pattern of the series, the Cal baseball team played No. 9 ranked Stanford well through the first few innings but couldn’t hold off the Cardinal, losing 8-5 Sunday at Sunken Diamond.  

The Bears, who have lost seven games in a row, go to 26-26 overall and 8-13 in the Pac-10, while the Cardinal improve to 32-13 and 9-6 in conference. Cal lost to Stanford, 8-4, Friday night and 13-6 Saturday.  

The scored was tied 4-4 after four innings. The Bears had scored three runs in the third inning on a solo home run by Nick Medrano, a solo home run by Conor Jackson and an RBI single by Brian Horwitz. Cal added another run in the fourth inning on a solo home run by Justin Nelson.  

Offensively Stanford scored a run in the second off of Bear starter Matt Brown on a solo home run by Scott Dragicevich. The Cardinal added three more runs in the third on a two-run triple by Carlos Quentin and a sacrifice fly by Brian Hall.  

Stanford finally pulled ahead by scoring three runs in the fifth off of Brown. Sam Fuld led off with a home run, Hall had a sacrifice fly to center field and a throwing error by Cal shortstop Jeff Dragicevich allowed another run to score. The Bears tacked on another run in the seventh inning on an RBI single by John Baker and the Cardinal had another run in the bottom of the eighth on a solo home run by Arik VanZandt for the final 8-5 margin.


History

Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

 

Today 

 

Today is Monday, May 6, the 126th day of 2002. There are 239 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight in History 

 

On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground. 

 

On this date 

 

In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union. 

In 1889, the Paris Exposition formally opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower. 

In 1910, Britain’s King Edward VII died. 

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration began operating. 

In 1942, during World War II, some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese. 

In 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. 

In 1960, Britain’s Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong Jones, a commoner, at Westminster Abbey. (They divorced in 1978.) 

In 1962, in the first test of its kind, the submerged submarine USS Ethan Allen fired a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead that detonated above the Pacific Ocean. 

In 1987, CIA Director William J. Casey died at age 74. 

In 1996, the body of former CIA director William E. Colby was found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he’d disappeared. 

 

Ten years ago 

 

Former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., where Winston Churchill had spoken of the “Iron Curtain.” Gorbachev said the world was still divided, between North and South, rich and poor. Actress Marlene Dietrich died at her Paris home at age 90. 

 

Five years ago 

 

President Clinton wrapped up his visit to Mexico as he and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo pledged closer cooperation on immigration and drug smuggling. 

Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G.Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. World chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM’s Deep Blue computer played to a draw in game three of their six-game match. 

 

One year ago 

 

John Paul II, during his visit to Syria, became the first pope to enter a mosque as he called for brotherhood between Christians and Muslims. American businessman Dennis Tito ended the world’s first paid space vacation as he returned to Earth aboard a Russian capsule. 

 

Today’s Birthdays 

 

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays is 71. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is 68. Rock singer Bob Seger is 57. Singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 57. Actor Ben Masters is 55. Actor Gregg Henry is 50. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 49. TV game show host Tom Bergeron is 47. Actor George Clooney is 41. Actor Clay O’Brien is 41. Actress Roma Downey is 39. Rock singer-musician Tony Scalzo (Fastball) is 38. Rock musician Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 35.


Sports this week

Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Tuesday 

Tennis – Berkeley vs. Montgomery (NCS first round), 3:30 p.m. at King Middle School 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. Branson, 4 p.m. at Branson High, Ross 

 

Wednesday 

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

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

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

 

Thursday 

Track & Field – BSAL Finals, 3 p.m. at Piedmont High 

 

Friday 

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

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

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

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


Berkeley’s Cinco de Mayo re-done

By Matthew Artz, Daily Planet Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

Berkeley’s annual Cinco de Mayo festival had a new address and a new attitude this year, as organizers chose to shed the holiday’s rollicking party image in favor of a more subdued block party setting. 

The holiday commemorating the Battle of Puebla, in which Mexican fighters defeated an occupying French force in 1862, had been celebrated annually in Berkeley’s Civic Center Park. However this year, local Latino leaders decided to try something new. 

“We are trying to change the focus from a concert venue to a family day,” said Carlos Rios, a festival organizer from the Duran organization, explaining the decision to move the festival to James Kenny Park at 8th and Virginia streets in the heart of Berkeley’s largest Latino neighborhood. 

“The downtown venue was not attracting the local community,” said Rios. “We thought that if we had it in the neighborhood that a larger concentration of Latin people would attend.” 

He was right. The park was filled with local Latino families enjoying food, music, face painting and two giant bubble castles. 

The convenient location and family friendly attitude was appreciated by seemingly everyone at the festival. “I love the family orientation that it has. Over there [civic center park] it seemed to be more of a tourist thing. Here it is for the community,” said Rosalia Wilkins.  

