The son of notorious real estate tycoon Lakireddy Bali Reddy will likely face two years of prison time for his involvement in a family sex smuggling ring in Berkeley. 

Vijay Lakireddy, 32, reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors Wednesday that dismissed charges of importing teenage girls from India for “immoral purposes” in turn for a guilty plea to one count of immigration fraud. Charges of sexual misconduct against Lakireddy were dropped last year after testimony was mishandled by language interpreters. 

Lakireddy’s plea comes one year after his father was sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling Indian teenagers into Berkeley restaurants and apartments for sex and cheap labor.  

Two additional family members have also received lesser sentences for their roles in the operation, and Lakireddy’s brother is scheduled to go to court in January. 

Prosecutor Stephen Corrigan, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, refused to comment on Tuesday’s plea bargain. The plea comes six months before Lakireddy’s scheduled trial date. 

Lakireddy, during his brief appearance in front of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, described the negotiations he had taken up with federal prosecutors only as “long.” 

He left the courtroom, accompanied by his wife and attorney, looking mostly relieved and refusing to comment on the plea agreement. When questioned, Lakireddy said only, “I love my friends, I love my family and I love my country.” 

In the plea bargain, Lakireddy admits to falsifying an immigration visa for an Indian man, Venkateswara Vemireddy, who posed as the father of two Indian girls living illegally in the United States. 

The crime carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, though attorneys on both sides are requesting two years of prison time. A federal judge is scheduled to issue a sentence Sept. 30. 

Outside the federal courthouse in Oakland, a small gathering of woman who have consistently urged stiff penalties for the Berkeley family, expressed disappointment with Tuesday’s events. 

“So many charges were dropped that should have been held against him,” said Oakland resident Carol DeWitt. “This family has exploited people for money and children for sexual purposes for 15 years... . Now they’re only getting a slap on the wrist.” 

Mills College Professor of Sociology Diana Russell echoed the sentiment. 

“What happened to the sexual slavery bit?” Russell said. “Trafficking girls for sex and for labor is a real escalating international problem. To ignore it is appalling.” 

The family’s illegal exploits surfaced in November 1999 when a 17-year-old Indian girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a downtown Berkeley apartment owned by Reddy. 

The girl’s 15-year-old sister, who was also living in the apartment, survived the deadly poisoning that was blamed on improper ventilation and later told police she was brought to the country and forced to have sex. 

Next month, Reddy’s brother Jayaprakash Lakireddy begins serving a one-year sentence in a halfway house for conspiring to commit immigration fraud. Reddy’s sister-in-law Annapurna Lakireddy was sentenced to six months of home detention in April for the same offense. 

Prasad Lakireddy, Reddy’s son and brother of Vijay Lakireddy, has so far refused to enter a plea bargain like his brother and remains scheduled for a January trial. 

Borders books to sell booze 

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — A glass of wine with that book? A sip of specialty liquor-laced coffee with that CD? 

Borders bookstore patrons will soon offer those options after the city council unanimously approved a request to permit the transfer of a liquor license to a restaurant inside a Borders store, The Detroit News reported in a Wednesday story. 

Alcohol consumption will not be allowed inside the bookstore section and the restaurant where the liquor will be served will have its own separate entrance, said Dana Whinnery, Farmington Hills’ assistant city manager. 

Cosi, the New York-based company behind the restaurant, started the concept in Paris and Manhattan. 

Liquor licenses are still being sought, said attorney Kelly Allen, who represents the company in Michigan. The license still must be approved by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. 

This ‘Banana’ among  

nation’s sexiest 

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — He’s 87 years old and still wears his trademark yellow swimsuit, but water skier “Banana” George Blair is still among the ranks of the nation’s sexiest men. 

Blair is the oldest of the more than 80 athletes featured in Sports Illustrated Women’s 2002 swimsuit issue, which hit the stands Tuesday. 

“There must be quite a few people out there who think I’m sexy. I’m elated. I’m just elated!” Blair said. “This is one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever received.” 

Blair learned to water ski at age 40 and began barefoot skiing six years later. 

At age 81, he drove a race car for the first time, then learned to skydive the next year. Blair surfed for the first time when he was 83 and learned to bull ride at age 85. 

Flying mammals 

driving man batty 

BRADENTON, Fla. — Grant Griffin’s one-bedroom apartment isn’t big enough for him, and more importantly, bats have turned up in his shower, sink and sheets. So he is moving. 

Exterminators aren’t allowed to kill the bats, which are considered native wildlife and can’t be trapped or poisoned, said University of Florida assistant professor Mark Hostetler. They can only be killed if they are rabid, which county health officials are testing for after Griffin and his girlfriend discovered bite marks. 

“I’m freaked out. I’m about as freaked out as I can get,” said Griffin, 49. “I feel like there are things crawling all over me.” 

Bats can be locked out of houses by closing up the holes — as small as half an inch — where they enter. 

But now, in the peak of the three-month bat birthing season, that would prevent mother bats from returning to their babies inside the house. The babies would die and the stench would be unbearable, said Hostetler.

To the Editor 

Geller (“Opposition to Lawrence Lab is laughable,” 5/27/02) is clueless about the laws of probability. The only way the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste (CMTW) can dominate the City Council comment period is by chance. CMTW was lucky at the council meeting Geller refers to. However, several of the speakers supporting CMTW's issue of concern: the Lab burning tritium/hazardous waste next to the Lawrence Hall of Science, were not and are not CMTW members. Furthermore,none of the “smirking” (as well as non-smirking) faces on the front page photo in Wed., May 27 Daily Planet are those of CMTW members, but rather supporters protesting the Berkeley Labs’ (LBNL’s) combustion of radioactive/hazardous waste.  

While Lawrence Berkeley Lab PR folks are feeding the public the line that tritium emissions are safe, their U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) counterparts at the Nevada Test Site have switched their concern from plutonium to tritium, because tritium, unlike plutonium, dissolves in water. “Tritium is considered the most dangerous of the materials left over from the nuclear blasts because it dissolves easily in ground water and poses a threat to public health for more than 100 years. The risk from plutonium in ground water is small because the particles that get into the water don't move very far.” (Tritium stirs concern at 

Test Site”, Las Vegas Sun, Jan. 24, 1999, ,

lasvegassun.com>) Geller, it seems, blindly trusts DOE, unlike Dr. John Gofman, Professor Emeritus UCB Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology, formerly with the Manhattan Project at Berkeley's Radiation Lab (now LBNL) and Director of the Biomedical Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Gofman states: ‘Credible assurance’ can not be obtained from anyone with a conflict of interest – like the Lab itself or DOE. It would be ridiculous for the Lab to tell the public and its state and local officials, ‘Just trust us’, and it would be the purest arrogance to tell the public 'it's none of your business’. The public always has a huge stake in the proper handling of hazardous wastes, both radioactive and non-radioactive. People who operate facilities with the potential to pollute need the humility and goodwill to recognize that the public has every right to impose pre-emptive measures for self-defense against such poisons before they escape. 

This is especially unarguable when the potential pollutant is radioactive, since it is clear that there is NO threshold dose-level (no safe dose, so risk-free dose) of ionizing radiation. Thus, nuclear pollution, in the aggregate, causes premeditated random murder.” 

Lets' not forget that while the Lawrence Berkeley Lab hides under the aura of UC. management, it is, after all, owned by the U.S. D.O.E. 

Without benefit of public notification, or an environmental report subjected to public review and comment, the DOE's LBNL, as an afterthought, on June 18 e-mailed Berkeley City Council members (hauling had already begun) that up to eight truckloads per day of radioactive concrete and metallic waste from the Bevatron deconstruction are being hauled through City of Berkeley streets, destined (if not recycled into consumer goods, or buried in Richmond or Livermore landfill) for burial at the Nevada test-site. 

Gene Bernardi  

Committee to Minimize  

Toxic Waste  

Thursday, June 27

The Lost Spacecraft:  

Liberty Bell 7 Recovered 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland 

Preview new exhibit of resurrected 1961 spacecraft 

RSVP June 20, (415) 864-6397 or news@davidperry.com 

Speak Out Against  

Police Repression 

7 p.m.  

Defremery Park, 1651 Adeline St. West Oakland 

Jerald Smith from COPWATCH, Angela Rowen and Roger White from East Bay Uprising. Sponsored by East Bay Uprising 415-364-1870 or email ebuprising@yahoo.com 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A quit smoking class 

5:30-7:30 Thursday Evenings,  

June 6-July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St., 981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Celebrate Queer Pride  

with fabulous FolkDivas 

8 p.m. 

Temescal Arts Center,  

511 48th St, Oakland  

Performers include: Helen Chaya, Eileen Hazel, and Marca Cassity.  

All Ages 

798-5456  

$6-10 sliding scale 

Friday, June 28

Paramount Movie Classics 

The General (1927), starring  

Buster Keaton, a silent film with  

live Wurlitzer organ  

accompaniment by Jim Riggs,  

playing his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

The Tao of Energy  

Medicine Workshop 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Upaya Center 478 Santa Clara Ave.  

Oakland 

www.upayacenter.org  

Free 

One Man's War Tour 

7 p.m.  

AK Press Warehouse 674-A 23rd St.-between MLK and San Pablo 

Oakland  

Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba celebrates the release of his new CD. May contain live violence and sex. 

594-2329, satanicapache@hotmail.com, www.satanicapache.com 

FREE 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Paramount Movie Classics 

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  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. $5 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids. 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Saturday, June 29

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m.- 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St., Berkeley 

Learn what your rights are and how to observe the police effectively and safely; hosted by Copwatch. 

For more information: 548-0425 

Free 

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

Disaster First Aid: Learn to apply  

basic first aid techniques. 

981-5605 

How to Travel with Children 

11 to noon 

East Bay's Premier Action Sports Store  

1440 San Pablo Ave. 

Lonely Planet's global travel editor, Don George will offer tips and advice. 

526-7529. 

Free 

Save the Bay's East Bay  

Shoreline Bike Ride 

Noon 

Ride with Save the Bay along this beautiful section of the 10-mile SF Bay Trail. 

452-9261 for info and reservations.  

Savebay@savesfbay.org 

Free 

Northern California Labor Conference on Democratic Rights 

9:30 to 4:00 p.m.  

Valley Life Science Building Room 2040 UC Berkeley 

One day conference is being organized to focus on the growing attack on labor rights since the "War On Terrorism" 

Free 

Garden Party for David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Two Strong Roots garden sites;  

on the corner of Sacramento and Woolsey, and Sacramento and Harmon 

Gardening for all ages, honey making,  

gardening workshops 

(415) 788-3666 

Free 

Meditation Seminar 

11 a.m. 

Rockridge Library,  

5366 College Ave.  

Oakland 

Thakar Singh's seminar 

(888) 297-1715 

Free 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Stanford Jazz Festival,  

June 29-August 10 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m.  

Kids 8-12, Campbell Recital Hall  

Stanford Campus  

Early Bird jazz for kids and families  

with Jim Nadel & Friends. 

Free 

Maybeck High School  

30th anniversary  

6 p.m. to 10 p.m.  

Piedmont Community Hall  

711 Highland Ave. Piedmont 

Call 841-8489 for reservations 

Kids are Street Safe Campaign 

10 a.m. to noon 

Neighborhood House of North Richmond, 305 Chesley Ave, Richmond 

Police, Richmond mayor,  

superintendent, youth directors speak  

on how to keep kids safe. 

235-9780 

Free 

Sunday, June 30

Celebration of the California Least  

Tern Nesting Season 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Crab Cove Visiting Center, Alameda 

Craft-making, slide show, visual displays,  

and a visit to the nesting colony 

Bus tour recommended for ages 6 and up, needs reservations. 

Reservations for tour: 521-6887 

General: Free; Tour: $6-$8 

Monday, July 1

“Children of AIDS” film 

6:30 p.m.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffee house, 6536 Telegraph Avenue  

Presented by the National Organization  

for Women  

549-2970, 287-8948  

Free 

What You Need to Know Before you Remodel 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 

Discussion by builder Glen Kitzenberger 

525-7610 

Free 

Tuesday, July 2

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, Suite 320  

Oakland.A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

533-1747, ext. 12. 

Saturday, July 6

Capoeira Batizado 

2 to 6 p.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison, Berkeley 

A celebration of Capoeira with  

performances by local arts organization. 

For information: 666-1255 

Free 

Saturday, July 6 - 

Sunday, July 21

Marin Classic Theatre 

presents "Born Yesterday" 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sunday matinee; 7 p.m. Sundays 

A bittersweet comedy by  

Garson Kanin. 

For information: 415-892-8551 or 

www.MCTheatre.com 

$18 evening performances, $15 matinee 

Thursday, July 11

Great Sierra Backpacking Destinations 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo  

Karen Najarian of Sierra Wilderness Seminars presents slides from her more that 20 years exploring the Sierra Backcountry. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Saturday, July 13

Peach / Stone Fruit Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

15th Anniversary Derby Street  

Farmers Market 

Live music and & stone-fruit and peach tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Festival of New Versions  

of Classic Asian Games 

Noon to 5 p.m 

Dr Comics and Mr Games,  

4014 Piedmont Ave., Oakland  

Dr Comics and Mr Games Hosts Game a festival featuring two new versions of classic Asian board games 

601-7800 

Sunday, July 14

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician  

basic bike repairs such as brake  

adjustments and fixing a flat. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore health concerns in a family  

oriented environment 

Free 

Tuesday, July 16 

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church,  

941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with  

other photographers 

525-3565 

Free 

OAKLAND – The Golden State Warriors added Mike Dunleavy, Jiri Welsch and Steve Logan to their impressive array of young talent on Wednesday. 

Now if only the Warriors could decide who’s going to coach that talent. 

For the second straight year, the Warriors left the NBA draft with three players to rebuild a franchise that’s been through three straight 60-loss seasons and a league-worst eight-year playoff drought. 

Dunleavy, a 6-foot-9 forward considered one of the best shooters in college basketball last season at Duke, was the third overall pick. 

Near the close of the first round, the Warriors acquired the rights to Czech swing guard Welsch, the 16th overall pick by Philadelphia who played in Slovenia last season. With the first pick of the second round, the Warriors chose Logan, a 5-foot-10 scorer from Cincinnati. 

“Once again, I think we’ve helped our team a great deal,” Warriors general manager Garry St. Jean said. “We got three guys that interested us and that we think will make us better.” 

The selection of Dunleavy was no surprise, because his decision to remain in the draft was predicated on his excitement about joining the Warriors. Dunleavy is expected to become Golden State’s starting small forward, with Antawn Jamison moving to power forward and Danny Fortson leaving town. 

But the Warriors kept mum about the possibility that his father, Mike, will become the team’s new coach. Mike Dunleavy previously coached Portland, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers. 

St. Jean again declined comment, saying the coaching search was “ongoing.” Interim coach Brian Winters still hasn’t been told whether he’ll be back next season. 

The younger Mike Dunleavy told reporters that he understood his father was at least a part of a long list of candidates for the job, though he downplayed the notion. 

“We’ll let the chips fall where they do,” he said. “Maybe I’m biased, but I think he does a great job. I know we’ll have a great coach in there no matter what happens.” 

Dunleavy is the Warriors’ latest foundation player — another building block on which St. Jean will attempt to rebuild. 

“I’ve known this young man since he was an infant, and I’ve watched him grow,” said St. Jean, who coached Dunleavy’s father in Milwaukee during the 1980s. “He has touch. He has feel, and a real court presence. He’s a great decision-maker, and he’s very versatile.” 

Dunleavy’s arrival probably signals the departure of one previous building block. Fortson, the NBA’s fourth-leading rebounder last season, won’t be happy in a reserve role. 

Dunleavy expected to return to school as recently as two weeks ago, but as his draft stock kept rising, Dunleavy leaned toward the NBA. St. Jean and Jamison apparently sold Dunleavy on the Warriors’ potential during a meeting earlier this month. 

“I realized it was just too big of an opportunity to pass up,” Dunleavy said. “I was always high on the Warriors. It was a situation that I was really looking forward to. I kind of knew all along that No. 3 was where I was going.” 

Dunleavy averaged 17.3 points and 7.2 rebounds last season for the Blue Devils. His outside shooting and basketball sense have been praised, but there were worries about his relatively slight build, which could hinder his defense. 

Welsch is only 22, but he has played five professional seasons in Europe. A 6-foot-7 guard with strong ball-handling abilities and an impressive shooting touch — he shot 65 percent from the field last season. 

Welsch could play three positions, and the Warriors won’t force him into one spot. 

“He’s really one of the most promising guards in Europe,” assistant GM Gary Fitzsimmons said. “We were ecstatic to do a deal and have him be available at 16.” 

In the deal, Golden State returned the first-round pick it got from Philadelphia last season in a trade that sent Vonteego Cummings to the Sixers. Unless Golden State finishes with one of the NBA’s top three records next season, Philadelphia also will get the Warriors’ second-round pick in 2004. 

Logan will face tough competition for a roster spot in the Warriors’ summer programs, but the first-team All-American hasn’t failed much in his career. A four-year starter for the Bearcats, he averaged 22 points and 5.3 assists in his senior season.

Superintendent Michele Lawrence acknowledged major shortcomings in the district’s food services program, including a $775,000 deficit in the cafeteria fund and meals that do not live up to the district’s ambitious food policy, at a community meeting Tuesday. 

But Lawrence defended the leadership of food services director Karen Candito, arguing that the problems began before she took office this year, and said better times are ahead. 

“I believe that there is a way for us to provide healthy food for kids in a cost-effective way,” she said, acknowledging that she did not yet know how to reach that goal. 

Lawrence, who spoke at a meeting of the Child Nutrition Advisory Committee, a citizen group that advises the Board of Education, presented the committee with a list of 26 factors contributing to the cafeteria fund deficit.  

The list included the loss of a $240,000 annual food service contract with the Emery Unified School District, the purchase of a $188,000 mobile cafeteria at Berkeley High that has gone unused, a $33,000 vacation payoff to the previous food services director, and unsatisfactory ordering and tracking procedures in some areas. 

Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr said the district purchased the mobile cafeteria because it anticipated requiring freshmen to remain on campus during lunch this year. That policy has not gone into effect and Kurr said the district is considering selling the unit next year. 

In order to make up this year’s cafeteria fund deficit, the district has to make a $166,000 contribution from the general fund and virtually wipe out the fund’s $847,000 reserve. 

The district plans to make up next year’s deficit, in part, with a $350,000 contribution from the general fund, which will contribute to the district’s overall deficit of $2.8 million. The district also plans to reduce worker hours for a savings of over $160,000. 

Stephanie Allan, a business representative for Local 39, which represents food service workers, said the reduction in hours will hinder the district’s efforts to improve food quality. 

“I don’t know how you’re going to serve healthier food with less people to prepare and serve it,” she said. 

The quality of district food was a hot topic at the meeting, with committee members complaining about corn dogs, sweetened cereals and other high sugar and sodium foods. 

“I don’t understand what healthy means to food services,” said committee member Yolanda Huang, who has raised the issue several times at recent Board of Education meetings. 

Jeanette James, field operations supervisor for food services, said the district is working to make improvements – negotiating for chocolate milk with lower sugar content and including an organic produce company in the bid for next year’s produce contract, among other measures. 

Lawrence said she agreed with the committee about the need for better food. 

