Amid grand expectations of Berkeley residents and the hungry eye of local television crews, City Council froze in the spotlight Tuesday and made no move on much-anticipated hate crime legislation at their weekly meeting. 

The measures up for consideration ranged from $5000 rewards for hate crime information to the establishment of a special police unit focusing exclusively on the investigation of crimes motivated by racial and religious zeal. 

Unable to win a majority vote among themselves on any of the measures, City Council referred the items to the city manager, asking him and his staff to study them, make a recommendation, and bring them back to council at an unspecified date. 

“If you have a hate crime in a community it takes a lot more than one big meeting to solve the problem,” said Mayor Shirley Dean after Tuesday’s meeting. 

Still, there was disappointment that city leaders didn’t act on what many are calling a “rash” of local hate crimes. One independent survey counted 18 hate crimes in Berkeley during the last four months. 

“There have been resolutions on the table for a long time. I don’t see why council couldn’t have adopted at least some of them,” said Osama Qasem, president of the Bay Area chapter’s American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. 

“The delay is showing that the city is not making this a top priority and sends a bad sign to other organizations working on the hate crime issue,” he said. 

Siding with Qasem were councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio, and Dona Spring. The three voted in favor of all hate crime measures that came up Tuesday, while Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Betty Olds, Polly Armstrong, Miriam Hawley and Maudelle Shirek demanded more information before they were willing to pledge their support. 

“It takes time to work on these things,” said Dean. 

But other councilmembers disagreed. 

“We could have done something last [Tuesday] night,” claimed Worthington. “For seven weeks the city has dawdled and offered no public official response [to recent hate crimes].” 

Among the list of recent crimes includes a March 28 incident in which a brick was thrown through a glass door of the Berkeley Hillel on Bancroft Way. Also in March, phony anthrax letters were received by members of the Hispanic community and in April, bomb threats were called in to each of the city’s Jewish temples. 

One measure that Worthington proposed on Tuesday called for financial rewards for people who furnished information that led to the arrest of hate crime perpetuators. 

“It’s unimaginable that our City Council would not vote for a measly $5000 reward,” Worthington said after the measure was denied by the reoccuring 3-5 vote. 

The other three measures, which met similar fates, proposed the creation of a hate free zone in Berkeley, sensitivity training for police and the establishment of a police hate crimes unit. 

The proposal for additional police training, sponsored by Mayor Dean, drew unexpected criticism. 

Concern was raised Tuesday that the organization specified to conduct the police training was not appropriate. The group recommended is the Anti Defamation League which touts itself as a Jewish civil rights group. 

“The ADL has a bad track record on civil rights,” said Berkeley resident Erica Etelson, a member of the National Lawyers Guild. 

Etlelson alleged that the organization has been involved in espionage which landed the group in a recent federal lawsuit. 

ADL officials, though, downplayed the residents’ concerns, noting that they have a 90-year track record of working with law enforcement agencies to fight hate crimes. The organization has trained Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as well as police officers in Oakland and San Francisco. 

“In our line of work, there’s always going to be people who don’t agree with what we do,” said Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Central Pacific region of the ADL. 

But several Berkeley residents contend that Berkeley’s police training should not be managed by one group, and suggested that other ethnic and religious groups be included in the training process. 

The city manager’s office is expected to weigh in on this and other issues and report back to council within the next few months. 

On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. 

On this date: 

In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto landed in Florida. 

In 1854, the territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established. 

In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in imminent danger of collapsing triggered a stampede. 

In 1911, Indianapolis saw its first long-distance auto race; Ray Harroun was the winner. 

In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C., by Chief Justice William Howard Taft. 

In 1943, American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II. 

In 1958, unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 

In 1971, the American space probe Mariner Nine blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a journey to Mars. 

In 1982, Spain became NATO’s 16th member. 

In 1996, Britain’s Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their ten-year marriage. 

Ten years ago:  

President Bush ordered the seizure of Yugoslav government assets in the United States after the United Nations imposed sanctions in an effort to force Yugoslavia to observe a cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

Five years ago: Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka, whose 1994 murder inspired “Megan’s Law,” requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in. (Timmendequas was later sentenced to death.) 

One year ago:  

Standing among trees in Sequoia National Park in California, President Bush pledged to protect “these works of God” and other natural treasures from mankind. Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas was convicted of corruption and sentenced to six months in prison. Moses Malone and college coaches Mike Krzyzewski and John Chaney entered the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Country musician Johnny Gimble is 76. Actor Clint Walker is 75. Actress Ruta Lee is 66. Actor Michael J. Pollard is 63. Actor Stephen Tobolowsky is 51. Actor Colm Meaney is 49. Actor Ted McGinley is 44. Actor Ralph Carter is 41. Country singer Wynonna is 38. Rock musician Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) is 38. Rock musician Patrick Dahlheimer (Live) is 31. Actor Trey Parker (“Newsies”) is 30. Rapper Cee-Lo (Goodie Mob) is 28. Actor Blake Bashoff is 21. 

To the Editor: 

Thank you for your attention to pedestrian safety issues (May 21 & May 23).  

Lisa Pascopella is right (in her letter to editor) the May 7 pedestrian fatality on Addison Street is not the only pedestrian fatality in Berkeley in the last decade.  

It appears to be the only pedestrian fatality on a street designated as a local residential street. Fatalities generally occur on arteries (also known as major streets) except here in our neighborhood. 

Over a four year period, 15 motor vehicle (MV) related fatalities have occurred in Berkeley: nearly half of the fatalities were pedestrian and almost all of the rest were from MVs hitting an object. 47% (7) fatalities were pedestrians in MV collisions, 47% (7) were solo motor vehicle collisions and 6% (1) was from a collision with another MV. 

Berkeley's rate of pedestrian fatalities as a part of all transportation fatalities is more than twice the state rate and nearly twice the Alameda County rate. Berkeley's streets are much too dangerous.  

Improved safety is long overdue.  

Wendy Alfsen,  

Coordinator, Walk&Roll Berkeley 

Theater 

Friday, May 31

Albany High School Theater Ensemble 

A weekend of snacks, desserts and entertainment for the whole family 

"15 - minute Hamlet" 

Friday, 6:30 p.m. (repeated Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.)  

"The Real Inspector Hound," followed by "After Margritte" 

Friday, 8 p.m. (repeated Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6:30 p.m.) 

A.H.S. Multipurpose Room 

603 Key Route Blvd., Albany 

$10 each or $15 for both events 

559-6550, #4125 

theaterensemble@hotmail.com for reservations 

"Boxing With Ghosts: Tales of Death and Resurrection" 

Transforms Trauma Into Art 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut Street 

tickets/info 845-3332, directions 644-6893 

$8-$15 sliding scale 

"Playing Our Roots" 

A Cross-Generational play based on personal interviews with senior citizens, presented by the Teen Program of the Berkeley Richmond JCC. 

Friday, May 31; Saturday, June 1; Saturday, June 8; and Sunday, 9. All show times are 7:30 p.m. except Sunday, June 9 at 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut Street 

$5 per person, (no one turned away) 

"What Cats know" by Lisa Dilman 

Directed by Rebecca J. Ennals. Four thirty-somethings play a game of gotcha with unexpected consequences.  

Saturday, May 4th-June 9th 

Thursdays- Saturdays 8 p.m. $20, 

Sundays 7 p.m.- Pay what you can 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

510-883-0305 

www.transparenttheater.org 

“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 

Live Music 

Friday, May 31 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and Lab Band Final Concert 

7 p.m. 

Little Theatre 

BerkeleyJazz@aol.com for tickets 

Direct questions to Joan Edelstein and Roz Hardy at BerkeleyPTSA@HighSchoolEmail.com 

Saturday, June 1

Music at Jupiter 

Featuring Avrahams Soul Explosion 

8 p.m. 

www.avibortnick.com  

Sunday, June 2

Berkeley Early Music Festival Fringe Concert 

Baroque Etcetera presents J.S. Bach Cantata 78 Jesu, der du meine Seele 

6 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

Durant & Dana 

Wheelchair accessible 

540-8222 

www.baroquetc.org 

Radio 

Saturday, June 1 

West Coast Live, Your Full-Service Radio Show 

Featuring Radio Pioneers and Wilderness Pioneers 

10 a.m. - Noon 

91.7 KALW San Francisco, 91.1 KRCB Sonoma 

www.WCL.org 

Documentaries/Movies 

Friday, May 31

Cuba Verde: A Cuba Report 

Panel Discussion, Video Screening and Dance 

7 p.m. 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Avenue (at Gilman) 

Wheelchair accessible, all ages welcome 

$10-$50 

Tuesday, June 4

The Third Annual Berkeley High School Film Festival 

The Festival will feature shorts produced by video students  

Doors open at 6 p.m., Program at 6:30 p.m. 

Shwimley Little Theatre (Allston Way b/w MLK and Milvia)

Thursday, May 30

Human Rights At Home and Abroad: A Strategy For Peace 

An educational forum to probe the relationship of the U.S. and the U.N. 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall of Humanity 

390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph) 

Oakland 

Free 

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 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

Friday, May 31

Winetasting 

5 to 8 p.m. 

Alumni House, UC Berkeley Campus 

Faubulous Wine, Food, Fun Music and a Raffle 

All to benefit Cal Scholarship Fund 

$30 at the door, $25 for CAA & BOP Members 

845-0211 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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

Folk Festival Meeting 

All musicians, artists and others interested in volunteering are invited to a general meeting 

3 p.m. 

City Hall Building, 6th Floor 

2180 Milvia Street 

Wheelchair accessible 

649-1423, halih@yahoo.com 

Growing Food in the City 

An afternoon talk with Daniel Miller 

Discussion about releasing the bounty of your backyard, organically and sustainably 

1 to 4 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo at Dwight 

548-2220 x233 

Free 

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 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

Sunday, June 2

West Berkeley Open Air Craft Market 

Enjoy locally made crafts, food and beverages along with street performances by the Technomania Circus 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University 

845-4106 

Albany Food Fest and Music 

Enjoy a peaceful afternoon sampling food, listen to four live bands and a free eclectic art show 

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Memorial Park 

1325 Portland Avenue, Albany 

$20 in advance, $25 festival day 

525-1771 

Healing/Tibetan Yoga 

"Stimulating Healing and Renewal through Tibetan Yoga" 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Ice Cream Social 

An annual school PTA fundraiser 

Includes a student talent show, auction, cake walk and field games 

Rosa Parks Elementary School 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

Free 

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 

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.

A boatload of errors and a hot Clayton Valley High pitching staff ended the Berkeley Yellowjackets’ season on Wednesday in Concord, as the Eagles scored seven runs in the final two innings to blow open a close game for a 10-1 win in a North Coast Section 3A East Bay semifinal game. 

With the win, Clayton Valley (22-5) moved on to play Newark Memorial in the championship game on Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum. 

The ’Jackets (20-7) got a surprise when Clayton Valley head coach Bob Ralston decided to go with Joe Staber as his starting pitcher, rather than ace Adam Elliot as expected. But Staber proved to be effective against the Berkeley bats, going 3 1/3 innings with only three hits and an unearned run. He mixed a deceptively quick fastball with a sharp curve that had the Berkeley hitters flailing in the dirt. 

“Elliot threw 10 innings last week, including 2 2/3 on Saturday,” Ralston said. “Our other pitchers have done a great job for us, and Staber earned the opportunity to start. He got the chance, and he produced for us.” 

But with a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning and a Berkeley run already in on Benny Goldenberg single and a Clayton Valley error, Ralston didn’t hesitate to go to Elliot, who immediately picked Jeremy LeBeau off of first base, then set down seven of the next eight Berkeley hitters, with DeAndre Miller’s walk in the fifth the only blemish. 

While Staber and Elliot were breaking down the Berkeley offense, the Berkeley defense was throwing the game away. Shortstop Jason Moore, usually a slick fielder, had a nightmarish day with five errors that contributed to four Eagle runs. Starting pitcher Sean Souders didn’t help his own cause, throwing away two pickoff attempts. The poor effort in the field looked even worse contrasted with the nearly spotless Clayton Valley defense, which committed just the one error in the fourth inning. 

“It’s not like (Clayton Valley) just jumped out and pummelled the ball,” Berkeley’s Matt Toma said. “We gave them some chances, and they ended up taking advantage.” 

It didn’t help matters that Souders left after five innings due to a high pitch count. The junior lefty only gave up three runs, just one of them earned, but struggled with his control and had runners on the bases in every inning. 

With Souders out and facing a 3-1 deficit, Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering decided to go with sophomore Matt Sylvester. With No. 2 starter Cole Stipovich having thrown a complete game against De La Salle on Saturday and a possible championship game to worry about, Moellering went with the youngster and it cost him. 

The inning started innocently enough, with Moore throwing away a grounder to let nine-hitter Chris Proehl reach base. But Jeff Landry followed with a booming triple off the centerfield wall, then Matt Reed roped a double down the leftfield line. Sylvester walked Elliot before letting Sam Ray single up the middle, and the hurler was lifted without getting an out. Ethan Friedman came on to stop the bleeding, but the damage was done. With Elliot on the mound and a five-run lead, the Eagles’ road to the championship game was all but completed. 

Elliot set down the ’Jackets in order in the bottom of the sixth, then the Eagles used four singles, three Berkeley errors and a walk to score four more runs to put the game out of reach. Ralston was able to save Elliot’s arm for Saturday and send Jimmy Gilbert to the mound in the seventh to finish off the ’Jackets. He did so in quick fashion, getting two groundouts and a strikeout. 

Despite the late fireworks, Moellering said it was an earlier miscue that turned the momentum against his team. Trailing 2-1 in the top of the fifth, Souders walked Elliot to start the inning. After an errant pickoff throw sent the Clayton Valley star to second base, Moellering called for a pickoff play, but it was never attempted. Elliot ended up scoring on a Chris Salmon single, putting the ’Jackets down 3-1. 

“It just got worse from that point on,” Moellering said. “Instead of trying to squeeze across one run to tie the game, we had to start thinking about stringing together some hits to get a big innings. That just didn’t happen.” 

Indeed, Moellering’s team managed just four hits in the game, none in the final three innings. Other than Goldenberg’s run, only one Berkeley player made it as far as third base, as Miller stole two bases after his walk. After suffering just two strikeouts in their first two NCS games, the ’Jackets went down six times against Clayton Valley, which has given up just two runs in the playoffs after winning the Bay Valley Athletic League title. 

“I was just concerned about our pitching holding (Berkeley) down,” Ralston said. “Our defense and pitching really came through for us.” 

While the ’Jackets were in an understandably foul mood after the game, Moellering said the season has to be considered a success for a team that most didn’t expect to make the playoffs, much less make it to the semifinals. 

“I’m happy with the season, and I’m think after the players get a day or two to think about it, they will be too,” Moellering said.

Teachers and administrators in the Berkeley Unified School District’s Independent Study program are concerned about proposals to alter its administration and reduce its classroom space, but Superintendent Michele Lawrence says the issues are still unsettled.  

“No decisions have been made,” she said. 

The program, which shares space with Berkeley Alternative High School at 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, serves 200 K-12 students. The pupils receive one-on-one instruction at the site but do most of their schoolwork independently. 

Independent Study staff said the district has proposed taking one of the program’s three classrooms to make space for a third academy on the site – a “continuation school” that would provide academic support and vocational education for struggling students. 

But Lawrence said the classroom issue is far from settled. 

“I think they need the space they have,” she said. 

“That’s very encouraging,” replied program director Carl Brush, who assumed the shift to two classrooms was a foregone conclusion.  

Brush, who plans to retire at the end of the year, currently shares administrative duties with Sara McMickle, who serves as a manager 60 percent of the time and an English teacher 40 percent of the time.  

In a meeting two months ago, district staff suggested that McMickle continue as a 60-40 administrator after Brush leaves, with significant oversight from the Berkeley Alternative High School principal. 

“It’s just not realistic,” said McMickle, arguing that Alternative High School principal Alex Palau has his hands full already and will be even busier next year with the addition of the continuation school. 

McMickle said the program needs a day-to-day administrator 100 percent of the time to function properly. 

Independent Study math teacher Pam Drew, who helped found the program in the mid-90s, said a full-time administrator is particularly important to keep track of Independent Study’s extensive paperwork and ensure continued funding. 

Traditional schools receive state funding based on attendance figures. Because students in the Independent Study program only meet with their teachers a few hours a week, instructors must quantify the work that students do on their own in order to develop attendance records.  

The director must get all the paperwork in order to ensure that the program passes muster in state audits. An audit of the 1997-1998 program cost the district almost $200,000 in funding because of poor record-keeping, according to Drew. 

“What’s to prevent the same exact thing from happening?,” she asked, suggesting that the district could pay, in the long-term, for hiring a part-time administrator. 

Lawrence confirmed that the district had floated the 60 percent administrator-40 percent teacher model for next year, but emphasized that no decision has been made. 

“They’re just a little impatient now and that’s understandable,” she said, referring to Independent Study staff.  

Lawrence argued that the program’s administrators, like everyone else in the district, will have to be patient while Berkeley Unified sorts out its fiscal mess and decides how to allocate funds next year.  

Board of Education member John Selawsky said budget problems may prevent the district from meeting Independent Study’s request. 

“I think every program deserves a full-time administrator,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have a $5 million shortfall.” 

Lawrence said part of the problem is that Independent Study “is not paying for itself.” She said the program has spent $50,000 to $118,000 more than it has drawn in state revenues, depending upon how one examines the numbers. 

“I would be happy if those numbers were shared with us, because they haven’t been,” replied Brush. Independent Study’s own analysis suggests that the program has a surplus of over $30,000, dating back to its inception. 

Independent Study proponents planned to appear before the school board Wednesday night, after the Planet’s deadline, to express their concerns.  

Otter Nonsense 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Manitoba Wildlife Rehabilitation Organization has gotten itself into some otter nonsense. 

Organization officials issued a public plea for someone to accompany what they believed to be an orphaned baby otter to a Toronto-area sanctuary. 

Only one problem — the wee beast turned out not to be an otter but a pine marten. 

Red-faced wildlife officials explained Tuesday that unlike otters, pine martens don’t need to be raised with their own kind to become successful predators, so relocating the animal has become unnecessary. 

Dozens of kindhearted Winnipeggers — including Mayor Glen Murray — had come forward offering to take the tiny animal on a plane as carry-on luggage. 

The three-week-old pine marten, found at Grindstone Provincial Park, was suffering from pneumonia. Several veterinarians and experienced animal rehabilitation workers had nursed it for about a week. Doubts about its otterness arose at a meeting of the wildlife organization on Monday night. 

A board member familiar with baby otters noted that pine martens come from the same family of animals, and their babies look very much like otters, except for the perkier ears, pointier face and a patch of rust-colored fur on their necks. 

“It’s been an eye-opening experience,” said organization spokesman Paul Clarke. 

Going estreme lengths to avoid a bad hair day 

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Pa. — Dave Gaskell is so finicky about how his hair is cut that he commutes 500 miles to his barber. 

About once a month since he started working for US Airways in September, Gaskell boards a plane in Cincinnati, rents a car and gets a haircut from Donald Stoops Jr. in New Bloomfield in central Pennsylvania. 

“Why not?” said Gaskell, 54. “He gives a great haircut. I’m kind of particular about haircuts.” 

Gaskell, who retired from a 30-year teaching career last year, left Cincinnati around 6 a.m. Tuesday. Four hours later, his gray locks were being snipped at Stoops Barber Shop. 

He’s been going to Stoops for decades. Stoops’ father, Donald Sr., cut Gaskell’s hair when Gaskell was a cadet at Carson Long Military Institute in New Bloomfield. 

“I have yet to find another place that cuts hair like I like it,” said Gaskell, who served 17 years in the military and likes his hair cropped just a certain way. 

As a US Airways ramp agent, Gaskell’s plane travel is cheap — he pays just $80 a year for unlimited flights. He said he’s flown to Orlando, Fla., and Seattle just for lunch. 

To Stoops, who has been cutting hair since 1955, Gaskell’s trips aren’t unusual. Customers return from South Carolina and California for haircuts and good conversation — all for $5, he said. 

“You’d be surprised where people come from,” Stoops said. 

Divine Retribution 

NORTHEAST HARBOR, Maine — Maybe it was divine retribution. 

Craig Golden’s pocket Bible was the clue that helped police tie him to the destruction of 80 beehives in a blueberry field. 

Golden, 17, of Ellsworth, was arrested Tuesday for driving his pickup truck through the beehives, causing damage estimated at $5,000. 

Thousands of bees died following the incident earlier this month, apparently from bad weather after the hives were damaged. 

Police found a pocket Bible amid the damaged hives with the name “Craig” written in it. Authorities interviewed Golden, and he admitted the Bible was his. 

The teen-ager apparently kept the Bible in the side door of his truck, state trooper Carlton Small said Tuesday. 

“During the course of driving into the beehives, the Bible evidently fell out of the truck,” Small said. 

Golden, who was on probation for a previous offense, will be charged with felony aggravated criminal mischief. 

To the Editor: 

Susan Medak, the Managing Director of the Berkeley Rep, accuses me of writing that "Mayor Dean is no friend to artists" (DP May 25-26).  

Her quote, however, comes not from my letter of the previous week but from that letter's title, which was supplied by the editor of the Daily Planet, not me. 

My letter made a different point: Mayor Dean's support of the arts has been highly selective. Medak accuses me of politicizing Berkeley arts by taking sides. In fact, it's Dean who has taken  

sides. She has advocated for the upscale Downtown Arts District (which includes the Rep) while undermining and neglecting the substantial but humbler arts and crafts district in West Berkeley.  

I say this not only as a member of the Planning Commission but as a custom woodworker who has worked out of a West Berkeley shop for over 30 years. I know Medak is grateful for the City's very generous contributions to the Rep and the Downtown Arts District, and rightfully so.  

But if she is serious about depoliticizing the arts, she should also support the struggles of West Berkley artists and artisans, advocate for strict implementation of the protections in the West Berkeley Plan, and recommend that a fair share of the City's arts grants be channeled to West Berkeley. 

As I pointed out in my earlier letter, in Berkeley as elsewhere, the main threat to artists and artisans is office development. Offices drive up studio rents to levels that most artists and artisans cannot afford.  

West Berkeley artists and craftspeople are supposed to be protected from undue office development by the provisions of the city's Zoning Ordinance that are based on the West Berkeley Plan, which was unanimously approved by the City Council in 1993. Dean voted for the Plan, but since then she has worked to undermine it by vigorously advocating for office expansion in West Berkeley.  

At the same time, she has looked the other way when artists and artisans have repeatedly complained about the city's failure to fully implement the zoning laws. 

In April, the City Council considered the Planning Commission's recommendation for a moratorium on office development in West Berkeley's Mixed Use/Light Industrial District, the heart of artistic and artisanal enterprise.  

The purpose of the office moratorium was to allow the Planning Commission to investigate the impacts of office expansion on artists, artisans and other light industrial enterprises. The Council passed the moratorium by a 5-4 vote; Dean was opposed. 

My earlier letter recounted all this and more. But, amazingly, Medak never says a word about the West Berkeley Plan, the threat of office expansion, the mayor's vote on the office moratorium, or her ongoing promotion of office uses in West Berkeley. Instead, Medak writes: "[Dean] has...supported funding for capital projects in West and South Berkeley." Sticking just to West Berkeley, I am curious to know exactly what major capital projects Medak has in mind. The only project I can think is some banners advertising the area's ceramicists. Banners are nice, but when you can't pay the rent, all the banners in the world won't prevent your eviction. 

Or perhaps Medak is thinking of proposed future capital projects. In Dean's recent State of the City speech, she recommended that the city establish a Ceramics and Artisan District. But the fact is that the city already has such a district and the laws to protect it; what it lacks is a mayor who would see to it that those laws are properly enforced. 

Then there's Dean's other recent proposal that the City sponsor an artist co-op warehouse, an idea that was first put forward last year by Linda Maio. Welcome on board. We'd all love to see the plan. However, one co-op building will not be enough, in and of itself. Most artists and artisans will remain tenants, and will continue to need the City's help through existing zoning regulations. Artists and artisans will continue to need a mayor who supports those regulations, not one who works to weaken them. 

Taken together with Dean's advocacy of office proliferation, both of these proposals look like empty election-year sops. 

If Medak is serious about depoliticizing the arts, she should face the unpleasant truths about Dean's record and urge her to stop undermining the artist and artisan protections in the West Berkeley Plan. 

John Curl 

Planning Commissioner 

The pool of applicants for the position of principal at Berkeley High School is not strong enough to warrant moving forward with the interview process, according to a selection committee composed of staff and community members. 

The determination will, at the least, delay the installation of a new principal and may lead to the consideration of alternative administrative models, said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. Either way, said Lawrence, the district will handle the fallout. 

“I’m not disheartened,” she said. “It’s just a little setback.” A team of four co-principals have run the high school since October when then-principal Frank Lynch left to take a job as Superintendent of the Del Norte County Unified School District. 

Lawrence said the school could continue with an unorthodox leadership model. She said an alternative look might make more sense in the long-term anyhow since the district is weighing a move, at some point, to a series of small schools at BHS. 

But an alternative model is not the only possibility, Lawrence said. Berkeley Unified might simply pursue new avenues in locating a principal – hiring a consulting firm to drum up applicants or going national with its own search. 

“We could push harder (nationally) knowing the California pool is weak,” she said. 

Lawrence said the national search could entail contact with national trade organizations like the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, both based in Virginia. 

“I think we do have to do an aggressive national search and get some candidates and have a choice,” said Board of Education member John Selawsky. 

But Selawsky added that he has been pleased with the work of the co-principals this year and could envision a continuation of the current model. 

Board president Shirley Issel said she was not concerned about BHS faltering if there is a delay in finding a new principal. 

“I really have confidence in Michele’s leadership and the leadership at the high school,” she said. 

The deadline for applications was Friday and the district received 10-12 submissions, Lawrence said. The superintendent would not say if any of the applicants were current district employees. 

Lawrence said that, while the overall pool was too weak “to warrant an extensive interview process,” the district may eventually decide to interview some of the individuals who applied by Friday.  

If you’ve lived in the Bay Area for even a short time, you’ve probably encountered Pink Man. He’s hard to miss, wearing a unitard the color of Pepto-Bismol and careening through the streets on a unicycle. Sometimes he sports a fluttering cape, or flaps his arms like a giant bird. 

Pink Man – clown, superhero, flamingo – had his genesis about seven years ago, although his creator, Michael Maxfield, has inhabited Planet Earth a bit longer (about 40 years). His mission is simple.  

“It’s about joy,” Maxfield said. “I love what I do, I love playing around on the unicycle.” If he can spread a little of that joy to spectators, so much the better. 

It seems to work. Several years ago, Pink Man was named “Favorite Local Character” in a San Francisco Chronicle readers’ poll—no small feat when you consider the multitude of colorful personalities thronging the Bay Area. 

And now he’s appearing on stage. “I Wheel,” an original multimedia performance, is at the Live Oak Theater May 30 and 31. The show playfully chronicles the evolution of the wheel, from cave man discovery to man’s supreme accomplishment—which is of course the unicycle. 

The show, narrated by Bodie MC also features fellow unicyclist and trapeze artist Ashley Foster in a series of pieces combining dance, acrobatics, and music. Sometimes the work celebrates pure form and movement, as in a duet titled “Sacred Geometry.” Pink Man himself makes only a limited appearance in “I Wheel.” 

“At heart I’m a dancer,” said Maxfield. “My main thing is dancing on my unicycle… it’s a real different energy than Pink Man.” 

But Pink Man fans, fear not—the rosy-hued superhero appears in the show’s grand finale. 

And as it turns out, the show’s timing is fortuitous. “Did you know,” Maxfield said in a rush of breathless excitement, “May is Support Your Local National Superhero Month? No, really--you can look it up.” 

The exuberant Maxfield, who talks a mile a minute and seems at times to view the world with almost childlike naivete, sees “amazing connections and coincidences” everywhere since he took up with Pink Man: “There’s a woman in Sacramento who started something she calls Pink Week – and it’s the week of my birthday!” and “the pink flamingo lawn ornament was created in Leominster, Massachusetts, which is my home town.”  

Maxfield has lived life on the fringe for many years, working variously as a club DJ, band singer, and assorted menial jobs. Berkeley has been his home off and on for nearly 20 years, but he’s also lived in Oregon, Hawaii, and southern California.  

Pink Man became a part of his life about seven years ago, when he was living in Oregon and a series of personal problems, including an ugly divorce, had left Maxfield “almost suicidal” in his words. During those dark days, it was riding his unicycle—swhich he had done as a hobby since he was a teenager—that gave him something to live for. 

Why he decided to order a hooded leotard from a dancewear catalog at that time—and to order it in shocking pink—he can’t really explain. But something about the uniform appealed to his inner need for creative expression. When he donned the costume and cycled across the University of Oregon campus, someone shouted, “Pink Man!” and a new era began. 

“It’s like the unicycle saved me,” Maxfield said. He speaks with reverence of the one-wheeled conveyance. “The movement is so unique, so dreamy—it’s kind of like flying.” He extols the ability to make sharp turns, pivots, and to stop on a dime. 

Not that just anybody can do this. “I’m the best in the world at what I do,” Maxfield asserts.  

He likes to use his super-unicycle powers to conquer evil, or at least calm hostility. He delightedly recounts the story of being harassed by a bunch of toughs outside a bar in Eugene, Oregon. When they made fun of his unicycle, he suggested they give it a try. One by one, the tough guys mounted the cycle—and fell off. When they were done, Maxfield climbed on his unicycle and dazzled them with a series of fancy spins and tricks.  

“After that, they all want to shake hands with me,” he said. “Then this one guy puts his cowboy hat on my head. I felt like I’d been invited to join the club. It was so cool.” 

Despite his popularity, Pink Man doesn’t charm everyone. Maxfield has experienced his share of heckling and being pelted with trash. The scariest incident occurred in Berkeley some years ago when someone reached out of their car and yanked Maxfield off his unicycle, dragging him for a distance of about 50 feet before he got loose. 

Maxfield knows he invites harassment with his unusual antics and appearance.  

“I’ve never been as ‘out there’ as I am now,” he said cheerfully. “I’m nutso, and I know it.”  

But he’s also happy, even if fame and fortune have eluded him thus far. Citing what he terms “a mountain of close calls,” he remembers disappointed hopes, big breaks that never materialized. But there’s always tomorrow. He said he’s writing his autobiography, to be published by Berkeley-based Ten Speed Press. Among his ambitions: to make a movie, and to perform on his unicycle in cities around the globe. 

For now, he hopes “I Wheel” will be a success. “I’ve been living below the poverty line for years,” he said. “I won’t be upset if it makes a little money.”

Drug violence, not police brutality, is what plagues West Berkeley, said area residents at a Police Review Commission Community Forum at the Rosa Parks Elementary School Wednesday night. 

The community meeting, chaired by the PRC, and attended by Police Chief Dash Butler was organized to address concerns about increasing police brutality, especially among the city’s narcotics taskforce. 

However, most of approximately 40 residents in attendance rose to defend the police department, and decry the recent escalation of drug dealing around 10th and Addison Streets. 