In addition to food and fun, the festival provided free medical services. For the first time the La Raza Health Fair was partnered with the Cinco de Mayo celebration, offering local residents an opportunity to get on-the-spot eye, blood pressure and diabetes exams. 

The health fair, which is usually held independently in April, is organized by the Chicanos Latinos in Health Education (CHE), a UC Berkeley student group that works with volunteers from the UC San Francisco Medical Center and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health to provide health services for local Latinos in need. 

“A lot of men won’t go to the doctor but they will go here because it’s non-threatening,” said Beatriz Leyva Cutler of Bay Area Hispanic Institute for Advancement, an organization that operates two child care centers.  

The health fair is especially important for Latinos because, according to Nirav Kamdar of CHE, 33 percent of adult Latinos have diabetes but most do not know it. We are trying to empower people to be their own doctor,” said Kamdar, who stated that after the Pima Native American tribe, Latinos have the highest risk of diabetes of any ethnic group in the world. 

The new Cinco de Mayo festival was the collaborative work of several different local Latino groups. Adelante, a non-profit Latino organization had sponsored the festival for several years, but after the organization folded last year, Duran, an organization that provides scholarships to Latino students and promotes the arts stepped forward. 

Duran along with BAHIA and CHE pooled their resources to organize this year’s festival, which has included a weakling schedule of educational and cultural events that put a different spin on the holiday. 

“Cinco de Mayo is an opportunity for the community to celebrate itself. A day to celebrate and reflect on everything,” Rios said. 

One item the organizers noticeably decided to leave out was alcohol. Many festival goers expressed mixed reactions about the recent commercialization of the holiday, but were overwhelmingly supportive of the decision to keep the festival dry.  

“Cinco de Mayo has become the Latino version of St. Patrick’s day, said Ricardo Gomez a graduating UC Berkeley senior and member of CHE. “I’m glad there’s a general recognition of the Latino holiday, but it’s gotten co-opted. It going to get commercialized no matter how you do it.”  

Andrea Vargas, who was visiting from Castro Valley, concurred stating that although she thought she could look at the media portrayal in two ways, she considered some of the Cinco de Mayo television commercials degrading. “This event celebrates it the best way we can celebrate it: By bringing good people and families together.” 

Rios considered the new festival an unabashed success, and was already thinking of new activities for children next year. “This year was just an experiment to see if the change would work,” said Rios, who was considering horse rides among other activities. “If we can achieve that children come to the festival and they enjoy it, they will have something to remember Cinco de Mayo by.”


Much ado in Mexico over 140-year anniversary

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

Accompanied by brass bands and flag-waving school children, members of Mexico’s military celebrated the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Puebla on Sunday, marking the country’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. 

Speaking during the ceremony, which was also attended by President Vicente Fox, Gen. Rigoberto Castellejos Adriano said the battle “demonstrated to the world our wish to exist as a free and sovereign nation.” 

“The Battle of Puebla shows that Mexico knows how to resolve with determination and strength its problems and the most adverse situations,” he said. “It shows that with unity and patriotism as Mexicans, we have overcome the most difficult circumstances that throughout time have tested our will.” 

The celebration marked the day when, on May 5, 1862, Mexican soldiers defeated French troops in Puebla, a colonial town 65 miles southeast of Mexico City. 

A year later, however, troops sent by Napoleon III took control of Mexico City, forcing the government of Benito Juarez to flee. 

Not even an official holiday in Mexico, May 5 is barely recognized by most Mexicans living south of the Rio Grande. But those living in the United States have adopted the date as a holiday to celebrate their heritage with everything from backyard picnics to street fairs. 

On Saturday, President Bush celebrated Cinco de Mayo by praising immigrants for their “strong values and their determination to create a better life for themselves and their children.”


After months in custody, 2 former terror suspects are heading home

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

SANTA ANA — Two friends from Pakistan, who hoped for opportunity in the United States but instead found themselves jailed in a post-Sept. 11 roundup, are heading home after spending more than six months in custody. 

Ahmed Atta and Salman Hyder, both 19, were detained Oct. 6, as federal investigators checked out an anonymous tip that Atta had a link to the al-Qaida terrorist network. Atta recently was sent back to Pakistan, while Hyder remains in custody pending his return. 

In separate interviews with the Orange County Register, Atta and Hyder, described how they were detained, interrogated for weeks and taken to court appearances in chains. 

“I was scared as hell,” Atta said. 

Hyder said he, too, was terrified as agents repeatedly asked the same questions about possible links to terrorists. 

“I was shivering when those agents were questioning me,” Hyder said. “During those first two months, we were terrified because we knew our case was not a normal case.” 

Both men did not have an attorney during the interviews. 