“I’m outraged that we have Frosted Flakes and sweetened cereals,” she said. “That has to be fixed.” 

Eric Weaver, committee chairman, said the group has tried to help with long-term planning but has faced continual roadblocks from food services. 

“We have been totally stymied in the efforts to try to plan,” he said, noting that the group has resorted to using figures from the nearby Davis school district to develop a generic, long-term vision. 

Lawrence said the district has had difficulty planning, not only in food services but in many other areas, because its data system is so faulty. 

“We’ve had some serious problems in this organization,” she said. 

The district is scheduled to convert to a new data system early next month.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On June 27, 1950, President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict following a call from the U.N. Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North. 

On this date: 

In 1893, the New York stock market crashed. 

In 1957, more than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey slammed through coastal Louisiana and Texas. 

In 1969, patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, clashed with police in an incident considered the birth of the gay rights movement. 

In 1973, former White House counsel John W. Dean told the Senate Watergate Committee about an “enemies list” kept by the Nixon White House. 

In 1980, President Carter signed legislation reviving draft registration. 

Ten years ago: Authorities found the body of kidnapped Exxon executive Sidney J. Reso buried in a makeshift grave in Bass River State Park in New Jersey. (The couple who kidnapped and killed Reso, Arthur and Irene Seale, were later convicted and sentenced to prison.) 

Five years ago: The Supreme Court threw out a key part of the Brady gun-control law, saying the federal government could not make local police decide whether people are fit to buy handguns. However, the court left intact the five-day waiting period for gun purchases. 

One year ago: The United Nations concluded a three-day summit on HIV/AIDS after adopting a blueprint which set tough targets for reducing infection rates and called for protecting the rights of infected people. Actor Jack Lemmon died in Los Angeles at age 76. 

Today’s Birthdays: “Captain Kangaroo,” Bob Keeshan, is 75. Business executive Ross Perot is 72. Gospel singer Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer) is 26. Actress Madylin Sweeten is 11.

To the Editor:  

We must all act now or much of this year's state budget shortfall may disproportionately affect the most vulnerable Californians - children, seniors and low-income wage earners. To protect crucial public services we have to look for new revenue sources.  

Governor Davis has proposed reducing programs for low-income families by $2.6 billion. When lost federal funds are taken into account, this amount swells to $4.3 billion. Over 400,000 Californians would lose their medical coverage and over a million would be affected by such proposals as the elimination of some benefits which are not federally required, a reduction in the rates paid to health care providers, and cuts to safety-net hospitals. 

The League of Women Voters together with a number of other groups believes that the best way to balance income and spending is to raise the rates for higher-income taxpayers. SB 1255(Burton) would raise the state's top personal income tax rate to 10 percent for joint filers with taxable incomes greater than $260,000; 11 percent, if greater than $520,000. These 2.4 percent of California's taxpayers are the same people who benefitted the most from the recent federal tax cuts. And once the director of finance certifies that the state has regained a prudent reserve, the tax increase would be repealed. 

We urge you to join us in writing, calling or sending an e-mail to your representatives in the State Assembly and State Senate and to Governor Davis, to let them know that you prefer SB1255 rather than cutting funds for the most needy. The budget will probably not be passed until late June or early July, and significant changes may be made until it is signed by the Governor. There is not much time, but still enough for you to be heard.  

Please call the League of Women Voters for further information or help at 843-8824 and leave word for one of us to call you back. 

Nancy Bickel, President 

Lois Brubeck, Action VP  

Cal freshman Jamal Sampson was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the second round of Wednesday’s NBA Draft. 

Utah chose Sampson with the 47th overall pick. He was the third Pac-10 player in a row to be drafted, with Sam Clancy of USC going to the the Philadelphia 76ers with the 45th pick and UCLA’s Matt Barnes chosen by the Memphis Grizzlies with the 46th selection. 

Sampson, a 6-foot-11, 235-pound forward/center, will not receive a guaranteed contract as a second-round selection. He left Cal after just one season, earning All-Freshman Pac-10 honors.

The Cal football team was banned from postseason play for the upcoming season and placed on five years of probation Wednesday by the NCAA for academic fraud and recruiting and eligibility violations. 

Cal will also lose nine scholarships over four seasons as part of the punishment for infractions that included two ineligible players taking part in a game and extra benefits during hotel stays. 

The NCAA ruling alleges that Cal violated ethical conduct bylaws governing academic fraud, academic eligibility, obligation to withhold ineligible student-athletes from competition, extra benefits, recruiting, and institutional control. 

The NCAA sanctions follow penalties issued by the Pac-10 Conference that placed the team on conference probation for a year, ordered the program to adopt a compliance oversight plan and forced Cal to forfeit a 1999 victory against Arizona State University. 

Cal Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said in a prepared statement that the school plans to appeal the NCAA ruling. Berdahl said while the school accepted the conference sanctions, the new penalties are too harsh. 

“In the case of the additional infractions, the NCAA-imposed penalties appear unduly excessive and that is why we have decided to appeal,” he said. 

The NCAA infractions committee took the case seriously because it indicated a systematic breakdown of the proper practices to follow regarding infractions, said committee chair Tom Yeager. 

The committee also considers Cal a repeat offender because the alleged violations occurred within five years of a previous major infractions case. Cal received the five-year probation because of its repeat-offender status. 

Cal’s academic improprieties occurred in 1999 when a university professor awarded false academic credits to wide receivers Michael Ainsworth and Ronnie Davenport. The two players proceeded to play in the fall of 1999 without properly completing the minimum number of credits to remain eligible. The professor, Alex Saragoza, stepped down in 2001 when the violations became public, and the school and conference agreed to penalize the team four scholarships, along with the forfeit and a year of probation. 

Additional violations were submitted by the school last year. Cal informed the NCAA of 34 players who received extra benefits while staying at hotels before games, ranging from 75 cents to more than $300. In addition, four football recruits on campus visits were found to have incurred hotel charges in violation with NCAA recruiting rules. Those violations occurred between 1997 and 2001. 

All of the violations cited in the NCAA report occurred under former head coach Tom Holmoe, who resigned after a 1-10 2001 season. New head coach Jeff Tedford, hired in December, is dealing with serious sanctions before he coaches his first game at the school. 

“I expected we would receive some additional penalty from the NCAA, although it is unfortunate that a new administration and coaching staff must bear the burden,” Tedford said. “Obviously, we would like to have a full complement of scholarships and no bowl restrictions this year. But I don’t expect this ruling to be and impediment for our football program reaching its ultimate goals.” 

Yeager said the carryover of penalties to a coach and players uninvolved in the infractions is an unfortunate but necessary step to punishing the program. 

“It’s a part of the consequence that applies to the institution,” he said. “There is always the possibility that students and coaches not involved will be affected.” 

Cal Athletic Director Steve Gladstone, also a recent hire, condemned the previous administration for the sanctions while expressing surprise at the severity of the punishment. 

“I particularly feel badly for our student-athletes on this year’s team, as they are being punished for violations that involved two individuals in the academic case and for hotel incidental infractions that would normally be considered minor violations by the NCAA,” Gladstone said. “If the athletic department had not been so careless and slow in acting upon the violations, there would have been no NCAA penalty at all. Instead, because of timing, these minor violations became major infractions in the minds of the NCAA.”

To the Editor: 

An open letter to Tom Orloff and his associate Angela Backers: 

Although the recent jury verdict in the death penalty case of the People vs. DaVeggio and Michaud is understandable in light of the heinous actions of the defendants, it is still wrong. 

You must remember the amount of power and the opportunity for example that you hold in the judicial system. Your glorification of the death penalty is not an example for the youth of our community because you only cheapen the value of life. 

Is there a difference between judicial killing and personal killing? I think not. Living in a Judeo-Christian society, our principals are to save life and not to destroy it. Your action in glorifying killing by the death penalty is amoral and outside of civilized society. No one deserves to die by the hand of the district attorney or that of a deprived killer. 

The United Nations Charter on Human Rights does not condone the death penalty. It does not deter crimes or reform the prosecuted. It merely continues the cycle of human violence. 

Please stop your violations of our citizens’ human rights. 

John Murcko 

Oakland

PLEASANT HILL — Even with all Martin Yan’s spunk, the television chef whose “Yan Can Cook” show is broadcast in 70 countries says he just couldn’t feed everybody who wanted to try a bite of his tasty Asian concoctions — until now. 

Yan’s first fast, casual restaurant opened this week, offering his recipes for everything from Thai curry to Korean barbecue. And he says it’s just the beginning. The energetic, sometimes zany master chef says he hopes his Yan Can restaurants will grow into a national chain. 

Four other California restaurants already are in the works as part of the pilot project. 

“Often times I go out and people always say, ’You know Martin, are you a good cook?’ And what can you say since they never can get a chance to taste the food I cook unless they come to the studio,” Yan said. “I decided maybe it’s time to open a restaurant so I can serve the food that I love, the food which I learned from all the masters and all the home cooks from all over Asia.” 

The restaurants are being tested through a joint venture between Hong Kong-based Favorite Restaurants Group and Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., the parent of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W and Long John Silver’s. 

But Yan said he didn’t just want his name slapped onto a sign and menu. Instead, he said he wanted to be involved with something in which he could take pride, so he assembled a team of top chefs to help open the restaurants and train employees to serve dishes from a variety of Asian countries. 

He also served as a consultant for the restaurants’ design, which features an open grill and stoves allowing customers to watch their food being made. Traditional cooking utensils from all over Asia, such as bamboo steamers, rice bowls and decorative chopsticks, are displayed on the walls. 

And, of course, Yan himself is featured prominently on a large television doing everything from chopping chicken in his kitchen to dressing in costumes and acting out battles on the Great Wall of China. 

A native of Guangzhou, China, the 50-year-old chef grew up in his father’s restaurant and his mother’s cooking school. He moved to Hong Kong at 13 and lived in the restaurant where he worked. By 20, he was teaching cooking classes at the University of California, Davis, where he got undergraduate and master’s degrees in food science. He has since published two dozen cookbooks and hosted more than 2,000 TV shows. 

“This is how they do it in Asia,” he said after cooking up a braised shrimp dish as flames shot up around the wok. “The restaurant is a theater. Just like Disney, we’re all cast members.”

School board raises will be on the November ballot, but City Council pay hikes will not. 

The council voted 8-0 Tuesday, with one abstention, to place a measure on the ballot that would raise monthly pay for school board members from $875 to $1,500. 

But Councilmember Dona Spring withdrew a proposal to raise council pay from the current $1,800 per month to an unspecified amount, effectively killing the issue this year. 

Spring said she pulled the measure because it did not appear to have broad support on the council. 

“This is not the right time,” said Councilmember Linda Maio, explaining her opposition.  

Maio said the council should not ask for a raise while the city faces a $3 million deficit.  

The council passed a new budget Tuesday to address the deficit, but an uncertain state budget and a series of expiring employee contracts may require adjustments in the fall. 

Councilmember Miriam Hawley added that the city will be asking voters in November to provide money for renovation of old City Hall, an animal shelter, affordable housing and pedestrian safety, and should not ask for pay raises at the same time. 

Mayor Shirley Dean said the city has to take a hard look at what it expects of councilmembers before passing any type of raise. Currently, she said, commitment to the job varies across the council. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he would have voted for Spring’s proposal if it had come up for a vote. But he said a majority of the overall board probably opposed it, forcing the withdrawal. 

Even if the measure had narrowly passed, a contentious fight on the council over pay raises may have doomed the measure to defeat on the ballot, Worthington argued. 

Spring said she pushed the pay raise to draw a broader field of candidates to City Council races. 

“I wanted there to be more diversity,” she said, arguing that the board is largely composed of the well-off and retirees, who can afford to take a small salary. 

The council received its last pay raise in 1998. 

Spring said the council voted to put the school board raise on the ballot because members had not received a pay hike since 1988, when salaries jumped from $300 to $875 per month. 

Worthington said he voted for the measure to encourage greater diversity on the board. 

“I think that we don’t want being in public office to only be possible for people who are rich,” he said. “Someone who’s raising children and paying a mortgage and paying for child care can’t afford to serve on the school board.” 

Critics say the $1,500 per month salary is still not enough to attract lower-income candidates. 

“It is a modest amount, but it adds up to $18,000 per year,” Worthington said, arguing that a school board member could work another job half-time and make a living. 

Two weeks ago, the school board voted 4-1 to request the pay raise, sending the matter to the City Council for formal approval. School board President Shirley Issel was the lone dissenter. 

Issel, as president, thanked the council for approving the request of the board majority. But she said the timing of the ballot measure is inappropriate, given that the district faces a $2.8 million deficit next year and is engaged in heavy layoffs. 

“Both the district and the city are facing deficits and people are concerned about the timing and I understand that,” replied board member John Selawsky, who is leading the push for raises. “On the other hand, it’s been fourteen years since the last adjustment in board pay.” 

School board salaries actually come out of city coffers, and a raise would not effect the district’s deficit. But Issel argued that most voters probably don’t know the source of board salaries.  

“I think that will be quite a lot to expect, that this will be broadly understood,” Issel said. 

Selawsky said board members could choose to divert their raises to pay for a staff member or multiple staffers to return phone calls and conduct research. The board currently has no designated staff. 

But board member Ted Schultz, while he supports the general concept of a raise, said there is not enough money involved to draw ample, qualified staff. 

“I don’t see any carrot there,” he said. 

Selawsky argued that the board could hire interns, providing small stipends. He said the interns might come from UC Berkeley and work twenty or thirty hours a week. 

Selawsky said he does not intend to wage a major campaign on the issues, arguing that there are more pressing concerns. But he said he is glad the issue is on the ballot. 

“I’m pleased, and I think it’s now where it belongs: in the hands of the voters,” he said. 

LOS ANGELES — Propped up in a darkened room and illuminated at an oblique angle, the flat rectangle of pewter reluctantly reveals the scene it has faithfully held for 176 years. 

“You have to dance around it to get a good view,” Dusan Stulik, a senior scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute, said as he hovered nearby. 

You do, and the plate flashes gold before going dark. A step forward, one back and somewhere in between an image emerges. A farm building. Pear and poplar trees. A dovecote. 

Together, the objects appear just as they did to Joseph Nicephore Niepce (pronounced Nee’-sah-for Nee’-yeps) in 1826, when the Frenchman created what is acknowledged as the world’s first photograph. 

“All of the history of photography, the history of film, the history of television, if you go back, this is where all those histories unite,” Stulik said of the faint image. 

Since the photograph arrived on June 14 at the Getty, experts have begun the first scientific study of the image since it was rediscovered and authenticated in 1952. 

“This is the first time we have done any analysis. This is an opportunity to really see it for the first time since it was done,” said Roy Flukinger, a senior curator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which acquired the image in 1963. 

The analysis is part of a joint photo conservation project with the Getty, the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology and France’s Centre de Recherches sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques. 

Over the last week, scientists have pored over the 8-inch-by-6.5-inch photograph with advanced scientific instruments and assessed its state of preservation, which is generally good. 

Experts will repair its original frame and build a new airtight case for it. They have also photographed the image, which is difficult given its faintness. 

The new images include the limited corrosion and three dimples that mar the photo’s surface. Previous reproductions were little more than retouched mosaics of various images made in the 1950s. 

“It’s coming to life as a photograph. Before, it had always been an object,” said James Reilly, director of the Image Permanence Institute. 

Study results are preliminary but confirm accounts that Niepce used a polished plate of pewter, just one-sixteenth of an inch thick, coated with a thin layer of bitumen to create the image. 

During an exposure made over as many as three days, the light-sensitive petroleum derivative hardened. Washing the plate with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum dissolved the unexposed portions of bitumen. 

Niepce called the permanently fixed, direct positive picture — the first ever captured from nature — a “heliograph.” He had previously used the technique to copy engraved images; one such reproduction, made in 1825, sold at a March auction in Paris for $443,220. 

The original image returns to Austin on July 1 and will be back on display in spring 2003. 

Reilly said the study should restore Niepce to his place as the father of photography. He has frequently been overshadowed by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre — of daguerreotype fame — with whom he formed a short-lived partnership. 

“This process is going to rewrite photographic history by fleshing out Niepce’s contribution,” Reilly said.

Wearing bright blue jackets, patrol radios and cheerful smiles, the Berkeley Guides do more than just walk up and down Shattuck Avenue. The four-member team, working in connection with the Berkeley Police Department, patrol the busy downtown merchant sector of Shattuck Avenue Tuesday through Saturday.  

As one of their basic functions, the guides maintain contact with local stores and street vendors, assisting them with customer complaints and contacting police when necessary. In addition, the guides provide citizens and downtown visitors with directions, maps and information.  

According to many local merchants, the guides provide an essential service. “They really helped diffuse a bad situation the other day,” said Mostafa Hallaji of Newberry’s Gifts. “We had a customer that was upset about a pager that she bought. One of them took her outside and calmed her down and the other one came and talked to me.”  

Despite their helpful presence downtown and a strong reaction from merchants and city officials, the Berkeley Guides patrol program faces an uncertain future due to budget constraints. Founded in 1995 as a part of Measure O, the program originally staffed nine members and ran Monday through Saturday day and night along the Avenue. 

According to Ove Wittstock, director of Berkeley Guides, the program is asking for $30,000 in additional city funding to meet rising costs, including increased medical and workers compensation fees.  

Wittstock says that the program hopes members of downtown’s merchant community will help support the guides. As a former Berkeley merchant himself, Wittstock understands the importance of safety in downtown. 

“We hope to take this to the people who have a stake in this, the merchants and the school district, to have them place an economic value on what these guys do on a daily basis,” said David Manson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Boosters, the parent organization of Berkeley Guides. 

Deborah Badhia, Executive Director of the Downtown Berkeley Association, says that the guide program is one piece of a complicated puzzle of policy, presence and enforcement in the downtown area. “The guides are a piece of the puzzle as are police and as is policy,” Badhia said. She says that additional resources such as the mobile crisis team and homeless centers are also necessary parts of keeping downtown safe for everyone.  

According to Roy Meisner, Deputy Chief of the Berkeley Police Department, the guides provide the city with an important service. "They're ambassadors for the city and for the people who shop and eat in downtown. The other part is that they're able to answer questions and give directions to places like UC. They've been a big boost," Meisner said. "They're the ones that hear about all of the things going on down there and they let us know if there's a problem." 

For many the guides provide a link between the community and the police. Guides Lashawn Nolen and Jay Elliot have each served Berkeley for several years and have built relationships and trust with both citizens and the police department. For those who might not be willing to speak directly to a police officer about a problem, the guides are there.  

"People don't feel that threat. We're in between. They know we're not cops but we still have jobs to do,” said Berkeley Guide John Lara. According to Lara, problems on the street can often be resolved with a bit of patience and friendly advice from a guide. Lara says that the guides are able to deal with situations, such disputes between customers and local vendors that police officers do not always have time for.  

Though some have criticized the Berkeley Guides program for not doing enough to eradicate the homeless problem downtown, others say that citizens must realize the limits of the program. “It’s important for people to understand what they can do and what they cannot do,” Badhia said. “The guides aren’t police officers.” 

Despite the fact that the guides are trained to handle numerous problem situations including natural disasters, animal control and parking backups, they are not able to detain individuals involved in violent crimes.  