“I have a problem,” exclaimed Albert Benjamin, who has lived at the intersection for 25 years. “The last nine months these people are in my living room.”  

Benjamin’s depiction of a neighborhood under siege was supported by many of his neighbors. 

Addressing a member of the audience who disagreed with him, Tim McClosky said, “They’re not standing in your garden, they’re not ruining your stuff.” 

Barbara Gregory said she has lived in that area since 1989, and that within the past year the drug dealing has gotten worse. “It has become a nightmare living there,” she said. 

The neighbors did not blame the Police Department for the upsurge in drug-related activity, but many wished that officers had stronger means to remove the drug dealers. 

“The police seem too wishy,” Fred Kosentino said. He has lived at 10th and Allston for 22 years and said that he had never witnessed any police brutality. 

Stephanie Ross complained that the city wasn’t giving the police the tools to “get the bad guys.” She said that recently drug dealers from outside her neighborhood set up a barbecue in front of a neighbor’s house to intimidate them. According to Ross the police came, but because nobody’s driveway was blocked, the police were powerless to remove the unwanted visitors. 

The neighbors have an influential voice in their corner. Councilmember Margaret Breland also lives around 10th and Allston, and she was not surprised to see the drug issue dominate the forum. 

“There are people doing donuts at 8 a.m. on a weekday, and that’s when children are going to school,” she said. “Everybody has to watch out for these bugers because they’re smart. They know what time the police are coming and what time they leave.” Breland has scheduled a community meeting for tonight at the Rosa Park Elementary School issue to brainstorm solutions to the drug issue. 

In defending the police several speakers noted that the root causes of the drug problem in West Berkeley are rooted in broader social issues. 

A resident who has lived at 7th street for 45 years insisted that the problems were economic. “We haven’t even come out with a plan to send them to school, she said. 

Breland agreed. “We can’t keep putting kids in jail. They don’t care if they live or die. They’re so discouraged, they’re giving up on life,” she said. 

Although the drug issue dominated the forum, some speakers did express concern about what they believed was excessive police violence. 

Siobhan Wilson, a resident of the UA Homes, a single room occupancy hotel at 1040 University shared her experience with police officers who said they had gotten a tip that she was dealing drugs. “They destroyed my room, she said. “ They even slashed open my suitcases. I had never seen anything like it,” said Wilson who currently has a complaint filed against the police.  

According to Carla James of Copwatch, a community organization that monitors police behavior, there has been an upsurge of complaints 

filed against police action in West Berkeley. “Our phone has been ringing off the hook,” said James, who commented that she knew of several residents who had filed complaints against the police, but were too intimidated to attend the forum.  

Police Chief Butler defended the actions of his department.  

“The SEU (Special Enforcement Unit) is the difference between this and carnage in the streets. We have to take an aggressive posture,” Butler said.  

According to Butler the police were beginning to win the battle at 10th and Allston. “Over the last 24 hours my guys in the SEU have been able to do a bunch of things now that they couldn’t do a couple of years ago,” he said. 

In a place with more than its share of film buffs, aspiring amateurs and famous directors, the Bay Area seems to never tire of film festivals. 

With such titles, as “Sex Life of a Chair” and “Anarchy Monkey” and calling itself “weird, unique and delightful,” the upcoming Brainwash Film Festival aims to carve out its own unique corner of the bizarre. 

The festival has received more than 100 submissions from all over the world with the majority coming from Los Angeles, the Bay Area and New York. 

Dave Krzysik, one of the original founders of Brainwash, said the festival is distinguished from other film festivals because of “the emphasis on shorts and the unique styles of filmmaking that we pick.” 

Krzysik created and produced the film festival, along with co-organizer Vikky Vaden, a founder of one of San Francisco’s underground movie houses, the Werepad. Calling Brainwash “the true underground independent,” Krzysik and his co-organizers have filtered through nearly 400 movies in preparation for the event. 

A fundraiser for the eighth annual Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In will be held on Thursday, May 30th at the Parkway Theater in Oakland. The event will be emceed by San Francisco Mime Troupe member Ed Holmes and an actress from one of the film shorts, Lani Fantz. 

Showcasing a stream of shorts, many of them under five minutes in length, the fundraiser serves as a teaser for the festival that will take place July 5th and 6th at the parking lot for the Alliance for West Oakland Development.  

Expected to last an hour and a half, Thursday’s fundraiser will also feature the shorts “Fool’s Errand” and “Thought Bubble” by local filmmakers.  

Krzysik plans to shoot a television show at the fundraiser as a hopeful pilot for a large television network.  

“We hope to make it into an ongoing TV series,” he said regarding the format in which a moderator presides over a series of shorts. Krzysik cites an Alfred Hitchcock television series and “The Twilight Zone” as examples of shows that were based on shorts. 

One of Krzysik’s own shorts, “Sheep Action,” will screen next Thursday at the Parkway. His film features clips of “Buy Everything Day” – a mock counter-protest of the busies shopping dayof the year, the day after Thanksgiving. Fantz, who donned the sheep’s outfit for the film, has become a sort of mascot for the event. 

The fundraiser costs $8 and starts at 9:15 p.m. The Parkway Theater is located in Oakland at 1834 Park Boulevard at 18th Street.

FREMONT — State and federal officials have joined philanthropic groups in pledging $100 million to buy 16,500 acres of salt ponds ringing San Francisco Bay, launching the largest wetlands restoration project on the West Coast. 

After negotiations led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Cargill Salt agreed to sell the land at 40 percent of its appraised value. The Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant also is responsible for cleanup of the land, which includes 1,400 acres along the Napa River. 

“Today we’re taking the first steps to reverse the course of history. Together we will restore an extraordinary but endangered natural resource,” Gov. Gray Davis said in formally announcing the deal Wednesday. “For the last century, we did not do a very good job of protective this resource.” 

The plan pools money from state and federal governments, as well as four private foundations, to turn the salt flats into habitat for both endemic species and migratory birds flying between Alaska and the tropics. 

Feinstein said Cargill came down in price $200 million from its original demand, in part by removing about 400 acres of salt ponds in Redwood City from the deal. 

“At $300 million, we didn’t have a deal,” Feinstein said. 

Cargill Chief Executive Officer Warren Staley said the company had been considering restoration for some time, and decided to sell now because the market was soft. 

“We looked at the marketplace, which wasn’t as good as it was previously,” he said, adding that the company has not yet decided what to do with those 400 acres in Redwood City. 

The bay used to have 190,000 acres of tidal marsh, but the bulk of that land has been diked, drained, filled or paved. Now, only about 20 percent of the marsh survives. 

The Cargill land has been in salt production since the 1850s, which will mean intensive cleanup of a highly concentrated brine that is toxic in its solid form. Purifying the land could take decades and the cost has been estimated between $200 million and $1 billion. 

“Some of these ponds should be relatively easy to restore,” said David Lewis, executive director of Save San Francisco Bay Association. “Other ponds will be more difficult.” 

The federal government will chip in $8 million. The state will cover the rest with four private-sector partners: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. 

The agencies and charities have pledged $35 million for planning and management beyond the $100 million purchase price. 

A Cargill spokeswoman said the company will not lay off any of its 200 employees at its Newark plant and plans to keep producing 650 tons of salt a year on the 11,000 acres it will retain. 

“The acquisition is based on land we no longer need for salt production,” said spokeswoman Lori Johnson. 

Most of the land is expected to become part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The rest will be part of a state-run wildlife preserve. 

Diluting the ponds and restoring them to healthy marshes will rank as the largest wetlands restoration project attempted on the West Coast, rivaled only by projects to restore the Florida Everglades and Chesapeake Bay. “The Everglades in Florida is the largest wetland restoration in the country, and this is the largest shoreline restoration that increases tidal wetlands,” said California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols. 

DAVIS — A two-day walkout by lecturers shut down some classes Wednesday at the University of California’s Davis campus. 

Organizers said 100 classes were affected, though university officials pegged the total at not more than a dozen. 

About 80 teachers and students manned picket lines to protest policies they say will reduce writing, foreign language and economic programs, cut lecturers’ positions and undermine education quality. 

Campus officials say the programs will be maintained and even increased. They say lecturers will be replaced by tenured professors. 

The slow pace of contract negotiations for all UC lecturers is adding to the dispute. The lecturers have been without a contract for two years. Lecturers said they will continue their walkout Thursday. 

SACRAMENTO — The Assembly approved a bill Wednesday night that could lead to a new low-level nuclear waste site in California. 

Bill author Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, said California needed to fulfill an obligation the state made when it signed a compact with Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota to find a site for low-level nuclear waste. That agreement was ratified by the Legislature in 1987. 

The state selected Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert in 1988, but that decision has been plagued by lawsuits and no facility has been built. Keeley’s bill would remove Ward Valley from consideration — at least temporarily. 

The disposal site would store low-level radioactive waste from hospitals and nuclear laboratories. Opponents fear contaminated water might leak into surrounding soils. The Colorado River, the water supply for millions of people in the Southwest, is about 20 miles east of Ward Valley. 

California can continue disposing its nuclear waste at a South Carolina site until 2008, but it is unclear how the state will handle longer-term needs. 

Meanwhile, Keeley said, most low-level radioactive waste is stored where it is produced — at hospitals and laboratories “literally in your backyard.” 

His bill would remove Ward Valley from consideration for the dump, and would require the state to establish standards for a low-level nuclear waste site. 

Once those are written down, he said, Ward Valley could be reconsidered if it met the new criteria. That would take another act of the Legislature and approval of the governor. Assemblyman Phil Wyman, R-Tehachapi, said he supported the Ward Valley plan, and opposed Keeley’s legislation. Wyman, whose district formerly included the site, said many residents there saw the site as a patriotic duty and were willing to “take the risk for our nation.” 

LOS ANGELES – Sequels and movie adaptations — that’s what the coming year promises from the video game industry. 

With billions of dollars on the line, many game makers are relying on brand-name recognition to weather the fierce four-way competition between personal computer systems, Microsoft’s Xbox, Nintendo’s GameCube and Sony’s PlayStation 2. 

Sequels to the innovative games “The Legend of Zelda,” “Tomb Raider” and “Black & White” are in the works, along with a host of new games based on popular films like “Harry Potter,” “Tron” and “Indiana Jones.” 

Virtually every exhibit at last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo featured spin-offs and movie adaptations or games with “II” or “III” at the end of their titles. 

How important are such franchises to a console’s success? 

“It’s everything,” said Perrin Kaplan, vice president for corporate affairs at Nintendo of America. “Nintendo is built on a couple cornerstones, and character franchise is a really huge one and not to be underestimated. We don’t take it lightly.” 

The second-place console GameCube is hoping to fuel more sales with the release of the spin-off “Super Mario Sunshine,” a cartoon-style version of “The Legend of Zelda,” and the futuristic “Star Fox Adventures,” a hand-to-paw fighter derived from the original “Star Fox” flying game. 

Nintendo is also hoping to lure more adult gamers with the gory prequel “Resident Evil 0” and the alien shoot-’em-up “Metroid Prime,” an update on the 1980s hit sci-fi game. 

Original GameCube offerings this year will include the cutesy creature puzzler “Animal Crossing” and the Internet multiplayer “Phantasy Star Online I and II.” 

PS2, the leading console in sales, will feature “Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness,” the sixth title in that series; a follow-up to the anti-social adventure “Grand Theft Auto III” subtitled “Vice City;” the 3-D role-playing game “Dark Cloud 2” and a console version of the PC hit “The Sims.” 

Among its original games are the robot chase “Ratchet & Clank” and “The Getaway,” a gritty crime saga set in the London underworld. 

With nearly 30 million units sold worldwide, PS2 also plans to attract more users with a handful of Disney-based games. 

Those include “Kingdom Hearts,” a “Final Fantasy”-style role-play game set in the worlds of Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan and the Little Mermaid; and “Disney’s Stitch,” a prequel to the upcoming animated film “Lilo & Stitch.” 

The high profile of Disney-based characters has made the entertainment company a top partner for video game developers. 

“Everybody is trying to create a trend, something familiar, that will expand the market,” said Jan Smith, president of Disney Interactive. “We combine stories that people know and characters they know, and that’s what everybody is looking for.” 

After debuting only last year, Xbox still lacks the character recognition of Nintendo or the “Tomb Raider” and “Grand Theft Auto” franchise games of PS2. 

However, Microsoft has franchise aspirations for many of its original titles, particularly “Blinx: The Time Sweeper,” said Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s chief Xbox officer. 

That game features an anthropomorphized cat that cleans up disturbances in time, which enables him to slow down enemies, freeze moments and travel backward in the continuum to stage multiple attacks on villains 

But Xbox will feature a few sequels, such as the racing game “Midtown Madness 3” and “Frogger Classic,” an updated version of the 1980s dodging game. 

Xbox is also offering TV and movie adaptations such as the supernatural fighter “Buffy the Vampire Slayer;” the beat-’em-up adventure “Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon;” and “The Thing,” based on director John Carpenter’s 1982 horror remake. 

Many third-party game publishers are distributing popular sequels and movie titles across platforms. 

Eidos is making “Hitman 2: Silent Assassin” for release on PS2, Xbox and PC. Electronic Arts is releasing “James Bond 007: NightFire” on all consoles and PC, while its sequel game “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” is set to debut on PS2, Xbox and PC. 

Other movie games in the works include Rage-Ubi Soft’s “Rocky” for all consoles and PC, and Vivendi Universal’s “The Scorpion King: The Rise of an Akkadian” for GameCube and PlayStation 2. 

LucasArts, the gaming division of Lucasfilm, is also spinning off several games from movie characters, including “Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb” for Xbox, PS2 and PC. “Bounty Hunter” and “The Clone Wars,” both inspired by the film “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones,” are being released on PS2 and GameCube. 

“You get to see a whole new side of the Jedi, which is the Jedi at war,” said Jim Tso, a LucasArts game designer. 

Meanwhile, in the real world, the console war continues ...

NEW YORK – Telephone-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. said Wednesday it will cut another 3,500 jobs, more than expected, and may sell its optical-components business as it revamps its operations to save money. 

Nortel now expects its work force to bottom out at 42,000. Last month, Nortel put the figure at 44,000. The Brampton, Ontario, company has cut about 50,000 jobs since the beginning of last year, and employed 47,000 people at the end of the first quarter. 

Nortel said it plans to streamline the optical long-haul business because it doesn’t expect a “meaningful” recovery in that market before late 2003 or early 2004. The plan includes the possible sale or resizing of Nortel’s optical-components business. 

“We are aligning our optical business model to where we see the industry going to ensure we are well-positioned when spending resumes,” president and chief executive Frank Dunn said. 

“Optical backbone networks are the foundation of multimedia broadband networks and we expect Nortel Networks to remain an industry-leading provider of end-to-end optical networking solutions,” Dunn said. 

The latest job cuts will result in charges of about $600 million, mainly in the second and third quarters. These charges are in addition to the expected second-quarter charge of about $150 million for previous job cuts. 

Nortel now expects second-quarter revenue to be flat to down 5 percent from the $2.91 billion reported in the first quarter. Just last month, Nortel said it didn’t expect a significant change in sequential revenue growth. 

However, Nortel expects sequential improvement in the pro forma loss from continuing operations from the 14 cents a share reported in the first quarter. 

The pro forma figure won’t include acquisition-related costs, charges, stock-option compensation from acquisitions and divestitures, a gain or loss on the sale of businesses, gains associated with certain investment sales, and any associated items included in the income or loss of equity accounted for as investments. 

Nortel, which had annual revenue of $17.51 billion last year, maintains its long-held goal of having a break-even cost structure in place by the fourth quarter. But with the latest realignment, the company cut the fourth-quarter revenue target to $3.2 billion from $3.5 billion. 

Nortel said it is considering more opportunities to raise capital to strengthen its balance sheet and liquidity, which may include an equity-based financing transaction. A company spokesman said that at the end of the first quarter Nortel had $3.1 billion cash and $4.8 billion debt. 

In Wednesday morning trading, shares of Nortel climbed 11 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $2.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.

REDWOOD CITY – Communications infrastructure software company Openwave Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire SignalSoft Corp. for about $59 million, or $2.26 a share. 

Openwave also said in a statement Wednesday it has acquired technology from Ellipsus Systems Inc. for $17.5 million. 

The proposed acquisition of SignalSoft extends Openwave’s mobile data services portfolio, the company said, adding complementary technology and location-based services knowledge. Openwave plans to use SignalSoft’s $45 million in existing cash to finance the transaction. 

Openwave expects to complete the SignalSoft acquisition, subject to certain conditions, during the third quarter.

By Jennifer L. Brown 

Associated Press Writer 

WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. – Divers who have battled thunderstorms and fatigue returned to the murky Arkansas River on Wednesday to resume the painstaking recovery of bodies from a deadly bridge collapse. 

Crews using sonar and a large crane have recovered the bodies of 13 people and pulled 10 vehicles from the water. Authorities believe more victims will be found. 

Oklahoma Army National Guard troops planned to sweep the river’s shoreline as far as two miles downstream from the collapsed Interstate 40 bridge to look for the personal effects of the victims, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Civil Emergency Management. 

The recovery operation has put divers and other workers under an emotional strain, Ooten said. 

“We’re having a beneficial effect, but at the same time, there’s a feeling of helplessness that we’re not doing all we can be doing, just because of the obstacles and treacherous conditions,” said Dennis Splawn, a diver with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. 

An unknown number of people are still missing after an out-of-control barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge on Sunday and knocked out a 500-foot section of highway, sending about a dozen vehicles plunging 62 feet into the river. 

The bodies of seven women and six men have been recovered from the water, said highway patrol Lt. Chris West. As each body is removed, the recovery crews stand in somber vigil and pray. 

Among the dead were Misty Johnson, 28, and James Johnson, 30, of Lavaca, Ark., a couple said to be en route to Tulsa with their 3-year-old daughter, Shay Nicole. 

“We do believe we have very good, reliable information that the child was traveling with them,” Ooten said. 

Divers also managed to pull up the body of Andrew Clements, 35, an Army captain who was driving across the country to begin a new chapter in his life. 

Clements picked up his German shepherd in California and headed east to Alexandria, Va., where he and his wife were set to close a deal on a new two-story house. By Sunday morning, he was crossing the I-40 bridge when the barge hit. 

“What were the odds of something like that happening?” asked Ronald Clements, his father. His son left behind three children, including an 8-week-old. 

Dental records eventually confirmed Andrew Clements’ identity, but photos of the crushed car had already given it away: There was a dog cage in the back seat. 

Other victims included Gail Shanahan, 49, who was returning to Texas with another horse trainer, Maggie Green, when their truck and a trailer hauling four horses plunged off the bridge. Searchers have pulled three horses out of the river. 

Norman police Detective Wayne Martin and his wife, Susan, were two more victims. They were heading to Arkansas for a family reunion Sunday morning, but never arrived. 

“We are pretty well resolved to the facts,” said Norman police Lt. Glenn Dobry. “It’s extremely tough.” 

George Black of the National Transportation Safety Board said a barge crewman who visited with captain Joe Dedmon five to 10 minutes before the accident said everything seemed normal. It is believed that Dedmon blacked out at the helm. 

Others who were not with the captain said they heard no alarm or change in the sound of the engine that would indicate he was trying to avoid a crash, Black said. 

Authorities said it will cost about $15 million and as long as six months to repair the bridge. 

Motorists were discouraged from driving in the area, even on alternate routes, because bridges on those roads were not built to withstand the traffic that crossed the I-40 structure, authorities said. 

Transportation officials said an inspection a year ago of the 1,988-foot bridge found no difficulties. 

“This was not a bridge failure, this was a bridge knockdown,” said Bruce Taylor, chief engineer for the state transportation department. Taylor said the bridge was built in 1967 had a 75-year life expectancy.

NEW DELHI, India — If Pakistan wants peace, it must act urgently to stop Islamic militants from infiltrating Indian territory to carry out terror attacks in the dispute over Kashmir, India’s foreign minister said Wednesday. 

Jaswant Singh stopped short of saying how long India could remain patient. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after meeting with both sides that “war is not inevitable.” But Pakistan’s president said his country’s defense forces were “ready to face any challenge.” 

Also Wednesday, shelling by both sides continued across the line dividing predominantly Muslim Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals, killing 23 civilians, the nations said. 

India has said it does not believe Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s claim to be clamping down on Muslim extremists who want Kashmir to either be part of Pakistan, which is Muslim, or to be independent. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir. 

“It is vital that he recognizes the urgency of the situation,” Singh said. “India has waited patiently for the fulfillment of those commitments. They are vital for peace and also vital to the global fight against terrorism.” 

Straw said Wednesday night that the international community could help Pakistan end cross-border terrorism in India through “precise assistance.” He declined to elaborate. 

After his meetings in New Delhi and Islamabad, Straw said, “The situation is dangerous, but war is not inevitable. It’s also clear that neither side wishes to have a war.” 

But Pakistan’s state TV quoted Musharraf as telling air force officers Wednesday, “India has created a dangerous situation in the region and the defense forces were ready to face any challenge if war was thrust upon us.” 

A war between India and Pakistan would be their fourth since attaining independence from Britain in 1947. 

Straw said it was up to Musharraf to prove he is serious about stopping Muslim militants. The two met Tuesday in Islamabad. 

“The testament of any statement is by actions and not by words,” Straw said. “The international community looks to press Musharraf to assure that this undertaking is fulfilled on the ground.” 

Straw refused to detail his meetings except to say they covered “material worthy of further discussion.” 

According to Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Munir Akran, the possibility of a 300-strong helicopter monitoring force along the Kashmir border was discussed by Straw. 

“As far as Pakistan is concerned, if India was to accept that, we would also consider accepting that on both sides of the Line of Control to monitor the situation,” said Akran. Straw said he would phone British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the EU minister for foreign relations, Chris Patten, during his overnight flight back to Britain. 

HOUSTON — Two Arthur Andersen accountants testified Wednesday that they didn’t consider an instruction to comply with the firm’s document policy as an order to shred Enron-related paperwork. 

John Boudreaux and Jennifer Stevenson, both accountants on Andersen’s Enron audit team, said they heard two partners urge compliance with the policy while informing workers Oct. 23 about an informal Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into some of Enron’s transactions. 

Their immediate boss, Thomas Bauer, mentioned both issues in a morning meeting that day, they said. Then David Duncan, Andersen’s former top Enron auditor, announced the inquiry and instructed his team to comply with the policy at a bigger meeting that afternoon. 

Both testified that they didn’t link the two issues as code to destroy documents to keep them out of the hands of the SEC. 

Stevenson said she threw away old handwritten notes, drafts and other extraneous documents “not in terms of what (the SEC) would see — just in terms of completing audit documentation.” 

Boudreaux said he spent 90 minutes that day going through files for similar extraneous documents, throwing out old drafts and deleting personal e-mails, like messages pertaining to a fantasy football league. 

“I don’t recall any sense of urgency,” Boudreaux said. 

Andersen is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying documents as the SEC began a probe of Enron’s finances before the energy company collapsed amid questions about its bookkeeping and corporate structure. 

Andersen says it was cleaning its files under firm policy, which calls for retention of final audit conclusions and destruction of extraneous papers and e-mails. All Andersen witnesses who have testified said they did not think they were doing anything wrong. 

Later Wednesday, former Andersen auditor Shane Philpot testified he directed his team to keep all documents related to audits for Portland General Electric, an Enron subsidiary, after receiving a reminder of the firm’s document retention policy. 

“It seemed to be the conservative thing to do,” Philpot said

SANTA ROSA — Federal agents raided a medical marijuana buyers club here Wednesday and arrested two people. 

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman said two addresses were searched, including the club near downtown. Marijuana, cash, a car and a weapon were seized. 

Authorities declined to identify the arrested pair, saying all information about the case was sealed by a federal judge. 

According to one witness, at least six DEA agents stormed the storefront around 10:45 a.m. 

“They made a big show of it,” Mark Nabavi, who runs the Printing Express store next door, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “They took down everyone’s license plate number.” 

In February, DEA agents raided a San Francisco medical marijuana club and arrested four people amid an ongoing tug-of-war between local and federal officials over the sale of pot for medicinal purposes. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that it is illegal to distribute marijuana for medical purposes. But some local California law enforcement officials have said their job is to enforce the laws of California, where voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana use.

SACRAMENTO – Another aide to Gov. Gray Davis resigned Wednesday as the administration continued its efforts to put to rest a continuing controversy surrounding a potentially costly computer contract. 

Vince Patel resigned as the governor’s interim director of e-government only 3 1/2 weeks after he was appointed to the post. 

Patel, previously director of executive information systems for the state, was appointed May 5 to succeed Arun Baheti, who was fired after he accepted a $25,000 campaign contribution for the governor from the Oracle Corp. 

Administration officials said that violated a rule against the governor’s aides accepting campaign donations. 

The state signed a $95 million, no-bid contract with Oracle last year that was supposed to save up to $111 million through volume purchases and maintenance of database software. 

But the state auditor says the deal could end up costing the state up to $41 million more than if it had stuck to its previous software supply arrangements.

LOS ANGELES – When Bob Hope was named an “honorary veteran” in 1997 by an act of Congress and President Clinton’s signature, the comedian remarked: “To be numbered among the men and women I admire most is the greatest honor I have ever received.” 

It seemed fitting then that on Wednesday, in recognition of his 99th birthday, another honor was awarded to Hope — the dedication of the Bob Hope Veterans Chapel at the National Cemetery in Los Angeles. 

The setting was ideal. Thousands of small flags left from Memorial Day waved in the afternoon breeze over the grave markers of veterans. 

Hope’s travels on behalf of the military began on May 6, 1941, when he bused a troupe of entertainers to March Field, near Riverside. They put on show for the Army Air Corps trainees that was broadcast over radio, and Hope was astonished by the waves of laughter and applause that greeted his quips. 

The response was light years beyond what he could evoke from studio audiences in Hollywood. 

“This is it!” he said excitedly. “From now on, we’ll do all the radio shows in front of servicemen.” 

For seven years, with two exceptions, he performed the radio program before men and women of the service. During the war, he traveled from North Africa to Iceland to the South Pacific and points in between, sometimes venturing in the line of fire. 

“I have critics everywhere,” he cracked. 

From his career in vaudeville and Broadway, Hope knew exactly what his audiences wanted. He gave them jokes about officers, military food and living conditions, and brought along Hollywood beauties to warm the hearts of homesick GI’s. 

This reporter first encountered Hope as an Associated Press correspondent in Fresno in 1944. He brought a busload of fellow entertainers from Hollywood to rock the airmen and women at Hammer Field. The laughter was explosive. 

After a 90-minute show, the exhilarated Hope loaded the troupe onto the bus for the four-hour trip back home. 

World War II was followed by the Cold War. 

In 1948, Sen. Stuart Symington, a Missouri Democrat, asked Bob to take a show to Germany to bring much-needed Christmas cheer to the overworked Americans during the Berlin Air Lift. This time his wife, Dolores, weary of Bob-less holidays, declared she was going, too. Once a torch singer, her rich voice added to the entertainment. 

The Berlin show was the beginning of a Christmas tradition that took his television show to bases, ships and hospitals in Alaska, Europe, the Far East, Greenland, the Caribbean, North Africa, Vietnam and finally, the Gulf War. 

His tour de force came in 1987, when he flew around the world in eight days, with stops along the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans as well as the Persian Gulf. 

He was rarely sentimental about the tours. Asked why he traveled so widely despite a busy career, he replied, “I guess I’m hooked on box lunches.” 

But he cherished the hundreds of honors bestowed on him. 

Incapacitated by old age, he didn’t attend Wednesday’s dedication. He would have loved the event. 

Except for two things: too many politicians’ platitudes and not enough laughs. 

UC Berkeley police have arrested an employee and an off-campus accomplice for allegedly stealing $250,000 in BART tickets from a university transportation office and reselling them on the street. 

The employee, 29-year-old Kimya McFadden, was an administrative assistant at the campus-run Berkeley Transit/Ridesharing/Parking Store. The joint city-university venture sells discounted transit passes to city and UC Berkeley employees. 

McFadden, hired in March 2001, was temporarily assigned as a supervisor overseeing cashiering operations in September 2001, where she remained until her May 10 arrest. 

McFadden began stealing BART tickets in April or May of 2001, according to UC Berkeley Police Capt. William Cooper, and funneling them to 26-year-old Zikomo J. Robinson of Oakland, who resold them below face value and gave McFadden a cut. 

“He was doing most of the selling, it looked like,” Cooper said, noting that $48 tickets went for $32, and $32 tickets went for $20 to $25. 

The university does not believe any other employees were involved, but it is investigating the possibility of a second suspect outside the office who may have resold tickets. 

Cooper said the university has already put some temporary controls in place at the TRiP Store. The shop has limited the number of people with access to ticket inventories, changed the way tickets are distributed to cashiers for sales and established stronger procedures to account for each cashier’s allotment. 

“We’re going to make sure the holes are plugged up,” Cooper said, adding that the university may make adjustments after a full audit of the store is complete. 

TRiP store employees referred all requests for comment to Cooper. 

BART initially received word of black market ticket sales earlier this year and traced the stubs back to UC Berkeley, Cooper said. The university then pursued the investigation and arrested the two suspects. 

McFadden, a Richmond resident, is scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court on Thursday. UC Berkeley police arrested her on suspicion of embezzlement, conspiracy and possession of stolen property. Officers picked up Robinson on suspicion of conspiracy and possession of stolen property. 

Cooper said the charges the district attorney will actually file are unclear. Calls to the district attorney’s office were not returned by the Planet’s deadline. 

To the Editor: 

In order for “safe,” quieter streets to be useful, you need to be able to cross the busy streets. Derby has a light to get across MLK and Telegraph, but not to cross Shattuck. Except for that, it is perfect for non-motorized Flatlanders to commute to Willard. It is already a “right turn only” street for non-emergency cars. Thus it would not inconvenience traffic to put a pedestrian and bike crossing only signal there, like the one at Channing and MLK. (The light a few blocks south where Adeline splits off from Shattuck is very dangerous to use. The walk light is only on when the slightly right turn lane has the green light to cross the crosswalk.) The bike-activated light at Channing is wonderful. If it is at all convenient, I plan my routes through it. 

Less inconvenient for car traffic but useful for otheres would be some sort of light to cross Shattuck between Ashby and Alcatraz. Neither big A street is safe for young riders nor pleasant for walkers, and Shattuck is remarkably hard to cross in that section. 

Barbara Judd 

Berkeley 

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

Human Rights At Home and Abroad: A Strategy For Peace 

An educational forum to probe the relationship of the U.S. and the U.N. 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall of Humanity 

390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph) 

Oakland 

Free 

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 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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 

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

Sunday, June 2

Healing/Tibetan Yoga 

"Stimulating Healing and Renewal through Tibetan Yoga" 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Ice Cream Social 

An annual school PTA fundraiser 

Includes a student talent show, auction, cake walk and field games 

Rosa Parks Elementary School 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

Free 

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. 

Monday, June 3

Poetry Express - Theme Night: "love and marriage" 

7-9 p.m. 