Although no links to terrorists were ever found, Atta and Hyder were convicted of minor visa violations involving working without proper papers or permission. Both were sentenced to time served and ordered to either leave the county voluntarily or be deported. 

Atta said he regretted the lost opportunity to make his fortune in America. 

“I came to spend the rest of my life here,” said Atta. “I know (the INS) won’t want to hear this. But that’s the truth. I would love to live here. It is the land of opportunity.” 

Hyder was eager to return to his family. 

“I like the U.S., but I’m dying to go back to Pakistan,” he said. “I know it will be hard, but my home is better than jail.” 

Hyder and Atta lived in a Fountain Valley condominium and attended Irvine Valley College. Both came to the United States believing there was more opportunity to prosper her than in the Middle East. 

Hyder arrived in January 2000 on a student visa, but dropped out of school after only one semester in violation of federal rules. He had to work, Hyder said, because his father was unemployed and could no longer afford to support him. 

Atta applied for a job at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley last year. Atta said he had to work to support himself for what he called “an opportunity of a lifetime.” 

Hyder was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents. Atta was born in Pakistan but, like Hyder, grew up in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. 

Atta’s attorney, Ronald O. Kaye, said the prosecution of the roommates was unprecedented. “He (Atta) was arrested for immigration offenses that I had never seen prosecuted before as a criminal matter,” Kaye said. 


Davis aides questioned about computer deal

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

SACRAMENTO — While a legislative committee investigating the state’s software contract with Oracle Corp. meets Monday, Gov. Gray Davis’ finance director and Oracle officials will discuss killing the contract criticized as wasteful. 

Finance Director Tim Gage will meet with Oracle executives to negotiate an end to the state’s six-year, $95 million, no-bid contract to buy and administer database management software from Oracle, Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said Sunday. 

Meanwhile, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearings led by Assemblyman Dean Florez will feature at least eight Davis administration officials Monday, Florez said. A Democrat from Shafter and committee chairman, Florez will focus on the roles of two Davis aides — Cynthia Curry, a top lawyer in the General Services Department, and Kari Dohn, a Davis policy adviser. 

Curry will be asked how the contract was reviewed before it was signed, Florez told the Orange County Register. Dohn will be asked if Davis was told about the contract. 

On Friday, Davis said he didn’t know about the contract before it was signed. 

Also testifying will be Elias Cortez, the suspended state technology chief, and Betty Yee, the chief deputy director of the Department of Finance. 

Originally touted as a way for the state to save money through volume software purchases, the contract has turned controversial as a state auditor report says it would cost taxpayers as much as $41 million more than if the state had relied on previous suppliers. The state and Oracle had said the contract would save the state $16 million. Oracle has disputed Auditor Elaine Howle’s report, saying she severely underestimated the state’s future database needs. Last week, Oracle officials said they would end the contract with the state, and on Saturday officials from Logicon Inc., the company packaging the software with Oracle, said they, too, would drop the contract. On Sunday, Maviglio welcomed the Logicon offer but said that while Gage will meet Monday with Oracle, no meeting with Logicon has been arranged yet. 


Jagged glass found at playground

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

MISSION VIEJO — A Mission Viejo park was temporarily closed Sunday after several half-dollar sized pieces of broken glass were found near a child’s slide, officials said. 

The broken glass was found underneath a slide and it’s stairwell about 1:50 p.m. at Crucero Park and may have been placed there intentionally, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. 

Amormino said the broken glass was found “at exactly the same places” as 17 nails found Friday at William M. Beebe Park, also in Mission Viejo, and 30 razor blades and 30 nails found Thursday at Vista Park in Laguna Niguel. 

It’s unclear if the nails were left in the park by the same people. He said those responsible for placing sharp objects in the parks may have switched to glass from nails to elude metal detectors.


NBC hopes Telemundo deal helps reach Hispanic market

By Gary Gentile, The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

Bilingual cooperation just one example of network’s ideas for Spanish-language integration 

 

LOS ANGELES – When WNBC reporter Darlene Rodriguez finished filing a report on the recent meeting of U.S. bishops at the Vatican, she switched hats and filed a second report in Spanish for the Telemundo network and its New York affiliate. 

That kind of bilingual cooperation is just one example of the way NBC hopes to work with Telemundo, which it bought last October for $2 billion. 

The relationship will most likely bear its first fruits behind the scenes, with the networks eliminating duplicate back office operations and combining some of its sales staffs, even housing some NBC and Telemundo affiliates in the same building. 

But NBC president Andy Lack hinted at broader moves recently at a news conference announcing that Telemundo had hired away Maria Celeste Arraras, a top newscaster at dominant Spanish-language network Univision. 

Arraras is expected to contribute occasionally to NBC’s Dateline and news shows on NBC’s other cable channels. 