When a violent crime does take place, the guides radio the police and often monitor the situation or follow a suspect from a safe distance. After hearing a report on his patrol radio recently, Lara was able to spot and follow an armed robbery suspect to the downtown BART station where he called police. According to Lara, the suspect was arrested shortly after contacting the police. 

Along with the Berkeley Guides, the Boosters also operate a winter BART escort program and provide supervision of after-school programs at three local middle schools.  

The guides program was established in reaction to the wave of violent crime in Berkeley and Oakland that followed the Rodney King verdict in the early 1990s.

LOS ANGELES — Details on late director Stanley Kubrick’s unfulfilled plans to make a movie about Napoleon will be published in a book next year, his family said. 

His wife, Christiane, and her brother Jan Harlan, the director’s executive producer, are assembling the book “Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon — His Greatest Film Never Made,” The Hollywood Reporter reported Tuesday. 

“Napoleon interested Stanley very much because here was a man with a huge talent and tremendous charisma who in the end failed only because of his emotions and vanity,” Harlan said. 

Kubrick, who died in March 1999, was obsessed with the project for 30 years, collecting a library of about 18,000 books about the French leader and studying minute details of the subject’s life. 

Kubrick’s film would have chronicled Napoleon from birth to death, Harlan said, and the director assembled a script and thousands of location photographs while preparing for the film as a follow-up to his 1968 sci-fi epic ”2001: A Space Odyssey.” 

But the 1970 film “Waterloo,” which starred Rod Steiger as Napoleon in the days before the title battle, flopped at the box office and Kubrick was never able to get funding for his story. 

SAN DIEGO — The city crossed the line separating church and state when it sold a 43-foot-tall cross to a memorial association, a federal court ruled Wednesday. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the city of San Diego rigged the sale of the cross on a city-owned war memorial at Mount Soledad so that only groups wanting to keep the cross could buy it. 

The 7-4 decision that the sale violated the California Constitution reversed a three-judge 9th Circuit panel, which in August approved the sale of the cross. 

The appeals court released the ruling on the same day that it declared that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because it contains the words “under God.” (See stories on page 10) 

The cross controversy arose more than a decade ago, when a federal judge ruled the city was violating the Constitution by owning land with a Christian symbol. 

Acting on a lawsuit from Vietnam veteran Philip Paulson, the judge ordered the city to sell the cross. Paulson, a San Diego atheist who objected to using the Christian symbol as part of a war memorial, accused the city of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. 

The cross sits inside the 170-acre Mount Soledad Natural Park on a hillside overlooking the city’s upscale La Jolla neighborhood. Paulson and opponents have asserted that the city’s sale of the cross and a tiny piece of the park created an illegal endorsement of religion. Supporters said the towering white cross is now a memorial to war veterans. 

In 1998, the city sold the cross and a half-acre of surrounding land for $106,000 to the nonprofit Mount Soledad Memorial Association, the highest bidder and the same agency that has maintained the cross since 1952 when it was city owned. 

Paulson and his attorneys claimed that the bidding process for the land was flawed, charging that the city’s requirements for the purchase tended to favor the memorial association or others with plans to retain the cross. 

Paulson on Wednesday directed questions to the American Civil Liberties Union. 

“The deck was stacked in favor of preserving the cross from the very beginning,” said one of Paulson’s lawyers, Jordan Budd of ACLU. “It is past time for the city to quit evading its constitutional duty and end its entanglement with the Soledad cross. 

The appellate court sent the case back to San Diego and left it to the parties involved and a federal judge to remedy the violations of the state’s Constitution. 

San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn said the appellate court based its decision on an area of California Constitution that the ACLU didn’t raise at a hearing in March. Gwinn said the city was mulling a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“This case has been ongoing for the past 13 years,” he said. “It’s not likely to end anytime soon.” 

San Diego voters in 1992 passed Proposition F, which allowed the sale of the city property. The city initially sold the cross and 222 square feet of land to the memorial association. But a federal judge ruled that the sale required a bidding process and that more land had to be sold. 

The city then began accepting bids from nonprofit organizations for the cross and a half-acre parcel on the condition that any symbol could be used as long as it honored war veterans. 

SAN JOSE — Despite the high-tech meltdown of the past two years, Silicon Valley residents continue to generously give to charities, according to a report released Wednesday. 

The report, based on a poll by Field Research Corp. and commissioned by Community Foundation Silicon Valley, found that 78 percent of households in the area said they have given money or property to a charity or nonprofit group this year. 

That figure was 83 percent when Community Foundation did a similar study in 1998. But those who are giving are donating a higher percentage of their income — 3.3 percent, compared to 2.7 percent in 1998. 

Perhaps most surprisingly, 83 percent of the 1,516 people surveyed said they are donating just as much or more than they did last year, said Chi Nguyen, a senior associate at Collaborative Economics, the private advisory firm that wrote the report. 

“I think it’s a hopeful message that our community has stayed committed even through the difficult year we’ve had economically,” she said. 

She said the study should shatter the commonly held belief that high-tech workers are too busy or too self-involved to donate. The report said the average Silicon Valley household gives $2,300 to charity, well above the national average of $1,620. 

“We’ve lived with this often-repeated stereotype of ‘cyber-stingy,”’ Nguyen said. “Our data doesn’t support that.”

SAN JOSE — Telecommunications equipment companies, already battered by a sales meltdown, sustained another hit Wednesday as WorldCom Inc. — a major buyer of networking gear — admitted major accounting fraud. 

Cutbacks by WorldCom, which already plans a massive reduction in capital spending, will trickle through its vendors and will likely have an impact far beyond those companies, analysts say. 

“The WorldCom accounting scandal is pretty much the last thing the doctor could have ordered right now for telecom equipment stocks,” John Wilson, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a research note. 

Networking gear suppliers have been sputtering since the telecom meltdown began with the collapse of the dot-coms in 2000. 

The news has not improved since, as carriers cut back spending and as aggressive rollouts of networks led to overcapacity, falling prices and — in many cases — bankruptcy. 

Even before Tuesday’s revelation that it disguised $3.8 billion in expenses over the last five quarters, WorldCom was struggling with $32 billion in debt, slowing revenues and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. 

Now, the nation’s No. 2 long distance company and a leading carrier of behind-the-scenes Internet traffic said it will only maintain its current network, not expand or upgrade it. 

“There’s not going to be a whole lot of spending on gear there,” said Ryan Molloy, an analyst at SoundView Technology Group. “They’re just going to keep the network running.” 

Juniper Networks Inc. is expected to be among the hardest hit. About 10 percent of the Sunnyvale-based company’s sales are from WorldCom’s purchases of its high-end routers and other equipment. 

“I think 2003 would pose a serious problem because there’s an upgrade cycle that Juniper’s pinning their hopes on that wouldn’t materialize at WorldCom if things really tanked,” Molloy said. 

Shares of Juniper lost $1.16, or more than 18 percent, to close at $5.13 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Networking gear leader Cisco Systems Inc. receives about 1 percent of its total revenue from WorldCom, he said. Cisco shares lost 2 cents to $13.43 in Nasdaq trading. 

Nortel Networks Corp., a maker of equipment for optical networks, once had considerable business dealings with WorldCom — until all major long-haul voice and data carriers found themselves stuck with too much fiber in the ground and not enough customers. 

“Nortel Networks has no material exposure to WorldCom, who is primarily an optical customer,” Nortel spokesman David Chamberlin said. 

Still, Nortel shares lost 14 cents, or nearly 9 percent, at $1.47 in New York Stock Exchange trading. 

More significantly, major long-distance carriers such as WorldCom have traditionally been more aggressive than regional phone companies in buying and implementing new technology, Molloy said. 

“It’s the psychological impact of losing a customer that would be more willing to adopt a next-generation platform,” Molloy said. “If we lose one, it makes others less willing to spend and be more careful with their money. It’s kind of a domino effect.” 

And not just telecom gear-makers are exposed. Computer services giant Electronic Data Systems Corp., for instance, runs data centers for WorldCom in a deal that brings EDS $600 million in annual revenue.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s currency fell to its lowest level since 2000 on Wednesday, ending a two-year stretch of unaccustomed strength that had some Mexicans calling it “the super peso.” 

Some analysts said the fall of the U.S. dollar against other currencies may have hurt the peso, given Mexico’s dependence on the U.S. economy. 

“We are seeing full correlation with the U.S. dollar decline against the euro,” said Dolores Garcia, currency analyst at local financial group BBVA-Bancomer. 

In Mexico City, banking leader Banamex quoted the peso closing at a midrate of 10 per dollar, significantly weaker from 9.8850 at the close Tuesday. It began sliding from around 9 pesos per dollar in mid-April after the central bank eased its monetary policy. 

Bank of Mexico Governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Tuesday that market turbulence in South America also has hit his country’s currency.

LOS ANGELES — Some groups have canceled their traditional fireworks extravaganzas and some have gone hunting for alternatives because it’s so hot, so dry and so dangerous in California this year. 

Fireworks shows are still on at most big show sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities throughout California, authorities said. But some of the pyrotechnics designed for business celebrations, company picnics and promotional events have been scrapped. 

Laser light show producers say calls about shows are 20 times higher than last year. 

“Without a question, we’ve had 20 times more phone calls,” said Kevin Bilida, president of TLC Creative Special Effects, which specializes in pyrotechnic, laser light and other shows. 

“Every single fireworks show that had a question mark — whether it was going to be perceived as dangerous — has been canceled. It’s not worth the liability,” he said. 

San Bernardino County on Wednesday canceled annual fireworks shows in Lake Arrowhead and Lake Gregory. 

“There’s nothing like a good fireworks show, but the alternative to having any threat to our forest is not acceptable,” Fire Marshal Peter Brierty said. 

“A lot of standing dead trees are in our mountains, and if you have sparks raining down on them, it’s much more difficult to put out. It was a very, very difficult decision to make, but the pictures of Arizona tell the story,” he said, referring to a wildfire there that has burned more than 400,000 acres and destroyed nearly 400 homes. 

Lake Arrowhead is looking at alternative events for the Fourth of July, including a laser light show and a carnival, Brierty said. 

In Orange County’s Newport Beach, the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort has canceled its show, a 43-year tradition, because of increasing costs and the lack of liability insurance. 

“The costs have been rising dramatically for several years,” Andrew Theodorou, general manager of the resort, told The Orange County Register. 

While the high-powered lasers can be flammable, they are less likely to start fires than fireworks and their embers that may not burn out before they reach the ground. 

“Your fire danger is way low obviously,” said David Lytle, editor of the Laserist, a magazine on the laser display industry. “I’ve never heard of a laser causing a fire — ever.” 

Laser light show producers said most callers are worried about fire hazards. When they find out how much the laser shows cost, however, their worries are compounded. 

“There have been a lot of inquiries, triple from last year,” said Ivan Dryer, president of Laser Images, Inc. in Los Angeles. “A lot of them don’t have the budget for laser shows; they thought they were cheaper than fireworks, but that’s not necessarily true.” 

An extravagant, 20-minute laser light show — including graphics and aerial effects — can cost up to $12,000, while fireworks cost about $12,000 for a 20-minute show, Dryer said. 

However, laser light shows are more of a do-it-yourself kind of spectacle, said Neville Hanchett, President of Mobolazer Inc. in Thousand Oaks who also sets up firework shows. 

“It’s easier for people to do laser shows than firework shows,” he said. “There are more channels to go through for a fireworks show. You need a fire marshal on site. Lasers are like a free-for-all, you can buy your own system and make your own show.” 

Hanchett also prefers the sensory appeal of fireworks. 

“I would rather watch a fireworks show with the bang and the smoke instead of a light show,” Hanchett said. “You’re painting the sky with light, and although you can do a lot of cool things with beams, I never tire of seeing a good fireworks show.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Stunning politicians on both the left and right, a federal appeals court declared for the first time Wednesday that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the words “under God” inserted by Congress in 1954. 

The ruling, if allowed to stand, would mean schoolchildren could no longer recite the pledge, at least in the nine Western states covered by the court. 

Critics of the decision were flabbergasted and warned that it calls into question the use of “In God We Trust” on the nation’s currency, the public singing of patriotic songs like “God Bless America,” even the use of the phrase ”So help me God” when judges are sworn into office. 

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the phrase “one nation under God” amounts to a government endorsement of religion in violation of the separation of church and state. 

Leading schoolchildren in a pledge that says the United States is “one nation under God” is as objectionable as making them say “we are a nation ‘under Jesus,’ a nation ‘under Vishnu,’ a nation ‘under Zeus,’ or a nation ‘under no god,’ because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion,” Circuit Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote. 

In Canada, where President Bush was taking part in an economic summit, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: “The president’s reaction was that this ruling is ridiculous.” 

“The Supreme Court itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase ‘God save the United States and this honorable court,”’ Fleischer said. “The Declaration of Independence refers to God or to the Creator four different times. Congress begins each session of the Congress each day with a prayer, and of course our currency says, ‘In God We Trust.’ The view of the White House is that this was a wrong decision and the Department Justice is now evaluating how to seek redress.” 

The ruling was also attacked on Capitol Hill, with Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., calling it “just nuts.” 

After the ruling, House members gathered on the front steps of the Capitol to recite the Pledge of Allegiance en masse — the same place they defiantly sang “God Bless America” the night of Sept. 11 attacks. 

And senators, who were debating a defense bill, angrily stopped to unanimously pass a resolution denouncing the decision of a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. 

The government had argued that the religious content of “one nation under God” is minimal. But the appeals court said that an atheist or a holder of certain non-Judeo-Christian beliefs could see it as an endorsement of monotheism. 

The 9th Circuit covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. Those are the only states directly affected by the ruling. 

However, the ruling does not take effect for several months, to allow further appeals. The government can ask the court to reconsider, or take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Congress inserted “under God” at the height of the Cold War after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, religious leaders and others who wanted to distinguish the United States from what they regarded as godless communism. 

The case was brought by Michael A. Newdow, a Sacramento atheist who objected because his second-grade daughter was required to recite the pledge at the Elk Grove school district. A federal judge had dismissed his lawsuit, which named the school district, Congress and then-President Clinton. 

Newdow, a doctor who holds a law degree and represented himself, called the pledge a “religious idea that certain people don’t agree with.” 

The appeals court said that when President Eisenhower signed the legislation inserting “under God” after the words “one nation,” he declared: “Millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.” 

The appeals court noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has said students cannot be compelled to recite the pledge. But even when the pledge is voluntary, “the school district is nonetheless conveying a message of state endorsement of a religious belief when it requires public school teachers to recite, and lead the recitation of, the current form of the pledge.” 

The ruling was issued by Goodwin, who was appointed by President Nixon, and Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a Carter appointee. 

In a dissent, Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez, appointed by the first President Bush, warned that under his colleagues’ theory of the Constitution, “we will soon find ourselves prohibited from using our album of patriotic songs in many public settings.” 

”‘God Bless America’ and ‘America the Beautiful’ will be gone for sure,” he said, “and while use of the first and second stanzas of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ will still be permissible, we will be precluded from straying into the third.” 

Fernandez said the same faulty logic would apply to “In God We Trust” on the nation’s currency. 

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., was one of many lawmakers who immediately reacted in anger and shock to the ruling. 

“Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok,” Bond said. “What’s next? Will the courts now strip ’so help me God’ from the pledge taken by new presidents?” 

Harvard scholar Laurence Tribe predicted the U.S. Supreme Court will certainly reverse the decision unless the 9th Circuit reverses itself. “I would bet an awful lot on that,” Tribe said. 

The 9th Circuit is the nation’s most overturned appellate court — partly because it is the largest, but also because it tends to make liberal, activist opinions, and because the cases it hears — on a range of issues from environmental laws to property rights to civil rights — tend to challenge the status quo. 

The nation’s high court has never squarely addressed the issue, Tribe said. The court has said schools can require teachers to lead the pledge but ruled students cannot be punished for refusing to recite it. 

In other school-related religious cases, the high court has said that schools cannot post the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. 

And in March, a federal appeals court ruled that Ohio’s motto, “With God, all things are possible,” is constitutional and is not an endorsement of Christianity even though it quotes the words of Jesus.

BALTIMORE — A court ruling the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional was no surprise to an expert on the patriotic promise. 

John Baer, author of “The Pledge of Allegiance: A Centennial History 1892-1992,” said the pledge has been modified over the years. 

“About every 40 years, the wording of the pledge is changed,” the Annapolis man said Wednesday. “It’s about time for another change to take place in the pledge. It’s a living document.” 

Baer said the current pledge and the practice of reciting it with hand over heart is nothing like the original author intended. 

Until 1942, for example, a straight arm salute resembling the Nazi salute was used, Baer said. 

Baer, 71, credits the Rev. Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, with authorship of the original pledge in 1892. Bellamy’s pledge omitted any country’s name or religious reference. 

His original pledge read: 

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

Baer, a former economics professor, said Bellamy intended his words to be a peace pledge. 

“He saw an international side to this thing,” Baer said. 

Baer wrote that the words “my flag” were changed to “the flag of the United States of America” in 1924 at the National Flag Conference under the leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Bellamy, who died in 1931, disliked the change, Baer wrote, but his protest was ignored. 

In 1954, Congress added the words “under God” to the pledge after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus. 

Bellamy’s granddaughter said Bellamy also would have resented that change — especially after he was forced to leave his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons, Baer wrote. 

The “under God” phrase is what the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found unconstitutional on Wednesday, saying it violates separation of church and state. 

The Pledge of Allegiance, attributed to socialist editor and clergyman Francis Bellamy, was first published in 1892 in The Youth’s Companion, a children’s magazine where he worked. 

The pledge was meant to echo the sentiments and ideals of Bellamy’s cousin, Edward Bellamy, an author of “Looking Backward” and other socialist utopian novels, according to pledge expert John Baer. 

Bellamy crafted it as a resonating oration to bolster the idea that the middle class could fashion a planned political and social economy, equitable for all, Baer said. 

After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the pledge was first used on Oct. 12, 1892 in public schools during Columbus Day observances throughout the nation. 

The original wording was: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

There were those who claimed The Youth’s Companion editor James B. Upham penned the famous pledge, but the U.S. Flag Association ruled in 1939 to recognize Bellamy was the author. 

The pledge has been changed a few times since. For Flag Day in 1924, “the flag of the United States of America” was officially adopted as a substitution for the phrase “my flag.” 

In 1954, the words “under God” were added, after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s service organization, and other religious leaders who sermonized that the pledge needed to be distinguished from similar orations used by “godless communists.” 

The prospect of atomic war between world superpowers so moved President Dwight D. Eisenhower that he directed Congress to add the two small but controversial words.

SAN DIEGO — In halting and heavily-accented English, a former Soviet spy recounted Wednesday how she became an FBI informant in a murder-for-hire case. 

Svetlana Ogorodnikova this week is testifying as a key government witness, seven years after her release from prison. She was convicted of seducing a Los Angeles FBI agent into selling a confidential document to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. 

After serving half her 18-year sentence, Ogorodnikova was released and spent several years fighting deportation from the United States — an effort she gave up by moving to Tijuana, Mexico, with a convicted drug trafficker she met and married in prison. 

Ogorodnikova returned illegally to Southern California in 1999 and moved with her husband to a ranch in Fallbrook. The ranch was owned by Kimberly Bailey, who is now on trial in federal court on charges of having a San Diego private investigator tortured and murdered in an abandoned house in Tijuana. 