A community open mic welcoming all artists 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

Free 

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 

Big Brother is Watching 

Speaker James Bamford, author of "Body of Secrets, anatomy of Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

The Independent Institute 

100 Swan Way, Oakland 

RSVP 632-1366 

Cost: $35 includes the book, $14 lecture only, $10 members. 

Friday, June 7

What Does It Mean To Be Human? 

Debate between Princeton Professor and author Peter Singer and Chairman for Center for Bioethics & Culture, Nigel M. de S. Cameron. Moderated by host of KQED Forum, Michael Krasny 

Calvin Simmons Theater / Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium 

10 Tenth Street, Oakland 

Register online at www.thecbc.org  

$25 in advance, $45 at the door 

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 

Saturday, June 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 

Live Oak Park Fair 

Original fine crafts & art, tasty food, live entertainment including: Splash Circus, The Prescott Clowns, Jean-Paul Valjean (circus performance), Fat Chance Bellydance, Urban Harmony, Johnny Casino (children's lounge lizard), Zappo the Magician, with M.C. Wavy Gravy. Benefit for Camp Winnarainbow. 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

Shattuck & Berryman 

Further information: 898-3282 

Free Admission

The Berkeley High baseball team has faced a lot of challenges this season, and so far the Yellowjackets have passed each with flying colors. They beat top-ranked California High and its ace, Adam Brisentine. They dealt Pinole Valley’s Kurt Koehler his first loss in three seasons. They won the ACCAL title and beat Antioch and De La Salle to reach the North Coast Section semifinals. 

Berkeley’s next challenge may be their greatest yet: facing second-seeded Clayton Valley today. The Eagles will throw their ace, Adam Elliot, one of the top pitchers in the region. Clayton Valley has given up just one run in their first two NCS games, wins over Arroyo and Foothill, and will have the home-field advantage against the ’Jackets. 

Berkeley will counter with junior lefthander Sean Souders, who has been at his best in the toughest matchups this season. He was on the hill against Brisentine and Koehler and outdueled each handily. 

“Sean is up and ready,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said Tuesday. “He’s done well in big games so far this year.” 

Souders will have an edge on Wednesday, as he hasn’t pitched since the opening round against Antioch a week ago. Elliot, on the other hand, had to throw 2 1/3 innings against Foothill on Saturday, and also threw in a workout for scouts earlier this week. That means all things being equal, Souders should be able to go deeper into the game than his counterpart. 

Berkeley is also riding high on offense after scoring 12 and nine runs in the first two rounds of the NCS, respectively. The ’Jackets have been getting production throughout the lineup, with seven-hitter Clinton Calhoun hitting a grand slam against De La Salle on Saturday and Lee Franklin and DeAndre Miller lighting fires at the top of the order. 

Cleanup hitter Matt Toma said the ’Jackets won’t change their aggressive hitting style against Elliot, despite the possibility of the Eagle hurler tiring out. 

“We’ve heard (Elliot) has very good control, so we can’t sit back and wait for him to get tired,” Toma said. “We just have to jump on our pitches when we get them.” 

Moellering said his hitters won’t be intimidated by Elliot’s reputation. 

“It helps a lot to have beaten a pitcher like Koehler,” he said. “I don’t think we’re afraid of anyone.” 

If the ’Jackets win today, they will move on to the NCS championship on Saturday, to be played at the Oakland Coliseum. While Toma admits that the players can’t help but look forward, as “everyone here wants to play at the Coliseum,” Moellering wants to make sure everyone is focused on today’s game. 

“I’m trying to get everyone to concentrate on this one,” he said. 

NOTES: The winner of today’s game will face the winner of the Newark Memorial-Grenada semifinal... Berkeley catcher Sam Geaney, who knows Elliot, said the Clayton Valley ace has signed to play at University of Nevada-Las Vegas but is hoping to be drafted by a Major League team... Most of the Berkeley High underclassmen will be taking the SAT on Saturday morning, so Moellering said he will try to get the championship game moved back from noon if the ’Jackets reach the final.

In a neighborhood battle that pitted the small-town values of south Berkeley against the city’s needs for affordable housing, city leaders carried the housing developers to victory. 

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, councilmembers approved development of a 40-unit housing project at 2517 Sacramento St. The project, submitted by the nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates, will provide housing exclusively for seniors at monthly rates as low as $200 as well ground-floor retail space likely to include a small grocery and cafe. 

Approval of the project comes after more than two years of back and forth between neighbors who had urged a smaller, less intrusive project and housing advocates who said the need for more affordable units was desperate. 

The disagreement culminated, in the three weeks preceding council’s decision, in a city-sponsored mediation process that left just one development option amicable to both parties. 

The problem with this option was that it would cost the city $300,000 and eliminate four of the proposed housing units. 

Refusing to make such sacrifices, councilmembers essentially dismissed the appeal of the neighbors who wanted to change the project and approved the same proposal before them earlier this month which they had subsequently ordered out for revision. 

“I don’t think we got what we thought we were going to get [with the mediation],” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong. She called the $5000 mediation expense a “rip- off.” 

Consequently, Armstrong joined councilmembers Maudelle Shirek, Miriam Hawley, Linda Maio and Kriss Worthington in winning a 5-2 vote for the project and ending years of neighborhood debate. 

While AHA developers were on hand to applaud council’s decision, neighbors for the project were not present at Tuesday’s meeting. 

Their noticeable absence bucked their two-year trend of heavy involvement at public hearings. Many speculated that the neighbors assumed council would opt for the plan that came out of the mediation process, and consequently, stayed home. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, joining Mayor Shirley Dean in voting against the project, staked out the position of the absent neighbors. 

“Neighborhoods have a right to be heard and have a compromise. This is not a compromise,” Olds said. 

But Councilmember Shirek snubbed Olds’ comments and led a one-track charge for housing. 

“I don’t understand how people can oppose a much-needed, well-designed project,” she said. 

The only change to the project, since it was considered by council earlier this month, is the addition of two to five parking spaces. 

With Tuesday’s go-ahead, construction of the project could begin by the end of this year, said AHA project manager Kevin Zwick. 

The project is slated for completion at the end of 2003, and AHA will begin taking applications from seniors who want to live there in summer 2003, Zwick said. 

To the Editor: 

I am writing regarding your article of May 27, 2002, regarding traffic (“City considers lower speed limits”). 

I think traffic calming is great for the people on the street where you put it. I don't think it is possible to do that for every street where families live. The reason why people like it so much is that it reduces traffic on their street. We can't reduce traffic on every street and expect to solve the problem. Traffic calming is sort of like handing a drug addict a Band-Aid for the cut they got when passed out. It does not solve what is a citywide problem. 

What is so horrible about enforcement? We have an army of parking officers who implement a zero-tolerance policy regarding parking regulations. Why can't we have at least a few traffic safety officers who implement a zero-tolerance policy with regard to speed limits, crosswalks, and stop signs? 

The City of Berkeley owes it to its residents to come up with a plan that sets measurable goals and works until they are achieved. This includes measuring the average speed and various times of day on various roads, then starting a PR and enforcement campaign, and doing follow-up measurements at regular intervals until the problem has been largely 

solved. 

The PR campaign should include speaking with organizations, such as AC Transit and UPS, which have large vehicles on the streets of Berkeley, and asking them to take measures to ensure their drivers will abide by traffic safety regulations as well as publicizing the effort to reduce average speeds on Berkeley streets. I have ridden in AC Transit buses traveling in excess of 45 MPH on Henry Street, where the speed limit is 25 MPH. 

Unsafe traffic conditions diminish the quality of life for all of us who live in Berkeley. We need politicians and other government officials to take responsible action to make our streets safer. 

Nick Roosevelt 

Berkeley 

WALNUT CREEK – The Cal baseball team had two players, junior catcher John Baker and sophomore first baseman Conor Jackson, selected to the 2002 All-Pac-10 Baseball Team, Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen announced Tuesday.  

Baker finished the 2002 season batting a team-leading .383 with 12 doubles, a triple, five home runs and 29 RBI despite missing three weeks with a broken right hand when he was hit by a pitch. He also has a Pac-10 leading .516 on-base percentage, had a .456 batting average against Pac-10 competition and hit a team-best .444 with runners in scoring position. Baker was the May 13 Pac-10 Player of the Week and is one of 10 finalists for the Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top collegiate catcher.  

Jackson concluded the 2002 campaign batting .382 with 16 doubles, two triples, 16 home runs, 61 RBI and Pac-10 leading 152 total bases. He hit .443 with runners in scoring position and twice hit home runs in four consecutive games this past season. Jackson was the April 22 Pac-10 Player of the Week and is a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate baseball player. He was also selected to try for the USA National Team in June.  

Four other Cal players were named Pac-10 Honorable Mention - sophomore right-hander Matt Brown, senior right-hander Trevor Hutchinson, freshman infielder/outfielder David Nicholson and senior second baseman Carson White.  

Brown finished the year 5-3 with a 3.70 ERA and six saves in 21 appearances. He was the April 15 Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week after throwing his first collegiate complete game with four hits, one runs, one walk and a career-high 10 strikeouts April 14 versus Arizona.  

In 2002 Hutchinson was 7-5 with a 3.38 ERA, two complete games and had a team-high 94 strikeouts and 117.0 innings. He became Cal’s all-time strikeout leader with 284 strikeouts from 1999-02 and is second on the Bears’ career innings pitched list (370 2/3). Hutchinson was the April 8 Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week after an April 5 victory over UCLA.  

Nicholson batted .305 with seven doubles, a triple, six home runs and 23 RBI as a true freshman. He also led Cal in runs scored (46) and stolen bases (10), starting 36 games at third base and 17 games in center field. White hit .339 this season with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 32 RBI. He finished his two-year Bear career batting .338 with 88 runs, 153 hits, 34 doubles, four triples, 15 home runs and 81 RBI.

Berkeley Police Chief Dash Butler has endured a lot in his 31 years of service to the community— riots, numerous protests, a growing department and community and a prolific citizenry. As of July 13, Butler will retire, and the community must learn to endure without him. 

“The thing I respect most about Dash is that he’s a tough cop, but he’s also a very human one as well,” said City Manager Weldon Rucker, who will soon have to search for a replacement. 

Rucker says the current climate in law enforcement will make conducting a national search difficult. Most likely, an acting chief will be appointed internally to fill the opening. 

“What has made him so valuable is that he has served as an officer as well as a chief. Out of his 31 years on the force, he’s spent 12 years as chief and the rest as an officer,” Rucker said. “One of his greatest accomplishments is, as an officer and a chief, has been the leadership he has taken in the drug task force.”  

Rucker recalled one situation in particular that was very difficult for the department and the community. Hostages were taken in 1990, and the tension was on. According to Rucker, that was a situation in which many knew going in there were going to be casualties. 

“We all knew someone was going to die, and we just hoped it was not going to be an innocent member of the community,” he added. 

At this time, Butler had been chief for only a few months, according to Rucker, and he was in a very tight spot with the eyes of the community upon him.  

“He showed us that day what he was made of,” Rucker said, adding that the manner in which the police and the newly appointed chief handled the situation showed great character. 

The incident in question was Sept. 27, 1990, when a man named Mehrdad Dashti entered Henry’s Pub House Restaurant and Grill with an automatic pistol and then without warning opened fire into the air and at seated patrons. Within minutes, seven people were shot and 37 of the original 67 patrons were taken hostage.  

During the next several hours, the police tried to engage in negotiations with Dashti and negotiated the release of some of the hostages. Negotiations were complicated by the fact that the gunman was suffering from an apparent mental health disorder. 

In the end, the Berkeley Police Department managed to minimize the risk to the majority of the hostages and end the standoff successfully. One UC Berkeley student was killed by the gunman. One officer received a superficial wound from the gunman. And the gunman himself was eventually shot and killed by officers. 

One hundred and fifty police officers and reserves as well as numerous non-sworn department members were utilized in this incident. It was perhaps one of the largest of such incidents in recent history. As a result, the Berkeley Police Department trained other departments on how to handle a hostage situation of such magnitude.  

“When it was time for our team to go in, we just knew someone was going to die. There was one hostage dead already,” Rucker said. But upon arriving on the scene no more casualties, other than the gunman himself, occurred.  

A full summary of this incident and the strategies that the Berkeley Police Department used in apprehending this suspect were published in the national Law Enforcement magazine. 

The next year, Berkeley was engrossed in a fire that has forever scarred its landscape and also necessitated strong leadership from public officials. 

Search for a replacement 

“Now it’s time for us to begin a new chapter,” Rucker added. 

According to Rucker, he will make the search for a replacement police chief as open to the public as possible.  

But Deputy Chief Roy Mizner will likely be appointed as acting chief until the city finds a replacement.

To the Editor: 

For some time, the public has been treated to color-coded warnings about possible terrorist acts, none of which materialized. No doubt many people’s anxiety, if not even paranoia, was increased by such empty warnings, because they could personally do nothing about them and could only rely on the government to protect them.  

It now turned out that the government and Mr. Bush were warned about a non-specific plan of Bin Laden's to stage an airplane hijacking, a news that reached Mr. Bush in August 2001, while he was on vacation in Texas, and that was not communicated to the public. People are incensed about this, and security Advisor Candy Rice was not specific enough to bother the public and possibly cause harm to the airlines if people canceled flights they had planned.  

In later broadcasts, surviving family members of Sept. 11 victims expressed anger and disappointment to have learned that the income the airline companies had a higher priority than the lives of passengers.  

Dr. Max Alfert 

Albany

An early morning hiker in the Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve was shaken Tuesday when he stumbled upon a human body hanging lifeless from the branch of a tree, according to East Bay Regional Park officials. 

A preliminary investigation following the hiker’s 7 a.m. report branded the incident a suicide that was apparently committed during the late night hours of Memorial Day. 

The body has so far been identified only as an East Bay man in his early 30s. Park police have withheld his identity pending the notification of his family. 

The body was sighted beside a dirt fire road, three quarters of a mile from the preserve’s boundary on Stonewall Road in the Claremont neighborhood, according to park officials. 

The tree that served as the brace for the hanging was just feet from the restricted access road, officials said. 

“Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen in parks, but not that often,” said Sgt. Jon King of the park police. 

Park officials closed the fire road to the public for several hours Tuesday while the body was removed from the park and the scene was surveyed by police. 

Claremont resident Leon Regelson, taking his daily walk, was surprised to find the access road closed and to see a number of law enforcement vehicles on site, representing park police and the Oakland Police Department. 

“I’ve been walking up there for years, and I’ve never heard of any violence or anything,” Regelson said.  

“People are generally real friendly on the trail,” he added. 

Park police hope to have the investigation completed by Friday. Officers were not revealing any further details about the situation.

To the Editor: 

From Daily Planet Ambassador to “helping to save the world” is turning out to be the correct move in the time left for this Berkeley born and bred septuagenarian. It means more time to be me before I “shuffle off this mortal coil.” An occasional longer nap, more writing time, more lawn mowing time, more grandpa time, more United Nations Association (East Bay) energy, and more varied U.N.-flag-waving and peace-pilgrimage-walking time.  

Occasionally I shall be out there somewhere waving my U.N. flag, handing out “War is not healthy for children and other living things” stickers and urging folks to let our government know that we are sick and tired of war, any and all wars against any and all so-called “enemies.” 

Some of us agree with Eleanor Roosevelt in her last book (1963), “Tomorrow Is Now”: “Any step, however small, that leads to international peace, to universal understanding, to strengthening the machinery of the United Nations is a good step... I am aware that if we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the strengthening of the United Nations — and I share the opinion of Clark M. Eichelberger that the United Nations should be the foundation of policy, not a diplomatic tool — there will be outcries from people complaining, ‘That is a risk.’ Of course it is.” 

I believe all of us should read Phyllis Bennis' 1996 book, “Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN.” Buy it, borrow it, or steal it! But read it! (No, don't steal it!) 

Please, learn about the United Nations and about our misuse and abuse of it. Our U.N. support has been largely a sham and a shame. All wars are forms of terrorism. 

Bill Trampleasure 

Berkeley

Historical Highlight 

On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution. 

On this date 

In 1765, Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia’s House of Burgesses, saying, “If this be treason, make the most of it!” 

In 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state of the union. 

In 1917, the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Mass. 

In 1932, World War I veterans began arriving in Washington to demand cash bonuses they weren’t scheduled to receive for another 13 years. 

In 1942, the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” starring James Cagney, premiered at a war-bonds benefit in New York. 

In 1942, Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in Los Angeles for Decca Records. 

In 1942, actor John Barrymore died in Hollywood at age 60. 

In 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norkay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit. 

In 1985, 35 people were killed in rioting that erupted between British and Italian spectators at the European Cup soccer final in Brussels, Belgium. 

In 1987, a jury in Los Angeles found “Twilight Zone” movie director John Landis and four associates innocent of involuntary manslaughter in the movie-set deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children. 

Ten years ago 

Undeclared presidential candidate Ross Perot held a rally in Orlando, Fla., that was carried by two-way television satellite to five other states. 

Five years ago 

In closing arguments, Timothy McVeigh’s attorney urged jurors not to be swayed by sympathy for the Oklahoma City bombing victims, after a prosecutor delivered a wrenching summation that portrayed McVeigh as a terrorist who killed children in the warped belief he was a patriot. 

One year ago 

Four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted in New York of a global conspiracy to murder Americans, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people. President Bush, meeting in Los Angeles with California Gov. Gray Davis, rejected a plea for federal caps on soaring electricity bills. The Supreme Court ruled that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments. 

Today’s birthdays 

Comedian Bob Hope is 99. Former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent is 64. Race car driver Al Unser Sr. is 63. Actor Kevin Conway is 60. Actor Helmut Berger is 58. Rock singer Gary Brooker (Procol Harum) is 57. Actor Anthony Geary is 55. Singer Rebbie Jackson is 52. Movie composer Danny Elfman is 49. Rock musician Michael Porcaro (Toto) is 47. Singer LaToya Jackson is 46. Actress Annette Bening is 44. Actor Rupert Everett is 43. Rock musician Mel Gaynor is 43. Actor Adrian Paul is 43. Singer Melissa Etheridge is 41. Actress Lisa Whelchel is 39. Actress Tracey Bregman is 39. Rock musician Noel Gallagher (Oasis) is 35. Singer Jayski McGowan (Quad City DJ’s) is 35. Rock musician Chad Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 33. Singer Melanie Brown (Spice Girls) is 27. Rapper Playa Poncho is 27.

Amy Chun, who has Down syndrome, often feels isolated at Albany Middle School.  

But her mother, Joanne Chun, said things are different at the Ala Costa Center — a 30-year-old after school program for the developmentally disabled on Rose Street in Berkeley. 

“It is a place where she is understood,” said Chun. “People get her.” 

The center, founded by a group of Berkeley parents in 1972, serves 50 children ages 5 to 22 from Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, El Cerrito and Emeryville. A new Ala Costa program, slated to open in Oakland in September, will serve 15 young people at first, eventually expanding to 35. 

The program is divided into four classrooms, separated by age and skill level, and provides a wide range of activities suited to student needs. Fourteen- to 18 year-old kids in the “Voyager” classroom, for instance, go over the signs they might see in the community and learn how to turn away strangers who might try to take advantage of them. 

But the center also provides the bread and butter of any after school program — art classes, basketball games and talent shows. 

“The bottom-line belief is that our kids shouldn’t be separated from society,” said Executive Director Holly Gold. “They should be able to experience everything that other kids experience.” 

Gold said the center works hard to ensure “community integration,” taking students to movies and museums, riding the train and sending them to play with other kids in the public playground adjacent to the center. 

Site supervisor Jorge Belloso-Curiel said Ala Costa teachers work to integrate important lessons on the trips — how to interact properly with a storeowner or carefully cross the street. 

“Some of our kids do act inappropriately, and that’s why they’re here,” he said. 

But perhaps the most important thing the center provides is a sense of community and belonging. 

“If they didn’t come here, they wouldn’t have any friends,” Gold said. “They’ve never been invited to a birthday party. They’ve never had a boyfriend or girlfriend.” 

Margie Chambers, lead teacher in the Voyagers classroom, said many of her students who are too sick to go to school on a given day insist on going to Ala Costa in the afternoon to plug into the social network.  

Gold, who has a background in drug treatment and HIV/AIDS work, took the reins of Ala Costa in March 2000. 

“The program was really great, but there was an opportunity for growth,” she said. 

Gold worked on some of the details, including putting pictures on the wall, updating the computer and telephone systems and creating a Web site and brochure. She also created the site supervisor position so she could focus on the big picture as well. 

The major focus has been the new center, which will be housed in a set of portable classrooms outside Thurgood Marshall Elementary School near Oakland International Airport. 

“It’s been a dream for who knows how many years,” Gold said. “We’ve always had a huge waiting list.” 

Gold said she hopes Oakland will “follow the city of Berkeley’s lead” when the center opens. Berkeley provides generous financial support for Ala Costa, renting the center its building for a nominal fee and providing the program an annual grant of $30,000. 

Ala Costa’s overall budget is $500,000 to $600,000 a year and will expand to $1 million when the new facility opens, Gold said. The state provides most of the center’s funding through the Regional Center of the East Bay and the Department of Education’s Child Development Division.  

Gold said she hopes to build private fund raising as well. A walkathon is scheduled for June 19 and a 30th anniversary fund-raising celebration is slated for January. 

The center’s long-term goal is to see after school programs for the developmentally disabled nationwide. That growth is long overdue, Gold said. 

“In a way it’s nothing special,” Gold said, describing the model. “It’s an after school program that’s designed to work for kids who need a lot of care.”

OAKLAND — Jurors may have reached a partial verdict in the federal case against police and FBI agents accused of framing two Earth First! activists. 

Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari were injured when a bomb exploded in their Subaru while they were driving in Oakland in May 1990. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis. 

The two were arrested within hours, but the case fell apart weeks later when prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges. Cherney and Bari sued investigators for false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. They claimed officials ignored evidence exonerating the activists and lied to try to make their case. 

SANTA BARBARA — The father of a former college student on trial for running down four people with his car testified Tuesday that he couldn’t accept repeated diagnoses that his son was mentally ill. 

Daniel Attias, an Emmy-nominated television director, said he and his wife struggled with their son’s emotional and behavioral problems for years and did not want the youth saddled with the stigma of being mentally ill. 

David Attias, 20, is on trial for four counts each of murder and manslaughter, plus one count of driving under the influence of drugs for the Feb. 23, 2001, crash that killed four people and injured a fifth. 

Authorities say Attias raced his car down a crowded Isla Vista street near the University of California, Santa Barbara, and plowed into the five pedestrians. Attias allegedly got out of the vehicle after striking the pedestrians and shouted that he was the “angel of death.” 

Those killed were Nicholas Bourdakis, 20; Christopher Divis, 20; Ruth Levy, 20; and her friend Elie Israel, 27. Levy’s brother, Albert Levy, 27, survived. 

Attias’ father testified that he took measures to ensure that no “paper trail” would exist of diagnoses from doctors who said his son had attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and that he could be bipolar. 

“I’ve always been fearful of labels,” said Daniel Attias, 50, who has directed episodes of “Ally McBeal” and “The Sopranos.” “I didn’t want him to stop being seen as David.” 

Attias’ mother testified last week that her son was a “weirdo” and described how his behavior had changed once he enrolled at UCSB and stopped going to therapy and taking his medication. 

Attias’ father said his son’s condition also deteriorated as he experimented with illegal drugs. 

On winter break two months before the crash, David Attias verbally lashed out at his father for trying to set a 2:45 a.m. curfew on his son’s nightly attendance at Los Angeles raves. 

“His reaction was unlike anything I had ever seen,” his father testified. “It was full-blown megalomania . . . it was the first time I truly understood his diagnosis of bipolar disorder.” 

Attias’ defense attorneys, Jack Earley and Nancy Haydt, have entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which puts Attias’ mental status at the heart of the trial. The jury can only consider the mental illness to help determine his guilt. If convicted, the trial will move to a sanity phase and the panel will decide whether he was insane at the time of the crime. 

LOS ANGELES — Employees at the CBS television complex were safely evacuated Tuesday as police negotiated with a gunman threatening suicide. 

Officers received reports about 5 p.m. of a gunman inside the complex, said Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman. It was later determined that a possibly suicidal man had barricaded himself inside an office, Lee said. 

“Everybody is out, he’s the only guy in there,” Lee said. “There are no hostages and no shots have been fired.” 

Dozens of employees congregated in the CBS Television City parking lot as police officers entered the complex where “The Price is Right” and other shows are filmed. The man was reportedly armed with a gun, but the weapon could be a BB-gun or a toy replica, Lee said. The Police Department dispatched its SWAT team to the television complex, located in the city’s Fairfax District. The man was lying on the floor with a gun to his head and threatening suicide, Deputy Chief David Kalish said.  

OAKLAND — Defense attorneys and Alameda County prosecutors today are scheduled to begin their search for a jury that will sit in what is believed to be the largest case of alleged criminal police misconduct in Oakland's history. 

Jude Siapno, Clarence Mabanag and Matthew Hornung are accused of conspiring to beat suspects, falsify evidence and other acts as they patrolled West Oakland late at night in what come to be known as the "Riders'' case. 

The officers have pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, and their attorneys have said in court that the officers were only following orders from police officials that they should be tough on drugs. 

Earlier this year, defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully to have the proceedings moved outside of Oakland, arguing that the extensive pretrial media coverage that the case received will make it impossible to get an impartial panel of jurors. They indicated that they may try to get the case moved out of Alameda County again during the jury selection process. 

The suspected ringleader of the "Riders,'' Frank Vazquez, fled  

soon after the case broke and remains at large.

xSAN FRANCISCO — City utility officials approved a proposal Tuesday that could put a $3.6 billion bond measure to upgrade the aging Hetch Hetchy water system on the November ballot. 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s proposal calls for renovations and seismic upgrades of the city’s water system that runs more than 160 miles from Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area and is about a century old. 

The commission has delayed a $4 billion overhaul of the system for more than a decade. An upgrade could prevent aqueducts from collapsing in a major earthquake. That would leave several San Francisco Bay area cities without their main source of water for up to two months, according to scientists. 

“This has been in the works for many, many years,” said commission president Ann Moller Caen. “We have reached a point where the commission feels very confident.” 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Willie Brown would still have to approve the measure by the end of June for it to appear on the ballot. 

The system’s infrastructure is in serious disrepair and susceptible to failure in a major earthquake, according to the commission. Its pipes and tunnels cross three major earthquake faults — the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras lines. 

The system delivers water to 770,000 people in San Francisco and to 29 suburban wholesale outfits which in turn serve about 1.7 million people in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Seventy percent of Hetch Hetchy’s users don’t live in San Francisco, but in outlying cities such as Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood City, Fremont and parts of San Jose. 

The water system, however, is owned and administered by San Francisco. 

Under the proposal, the $3.6 billion tab would be paid through a series of water rate increases charged to the system’s 2.4 million customers. If approved, the average four-person household in San Francisco would see its monthly water bill more than triple from an average of $13 to nearly $44 by 2015. Suburban rates would rise to an estimated $80 from $38 today.

SACRAMENTO — Concerned that students who lug heavy backpacks will develop spinal problems, the state Assembly approved a bill Tuesday that would force school boards to figure out ways to reduce excess backpack weight. 

The Assembly voted 71-1 to approve AB 2532, sending it to the Senate. 

The bill by Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside, and Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City, would require school boards to develop and distribute a voluntary survey to school districts to find creative, cost-effective options to reduce excess backpack weight. 

The bill was amended to no longer include requirements for schools to adopt a maximum weight standard for textbooks. 

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, backpack-related injuries send almost 5,000 students each year to emergency rooms nationwide. 

Concerns about drugs and guns possibly hidden in student lockers have led many California schools to remove the lockers during the last decade. 

Some school districts have started to tackle the problem by deciding which nights to assign certain homework. Other schools have been able to purchase two sets of books for their students. One set is left at home, the other in the classrooms. 

Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, said the bill is not about giving less homework, just making sure that children are not carrying more weight than they can handle. 

“Doing homework should not be hazardous to your health,” he said. 

Children are often carrying 25 percent of their weight on their backs, said Pacheco. 

“Ninety pound children are carrying 40-pound backpacks,” Pacheco said. “These burdens are creating severe medical difficulties.” 

The California Medical Association and the California Physical Therapists Association support the bill because childhood is a key time for spinal growth, which could be altered by carrying heavy backpacks. 

The CPTA also said that it is seeing abnormal growth patterns in children’s collarbones caused by too much weight on their shoulders and backs. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Read the bill, AB 2532, at www.assembly.ca.gov 

SACRAMENTO — A preliminary budget plan that restores some health care cuts proposed by Gov. Gray Davis but still leaves lawmakers the chore of filling a $1 billion gap stalled at least briefly Tuesday in the Senate. 

The measure fell five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval on a first roll call, but Democratic leaders delayed announcing a final vote as senators worked through the afternoon on other bills. 

The vote was among a series of legislative tests faced by the budget blueprint proposed by Davis that combines tax increases, program cuts and heavy borrowing to try to fill a $23.6 billion budget hole. 

The Senate’s version of the budget passed through the Senate budget committee earlier in the day with a sprinkling of objections — small rumbles of larger battles to come. Republicans have said they will not support a plan that raises taxes. The Assembly’s budget committee also approved a draft of the budget Tuesday and the full Assembly was expected to vote on it Thursday. 

Tuesday’s work by the committees is considered “the easy part,” said Senate budget chairman Steve Peace, D-El Cajon. 

Once each house approves its version of the budget, a two-house, six-member conference committee will try to put together a compromise that can reach Davis’ desk. 

Davis proposed a $98.9 billion spending plan that uses tax increases, borrowing and $7.6 billion in program cuts to fill the expected shortfall. Health programs and county governments would bear the brunt of the cuts. 

The plan would raise taxes on cigarettes and car registrations and would suspend a program that allows businesses to deduct losses from their income taxes. It also would shift more than $1 billion from current year spending to the next fiscal year to avoid suspending state education spending requirements. 

“Above all else, this budget is faithful to public education in this state,” said Sen. Jack O’Connell, D-Santa Barbara. 

Republicans, however criticized the plan, blaming the Legislature’s Democratic majorities and Davis for mismanaging the state’s finances during a fiscal boom and causing the current crisis. 

“If you spend every dollar that comes in during the good years, you are going to be in big trouble in the bad years,” said Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge. 

Although Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature, they need the votes of at least four GOP Assembly members and one Republican state senator to approve the budget by the required two-thirds vote. 

Once approved by lawmakers, the budget goes to Davis for his signature and for “blue-pencil” vetoes that remove certain items from the budget. Last year, Davis vetoed about $600 million in spending. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The Davis budget plan can be found at http://www.dof.ca.gov 

SACRAMENTO — Despite its claims of full compliance, the governor’s office apparently didn’t completely respond to a request for information from a committee investigating a potentially costly state contract, the panel’s chairman said Tuesday. 

“His response did not meet the threshold test of providing the committee what it needed,” said Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter. 

But Gov. Gray Davis’ chief spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said the governor’s office had fully complied with the committee’s request to the best of its ability. 