“There aren’t going to be any walls between NBC and Telemundo,” Lack said. 

Media companies and advertisers are waking up to the buying power of Hispanics, whose numbers in this country have grown nearly 60 percent in the past decade to 35.3 million, according to the 2000 census. 

Over the next 20 years, that figure is expected to grow to 55 million. Their purchasing power could grow at three times the rate of the rest of the country, analysts say. 

But crafting the right strategy to capitalize on that market is still a work in progress, with tact and sensitivity key considerations. 

“When we start trying to hit each other over the head with ethnic hammers, nobody is listening,” said comedian George Lopez, who stars in his own sitcom on ABC. 

To help reach Hispanic audiences, NBC executives are asking Telemundo for advice on casting pilots for the upcoming season while examining a new Telemundo reality series and popular telenovelas, or soap operas, for ideas. 

“We may have a programming opportunity in daytime, where soap operas are so strong,” Lack said in an interview. “Latino viewers have a passion for that genre, and we can go to school on picking up some good programs there. 

“We may want to cast actors and actresses who are bilingual if it works on some of our programming,” he said. “A Latin star of a Telemundo soap opera might find him or herself as a guest star on some of our programming if the language capabilities are there.” 

Telemundo has little to lose in joining NBC. It has long languished in the shadow of rival Univision. 

Being part of NBC holds the promise of greater advertising revenue, which could be used to lure top talents like Arraras. The chance to appear on NBC from time to time is also seen as a recruiting tool, especially for newscasters. 

“I think there is a large market for crossover anchors and reporters,” said Jim McNamara, president and chief executive of Telemundo. “We’re not going to promise someone a gig on NBC. But the fact is that as part of Telemundo, you are part of NBC.” 

McNamara said as many as 40 percent of Telemundo’s news reporters are fluent enough in English to file a breaking news report. And many NBC journalists, especially in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami, are bilingual. 

“I don’t think it’s a driving force behind the deal,” McNamara said. “But it’s an obvious byproduct.” 

Executives at Univision are taking a different tack by trying to reach even more Spanish speakers and bilingual Hispanics who have been watching English-language television because of a lack of compelling Spanish programming. 

“We’ve developed an expertise in the Hispanic market,” said Ray Rodriguez, president and chief operating officer of Univision Networks. “Our strategy is not to Americanize our network.” That strategy is in line with the findings of a recent study on ethnic media in California, one of the first states in the nation where minorities are a majority. 

The study showed the strength of ethnic media — especially Hispanic and Asian newspapers and television — and revealed that a growing number of minorities in California prefer to read publications and listen to broadcasts in their own language. 

Lopez, however, believes Hispanics will respond to English-language programming that has quality, regardless of whether it features Hispanic performers or newscasters. 

“I’ve always felt the way to get us to be mainstream is in small increments,” he said. “The success of a Marc Anthony and a Shakira is the way America will finally come to understand we are talented people, we can help the system economically and not deplete it like you see so much of on the news.”


Cops conflicted about returning medicinal marijuana

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — Police officers are conflicted about whether to return marijuana to someone who’s legally entitled to use the drug for medical reasons. 

Under federal law, marijuana use for any reason is illegal, but under state law, growing and using pot with a doctor’s recommendation is legal. 

In at least three cases in Northern California, police have balked at returning marijuana to people who successfully pleaded that they shouldn’t be prosecuted because their pot use is covered under Proposition 215. Police argue that giving back the pot could leave them liable to prosecution under federal law against distributing illegal drugs. 

“There is no legal answer to this conundrum,” said Rory Little, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and a former federal prosecutor. 

In Yuba County, Sheriff Virginia Black defied an order by a judge last week to return 37 medicinal marijuana plants to Doyle and Belinda Satterfield, who were arrested in August but later had marijuana charges against them dismissed. 

“If I deliver marijuana to the Satterfields, technically I place myself in violation of federal law, and I’m not inclined to do that,” Black said. “So I find myself in a Catch-22.” 

Jesse Choper, a constitutional law professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, agreed with the sheriff. “I think it’s pretty clear to me that they could be charged under federal law,” Choper said. “It’s unlikely, but technically it’s possible.” 

That leaves the Satterfields wondering whether they’ll get their marijuana back. Doyle Satterfield, 52, said he uses marijuana for insomnia and arthritis, and his wife has used it for chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. 

Under state law, controlled substances are usually destroyed after trial, or if charges are dismissed, unless they were found to be “lawfully possessed” by the defendant. 

That supports the return of medicinal marijuana. And, in fact, onetime defendants in Ventura, Placer, San Bernardino, Sonoma, Mendocino and San Joaquin counties have all gotten their pot back, according to Justin Scott, Satterfield’s lawyer. 