Bailey repeatedly asked Ogorodnikova if she could hire a hitman to kill witnesses and others involved in the murder of the private investigator, Richard Post, the Russian woman testified. 

“I became very scared,” said the former spy, dressed in a dark blue suit, her hair cut short. “I think maybe she’d forget, maybe she’s not serious.” 

Bailey is accused of having Post kidnapped, tortured over five days in Tijuana, and then murdered because she believed he cheated on her with other women and stole money from her. 

Bailey has pleaded innocent to conspiracy to murder a person in a foreign country and other charges. Through her lawyer, she has insisted that Post is alive and in hiding. 

FBI agents who had the Fallbrook ranch under surveillance approached Ogorodnikova, who agreed to covertly tape conversations over the phone and in person with Bailey. 

The Russian woman, according to the tapes, set up a meeting in the Mandalay Bay casino between an FBI agent posing as a hitman and Bailey, who allegedly wanted to have him kill several people involved with Post’s slaying. 

In their conversations, Ogorodnikova said she and Bailey developed a code. Examples included “brother” or “lawyer” to mean hitman and “investigation” to refer to murder. “It was like a spy movie, like in James Bond,” she testified. 

Bailey’s defense attorney, Philip DeMassa, said he hoped to use Ogorodnikova’s past to convince jurors that she is not a reliable witness. 

“She’s an experienced KGB agent and she’s lying about everything,” he said outside the federal courtroom. 

Ogorodnikova pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 1985, after she admitted seducing Richard Miller, the first FBI agent charged with espionage. 

The former Soviet spy had no trouble slipping back into the United States when a friend drove her across the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, where inspectors failed to check Ogorodnikova’s background, according to her husband, Bruce Perlowin. 

The Bailey trial is expected to last several more weeks. 

SACRAMENTO (AP) — A national business-turned-education strategy could be the latest school experiment in California if a bill moving through the legislature is successful. 

The bill, authored by Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, was approved by the Assembly Committee on Education on Wednesday. 

The measure would establish a three-year $3-million pilot program in nine districts across the state that would bring Baldrige business strategies and principles into the classroom. 

The Baldrige business model — named after the late Malcolm Baldrige, former commerce secretary in the Reagan administration — was designed in 1987 and expanded to education in the mid-1990s. 

The program focuses on streamlining classroom activities so that more time is focused on learning. It also sets up individual goals for every student as well as for whole classrooms. Teachers are required to monitor each student’s progress daily. 

Students in the program typically score between 10 and 14 points higher on the SAT-9, the statewide tests taken annually by kids in grades two through 11, according to the California Center for Baldrige in Education. 

“It’s a proven success story in many states like Alaska, Florida and Texas,” McPherson said. “It’s a goal-oriented program in which students establish a daily portfolio so they can track their own progress.” 

McPherson said the program promotes a healthy level of competition between the students, but it also encourages the students to work together to obtain their common classroom goals. Students decide how they want to be rewarded for reaching their goals. 

Ruth Miller, executive director of the California Center for Baldrige in Education, said that although the program is already being used in Santa Cruz, Long Beach and Santa Clara, the pilot program is needed so that “the state can move forward as a whole.” 

“Everybody can use the same approach, talk the same language and be on the same page,” she said. 

SACRAMENTO — A bill that would impose strict eligibility requirements on members of the State Board of Education, which is now largely comprised of business leaders and former politicians, passed the Senate Education Committee Wednesday. 

The measure by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, seeks to diversify the board by adding members experienced in teaching students with limited English skills. If it becomes law, it would require at least two of the 11 members to be familiar with teaching students who speak little or no English. 

The Senate Education Committee approved the bill on Wednesday, sending it to the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Although Education Committee Chairman John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, called the bill “a remarkably good idea,” other committee members said Firebaugh is a “dreamer.” 

“I think the possibility of getting this signed by the governor is not (very) high,” said Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena. 

AB2363 would set up specific criteria for members of the governor-appointed board. Currently, there are no formal requirements that candidates must meet to fill 10 of the positions. The last position, which is a one-year term, must be held by a 12th-grade student at a public school. 

The measure would require the governor to appoint two parents with children in public schools, one public school administrator from a low-performing school, one school board member, three public school teachers and one school employee. Two of the positions would remain open to the general public, while the last position would be reserved for a student. 

The board now includes the former mayors of San Jose and Beverly Hills and the assistant executive director of California’s largest teachers union. High-ranking business executives also sit on the board, including officials of NetFlix.com, Gap Inc. and the former CEO of OneNetNow.com. 

LOS ANGELES — Of all the members of Charles Manson’s murderous “family,” Leslie Van Houten was always seen as the different one — the youngest, the one most vulnerable to Manson’s diabolical control. 

Now she hopes to be the first member of the cult involved in the 1969 Tate-La Bianca killings to get out on parole. 

On Friday — nearly 33 years since the slaughter of actress Sharon Tate and six others shocked the nation — Van Houten, 52, goes before the state parole board for the 14th time. This time, she might have a chance. 

The reason: Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Bob N. Krug strongly admonished the board for flatly turning Van Houten down every time based solely on the crime. Such decisions, he said, ignore Van Houten’s accomplishments in prison and turn her life sentence into life without parole, in violation of the law. 

In addition, Krug said that Van Houten had successfully completed every rehabilitation program offered in prison and that her psychiatric evaluations “clearly indicate that she is not a present danger to society and should be found suitable for parole.” 

Van Houten was a 19-year-old Manson disciple in the summer of 1969 when she participated in the stabbing deaths of grocers Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in their home. Van Houten was not present the night before when Tate and four others were slain at the actress’ Beverly Hills mansion. 

Van Houten, Manson, his chief lieutenant Charles “Tex” Watson, and two other women, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle, were convicted and sentenced to death for their part in the Tate-La Bianca murders. The sentences were later commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in the 1970s. All five are still behind bars. 

Van Houten’s initial conviction was overturned on the grounds that she received an inadequate defense; her lawyer disappeared and was found dead during her trial, and she was assigned a replacement. Her second trial ended in a hung jury. A third trial ended in a conviction. 

Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay will be arguing against Van Houten’s parole for the 14th time. 

“This is not a garden-variety murder case and it should not be treated as such,” he said. “I commend her for her good acts in prison and she appears to be a model prisoner. I think she should spend the rest of her life being a model prisoner. I feel because of what she did, she is not entitled to parole.” 

In light of the judge’s ruling, however, Van Houten can take her case to court if she is denied parole again. 

Van Houten’s lawyer, Christie Webb, said she has shown remorse and has been rehabilitated. Van Houten went through alcohol and drug rehab, group therapy and psychotherapy. She also obtained a college degree in literature and has helped run drug and alcohol programs for other women. 

Webb said Manson’s influence on Van Houten was powerful. 

“She was the youngest. She was vulnerable and she was controlled by drugs and clever manipulation,” Webb said. “All that LSD changed the chemistry of her brain.” 

The lawyer added: “I certainly have sympathy for the victims’ families. But Leslie and her family are also among Charles Manson’s victims. We are talking about one horrible night of violence in her life when she was clearly not in her right mind.” 

NEW YORK — Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. tumbled almost 24 percent Wednesday, fueled by reports that the style maven may face a wider probe into alleged insider trading. 

The widening investigation was reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the case and said possible charges could include obstruction of justice and making false statements. 

The Journal also reported that an assistant to Stewart’s stockbroker had changed his initial version of her Dec. 27 sale of shares of ImClone Systems Inc. 

Shares of Stewart’s multimedia company fell $3.20 to close at $10.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen about 45 percent since news broke this month that Stewart’s sale of stock in the biotech company was under scrutiny in an insider trading investigation. 

At issue is whether Stewart misled prosecutors in explaining why she sold almost 4,000 shares of ImClone a day before the Food and Drug Administration announced it would not consider Erbitux, ImClone’s experimental cancer drug. 

Stewart is a friend of former ImClone CEO Sam Waksal, who was arrested two weeks ago on charges of insider trading for allegedly trying to sell his stock and tipping off family members after learning of the impending FDA decision. 

The Journal said sales assistant Douglas Faneuil acknowledged that he misled his brokerage firm’s lawyers and the Securities and Exchange Commission when he supported the claim that Stewart and her stockbroker had a prearranged sales agreement to dump the shares when they fell below $60. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter. 

The stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also is the broker for Waksal and his daughter Aliza. 

In repeated public statements, Stewart has pinned her innocence to the existence of this agreement, which she said was done verbally. She has insisted the trade was lawful and done based on public information. 

A call Wednesday by The Associated Press to Stewart’s publicist was not returned. 

In an appearance Tuesday on CBS’ “The Early Show,” Stewart said: “I think this will all be resolved in the very near future and I will be exonerated.” 

According to the Journal report, Faneuil said he created his story after being pressured by Bacanovic, and now says he was unaware of the agreement. 

Faneuil is expected to be interviewed by representatives of the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, the newspaper said. 

Merrill Lynch announced last week that it had put Bacanovic and Faneuil on paid leave, following an internal investigation, citing discrepancies in their accounts. 

Richard Strassberg, the attorney representing Bacanovic, declined to comment. 

Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, also declined to comment. Neither Tim Cobb, a spokesman for Merrill Lynch, nor Marc Powers, the attorney for Faneuil, immediately returned calls. 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two days after being convicted of corruption, Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci Jr. announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election to a fourth straight term in November. 

“It’s time for me to move on,” he said at City Hall. “It’s been a great ride. It’s been a great experience.” 

The 61-year-old Cianci — a charismatic and beloved figure in Providence, even after he was indicted — announced his decision even as he held out hope a federal judge would reverse his racketeering conspiracy conviction next week. 

Cianci was found guilty of turning City Hall into a den of thieves at the same time he was bringing about Providence’s revitalization over the past 12 years.

HARTFORD, Conn. — The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that small companies can fire pregnant employees without violating the state’s ban on gender discrimination. 

The court ruled in a 3-2 vote that a 1967 law exempts businesses that have fewer than three workers. 

“This state’s public policy against sex discrimination by private employers is not absolute,” Justice Richard Palmer wrote for the majority. “The legislature has carved out an exception to that policy for small employers.” 

The case involved Nicole Thibodeau, who was fired in 1998 by her employer, Design Group One, a tiny architectural firm in Chester. Her attorneys argued the firm violated her rights under the state Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on gender. 

The court’s decision is “very upsetting,” her attorney, Elaine Rubinson said. “I never thought they would do that,” she said. 

Rubinson said her client may appeal to the federal courts or state lawmakers. 

Michael O’Connell, a lawyer for Design One, said: “We don’t just willy-nilly change it on a whim because of a particular case.” 

The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union had said upholding her firing would leave tens of thousands of workers at small businesses in Connecticut without legal protection from discrimination. 

In the dissent, Justice Christine Vertefeuille wrote that because of the ruling “it is the public policy of this state to permit small employers to discriminate against their employees on the basis of sex.” 

KANSAS CITY, Mo.— A man was convicted of participating in a scheme to offer $1.5 million in bribes to Costa Rican politicians and government officials in exchange for land concessions in a Caribbean development project. 

A federal court jury on Monday found Robert Richard King, 68, guilty of one count of conspiracy and four counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

King’s lawyer said he would appeal. 

Prosecutors alleged King conspired with Owl Securities & Investment, a Kansas City company in which he owned stock, to bribe Costa Rican officials. The quid pro quo was a land concession of 50 square miles on the Caribbean coast, according to secret recordings made by former Owl president Stephen Kingsley at the request of the FBI. 

Owl Securities had won the right to finance and develop port and resort facilities at Limon, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. 

A second defendant, Pablo Barquero Hernandez of Costa Rica, is a fugitive. Two officers of Owl Securities, Albert Reitz and Richard Halford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and await sentencing. 

King is free on bail and no sentencing date was set. Philip Urofsky, the Justice Department’s senior counsel for international litigation, said he believed King could get three to five years in prison. 

DENVER — Parents of minors have no right to sign liability waivers for their children, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled, clearing the way for children to sue ski resorts for negligence once they turn 18. 

In a case that could affect the state’s entire recreation industry, the court said its Monday ruling was based a 1978 law and other statutes that give broad rights to children to file lawsuits once they reach majority age. 

The justices overturned a lower-court ruling that would have barred lawsuits if a parent had signed a form acknowledging a sport’s risk and waiving the right to sue in case of an accident. 

“If this had been affirmed, the doors to the courthouse would be locked,” said attorney Jim Chalat, who specializes in recreation accident cases. 

“This will make skiing and all other sports in Colorado safer for children. It doesn’t mean large awards,” he said, noting that such negligence lawsuits are rare. 

The Aspen Skiing Co., a defendant in the case, did not return a call seeking comment. 

The decision stems from the case of David Cooper, who was 17 when he was training on a ski race course and crashed into a tree, suffering injuries including blindness 

Both he and his mother had signed a release. The trial court found that his mother’s signature bound him to the terms of the agreement, barring his claims against defendants that also included the Aspen Valley Ski Club and the U.S. Ski Association. 

The Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling. 

The state Supreme Court said Colorado law affords minors significant protections that preclude a parent or guardian from releasing a minor’s own claims for negligence. 

While the case involved a ski company, attorneys said it would also apply to horseback riding, rafting, mountain climbing and any other sport involving children. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court: http://www.courts.state.co.us/supct/supct.htm 

Aspen Skiing Co.: http://www.skiaspen.com 

HOUSTON — Playboy’s “Women of Enron” reveal much more than shady accounting in a 10-page pictorial that hits newsstands Friday. 

Ten past and present Enron women shed their threads for the Chicago-based adult magazine’s August issue, though some showed more of the naked truth than others. 

“I was always the one who broke the rules,” said Shari Daughtery, a graduate of Fort Bend Baptist Academy in suburban Houston who still works as an information technology administrator at Enron’s 50-story downtown headquarters. 

“My mom always said as long as everything is covered, it’s fine,” said the 22-year-old Daughtery, who has modeled before. She didn’t follow that advice when she posed wearing only shoes and a belly chain atop Enron’s parking garage, with its two glass towers in the background. 

Daughtery was among 300 women who answered Playboy’s March invitation to pose. She joined three others Tuesday to discuss their experiences. 

They said they posed for the fun of it and to earn some money — though none of them would say how much the magazine paid them. 

“It’s privileged information, but it was substantial,” said Janine Howard, 39, who was laid off from her job selling energy for defunct Enron Energy Services. “They were very, very generous.” 

Daughtery and Taria Reed, a 31-year-old database coordinator, survived December’s layoffs that left more than 5,000 employees jobless when Enron filed the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. 

The former No. 7 company on the Fortune 500 imploded last year in a storm of hidden debt and inflated profits. Employees and retirees saw 401(k) accounts loaded with Enron stock evaporate when shares became worthless after trading at an all-time high of near $90 in August 2000. 

None of the four models who spoke Tuesday said they suffered the kind of financial losses that devastated others who depended on stock for retirement or their children’s college funds. 

Reed said she sold her Enron stock before shares began tumbling exponentially last fall because she needed the money. Daughtery said she made sure her 401(k) was diversified so her losses were minimal, and Howard had shut down her portfolio. 

Courtnie Parker, 27, who was laid off as an Enron recruiter last December, said she’d only worked there a year, so her losses were small. 

Parker was the only model to avoid frontal nudity in the pictorial because she didn’t want to offend her grandparents. 

The women voiced no bitterness toward the company or its executives, though Howard said Kenneth Lay, former chairman and chief executive, should have known his company was in jeopardy. 

“He needs a heart,” she said. “Get awake and find out what’s happening in your company. We knocked the market out.” 

Council members make difficult
decisions during tough
economic year 

Many Berkeley residents have noticed that the hooting and hollering over how to spend city dollars has been more restrained this budget season as compared with past years. 

With the city forced to make $3.1 million worth of cuts due to the weak economy, city leaders might appreciate the relative lack of antagonism. But the city manager’s office says the silence is not reassuring. 

“It been easy so far, but things are about to get more difficult,” said Phil Kamlarz, deputy city manager. 

The city’s budget was successfully adopted Tuesday night, but with the somber understanding that two issues will likely throw the weighty fiscal document back into disarray: city employee contract negotiations and state budget cuts. 

More than 1,000 city employees are pushing city managers for better wages and benefits, as union contracts come up for renewal next month. 

Mayor Shirley Dean says money has been set aside for new contracts, but it is not known whether enough money is there to fund whatever settlement is reached. 

Dean noted that nearly 80 percent of the city’s $100 million budget goes to employees’ salaries. 

As for pending state cuts, most political experts say it is unlikely that California Legislators will meet the July 1 deadline for adopting a budget, and unanswered will be how much money cities and towns will receive. 

“The state will soon do something and it’s not going to be good whatever it is,” said Kamlarz. 

Most measures adopted by the city to patch the $3.1 million shortfall involve cutting administrative services and eliminating employment positions. Nearly every city department, from public works to police, will share in the reductions. 

“The idea was to avoid any big cuts,” Kamlarz noted. 

While major cutbacks may have been avoided so far, funding increases to city departments and partnering nonprofits were also bypassed. To this end, City Council established a list of funding requests Tuesday night that they will revisit in September. 

One group that felt slighted in the budget process was those who support the city’s fledgling Green Building Program. 

“The city has created good resolutions for green building, but now it’s not following through,” said Michael Green, with the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health. 

Passed last year, a city resolution put forth a plan to review building and construction policies with energy savings and nontoxic building materials in mind. The idea was lauded as a landmark environmental plan. 

However, revenue to launch the Green Building Program, expected to come through city utility taxes, did not materialize and the plan is yet to get off the ground. Environmentalists have urged the city to find another way to pay for the $96,000 program next year, but have proved unsuccessful. 

“I recognize that the city budget is not in great shape, but the pain should be spread equally,” said Ed Gulick, program manager for the Berkeley-based Green Resource Center. 

Gulick noted that the program would have eventually paid for itself through energy savings and would have been a big economic boost for local retailers of building materials. 

City officials say the Green Building Program will be one of the items revisited in September. 

To the Editor: 

What looms “grim” and “ghastly” over Berkeley these days? Not Edgar 

Allan Poe's ‘Raven,’ but rather Berkeley's new Public Safety (or police) Tower, with its potentially damaging microwave emissions. While these emissions, like Poe's 'Raven,' continue their “wandering from the nightly shore,” where will all the money come from to determine just how harmful they may be? 

The City of Berkeley is still trying to figure out whether to give the Macro Corporation the $43,000 it has asked for to study ‘field strengths’ around tower sites. But why didn't the Corporation tell the City--in its report that already cost Berkeley citizens $50,000 – about RFI, or radio frequency interference? RFI can sabotage Berkeley's public safety systems. It can cause dropped calls, dead zones, and static in police and fire radio transmissions. More often than not, the RFI interference comes from commercial wireless services--notably, from cell phones and the antennas and towers that keep them going. (“Sounds of Silence: Cell Phone Towers are a Police Radio Nightmare,” Law Enforcement News, March l5, 200l), and “Cell Phones Drowning Out Police Radios,” USAToday.com). 

Police complaints, possibly rooted in RFI, were recently used to justify turning on Berkeley's illegal (put up without City permits) ‘safety’ tower. Most likely Nextel was the source of the RFI, although RFI can, under certain circumstances, also come from other wireless providers, such as AT&T and Cingular. Nextel, police and fire share the same range of radio frequencies. When and if these frequencies overlap, Nextel transmissions can overpower police calls. Consequently, police emergency response might be delayed by a busy signal, static or dropped calls.  