“A lot of the information requested we don’t have,” he said. “The attorney general’s office seized computers and so we don’t have e-mails and calendars from ... people whose computers were seized. 

“In some instances they did not specifically ask for something so we didn’t give it to them.” 

Davis’ legal affairs secretary, Barry Goode, said the governor’s office didn’t turn over some material relating to discussions and meetings that took place after the contract was signed last May 31. 

“Certain matters after that date are related to the ongoing negotiations with Oracle” Corp. to rescind the contract, Goode said. “We are in active discussions with respect to them and they are covered by the deliberative process privilege.” 

Davis’ office turned over 46 pages of information to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee last Friday afternoon. 

, saying it fully complied with a request for any records it had about a contract with Oracle. 

The $95-million, no-bid deal was supposed to save the state as much as $111 million through volume purchases and maintenance of computer database software. 

But the state auditor said last month that the contract could end up costing the state up to $41 million more than if it had maintained its previous software supply arrangements, a conclusion Oracle disputes. 

Besides the committee, the attorney general’s office is also investigating the deal. 

Florez sent a letter to Goode on May 13 asking for copies of any communications or documents relating to the Oracle deal, including any communications Davis had with Oracle representatives. 

The governor has denied any knowledge of the agreement before it was signed, and his office says there are no documents contradicting that statement. 

Most of the 46 pages that Davis’ office gave to the committee consisted of background information provided by Logicon Inc., an Oracle vendor, about the type of agreement signed by the state. 

The Davis material also included handwritten notes from a meeting that Davis aide Kari Dohn had last May with Logicon representatives and a copy of the memo, known as a governor’s action request, that was signed by several administration officials in support of the deal. 

Both Florez and another committee member, Assemblyman Bill Leonard, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said there was little new information in the material the governor provided. 

“They gave us 46 pages,” said Florez. “Of the 46, 43 was stuff we already had.” 

Leonard said Davis’ response “makes me wonder if there’s a policy in the governor’s office to not document actions, meetings and other kinds of activity.” 

Florez send another letter to Goode on Tuesday requesting calendar entries, meeting notes, phone logs, e-mails and other communications relating to the Oracle pact by this Thursday. 

“My initial review...indicates that the May 24, 2002 response from the governor’s office does not appear to fully comply with the document request,” Florez said. 

For example, Florez said, the governor’s initial response didn’t include calendar entries or notes for meetings involving the governor’s aides that the committee has had testimony about. 

The initial response also didn’t include any phone logs of telephone conversations about the agreement, even though the committee has had documents or testimony about such discussions, Florez added. 

“The response leaves unanswered whether the governor’s office maintains no such records or whether these records were not provided,” his letter said. 

Maviglio said only Davis and his chief of staff, Lynn Schenk, keep phone logs. 

LOS ANGELES — Existing single family homes sold at a sizzling pace and at record prices in April, according to the California Association of Realtors. 

For the second straight month, the median price of an existing single family home was above $300,000, a situation that, combined with a dwindling inventory, is pricing many buyers out of the market. 

Sales of existing homes increased 29.8 percent in April compared with the same period last year and 9.7 percent from last month, according to seasonally adjusted figures obtained from Realtor associations throughout California. 

The median price of a California home was $321,950 in April, a 26.1 percent jump from April 2001. 

“With only a two-month supply of homes for sale throughout the state, there simply isn’t enough inventory available to meet the demand for homes,” said CAR President Robert Bailey. 

The crunch was predictably higher in the San Francisco Bay area, where sales shot up 73 percent in April compared with a year ago. In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, sales surged nearly 120 percent in April. 

Monday, another real estate tracking agency reported that a mid-priced home in the San Francisco Bay area sold for $402,000 in April — topping the previous peak of $386,000 in March 2001 

Southern California prices also climbed to a new high, hitting a mid-range of $258,000 — up $1,000 from the high established in the previous month, according to monthly statistics compiled by DataQuick Information Systems. 

DataQuick’s survey is based on all home and condominium sales, including the sale of new homes, recorded by county recorders. 

The summer will bring no relief for struggling home buyers, CAR reported. 

“Low inventory, favorable mortgage interest rates and rapidly rising home price appreciation will continue to intensify the pace of home sales in the coming months, said CAR chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young. 

As buyers were priced out of many markets throughout the state, prices began to show huge spikes in historically more affordable areas such as Culver City, South Pasadena and Twenty-nine Palms, the report showed. 

“It’s a classic case of too many buyers,” said Art Perez, an associate at Cavanaugh Realtors in Culver City. “You had better be ready to pay full price for something that day because if you wait two or three days it might be sold.” 

Perez said spiraling prices are making it especially difficult for renters seeking to enter the home market. 

“The rent prices have gone up so much, that has pushed everything else up,” he said. “Now a condo that used to be $90,000 is $160,000. You used to be able to come into Culver City and buy a cute little house for $300,000. Now it’s $400,000. It’s a very freaky time.” 

Even buyers willing to pay full price are finding it tough to close sales as sellers hold out for buyers with large down payments, said Tom Rosas, an agent at Century 21 Grisham-Joseph in Whittier. 

“The market is so strong, they know they can wait for a 20 percent down buyer and get one,” Rosas said. 

CAR reported a two-month inventory of unsold detached single family homes in April, half the number for April 2001.

HOUSTON – After prosecutors spent three weeks quizzing a witness list packed with Arthur Andersen LLP employees as the government tried to prove obstruction of justice against the accounting firm, the defense has fired back with one of its own. 

Richard Corgel, a high-level executive based in the firm’s Los Angeles office, testified Monday that an Oct. 12 e-mail sent by in-house attorney Nancy Temple was not a tacit order to destroy documents — as prosecutors contend — but instead a routine housekeeping reminder. 

Corgel also defended Temple, whom prosecutors have labeled publicly their No. 1 witness to document destruction at Andersen last autumn as the Securities and Exchange Commission was gearing up an investigation into client Enron Corp. 

“She wanted to do what was right from a professional perspective, what was right from a document retention perspective,” said Corgel, who served with Temple and three others on an Andersen team dispatched in late October and early November to sort through auditing problems on the Enron account. 

Corgel also told the 16 members of the jury panel that he never saw or heard anyone order destruction of documents, and that he would have questioned someone who made such an order. 

Corgel was the first witness called by Andersen’s lawyers after prosecutors called 19 during the first three weeks of the plodding trial, including Temple and two others who refused to testify. The government’s last witness was FBI special agent Paula Schanzle, who endured a series of bruising questions during lead defense attorney Rusty Hardin’s cross-examination. 

Hardin got Schanzle to admit Monday she had not gone through all 29,250 deleted e-mails that had been reconstructed by Andersen, even though she told a grand jury a “vast majority” dealt with Enron. Defense attorneys contend she lied after their count determined only about one-third of the e-mails were related to Enron. 

Schanzle also was forced to identify six copies of a particular e-mail that had been saved by different Andersen employees after testifying Friday about another copy that had been deleted. One juror smiled broadly as Hardin kept presenting copy after copy that survived. 

“Ms. Schanzle, would you agree if there was any attempt to keep this information from the government, (Andersen is) not very good at it?” Hardin quipped. 

Schanzle, released from the stand midday Monday after taking her oath Friday, walked briskly out of the courtroom after Hardin had finished her off with an unusually loud “No more questions.” 

Prosecutors rested their case soon after the exchange. Hardin said he could call as many as 11 more witnesses after Corgel and expected to take the rest of the week laying out the firm’s case. 

“Mr. Corgel is out there to paint the face of the company and how things work (there),” Hardin told reporters.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bankrupt Excite@Home will auction off the last pieces of its defunct high-speed Internet access service Wednesday, putting the finishing touches on a fire sale that has extracted about $60 million from a business valued at $28 billion three years ago. 

The public auction, to be held at Excite@Home’s Redwood City headquarters, will close another chapter in one of the most exasperating failures during the dot-com bust. 

But it won’t end the strife stirred up by Excite@Home’s bankruptcy filing eight months ago. 

The company’s investors plan to pursue lawsuits blaming Excite@Home’s demise on the alleged misdeeds of its former cable partners, chiefly AT&T, Comcast and Cox Communications. The damages could run as high as $9 billion, according to a group of about 200 Excite@Home shareholders fighting to become the lead representatives in a class-action securities suit filed in a New York federal court.

WASHINGTON — Someone killed Chandra Levy, but there’s too little evidence to say how or who might have left her body on a rugged park hillside a year ago, Washington’s medical examiner said Tuesday. 

Six days after the 24-year old former intern’s remains were found in sprawling Rock Creek Park, Dr. Jonathan Arden ruled the death a homicide but said the exact cause may never be known. 

Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey emphatically said his investigators, who have been baffled by Levy’s disappearance for nearly 13 months, will find the killer. “We will solve this case, I guarantee you that,” Ramsey said at a news conference outside police headquarters. 

Three thousand miles away, more than 1,000 mourners joined Levy’s parents at a memorial for the former U.S. Bureau of Prisons intern in her hometown of Modesto, Calif. 

“Somebody went to extraordinary means to conceal Chandra’s body,” Billy Martin, the Levy family attorney, said after the service. “We hope that this case will not go unsolved.” 

Arden said he did not have enough evidence to say conclusively how Levy died, or whether she was killed where the remains were found. 

“However, the circumstances of her disappearance and her body on recovery are indicative that she died through the acts of another person, which is the definition of a homicidal manner of death,” Arden said. 

Later, in a telephone interview, he said Levy’s skull, which police reported was damaged, was fractured after she died. Among other potential causes of death, Arden said, “I did not see the evidence of a gunshot, stab wound or beating.” 

Other medical examiners said those telltale signs makes strangulation a more likely cause of death. Arden said strangulation is difficult to diagnose when examining only bones. 

The announcement “was pretty much what we expected,” said Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which is part of the investigation team. 

Among the hypotheses police are considering is that Levy was killed elsewhere and her body was dumped down the steep hill not far from a picnic and parking area, a law enforcement source said. Police have scoured the Grove 17 picnic area for clues.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Napoleon Beazley, whose death sentence for a murder committed at 17 stirred national debate over capital punishment for youths, was executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to spare his life. 

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Beazley looked toward Suzanne Luttig, the daughter of the victim, and said “no” before he was given a lethal injection. 

Beazley was convicted of killing the father of a federal judge during a 1994 carjacking. He repeatedly expressed remorse for shooting John Luttig, 63, while trying to steal the man’s Mercedes. 

“It’s my fault,” Beazley, 25, said during a hearing last month. “I violated the law. I violated this city, and I violated a family — all to satisfy my own misguided emotions. I’m sorry. I wish I had a second chance to make up for it, but I don’t.” 

Texas is one of five states that allow the death penalty for crimes committed by 17-year-olds. 

Before Tuesday, 18 inmates in the United States — including 10 in Texas — had been executed since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18. 

“Texas must recognize that the brutal practice of executing children is in complete and utter defiance of international law,” said Sue Gunawardena-Vaught, director of Amnesty International USA’s Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. 

In Austin, about 100 death penalty opponents rallied at the governor’s mansion to protest Beazley’s execution. 

Earlier Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 10-7 against recommending that Beazley’s sentence be commuted to life in prison and 13-4 against a reprieve.

WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — Rescuers hoisted two vehicles with four bodies inside from the murky Arkansas River on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the collapse of an interstate bridge to 13. 

Lightning, rain and rising waters hampered the rescuers, who picked their way through the muddy water searching for an unknown number of people still missing after an out-of-control barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge and knocked out a 500-foot section of highway. 

“We’re determined because we know there’s family members out there wondering if one of their own is in here,” said Dennis Splawn, a diver with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. 

The bodies of seven women and six men have been recovered from the waters below the ridge, said highway patrol Lt. Chris West. With the help of sonar, a crane had hoisted 10 vehicles from the pile of mangled concrete and twisted steel. 

A champion horse trainer and a police detective were among those killed, authorities said. 

About 10 families of people trapped in cars at the bottom of the river waited at the Webbers Falls City Hall for news. About a dozen vehicles plummeted into the water Sunday morning after the barge hit. 

Earlier Tuesday, an investigator said towboat crew members’ accounts support the towboat company’s contention that the pilot had blacked out. 

George Black of the National Transportation Safety Board said a crewman who visited with captain Joe Dedmon five to 10 minutes before the accident said everything seemed normal. 

Others who were not with the captain said they heard no alarm or change in the sound of the engine that would indicate he was trying to avoid a crash, Black said.

NEW DELHI, India — India sharply criticized a speech by Pakistan’s military leader as “disappointing and dangerous” on Tuesday and asserted that al-Qaida terrorists now are in disputed Kashmir. 

The nuclear-armed South Asian rivals also cranked up their war rhetoric after Pakistan test-fired another missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads into India. The HatfII, or Abdali, missile was the third such missile tested by Pakistan since Saturday. 

Despite international pressure, India said Tuesday it was unlikely that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would hold peace talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. 

“You cannot put a pistol of terrorism to my temple with the finger on the trigger and say, ’Dialogue with me, or I will release this trigger of terrorism,”’ Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to bring Vajpayee and Musharraf together during an Asian summit in Kazakhstan next week. Pakistan has accepted, but Singh reiterated India would not resume dialogue until Pakistan stopped attacks in India-controlled Kashmir by Pakistan-based Islamic militants. 

Also Tuesday, India’s defense minister said fighters from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and from Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban are in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. 

“We have information that the number of terrorists who are on the other side of the border ... (are) people who have fled from Afghanistan, al-Qaida men and Talibanis,” Defense Minister George Fernandes told Star News Television. 

Singh also warned that American forces in the region were not a deterrent to a possible strike on Pakistan. 

“The physical presence of U.S. troops in certain parts of Pakistan is clearly known to us ... and it is not an inhibiting factor in policy determination,” he said. 

Singh also restated India’s policy that it would not strike first with nuclear weapons if a war should erupt. “India has not ever spoken of nuclear weapons,” he said. 

In Washington, the U.S. military was worried that the dispute could interfere with its search for al-Qaida fighters, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are signs Pakistani troops are preparing to move toward Kashmir from the Pakistan-Afghan border, where they are helping with the search. 

After a NATO luncheon in Italy, Secretary-General Lord Robertson said President Bush, Putin and 18 other alliance leaders “share a deep common concern” and urged India and Pakistan “to de-escalate and resume talking together.”

JERUSALEM — A gunman sneaked onto the grounds of an Orthodox Jewish high school in the West Bank late Tuesday and killed three teen-agers, even as Israeli troops continued their daily raids into Palestinian towns. 

The man shot and killed three Israeli students outside a high school in the settlement of Itamar, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, settlers and rescue service officials said. The attacker was shot and killed by the settlement’s security chief. 

Hezi Katoa, a rescue service worker, told Israel Radio that they found one student hit by a number of bullets in the chest, and then two more “lying behind the building with bullet wounds all over their bodies.” All three were dead at the scene, he said. 

A few hours earlier, an Israeli motorist was killed and another wounded in a shooting attack, apparently by a Palestinian gunman, near the Jewish settlement of Ofra, said rescue services spokesman Yeruham Mandola. 

The violence accompanied repeated Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns in the West Bank. 

Late Tuesday, Israeli soldiers entered Beitunia, a suburb of the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinians said, and surrounded the house of a prominent Hamas leader. However, the leader, Hassan Yussuf, was not there. The Israeli military had no comment. 

In another development, Israel launched the spy satellite Ofek-5, displaying advanced missile capabilities and restoring a military eye in the sky after its last spy satellite burned up in the atmosphere about a year ago. 

Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay confirmed it was sent into space from a seaside Israeli air force base. It was launched by a Shavit missile, related to the long-range Jericho ground-to-ground missile. Foreign experts have said the Jericho can carry a nuclear warhead; Israeli officials have not commented on that. 

Israel’s latest sweep in the West Bank came after a Palestinian blew himself up outside an ice cream parlor and cafe crowded with women and children in a Tel Aviv suburb Monday, killing Ruth Peled, 56, and her 18-month-old granddaughter, Sinai Kenaan. 

The Al Aqsa Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as Jihad Titi, 18, a cousin of a leading Al Aqsa militant Mahmoud Titi, who was killed in an Israeli tank attack last week. 

On Tuesday, troops in armored personnel carriers and jeeps drove into Jenin and a nearby refugee camp at about 3 a.m. and left by midday. They arrested eight, including the local leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, Rami Awad. Soldiers also searched an Islamic school, seizing computer disks, residents said. 

There were heavy exchanges of fire with Palestinian gunmen. 

In one incident, a 55-year-old Palestinian civilian, who had come out of his home to watch the fighting, was shot in the leg before dawn Tuesday, witnesses said. Israeli troops opened fire on an ambulance trying to retrieve the wounded man, witnesses said; the army said it was checking that report. 

“We couldn’t bring him to the hospital until 8 a.m. and by then he was already dead,” said Ibrahim Dabaneh, director of emergency services in the city. 

In one deserted neighborhood, the sound of a Palestinian gunman’s Kalashnikov assault rifle echoed through the streets as Israeli armored vehicles fired heavy-caliber mounted machine guns toward the source of fire, and soldiers dashed across open ground toward the cover of an empty building. 

In its stairwell, about a dozen soldiers lay down and went to sleep. They had been up all night, waiting for order to enter Jenin, whose refugee camp was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles in Israel’s six-week West Bank offensive, Operation Defensive Shield, that ended earlier this month. 

In Bethlehem to the south, Israeli forces combed the town for the third straight day Tuesday, blocking off the Church of the Nativity to prevent gunmen from taking refuge there. During Israel’s earlier offensive, several dozen gunmen ran into the church ahead of Israeli forces, setting off a 39-day standoff that ended with the deportation of 13 of the militants. 

On Tuesday, Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians and discovered a bomb and some weapons in the Dheisheh refugee camp next to Bethlehem, Palestinian security officials said. 

The Israeli incursions have become an almost nightly occurrence. With the exception of the extended operation in Bethlehem, they usually last a few hours, resulting in the arrests of suspected militants. 

Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof admitted Tuesday that despite the arrest of thousands of suspected militants and the killing of dozens of wanted men, Operation Defensive Shield did not succeed in ending the militants’ ability to stage attacks. 

“We know now that there is nothing easier than to take a person bent on suicide and attach a bomb to him,” she told Israel TV. 

She denied that the Israeli military’s frequent incursions into Palestinian territory are a precursor of another full-scale operation. 

She said the defense establishment has a plan for a security fence between Israel and the West Bank and that “there should be a fence in the most sensitive parts (of the border) in a matter of weeks.” 

The border between Israel and the West Bank is largely open to infiltration, and to date Israel has avoided erecting physical obstacles for fear this might weaken its claim to at least some of the territory before a negotiated settlement. A fence would also leave many Jewish settlers on the other side from Israel. 

ROME — President Bush, in a one-on-one meeting inside the Vatican, told Pope John Paul II he is concerned about the Roman Catholic church’s standing in America where the church has been rocked by sex-abuse scandal. 

The frail 82-year-old pontiff reaffirmed “his faith in the spiritual resources of American Catholics,” a spokesman said, describing the leaders’ private discussion Tuesday. 

In a brief session before news cameras, John Paul labored to stand to bid Bush farewell with a quiet “God Bless America.” 

His parting words to the president: “I hope to be able to meet you again.” 

There have been reports that the ailing pope might consider resigning should his health worsen, although Vatican officials have denied that he has any such plans. 

Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets stood at attention, with 15th-century halberds at their sides, as Bishop James Harvey, an American ordained in Milwaukee, escorted the president through Vatican corridors of marble. 

“I will tell him that I am concerned about the Catholic Church in America, I’m concerned about its standing,” Bush told reporters before the meeting. 

“I say that because the Catholic Church is an incredibly important institution in our country.” 

Indeed, Bush has assiduously courted Catholic support — often meeting with local bishops when he travels outside Washington, inviting members of the church hierarchy to the White House — after splitting Catholic voters with Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 election. 

Roman Catholic voters are highly sought after because they tend to switch party allegiances from election to election depending on the candidate, and they often can tip the balance at the ballot box. 

Polls show Americans are disappointed by the church’s handling of accusations of sexual abuse of children by priests. 

Bush’s comments were his first on the scandal since March, when he said he was confident the church would “clean up its business.” 

At that time, he backed embattled Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, who has become a lightning rod for criticism since. “I respect him a lot,” Bush said in March, shortly after Law gave prosecutors the names of at least 80 priests accused of sexually abusing children. 

The president had no public comment after his meeting with John Paul, but White House press secretary Ari Fleischer confirmed that Bush delivered the message of concern as he said he would. 

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope, in turn, “wanted to express, despite difficulty of the moment, his faith in the spiritual resources of American Catholics committed to bear witness to the values of the Gospel in society.” 

Bush, in Rome for a NATO-Russia meeting earlier in the day, described John Paul as “a man of enormous dignity and compassion.” 

He presented the pope with a hand-painted silver medallion of the Madonna. John Paul gave Bush a pink coral statue of the Madonna and child. 

In the noisy clatter of camera shutters that accompanied their greeting, John Paul jokingly raised his hands to cover his ears and the president teased him: “They’ll make you look good, your Holy Father.” 

They briefly discussed the pope’s recent trip to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria. Behind closed doors, their discussion also included Russia and violence in the Middle East, Fleischer said. 

The visit was Bush’s last stop on a weeklong tour through Europe and Russia. He arrived at the White House on Tuesday evening and appeared happy to be home, scratching his two dogs, Spot and Barney, when they ran outside to greet him. 

WASHINGTON — Libya has offered to pay $10 million per family as compensation for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, lawyers representing the family said Tuesday. 

They said the Libyan offer was a “vast multiple” of settlements paid in any other aviation or terrorism case. 

At $10 million per family, the combined compensation would come to $2.7 billion. Of the 270 victims, 181 were Americans. 

The lawyers have been negotiating with the Libyans for years, with a view toward reaching a settlement that would permit the lifting of both U.N. Security Council and U.S. sanctions against Libya. 

The State Department has not been involved in the negotiations. A senior department official expressed doubt that the Bush administration would approve the arrangement. 

The New York-based Kriendler & Kriendler law firm, discussing the case publicly for the first time, outlined the status of the negotiations in a five-page letter to family members. Copies were made available to the news media. 

Under the agreement, the money would be placed in escrow and released piecemeal as the sanctions against Libya are revoked: 40 percent when U.N. sanctions were lifted, 40 percent with removal of U.S. commercial sanctions and 20 per cent when Libya was removed from the State Department’s list of sponsors of international terrorism. 

In England, the Rev. John Mosey, who lost his 19-year-old daughter, Helga, in the attack, said the money would go some way toward “lightening the burden” of his family’s loss. Mosey said, however, he would believe the money was forthcoming only when he saw a check, and in any case it would not deter the families from pressing their long-held demand for an independent inquiry.

ROME — NATO declared Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance Tuesday, embracing its former Cold War enemy as an ally in the battle against modern-day threats like terrorism. 

“Two former foes are now joined as partners, overcoming 50 years of division and a decade of uncertainty,” President Bush said as leaders of NATO’s 19 member-nations gathered with Russia to form the NATO-Russia Council. 

The arrangement gives Russia a voice — but not a veto — on a range of issues, including counterterrorism, the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, missile defense, arms control, peacekeeping, civil defense and search-and-rescue at sea. 

“We have come a long way from confrontation to dialogue, and from confrontation to cooperation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said. He called the agreement “only a beginning” and looked ahead to a greater role for Russia in NATO. 

The leaders sealed the agreement at the seaside Pratica di Mare air base. Italy deployed 15,000 security forces and mounted robust air and sea defenses to protect the 20 world leaders. Two Italian Tornado fighter jets escorted a Sudan Airways passenger jet out of Italian airspace after it failed to establish radio contact with air traffic controllers, an Italian military official said. 

NATO was founded in 1949 to contain communism and the Soviet Union. With the collapse of the Soviet empire, NATO has been reaching out to Russia.

SACRAMENTO — Public schools will be allowed to keep American Indian team names and mascots after the Assembly defeated a bill Tuesday that would have forced schools to give up the names. 

After hours of debate the bill, written by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, was defeated on a 35 to 29 vote. 

The measure would have required name changes at elementary, middle and high schools as well as community colleges and state universities. Schools on reservations would have been spared. 

Decisions are usually made by individual schools and critics said it should stay that way. 

“Is it the business of the state of California to take measures to ensure that no group is ever offended by the activities of another group?” asked Assemblyman Dick Dickerson, R-Redding. 

Supporters such as Goldberg said it is a question better resolved at the state level because Indian mascots promote a hostile learning environment, as well as gender and racial division. 

“Civil rights are not a matter of local control,” she said, “they are a matter of simple dignity.” 

Under the measure, about 100 California schools would have been forced to change names.  

Assemblyman David Cogdill, R-Modesto, said the bill should not have been brought before the Legislature. He said schools have long had Indian mascots and generations of students have been proud to identify with the names. 

“They have chosen to honor them,” he said. 

SACRAMENTO — A bill that could give state government significant new power over how and where its cities grow has cleared the Senate. 

The measure would create a state growth blueprint within two years. The plan would reward cities and counties that conserve open space and develop more efficiently. 

The bill, authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would concentrate growth in urban areas. It would encourage local governments to build in existing cities, mix housing with offices and shops and build housing close to public transportation. 

Local governments that adopt such “smart growth” will be given preference when applying for state competitive grants used for transit, infrastructure and parks. 

The bill, SB 1521, is being pushed by Gov. Gray Davis. It cleared the Senate on a 22-12 vote and will go through the Assembly committees on Local Government and Appropriations before going to the Assembly floor. 

“This will hopefully help with better land use planning and bring housing closer to jobs,” Kuehl said before the Senate vote. “I prefer smart growth to dumb growth.” 

Builders, local municipalities and the real estate industry have barraged the bill with attacks, saying it would take control away from cities and counties. 

“This is called extortion and at best it’s bribery,” said opponent Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Riverside. “Smart growth is just another word for no growth or slow grow. It will just make it less affordable.” 

SACRAMENTO — Agreeing that California’s primary election is too early to attract many voters, the Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would move the primary for state and congressional candidates from March to August. 

“Eight months between the primary election and the general election is just too long,” said Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine. “Voters lose interest. Qualified candidates do not run for office.” 

Senators voted 26-4 to send the Assembly a bill by Johnson that would move the primary for state and congressional candidates from the first Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August. 

The presidential primary would remain on the first Tuesday in March, giving the state three statewide elections in presidential election years: the presidential primary in March, the state and congressional primary in August and the general election in November. 

California used to hold its primary election in June, but lawmakers voted to move the primary to March to assure that California voters had a role in picking presidential nominees. In most years, presidential nominations were wrapped up by the time Californians voted in June. 

Lawmakers decided to keep the primary in March even in non-presidential election years. That led to California having the earliest primary election in the nation this year and a record-low voter turnout of 34 percent. 

“Like a department store pushing Christmas items in April, the March primary did not attract very much interest,” Johnson said. “It was simply too early for most voters.” He said moving the primary closer to the general election would increase voter interest, help candidates recruit campaign volunteers and reduce fund-raising pressure on candidates. 

But Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, questioned whether moving the primary to August would boost voter turnout. “In August families pack up and they leave town,” she said. “I’m concerned this is going to diminish the vote. I agree that we have to change the date of the primary, but I’m not convinced that August is the way to go.” 

Minority activists of numerous descents took to heart the idiom “strength in numbers” Monday and joined together on the steps of Old City Hall to speak out against the rising incidence of hate crime. 

Having recently swayed San Francisco leaders to channel more city dollars into preventing and responding to acts of religious and racial hatred, the coalition representing five different ethnic advocacies is now urging the city of Berkeley to do the same. 

Their multi-racial campaign follows a rash of post-September 11 hate incidents in the Bay Area, including Berkeley where coalition members say the number of hate crimes over the past two years is on track to quadruple the historical average. 

A March incident in which letters with phony anthrax were mailed to Hispanic organizations and an April series of bomb threats to Jewish temples tally into the 15 hate crimes that have occurred in Berkeley over the past four months. 

Among the measures urged Monday by the multi-racial coalition are response training for police officers, teacher preparedness in schools and the creation of living-room discussion groups in Berkeley neighborhoods. 

“Everyone needs to buy in to creating a response together,” insisted Jill Tregor, executive director of Intergroup Clearinghouse and a co-founder of the coalition. She emphasized the importance of having anti-hate programs that would reach out to as much of the city as possible. 

While no specifics on how the city should proceed were laid out at Monday’s gathering, the activist pleas came just one day before Berkeley’s City Council is expected to consider a hate crime policy of its own authorship. 

Two proposals are on tonight’s council agenda. 

The first is sponsored by Councilmember Kriss Worthington and calls for the formation of a specialized police task force that would address hate crimes, much like exists in San Francisco and Oakland. 

The second proposal is sponsored by Mayor Shirley Dean and directs police to amend their schedules in order to prioritize prevention and investigation of hate crimes, though it stops short of creating an exclusive police unit. 

Worthington was on hand at Monday’s gathering where he drew fast support for his plan urging the separate crimes unit. 

While Worthington said the city can’t afford anything less, Dean, who has put crime-fighting at the forefront of her young re-election campaign, has said that an exclusive hate crime unit is beyond the city’s current financial means. 

Osama Qasem, president of the Bay Area chapter’s American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a co-founder of the multiracial coalition, said that money spent fighting hate crime would pay for itself in other ways. 

“Keeping Berkeley’s reputation as a city of tolerance has a lot of economic value,” he noted. 

None of the hate-crime proposals has thus far identified a cost of implementation. 

Avoiding such details, the dozen or so activists at Monday’s gathering were staunch in their insistence that several minority groups be part of the effort to absolve hate. 

“The people who have been targeted have been a diversity of people,” said Mini Kahlon, representing the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, noting that uniting the various peoples would strengthen their political voice. 

The groups affirming the joint mission included the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, the Islamic Network Group, Chinese for Affirmative Action, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Intergroup Clearinghouse. 

Kahlon added that she would be pushing for more anti-crime programs in schools. “I think kids are getting hit particularly hard,” she said. 

She touted the Unlearning Hate program at Berkeley High School as a model for how other schools could use peer-counseling to address issues of race and religion. 

On hand with Councilmember Worthington was Councilmember Linda Maio who confirmed that the city was moving forward in its fight against hate crime. 

“What we’re engaged in is responding the way, I think, the community wants us to,” she said. 

City Council’s expected actions, in regard to hate crime, will be significant, Maio suggested, though she did not specify whether she favored creating a separate police unit or adding to existing police resources. 

Contact reporter at kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Cal defeated Arizona State, 3-0, Sunday afternoon in the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium to advance to its first-ever national championship game. It was also the Bears’ 55th win of the season, the most ever in the program’s 31-year existence.  

The Bears scored all three runs on one play in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs, runners ran on contact as freshman Jessica Pamanian’s dribbler to third was bare-handed by ASU’s Phelan Wright, who side-armed the throw off the mark to first. Freshman Kaleo Eldredge and junior Kristen Morley came in easily as right fielder Kristen Farber tried to field the ball off the fence along the first base line. Junior Jen Deering, who was pinch running for junior Veronica Nelson, crossed the plate when Farber attempted to throw out Pamanian at second.  