John Barrymore III assaulted

Staff
Monday May 06, 2002

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Former actor John Barrymore III is recovering after being beaten inside his home by teenagers who were allegedly trying to steal his stash of marijuana, police said. Six teenagers pulled up to Barrymore’s upscale house in Mountain View in a Volkswagen van Wednesday, said police spokesman Jim Bennett. When the couple opened the door, they were beaten with a metal trailer hitch slung in a sock. Barrymore, 47, is the grandson of the Shakespearean actor and silent film star with the same name. Now dabbling in high-tech work, he has had minor roles in several movies and he is the brother of Drew Barrymore.


Opinion

Editorials

News of the Weird

- The Associated Press
Saturday May 11, 2002

Naked burglar arrested 

 

EUGENE, Ore. — A naked burglar was arrested after his driver’s license was discovered in the pants he left at the scene of the crime, police said. 

The man sneaked into an apartment last Saturday, stripped off his clothes and crept into a sleeping woman’s bedroom, said Eugene police Sgt. Scott McKee. 

The woman awoke, saw the man and screamed, prompting her boyfriend to jump out of bed and give chase. 

The man got away, but police had the evidence they needed. 

“Thankfully it had his current address,” McKee said. 

David Spencer Clark Jr., 20, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree burglary. 

 

Mr. Potato Head honored  

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Islanders may soon have a chance to honor their hometown spud with license plates featuring Mr. Potato Head. 

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday to issue the plates in honor of the toy’s 50th birthday. Mr. Potato Head was created in 1952 by Pawtucket, R.I., toy maker Hasbro Inc. 

The plates would be available for two years only for an extra fee of $40. Half of the fee would go to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. 

Other states have issued special license plates to raise funds for groups such as scouts and cancer awareness, or to honor college alumni or football teams, according to a Senate note on the bill. 

“This is a nice combination of recognizing an icon unique to this state while raising money for a worthy local cause,” said Senate Majority Leader William Irons. 

 

Chicken bone handcuffs  

 

VENTURA, Calif. — Spencer Moss is as slippery as his name, according to deputies at the Ventura County Jail. 

The inmate has made handcuff keys out of chicken bones, tin foil and pieces of cloth, and concealed the contraband in his ears and his shoes before getting the opportunity to tackle the locks, they say. In two years, Moss has had 58 jail security violations. 

The jailhouse Houdini faces up to 12 years in prison for allegedly escaping his cell in the jail’s most secure section and locking two deputies inside it. The Jan. 24 episode was caught on videotape. He’s also charged with using a tightly wound piece of toilet paper to unlock his handcuffs and leg shackles while in court. 

Moss, 36, was captured before making it out of the jailhouse. 

His Superior Court trial on two counts of attempted escape and one count of battery on jail personnel started Wednesday, with Moss acting as his own attorney. 

Moss, handcuffed and shackled, decided against delivering an opening statement. 

 


Southside Plan talks focus on expanding housing

By Matt Artz, Special to the Daily Planet
Friday May 10, 2002

The Planning Commission continued to methodically digest the Southside Plan at its Wednesday night meeting, ruminating over several amendments aimed at liberalizing zoning rules and discussing the just- releasedstaff review of the plan’s impacts on land use and housing. 

The plan will set guidelines for development, safety, traffic and transportation in a roughly 30-block area immediately south of the UC Berkeley campus, bounded by Bancroft and Dwight ways and Prospect and Fulton streets. The area is home to about 12,500 residents, most of whom are UC Berkeley students. 

The preliminary staff review raised as many questions as it tried to answer. The report, which was not released to the public, estimates that implementation of the plan would increase the area’s housing stock by roughly 3,000 units. 

However, several commissioners questioned the report’s methodology. The planner based his estimate on a “scorched earth” scenario, in which the entire area would have been rebuilt under the proposed zoning laws. 

Since this scenario is unlikely, commissioners questioned whether the projections were too optimistic. 

“It’s an odd way of calculating development,” said Commissioner Gordon Wozniak, who cited that existing development and the protections granted to historic buildings could limit opportunities to increase the housing stock. 

One amendment approved Wednesday could help to alleviate the student housing shortage.  

The commission voted unanimously to drop language requiring no more than one person for every 350 sq. ft. in group living arrangements, such as student co-ops, fraternity houses, and boarding houses. 

Faith Stein, UC Berkeley ASUC Tenants Rights Director agreed with the decision citing that in such arrangements, the residents do not need so much space, since they share a common kitchen and living area. 

The deleted requirement had blocked the construction of proposed student housing developments, according to Andy Katz, ASUC Director, City Affairs Lobby and Housing Commission. 

The commission also agreed to relax zoning rules regarding soft story buildings. These complexes, built above parking garages to accommodate drivers, are considered more earthquake-prone than other structures.  