To further complicate matters, every time Nextel adds a new site, the whole configuration of their system is changed. The police can't keep up with the changes. What good would it do for Berkeley to pay the Macro Corporation $43,000 to measure today when it might be playing in a different ballpark tomorrow? Wouldn't it be better for the City to create a part-time, salaried position for an independent, physicist-engineer, researcher type (perhaps even a grad student) to figure things out and keep tabs on Berkeley's changing emissions' maps? Similarly, when and if the City takes down the new tower, can't it train City employees already on the payroll to do the job, rather than hire expensive industry?  

Berkeley (as elsewhere) has to decide which is more important, public safety or recreational cell phone use. And if measure we must, why should Berkeley foot the bill? If the need for measurements does come from Nextel – charge Nextel. Let them take up the issue with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), who unwisely sold Nextel a license in the already occupied public safety waveband sector.  

Thanks to Berkeley Council Members Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington who recently voted against turning on the illegal Tower. 

Kate Bernier 

Berkeley

Wednesday, June 26

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil 

6:30 pm 

BART Station, Shattuck & Center 

Weekly candle-lit vigil and peace walk to raise 

awareness and gather support for opposition to the 'war on terrorism' 

vigil4peace@yahoo.com, 528-9217 

Thursday, June 27

The Lost Spacecraft:  

Liberty Bell 7 Recovered 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland 

Preview new exhibit of resurrected 1961 spacecraft 

RSVP June 20, (415) 864-6397 or news@davidperry.com 

Speak Out Against Police Repression 

7 p.m.  

Defremery Park, 1651 Adeline St. West Oakland 

Jerald Smith from COPWATCH, Angela Rowen and Roger White from East Bay Uprising. Sponsored by East Bay Uprising 415-364-1870 or email ebuprising@yahoo.com 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A quit smoking class 

5:30-7:30 Thursday Evenings, June 6-July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street, (510) 981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Celebrate Queer Pride  

with fabulous FolkDivas 

8 p.m. 

Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St, Oakland  

Performers include: Helen Chaya, Eileen Hazel, and Marca Cassity. All Ages 

798-5456  

$6-10 sliding scale 

Friday, June 28

Paramount Movie Classics 

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ  

accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing  

his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

The Tao of Energy Medicine Workshop 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Upaya Center 478 Santa Clara Ave.  

Oakland 

www.upayacenter.org  

Free 

One Man's War Tour 

7 p.m.  

AK Press Warehouse 674-A 23rd St.-between MLK and San Pablo, Oakland  

Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba celebrates the release of his new CD. May contain live violence and sex. 

594-2329, satanicapache@hotmail.com, www.satanicapache.com 

FREE 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Friday, June 28

Paramount Movie Classics 

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  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. $5 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids. 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Saturday, June 29

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m.- 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St., Berkeley 

Learn what your rights are and how to observe the police effectively and safely; hosted by Copwatch. 

For more information: 548-0425 

Free 

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

Disaster First Aid: Learn to apply  

basic first aid techniques. 

981-5605 

How to Travel with Children 

11 to noon 

East Bay's Premier Action Sports Store  

1440 San Pablo Ave. 

Lonely Planet's global travel editor, Don George will offer tips and advice. 

526-7529. 

Free 

Save the Bay's East Bay  

Shoreline Bike Ride 

Noon 

Ride with Save the Bay along this beautiful section of the 10-mile SF Bay Trail. 

452-9261 for info and reservations.  

Savebay@savesfbay.org 

Free 

Northern California Labor Conference  

on Democratic Rights 

9:30 to 4:00 p.m.  

Valley Life Science Building Room 2040 UC Berkeley 

One day conference is being organized to focus on the growing attack on labor rights since the "War On Terrorism" 

Free 

Garden Party for David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Two Strong Roots garden sites;  

on the corner of Sacramento and Woolsey, and Sacramento and Harmon 

Gardening for all ages, honey making,  

gardening workshops 

(415) 788-3666 

Free 

Meditation Seminar 

11 a.m. 

Rockridge Library,  

5366 College Ave.  

Oakland 

Thakar Singh's seminar 

(888) 297-1715 

Free 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Stanford Jazz Festival,  

June 29-August 10 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m.  

Kids 8-12, Campbell Recital Hall  

Stanford Campus  

Early Bird jazz for kids and families  

with Jim Nadel & Friends. 

Free 

Maybeck High School  

30th anniversary  

6 p.m. to 10 p.m.  

Piedmont Community Hall  

711 Highland Ave. Piedmont 

Call 841-8489 for reservations 

Kids are Street Safe Campaign 

10 a.m. to noon 

Neighborhood House of North Richmond, 305 Chesley Ave, Richmond 

Police, Richmond mayor,  

superintendent, youth directors speak  

on how to keep kids safe. 

235-9780 

Free 

Sunday, June 30

Celebration of the California Least  

Tern Nesting Season 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Crab Cove Visiting Center, Alameda 

Craft-making, slide show, visual displays,  

and a visit to the nesting colony 

Bus tour recommended for ages 6 and up, needs reservations. 

Reservations for tour: 521-6887 

General: Free; Tour: $6-$8 

Monday, July 1

“Children of AIDS” film 

6:30 p.m.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffee house, 6536 Telegraph Avenue  

Presented by the National Organization  

for Women  

549-2970, 287-8948  

Free 

What You Need to Know Before you Remodel 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 

Discussion by builder Glen Kitzenberger 

525-7610 

Free 

Tuesday, July 2

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, Suite 320  

Oakland.A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

533-1747, ext. 12. 

Saturday, July 6

Capoeira Batizado 

2 to 6 p.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison, Berkeley 

A celebration of Capoeira with  

performances by local arts organization. 

For information: 666-1255 

Free 

Saturday, July 6 - 

Sunday, July 21

Marin Classic Theatre 

presents "Born Yesterday" 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sunday matinee; 7 p.m. Sundays 

A bittersweet comedy by  

Garson Kanin. 

For information: 415-892-8551 or 

www.MCTheatre.com 

$18 evening performances, $15 matinee 

Thursday, July 11

Great Sierra Backpacking Destinations 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo  

Karen Najarian of Sierra Wilderness Seminars presents slides from her more that 20 years exploring the Sierra Backcountry. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Peach / Stone Fruit Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

15th Anniversary Derby Street  

Farmers Market 

Live music and & stone-fruit and peach tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Festival of New Versions  

of Classic Asian Games 

Noon to 5 p.m 

Dr Comics and Mr Games,  

4014 Piedmont Ave., Oakland  

Dr Comics and Mr Games Hosts Game a festival featuring two new versions of classic Asian board games 

601-7800 

Sunday, July 14

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician  

basic bike repairs such as brake  

adjustments and fixing a flat. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore health concerns in a family  

oriented environment 

Free 

vTuesday, July 16

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church,  

941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with  

other photographers 

525-3565 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Mystique of the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Phil Arnot presents slides from over 50 years of exploring such places as Alaska, New Zealand, the Sierra and the Rockies. 

For information: 527-4140 

Saturday, July 20

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

Earthquake Retrofitting: Learn how to strengthen your wood frame home. 

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

812 Page St. 

981-5605 

Free 

Thursday, July 25

California Landscapes: A  

Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

John Karachewski presents an educational slide show on such amazing places as the Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges the Great Valley and Cascades 

For information: 527- 4140. 

Free 

Saturday, July 27

Test Ride Kestrel Bicycles 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Preston Sandusky of Kestrel, a premier manufacturer of high-end, carbon-fiber  

road and mountain bikes, introduces  

their latest design. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

"Neon: The Living Flame" 

7 p.m.  

Alameda Museum, 2324 Alameda Ave  

The Alameda Museum presents Michael Crowe, author, and neon artist Karl Hauser 

lecture by Michael Crowe 

748-0796 or 841-8489.  

Members free, non-members $5  

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician  

basic repairs such as brake adjustments  

and fixing a flat. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Jamal Sampson started the school year at Cal as a freshman with great promise. He won MVP honors at the BCA Classic in his first three games and turned into a defensive force to help the Bears reach the NCAA Tournament, earning All-Pac-10-Freshman honors. It looked as if the Bears had a big man who would dominate the middle for at least another year. 

But Sampson decided that one year of college was enough. He declared for the NBA Draft shortly after Cal’s NCAA second-round loss to Pittsburgh, then dropped out of school and signed with an agent, cutting off any chance to return to Cal. That decision is looking increasingly foolish heading into today’s draft, as it is all but impossible to find anyone who projects the 6-foot-11, 235-pound center/forward as a first-round pick. 

“Sampson could have been a first-round pick had he stayed in school a few more years,” said Andy Katz of ESPN.com. “Instead, he’s likely going in the second round or could go undrafted. His size will be hard to turn away from, but he probably cost himself money by leaving school after one season.” 

Sampson is treading in dangerous waters. Unless a team makes a big reach to take him in the first round, Sampson won’t get a guaranteed contract. Second-round picks are often training camp fodder in today’s NBA, while undrafted free agents almost never find work. The Mater Dei graduate could be looking at a stint in the NBA’s developmental league or another minor league or a job in Europe. 

Coming out of high school, Sampson was grouped with the four prep big men who were drafted in the first round of last year’s draft, including top pick Kwame Brown and Chicago Bulls teammates Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. But a broken foot made Sampson hesitant to enter the draft, opting instead for Cal. 

“I was real tempted, but surgery isn’t a good thing to have going into the draft,” he said. “I played against all those guys, and I measured up well with all of them.” 

Sampson was always honest about the fact that he was anxious to get to the NBA. 

“I’m like every other guy in that I want to get to the next level, but I’m not going to put a limit on it,” he said before his first game at Cal. “It could be one, two, three or four years.” 

Until the last few years, Sampson would have been at least a borderline first-round pick. After all, he is a big man with potential. But with the globalization of the game, foreign players have become more popular, with as many as 12 possibly going in the first round this year. That has pushed marginal U.S. players down the board, and Sampson is just one of several college stars who may not get a sniff of the NBA.

Wages, safety top concerns  

UC Berkeley clerical employees have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike of up to three days, hoping to shake up a year of protracted contract negotiations with the university. 

A strike date has been set, but union members say the threat will have an impact.  

“If you take all the clericals out of the university, things will just stop,” said Sue Meux, an administrative assistant at UC Berkeley’s Extension School. 

But university officials are taking the strike vote in stride. 

“It’s one of those things that unions do,” said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz. “It is in some sense a part of the process.” 

The UC Berkeley clericals, who voted by a six-to-one margin to authorize a strike, are part of the larger 18,000 member coalition of University Employees which represents workers at all nine UC campuses. 

CUE Local 3, which represents clericals at UC Berkeley and the Oakland-based University of California Office of the President, is the only local that has authorized a strike at this point, according to Local 3 President Michael-David Sasson. 

Sasson said Local 3 may wait until other campuses authorize strikes so that CUE can orchestrate a larger action. 

Sasson said the two major issues in contract negotiations are wages and the safety of employees’ work stations. He said inadequate equipment often leads to repetitive stress injuries. 

CUE wants the university to commit to testing every work station and making adjustments where needed. 

“We do take the matter seriously and we are trying to be as responsive as we can and we’re having to work through the details,” said Schwartz. 

The union is asking for 7.5 percent wage increases in each of the two years of the proposed contract, plus 4.5 percent raises each year for employees who advance a step on the pay scale. 

The university, according to Schwartz, is offering a 2 percent raise this year. Next year’s raise will depend on the final state budget, he said, but will likely amount to a 1.5 percent hike for those who qualify for merit pay increases.  

The university is also offering an additional 3 percent deferred raise that would appear in employees’ retirement packages. 

Schwartz said limits on state funding do not allow the university to offer more. CUE has hired an independent economist who reports that the university has an “unrestricted” $2.3 billion surplus that it could tap for salary increases. But the university argues that those funds are labeled as unrestricted for technical reasons only, and are in fact tied up in various legal and fiduciary obligations. 

The union, because it represents public employees, can strike only if the negotiations reach an impasse, requiring a state-appointed mediator, or if the university commits an “unfair labor practice.” 

CUE claims that the university is engaging in an unfair practice by laying off “hundreds” of temporary employees just before they attain “career” status and accrue better benefits. 

Schwartz said the university has a whole host of legitimate temporary employment needs and is abiding by the temporary worker provisions of the last CUE contract. 

The last contract expired in December. Since then, the university and union have been operating in a “status quo” period, during which many of the key provisions of the last contract have remained in place.  

To the Editor: 

The human race has been at war for over ten thousand years and just look at us. We have nothing but bigger and better weapons, more and more people slaughtered, larger and larger death counts. We have proved conclusively that violence does not work. 

War always leads to more war. 

Punishment always leads to resistance. 

It is time for us to unilaterally change to a more rational approach to problem solving. The only other alternative is total human annihilation. 

National and world leaders show us daily that their main goal in life is to accumulate wealth and power in every greedy, petty little way that they can. If we are ever going to have a future as a race, this approach to world politics has got to stop. 

Without love, peace and more love, none of us have a future. Love stands for “looking for good.” Let’s start looking for good in the human race (instead of just bombing it and exploiting it) – and give ourselves a future. 

Jane Stillwater 

Berkeley

OAKLAND – Unless the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets and the Chinese basketball federation do something crazy in the final hours before the NBA draft, everyone expects Mike Dunleavy to be wearing the Warriors’ cap. 

Dunleavy is expected be chosen by Golden State on Thursday night with the third overall pick in the draft. The 6-foot-9 Duke junior forward all but clinched it by choosing to remain in the draft last week after meeting with Warriors officials. 

But the last-minute shenanigans around 7-foot-5 Chinese center Yao Ming’s draft status have thrown the entire event into turmoil, with the Rockets trying not to flinch at the possibility Yao won’t be allowed to play in the NBA next season. 

If Yao’s paperwork isn’t completed on time, the Rockets may change selections or entertain offers for their pick. If they do, the Warriors might figure out a way to land Duke point guard Jay Williams, the player they wanted all along. 

But the intrigue in Oakland won’t stop with the team’s first pick. If no way to draft Williams materializes, the Warriors still will hunt for a point guard, perhaps through a widely rumored deal with a team choosing midway through the first round. Golden State also has the first pick of the second round. 

“We’ve had some very good workouts, not only with very good talent, but with very good people,” Warriors general manager Garry St. Jean said. “I know we’ll get a good, exciting player who’s going to be a big part of this franchise.” 

After finishing 21-61 last season and missing the playoffs for the league-worst eighth straight season, the Warriors likely need a player who can help immediately with their top pick. 

After Yao and Williams, most NBA observers consider Dunleavy the top talent available in a forward-heavy draft — and on paper, he’s a particularly good fit for the Warriors. 

With his smooth outside shooting, innate court sense and impressive athleticism, he’s expected to become the Warriors’ starting small forward, allowing Antawn Jamison to move to power forward and obviating the need for Danny Fortson, a rebounding demon who can’t score and rarely plays good defense. 

Fortson possibly could be included in a deal to land the point guard desperately needed by the Warriors. They gave up on Larry Hughes at the spot last season, which ended with talented swing guard Gilbert Arenas leading the offense. 

The Warriors are known to be talking with teams who have a shot at the handful of talented point guards available midway through the first round. Among the candidates are Gonzaga’s Dan Dickau, Illinois’ Frank Williams, Memphis’ Dajuan Wagner, Fordham’s Smush Parker and Cincinnati’s Steve Logan. 

Philadelphia, choosing at No. 16 overall, might be willing to pick a point guard for Golden State in a trade that might return the 2005 first-round pick the Warriors got from the 76ers in last season’s trade of Vonteego Cummings. 

“Obviously, everyone writes about the point guard position for us,” Warriors assistant general manager Gary Fitzsimmons said. “But the reality is, sometimes you can’t get the ultimate that you want.” 

No matter the results of the draft, changes already are taking place in Oakland. The Warriors aren’t expected to make a qualifying offer to Hughes, who lost two starting jobs in the backcourt last season to rookies Jason Richardson and Arenas, by the June 30 deadline. 

Instead of extending the $2.9 million offer needed to keep Hughes, acquired from Philadelphia two seasons ago to be one of the franchise’s cornerstones, the Warriors likely will let him walk to another team for no compensation.

City leaders met privately Tuesday evening in an abnormally long session that signaled continued difficulty in drawing up new contracts for more than 1,000 frustrated city employees. 

The closed meeting, which delayed the start of its regularly-scheduled public meeting, followed the unification of four city unions over controversial municipal contracts due to expire next month. Cost of living adjustments, retirement benefits, and worker compensation provisions are at the heart of union concerns. 

After months back and forth, union leaders gave City Council two things to think about Tuesday: a 2.7 percent pension after age 55 instead of 3 percent at age 50; and a 6 percent cost-of-living wage hike instead of previously discussed 8 and 9 percent increases. Union leaders dubbed the demands as compromises in their bargaining position. 

Council’s deliberations over the proposal were not public. State law says that wage negotiations can be private until a contract is in place. 

“I don’t get into the numbers game, but I want an all-out push this week,” Mayor Shirley Dean said. She expects a new contract to be settled by Friday. How much the city was willing to compromise, she would not say. 

Union leaders are classifying their demands not as raises, but as increases that are compatible to what other city employees recently were given. Salary hikes as high as 30 percent for police officers and city managers are cited in the union’s statement to the city. 

“Why are some walking away with the beef and others the wrappers?” asked Tom Farrell, a union representative of Local One. 

More than 300 city employees marched in front of the City Civic Center Monday and at least half as many protested outside City Council Chambers Tuesday night. 

“We stand united. We will get respect,” was a common cheer bellowed by the workers. 

The four unions in collaboration include Local One, Local 790 of Service Employees International Union, Local 535 of SEIU and Local 1245 of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Their representation reflects a range of professions from mid-level managers to technical and trade positions. 

To the Editor, 

It was okay for the United States to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Vietnam, using weapons of mass destruction, because we are good and our enemies are evil. 

Now our enemies are striving to develop their own weapons of mass destruction. They say that this would level the playing field. 

We’ve got to show them that this is our planet, and our playing field, and if they want to be in the game, they’ve got to play by our rules. 

The commies were evil because they went around trying to overthrow governments by force and violence. Of course, that’s what our forefathers did to the British Colonial government back in the 1770s. But that was then, and this is now. 

To end terrorism, we have overthrown the government that controlled Afghanistan by voice and violence, and now we are planning to do the same thing to Iraq. To hell with what the Afghanis or the Iraqis want. This is our playing field and if they don’t like it, they can shut up and get out. 

Marion Syrek 

Oakland

Cal women’s basketball head coach Caren Horstmeyer announced Tuesday that junior college All-American Nihan Anaz has signed to play basketball for the Golden Bears beginning with the 2002-03 season. 

“We’re thrilled that Nihan is joining the Cal basketball program this season,” said Horstmeyer, “and are confident that she will have an immediate impact. Nihan is a leader by example because she is so skilled and talented, and she makes big plays.” 

The 5-foot-9 shooting guard from Istanbul, Turkey, has two years of eligibility remaining after playing the 2000-01 season at the University of South Carolina and the 2001-02 campaign at Weatherford College in Texas. 