Senior pitcher Jocelyn Forest, who has pitched every game in the NCAA Tournament, threw her sixth one-hitter of the season and her 12th shutout of the year. In seven innings, she struck out four batters and walked none for her 34th complete game in 2002.  

Wright led off the top of the second inning with a bloop single to center field, but that’s all that the Sun Devils could muster. ASU had no other base runners after stranding Wright.  

Forest, who collected her personal-best 28th win of the season, didn’t dominate the Sun Devils’ lineup with strikeout after strikeout as she has done on many occasions this postseason, but instead, forced many batters into pop flies with a rise ball that jumped more than usual.  

Four different Bears collected hits on the day, including Eldredge (1-for-3), who is on a four-game hitting streak.  

Cal faces the winner of the second semifinal game between Florida State and Arizona. The Bears took two of three in the regular season from the 2001 defending national champion Wildcats, and won 1-0 against the Seminoles Friday.  

The national championship game is slated for Monday at 10:15 a.m., live on ESPN.

Historical Highlight 

On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets — Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne — were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada. 

On this date 

In 1533, England’s archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid. 

In 1863, the first black regiment from the North left Boston to fight in the Civil War. 

In 1892, the Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco. 

In 1937, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California. 

In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain. 

In 1940, during World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces. 

In 1972, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77. 

In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky. 

In 1985, David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers (he was freed 17 months later). 

Ten years ago 

The United States offered $9 million in aid to victims of the fighting in former Yugoslavia. The House of Representatives voted to lift the government’s ban on using aborted fetuses for tissue transplantation research, but the tally fell short of a veto-proof majority. 

Five years ago 

In Denver, Timothy McVeigh’s attorneys rested their case in the Oklahoma City bombing trial. President Clinton paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan with a speech in the Netherlands in which he urged today’s leaders to revive economies in the former Soviet bloc. 

One year ago 

President Bush honored America’s veterans with the Memorial Day signing of legislation to construct a World War II monument on the National Mall. U.S. Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., died at age 74. 

Today’s Birthdays 

Actress Carroll Baker is 71. Actor John Karlen is 69. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 64. Singer Gladys Knight is 58. Singer Billy Vera is 58. Singer John Fogerty is 57. Country singer Gary Stewart is 57. Actress-director Sondra Locke is 55. Singer Roland Gift is 40. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV series “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 40. Country singer Phil Vassar is 40. Rapper Chubb Rock is 34. Singer Kylie Minogue is 34. Actor Glenn Quinn (“Angel”) is 32. Actress Monica Keena is 23. Actor Joseph Cross is 16. 

To the Editor: 

I left south Vietnam in 1971. However, the last American soldier to die in that war was in 1976. I come to this wall often and always leave deeply disturbed as I watch my own reflection in the black marble, standing there reading the names: Euro American, Native American, Arab American, African American, Latino American, Asian American, and others all American.  

Panel after panel, tears still fall after all these years, my tears fall not just for these soldiers of an unfortunate war but for all men and women in uniform now poised in many countries and along many borders to fight for freedom.  

I cry also for the governments whose policies include war. While I was living in south Vietnam I learned a very important lesson: the Vietnamese always knew who to blame, not the American people, not the American soldier, but the American government.  

I cry today because the American people have not learned this lesson and are engaged in a process of hate-building directed against the people of many nations, rather than tackling tough issues of government reform.  

This lack of foresight will diminish our humanity as a nation, and in years to come we will only be remembered as warmongers.  

As I touch the stone and rub my fingers along the engravings I feel the anguish of each of these families and the families of people in uniform who die for the policies of their country not necessarily for freedom. 

Actually in 2002, I have trouble finding a war that is being fought for freedom, for oil, for religious pride, for land. but not for freedom.  

My tears get warmer in the Washington DC sun and I walk to the booth where veterans sell memorabilia.  

Looking for a particular bumper sticker my eyes fall on one that reads “ will go 10,000 miles to smoke out a camel.”  

I wipe my tears and move on knowing that I will be coming back to the wall for the rest of my life to pray, to reflect and to hope that maybe there will be peace sometime in the next seven generations and that all I can do is to work towards that goal every remaining, living day of my life.  

Boona Cheema 

Berkeley 

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

Human Rights At Home and Abroad: A Strategy For Peace 

An educational forum to probe the relationship of the U.S. and the U.N. 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall of Humanity 

390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph) 

Oakland 

Free 

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 

May 30- June 1

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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

Healing/Tibetan Yoga 

"Stimulating Healing and Renewal through Tibetan Yoga" 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Ice Cream Social 

An annual school PTA fundraiser 

Rosa Parks Elementary School 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

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

Human Rights At Home and Abroad: A Strategy For Peace 

An educational forum to probe the relationship of the U.S. and the U.N. 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall of Humanity 

390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph) 

Oakland 

Free 

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 

May 30- June 1

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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

Healing/Tibetan Yoga 

"Stimulating Healing and Renewal through Tibetan Yoga" 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Ice Cream Social 

An annual school PTA fundraiser 

Rosa Parks Elementary School 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

Free 

There is no Memorial Day parade through downtown Berkeley, but one local resident made sure people remembered there was a holiday to commemorate. 

Travis Ratliff, a UC Berkeley Student, did some errands around Shattuck and University Avenues Monday morning. His “Proud To Be American” hat and “We The People” shirt were regular attire, he insisted, but the 3’x5’ American flag he carried on a pole was for special occasions. 

“I believe in America,” said Ratliff, who has carried the flag through other cities on national holidays, but never before in Berkeley. 

“It’s been really great just walking around with the flag. I just passed a couple of homeless guys who started singing the national anthem when they saw me,” exclaimed Ratliff, who said that carrying the flag meant more to him since September 11. 

But Elsewhere in the city, Berkeleyans seemed more inclined to enjoy a day with friends and family, than flaunt their patriotism. 

“It’s nice to have a day off from school,” said Colin Epstein, a Berkeley High School Student. His sentiment was echoed by other students playing a baseball game in West Berkeley. 

At Ohlone Park, Pedro and Marrell Alvarez celebrated a rare day together with their toddler.  

“We are immigrants, and we don’t really celebrate this day at all except that it is a good opportunity to enjoy being together,” said Marrell, whose husband is a hotel worker, and often works on major holidays. 

Berkeleyans may not have been giving the usual answers about Memorial Day, but many enjoyed the traditional holiday activity. 

Barbecue grills at the Berkeley Marina and Aquatic Park were filled by late morning, forcing Jacy Lockhart and his friends to scramble to find an available spot. 

“We spent an hour and a half going from one park to another,” said Lockhart who finally found space at James Kenny Park. His barbecue was still being delayed, however, while he tried to contact four friends who had walked to the Marina to meet him.  

“Somewhere there are four guys wandering aimlessly looking for an open grill,” joked Lockhart. 

At Aquatic Park, several people enjoyed a pick-up game of frisbee golf, in which players try to throw the disc into a garbage bucket. Most of the players didn’t seem interested in the holiday.  

“I hope somebody cares, because I don’t, Nathan Smith said. 

One of his fellow players did care. Bob Mann served in the Marine Corps for three years in the 1980’s. “Today brings back a lot of memories,” said Mann who as a member of the Marine Corps honor guard, participated in memorial services for the corpses of 200 marines who had just been flown back after the soldiers were killed at their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.  

Despite Mann’s experience, he was not bothered by the Smith’s statement. “That’s why we were doing it, so you have the right to do what you want. Isn’t that the point,” Mann said. 

INDIANAPOLIS — Preening and playing to the cameras, Helio Castroneves enjoyed the spoils of winning the Indy 500. 

Plotting and refusing to abandon hope, runner-up Paul Tracy figured there’s still a chance he might be declared the real champion. 

It was Castroneves’ day Monday, however, after an Indy Racing League official rejected a protest filed by Tracy’s team and upheld the Brazilian’s disputed victory. 

League vice president of operations Brian Barnhart said there was no conclusive proof Tracy had pulled ahead of Castroneves by the time the yellow flag came out on the 199th lap of Sunday’s race. 

Issue closed? Not necessarily. 

Tracy’s team has five days to appeal. At the champion’s dinner Monday night, Tracy accepted the second-place award, but was talking as though he still has a chance at being named the winner. “I think the race might still be ongoing,” Tracy said.  

To the Editor: 

How absurd! The very idea! 

That was my reaction to the travesty of the attempt to chop up the UC Theatre into numerous units. 

Do they not realize what the personal and moral cost would be of obliterating this gem from the numerous landmarks of Berkeley? Granted, it is somewhat seedy to a degree, but that can be corrected with the right amounts of vision and foresight. Thank goodness for people like Steven Finacom (May 23)---Berkeley's planners could do far worse than considering his remarks. 

Dividing the UC into numerous---boxes---would not be any kind of smart "progress;" rather, it would simply be another sad chapter of the blandification of our society, which we hardly need more of.  

This would be especially ironic in Berkeley's case, for there is at least one Berkeley example of one former landmark theater that's now a sad ghost of what it once was---remember the UA (United Artists)? 

Garrett Murphy 

Oakland

Don Nunes didn’t know where he was going to sleep last night. As a truck driver making a stop in the Bay Area, his choices are severely limited. 

His options will dwindle even further, if the Berkeley City Council passes a proposed measure on Tuesday to install “No Overnight Parking” signs on University Avenue west of the freeway exchange. 

For truckers such as Nunes, that stretch of road, which splits portions of the proposed Eastshore State Park and is located right next to the Interstate 80 on-ramps, is an popular overnight spot. 

“This seems like a reasonable place,” said Nunes, who claimed he had never stayed overnight on the street. 

Councilmembers are expected to disagree with his assessment. Two are already on record stating that the makeshift truck stop is not appropriate on a city street next to a proposed state park. 

“I don’t think its a terrible problem, but it will be if we don’t nip it in the bud,” said Councilmember Betty Olds, who sponsored the measure.  

According to Olds, there are usually at least two or three trucks pulled to the side of the road every night. Often the trucker will deposit the container at a warehouse and park the truck cabin on the street. 

“I go to the Marina a couple of times a week, and the trucks look awful along University Avenue,” Olds said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington agreed with Olds, calling the sight of the truck cabins a blight. “I always feel so upset that all these gigantic trucks are ironically parked next to a sign that says ‘coming soon Eastshore State Park’.” 

Nunes understands the councilmembers’ position.  

“Some truckers abuse what is available,” said Nunes, who acknowledged that some of his cohorts occasionally leave their diesel engines running while they are pulled over to work their range and television.  

Berkeley would not be the first state to impose regulations inhibiting truckers from staying overnight on city streets. 

According to Nunes, during the last several years cities across the country have tightened overnight parking rules, but that restrictions in the Bay Area are particularly burdensome because there are no official sites to spend the night.  

“There aren’t too many stops around here,” said Nunes, who was considering parking his truck overnight at abandoned lot in Pleasanton. According to Nunes, if he didn’t choose the Pleasanton lot, the closest full service truck stop is near Modesto. 

Olds understood the drivers’ plight, but thinks the parking restrictions are necessary. “I do sort of feel sorry for them, but not so sorry that I want a bunch of truck cabs on University Avenue.” 

The measure is on the council’s consent calendar, and is expected to be approved. If it passes, Olds estimated that the “No Overnight Parking” signs could be in place within a week. 

SACRAMENTO — No matter what the Sacramento Kings believe, Kobe Bryant knows it’s more than luck keeping the Los Angeles Lakers on track for their third straight championship. 

With Robert Horry’s riveting 3-pointer at the buzzer in Game 4, the Lakers won 100-99 Sunday to even the Western Conference finals heading to Game 5 at Arco Arena on Tuesday night. 

The Kings, who blew a 24-point lead, were mystified and infuriated by the twist of fate that sent the loose ball straight toward Horry at the 3-point arc. 

If not for that bounce, the Kings said repeatedly, Los Angeles would be on the ropes in a series that’s living up to the expectations of those who think it will decide the NBA title. 

“I don’t think it matters whether they think it was a lucky shot or not,” Bryant said Monday. “I think it was a combination of skill and a little luck, which we earned because we worked to get back in the game.” 

That hard work — including Bryant’s physical defensive play after he was matched up with Kings point guard Mike Bibby — set the stage for a turn of momentum that could crumple the Kings. 

“It was a big shot, and it’ll always be remembered,” Kings guard Doug Christie said. “But it’s easier to forget in the playoffs. Plus, there’s only one day in between. We’ll get past it.” 

That’s easier said than done. The Kings spent Monday bolstering their collective mental state, which was sorely tested by Horry’s shot. Sacramento led for nearly 47 minutes, from the first three baskets until the moment Horry’s shot settled in the net. 

“It’s a recovery process from a loss like that,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “You have to deal with it, and however they deal with it is how they’re going to move on from there.” 

The outcome was another affirmation of the sense of destiny that follows any team with two championships. Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal both said they had no doubt Horry’s shot would fall — though neither superstar looked away from the hoop. 

Jackson was worried in the seconds preceding Horry’s shot. On the final possession, Bryant missed on a drive into the lane and O’Neal was short on a putback. Either shot would have tied the score. Then Vlade Divac blindly batted the ball to Horry. 

Destiny, Jackson knows, won’t take a team very far if its stars can’t come through in such situations. 

“Shaq could have been rushed or tired. I didn’t ask him,” Jackson said.  

To the Editor: 

Hanan Eisenman, a spokesperson of the UC Berkeley president's office has told the press that two U.C. students were dropped from the overseas study program after being arrested and detained by the Israeli army at a protest outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (they are still in Israeli custody). 

Bethlehem, some readers may recall, is not in Israel and Israel has no legal jurisdiction to arrest anyone there for protesting anything.  

Though the students were disenrolled for “violating University directives”, I wonder how Mr. Eisenman justifies to himself deserting these young people “for their own protection” in a time of great peril to them? Perhaps it is easier for him if he is a Zionist, or not a parent. Regardless, it is always a wonder to me that people like Mr. Eisenman are willing to take good money to act like fools while covering for the callousness of their bosses.  

Someday, I hope, humans will, as a species, grow beyond such betrayal and self-denigration. 

Marc Sapir 

Berkeley

RIVERSIDE — A University of California, Riverside student, who had been detained by Israel after trying to provide humanitarian aid to armed Palestinians during a church siege in Bethlehem, was back in the United States on Monday, his father said. 

Nauman Zaidi was released Sunday from an Israeli prison and deported to New York along with UC Berkeley student Robert O’Neill, 21, who had joined the 26-year-old Zaidi in Bethlehem. 

“We are naturally very happy,” Zaidi’s father, Nasim Zaidi, said Monday. “We supported the action he took. We are really proud of him.” 

Zaidi and O’Neill were among 10 activists removed from the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank on May 10 as the standoff between armed Palestinians and Israeli soldiers ended after 39 days.  

Zaidi and O’Neill had entered the church a month after the siege started.  

The activists were carrying food to 150 Palestinian militants and civilians, including clerics, in the church. 

Zaidi and four other Americans had been detained in Massiyahu Prison while they fought the terms of their deportation, the U.S. State Department said earlier this month. 

University officials said Zaidi, a biology student, broke rules banning students studying overseas from traveling to the West Bank for safety reasons. Zaidi and O’Neill had been studying at UC’s Cairo program when they went to the church. They have since been dropped from the program. 

The students have not been expelled and only will need to fill out some forms to gain readmission to their schools, said a UC spokesman. 

Students at UC Riverside last week described Zaidi as a hero and demanded he be allowed back into school. The elder Zaidi said university officials told him “they would be more than happy to take him back.” 

Nasim Zaidi added that his son could return to Cairo to finish a few weeks of religious studies at the American University. He expected his son to return to the family’s Rancho Cucamonga home in late June. 

To the Editor: 

Ms. Block appears to have gotten the mean edge of the Berkeley media 

censorship wedge. Sure, Susan Block, EdD., whose books and articles are in public libraries' collections, aren't the greatest production-wise (I recommend OXYGEN Network's Sue Johanson's Sunday Night Sex Show). The real irony is that B-TV has been airing and citizens apparently not objecting to the rampant sexism conveyed in the Isla Vista RAW material. Isla Vista is a community adjacent to Santa Barbara and the University of California, Santa Barbara; most inhabitants are affiliated with the University of California.  

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

Berkeley

BERKELEY — Officials at the University of California at Berkeley say they are  

pleased with preliminary enrollment numbers, which show that a record number of students have signed up to take summer courses. 

The university's summer session starts Tuesday. Figures collected so far indicate that nearly 40 percent of those enrolled will be students at UC universities, marking a record. 

The figure is based on enrollment data, which show that so far 9,000 students have signed up to participate in the five schooling sessions offered during the summer. On average, 25 percent of those who enroll in summer sessions are students from UC Berkeley or other UC schools. 

The numbers are encouraging, summer school officials say, because it could help meet the university's goals of providing education to the so-called “Tidal Wave II” students -- which will add as many as 60,000 students, a 40 percent increase, to the UC system by 2010. 

Officials say that summer session enrollment is one way that the school can offer services to more students while maintaining a manageable size and meeting enrollment caps reached in agreements with the city of Berkeley 

Officials say that a reason for the spike in summer enrollment may be that the state legislature once again has provided money that allows the university to waive the $325 dollar enrollment and lab fees for UC students.

ARCATA — Eric Striedieck’s team was making good time in the race when disaster struck — the 10-foot, human-powered sculpture they were piloting over Humboldt Bay sank, and they were overtaken by a 14-foot iguana. 

A bizarre, recurring bad dream? No, it’s the Kinetic Sculpture Race, Humboldt County’s wacky 34-year-old tradition of racing people-powered art. 

Racers in this raucous three-day, 38-mile event take months to design and craft their vehicles — most of which resemble pontoons strapped to a bicycle, topped with a papier-mache mascot. The creations must survive highway driving, sand dunes, mud flats and two water crossings — the ultimate challenge for many of the artistic contraptions. 

If they don’t make it, racers always can try for the next-best prize: best bribe. 

Striedieck’s team, the Bikin’ Fools, a group of mountain-biking friends from Calistoga, returned this Memorial Day weekend — one of 43 entries in the race, which begins in Arcata and ends in Ferndale, nearly 300 miles north of San Francisco. Racers were gearing up to complete the final leg Monday. 

It is, said Striedieck, a “grand exercise in serious frivolity. It provides a great escape from the heaviness of the world otherwise.” 

The first Kinetic Sculpture Race was held in 1969, when Ferndale artist and gallery owner Hobart Brown challenged a handful of artists to build and race mobile sculptures. Since then, Brown’s creation has inspired 11 other races in California, Maryland, Oregon and as far away as Australia and Poland, and brings in about $2 million annually to Humboldt County. 

In late 2001, Brown turned the day-to-day operations over to a nonprofit organization, the Humboldt Kinetic Association. The “Glorious Founder” remains involved as a consultant. 

SACRAMENTO — After vetoing workers’ compensation reforms for three years, Gov. Gray Davis this year declared the legislation long overdue and signed the labor-friendly bill into law. 

Why the change? 

Finally, Davis said, he received a reasonable compromise after the first, second and third measures would have cost businesses and insurers too much. 

This year, the fourth workers’ compensation bill he received was a reasonable compromise that benefits both workers and business had finally been reached, Davis said. 

While labor and business representatives agree the bill was a compromise, some political observers said the flip flop had more to do with Davis’ incremental approach to government and his uncanny ability to wring the most political dollars out of every player involved in an issue. 

“It’s an election year. Doesn’t this make him look like a good guy?” said Cher McIntyre, director of advocacy for San Francisco-based Consumer Action. “It’s pretty straightforward that Davis is going to do what’s politically expedient.” 

On the road to workers’ compensation reform, Davis collected more than $20 million in campaign contributions from labor unions, the insurance industry, attorneys groups and business interests that all have a stake in workers’ compensation costs. 

But labor’s $4 million in contributions didn’t seem to sway the governor, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Council. 

“As an insider, I have to honestly say that it is remarkable how little money seems to influence his decisions,” Pulaski said. “That frustrates a lot of people who give money.” 

It also may make fund-raising easier for Davis, who avoids excluding any interest. 

Davis wouldn’t have won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination four years ago without union support, but when he reached office, labor leaders criticized him for ignoring their priorities. Each workers’ compensation veto came as “big disappointments,” said Pulaski. This year, Davis’ ability to reform workers’ compensation will certainly be touted as a reason for workers to re-elect him, he said. 

Like Pulaski, Stanley Zax, chairman of Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Zenith Insurance Co., the state’s fourth-largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance, said the $200,000 he’s given Davis during the past four years didn’t buy political influence, just an opportunity to be heard. 

“I don’t contribute to anybody who doesn’t come to my office and sit down and talk to me about different issues, but the governor makes his own decisions,” said Zax, who has donated more than $1 million to a variety of campaigns in California since 1998. “I never had a discussion with him about whether he should sign or not sign a workers’ compensation bill. Never.” 

Money just gives him a chance to share his ideas, Zax said. 

“There ain’t nobody I know who’s willing to come talk to me about public policy because my name is Stanley Zax and I’m just sitting here,” he said. “Obviously they want money for their campaign. I don’t find that but kind of the logical end result of our system.” 

Davis has repeatedly said that contributions help him run for office, but do nothing to influence his political decisions. 

Workers’ compensation laws ensure that employees who are hurt at work get a fixed amount of money to avoid lawsuit. The laws also provide benefits for dependents of workers hurt or killed on the job. 

Insurance companies and major employers in California had opposed the increases, arguing that they would cost them too much, while labor representatives said their workers needed to be assured of more money if hurt. 

For more than a decade, workers’ compensation has been a sore issue in state politics. In 1991, under Gov. Pete Wilson, workers’ compensation emerged as the sticking point in the prolonged budget debate with Wilson charging that the Legislature had been “corrupted” by campaign contributions over the issue. 

Fred Main, general counsel for the California Chamber of Commerce, said he was more surprised at Davis’ three years of vetoes than the signed law this spring. 

“Davis is a Democrat,” Main said. “Democrats are concerned about the impact of organized labor. Organized labor was a strong supporter for the change. The governor wants to make sure his base is strong for him.” 

The new reforms, which take effect on Jan. 1, 2003, will eventually pump an extra $2.5 billion into the statewide compensation system, raising maximum benefits for injured workers from today’s $490 a week to $602 next year and $840 in 2006. After 2006, automatic hikes would follow the state’s average wage increases. The bill also doubles death benefits to a maximum of $320,000. 

While the increases are significant, the bill only raises California from 49th to about 40th in the country in terms of the level of benefits. 

Doug Heller, an advocate at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, Calif., said Davis faced “severe embarrassment” this year if he vetoed it again because there was a serious threat of a ballot initiative. 

In addition, although opposed by the insurance industry, the reforms were structured in a way that they aren’t going to have a major financial impact on insurers or large businesses. 

“It was a palatable compromise for all parties,” said Nicole Mahrt, spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association. 

Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, said Davis realizes he can raise as much money as he wants. 

“But to solidify his support, he needs labor,” Stern said. “These are people who get out the votes, and in an election year, votes are even more important than money.” 

LOS ANGELES — AIDS Healthcare Foundation, one of the largest providers of specialized care for HIV patients in the United States, said it will bar GlaxoSmithKline from marketing drugs at its outpatient sites to protest the company’s pricing policies. 

Although the British-based company offers reduced prices for AIDS drugs sold in the developing world, the foundation claims the drug manufacturer still charges twice as much as its competitors — an allegation GlaxoSmithKline counters by noting it makes no profits on those sales. 

By barring GlaxoSmithKline sales representatives from its physicians’ offices, the foundation hopes to block the main channel the company uses to inform doctors directly about new products. 

“Glaxo’s actions have put it outside the bounds of corporate responsibility,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the foundation that serves thousands of patients in California, New York and Florida. 

The cost to treat a single AIDS patient with a combination of Glaxo drugs is nearly $2,000 a year but easily could be cut to $500, according to Cesar Portillo, a foundation spokesman. He said increasing the availability of the drugs would go a long way to reducing the death toll from AIDS. 

Many pharmaceutical companies discount drugs in the developing world, and GlaxoSmithKline acknowledges that some generic AIDS drugs do sell in the developing world for half the price of its comparable products. 

But the company said it has reduced prices by as much as 90 percent and does not make money on AIDS medications is sells to the developing world. 

“You have to cover your basic costs of manufacturing,” spokeswoman Nancy Pekarek said. “You can’t just give it away for the long term. You have to ensure there’s going to be a stable supply.” 

Pekarek said she regretted the foundation’s move, but did not expect it will have any effect on the company’s sales force. 

GlaxoSmithKline charges $2 for a day’s supply of Combivir tablets, a combination of the drugs AZT and 3TC. A generic version costs about $1. In the United States the list price for Combivir is $17.23 a day, Pekarek said. 

The foundation said it also targeted GlaxoSmithKline for failing to make any major charitable donation to help people with AIDS in the developing world. 

Pekarek said the charge is false and that between 1992 and 2001 the company donated $55 million to groups that provide education, care and support to AIDS patients in some 50 developing countries. 

One of the world’s largest drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline produces prescription drugs such as the anti-depressant Paxil, and over-the-counter products, such as Aquafresh toothpaste. 

VACAVILLE — In a gleaming drug factory rising out of a California pasture, thousands of genetically engineered Chinese hamster cells multiply into the billions as they snake through 20 miles of pipes, tubes and giant brewers’ vats called “bioreactors.” 

Through a series of filters and chemical reactions, the human proteins created in these hamster ovary cells are sucked out, purified and turned into the blockbuster cancer drug Herceptin as well as two other protein-based therapies. 

Combined with another factory in South San Francisco, the new plant gives Genentech Inc., the ability to brew in about a month nearly 200,000 liters worth of hamster cells spliced with human genes. 

These hardy cells are the industry standard for manufacturing protein-based drugs because of their ability to multiply quickly. 

And nobody brews more cells than Genentech, which controls half the world’s bioreactor capacity. Its position is so dominant that Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotech company, is leaning on No. 2 Genentech for manufacturing help. 

“That’s a great position to be in,” said David Ebersman, a Genentech senior vice president in charge of operations. 

Demand for the 30 protein-based drugs now on the market far outstrips the industry’s production capacity. And with a good portion of the 99 protein-based drugs now in late-stage human trials expected to hit the market soon, the shortage will get much worse before it gets any better. 

By 2005, the industry will need about four times the capacity it has now, predicts analyst David Molowa of J.P. Morgan Chase. He and other analysts aren’t optimistic that future demand will immediately be met. 

The expansion plans of a handful of companies, such as Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Inc., which is building a 120,000-liter plant in North Carolina, will still leave more demand than capacity, Molowa said. 

There simply are not enough of the large, brewery-like fermenters to go around. 

Some companies are exploring creative solutions, experimenting with growing the human proteins in tobacco and other plants, and in the milk of goats and cows. But any breakthroughs in these “transgenic” experiments are at least a decade away. 

SACRAMENTO — Proposed state budget cuts could leave local governments scrambling for cash to prevent slashing services, and some officials say raising the sales tax may be an unpleasant, but necessary, option. 

Officials in the San Francisco Bay area and across the state acknowledged that the local ability to tack on as much as a cent and a half of sales tax per dollar in some counties is the only way to boost revenues quickly on their own. 

For most urban counties, a sales tax hike could generate tens of millions of dollars a year. But even the slightest mention of such an increase raises hackles. 

“Increasing taxes during an economic downturn is one of the most damaging actions that California can take,” said Larry McCarthy, president of the California Taxpayers’ Association. “Tax and fee increases will only retard economic recovery.” 

Talk of a sales tax hike comes less than 18 months after the state cut the tax rate a quarter-cent in 2001 because it had built a huge budget surplus. 

The state had to reinstate a quarter-percent of its basic sales tax rate on Jan. 1, after reducing it for just a year. The rate automatically went down while the state’s budget surplus exceeded revenues by 3 percent but went back up amid the burgeoning deficit. 

The state imposes a basic, combined state and local sales tax of 7.25 percent on most retail transactions, such as purchases of clothing, household goods and cars. Of that, 5 percent goes to the state’s general fund, and the cities and counties divide the rest. 

Local elected officials in many counties and a few cities, with the approval of voters, have boosted the sales tax in small, varying increments to an average of about 8 percent statewide. But local officials can increase it further to a state-mandated cap of 8.75 percent in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and to 9 percent in San Francisco and 9.25 percent in San Mateo County, because of provisions tied to earlier sales-tax augmentation measures. 

“These are dire times,” said Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Scott Haggerty. “If anything on the magnitude of what we’re going through this year continues into the next fiscal year, then I think that’s when you’re forced to have to convince the voters that you need help.” 

Representatives of the California State Association of Counties and the California League of Cities said sales tax increases would bring in much more money than increases in governments’ other limited, fund-raising options, such as user fees and service charges. 

State and local revenues stem principally from taxes, such as those on corporate and personal income and on property, over which local governments have little or no control. 

“There’s not much else,” said Jean Korinke of the League of California Cities. “It’s (sales tax) one of the few sources of revenue that they (local officials and voters) could possibly impact directly.” 

And sales taxes are a substantial source of income, providing nearly 10 percent of county tax revenue and about a third of cities’ general-purpose tax funds, according to state tax and finance agencies. If each county in the state raised its sales tax a quarter of a cent, $1.2 billion would be generated for local governments. 

But any mention of a tax increase is like a declaration of war to business and taxpayer groups, already upset by the $2 billion in tobacco tax and vehicle license fee increases that Gov. Gray Davis has proposed to help close a $23.6 billion deficit in the $98.9 billion budget for 2002-03. 

WASHINGTON — The widespread detention of mostly Arabs and Muslims after the September terrorist attacks has hurt America’s ability to criticize human rights violations in other countries, Amnesty International charges in a report being released Tuesday. 

The annual report on worldwide human rights violations criticized the indefinite detainment of more than 1,100 individuals since the attacks in New York and Washington. 

The actions have been taken in an attempt to find links to terrorists, but eight months after the attacks only a handful of individuals have been charged with a crime. 

“Citizens around the world suffer the consequences when the U.S. defaults on its responsibility to promote human rights,” said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. 

Schulz said the actions of the U.S. government as part of its war on terrorism “provide a de facto green light for other nations to ignore fundamental human rights standards.” 

In addition to the detention of hundreds of Arabs in the United States, the human rights groups accused the Bush administration of “selective recognition” of the Geneva Convention which governs the treatment of prisoners in time of war. 

The group criticized the refusal of the Bush administration to classify the Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay as prisoners of war. It also scolded the administration for leaving open the possibility of bringing some of the Guantanamo prisoners before military tribunals. 

Separately, the report documented a decline in the number of countries that used the death penalty, from 40 countries in 1997 to 27 last year, including the United States. And the group also found a decrease in the number of nations using torture on prisoners, from 90 percent in 2000 to 73 percent last year. 

WASHINGTON — Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain a chemical that kills the bacteria responsible for most stomach cancer, say researchers, confirming the dietary advice that moms have been handing out for years. 