The amended plan will be designed to permit property owners to retrofit or rebuild structures to their existing heights, even if the buildings are in a zone that only permits three-story buildings. 

“We don’t want to demolish existing housing,” said Commissioner Wrenn, “but we need to find a way of allowing owners of these buildings to rebuild the existing number of units to existing heights so there is no disincentive to deal with seismic problems.” 

To satisfy the concerns of various residents, the Plan establishes a “step down” approach towards zoning in which the several areas immediately south of the UC Berkeley campus, and along Telegraph Avenue would be targeted as high-density areas, zoned to permit five-story buildings, while the neighborhoods closer to Dwight Way would require smaller buildings and less intensive development. 

“The plan strongly wants to encourage the development of additional housing for students and university workers near the campus and on Telegraph,” said Wrenn. 

To facilitate this in designated high density areas, the plan includes removing parking requirements for new buildings, changing the set-back rules, allowing buildings to be located closer to the curb and to one another, and utilizing a state incentive program whereby developers that designate an specified portion of a building’s floor space for residential use and a specified percentage of residential units for low-income housing, will be permitted to exceed the current four story 

height limit and build a fifth floor. 

There is still a long road ahead before the plan’s ultimate approval.  

Before a finalized plan can go before the City Council, it must undergo an independent environmental impact report, followed by a new round of public hearings. 

Commissioner Wrenn had hoped that the commission would finish the plan by September, but due to repeated staffing turnover, he acknowledged it probably wouldn’t be ready for the environmental report until October, and wouldn’t reach City Council until early 2002. 

The Planning Commission will resume discussion on May 15, tackling some of the plan’s unresolved transportation issues.


Native American input enriches Stanford art exhibit

By Kim Baca, The Associated Press
Friday May 10, 2002

PALO ALTO, Calif. — When a group of New England explorers set sail more than 200 years ago, they brought back souvenirs from the indigenous people they encountered, hoping to inspire later generations. 

Founded in 1799, the East India Marine Society had gathered so many baskets, masks, blankets, headdresses, weapons and other American Indian items that they established a museum in Salem, Mass., 26 years later just to keep it all. 

The Peabody Essex Museum now has more than 20,000 pieces in its Indian collection, and can display only a fraction of them — one of several injustices curators of a new exhibit at Stanford University are hoping to counteract. 

A hundred items collected from the indigenous peoples of North and South America are included in “Uncommon Legacies: Native American Art From the Peabody Essex Museum,” on view through Aug. 11 at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts. 

Rarely seen treasures from the 17th through 20th centuries include headdresses of blue and red macaw plumes worn by Brazilian chiefs, and a Chilkat goat wool blanket depicting clan symbols that initially could only be made or worn by wealthy Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest. 

The show also tries to erase stereotypes and ethnocentric viewpoints by depicting the everyday lives of Indians a centuries ago, said Tom Haukaas, a Lakota artist from the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota who consulted on the show. 

Marine Society members collected pipes, clubs and other symbols of warfare. However, for this exhibit, Haukass and other Indian consultants made a point of including such items as hats, baskets, food ladles and a baby carrier made by Plains tribes in 1850s. 

“We were trying to de-romanticize, to show the breadth of our cultures and still present pieces of great aesthetic appeal,” Haukass said. “Reality is sitting at home.” 

Early marine society members, on the other hand, apparently saw themselves as bold adventurers exploring dark corners of the globe. 

One of several early American maritime groups, the society had a unique purpose: form a museum of natural artifacts from beyond the Cape of Good Hope of South Africa and Cape Horn of South America. To be a member, marine men had to sail around both continents. 

The seafarers met inhabitants of the Amazon forests while trading for rubber in South America. Guano and silver trades brought them to Peru, and a need for lumber drew them into northern New England and Canada. The fur trade — particularly sea otter pelts in demand in China — was the attraction in the Pacific Northwest. 

The indigenous people soon saw a way to make money off the visitors, creating items solely to be traded, such as human face masks and black argillite smoking pipes made by the Haida, said curator John Grimes at the Peabody Essex. 

The marine men kept detailed records, although they more often recorded their own feelings than the customs they encountered, said those who have studied their journals. 

Society members often documented their collections in their journals, recording dates, places and the tribe involved. 

Many other American Indian collections of the time lack such documentation, said Manuel Jordan, a curator at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center. 

Thanks to the record keeping, at least one tribe, the Mohegan in Connecticut, have requested four items for repatriation, including a historic picture box. 

Under the 1990 Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, museums that receive public money are required to release a list of their holdings to Indian tribes. The museums are also obligated to negotiate with tribes if they have sacred religious objects, items used for the ongoing practice of religion, or items important to a nation’s identity. 