Last season at Weatherford, Anaz ranked second in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference in scoring (21.2 ppg) and assists (7.5 apg)

Two unrelated shootings last weekend in west Berkeley along with recent violent crimes plaguing south Berkeley are symptomatic of a larger issue that needs to be addressed, police said. 

On Saturday night police responded to a report of gunfire in the 2100 block of Sixth Street, where they found a victim shot in the stomach and bleeding in the stairwell of an apartment building, said Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department.  

Though the victim was not cooperative in giving police information about the man who shot him, special enforcement unit officers who were patrolling the area arrested a suspect during a routine traffic stop. 

“What happened was a vehicle description was being completed by officers,” Harris said. “At about same time special enforcement officers were in the area. Soon after, they learned the person they had stopped was responsible for the shooting.” 

Rodney Collin, 29, of Berkeley, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Police can upgrade the charge to attempted murder if they find that the suspect’s intent was to kill the victim. 

The second shooting occurred early Monday, at about 3:30 a.m., at Seawall Drive and University Avenue, which is in the Berkeley Marina. 

“The victim was in marina with some friends in his car. Also in a separate car were some acquaintances of the victim,” Harris said. “The victim got into a verbal dispute with another person not associated with them. He got out of his car to confront the individual, and he was shot.” 

The victim and his acquaintances left the scene and flagged down an officer on University and Sixth avenues. 

The suspect in this case is described as a black male in his early 20s, approximately six feet tall, of slim build, with a mustache and a medium complexion. He was wearing a black knit cap, dark jeans and a puffy jacket. He was accompanied by a Hispanic male in his late teens, of slim build, who was wearing a black beanie, dark jeans and a puffy jacket. The two men fled in a dark-colored, late model Honda Accord.  

Both victims were taken to Highland Hospital and are in stable condition. 

The crimes have caused anxiety among area residents. 

“We are listening to their concerns,” said Berkeley Police Chief Daschle Butler. “We have been working with outside agencies to address these issues and we will continue to fight this battle in these neighborhoods.”  

Police are asking anyone with information about any crimes to contact them.

It’s a Freaky Friday in Texas 

AUSTIN, Texas — An Aggie in the University of Texas president’s office? A Longhorn leading Texas A&M? 

It may sound like a cruel joke on the rival universities’ loyal fans, but it’s really going to happen: Larry Faulkner, UT’s leader, and Ray Bowen, president of A&M, will swap jobs on Friday. 

In a joint statement released Monday, the presidents said they want “to underscore that the two institutions, while competing fiercely in athletics, have much in common in their academic and related aspirations and face many of the same challenges, fiscal and otherwise.” 

Both presidents will start off the day with late-morning meetings with university executives and then have sessions with deans, other faculty members and student leaders. 

“We expect to have some fun while getting a taste of how the other guy lives,” the presidents said. 

Despite the good-natured bad blood between the schools, UT senior Stephanie Melton said Bowen should get a hospitable welcome when he becomes president for a day. 

“UT’s a friendly campus,” Melton said. 

Two-state candidate  

a longshot in one  

LAS VEGAS — Mike Schaefer, who is no longer allowed to practice law, is taking a stab at a career in politics — two stabs, in fact. 

The disbarred Nevada lawyer is simultaneously running for public administrator in Clark County, Nev., and for Congress in Arizona. 

While Nevada law blocks Schaefer from seeking two offices in this state, there’s no legal prohibition against being a two-state candidate. That’s because the Las Vegas Republican won a federal appeals court case stemming from a previous effort to run for Congress in California. 

The perennial candidate tried to run for the seat of the late Rep. Sonny Bono of Palm Springs but was rejected by filing officials because he lived in Nevada. He sued, and in June 2000 a court ruled that House candidates don’t have to live in the state they hope to represent — as long as they have a legal residence in that state once they’re elected. 

Schaefer said he’s a long shot in the congressional race, where he is one of seven Republicans hoping to replace retiring Rep. Bob Stump. But he considers himself a front-runner in the Clark County race. 

Oldest active logger  

praises the chain saw  

SEQUIM, Wash. — John Kirner has been logging so long that he has memories of the arrival of a revolutionary piece of equipment — the chain saw. 

“I was up in Sequim, and I heard a great, big noise behind this building,” he said. “The chain saws started to come in, and boy I was happy to see them.” 

Kirner, 97, began cutting trees 80 years ago, and he’s believed to be the oldest active logger on Washington state’s North Olympic Peninsula. 

Through the years, Kirner has watched the trade change from a backbreaking physical industry for only the strongest men to the less strenuous but still demanding work it is today. 

“The new loggers do a lot more in the way of accomplishment, but none of them worked harder than we did,” Kirner told the Peninsula Daily News. “You couldn’t just stand there and look at the logs, you had to get out there and work.” 

Before chain saws, Kirner used the crosscut saws, called “misery whips.” After hearing his first chain saw, Kirner knew he needed one and worked out a deal to buy it the same day.

Chief Butler retires in July; Meisner to fill in as chief 

The Berkeley Police Department freely admits that July will be a rough and tumble road loaded with challenges.  

Next month the department will deal with an unusually high number of retiring officers, including the departure of Chief Daschle Butler, and the subsequent training and recruitment of replacement personnel.  

In addition, the department will revamp its internal communication and computer systems. And last, but not least, the department is facing an increase in violent crime nearly equal to that of the mid- to late-1980s, when crack first hit the streets. 

In the interim, while Berkeley conducts a national search for Butler’s replacement, Deputy Chief Roy Meisner will run the department. 

Meisner says he’s approaching the challenge with three distinct priorities in mind. 

“It’s about community engagement — people I call the VIP’s, the very important people in all this and they are the people who live here, the residents, the merchants and the people who shop here in Berkeley,” Meisner said. 

Meisner said that one way in which the police department can improve community policing is to open lines of communication with neighborhood groups to better address safety concerns. 

Quality of service is the second priority for the police department. 

“And problem-solving is the third Priority,” Meisner said, adding that solving the problems that face Berkeley will have to involve a lot more than simple enforcement. 

“Those are really the three things we try to emphasize and it’s really a philosophy,” Meisner said. 

Outgoing Chief Butler echoed Meisner’s priorities and stated that police department must have a role in addressing the cause of crime and not just the outcome. 

“There’s an ebb and flow to drug trafficking and the violence that’s associated with it,” Butler said. “And now we’re on that cycle where we are having more of it, and we are responding to it.” 

Butler worked in narcotics for several years before becoming police chief. He believes that a holistic approach to the current increase in violent crime will be imperative. 

“We are constantly struggling and fighting that. The big challenge for many municipalities will be looking at abatement at education, and the idea that the community needs to self actualize as a whole,” Butler said. “It’s not fair just to look at the enforcement issue. We have to look at cause, and we can’t just get into warehousing people.” 

In particular, Butler addressed the need for vocational opportunities for Berkeley’s youth. Even though the city provides a plethora of services, there are still not enough of them. 

He also pointed to a recent drug operation in south and west Berkeley that yielded the arrest of 42 people on possession and trafficking charges. 

Butler said that the police department will continue to work with those communities to decrease violence as well as offer viable alternatives to the “drug life.” 

“We need to totally revive the community policing effort,” Butler said. “Somehow or the other, we got a little side-tracked there. But we’ve got to get back to that.” 

Butler added that only about10 percent of the department’s work involves law enforcement. “The larger part of what we do involves quality of life issues,” he said. 

Much like Butler, Meisner was born in San Francisco and has lived in the Bay Area his whole life. Also much like Butler, Meisner does not call Berkeley his home.  

“I couldn’t afford the mortgages around here,” Meisner said, adding that many of the department’s personnel do not live in Berkeley, which complicates the department’s future staffing needs. 

“We offer competitive salaries, but sometime officers don’t want to commute for several hours, so the housing issue makes retaining officers more difficult,” Meisner said.  

“Not only is Chief Butler leaving but so are a number of other experienced officers and that’s experience that we really are going to miss,” he said.  

“There’s a lot of training associated with that and shepherding,” he added. 

And as the department faces the challenge of returning to community policing, it must consider the loss of retiring staff members and their long-standing relationships in the community. Furthermore, the newer, younger officers must indoctrinate themselves into their jobs and into “Berkeley’s own unique community.” 

“And the communities themselves have changed as well,” he added. 

He also said that the City Council has asked the department to address increased traffic and accidents as soon as possible. 

“Crime, traffic and staffing will be the biggest obstacles for me to address,” Meisner said. “And one of challenges of taking over is looking at what we are doing now and what we can do in the future, how we can improve upon that and I want to work with the community to make these things happen.” 

Specifically, Meisner and Butler both said the community can look forward to seeing more beat officers in their neighborhoods and an increased emphasis on communication. Department staff that works as community liaisons will attend more neighborhood and community meetings. 

“Generally, I’m very proud of our employees, and I think we do a great job. But nobody’s perfect, and we are not pretending to be,” Meisner said, adding that the community and police department can educate each other. 

“And even though that housing is an issue as it relates to getting to know the community, it really gets down to the individual officers and how open they are to the community. And it’s not just about the officers, but also the jail staff, the communication staff, clerical people and parking enforcement, all of these elements make up the department,” Meisner said.  

“And everyone wants really the same thing,” he continued. “They want to live in a safe community. They want their kids to be safe when they go to school. Berkeley has a lot of great things to offer, and I never wanting lose sight of that.” 

Meisner became deputy chief in 1993. His tenure as interim chief starts July 13. 

Urban children benefited more than rural students 

SACRAMENTO — California’s $1 billion-a-year experiment with class size reduction isn’t producing the monumental benefits lawmakers had hoped for, according to a study released Tuesday. 

The Public Policy Institute of California found that while many schools across the state boosted test scores, other schools appeared to benefit little, if at all, from the class size reduction law that passed in 1996. 

Overall, schools that reduced their average class size by 10 students saw the number of third-graders with test scores above the national median jump by only 3 to 4 percent, according to the report released by the institute, a San Francisco-based think-tank. 

“Originally, I was expecting a bigger effect,” said Christopher Jepsen, co-author of the study. “But when I thought of all the new teachers that had to be hired, it’s not that surprising.” 

Students in urban schools benefited more from the reduction than students in rural schools. Urban schools saw an improvement of about 5 percent for math and 4 percent for reading. Rural schools, on the other hand, had math and reading scores inch up only 2.5 and 1 percent, respectively. 

Schools with low-income students benefited the most. In Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, the poorest schools saw test scores improve by about 14 percent in math and 9 percent in reading. 

However, Los Angeles Unified School District’s schools did not fare well with class size reduction, with some of its poorest schools seeing dramatic declines in test scores. Overall, Los Angeles third-graders improved scores by about 2 percent. 

Minority and white students fared the same across the state, except in Los Angeles, where math scores at schools with predominantly black student populations dropped 15 percent. 

Although the numbers seem surprising, the weak improvements can be attributed to the statewide teaching shortage, caused in part by the class size reduction law, Jepsen said. 

Following the implementation of the law, thousands of new teaching positions were created, which pushed experienced teachers into more affluent areas and rookie teachers with emergency credentials into low-income districts. 

Esther Wong, an assistant superintendent in the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the district has always had a hard time finding and retaining qualified teachers. 

The district employs about 33,000 teachers and has up to 60,000 students in each grade level. 

“We’ve had some minor gains ... but we can’t attribute those gains to be solely the result of class size reduction,” Wong said. Despite the lower improvements, she said the numbers were still encouraging. 

OAKLAND – The vice chancellor for external affairs at the Peralta Community College District announced today that she will retire in July, after 34 years. 

Dezie Woods-Jones was hired by the district in 1968 as a director of the Merritt College Outreach Center. She held several other posts before Chancellor Ronald J. Temple named her to her current position. 

Woods-Jones also served on the Oakland City Council, beginning in 1991. She served as vice-mayor under former Mayor Elihu Harris from 1996 to 1997. 

Woods-Jones says she intends to continue working on behalf of the East Bay.

SAN FRANCISCO — Older workers are not necessarily entitled to the same benefits as younger workers, according to a California Supreme Court ruling. 

The court already has said age-bias laws protect older workers from being discriminated against when it comes to hiring and firing, or from being demoted or suspended. 

But the court found that age is exempted when it comes to what benefits employees are due, and said employers may grant younger employees better benefits than their senior counterparts. California age laws group those under or over 40. 

The case concerns Dan Esberg, a former Union Oil Co. telecommunications specialist who sued after his employer refused to pay his master’s program tuition. Union Oil has reorganized and Esberg, now 64, no longer works for the company’s Anaheim office. 

The high court noted that age is among a dozen factors, including race, religion, sexual orientation and gender, which employers cannot use when hiring and firing workers. The law, however, includes all those factors but age when it comes to the “terms and conditions” of employment. 

State law, Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote, “does not prohibit employment discrimination in the furnishing of employee benefits on the basis of age.” 

California lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering legislation that would add age to the list of other protected factors regarding employee benefits. Chino Assemblywoman Gloria Negrete McLeod’s bill cleared the lower chamber Jan. 28 and is before a Senate committee.

SAN FRANCISCO — California energy regulators hope partnering with global investment banking and capital markets giant UBS Warburg will boost support on Wall Street for their plan to lift the state’s largest utility from bankruptcy. 

The partnership, announced Tuesday during a news conference, would become official if U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali approves the state’s request that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pay UBS’ fees — $3 million upon Montali’s approval and roughly $5 million more if the firm arranges and obtains the state’s financing. 

“It’s a major endorsement by one of the most important financial institutions in the world and we hope that Wall Street will view it as an important development,” said Alan Kornberg, an attorney representing the state Public Utilities Commission in the bankruptcy. 

Gary Cohen, general counsel for the PUC, said the state chose to work with UBS Warburg because of its “stellar” reputation, its size and its “extensive experience in the utilities sector and in the state of California.” 

Calls to PG&E for comment Tuesday were not immediately returned. 

The announcement comes at a critical point in PG&E’s 14-month-old bankruptcy, born of the power crisis that brought rolling blackouts to California households and businesses in 2001. PG&E’s creditors are reviewing the two reorganization plans and must support or reject them by mid-August to help Montali determine which, if any, offers the best means by which they’ll be paid. 

The utility hopes to regain its good credit by transferring transmission lines, power plants and other assets away from state oversight and into three new companies that would be regulated by the federal government. Analysts say that would allow PG&E to borrow more money to pay its debts, since it would escape state control over how much it can charge for electricity. 

The state’s plan calls for the utility’s 4.6 million ratepayers to pay billions, PG&E to sell common stock and its parent — PG&E Corp. — to forego a huge chunk of profits. Both swear the other’s plan is fatally flawed. 

While credit-rating agency Standard and Poor’s has pledged to grant PG&E creditworthiness should Montali confirm its reorganization plan, the PUC’s plan has received a lukewarm response. But Ken Crews, vice chairman of UBS Warburg, said financial support for PG&E’s plan may erode because the utility hopes to split itself into separate trading, distribution and generation divisions at a time when many power companies are moving toward combining operations.

Jury awards research hospital 

$200 million in punitive damages 

LOS ANGELES — Genentech Inc. said it will appeal a jury verdict ordering it to pay more than $500 million to City of Hope National Medical Center if it can’t persuade a Superior Court judge to order a new trial in the intellectual property rights dispute. 

The biotech giant was ordered Monday to pay City of Hope $200 million in punitive damages. Earlier this month the same jury ordered Genentech to pay the research hospital $300.1 million in compensatory damages. 

Jurors found that Genentech failed to pay royalties on some drugs manufactured at City of Hope under the terms of a 1976 agreement. 

Sean Johnston, Genentech’s vice president of intellectual property, did not say what the basis for a new trial or an appeal would be. But he said the agreement with City of Hope stood for 20 years without dispute. 

“We continue to be very disappointed in the outcome of this trial,” he said. 

Napster wins approval of  

$5 million debtor-in-possession loan  

WILMINGTON, Del.— Napster Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this month, won final approval Tuesday of a $5.13 million debtor-in-possession agreement with Bertelsmann AG, its prospective purchaser. 

Napster, which stirred controversy as the provider of a free Internet music service, will use $4 million of the loan to fund business operations. The remaining $1.13 million will fund a key employee retention plan, the terms of which also were approved Tuesday. 

The loan includes an 8 percent interest rate and expires the earliest of Aug. 30, the completion of the sale, or the termination of the sale agreement. The loan also includes $250,000 to cover administrative expenses incurred during the Chapter 11 case. 

Napster was unable to win approval of bid procedures in connection with the proposed sale of substantially all its assets to Bertelsmann in a deal valued at $92 million. As a result, attorneys for Bertelsmann said they may not be able to go through with the sale. 

Chief Judge Peter J. Walsh of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington said he was “not prepared” to approve the bid procedures because the proposed sale process was too short. 

Bertelsmann has agreed to acquire Napster’s assets for $8 million in cash plus the elimination of its alleged $83 million secured claim. 

Palm’s fourth-quarter loss  

matches Wall Street expectations  

SAN JOSE – Handheld computer maker Palm Inc. on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter loss in line with reduced Wall Street expectations and said it doesn’t expect to break even until the quarter ending in November. 

For the three months ended May 31, Palm said it lost $27.5 million, or 5 cents a share. In the year-ago period, the Santa Clara-based company lost $392.1 million, or 69 cents a share. 

Excluding one-time events, the company reported a loss of $18 million, or 3 cents a share — compared to a loss of $89.2 million, or 16 cents per share, in the year-ago period. 

The company said revenues for the quarter totaled $233 million, up 41 percent from the $165 million for the comparable period last year. 

Providian completes sales of  

1.3 million high-risk accounts  

SAN FRANCISCO — Credit card issuer Providian Financial Corp. said Tuesday it completed the sale of 1.3 million high-risk customer accounts for $1.2 billion, completing a series of moves designed to shore up finances after suffering major loan losses last year. 

San Francisco-based Providian sold the high-risk accounts to two limited liability companies formed by Goldman Sachs & Co., Salomon Barney, Cardworks Inc. and CompuCredit Corp. as part of an agreement announced in April. The portfolio held $2.4 billion in loans, down from $2.6 billion as of March 31. 

Although the sale raised more cash for Providian, the company will lose money on the deal. Providian recognized a $240 million loss on the transaction in the first quarter and expects to record an additional $6 million loss in the second quarter.

FRESNO — Faced with an oversupply of raisins in the United States, federal food regulators have approved a late-season grapevine removal program in the San Joaquin Valley that supplies most of the nation’s raisins. 

Starting Tuesday, raisin farmers were allowed to prune or yank out about 8,000 acres of grapevines to help reduce the number of raisins produced and stored in the nation. 

The Raisin Administrative Committee, an organization that manages quality standards and oversupply stocks, asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month for the removal program after seeing projections of this year’s crop. 

About 400,000 tons of raisins are expected to be harvested through September. Last year’s crop was 373,000 tons. In 2000, raisin producers had their largest crop to date, about 433,000 tons. 

Richard Garabedian, Raisin Administrative Committee chairman, said the vine-pull program will help lower the stock of raisins and get California’s 5,000 raisin growers better prices for their product. 

“In the past two years, the prices have been so bad that a lot of farmers are losing their ranches from Bakersfield to Los Banos,” he said. “Some banks are refusing to lend ... because they are afraid they are not going to get paid back.” 