In laboratory tests the chemical, sulforaphane, killed helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that causes stomach ulcers and often fatal stomach cancers. 

And the good news is there appears to be enough of it in broccoli sprouts and some varieties of broccoli to benefit people who eat the vegetables. 

“The levels at which we tested it ... are such that those could be achieved by eating broccoli or broccoli sprouts. It’s a reasonable level that we think would be reached in the stomach,” said Jed W. Fahey of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

The findings are reported in Tuesday’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 

“I feel quite comfortable suggesting people eat more fruits and vegetables, specifically cruciferous vegetables, specifically broccoli,” Fahey said. “We know it’s safe and healthy ... we know sulforaphane is effective in protecting against cancers.” 

Dr. Paul Talalay, a co-researcher at Johns Hopkins, had previously reported sulforaphane is an effective anticancer agent and the new studies extended that work to the bacteria that causes stomach cancer and ulcers. In the lab, the scientists found that sulforaphane even killed helicobacter that was resistant to commonly used antibiotics. They also showed it can kill the bacterium whether it’s inside or outside cells. 

REDDING — After five hours traveling at night, four paraplegic climbers have gained 1,200 feet on Mount Shasta by using special handcranked machines. 

The machine, called a “Snowpod,” as well as a support team of more than a dozen people, should help the four reach the summit of the 14,162-foot mountain in four to five days. 

The climbers were at 8,100 feet Monday afternoon and hoped to reach 10,400 feet Tuesday. The team traveled at night so the snow would be firm enough for the Snowpods to carry the climbers. Snowpods climb about 200 feet every hour. 

The climbers include Pete Rieke, who invented the Snowpod; Salt Lake Paralympics silver medalist Muffy Davis; Mark Wellman, who in 1999 became the first paraplegic to scale El Capitan and Half Dome at Yosemite National Park using only his arms; and Keegan Reilly, who last year used a custom-built four-wheeled bicycle to summit Mount Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado. 

The University of California has offered to curtail mandatory overtime for its nurses and shift from a merit pay system to one based on seniority, marking a major shift in the contract squabble between the two sides. 

“The proposal we gave them represents significant movement on their priority items,” said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz. “The ball’s in their court.” 

UC made the offer, which also includes 19 to 25 percent pay increases over three years, but does not move on union demands for negotiated nurse-to-patient ratios, on Wednesday. 

The university made the proposal public Thursday afternoon, just as negotiations began. As of the Planet’s deadline Thursday night, there was no indication of an agreement and the union still planned to engage in a one-day strike May 29. 

The university is facing mounting political pressure to resolve the dispute.  

Twenty-four legislators submitted a letter to UC Monday morning asserting that “the registered nurses of the UC system are its backbone” and warning “if they are not treated fairly and leave their jobs, the whole system will be at risk.” 

“Legislators and elected officials, because of our relationship with the state, are clearly a key constituency,” acknowledged Schwartz. “But the bottom line is that we, first and foremost, are trying to get to a settlement that serves patients and serves employees.” 

Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association, which represents the 8,000 nurses at UC hospitals and student health care centers, trumpeted the university’s shift on merit pay. 

“There has been an historic breakthrough in the notorious merit structure,” said Idelson. “It took the power of 8,000 nurses threatening to strike to finally knock some sense into the university.” 

The union has long contended that the merit-based pay system – rooted in evaluations of employee performance – is subject to the arbitrary analysis of managers. They have called for the “step-based” model, embraced by the university Wednesday, that would pay nurses according to experience. 

Before this week university officials have defended merit pay, arguing that the system encourages quality care and keeps the UC hospitals competitive. 

“Taking the union’s stated priorities to heart, we reconsidered that,” said Schwartz. 

Schwartz added that the university will retain the right to make lump-sum payments to nurses, on top of their step pay, for quality service.  

Ideson said he was skeptical of the university’s proposal to require overtime only when a patient’s health may be at risk or in the event of an emergency. Idelson said the offer was filled with “significant loopholes.” 

“What constitutes an emergency is not some manager’s failure to plan properly,” he said. “An emergency is an earthquake.” 

Schwartz contended that the offer marked a significant movement toward the union, and said he expected the California Nurses Association to bargain in good faith.  

The university is holding fast on its refusal to set nurse-patient ratios in the contract. The state legislature recently mandated ratios and the California Department of Health is working on regulations that would set the actual figures. Schwartz said UC will wait on the state figures, which should be issued by July 2003, and will not agree to independent ratios in a labor contract. 

Donna Nicholas, a registered nurse at UC Berkeley’s student health center who serves on the negotiating team, said the union wants to lock down ratios in the contract because the hospital industry is working to “water down” the state ratios due out next year. “This has huge implications for the health of California residents,” Nicholas said. 

Schwartz said the university would consider a May 29 strike a violation of the state’s Higher Education Employee Relations Act since the union has not exhausted all negotiating options. UC plans to seek a temporary restraining order against the nurses to prevent the strike. 

“We disagree with their position,” Ideson responded. “In our interpretation, it is absolutely a legal strike.” 

The university may also sue the union for financial losses resulting from the strike, Schwartz said. The university has already begun to divert patients in preparation for May 29, he said, and may have to cancel some surgical procedures. “All of that adds up to a significant impact – on patients, on communities and on UC,” he said. 

Contact reporter: scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

I appreciated the story by Kurtis Alexander in the Tuesday May 21 Daily Planet regarding the actions of a neighborhood group in response to the death of a pedestrian in Berkeley. However, I wanted to point out an important error-Kurtis Alexander's story wrongly states "Bennett's death represents the first pedestrian fatality in Berkeley in nearly a decade..." 

At least one other pedestrian, Jayne Ash, was killed in Berkeley while crossing a street within the past ten years. Ms. Ash was crossing Shattuck Ave. at Hearst St. when she was struck by a cement pumping truck in March, 2001.  

I believe there was yet another pedestrian death on Shattuck Ave. at Virginia St. a few years earlier. And, this is not a comprehensive list! 

The City of Berkeley commissioned a report a few years ago that cites statistics- Berkeley has the highest rate of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries compared to similar-sized cities in CA!  

Lisa Pascopella, PhD, MPH 

Berkeley 

xIf you think Elvis Costello, the once kingpin of Punk and New Wave angst, has stifled his sharp tongue and rocking sensibilities in favor of just collaborating with the likes of Burt Bachrach and Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter only, think again. Costello proved beyond a doubt where his musical roots lay at a recent show at the Berkeley Community Theater. He showed the crowd that though his musical styles have expanded beyond the fast-paced, witty lyrics of his early career, his origins of being a great rock 'n' roll songwriter and a captivating performer are still perfectly intact. 

With his new band, The Imposters-which features half of the original Attractions, Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve, while replacing bassist Bruce Thomas in favor of Davey Faragher-the forty-seven-year-old Costello powered through an almost two-and-a-half-hour set of music. With more than 20 years of music to his credit, Costello chose some rarities that he hasn't played in a long time or never played in concert before. Songs such as “Beyond Belief,” “Man Out Of Time,” and “You Little Fool,” in which Costello remarked that he had never played on stage, were able to cause some actual gasps of happiness from the crowd.  

Other songs he hadn't played in years included “I Hope You're Happy Now,” “Clowntime Is Over” and “High Fidelity.” He even the did the obligatory classics such as “Pump It Up,” “Watching The Detectives” and “I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea.” 

Thankfully he left out “Alison” and “The Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes,” which probably aggravated the fans who only came to hear him replay his first two albums. They forget that he has a vast selection of songs to choose from, many of which can spin circles around those two songs. Instead Costello brought out nuggets from the past, even reworking some of them-such as in the case of “Waiting Until The End Of The World” or the powerful “I Want You.” 

But even though those songs were tasty treats, the main highlights were the songs he played off his new album “When I Was Cruel.” From his opening tune “45,” which he last played acoustically at the Oakland Paramount on his last tour through the Bay Area, to the mesmerizing “15 Petals,” a love song that Costello says in a recent “Rolling Stone” interview “is about the way love picks you up and hurls you around room,” he was able to bring the audience up to date on what he thinks about love, his current age and rock 'n' roll. 

Speaking of rock 'n' roll, on one of his new songs, “Spooky Girlfriend,” Costello joked with the crowd that the song was a modern morality tale about a “showbiz weasel and his protege, who looks like a German porn star and likes color-coded credit cards with matching shoes . . . I think she's here tonight.” The song has lyrics that say “I want a girl to turn my screw/To wind my watch, to buckle my shoe/And if she won't her mother will do/But when she does as she's told/We'll all turn platinum and gold.”  

In this song, and in many others off his last few albums, Costello has been able to transform his voice into a working instrument. Where once he shouted and shoved as many lyrics into a song as he could, now he takes his time and lets his voice tell more of the stories he's trying to get across. Costello, dressed in a black suit and with his hair now receding and buzzed, sang most of the other songs off his new album, too, including the title track, “When I Was Cruel No. 2,” “Tart,” and the haunting “Radio Silence.” He left the crowd, which was made up people both young and those who looked like they've followed his career from the start and were even wearing ear plugs up in the balcony, with three encores. The opening band was the Boston-based quartet American Hi-Fi. The band, which is led by former Aimee Mann drummer Stacy Jones, played just over a half-hour set. They sounded like a cross between the bands Green Day, Oasis and with a little bit of Smashing Pumpkins mixed in. Their song “Another Perfect Day” is currently getting airplay on both radio and television.

Friday, May 2

Fiddle Down the FBI! 

Rally to Commemorate the 12th Anniversary of the car bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney and Celebrate the end of their federal civil rights trial against the FBI and Oakland Police Department. 

Noon 

Oakland Federal Building 

13th and Clay St., near 12th St BART stop 

Bring musical instruments 

663-6330, www.judibari.org 

Cherokee Artist: John Balloue 

paintings depict scenes from historic & contemporary Cherokee history, as well as pow-wow and spiritual images. 

Gathering Tribes 

1573 Solano Ave. 

528-9038 or www.gatheringtribes.com 

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. Artist's chalk and a Polaroid of the finished work are available for a fee. To encourage early registration, a raffle for merchandise by local business will be held for the artists at noon.  

Registration at Peralta Park, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., 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 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival 

Chalking takes place on Saturday only. Viewing the artwork all week end. 

Chocolate Festival begins by picking up a chocolate menu from business on Solano Ave. flying a festival banner. Chocolates are available for purchase from merchants as you stroll. Professor Gizmo, a one-man -band on Saturday from 2-4 at Peralta park and Berkeley Police operation Kid-print will be set up for finger printing your kids to keep in a file at home. Dog Fashion Show on Sunday at Solano & Key Route at 2 p.m., all animals must pre-register at 236-0588. Pet adoptions in Peralta Park 11:30-2:30 p.m., Sunday. Solano Avenue Gift Certificate Raffle anytime from May 22-29. Winner drawn May 29. 

The entire length of Solano Avenue, Berkeley & Albany 

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 

unday, May 26

Prayer to Shakyamuni Buddha 

A traditional prayer and meditation  

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Children's Movies 

Pinnochio (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor's Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

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 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival 

Chalking takes place on Saturday only. Viewing the artwork all week end. 

Chocolate Festival begins by picking up a chocolate menu from business on Solano Ave. flying a festival banner. Chocolates are available for purchase from merchants as you stroll. Professor Gizmo, a one-man -band on Saturday from 2-4 at Peralta park and Berkeley Police operation Kid-print will be set up for finger printing your kids to keep in a file at home. Dog Fashion Show on Sunday at Solano & Key Route at 2 p.m., all animals must pre-register at 236-0588. Pet adoptions in Peralta Park 11:30-2:30 p.m., Sunday. Solano Avenue Gift Certificate Raffle anytime from May 22-29. Winner drawn May 29. 

The entire length of Solano Avenue, Berkeley & Albany 

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

Human Rights At Home and Abroad: A Strategy For Peace 

An educational forum to probe the relationship of the U.S. and the U.N. 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Fellowship Hall of Humanity 

390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph) 

Oakland 

Free 

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 

May 30- June 1

White Oak Dance Project 

Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project exploring the boundaries of modern dance. Three Berkeley performances.  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus  

Bancroft Way at Telegraph 

Tickets through Cal Performances 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

$36, $48, $62 and half-price to CAL students, $2 discount to others. 

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

Healing/Tibetan Yoga 

"Stimulating Healing and Renewal through Tibetan Yoga" 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Ice Cream Social 

An annual school PTA fundraiser 

Includes a student talent show, auction, cake walk and field games 

Rosa Parks Elementary School 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

Free 

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

The Berkeley Unified School District revealed new budget figures and Superintendent Michele Lawrence warned that the district may carry a deficit into next year at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night. 

In a separate development, Lawrence announced that the district will rush to apply for a nutrition grant that community activists, upset with the quality of school meals, have pushed feverishly. 

At the end of the night, a divided board passed a resolution opposing state legislation that would include curriculum and textbook issues in teacher contract negotiations. 

The deficit 

In March, when the district submitted a “second interim report” on the budget to the Alameda County Office of Education, it projected a $39,000 surplus for the current budget year, a $5.4 million deficit for 2002-2003 and a $13.2 million deficit for 2003-2004. 

Associate Superintendent Jerry Kurr presented new figures Wednesday night indicating that the surplus for the current budget year is closer to $1.1 million, in part because telephone and utilities costs were lower than expected. Kurr said the deficit for next year, including all the cuts the board has approved in recent months, is about $450,000. The projected deficit for 2003-2004 stands at roughly $4.4 million. 

Kurr warned that the figures are changing everyday. 

For instance the district just discovered that food service costs, paid out of a separate “cafeteria fund,” are bleeding into the general fund to the tune of $160,000. 

As a result, Kurr said, the numbers could go up or down before next week when the board is slated to approve the “third interim report” to the county. Final approval for next year’s budget is scheduled for June 26. 

Lawrence said she would prefer watch the numbers play out over the next few months before making final cuts to next year’s budget. 

“While we could probably press this much harder in the next couple of weeks to go after more cuts...I am loathe to do that,” Lawrence said. 

If next week’s figures still reveal a deficit and the district postpones further cuts for several months, the shortfall would carry into next year – casting doubt on county approval of the budget. 

Last year, the county disapproved of Berkeley’s budget and this fall assigned a financial adviser, the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, a state agency, to assist the district. 

But Lawrence said the county might still approve the budget this year if the district has a solid recovery plan in place and appears to be making progress on vital infrastructure changes, including conversion to a new data processing system. 

The existing system, officials have acknowledged, has prevented the district from keeping proper track of payroll and health care costs. 

Nutrition grant 

Community activists heavily criticized the quality of school meals Wednesday night and urged the district to apply for a state grant titled Linking Education, Activity and Food, or LEAF. 

“If you look at the food that is being served in the cafeteria now, it is not something I would allow in my house,” said activist Yolanda Huang, holding up sugary cereals and salty burritos served at some sites. “This is unconscionable.” 

Lawrence announced that the district will apply for the grant, directed at middle schools, which includes healthy food and exercise requirements. The program provides $250,000 per school site over the course of two years. Lawrence said if the district gets any money, it is unlikely to win funding for all three of its schools since the state will only provide about 10 grants statewide. 

The superintendent said she would use the grant to plan for better exercise of a nationally-renowned food policy, passed in 1999, that has not been properly implemented. 

State legislation 

A sharply divided school board voted 3-2 to pass a resolution offered by vice-president Joaquin Rivera opposing AB 2160. The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Jacki Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, would allow unions to bargain over the processes for selecting textbooks and developing curriculum. Currently, unions can only negotiate hours, wages and conditions of employment. 

“The collective bargaining process is, by nature, adversarial,” said Rivera, arguing that textbook and curriculum issues do not belong in that arena. 

School board President Shirley Issel seconded the argument and said unions would likely use the issues as bargaining chips. 

“I have to respectfully disagree,” said John Selawsky, arguing that negotiations don’t need to involve conflict. He added that the state and textbook makers have too much power over the books that get into the classroom and said the legislation would assure processes that involve teachers and parents. 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said the district already does a good job of incorporating teachers and warned that support for the resolution would send a mixed message to instructors. 

“We strongly believe teachers should be active participants in all these processes,” Rivera responded. “The issue is not teacher participation. The issue is what is the proper forum for that participation.” 

To the Editor: 

If the community has any problems with the BUSD (Berkeley Unified School District) you better just sit back and wait .....and wait ...and wait...at least six months to a year for any action to occur.  

At least that’s the feeling that Berkeley school neighbors have who live in the vicinity of noisy, night-blasting, ventilation systems (Arts Magnet & Washington Schools). 

Neighbors who live directly across from the temporary building and ventilation system are subjected to constant, on and off, blasting noise throughout the night that can start as early as 1:30 a.m. and continue, on and off, until morning. 

One begins to wonder if anybody is really listening, when a problem goes unresolved over a six month period despite numerous pleadings before the BUSD at their public meetings.  

V. Peters 

Berkeley (Lincoln Street Neighbors to the Arts Magnet School) 

Solano Avenue sidewalks will explode with chocolate and colorful chalk artwork for three days during the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival running May 25- 27. 

Stretching westward from The Alameda in Albany to San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley for one and a quarter miles the festival promises to be a feast for the eyes and sweet tooth as well as an economic shot in the arm for the area merchants. 

Solano Avenue will remain open to traffic. 

Amateur and professional artists will decorate sidewalk squares with chalk art drawings on Saturday only. Areas of the sidewalk will be assigned to children and adult artists. The registration area is scheduled to open at 9 a.m. at Peralta Park, near 1561 Solano Ave. Registration is free. 

Artists may bring their own chalk or purchase boxes of chalk for $4 when registering. All those who register Saturday before noon will be entered in a raffle to receive prizes such as tickets to an Oakland A’s game and gift certificates for merchandise at local stores. The two main events, the chalk artwork viewing and chocolate tasting will continue throughout the weekend.  

Other special events and activities will be interspersed between the artwork and shops offering chocolate delights. 

Look for Professor Gizmo, a comical one-man band scheduled to perform 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday in Peralta Park. Also on Saturday, the Berkeley Police will set up “Operation Kidprint” nearby to provide parents with their children’s fingerprints to keep on file at home. 

On Sunday at 2 p.m. the retailer Dogs By Dianne will host a Dog Fashion Show at the intersection of Solano Avenue and Key Route. All participants must pre-register by phoning 510/236-0588. Also on Sunday, the Berkeley Animal Care Services will offer pets for adoption between 11:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Peralta Park. Chair massages will be offered on Monday at the park. 

Besides the festival the neighborhood offers plenty of window-shopping and other leisure-time activities. Solano Avenue is home for more than 500 businesses, including 75 restaurants, 150 retail shops, two theaters and several small parks. 

“People should plan on about three hours to walk up and down both sides of the street with stops along the way to see the art and eat some chocolate,” says Lisa Bullwinkel, executive director of the Solano Avenue Association, the sponsor of the festival. 

Special chocolate menus will be available free at more than 30 businesses displaying festival pennants. Many retailers have commissioned professional artists to create logos outside shops in chalk for the festival. 

Taste bud tantalizing items to choose from on the menu include homemade variations of chocolate popcorn, flan, eclair, cheesecake, baklava, cream pie, fried banana and champagne truffles. Lollipops for children and erotic lollipops for adults will also be available. For beverages there will be chocolate smoothes and Frappucinos to consider. 

True chocolate lovers may have trouble leaving the festival. Eating chocolate to some is akin to nirvana. It’s difficult to find anyone who doesn’t like chocolate or who can name someone they know who doesn’t like it.  

Nationwide Americans spend about $8.6 billion and consume about 3.3 billion pounds of chocolate annually, according to figures from the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.  

Worldwide, the United States ranks ninth in chocolate consumption. By a 2-1 margin milk chocolate is preferred over dark chocolate, but taste preference for dark chocolate increases as people age. Among consumers 18 to 24, only 11% prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, while 37% of consumers 45 to 54 years old favor dark chocolate over milk chocolate. 

Despite its universal appeal few people understand why people like chocolate so much, except perhaps for those who’s love affair with chocolate is the most special --- the people who make chocolate for the rest of us to enjoy.  

“I’m obsessively passionate about chocolate,” says Kara Thompson, owner of Torme Chocolate at 1580 Solano Ave. She’s a confectioner who specializes in  

chocolate truffles “There’s something spiritual about it, and I really like being around it,” she says. 

Chocolate gives people a feeling of well-being. The effect varies with people because of the chemical complexity of chocolate. “Does chocolate give you a high, absolutely yes, Thompson says. It’s intoxicating when you smell it.” 

“If you’re a runner and ever experienced the runner’s high or fallen in love, you might be interested in knowing that some of the chemicals in chocolate  

raise the body’s serotonin levels in a similar way,” she says. 

With respect to health chocolate probably has more positive beneficial effects on the body than negative ones, according to Thompson. Nutritionally, chocolate contains minerals needed by the body, antioxidants and it has a neutral impact on the cholesterol levels. 

She believes any negative effects from chocolate are likely to be related to the quality and quantity of chocolate consumed and the junk added to mass-manufactured chocolate, she says. 

The Chocolate Manufacturers Association has conducted numerous studies and published extensive reports on chocolate consumption patterns and scientific data related to the effect chocolate has on health. 

• Chocolate is the number one food craved by women, while men crave pizza the most. Some scientists theorize that women crave chocolate  

because it contains magnesium, which may be related to menstrual cycles when women tend to increase their intake of sweets. 

• Per capita chocolate consumption is highest in Belgium, followed by Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, France, Sweden and then the United States. 

• Stearic acid the form of fat found in cocoa butter that’s used to make chocolate is unsaturated because it’s derived from plants, which is why  

chocolate doesn’t raise blood cholesterol levels. Chocolate melts in your mouth because the melting point of cocoa butter is just below human body  

temperature. 

• Chocolate contains polyphenol antioxidants, or flavonoids, which are believed to reduce the risk of heart attacks and counteract the damaging effects of free radical molecules in the body. The quantities of antioxidants found in chocolate are similar to amounts typically found in fruits and vegetables. Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, contains more antioxidants than black tea, red wine, raisins and strawberries. 

• More than 300 chemicals are found in chocolate, including stimulants such as caffeine, theobromine and phenylethylamine, which is related to amphetamines. These stimulants increase the brain activity of brain chemicals. Chocolate also contains anandamide, which binds to the same brain cell receptors as tetrahydrocannabinol or THC found in marijuana. 

City Council considers new regulations as well 

Toyoko Yoshino has been serving Japanese food at the gateway of the UC campus, off Telegraph Avenue, for three decades. 

Her kitchen is a wheeled cart that loosely resembles a little house, minus the tires, one might find in the countryside of Okinawa. Yoshino offers more than 25 food items on her sidewalk menu, most which cost less than $5. Chicken teriyaki, she says, has been the most popular dish of her 30-year-old cuisine. 

New street vending policies in Berkeley, though, may have Yoshino scrambling up some changes to her time-honored food cart, if not to her recipes, to her location. 

“My cart has wheels. I can pack it up in a minute,” Yoshino said accommodatingly. 

Campus on the city’s list of vending spots, and city officials themselves have begun pushing for tighter regulation of food vendors within city limits. 

The impact will be no city-licensed vendors on the UC campus, at least for the short term as well as uncertainty about where city officials will allow future food vending on city lands. 

A city ordinance, approved by City Council in its first reading this week, puts the city manager’s office in charge of overseeing food vending policy, eliminating the current committee that governs vendors, and redefines the standards, fees, and licensing terms for street carts. 

Although the ordinance, put forth by the city manager’s office, was initially slated to cover the entire city, council voted by a narrow 5-4 vote to limit its scope to the two already-designated food vending sites on Bancroft Way, at the junctions of Telegraph Avenue and College Avenue. 

“I don’t want the ordinance to go citywide without getting neighborhood input,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who authored the amended measure. Neighbors along Bancroft Way have already shared their input on the measure, she noted. 

Under the new ordinance, Yoshino’s food cart and those of her neighbors, which have shuffled between university and city property, could likely secure legal positions on the same sidewalk or merely shift to a nearby city sidewalk, according to the city’s Senior Management Analyst A. Robin Orden. 

But there is some question. 

“There are legal issues about how far from the university’s right of way we can permit vendors, if the university decides they want to wipe them out,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Worthington explained that, since the city’s new ordinance doesn’t apply to other areas of the city, the only sites where vending can legally occur, once the ordinance takes effect, is along Bancroft, and legal challenges may jeopardize these sites. 

“There might be no vendors anywhere in Berkeley,” said Worthington, who opposed the change to the ordinance that narrowed its realm. 

Adoption of the new ordinance, as determined by council, would effectively abolish the current ordinance and the vending sites it establishes. 

Councilmember Armstrong, though, suggested that the city intends to expand the scope of the new ordinance, meaning adding more vending sites, once public input can be heard from neighborhoods where the ordinance is being considered. 

“I love the food carts and I patronize them regularly,” Armstrong said. 

The city is expected to consider final adoption of the new vending ordinance next month. At the university, officials remain in the process of deciding what food vending policy will be enacted on campus. 

Currently, there are only four food vendors operating on public right-of-ways in Berkeley. All of the vendors are along Bancroft Way. 

Contact reporter at kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

Readers should know something civil libertarians and constitutional lawyers have known for years: obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment. This means that all laws regarding the dissemination and broadcast of obscene (read: pornographic or strongly sexually suggestive) are made on the municipal or state level.  

The censorship of the sex-realted program would not be an issue of First Amendment freedoms, it would only seek to limit access to prurient information not generally held as informative or socially acceptable by the general public. 

If the majority of citizens want to limit that access, then it should be done. We must stop calling every attempt to limit freedom a First Amendment issue, there is not freedom for pornography. 

John Parman 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES — If you want to be among the first to own “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” you need to get to the store at an appropriate hour: midnight. 

The official domestic release date of the first “Harry Potter” film on videotape and DVD is Tuesday. Stores around the country plan to stay open late Monday night so they can start ringing up sales at midnight for last year’s top-grossing movie. 

Wal-Mart, Borders, Blockbuster, Kmart and other retailers plan to have select stores open late. Die-hard fans also turned out at midnight at bookstores for the release of the most recent book in J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” and for midnight screenings of the film when it opened last fall. 

Some stores plan activities based on the tales of the boy sorcerer and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including costume parties and Harry Potter look-alike contests. 

Warner Bros. home video would not release figures on how many videos are being shipped, but the studio said pre-orders have been strong. The trade publication Video Business estimated “Sorcerer’s Stone” would sell 18 million to 20 million copies on VHS and DVD in North America. 

In Great Britain, where “Harry Potter” videos were released May 11, a record 1.25 million copies on videotape and DVD were sold in the first day. 

The film grossed $317 million domestically, ranking No. 7 on the all-time box-office list. Worldwide, “Sorcerer’s Stone” took in $960 million, second behind “Titanic.” 

The VHS and two-disc DVD set each contain a handful of deleted scenes. The DVD set also has games, a tour of Hogwarts and interviews with director Chris Columbus and his collaborators, who discuss their emphasis on remaining faithful to Rowling’s book and give a look ahead at the next film, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” due in theaters this November. 

All three Bay Area airports are expecting an especially heavy flow of travelers to pass through their terminals this Memorial Day weekend, perhaps the highest numbers since the Sept. 11 attacks traumatized American air travel. 

San Jose International Airport spokesman Steve Luckenbach said Thursday that he expects the facilities in Terminal A, which houses Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, “to be strained tremendously.” 

Luckenbach said passengers should allow for two hours of waiting time in the terminal, instead of the normal 90-minute advance arrival. But he said plenty of long-term and short-term parking will be available. 

Friday will be the heaviest air travel day, according to Luckenbach, but the spike in travel will continue until Tuesday. 

Luckenbach said the Memorial Day weekend traditionally runs just behind Thanksgiving and Christmas as the busiest travel days of the year. 

But he expects this weekend's numbers to be the highest since September. 

San Francisco International Airport spokesman Mike McCarron said that SFO will have a “big bump today” in traffic, as well as through the weekend, but that the airport will not be strained past capacity.  

McCarron said this weekend is not only the kickoff for summer travel, but also coincides with college students leaving school and heading home or on vacation. He expects Friday and Saturday to be the busiest SFO has been in a while.  

He said travelers should observe regular advance arrival times, 90 minutes to two hours for domestic flights and at least two hours for international flights.  

He also said there will be ample parking for all those using the airport. 

Oakland International Airport will be opening extra security checkpoints and scheduling more staff to speed security screening this weekend, which is expected to see 20 percent more travelers than usual, according to airport spokeswoman Jo Murray. 

Friday and Tuesday will see the heaviest traffic, with some 40,000 people moving through the airport. 

Murray said domestic passengers should arrive at the airport 90 minutes before their scheduled departure, two hours prior if their flight leaves before 9 a.m.  

Travelers on international flights should arrive three hours ahead of time.  

The parking lots at the Oakland airport are expected to be full over the weekend.

To the Editor: 

It was interesting to read your article about Ward Connerly's Racial Privacy Initiative, which he hopes to impose on California voters the way he left us with Proposition 209. This initiative would prohibit state and local governments from collecting racial and ethnic data and using this information. 

However, one government entity that would be exempt from collecting racial data is, ironically, law enforcement.  

While Ward Connerly claims that his initiative is about removing considerations based upon race and creating a “color-blind” society, it would still condone racial profiling.  

“Driving While Black” would still be a crime. 

Paul Hogarth 

Berkeley Rent 

Board Commissioner 

DETROIT — The Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew more than 1 million people in each of its first two years.  

This year, organizers are emphasizing a wider variety of performers — and wondering why techno, which is hugely popular in Europe, is less well-received in the United States. 

The lineup of nearly 70 performers represents a blend of urban music, and includes Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton and the Los Angeles-based hip-hop trio Dilated Peoples. The three-day festival starts Saturday. 

“What we’re seeing now is a combination between hip-hop music and electronic music, and I think the Detroit festival is capitalizing on that,” said M. Tye Comer, the editor of Mixer Magazine in New York, which focuses on DJ culture. 

“The roots of the music — the funk and the soul — the roots are all the same. ... It’s expanding to become a celebration of urban music as a whole.” 

Mike Grant, who sits on the festival’s seven-member artistic board, said, “I think that diversity is what keeps the festival fresh. No one likes to eat the same food everyday.” 

Detroit DJs Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Carl Craig are often credited with inventing the techno sound while spinning in Detroit clubs in the early 1980s.  

The sound really took off in Europe, however. 

When the Detroit techno group Inner City became popular in the early 1980s, for instance, most people assumed they were British, said Dan Sicko, 33, the author of “Techno Rebels,” a book about the musical movement that led to the festival. 

“The festival is like a reunion for the artists and the city that spawned it,” Sicko said. 

“The American media to some degree loves to focus on music that comes from abroad ... and I think for at least a decade Detroit was overlooked that way.” 

Saunderson, May and Craig were instrumental in getting the festival off the ground, but they won’t be performing this year because of a dispute with the organizers.  

Fans can still catch them performing at various parties after the festival wraps up each night. 

“The nightlife will be bright,” Saunderson said. “It’s not often you get all the Detroit talent together.” 