In 1997, the Peabody Essex returned a round picture box that represented one of the few surviving written language records of the Mohegan. The box, made of elm, is carved with designs that document the migration of the tribe’s members to Oneida, N.Y. 

Besides the Mohegan, native Hawaiians and Cayuga in New York are the only tribes to request items from the Peabody Essex since museums made their holdings public in 1992, Grimes said. 

Grimes understands this exhibit may stimulate conversations about repatriating some objects, and he said museums should be proactive about sharing their collections with native communities. “We’re open to that and welcome it,” he said. 

The same kind of thinking prompted the curators to include American Indian input for this exhibit, he said. 

“There is no reason that a museum at this date and time should be presuming to speak for native communities and interpreting native art without the interpretation of native artist and scholars and curators,” Grimes said.


NLRB will hear Claremont dispute

By Jamie Luck Special to the Daily Planet
Thursday May 09, 2002

The ongoing labor dispute between workers seeking to unionize and the Claremont Resort and Spa has now gone federal in the form of a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Claremont for unfair labor practices. The Labor Board has scheduled a hearing for August 26.  

The complaint comes after the Labor Board reviewed several charges of labor violations made by the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 2850, against Claremont management and parent company KSL Recreation Corporation.  

The Board found those charges to be sound enough to issue its own complaint, for which Claremont/KSL is charged to respond by May 14 or be found guilty of all allegations made. The allegations made by the Labor Board against Claremont include: “Promulgating and maintaining overly broad rules restricting employees in the exercise of their rights [to organize]; making unlawful statements to employees; and discriminating against and disciplining employees because of their union activities.” 

Specific incidents cited in the complaint include interrogation by Claremont management of employees about union activities, promises to address grievances if employees ceased attempts to organize, threatening of employee benefits, disciplining employees for union activities through written warnings and suspensions, and barring off-duty employees from being at the workplace. Claremont also allegedly beefed up on security, and had at least on one occasion escorted off-duty workers from the premises and engaged in surveillance of employees organizing on public property. 

Claremont has filed a counter charge against the Local 2850, but the Labor Board has yet to draw any conclusions regarding it. While Claremont did not initially reply to calls from the Planet over the last week, it did fax a statement on Wednesday. “We support our spa employees’ right to make an informed decision on the issue of union representation,” the statement read. It also claims that the union is stalling negotiations of the food and beverage employee contract. 

There are currently two groups of workers at Claremont seeking a union contract. The food and beverage workers union, represented by Local 2850, was inherited under contract by KSL when the group purchased the Claremont a few years ago, but that contract expired in January. Many spa workers have also been active in organizing, and though an apparent majority of spa workers have signed union cards, Claremont refuses to recognize them as unionized, claiming they must hold a secret ballot election. 

The dispute between management and both groups of workers is over how, and maybe even whether, a union is recognized. If management accepts the counting of union cards as sufficient, then it must negotiate with the union as representative of the workers. As the card count is quick, it doesn’t take long to recognize the union. The secret-ballot election, another method of gaining union recognition, is a process that includes not only a vote but numerous possibilities for appeal and litigation, a process known to take several years. 

“While neither method has legal superiority over the other, card counting is more traditional,” said Richard McCracken, a lawyer representing the Local 2850. “While ultimately the effect is similar, the difference between the two is the length of time the parties are given to bargain for a contract without any outside interference. I’ve had card counting result in unionization in a year, while I’ve seen the election process take anywhere from three to 17 years,” he said. 

One of the sticking points in the food and beverage contract is the workers’ desire for a neutrality agreement that would allow the card counting method. Meanwhile, the spa workers cannot get recognized until Claremont management accepts their union cards or gets them to agree to the election process. 

“The food and beverage workers and the spa workers are basically engaged in a unity camp,” said Local 2850 spokesperson Stephanie Ruby. “Employees have repeatedly shown unity in their demand for a card check,” she said. 

In addition to the initial charges filed, over 70 Claremont workers have signed a petition to boycott the hotel and spa until the labor dispute is settled. The executive board of the Central Labor Council of Alameda County has endorsed the boycott, and will be holding a delegate meeting to ratify the endorsement. “Our delegates will be unified,” said CLC political director Robert Dhondrup. “We will ensure that none of our unions will eat, meet, or sleep at the Claremont.” Dhondrup says the ratification meeting will take place in the next two weeks, and that the motion to boycott might move to the state level and come before the California Federation of Labor. 

Meanwhile, Claremont workers have scheduled a rally for May 19th, at 11 a.m., to take place in front of the hotel, where the workers will be offering the public health and spa services.


News of the Weird

- The Associated Press
Wednesday May 08, 2002

Busch tags fish for contest 

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Dig out the waders: There’s a fish out there worth $1 million to the angler who reels it in. 