California, primarily the San Joaquin Valley, supplies most of the nation’s raisins, as well as 40 percent of the world’s raisins. 

Raisin supplies have increased in the nation due to imports from Turkey, Iran, Greece, Chile, Australia and South Africa, where labor costs are lower, said Stephen Vasquez, a farm adviser at the University of California. 

The acreage of grapes planted has remained at 280,000 for the past decade. But growers who once sold fruit to grocery stores, or the juice or wine industries, have shifted to raisins because of escalating labor and other costs. 

The vine-removal program will help growers like 80-year-old Harry Rustigian of Fowler, who makes about $540 for a ton of raisins, though it costs him an average of $800 a ton to grow them. In 2000, a grower received $1,211 a ton. 

He had hired help to work with him on his 100-acre farm until prices got so bad two years ago. 

“I remember the Depression time and we’d make enough money if we worked hard. You just can’t make it today because everything you buy is expensive and we sell the raisins very cheap,” said Rustigian, who now lives off his retirement savings. 

This season, Rustigian and other growers will be compensated by the Raisin Administrative Committee if they prune their vines by July 31. Growers will be given a bonus if they pull out the vine completely, Garabedian said. It takes a grapevine three years to produce grapes. 

While vine-pull programs are relatively common, this is the first time it has been requested and approved this late in the season, which ends in three months. 

The USDA approved the committee’s request because of declining shipments of raisins in the country in the past seven years, department spokesman George Chartier said. About 366,000 tons of raisins were shipped in the nation in 1994, compared with 295,000 tons in 2001. 

Meanwhile, growers are looking at ways to increase sales. 

Last year, the industry brought back the “Dancing Raisins,” a mid-1980s print and television ad campaign that used animated clay raisins to encourage people to eat and cook with California raisins. 

But the television campaign now appears only on the Food Network, targeting a small market, because the California Raisin Marketing Board has meager means after growers have received low prices for their product in the past two years. 

The marketing board, an organization that collects fees from growers for research and advertising, also has launched an ad campaign, “Look Who’s Cooking with Raisins,” featuring celebrity chefs. 

But despite the renewed push, the board hasn’t seen an increase in raisin shipments, said Ron Worthley, the board’s senior vice president. He said the group would like to do more advertising, but can’t afford it. 

Growers now pay $17.50 per ton of raisins to the board, because sales are so flat. When the “Dancing Raisins” were introduced on prime time in the 1980s, raisin growers paid $65 a ton.

Schools in Pasadena, Texas, Arizona and Florida had been targeted for hacking 

LOS ANGELES — Attempts to tap into at least five college and university computer systems by individuals linked to Russian organized crime has prompted federal officials to issue a nationwide alert about identity and credit card theft on campuses. 

The warning, which was issued last Friday, followed the arrest in May of a Russian-born man at Pasadena City College and another incident at Arizona State University. Schools in Texas and Florida have also been targeted, college officials said. 

Dimitri Sinilnikov was caught in Pasadena as he was allegedly installing keystroke recording software that could capture computer users’ credit card numbers and other personal data, officials at the Pasadena campus said. 

Brian Marr, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said Tuesday he could not comment on what he called an ongoing investigation. 

The security alert was issued by the Secret Service along with the U.S. Department of Education. 

“The United States Secret Service has been investigating several nationwide computer intrusions/hacking incidents,” according to the alert issued by the agency. “The motives of the perpetrators and the number of computer systems compromised remains unknown.” 

At Arizona State University, a program was apparently installed that allows students’ credit card numbers, passwords and e-mail to be stolen, though it wasn’t known if any student accounts had been compromised, according to campus police. 

“It’s possible none of the information on the computers got into the wrong hands,” Lt. John Sutton of the ASU Department of Public Safety said last week. 

Hard drives were seized from 20 ASU computers in conjunction with a Secret Service investigation, Sutton said. 

The software secretly records keystrokes so that every action taken on a computer can be accessed by a remote hacker, Sutton said. Criminals could use the system to commit financial crimes, identity theft and sabotage, he said. 

Sutton wouldn’t say how the scam was linked to organized crime from the former Soviet Union. 

He also declined to identify suspects in the case. 

Programs apparently were installed on student-access computers at universities in Florida, Arizona, Texas and California. Sutton said he could not release the names of other universities conducting similar investigations. 

At ASU, the program was uploaded manually onto computers from floppy discs, officials said. 

There are more than 20,000 computer work stations at ASU, handling 2 million e-mails daily. Many of the computers are easily accessible to the public. 

The infected machines were identified by Internet protocol addresses, similar to fingerprints, which also linked to a computer in Russia. 

Technology administrators for the University of California system said the incidents they’ve been warned about were linked to Russian organized crime. The incidents are low-tech and not a threat to entire computer systems, administrators said. 

“It’s basically like rifling through one person’s mailbox and hoping a credit card is being sent at that time,” said Ross Stapleton-Gray of University of California technical services. 

“It is a pretty low-tech attack, but our people are on the lookout for it,” Stapleton-Gray said. 

LOS ANGELES — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon unveiled two new ads Tuesday that skewer Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’ aggressive fund-raising with bouncy music and skits meant to get a laugh. 

In one, two maids cleaning Davis’ office encounter nothing but cobwebs and piles of cash, and then the lights go out — a reference to the energy crisis. 

In the other, a schoolteacher is turned away from Davis’ office because she hasn’t brought money, while a man with a briefcase full of cash is ushered right in. A young boy with a piggy bank prompts Davis’ receptionist to sneer, “Keep saving, kid.” 

“There’s nothing more fun for someone in the media business than to poke fun at our opponent,” Simon strategist Sal Russo said in introducing the ad campaign at a Sacramento press conference. The two 30-second ads are scheduled to start airing Wednesday. 

Davis’ aides weren’t laughing. 

“They’re a fictional representation, much like the rest of Bill Simon’s allegations regarding the governor,” said Davis press secretary Roger Salazar. ”... I don’t think Californians will find much humor in lies and distortions.” 

Simon’s ads play on a vulnerability for the governor as he fights for re-election in November — the perception that he has made fund-raising a top priority even as the state faces a $23.6 billion budget deficit and continuing fallout from the energy crisis. 

Davis aides contend the governor actually spends little time fund-raising and point out he was not born wealthy like Simon. 

Davis’ fund-raising was the topic of Simon’s first attack ad, a more serious spot unveiled last week. Simon is also airing ads chiding Davis for going negative and launched an ad in Spanish on Spanish-language networks. 

Davis is airing negative spots attacking Simon’s business background as well as positive commercials about his own record. 

An ironic aspect of Simon attacking Davis over fund-raising is that Simon has not raised enough money to air even close to as many commercials as Davis.

SACRAMENTO — A bill that would force those seeking business from the state to register as lobbyists, more fully disclose their activities and limit the amount they spend entertaining officials, was introduced this week in response to California’s contract with the Oracle Corp. 

“All these consultants that have made a huge impact on our policy have this loophole where they are able to wine and dine legislators without having to report it,” said Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter. 

Legislative hearings on a state audit critical of the $95 million no-bid contract for database software revealed that Oracle’s lobbyist, Ravi Mehta, had a separate business contract with the company that qualified him for huge bonuses and allowed him to escape lobbying disclosure laws. 

Mehta asked for a $225,000 bonus from the company after the contract was signed. Documents produced by the committee, moreover, showed that Mehta sought reimbursement from Oracle for nearly $10,000 in expenses over the past year — mostly for “meetings” or dinners with state officials about the contract. 

Registered lobbyists are prohibited from receiving bonuses or spending more than $10 per month on a single state official. Companies that employ lobbyists are prohibited from spending more than $300 a year on all lunches, dinners and other gifts intended to influence state officials. 

Florez, who chaired the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that investigated the Oracle deal, said he introduced AB13 to force all those seeking state business to follow the lobbying guidelines. 

The bill allows company employees, such as the Oracle sales staff who sought the state’s business, to receive bonuses. Contractors, including lobbyists, would be barred from receiving bonuses.

Civil rights groups protest state’s handling of process 

MIAMI — Florida and five counties have reached a deadlock with civil rights groups who sued over the bitterly disputed 2000 presidential election, attorneys told a judge Tuesday. 

“As far as I’m concerned, this case is going to trial,” U.S. District Judge Alan Gold told the attorneys on both sides after they told him mediation had failed. “It’s disappointing, but it is what it is.” 

The two sides conferred with a mediator as late as Monday night, but Hillsborough County attorney Ray Allen told the judge, “It was the consensus of the group that we had reached impasse.” 

The NAACP and four other civil rights groups are suing over problems that they claim disenfranchised voters during the election that was later settled in the courts. President Bush won Florida by just 537 votes; its electoral votes gave him the presidency. 

The judge had stressed his desire in May to solve the election dispute in mediation. 

Lori Borgen, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the groups suing would like to keep talking with hopes of making progress. 

The civil rights groups want the judge to examine the way the state and counties drop voters, process voter registration applications and address changes, and assign precinct equipment and staffing. 

“We don’t think that what the state intends to do from this point forward will sufficiently protect voters,” Anita Hodgkiss, another Lawyers’ Committee attorney, said after the hearing. 

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission had harshly criticized the 2000 election in Florida. When the commission met last week in Miami to review the state’s election changes, chairwoman Mary Frances Berry said she had a feeling the Sept. 10 primary will be “a mini-disaster.” 

But Gold’s trial, set for Aug. 26, is not expected to affect the primary, in which a Democratic challenger to Gov. Jeb Bush will be selected. 

Settlements have been reached with Broward and Leon counties and Choicepoint Inc., a Georgia company that helped Florida develop a list for stripping people thought to be convicted felons from voting rolls. Settlement papers with Choicepoint haven’t yet been filed. 

The remaining defendants include the state and Miami-Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange and Volusia counties, covering the cities of Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando and Daytona Beach. 

The lawsuit and a separate court challenge to redistricting are the last major court fights likely to influence coming elections in Florida. 

The Justice Department is still reviewing the state’s new legislative boundary lines for compliance with the Voting Rights Act, which mandates that redistricting plans protect the voting power of minorities. The department has already approved the state’s new congressional redistricting.

NEW YORK — After analyzing six decades of expert research on corporal punishment, a psychologist says parents who spank their children risk causing long-term harm that outweighs the short-term benefit of instant obedience. 

The psychologist, Elizabeth Gershoff, found links between spanking and 10 negative behaviors or experiences, including aggression, anti-social behavior and mental health problems. The one positive result of spanking that she identified was quick compliance with parental demands. 

“Americans need to re-evaluate why we believe it is reasonable to hit young, vulnerable children, when it is against the law to hit other adults, prisoners, and even animals,” Gershoff writes in the new edition of the American Psychological Association’s bimonthly journal. 

Her analysis, one of the most comprehensive ever on the topic of spanking in America, was accompanied in the Psychological Bulletin by a critique from three other psychologists. 

They defend mild to moderate spanking as a viable disciplinary option, especially for children 2 to 6, but advise parents with abusive tendencies to avoid spanking altogether. 

Gershoff, a researcher at Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty, spent five years on her project, analyzing 88 studies of corporal punishment conducted since 1938. The studies tracked both the short- and long-term effects of spanking on children. 

Gershoff stopped short of endorsing a legal ban on parental corporal punishment, saying the United States was unlikely to emulate a group of European countries in taking that step. However, she urged parents who spank to reconsider their options. 

“When they’re in a situation where they’re considering spanking, think of something else to do — leave the room.”

On any given day, hundreds of people pass through Berkeley’s landmark Civic Center Park. 

Whether it’s city employees seeking respite from neighboring city buildings, students rollicking after class at nearby Berkeley High or homeless enjoying sunshine and a cup of coffee, the manicured lawn and century-old trees have provided a welcome escape from the busy pace of downtown. 

But beneath the park’s relatively carefree appearance, a sometimes contentious debate has been lingering. The debate concerns the future of Civic Center Park, and with more than $1 million poised for park improvements, several factions have been pushing special interests. 

The latest plea, in the form of a written challenge to the park’s environmental impact report, calls for preservation of an aging fountain. Two community groups have come together, waving a petition with more than two dozen signatures, criticizing city planners for not having considered a more authentic restoration plan for the parks’ defunct water element. 

While the fate of the fountain may seem like a small bone of contention, the issue pulls at the heart strings of not only preservationists but of a group of Native Americans who want a restored fountain to commemorate their ancestry. 

“This plan has been in place for 10 years,” said John Curl, a member of the city’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee. “As soon as money appeared, people have been coming out of the wood work with new plans.” 

In 1992, on the city-designated “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” then Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock held a tribute ceremony proclaiming that a “Turtle Island Monument” be created at Civic Center Park. 

After almost a decade of soliciting funds and exchanging ideas, a plan emerged calling for the park’s historic fountain to include commemorative sculptures of four turtles. According to a Native American myth, the turtle is a symbol of the American continent and of the origins of indigenous culture. 

Members of the Art Deco Society of California and Friends of the Civic Center, though, have taken issue with the placement of the mythic turtles. 

“This is a historic fountain... There are other locations for the turtles other than the fountain,” said Michael Crowe, a member of the Art Deco Society. “This plan would detract from the original design.” 

The preservation groups are appealing the city’s park plan on grounds that planners did not consider alternative locations for the turtles, hence violated the California Environmental Quality Act. The placement of a proposed children’s play area and chess tables is also being challenged by the groups. 

Planners, however, in the park’s environmental impact report concluded that “benefits of rehabilitating the Park, as proposed, outweigh the significant historic resource impacts identified because the project will repair the fountain and make it operational.” 

The preservationists’ appeal is now in the hands of Berkeley’s City Council, and a ruling on the matter is expected at tonight’s council meeting. 

Native American groups have taken the appeal personally. 

“The whole thing is incredibly shameful,” said Mark Gorrell, a member of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee. He likened opposition efforts to remove turtles from park plans to the removal of Native Americans from their native lands. 

Curl echoed the sentiment. 

“It seems they don’t want to give the Native American community the respect it deserves,” he said. “I think this is political. I just can’t believe that they’re doing this because they love old things so much.” 

Though members of the Friends of the Civic Center could not be reached for comment last night, the group has said before that it doesn’t oppose a Native American tribute, just its proposed location. 

On top of the preservationists’ appeal, the city has filed a separate appeal challenging some of the construction elements, like benches and paving areas, planned with the restoration. The challenge has so far not offended any groups and is not expected to delay the park’s planning process. 

“We’re appealing little details. We thought that since there’s already an appeal on file, we’d take this route as well,” said Lisa Caronna, city parks director. 

City Council is expected to make a decision on the city’s appeal tonight as well. 

Less contentious plans for Civic Center Park include improved landscaping, night lighting, additional benches, and an improved children’s play area. 

“Making this area a positive, friendly place to go is an important message of what Berkeley is about,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “This is the living room of City Hall.” 

Two’s better than one 

FRANKSVILLE, Wis. — Reigning kraut-eating champion Brenda Lashley brought a secret weapon to this year’s contest: She was eating for two. 

Lashley, who is seven months pregnant, gobbled down more than a pound of sauerkraut Sunday at the Kraut Festival in Franksville to claim her title as the women’s World Champion kraut eater. She took home a trophy and $100. 

“I just hope he likes it,” Lashley said of her unborn child, while admitting she’s not too fond of the food herself. 

Lashley has placed first, second or third in the women’s competition every year for the past 15 years. 

Her secret? 

“Don’t look up. Don’t look at the crowd.” 

She kept her face firmly planted in the plate of cured cabbage Sunday on the third and final day of the 52nd annual event. 

The festival originated in 1949 when Frank’s Kraut Company was the main industry in Franksville. Now called The Fremont Co., the company still supports the annual festival. 

How to explain? 

BELLEAIR SHORE, Fla. — The federal government has discovered life in this tiny Pinellas County town. 

Census officials had thought the place uninhabited, which was discouraging to the people who thought they lived here. But statistics released recently by the Census Bureau have corrected the earlier figures that showed a population of zero. 

The original calculations were odd considering that county voter rolls showed more than 90 registered voters. And Mayor John Robertson is quite sure there are 52 houses and four more being built. 

“I counted them,” he said. 

Now, the count is wrong in the other direction, Robertson said. Instead of the 52 houses Robertson counted, the amended census shows 63 houses — 15 of them vacant — and 75 people living in the waterfront town. 

Officials accounted for the original mistake by saying they had confused Belleair Shore with its neighbor Belleair Beach, giving the Shore’s residents to the Beach. 

Pot-toting braggart goes to jail 

CANTON, Ohio — A man who allegedly boasted to a passer-by while carrying a marijuana plant down the street ended up getting arrested by the man — a plainclothes police officer. 

“Would you believe I’m walking down the street in the middle of the day with this pot plant,” Daniel Fornash of Canton said as he walked down the street Thursday, according to police. 

The passer-by responded, “Would you believe I’m a cop?” 

Canton Detective Joe Mongold, who was returning from court, cited Fornash with misdemeanor charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana. 

Authorities said Fornash told police the marijuana had been growing in the front yard of a vacant house, where he had been nurturing it, and that he decided to dig it up and take it home. 

To the Editor: 

This letter is written in very strong support of the CARD project of Alameda County. The purpose of CARD is to strengthen emergency preparedness for our communities through outreach and training to community based organizations (CBOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs).  

I have been deeply involved in this field for many years and CARD has always been a strong and often singular voice in advocating for the needs of vulnerable populations in times of disaster. 

Given the role of CARD - to respond to, and advocate for, the needs of people who may be more vulnerable in a disaster because of age, disability, language or income - it becomes clear that CARD fills a very important gap in our communities.  

By working with traditional disaster response groups like the Red Cross and Office of Emergency Service, CARD improves the response to this population in emergencies and ensures that our more needy citizens are not forgotten in community disaster plans. 

In short, CARD is a vital resource in helping organizations serving persons who are homeless, elderly, disabled, in dependent care, etc., to plan for emergencies. CARD does this by sponsoring training programs and fostering mutual aid among CBOs.  

These efforts are critical to ensure that important services - e.g. daycare, home delivered meals, transportation, attendant support, residential care, etc. - will continue to our more at risk populations following a major disaster. 

CARD has built an award-winning model of community preparedness in Alameda County. In today’s context of heightened emergency planning it is critical that cost effective programs like the CARD project have the opportunity to continue to serve our communities and advocate for the citizens most at risk. I urge everyone interested in building a truly prepared community to support CARD of Alameda County. Thank you. 

Rob Stengel 

Berkeley

Tuesday, June 25

Vigil Opposing the Sanctions  

Against the People of Iraq 

12 p.m. 

Oakland Federal Building,1301 Clay Street 

548-4141 

Give Your Heart Wings 

7:15 to 9:30  

Ron Bedrick teaches opening the Heart to Love. 

The Center for Well Being,1420 South Main St.(at Newell) Walnut Creek 

heartwisdom@attglobal.net  

Donation: $20 (no one turned away)  

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Child Nutrition Advisory  

Committee meeting 

3:30 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High, Multi-Purpose Room, Derby/MLK  

Superintendent Michele Lawrence explains the $1 million Food Services Budget, why the cafeteria food has declined,  

and fresh food policy. 

Free 

Magic School Bus Festival 

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Video Adventures. Other events for kids take place every Wednesday through August 21. 