Sicko said this year’s festival is aimed at closing the gap between techno’s original, black, Detroit audience and the white kids who picked up on it later. 

Comer said George Clinton “expands the scope” of the event, which he called “one of the most important dance festivals America sees every year.” 

The festival bills itself as the world’s largest free music festival. It “draws ravers from all across the country,” Comer said. “It brings out families. It’s more than a party.” 

For performers such as Dilated Peoples’ DJ Babu, “This might be our biggest crowd ever.” 

A high pressure system along the mid-Atlantic coast brought sunny skies to much of the East on Thursday afternoon. 

Light showers fell on the east coast of Florida, with some areas reporting strong winds. 

The Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley were also windy as a cold front approached from the west. 

In the central states, an area of low pressure moved across northern Minnesota. A cold front extended from the low into the central Plains and moved little during the day. 

Clouds hung over Texas north to Wisconsin. Winds in the central Plains averaged 25 miles per hour with gusts over 40. 

A few light rain and snow showers were found across the Dakotas and Minnesota with temperatures in the 30s and 40s. In Iowa and Illinois, rain and a few thunderstorms moved through. Showers and thunderstorms also developed near the Red River in northern Texas and western Oklahoma. 

The West was mostly cloudy from northern Wyoming through Idaho and Montana. 

In the Pacific northwest, clouds gathered along the coasts of Washington and northern Oregon. California and the Desert Southwest were mostly clear and mild. 

Temperatures on Thursday afternoon in the Lower 48 states ranged from a low of 20 in Big Piney, Wyo., to a high of 93 in Wink, Texas. 

To the Editor:  

I am chagrined that a large majority of the Berkeley City Council has succumbed to the censorious pressures of some blue-nosed puritans and favors banning of "adult programming" from B-TV Channel 25 until after the midnight hour. 

This punishes those good folks who are comfortable with their sexuality and enjoy "The Susan Block Show" and Frank Moore's "Unlimited Possibilities" as being some kind of prurient social pariahs who deserve to be deprived of their sleeping hours in order to watch them.  

It is not the job of the City Council to act as an authoritarian censor or morals cop. It should remain the sole responsibility of parents to monitor what their kids can watch. 

I'm 76-years-old, a white ethnic male, and a great-grandfather to boot and thus might be stereotyped by some as a "social conservative". Not this dude!  

I've belonged to the ACLU for over 40 years 

and have supported our Constitutional free speech rights as long as I can remember. And this proposed censorship is a clear free speech violation. 

And, thank you, Kriss Worthington for your 

opposition to the measure and remembering that we live in Berkeley, home of the Free Speech Movement, and not Iran or some Bible Belt backwater. 

Harry Siitonen 

Berkeley  

Female genital mutilation is not usually the subject of stand-up comedy. But for African-born Sia Amma, humor has proved powerful and healing. Subjected to a clitorodectomy in her native Liberia when she was just nine years old, Amma has made the problem of female circumcision the central subject of a one-woman show. 

The actress attacks the issue immediately and audaciously in the opening seconds of "In Search of My Clitoris." Sweeping into the theater, she asks her audience, "Have you seen my clitoris? I’m sure it’s here somewhere."  

Over the next 90 minutes, the 34-yr-old Amma reflects on her journey from traditional African village girl to modern feminist and activist. Her poignant, provocative story is lightened with humorous anecdotes about her friends and family in Africa and the culture shock she underwent when she first came to America a decade ago. 

"I feel if I make fun of myself, no one can punish me, no one can condemn me," Amma explains. She also wants to convey the pride she feels in her culture, and not allow her Western audience to dismiss an entire culture because of the unsavory practice of female circumcision. Her bold and bawdy humor reminds listeners that they have their own hang-ups when it comes to sexuality. "You American have a clitoris and you don’t even know it!" she scolds.  

Next week, Amma appears at Berkeley’s La Pena Cultural Center in two performances to benefit Global Women Intact, a San Francisco organization dedicated to stopping the practice of female genital mutilation worldwide.  

Representing GWI, Amma travels frequently to Africa, where she speaks to women and girls about female circumcision—"teaching Clitoris 101," she says. In cultures where female anatomy is almost never discussed, such frankness is startling, but she makes no apologies. "I am saying that it’s part of a woman, it’s beautiful, and there’s nothing wrong with having a clitoris that drags on the ground," she says. "I want to take away the shame from the word ‘clitoris.’" 

This is a complete reversal for a woman who for years barely comprehended what had happened to her body. The topic was not discussed in her village. "Some of the languages I speak"—she knows four African languages—"don’t even have a word for clitoris," she explains. 

Her awareness began to change when Amma came to San Francisco, eventually enrolling as a student in intercultural communications at SFSU. She was humiliated during a doctor’s exam when the American physician commented on the unusual appearance of her genitalia. "I was completely horrified and embarrassed," she remembers.  

Hesitantly, Amma began to discuss her condition with female friends. "I had to go and buy books from Good Vibrations to see pictures of what a normal clitoris looks like." She discovered other women who also had been mutilated as girls. The idea of a performance began to grow. "Women started telling me their stories, and it just snowballed," she says. 

It started as a stand-up comedy routine, performed for just a few friends. Over the past year and a half, Amma developed and expanded the routine into a full-length play. This past year, with the assistance of director Joya Corey, she’s taken her show on the road, performing coast to coast, from Symphony Space in New York to the Northwest Actor’s Studio in Seattle. Reception has been enthusiastic. Reviewers have called the show "startling and provocative," drawing comparisons with Eve Ensler’s "The Vagina Monologues." 

For Amma, the play is important, but it’s only one part of her work to educate people about female circumcision. She speaks passionately and joyfully about her work in Africa. "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life," she says. 

Besides teaching courses on sex education in African schools and community organizations, Amma meets with tribal leaders to discuss ways of preserving a girl’s traditional rite of passage without performing mutilations. She directs her education efforts particularly at women, since mothers often pressure their daughters to undergo circumcision, and midwives often carry out the procedure as part of their livelihood. Instead, Amma encourages tribal women to produce crafts—jewelry, purses, and beadwork—which she brings back to the U.S. to sell, sending the money back to the village.  

"By working with women’s financial needs, you are taking on the problem [of female circumcision] at a very practical level," she says. "If you want to help somebody, you cannot go in and condemn them and expect them to listen to you." 

Woman to woman, person by person, Amma steadfastly pursues her mission. "My grandmother says when you educate a woman, you educate the world." 

In Search of My Clitoris  

May 30 & 31 at 8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berkeley.  

Tickets $15. (510) 849-2568 or go to www.celebrateclitoris.com 

FBI agent allegedly switched allegiance to gangsters 

BOSTON — John J. Connolly Jr. was once known as the FBI agent who snagged gangster James “Whitey” Bulger to help in the FBI’s war against the mafia. 

Somewhere along the way, Connolly allowed himself to be corrupted by his prized informant and began protecting the thugs he was supposed to be investigating, a prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments of Connolly’s racketeering trial Thursday. 

Prosecutor John Durham outlined the allegations against Connolly, which range from taking bribes to tipping Bulger’s gang about informants who were later killed. The jury was to begin deliberations in the case on Friday. 

Connolly, 61, never took the stand. He pleaded innocent to racketeering and obstruction of justice charges and previously denied taking bribes. He also has said that everything he did was cleared by his superiors at the FBI, who used information provided by Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi to take down the New England mafia. 

His attorney, Tracy Miner, told jurors Thursday that Connolly was being targeted because the FBI needed a scapegoat after it was revealed during 1998 hearings that it had mishandled its top criminal informants, including Bulger. 

“The government ... needed a scapegoat for its problems, and who better than the informants’ handler,” Miner said. 

In his closing, Durham pointed to an FBI training video featuring Connolly, shown by the defense, as proof Connolly knew the agency rules. He didn’t follow them, Durham said, because he had switched allegiances. “He was playing for another team,” Durham said. 

The trial’s most distressing testimony involved leaks by Connolly to Bulger and Flemmi in which Connolly identified three men who were giving information to the FBI about Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang, Durham said. 

The three men were later killed by members of the gang, members testified. 

Durham went over in detail testimony from Kevin Weeks, Bulger’s right-hand man, who said that on Dec. 23, 1994, Connolly told him to warn Bulger, Flemmi and mafia boss Frank “Cadillac Frank” Salemme that indictments would be coming down against them soon. Bulger disappeared soon after and is still a fugitive. 

Connolly has denied tipping the men off to the indictment. 

Weeks also testified that he delivered $5,000 in cash from Bulger to Connolly. John Martorano, a confessed hitman for the Winter Hill Gang, testified that Bulger gave Connolly a two-carat diamond ring. 

“Your common sense tells you when you accept a thing of value when you are an FBI agent, you know you are compromised,” Durham said. 

Durham called Martorano’s testimony, in which he admitted to at least 20 murders, “clearly chilling.” 

He asked jurors to carefully consider testimony from Martorano, Weeks and Salemme. He acknowledged that all three were notorious criminals, but said each knew details they could not have known without getting them from a source in the FBI: Connolly. 

In addition to the criminal case against Connolly, the FBI or its agents are named in at least a half dozen civil lawsuits filed by the families of people killed or victimized by Bulger and his gang. One wrongful death lawsuit, filed by the family of Roger Wheeler, the owner of World Jai Alai who was gunned down in Tulsa, Okla., in 1981, claims the FBI allowed Bulger and Flemmi to murder with impunity. 

A congressional committee also has been investigating the Boston FBI’s handling of mob informants in the 1960s. 

xSAN JOSE — Attorneys for former motel handyman Cary Stayner, who has admitted in grotesque detail how he killed three Yosemite National Park tourists in 1999, will try to save his life by arguing to a jury he is mentally ill. 

Nearly a year and a half after originally pleading innocent to the tourists’ killings, Stayner switched the plea to innocent by reason of insanity Wednesday. That raised the possibility that, if convicted, he could face life in a mental institution rather than execution. 

His attorneys told Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings that Stayner suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and an “unspecified psychosis.” 

Hastings explained to Stayner that if he is convicted, a jury would consider whether he was insane at the time of the killings or was clear-headed enough to know the difference between right and wrong. 

“Do you understand?” Hastings asked. 

“Yes,” Stayner said. 

Stayner, 40, already is serving life in federal prison for beheading Yosemite nature guide Joie Armstrong. He now faces state charges in the killings of Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and family friend Silvina Pelosso of Argentina, who had stayed at the motel outside Yosemite where Stayner worked. 

Stayner’s attorneys said their list of potential trial witnesses consists only of seven psychological experts, including at least one who would cite brain scans that indicate Stayner’s frontal lobe shows evidence of his purported mental illness. 

However, prosecutors — who plan to have Stayner examined by noted forensic psychologist Park Dietz — object to the use of the scans. 

Prosecutor George Williamson argued that the method in question, a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, is useful for discovering tumors, strokes, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but is not yet widely accepted in the diagnosis of mental illness. 

Stayner attorney Michael Burt countered that recent studies have shown some mental illnesses can be detected by PET scans, and that defense experts should be allowed to refer to them — but not completely rely on them — in their testimony. 

Hastings said he wanted to hear more from medical experts before deciding whether the PET scans can be used at trial. The issue could be taken up at a hearing after jury selection begins June 10. 

If a jury has to consider whether Stayner was sane enough to know right from wrong, prosecutors figure to use his own words against him. For example, Stayner told the FBI he was careful to clean up the women’s motel room, with tips he gleaned from a forensic science program on the Discovery Channel. 

Defense attorney Marcia Morrissey declined to comment outside court on how she would overcome such statements. Only minutes earlier, she had failed in yet another attempt to bar Stayner’s confessions from the trial. 

The judge ruled last month over defense objections that Stayner voluntarily admitted to FBI agents and a TV reporter that he killed Armstrong and the tourists. 

On Wednesday, Morrissey argued that the FBI agents did not have probable cause to arrest Stayner before he confessed. She also claimed Stayner’s original public defender was incompetent because he didn’t tell Stayner not to talk to journalists. 

On the first claim, Hastings ruled there was plenty of evidence to detain Stayner for questioning or to arrest him. Stayner’s car and its tire tracks were seen near where Armstrong’s body was found, for example. 

Hastings called the second argument a stretch. 

Once a jury is seated, testimony is expected to begin in mid-July and last two months. The case was moved to San Jose because of extensive publicity around Yosemite and in California’s Central Valley. 

xSAN BERNARDINO — A judge said Thursday that a board that has repeatedly denied Leslie Van Houten parole in two Manson Family murders has failed to give her any guidance on what she could do to make herself suitable for release. 

“If I were in Ms. Van Houten’s situation I wouldn’t have a clue what to do before the next hearing to prepare,” Superior Court Judge Bob N. Krug said during a hearing on Van Houten’s appeal of the parole board’s refusal to grant parole — 13 times so far. 

Krug said he would rule after further consideration. A ruling for Van Houten could affect cases beyond hers but would be certain to be appealed by the state. 

The graying Van Houten, 52, was convicted in the slayings of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca and was part of the Charles Manson cult that murdered actress Sharon Tate and four others in the summer of 1969 — one of California’s most notorious crimes. 

Her case has been seen as somewhat different than those of Manson, chief lieutenant Charles “Tex” Watson, and two other women, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle, who participated in all seven murders. Van Houten’s initial conviction was overturned and a second trial ended in a hung jury. A third trial convicted her again. 

The judge said he compared the language of a parole board decision quoted in a landmark ruling with the language used by the board that denied Van Houten’s last bid for parole in June 2000 and found they were identical. 

“When I read the decision it sounded like they just read from a script,” he said. “It’s almost verbatim. ... Isn’t that a pro forma decision?” 

Van Houten’s attorney, Christie Webb, argued that the hearings had become “a sham” and that the board has never considered any of Van Houten’s efforts to improve herself but merely denies parole because of the nature of her crime. 

“If the state can use the crime without making a link to current dangerousness, they could go on for another 33 years, turning her sentence into life without the possibility of parole,” Webb said. 

She said the state is required to make a connection between the gravity of the crime and whether Van Houten would be a danger to society if released. 

All of the records, the attorney said, show that she would not be a danger. 

“She is not the person she was at age 19 when she participated in the crimes,” Webb said. “She has not taken drugs in three decades. She is much more of a leader than a follower in prison. ... And she has insight into how she could have participated in these crimes and how she can make amends.” 

Goat killer sought 

OAKLAND — Oakland police are looking for a gunman who killed a weed-eating goat in a park behind an elementary school. 

The goat was part of a herd hired to eat weeds and grass behind Howard Elementary School on Wednesday. A goat herder said he saw a man driving a white truck pull up, shoot the goat and drive off. 

“I think it’s cruel to shoot a defenseless animal. The goat was just there, eating grass, minding its own business,” said Oakland park ranger Keona Johnson. 

Oakland contracts a Davis company to keep 1,000 goats in the 75-acre park behind the school to trim dry vegetation that could catch fire during the hot summer months. 

No other goats were injured in the shooting. 

Bay deemed safe for fishing  

SAN FRANCISCO — Water quality regulators have relaxed restrictions on nickel and copper in San Francisco Bay, saying current levels haven’t appeared toxic enough to harm fish and other organisms. 

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board loosened standards on the metals for waters south of the Dumbarton Bridge on Wednesday. But the new regulations must be approved by state and federal boards before going into effect said Wil Bruhns of the Water Quality Board. 

A group of studies paid for by the city of San Jose persuaded the board to change the standards. Tetra-Tech, the company that conducted the studies, found that levels of nickel and copper in southern portions of the Bay were significantly below national standards determined to be safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, Bruhns said. 

Copper and nickel both are toxic at certain levels. 

The move was applauded by municipal sewage treatment plants and Bay Area cities, who say meeting the current standards is costly. 

Bruhns said that the new regulations were approved along with a plan of action to control the metals if levels start to increase. 

Davis releases dollarsto Napa  

NAPA — Governor Gray Davis announced Thursday the release of millions of dollars to repair earthquake damage in Napa. 

Roughly $4.8 million in funds from the Office of Emergency Services will help fix the city’s largest auditorium in the Old Napa High School building, built in 1923, officials said. 

The 5.2 Napa earthquake of September 3, 2000 rocked the auditorium, bending some wall braces and pulling others apart. 

LONDON — Some types of rubber bullets used by police to restrain unruly protesters kill and maim too often to be considered a safe method of crowd control, new research concludes. 

Rubber-coated bullets are intended to inflict superficial painful injuries to deter rioters. But a study of their use by Israeli security forces has found police often fire from too close and aim poorly. Even when fired properly, it said, the bullets are so inaccurate that they can cause unintended injuries. 

The study, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, examined the effects of rubber-coated bullets used by the Israeli police force during riots by Israeli Arabs in northern and central Israel in early October 2000. 

Those bullets are in fact made of metal encased in a rubber shell, and are different from the original rubber bullets first used in 1970 by the British in Northern Ireland. 

The British rubber bullets were designed to be fired at the ground so that they would bounce up and hit the legs of demonstrators. They were replaced in 1989 in Northern Ireland by plastic ones because the rubber bullets were judged too dangerous. 

Other variations of rubber bullets are used in several countries, including the United States.  

These include rubber-coated metal bullets, rubber plugs, plastic bullets called baton rounds, and beanbag rounds — fabric beanbags about the size of a tea bag filled with lead pellets. 

Each type has a different effect on the human body under different circumstances. 

Mike McBride, editor of Jane’s Police and Security Equipment, said the Israeli findings have no bearing on other types of crowd control ammunition. 

“There are lots of different manufacturers out there making lots of different types of riot control projectiles,” McBride said. 

Baton rounds, or pure plastic bullets, are used in Northern Ireland today.  

They are lighter, faster and more accurate than their rubber predecessors, McBride said. 

“They’ve been used 166 times in Northern Ireland, twice in mainland Britain, and there have been no deaths associated with the use of those,” he said. 

In the United States, local police make their own decisions on what to use for crowd control, and methods vary across the country. 

Online company’s shares skyrocket by almost 12 percent after initial IPO 

SAN FRANCISCO – Investors gave a thumbs up to Thursday’s stock market debut of online DVD rental service Netflix Inc., whose shares rose by nearly 12 percent after the company’s successful initial public offering. 

The shares closed at $16.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up from the IPO price of $15. The stock traded as high as $17.40 Thursday. 

The positive response represented another baby step for Internet companies as the once-thriving sector tries to regain investor confidence following the dot-com meltdown of the past two years. 

After showing virtually no interest in online businesses last year, Wall Street has embraced both Internet businesses that dared to test the stormy waters this year. 

Online payment provider PayPal Inc. went public in February at $13 per share and enjoyed a 55 percent gain on its first day of trading. PayPal’s shares have climbed even higher since then, closing at $25.50 Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Although Netflix’s first-day pop wasn’t as dramatic as PayPal’s, the gains nevertheless were a heartening sign for the battered high-tech industry. 

“It looks like investors’ tolerance is growing a little bit,” said Kyle Huske, an analyst with IPO.com. “Any time you have a deal do well in any sector, it helps draw attention to the entire sector.” 

No one expects the success of the PayPal and Netflix IPOs to trigger a gold rush similar to the late 1990s, when hundreds of unprofitable Internet companies sold their stocks to the public. 

“There are still people out there who wake up screaming in the night when they hear the word ’dot com,’ ” said David Menlow, president of IPOfincancial.com. 

Still, the market is looking less hostile for the most prominent privately held Internet businesses. 

The changing sentiment encouraged online travel site Orbitz to file its IPO plans earlier this year, and the friendlier atmosphere is expected to eventually lure the popular search engine Google into the market. 

Both PayPal and Netflix enticed investors with their rapid growth and leadership in promising markets. 

Despite Netflix’s uninterrupted history of losses that totaled $141.8 million through March 31, investors are intrigued with the Los Gatos-based company’s prospects with households across the country embracing DVD players. 

Netflix has more than 600,000 subscribers, most of whom pay $19.95 per month to rent an unlimited number of DVDs from the company’s library of 11,500 titles. Subscribers are mailed up to three DVDs at a time after placing their orders online. 

“I felt like investors looked at our story for what it was,” Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive officer and founder, said Thursday. “Being an online company didn’t taint us, nor did it give us a halo.” 

The dot-com tag forced Netflix to scrap its previous IPO plans two years ago. 

The delay gave Netflix more time to build a formidable business. When Netflix first filed plans to go public in April 2000, the company had just 120,000 subscribers and 5.4 million U.S. households had DVD players, about one-fifth of the estimated 25 million households with the set-top players at the end of 2001. 

The rapid adoption of DVDs still hasn’t been enough to make money for Netflix. 

In its most recent quarter, Netflix lost $4.5 million on revenue of $30.5 million in the first quarter, an improvement from a loss of $20.6 million on revenue of $17.1 million at the same point last year. 

Hastings declined to predict when Netflix will make money. Merrill Lynch, the investment banker that spearheaded the Netflix IPO, expects the company to become profitable in the second quarter of next year. 

Netflix raised $82.5 million from the IPO, and will keep $74.7 million after paying fees and other expenses incurred in the offering, according to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will use $14.1 million to repay debts and then spend a substantial amount on promotions designed to attract even more subscribers through two-week free trials. 

If Netflix doesn’t become profitable “in a reasonable amount of time, investors will dump it pretty quickly,” Huske said.

WASHINGTON – A federal agency set up an “Enron Information Link” for people to report suspicious activities involving Enron or other companies that may have affected West Coast energy prices. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said a questionnaire is available by clicking on the Enron Information Link under the Customer Protection heading on the agency’s Web page at http://www.cftc.gov. 

The government is investigating whether now-bankrupt Enron Corp. or other energy companies manipulated the power market in California — where wholesale energy prices shot up tenfold during the crisis in 2000 and 2001. 

An Enron corporate document released recently described how the company’s traders sought to cash in on the state’s energy crisis using strategies named “Death Star,” “Ricochet,” “Fat Boy” and “Get Shorty.” 

The new questionnaire is to be used for reporting suspicious activities or transactions involving Enron or any other company that may have affected West Coast electricity or natural gas prices, or any other commodity, from January 2000 through Dec. 31, 2001. It can be transmitted electronically or by mail to the Division of Enforcement, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 140 Broadway, New York, New York 10005, or by fax to 646-746-9939. 

The CFTC said there are two other ways in which people can submit any relevant information: 

—Call the agency’s toll-free voice mailbox and leave a message at 866-616-1783. 

—Send an e-mail to enron(at)cftc.gov.

SAN FRANCISCO – Online travel service Orbitz will target footloose gays and lesbians under a marketing partnership announced Wednesday with Web portal Gay.com. 

Terms of the deal, which will include a gay-themed banner and pop-up ads, were not announced. 

The companies said gays and lesbians are seven times more likely than the average person to take six or more flights per year. 

Major airlines created Orbitz last June to sell tickets, lodging, car rentals and vacation packages. PlanetOut Partners USA Inc., which owns San Francisco-based Gay.com, said it has 4 million registered members. 

Chicago-based Orbitz, which says it is the third largest online travel site, filed papers Monday with government regulators for a $125 million initial public offering.

SACRAMENTO – Budget negotiators will consider boosting logging fees to help trim the state’s projected $23.6 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers decided Wednesday evening. 

An Assembly budget subcommittee deliberately approved a different proposed timber yield tax increase than was approved last week by its Senate counterpart. 

The effect is to send the issue to a budget conference committee made up of negotiators from the Assembly and Senate, said Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, who proposed the move. 

The Senate subcommittee proposed the tax be increased by 4 percentage points, raising an estimated $21.5 million a year to fully cover the state’s cost of environmental reviews of logging plans, the Legislative Analyst’s Office projected. 

Timber owners currently pay a 3 percent yield tax, but just $174,000 goes to harvest reviews. 

Timber companies and the Department of Forestry object to the proposal, saying logging companies already pay other costs associated with the reviews.

SAN JOSE — Yahoo! Inc. said Thursday it plans to pull most of its online auction initiatives in Europe and instead promote eBay’s market-leading auction site there. 

Yahoo said Thursday that in six weeks, it will shut down auction services on five of its European Web sites: Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Under a marketing deal with eBay, Yahoo said it will feature advertisements touting eBay auction services there. 

Financial details of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed. 

Yahoo decided to close the auctions after a review last year of its business, Rob Solomon, senior vice president of Yahoo’s commerce division, said in an interview Thursday. In Europe, it is typically a distant third-place player. 

“We’re looking at businesses where we can grow and be most profitable,” he said. And in Europe, that means resources will be shifted to commerce initiatives such as Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Travel. 

Yahoo will continue to operate an auction site in Denmark, where it has had more success, Solomon said. 

Yahoo’s withdrawal is the latest indication of the stiff competition in the online auction world. 

In March, eBay pulled out of the Japanese market despite other efforts to expand in Asia. Even without charging user fees in Japan, eBay ranked a distant fourth in the market. Ebay has advertised on Yahoo’s European sites before, but the marketing pact is their first formal deal, Solomon said. 

TRUCHAS, N.M. — Hundreds of people left their homes Thursday as a fast-moving 6,000-acre wildfire threatened a small northern New Mexico town. 

“I cried on the way down,” said Jill Jaramillo, who grabbed her four young daughters, blankets and a change of clothes before leaving for an emergency shelter. “How can you make a choice of what to bring?” 

The fire in the Santa Fe National Forest exploded from 400 acres to 6,000 within hours, prompting the evacuation request. It was moving toward the east end of town, and was 1 1/2 miles from the nearest building as of 5 p.m., fire information officer Charles Jankiewicz said. 

There were no immediate reports of any damage in Truchas, less than 100 miles from the Colorado border. 

The fire began to spot Thursday afternoon, meaning embers flung in front of the blaze started new fires. 

“There’s no way we can put people in front of this fire,” Jankiewicz said. “It’s too dangerous. This fire is going where it wants.” Special fire engines were thundering into place around clusters of homes and other buildings, he said. 

Jaramillo said the fire would be a hardship for residents. 

“We are all just barely making it, and we don’t need this to happen to us,” she said. “You struggle so hard, and it could be gone in a minute — everything.” 

A towering ridge of smoke soared high, dominating the Santa Fe sky. 

The wind gusted up 40 mph earlier but was turning east and could blow the fire away from the towns by Friday, National Weather Service meteorologist Clay Anderson said. 

In Colorado, seven buildings at a youth campground and two summer homes burned Thursday near Deckers. The blaze was between 4,000 and 5,000 acres and 20 percent contained, Forest Service spokesman Pete Davis said. 

“The weather has been extremely cooperative so far and the predictions are it’s going to continue that way,” he said. “We’re very hopeful.” 

More than 100 students were evacuated from the youth camp late Tuesday as the fire raced north, and about 100 homes were threatened in the area surrounding Deckers, a popular fly-fishing spot on the South Platte River. 

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” said B.A. Claussen, who saw flames on his way to his cabin Tuesday night. “I grabbed the wine and the stamp collection and we loaded the good stuff in the Jeep.” 

Claussen donned a fire retardant suit to go with firefighters to check out his cabin and was relieved to find it barely singed Thursday. A neighbor’s home was destroyed, he said. 

At Colorado’s request, the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed Thursday to pay 75 percent of the firefighting costs, agency spokesman Jim Chesnutt said. 

Several other fires were burning in the West. 

xLandmark cases brought by individual smokers against the tobacco industry, listing date, location, award, parties and status: 

— March: Portland, Ore., $150 million punitive, Schwarz v. Philip Morris. On appeal. (Reduced to $100 million by judge in May). 

— February: Kansas City, Kan., $196,000 compensatory, Burton v. RJR Tobacco and The American Tobacco Co. Punitive damage ruling pending. 

— June 2001: Los Angeles, $3 billion punitive, Boeken v. Philip Morris. On appeal. (Reduced to $100 million by judge in August 2001). 

— October 2000: Tampa, Fla., $200,000 compensatory, Jones v. RJR Tobacco. Overturned. 

— March 2000: San Francisco, $20 million punitive, Whiteley v. Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Corp. On appeal. 

— March 1999: Portland, Ore., $79.5 million punitive, Williams-Branch v. Philip Morris. On appeal. (Reduced to $32 million by judge). 

— February 1999: San Francisco, $50 million punitive. Henley v. Philip Morris. On appeal. (Reduced to $25 million by judge). 

— June 1998: Jacksonville, Fla., $552,000 compensatory and $450,000 punitive. Widdick v. Brown & Williamson. Overturned. 

— August 1996: Jacksonville, Fla., $750,000 compensatory. Carter v. Brown & Williamson. First and only tobacco payment: $1.1 million (including interest) in March 2001. 

Source: Tobacco Products Liability Project of Northeastern University; AP archives. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two men who forced a bank manager to rob her own bank while they held her family hostage were convicted Thursday of armed bank robbery by extortion. 

Carlton V. Smith and Thomas A. Nichols had previously been convicted for their role in two similar bank heists in eastern Tennessee, and elements of the trial mirrored those presented to a Chattanooga jury in 1999. 

In Thursday’s case, the two men and a third, who prosecutors say masterminded the scheme he called “the love connection,” targeted Carolyn Pierce, a bank manager in Clarksville. 

Pierce endured an 18-hour siege of her home by the three men before she retrieved $851,000 from the bank. Her husband had been tied up and threatened with death, and their child was at home at the time, as were Pierce’s parents. 

The third man, Doug Daigle, later hanged himself in jail. He didn’t wear a mask, but his inside accomplice did, a man Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Deneke told jurors was Smith. Nichols was the outside lookout, Deneke said. 

Some of the evidence against the men was collected by the hostages. Pierce’s father, Leonard Beaudoin, a former military policeman, surreptitiously hid the cigarette butts left around the house by his captors. The cigarette butts yielded DNA evidence that pointed to Daigle and Smith. 

Carolyn Pierce also remembered seeing a black Mustang creeping toward the money drop after she left $851,000 there. Nichols was driving a black Mustang in East Tennessee when he was pulled over and ticketed by a police officer for running a stop sign. 

Prosecutors told jurors that Smith and Nichols couldn’t have afforded the Harley-Davidson motorcycles they bought in early 1997 before the bank heist. 

But Smith’s attorney, Carl Douglas Thoresen, said in his closing arguments the plentiful testimony about his client’s marijuana cultivation and said the cash could have come from his client’s illegal dealings. 

Hahn, Riordan speak out against plan to separate San Fernando Valley from second-biggest U.S. city 

LOS ANGELES – Battle lines were drawn Thursday in what may become a $10 million fight to decide if the San Fernando Valley will break away from the nation’s second-largest city. 

Current Mayor James Hahn, a Democrat, and former Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican, joined forces a day after a local commission voted to put a secession measure on the Nov. 5 city ballot. 

A legal challenge to the measure had been considered a possibility, but at a City Hall news conference the mayor said he had no plans to sue. 

“We think we can win this battle at the polls,” he said. 

Secession advocates have said they expect to spend $3 million to $5 million. They also have talked about combining forces with secession advocates in Hollywood and the San Pedro harbor area. A decision on whether to place those breakup measures on the ballot will be made this month. 

Hahn and Riordan will be part of a privately funded campaign that hopes to raise $5 million, campaign consultant Bill Carrick said. 