In a contest to promote its Busch brand of beer, Anheuser-Busch Inc. has tagged 40 fish and placed one into each of 40 bodies of water around the United States. 

A $1 million grand-prize tag has been attached to one of the fish, named Big Jake. The remaining 39 have been tagged for secondary prizes of $1,000. 

The second-annual “Catch Big Jake” contest started Saturday and runs through June 4. It is supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was created to help conserve and manage fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats. 

An angler who lands a tagged fish will be directed to call a special telephone number and find out whether it’s Big Jake. 

 


Gov. Davis unpopular with voters More than half of registered voters disapprove in poll

Staff
Tuesday May 07, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — Californians continue to disapprove of Gov. Gray Davis’ performance, and they believe state lawmakers will reduce the budget deficit better than the governor, according to a new poll. 

The state’s residents also believe California is heading in the wrong direction again, ending a short period of optimism seen after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Field Poll released Sunday. 

Fifty percent of those surveyed believe the state is seriously off track, while 43 percent feel it’s headed in the right direction. 

Overall, 49 percent of Californians surveyed disapproved of Davis’ performance while 42 percent approved. That’s down from the first two years of his tenure when his favorable ratings ranged from 56 percent to 61 percent with relatively small unfavorable ratings. 

With seven months remaining before Davis faces Republican Bill Simon in the November election, his support among registered voters is even worse. They disapprove of his work in office by 55 percent to 39 percent. 

The poll was taken before the Davis administration was hit by the scandal over a $95 million, no-bid contract with Oracle Corp. that a Davis aide negotiated while accepting a $25,000 campaign contribution. 

Since May 2001, the height of the state’s energy crisis, the Democratic governor has seen consistently low approval marks in Field polls. 

The state now faces an estimated $20 billion budget shortfall. 

More than 80 percent of Californians believe the shortfall is somewhat or very serious, the poll shows. The numbers remained similar among Democrats and Republicans. By almost a 2-to-1 ratio, Californians would trust the Legislature over Davis to reduce the budget deficit. 

The latest survey of 1,021 adults was conducted by telephone between April 19 and 25. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.


Secret still Deeply hidden

The Associated Press
Monday May 06, 2002

 

Richard Nixon is dead, Katharine Graham is dead, even Linda Lovelace is dead. But what about Deep Throat?  

Still alive, and still a secret more than a quarter-century after his guidance helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein break the Watergate story and unseat a president. 

John Dean says he knows Deep Throat’s identity. And the former White House counsel, whose testimony against Nixon was itself a key moment in the Watergate saga, says he will reveal all in “The Deep Throat Brief.” The electronic book will be published June 17, the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. 

“He’s pretty certain he knows who it is,” said Scott Rosenberg, managing editor of the online magazine Salon, which will offer Dean’s book. 

Of course, Dean was pretty certain in 1975, when he said Deep Throat was Earl J. Silbert, an original Watergate prosecutor. And he was pretty certain in 1982, when he named Alexander Haig, who was eventually Nixon’s chief of staff and Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state. 

Silbert and Haig denied it. This is to be expected. Everyone denies being Deep Throat. 

Including, Woodward says, Deep Throat. 

The shadowy source “was risking a great deal personally and professionally,” he said in 1997. “You may assume that in the course of this he was not truthful with colleagues and family members and he denied that he had provided information.” 

Washington cannot abide a secret, especially one Dean has called “the best-kept secret in the history of the capital.” So while the particulars of Deep Throat’s exploits have faded in memory for many Americans, for others — politicians, historians, journalists — speculation about his identity remains a favorite parlor game. 

Nixon was not immune. Monica Crowley, a young aide to the former president for four years before his death in 1994, quoted Nixon as saying Deep Throat was “someone on the inside. ... One person who thought he had a lot to gain by spilling his guts to those two guys,” someone who wanted to be seen as a liberal because he wanted “a media career.” 

“Woodward had a source in the Executive Branch who had access to information at CRP (the Committee to Re-elect the President) as well as at the White House. His identity was unknown to anyone else,” the book says. 

Woodward promised he would never identify the source or quote him, even anonymously. The source would confirm information secured elsewhere, and might “add some perspective.” 

When he talked with his editors, Woodward called the source “my friend,” until managing editor Howard Simons dubbed him Deep Throat after the porn film in which Lovelace starred. When Woodward wanted to meet, he moved a flower pot with a red flag to the rear of his apartment balcony. When Deep Throat wanted to meet, he got hold of the newspaper delivered to Woodward’s home, circled the number on page 20 and drew clock hands in the circle. Usually, they met at 2 a.m. in an underground parking garage. 

And we assume Deep Throat is still alive. Woodward has said he will reveal Deep Throat’s identity only after the source is dead, because if he did it sooner, sources he deals with today might question whether he can keep a confidence.