Riordan, a multimillionaire businessman, pledged to walk precincts and to write “a good-sized check” for the anti-secession movement, although he didn’t provide a figure. 

“I’ll match what I made as mayor,” he joked. Riordan spent about $6.3 million of his own money for his two mayoral campaigns but accepted a salary of only $1 a year. 

Billionaire developer Eli Broad said he already had contributed $100,000 to the effort and would contribute more. Broad, who supported Hahn’s rival in the last election, said he and the mayor, along with Riordan, wealthy developer Ed Roski and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher met for breakfast and agreed that secession “would be God-awful for the city.” 

“I think we’ve got a great city and we’re gonna go out there and talk about how great our city is, and wage a very positive campaign,” he said. 

The anti-secession campaign will use TV and radio ads along with door-to-door contacts to reach “those people who are watching this from the sidelines,” Carrick said. 

The secession fight may overshadow the gubernatorial race because the issue is closer to home, he noted. 

The battle will be non-partisan and is “devoid of personalities,” Carrick said, predicting that the two sides will focus on information barrages rather than personal attacks. 

“The whole universe of voters (is) up for grabs,” he said. “People aren’t gonna make a choice because they’re Democrats or Republicans. They’re gonna make a choice on the issues.” 

A union representing 9,000 city garbage collectors, sewer workers, mechanics and other employees was planning a summer get-out-the-vote campaign to defeat the measure. 

“This is our top priority this year,” said Julie Butcher, general manager of Service Employees International Union Local 347. “Their jobs are endangered. There’s no guarantee that they’ll work in the new city. We’re talking a few thousands jobs.” 

The proposed schism would create a new city of 1.3 million on July 1, 2003. The remaining Los Angeles would have about 2.5 million residents. 

Secessionists claim too much of the valley’s taxes go to use elsewhere in the city. Hahn and Riordan argue that splitting the city probably would mean higher taxes and reduced services for everyone. 

“We share the goal of keeping Los Angeles united,” Hahn said. “Our strength has been our diversity, and to lose that diversity, to lose any part of this great city is like cutting off an arm or cutting off a leg.” 

“Breaking this city apart will not accomplish anything. It will only hurt our communities. It will detract from the greatest city in the world,” Riordan said.

SACRAMENTO – More than a third of California’s single women live in poverty, according to a report released Wednesday by the San Francisco-based Women’s Foundation. 

The report comes as Gov. Gray Davis is proposing to fill a $23.6 billion budget deficit with heavy cuts to health care and social service programs for the poor. 

“In terms of measuring economic health, with women being the thermometer, our findings indicate that California has a chronic flu,” Patti Chang, the foundation’s president, said at a Capitol news conference Wednesday. 

The foundation studied government statistics, previously published sources and conducted interviews. It’s report found that 37 percent of single women in California live below the federal poverty rate — compared with 25 percent nationwide. 

Women of color and older single women are the most likely to live in poverty, the foundation reported. 

California ranks 48th among states in the nation in the number of residents who own homes. Because of the growing gap between wages and rents, two-thirds of low-income people spend more than 70 percent of their income on housing, the report found. 

Women make up nearly half the state’s labor force but are concentrated in traditional low-income occupations such as services and administrative support, the report said. 

Recently released census figures show that despite the roaring economy of the 1990s, the percentage of California families living in poverty is growing.

Justice Department considering giving cops power to enforce immigration laws; Florida the first state to agree to idea 

SAN FRANCISCO – Daniel Rosas Romero waits among the knots of men who line the sidewalks of a bustling street, hoping each day for painting, moving, gardening or construction jobs. 

The day laborers — many of whom slipped into the United States undocumented — have established an uneasy relationship with local police, who don’t ask whether they are in the country legally. 

Romero fears that delicate balance could tip under a new proposal being considered by the Justice Department, which would allow local and state police to enforce immigration laws. 

The Justice Department has not provided details about the idea floated in a legal opinion written by its attorneys. The department says only that it “continues to explore all options to enforce immigration laws,” said spokesman Dan Nelson. 

As security concerns and immigration policy intersect after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some states are considering similar initiatives. Supporters note INS agents are not usually patrolling the streets. But states’ officers are — and could limit the potential for terrorism by illegal immigrants, they say. 

The proposals are, however, raising questions and spreading fear throughout immigrant communities, where many worry they could be deported. 

“It would cause us as immigrants, no matter where we are, to be frightened,” said Romero, who came to the United States in search of work to pay for his teen-age son and daughter’s schooling in Mexico. 

“We’re not a problem. We can be a solution for this country” by doing work others are not willing to do, he said. Critics also believe the proposals could lead to racial profiling and discourage immigrants from reporting crimes to the police. 

Supporters say the Immigration and Naturalization Service, with 2,000 agents, lacks the staff to track suspected terrorists, much less an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants scattered throughout the country. Enlisting state and local authorities would create “a seamless web of protection against future threats,” said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. 

And Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police, notes that “by definition, if you are an illegal alien, you’re not supposed to be here.” 

In Florida, the state is hoping to reach a first-of-its-kind agreement with the Justice Department to give 35 law enforcement officers the authority to arrest illegal immigrants deemed threats to national security, said Jennifer McCord, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. 

South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon wants to pursue a similar agreement, under which the state’s law enforcement officers would be deputized as INS agents. 

But workers like Mathieu Beaucicot, who is in the United States on temporary visa, feel police will wind up pursuing them. 

“People working in fields picking this country’s oranges and tomatoes aren’t terrorists, and yet they’re the ones who would suffer the consequences for this change in policy,” said Beaucicot, who fled Haiti after a political coup and works in the tomato fields of southwest Florida. 

In Colorado, state legislators were considering a bill that would have authorized officers to enforce criminal violations of federal immigration laws. The bill was postponed indefinitely, but the idea has made many immigrants feel more vulnerable, said Jorge Rubalcaba, a day laborer in Aurora, Colo. 

Two months ago, he called the police when he heard a neighbor hitting his wife. If that happened, under the new proposal, “I think I would not tell them,” he said. 

“Everybody’s worried and has doubts,” said Rubalcaba, who moved to the United States from Mexico six years ago. “You can’t even go out and have fun. You aren’t free to go shopping, you can’t go to a park. The normal things of life you can’t do.” 

Police are split on the issue. Some say officers could assist an overwhelmed INS. Others believe doing so could jeopardize relationships with immigrant communities, and contend it’s not their role to take on immigration duties. 

Some cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, already have policies that generally prevent city officials from asking about people’s immigration status. Officials said they haven’t concluded how the Justice Department’s proposal would affect such policies. 

On the San Francisco sidewalk, Andres Barela and other laborers scan each passing car, hoping its occupants will stop and hire them. 

“Terrorists are not going to be here in the streets,” said Barela, who sends his earnings to his grandmother and uncles in Honduras. “We are just honest persons. We want to work, make money and have families.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – John Walker Lindh pleaded “please don’t kill me” as U.S. troops took the captured Taliban soldier to a U.S. military camp in Afghanistan, his defense lawyers said Thursday. 

A Marine accompanying the prisoner told Lindh to shut up, the lawyers said in a written motion. 

The defense team wants to subpoena the Marine, along with other U.S. military and civilian personnel who were in contact with the California-raised Lindh in Afghanistan and aboard Navy ships. 

Their aim is to find testimony and photographs that would demonstrate, at a June 17 hearing, that Lindh did not kill Americans and that he was questioned while imprisoned under inhumane conditions. 

The lawyers contend Lindh was bound in a metal container, sometimes naked in freezing weather, at the time he was questioned late last year. The government says Lindh waived his right to remain silent and have an attorney present. 

A Marine identified as USMC No. 11 “was present at Camp Rhino (in Afghanistan) at a critical time,” the motion said. “He observed Mr. Lindh’s conditions of incarceration and can testify as to his state of mind just prior to interrogation.” 

For example, the motion said, USMC No. 11 “reports that during the transport to the metal container at Camp Rhino, Lindh kept saying, ‘Please don’t kill me.”’ 

Lindh was interrogated at the camp and made statements the government is likely to use at trial. Jury selection is scheduled for Aug. 26. 

A government criminal complaint filed in January quoted Lindh as saying he learned in June 2001, while a Taliban military trainee, that alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden had sent people to the United States for suicide operations. 

The complaint also said Lindh and four other trainees met for about five minutes with bin Laden, who thanked them for participating in his holy war.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – John Walker Lindh pleaded “please don’t kill me” as U.S. troops took the captured Taliban soldier to a U.S. military camp in Afghanistan, his defense lawyers said Thursday. 

A Marine accompanying the prisoner told Lindh to shut up, the lawyers said in a written motion. 

The defense team wants to subpoena the Marine, along with other U.S. military and civilian personnel who were in contact with the California-raised Lindh in Afghanistan and aboard Navy ships. 

Their aim is to find testimony and photographs that would demonstrate, at a June 17 hearing, that Lindh did not kill Americans and that he was questioned while imprisoned under inhumane conditions. 

The lawyers contend Lindh was bound in a metal container, sometimes naked in freezing weather, at the time he was questioned late last year. The government says Lindh waived his right to remain silent and have an attorney present. 

A Marine identified as USMC No. 11 “was present at Camp Rhino (in Afghanistan) at a critical time,” the motion said. “He observed Mr. Lindh’s conditions of incarceration and can testify as to his state of mind just prior to interrogation.” 

For example, the motion said, USMC No. 11 “reports that during the transport to the metal container at Camp Rhino, Lindh kept saying, ‘Please don’t kill me.”’ 

Lindh was interrogated at the camp and made statements the government is likely to use at trial. Jury selection is scheduled for Aug. 26. 

A government criminal complaint filed in January quoted Lindh as saying he learned in June 2001, while a Taliban military trainee, that alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden had sent people to the United States for suicide operations. 

The complaint also said Lindh and four other trainees met for about five minutes with bin Laden, who thanked them for participating in his holy war.

SACRAMENTO – Pharmacies could sell hypodermic needles to adults without a doctor’s prescription under a bill approved Thursday by the state Senate. 

Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, said his legislation would cut down on the number of cases of HIV and other diseases caused by the sharing of needles among drug addicts. 

“I ask for an aye vote for life,” he said. 

But Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, said addicts would continue to share needles because “that’s part of the drug culture.” 

“This bill allows addicts who share needles to have more needles to share and there will only be a proliferation of disease,” he said. 

The bill would allow pharmacies to sell up to 30 hypodermic needles or syringes without a prescription to a person who is over 18. 

Current law allows public agencies to distribute clean needles as part of a needle exchange program. 

A 21-12 vote sent the bill to the Assembly.

WASHINGTON – Police and forensic experts worked Thursday to solve the mystery of how Chandra Levy died, with investigators saying most evidence points to murder. 

The Levy family pressed to have police classify the case a homicide, and Police Chief Charles Ramsey said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.” 

Indications in that direction include the former intern’s youth and fitness as well as the discovery of her remains beneath leaves and underbrush “off the beaten path” of Rock Creek Park, Ramsey said. 

But he said the case will remain simply a “death investigation” until Washington’s medical examiner makes a determination of the cause of death. 

The remains of Levy, 24, of Modesto, Calif., were found by a man walking his dog Wednesday morning. They were located on a steep slope and identified later in the day using dental records. 

Ramsey said Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., may be among the people investigators want to talk to again. 

Condit has acknowledged an affair with Levy, a police source says, but denies any involvement in her disappearance. Police interviewed him four times and repeatedly have said he is not a suspect. 

Police probably also will interview for a second time a man convicted of assaulting two joggers, Ramsey said. The attacks occurred in May and July last year in the same area of the park where Levy’s remains were found. 

Ramsey said investigators talked to the man months ago after U.S. Park Police alerted them to the arrest. “He said nothing to implicate himself with her, but then again we didn’t know she was in Rock Creek Park,” Ramsey said. He cautioned against calling the man a suspect. 

Both women were carrying portable radios and wearing headphones when they were attacked, according to a description of the cases provided by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Police said they found a radio and headphones among Levy’s remains. She disappeared May 1, 2001 — two weeks before the first assault. 

Investigators resumed their search of the area Thursday, painstakingly sifting through dirt and leaves looking for blood, hairs, clothing fibers or other evidence that could help determine when and how Levy died. 

The items recovered with the skull and bones Wednesday included a jogging bra, tennis shoes, University of Southern California sweat shirt and other clothing. Levy, who had been a Bureau of Prisons intern in Washington, was a graduate student at USC. 

Ramsey would not say whether any evidence of foul play had been found. Terrance W. Gainer, the deputy police chief, said the skull was “not in pristine condition,” but he could not conclude whether the damage to it came before or after Levy died. 

Dr. Cyril Wecht, the county coroner in Pittsburgh, said an examination of the bones would quickly yield any indications whether Levy was shot, stabbed or beaten to death. “Those exams have been completed,” Wecht said, noting they typically take no more than a few hours. 

Strangulation, which often does not involve fracturing bones or cartilage, would be harder to determine, he said. 

He also said investigators are unlikely to find much physical evidence at the scene that would help them identify a potential killer, because such evidence probably deteriorated during 13 months outdoors. 

DNA analysis can take a couple of weeks to complete, he said.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, the man accused of butchering a 10-year-old boy here and feeding his remains to unsuspecting neighbors, was sentenced Thursday to 130 years in prison without parole for assaults on two other boys. 

State District Judge Kenneth Neill, citing Bar-Jonah’s extensive record of crimes against children, turned down a request from defense attorneys that Bar-Jonah be sent to the state psychiatric hospital instead of prison. 

Bar-Jonah showed no emotion and was quickly removed from the courtroom. 

Don Vernay, a defense attorney, said the sentence would be appealed. Attorneys already have said they would appeal the jury’s verdicts. 

Bar-Jonah’s sentence included 100 years for sexual assault, 10 years for aggravated kidnapping and 20 years for assault. Neill ordered that they run consecutively. 

The assault and sexual assault charges stem from a 1999 case involving two young boys who lived near Bar-Jonah. Investigators said Bar-Jonah sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy and strung the boy’s 8-year-old cousin by his neck with a pulley and rope to watch him choke. 

Both boys testified during Bar-Jonah’s jury trial in Butte. Neill had ordered the case moved to Butte because of publicity in Great Falls surrounding separate kidnapping and murder charges he faces in the 1996 disappearance of Zachary Ramsay. 

Bar-Jonah, 45, spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts mental hospital after one attack in that state in which authorities said he tried to kill two boys. Two years before that, he forced an 8-year-old boy into his car and choked him with his belt so badly that the boy was hospitalized.

Provisions to give teachers power over book and curriculum selection dropped 

SACRAMENTO – Teachers won’t get expanded powers during collective bargaining to influence the selection of textbooks after legislators Wednesday dropped those provisions from a hotly debated education bill. 

State lawmakers Wednesday dropped provisions in a hotly debated education bill that would have armed California’s teachers with power over textbook and curriculum selection. 

The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted to send an amended AB2160 to the Assembly. The new bill would create academic partnerships made up of schools’ trustees and teacher representatives, with provisions to ensure that local schools boards heed their advice. Parents would also be included. 

Written by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, AB2160 is one of two bills backed by the California Teachers Association and causing a huge rift between the state’s largest teachers union and Gov. Gray Davis, who has threatened to veto both bills. 

Although the CTA has supported Davis in the past, including giving his 1998 campaign about $2 million, it has been frustrated by the governor’s support of more tests for students and greater accountability for schools and teachers, said president Wayne Johnson. 

Goldberg’s bill on testing, AB2347, would eliminate most of the state’s testing system that is at the heart of Davis’ education reforms. The committee voted to send it to the Assembly. 

The bill would start testing in third, not second, grade, as well as eliminate monetary awards for teachers, staff or schools with improved test scores, Goldberg said, adding that scores are influenced by socio-economic forces beyond a teacher’s control. 

Many of these award programs, however, were already removed from next year’s budget as the state faces a $23.6 billion budget shortfall. The budget includes about $500 million in school reductions, including the governor’s pet performance awards program for schools and teachers whose students improve test scores. 

Johnson said the testing bill wouldn’t eliminate testing but would create a new test that actually measures what students are taught. A new test, however, has not yet been designed. 

Opposition has been growing against the bills, specifically the one dealing with collective bargaining. Last month, opponents created Californians for Public School Accountability, a coalition of business and school administrators groups. 

Opponents say the collective bargaining bill could cost taxpayers an extra $200 million, because the development of programs the bill would require would mean more spending would occur. 

Collective bargaining is a mandated cost reimbursed by the state. In the current fiscal year, the state will reimburse school districts $38.8 million for K-12 collective bargaining, according to Kevin Gordon, a spokesman for the California Association of School Business Officials. 

Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, wondered that if extra money was being spent on academic partnerships, if cuts would mean “cheaper books” would be bought. 

Goldberg, however, said the partnerships could take place when teachers are already on the time clock. 

Opponents, who said the bill would give teachers more power, weren’t placated by the amendments. The Association of California School Administrators and the California School Boards Association said they will not support the amended bill. 

Because many districts already allow teachers to have a say in choosing textbooks, Goldberg’s bill “will just create another layer of bureaucracy,” said Laura Jeffries, the ACSA’s legislative analyst. 

But teachers, Goldberg said, often leave the profession after a few years because they don’t have a voice. Her bill would give them one, she said

Oceanside Unified School District to pay more than $140,000  

and provide employees with annual sensitivity training 

OCEANSIDE – A high school teacher who claimed she was harassed and denied a promotion because she is a lesbian has settled her lawsuit against the Oceanside Unified School District. 

The district will pay Dawn Murray more than $140,000 and provide its employees with annual sensitivity training on issues of sexual orientation discrimination, the Lambda Legal advocacy group said Thursday. 

Murray also resigned as part of the settlement, the district’s lawyer Daniel Shinoff said. 

Murray, a biology teacher at the school for nearly 20 years and winner of national teaching awards, said she was denied a promotion to director of student activities and suffered ongoing harassment by her colleagues at the 2,000-student school north of San Diego. 

Colleagues accused her of having sexual encounters with another teacher on campus during school hours, she said, and her classroom was vandalized. While she told some colleagues she is gay, Murray complained that an unwelcome “outing” in front of staff opened her up to verbal attacks. 

Murray said she was threatened with disciplinary action when she complained. 

An appellate court ruled in April 2000 that Murray had the right to sue the district for discrimination under a 1999 amendment to the Fair Employment and Housing Act. The state Supreme Court upheld the ruling in August 2000. 

In a statement, Murray said she hoped the case would show other school districts “if they respond to harassment in an inappropriate way, we will stand up, the laws will protect us, and they will be made to stop.” 

“Young people learn from adult behavior, and it was important to wage this fight to show students all people have to be treated fairly,” she said. 

Shinoff said the district’s insurance carrier would pay the settlement deal. He said the district, however, continues to maintain that “anything that occurred was not the result of discrimination based on her sexual orientation.”

SAN FRANCISCO – A California inmate has no right to mail his sperm from prison to impregnate his wife, a divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in reversing its September decision, said inmates have no constitutional right to procreate. Ruling 6-5, the San Francisco-based court put a halt to inmate William Gerber’s plans to ship his sperm to his wife in Southern California. 

“A holding that the state of California must accommodate Gerber’s request to artificially inseminate his wife as a matter of constitutional right would be a radical and unprecedented interpretation of the Constitution,” Judge Barry G. Silverman wrote. 

Gerber’s effort to impregnate his wife got national attention last year when a three-judge panel of the same circuit said Gerber had a right to mail his sperm to his 46-year-old wife, Evelyn. 

Silverman, the lone dissent in that September opinion, said the majority’s opinion allowed Gerber “to procreate from prison via FedEx,” and added that the majority “does not accept the fact that there are certain downsides to being confined in prison.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court has said prisoners have a right to marry and be free from forced sterilization. But neither the high court nor any lower court has resolved circumstances presented in Gerber’s case, which reached the courts when the California Department of Corrections balked at Gerber’s proposal. 

“The close 6-5 decision is obviously very disappointing to the Gerbers, and disturbing to anyone troubled by a government that can dictate who may or may not have children,” said the Gerbers’ attorney, Teresa Zuber. 

Evelyn Gerber declined comment through her attorney. 

Still, a five-judge circuit minority said the prison is not harmed by a prisoner ejaculating in a cup and mailing it to his wife. 

Judge Alex Kozinski said the process neither compromises security nor places a strain on prison resources beyond that required to mail any other package. 

“The prison has no penological interest in what prisoners do with their seed once it’s spilt,” Kozinski wrote. “A specimen cup would seem to be no worse a receptacle, from the prison’s point of view, than any other.” 

He wrote that the majority’s rule could encourage curtailing prisoners’ rights. 

“Does the term imprisonment also implicitly abridge the right to speak? Or the right to own property? The right to marry? To practice a religion?” he asked. 

Gerber would be able to try to father a child the old-fashioned way if he was not serving a life term. 

For three decades, California inmates with good prison records have been granted almost unsupervised overnight visits with loved ones in prison cottages. Prisoner rights groups say conjugal visits foster good prison behavior. 

But in 1995, California banned conjugal visits for prisoners convicted of sex crimes, crimes carrying life sentences or violent crimes against family members or minors. 

Gerber is serving a life term in a state prison in Blythe for illegally discharging a firearm and making terrorist threats, and was sentenced under California’s three strikes law. 

The case is Gerber v. Hickman, 00-16494.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco's Civil Grand Jury yesterday released a detailed report on the city's response to homelessness, finding a serious lack of leadership and coordination as the problem has worsened over the years. 

Noting that more than 100 people die on the street each year and somewhere around 10,000 lack a permanent home despite a budget hovering above $104 million in services alone, the report concludes that homelessness is “the pre-eminent social issue facing San Francisco.” 

The report was based on a seven-month investigation. 

But instead of creating a new department, as some city supervisors have suggested, the grand jury recommends forming a seven-member citizen commission that would be accountable to both the mayor and Board of Supervisors. At the same time, the panel faults the current mayoral administration for failing to articulate a clear policy and also questions the value of funding the Mayor's Office on Homelessness, which it terms “ineffectual and inconsistent.” 

Similarly, the quality of service varies widely among the city's 10 emergency shelters, according to the grand jurors, and no systemwide tracking has been established to match up those in need with the beds available. Better overall coordination among the various agencies and groups involved is also needed to avoid duplication and waste. 

The grand jurors expressed concern that many San Franciscans do not seem to understand the causes of homelessness, despite widespread media coverage of the issue. Public education and involvement in solutions should also be part of the city's plans, the report concludes, and a dedicated funding source should be considered. 

‘I got hit by a goose’ 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — If only Shawn Hacking hadn’t forgotten to duck, he might never have been goosed. 

The 13-year-old was knocked off his skateboard last Thursday after a Canada goose heading for a nearby pond misjudged its landing and slammed into his face. 

“I was stunned,” said Shawn, who hobbled home with two badly scraped knees, a sprained wrist, a ripped shirt and a red face where the bird’s wing slapped him. 

“It was so funny, but I felt sorry for him at the same time,” recalled Shawn’s skateboarding buddy Brent Bruchanski. “It flew out of nowhere and then . . . Wham bam!” 

The goose just kept going, added the boys. 

When he got home, Shawn’s mother Kim Hacking was a little horrified at first with how badly he had been roughed up. 

“When he came in, he said, ‘I got hit by a goose,”’ she said. “I thought that was some kind of car or something.” 

Man gets his neighbor’s goat  

NEW GLASGOW, Nova Scotia — It was supposed to be a prank to get back at the owner of a goat that was munching on neighbors’ flowers. 

But the joke wound up costing a Nova Scotia man $330 in fines after he pleaded guilty in the goat-napping case. 

Authorities say the theft took place after Percy the goat’s owner got into a disagreement with a neighbor over the animal running loose and chewing on flowers. Vera Myers returned home the next day to find her pet missing. 

Michel Andre Daviau, 41, admitted he took the goat as a prank while on a fishing trip and says a neighbor encouraged him to take it because it was a nuisance. Daviau told the judge it was all a joke and he didn’t think it would come to this. 

Provincial court Judge Clyde MacDonald says it was no joke to the goat’s owner, who was deprived of her pet for two days. 

Boy chooses cash over Britney  

YAKIMA, Wash. — A 13-year-old boy decided he’d rather have $475 in cash than see teen pop queen Britney Spears in concert. 

After twisting off the cap from a bottle of Pepsi, Andrew Benson discovered he had won four tickets to a Spears concert and $200 in spending money. His musical taste runs more to rap artists so the choice wasn’t too difficult. 

Andrew called the toll-free number on the cap and traded in the prizes for $475, which he plans to share with his nine brothers and sisters and four cousins. 

His mother said she will pitch in another $25, so he can start with an even $500. 

Andrew said he felt lucky after he spent $1 on a Pepsi at the school store. 

“This might be a winner,” he recalled telling his friends. 

There are 4,800 bottle caps offering tickets to Spears’ Summer 2002 Tour concerts, and the odds of winning are 1-in-51,163, according to PepsiCo. 

——— 

FLOYD, Iowa (AP) 

— An Iowa family has a new pet and it has a wing span of more than 3 feet. 

John and Margaret Majerczyk said they have seen all kinds of animals wander onto their property in the 26 years they’ve been in rural Floyd County, but they had never befriended a large turkey before. 

The bird is most likely a young turkey vulture, which is often called a buzzard. 

The Majerczyks named him Buzz. 

The bird follows John into his auto restoration shop and tags along with Margaret out to the clothesline. The animal is there when the Majerczyks awake in the mornings, often sitting on a flower box peering into the house, waiting for someone to come out. 

And he anxiously awaits feeding time, which consists of about a half-pound of hamburger a day. When he’s not eating, Buzz roosts in a dead tree or struts around the yard playing with whatever he can find. 

Margaret Majerczyk said she was “a little shocked” when Buzz started following her around the yard. 

At first, “I didn’t know what to think,” she said. “I was leery. At first I thought it was injured and couldn’t fly. But then it does fly.” 

Fred Heinz, director of the Cerro Gordo County Conservation Board, said the vulture may have had prior human contact. He may have been blown out of a nest and been fed by someone else, because most turkey vultures are wary of humans. 

EMERYVILLE — American Indian groups hope to halt development of a sacred shellmound burial site to preserve the remains of some of the Bay Area’s first inhabitants. 

Last week, the city council heard from archaeological company URS Corp., which found 120 sets of human remains and thousands of other artifacts while sifting through 100 meters of soil at the site, which contains such items as discarded shells and plant and animal remains. 

“It was a sacred site and it was defiled by dancing halls and bars,” said Nancy Becker of Sacred Sites International. “We have to be sensitive to their feelings.” 

The top of the 2,700-year-old site first was removed in the late 1800s to build a dance hall and amusement park. A paint and pigment factory followed in 1924. The city council most recently approved the Bay Street project, a complex consisting of a retail, housing, hotel and entertainment facilities. 

Descendants of the Huchiun band of the Ohlone Indians were unsuccessful in their efforts to stop the project, and work crews discovered human remains in 1999. 

The project’s developer, Madison Marquette, has offered to build a memorial paying homage to the Ohlone people who once inhabited the area situated where the Temescal Creek flowed into the San Francisco Bay. Mayor Ruth Atkin also said 1 percent to 3 percent of the site will not be developed following a request from the state-assigned American Indian descendant in charge of overseeing the excavation. 

But American Indian descendants are not satisfied, and asked council members how they would feel if their ancestors’ cemeteries were dug up and then covered by a shopping center and other businesses. 

“The Ohlone people are always referred to in the past tense, but the Ohlone people are not extinct,” said Angela Apache-Davis of IPOC, Indian People Organized for Change. “It would be a great disservice to desecrate the Native American burial ground. It is cultural genocide, no other way to say it.” 

AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson was released from an Austin hospital Thursday, three weeks after suffering a mild stroke. 

The 89-year-old former first lady has made “a remarkable recovery,” said her daughter, Luci Baines Johnson. She said Johnson’s speaking and swallowing have improved each day. Johnson was taken to Seton Medical Center May 2 after she awoke from a nap at her home and had trouble speaking and swallowing medicine. 

SACRAMENTO – A former aide to Gov. Gray Davis says he was surprised when a computer company lobbyist gave him a $25,000 campaign contribution for the governor at a Sacramento bar. 

Arun Baheti told a legislative committee Wednesday he had no idea that lobbyist Ravi Mehta planned to give him the check when they met for drinks last year, although Mehta commented before their meeting about needing to get a check for an earlier fund-raising event to Davis’ campaign committee. 

“I was surprised that he handed it to me,” Baheti said. 

Mehta, whose clients include Oracle Corp., delivered the check from Oracle a few days after the Redwood Shores company signed a $95 million, no-bid contract with the state. Baheti said he forwarded the check to Davis’s campaign committee by Federal Express. 

The contract was initially billed as a way the state would save at least $16 million — and possibly as much as $111 million — through volume purchases and maintenance of database software. 

But the state auditor said last month that the deal would cost California up to $41 million more than if the state had kept its previous software supply arrangements, a conclusion Oracle disputes. 

Davis and Oracle have denied there was any link between the contribution and the contract, but the governor has returned the money and state and Oracle representatives are discussing how to rescind the deal. 

Baheti told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that his meeting with Mehta was “just a general conversation over drinks. ... He was interested in some of the items in the (state) budget.” 

The committee is holding a series of hearings on the contract. 

Asked if he and Mehta talked about the contract, Baheti said, “I’m certain it had to come up.” 

Baheti said sometime after he sent the check to Davis’ campaign office, a campaign official — he couldn’t remember her full name — called and “expressed her displeasure in the fact that I had received and Fed Exed the check and strongly requested that I never do that again.” 

“She felt it was an error in judgment,” he said. “After listening to her side of the conversation, I agreed.” 

In response to repeated questions, Baheti said he couldn’t recall details of the meeting with Mehta, including the date, the restaurant or the dinner conversation. 

Sen. Steve Peace, D-San Diego, called Baheti’s inability to recall details of the meeting “beyond straining credulity.” 

Baheti was a Davis adviser on technology issues who resigned May 2 because of his role in the contract controversy. Davis aides said he was asked to resign because he violated a rule that bars administration officials from accepting campaign donations. 

“It was clear to me it was going to become an issue and a distraction to the administration,” Baheti said. “I felt the best thing I could do for everyone concerned was to resign.” 

Several committee members asked Baheti why it took so long for the governor’s chief of staff, Lynn Schenk, to ask him to resign. He said he didn’t know. 

As Davis’ director of e-government, Baheti said he had an open door policy and met often with representatives of high-tech firms interested in signing contracts with the state. 

He said he had a meeting with representatives of Oracle or Logicon Inc., an Oracle vendor, last May 23, shortly before the contract was signed. 

Baheti said he remembered having concerns or questions about the proposed contract and at a meeting with other state officials on May 24 expressed reservations about signing a no-bid software agreement with Logicon. 

“I didn’t understand how the state could enter into a sole-source agreement with a reseller of software, particularly given there were other resellers that earned their living selling Oracle products. 

“Any time there is a middleman involved it’s going to cost more money,” Baheti added. 

Officials at the meeting then decided to seek a contract directly with Oracle, he said.