(510) 643-5961 

$8 for adults, $6 for ages 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Wednesday, June 26

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil 

6:30 pm 

BART Station, Shattuck & Center 

Weekly candle-lit vigil and peace walk to raise 

awareness and gather support for opposition to the 'war on terrorism' 

vigil4peace@yahoo.com, 528-9217 

Thursday, June 27

The Lost Spacecraft:  

Liberty Bell 7 Recovered 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland 

Preview new exhibit of resurrected 1961 spacecraft 

RSVP June 20, (415) 864-6397 or news@davidperry.com 

Speak Out Against Police Repression 

7 p.m.  

Defremery Park, 1651 Adeline St. West Oakland 

Jerald Smith from COPWATCH, Angela Rowen and Roger White from East Bay Uprising. Sponsored by East Bay Uprising 415-364-1870 or email ebuprising@yahoo.com 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A quit smoking class 

5:30-7:30 Thursday Evenings, June 6-July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street, (510) 981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Celebrate Queer Pride  

with fabulous FolkDivas 

8 p.m. 

Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St, Oakland  

Performers include: Helen Chaya, Eileen Hazel, and Marca Cassity. All Ages 

798-5456  

$6-10 sliding scale 

Paramount Movie Classics 

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

Standing in solidarity with Israeliand Palestinian women for an end to the occupation. 

548-6310, wibberkeley.org 

The Tao of Energy Medicine Workshop 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Upaya Center 478 Santa Clara Ave.  

Oakland 

www.upayacenter.org  

Free 

One Man's War Tour 

7 p.m.  

AK Press Warehouse 674-A 23rd St.-between MLK and San Pablo, Oakland  

Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba celebrates the release of his new CD. May contain live violence and sex. 

594-2329, satanicapache@hotmail.com, www.satanicapache.com 

FREE 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Friday, June 28 

Paramount Movie Classics 

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  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. $5 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids. 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Saturday, June 29

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m.- 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St., Berkeley 

Learn what your rights are and how to observe the police effectively and safely; hosted by Copwatch. 

For more information: 548-0425 

Free 

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

Disaster First Aid: Learn to apply  

basic first aid techniques. 

981-5605 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Stanford Jazz Festival,  

June 29-August 10

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m. kids 8-12, Campbell Recital Hall  

Stanford Campus  

Early Bird jazz for kids and families  

with Jim Nadel & Friends. 

Free 

Maybeck High School  

30th anniversary  

6 p.m. to 10 p.m.  

Piedmont Community Hall  

711 Highland Ave. Piedmont 

Call 841-8489 for reservations 

Tuesday, July 2

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, Suite 320  

Oakland.A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

533-1747, ext. 12. 

Saturday, July 6

Capoeira Batizado 

2-6 p.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison, Berkeley 

A celebration of Capoeira with  

performances by local arts organization. 

For information: 666-1255 

Free 

Saturday, July 6 - 

Sunday, July 21 

Marin Classic Theatre 

presents "Born Yesterday" 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sunday matinee; 7 p.m. Sundays 

A bittersweet comedy by  

Garson Kanin. 

For information: (415) 892-8551 or 

www.MCTheatre.com 

$18 evening performances, $15 matinee 

Thursday, July 11

Great Sierra Backpacking Destinations 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo  

Karen Najarian of Sierra Wilderness Seminars presents slides from her more that 20 years exploring the Sierra Backcountry. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Saturday, July 13

Peach / Stone Fruit Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

15th Anniversary Derby Street  

Farmers Market 

Live music and & stone-fruit and peach tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Festival of New Versions  

of Classic Asian Games 

Noon to 5 p.m 

Dr Comics and Mr Games, 4014 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland  

Dr Comics and Mr Games Hosts Game a festival featuring two new versions of classic Asian board games 

601-7800 

Sunday, July 14

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician basic bike repairs such as brake adjustments and fixing a flat. 

More information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore health concerns in a family oriented environment 

Free 

Tuesday, July 16

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church,  

941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with  

other photographers 

525-3565 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Mystique of the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Phil Arnot presents slides from over 50 years of exploring such places as Alaska, New Zealand, the Sierra and the Rockies. 

For information: 527-4140 

Saturday, July 20

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

Earthquake Retrofitting: Learn how to strengthen your wood frame home. 

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

812 Page Street 

981-5605 

Free 

Thursday, July 25

California Landscapes: A  

Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

John Karachewski presents an educational slide show on such amazing places as the Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges the Great Valley and Cascades 

For information: 527- 4140. 

Free

WIMBLEDON, England — Back home on Centre Court at the All England Club, Pete Sampras served just like Pete Sampras. 

And, rather out of character, so did Andre Agassi. 

Both won straight-set openers at Wimbledon, as did Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati and every other top player in action Monday. Indeed, the day’s only significant surprise was the beautiful weather: temperatures in the 70s with nary a rain cloud. 

Casting aside the better part of two years’ worth of poor play and a rib strain that put his participation in doubt, seven-time champion Sampras swatted 27 aces and 40 other winners in defeating Martin Lee of Britain 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-3. 

Sampras hasn’t won a title since Wimbledon in 2000, a drought of 29 tournaments, and entered with a 16-13 match record this year, including a French Open first-round loss. 

Once again, though, grass gave his game a lift. 

“You step out on Centre Court, it’s like Mecca out there,” said Sampras, who at No. 6 has his lowest seeding here in 11 years. “The U.S. Open, French Open — those are great events, but Centre Court at Wimbledon, there’s something very special whenever you step out there. 

“I feel like I kind of came back home today.” 

Others winning comfortably included No. 2-seeded Marat Safin, No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and No. 7 Jelena Dokic. U.S. players went 13-5, with No. 11 Andy Roddick and No. 29 James Blake advancing when opponents quit, citing illness, while trailing. 

Adding to the predictability was Anna Kournikova’s fourth straight first-round exit from a tourney. 

She battled but lost 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to 21st-seeded Tatiana Panova. Then Kournikova snapped at a BBC-TV interviewer’s query about her confidence, saying, “I just don’t think you should phrase the question that way,” and asking that the taped segment start over. The network aired the whole scene. 

Four lower-seeded players lost: No. 19 Juan Ignacio Chela, No. 21 Max Mirnyi, No. 24 Alexandra Stevenson (a 1999 semifinalist), and No. 31 Nicole Pratt. 

With neither men’s finalist from the previous year back for the first time since 1931, organizers asked Sampras to open the tournament on Centre Court. Because of the injury he picked up over the weekend, Sampras asked to start Tuesday. 

The best Wimbledon could do was let him play third Monday. 

So 1992 champion Agassi was given the honor of unwrapping the main court, and he was superb in topping Harel Levy 6-0, 6-4, 6-4. 

Agassi is seeded third as he tries to set a Wimbledon record for most years between singles titles. 

“If you could only win one, you’d be crazy not to pick this one,” said Agassi, who took the first set in 18 minutes. “On top of that, it’s just a big accomplishment for me to still be out here contending 10 years later.” 

He’s chasing his eighth major title, second among active players to Sampras’ record 13, and is one of just five players with a career Grand Slam. 

Against Levy, Agassi returned serve well, as always, and hit strokes at all the right angles from steps inside the baseline. 

That’s his style. 

More impressively, Agassi summoned someone else’s playbook: He fired 16 aces, sometimes a week’s worth for him, and won the point on 14 of 16 trips to the net. 

When told of his serving proficiency, Agassi laughed, saying: “Wow, serving big! Sometimes I can get streaky with my first serve. But I don’t count on those aces — I’m looking to move the ball around.” 

How one-sided was the match? 

Levy raised his arms in self-mocking triumph after winning his first game. Later, a fan’s yell of, “Come on, Levy, you can do it,” drew loud laughter from other spectators. 

French Open champion Williams followed on Centre Court and was nearly perfect for the 42 minutes it took to overpower Evie Dominikovic of Australia 6-1, 6-1. 

Amazingly, Williams had 20 winners to one unforced error. 

On Tuesday, her older sister Venus opens her quest to become the first woman to win three straight Wimbledon titles since Steffi Graf in 1991-93. Venus faces Jane O’Donoghue of Britain. 

“We both have to stay focused,” Serena said, “because we’re the people to beat now.” 

They’ve won six of the past 11 majors, and met in the finals at two of the past three. With Venus seeded No. 1, and Serena No. 2, they could make Wimbledon another Sister Slam. 

The player given the best chance of thwarting that is No. 3 Capriati, who’s won three of the past six Grand Slam tournaments and reached the semis at the others. 

Just to clarify the warmth of her relationship with the Williams sisters, Capriati said: “We don’t go and have tea together, that’s for sure.” 

She pulled out a 6-1, 6-4 victory over 41st-ranked Slovakian Janette Husarova almost despite herself, with six double faults and 24 unforced errors to 16 winners. 

Sampras was hardly perfect against the left-handed Lee. 

He had 13 double faults and seemed slow to the net occasionally. At some junctures, including when Lee wasted eight break points in Sampras’ first two service games, Sampras was fortunate to be facing a 116th-ranked player who’s won one of 15 matches in 2002. 

Still, Sampras was saved by his serve, which consistently neared 130 mph. 

A quick glimpse at why he’s been so dominant on grass — winning 56 of 57 matches at Wimbledon before being upset in the fourth round last year — came during a few service games Monday: 

— Ace, ace, ace, second-serve ace. 

— Service winner, service winner, ace, ace. 

— Ace, double fault, ace, ace, service winner. 

“There were times today that I felt my serving was unhittable,” he said. “I felt like there were spurts I did play at a pretty high level. But there were spurts I was playing careless.” 

He tracked down a half-dozen drop shots and pronounced the rib injury “a non-issue.” 

“As long as I’m still in,” he said, “I’m a big threat.” 

Notes: The records for time between titles: Evonne Goolagong’s overall mark of nine years (1971, 1980), and Jimmy Connors’ men’s mark of eight (1974, 1982). ... The only other past men’s champion in the field is 1996 winner Richard Krajicek. Playing just his second match since November 2000 because of right elbow surgery, Krajicek beat Franco Squillari 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (5). 

Two weeks ago, the Board of Education voted 4-1 to ask voters for a pay raise from $875 to $1,500 per month. Tonight, the City Council will decide whether to put the request on the November ballot. 

But, as Berkeley ponders pay raises for the school board, a small group of community activists say the city should think about adding a new layer of accountability as well. 

Parent Yolanda Huang, a frequent critic of the district, is leading a push for a full-time, independent auditor, who would not only review the troubled district’s books but also conduct periodic performance reviews of various administrators and school programs. 

Huang said she will ask the City Council to place the issue on the November ballot in the coming weeks. 

Proponents say an independent auditor, similar to the City Auditor, would help to right a troubled ship and restore public confidence in the school system. But critics say the proposal is unnecessary and would be far too costly for a district that faces an estimated $2.8 million deficit next year. 

Furthermore, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said it is unclear if the Huang measure, which calls for an amendment to the city charter, is legal. The city has the right to set compensation for school board members, she said, but it may not have the power to intervene in the “internal affairs” of the school district. 

Independent auditors are in place in two-thirds of city governments around the country, but in only a handful of large school districts, according to Mark Funkhouser, City Auditor for Kansas City and author of a dissertation on independent auditing. 

Critics of Huang’s proposal say it is not only expensive but redundant. A state advisor called the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team has been working in the district since October, and under a piece of legislation authored by state Rep. Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, the organization would remain in place until 2005. 

“At the present time, the district can ill-afford to hire an auditor, especially when the county and the state, through FCMAT, are already providing these services,” said school board President Shirley Issel. 

School board member Ted Schultz said the district should have the opportunity to correct its problems, with FCMAT’s assistance, before considering an independent auditor. 

Nancy Riddle, a school board candidate who serves on the district’s budget advisory committee, agreed that an independent auditor might be redundant while FCMAT is in place. But she said the office would be useful once FCMAT leaves. 

“People are looking for some sort of checks and balances that will be a permanent part of how we do business,” Riddle said. 

She said voters might even be willing to dedicate a small portion of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project, a special local tax, to the independent auditor. Such a provision, which would have to be approved in the next voter reauthorization of BSEP, would avoid funding concerns for the district. 

But critics say an auditor is not needed.  

District spokesperson Marian Magid said that the district already makes use of “many kinds of audits.” Magid cited, among others, the work of a series of parent advisory committees, the critiques of the high school offered by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a regional accrediting organization, and an annual financial audit, required by law, by an outside accounting firm. 

But supporters of the independent auditor say the annual financial review is not enough. Riddle, a former auditor, noted that in the past, outside firms have signed off on a payroll system that, at one point last year, issued some employees double-pay. She said a full-time independent auditor could look at the budget more closely. 

PTA Council President and school board candidate Derick Miller added that, while auditing firms look at the numbers, an independent auditor could move beyond “financial auditing” to “performance auditing,” examining individual programs to see whether they are serving students. 

“A straight financial audit simply tells you whether or not the financial statements are presented fairly,” added Mark Funkhouser, the Kansas City auditor. “It doesn’t tell you anything about how well the money was spent.” 

But Magid said the district reviews program effectiveness every year in applying for state and federal grants.  

Issel said the annual financial review and a host of other consultants over the years have provided the district with plenty of information on both the larger financial picture and individual programs and issues. She said the real issue is that the leadership has not had the will to address the problems identified by the consultants. 

“Absent that, no safeguard is going to work,” she said. 

City Council members reached by the Planet Monday had not extensively reviewed the idea of an independent district auditor, but said they were open to it if it passed legal muster. 

In September, Berkeley City Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Planet and two other area newspapers calling for a “performance audit” of Berkeley Unified. Hogan could not be reached for comment Monday. 

On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of an unofficial, non-denominational prayer in New York State public schools was unconstitutional. 

On this date: 

In 1788, the state of Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution. 

In 1876, Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. 

In 1942, some 1,000 British Royal Air Force bombers raided Bremen, Germany, during World War II. 

In 1950, war broke out in Korea as forces from the communist North invaded the South. 

In 1951, the first commercial color telecast took place as CBS transmitted a one-hour special from New York to four other cities. 

In 1967, the Beatles performed their new song, “All You Need Is Love,” during a live international telecast. 

In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean began testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee. 

In 1991, the western Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence. 

In 1995, Warren Burger, the 15th chief justice of the United States, died in Washington at age 87. 

In 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia. 

Ten years ago: Both houses of Congress rushed to pass a back-to-work order ending a national rail strike. (President George H.W. Bush signed it June 26.) The space shuttle Columbia, carrying seven astronauts, blasted off on a two-week mission. 

Five years ago: An unmanned cargo ship crashed into Russia’s Mir space station, knocking out half of the station’s power and rupturing a pressurized laboratory. The Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, designed to limit government’s ability to regulate religious practices. Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau died in Paris at age 87. 

One year ago: The United Nations opened its first global gathering on HIV/AIDS with emotional pleas for help from African leaders. Pope John Paul II, on a visit to Ukraine, offered a prayer for Holocaust victims at Babi Yar. 

Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Sidney Lumet is 78. Actress June Lockhart is 77. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Floyd is 67. Actress Barbara Montgomery is 63. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Willis Reed is 60. Singer Carly Simon is 57. Rock musician Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult) is 56. Rock musician Ian McDonald (Foreigner; King Crimson) is 56. Actor-comedian Jimmie Walker is 55. Actor-director Michael Lembeck is 54. TV personality Phyllis George is 53. Rock singer Tim Finn is 50. Rock musician David Paich (Toto) is 48. Rock singer George Michael is 39. Rapper-producer Richie Rich is 35. Rapper Candyman is 34. Musician Sean Kelly (Sixpence None the Richer) is 31. Rock musician Mario Calire (Wallflowers) is 28. Actress Linda Cardellini is 27. 

To the Editor: 

For years and years, Saint John's Neighbors (a neighborhood watch group that is mostly elderly long-term Berkeley residents) has been writing to Berkeley City Council members, to Berkeley's Police Chiefs, to Berkeley's City Managers, to everyone who we thought might help us. 

For years and years, Saint John's Neighbors has worried that elderly pedestrians, handicapped pedestrians, and children are put in danger by the lawlessness of drivers in Berkeley, where there is almost no enforcement of speed limits or other road-use laws.  

Now, unfortunately, two elderly pedestrians have been killed in just the manner that we have worried about for so long.  

For years and years, Saint John's Neighbors has asked “How many pedestrians have to be killed before the City of Berkeley will take our complaints seriously?” 

Are two more totally-unnecessary deaths enough deaths to prod this Berkeley City Council to do what is moral, right, and legal? 

We hope that those members of this Berkeley City Council who are wasting precious resources (time, energy, money, etc.) on foreign policy issues and/or trying to interfere with the function of international free markets will, finally, pay attention to the business of governing the City of Berkeley. 

Anne Marselis  

Secretary  

Saint John's Neighbors  

(A neighborhood watch group  

of long-term Berkeley residents, mostly pedestrians.)

YOKOHAMA, Japan — On the eve of the semifinals, variations on the American cry “We wuz robbed!” litter the World Cup landscape. They cast suspicion on everyone packing a whistle and threaten to turn this event into another Olympic-scale figure-skating officiating mess. 

No one has asked FIFA to begin smelting another of those 9-pound gold trophies — yet. But no sooner did the overheated Italian newspapers stop calling for the heads of referees than the Spanish papers started. 

Funny, isn’t it, how winners never need excuses and losers never come up with enough? 

After South Korea made Spain its third prominent European victim, the headline “Robbery” bannered every Madrid-based daily, from ABC on the right to the El Pais on the left. For once, at least, both sides of the political spectrum went to the same well for material. 

Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter is fighting accusations of corruption inside his regime, but he, too, found time to rip his own refs. 

“A disaster,” he called some linesmen, describing the officiating as “the only negative aspect of this World Cup.” 

Chimed in Pele, the most respected name the game has known, “the level of referees is very poor, very low.” 

Hard as that might be to argue, the officials have nothing on the parties they’ve supposedly harmed. 

Just hours after South Korean forward Ahn Jung-hwan headed home the winner against Italy, the owner of Italian team Perugia ordered Ahn to find another team for next season. Italian TV network RAI, meanwhile, is exploring a lawsuit against FIFA, contending negligence in selecting the referees. As if the point needed reinforcement, fans of the Azzuri zipped off 400,000 irate — and worse — e-mails to soccer’s worldwide governing body. 

One, recalled FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper, “suggested I perish as rapidly as possible.” 

In an admirably measured response, Cooper said “referees are only human.” 

“If the game was organized in a machinelike way, it would no longer be so interesting, and would you continue to be in love with the game if it was run like a machine? Would you continue to be in love with your wife or girlfriend if she were run like a machine?” 

Added Cooper afterward, “I thought that was a line that might appeal to most Italians.” 

Apparently, it didn’t translate well into Spanish. 

The chief of Spain’s federation resigned Sunday from FIFA’s referee committee in protest, and columnist Daniel Arcucci of the normally reserved Argentine daily La Nacion described himself “shaking with anger” when he demanded the World Cup “should be annulled right now, declared null and void ... everything will be shrouded in doubt and suspicion.” 

Conspiracies abound, and the most popular is that co-host South Korea benefitted from home-cooked refereeing because FIFA wanted an Asian team in the semifinals for the first time. 

Portugal, the first of the three overrated, underprepared European powers exposed by the hardworking Red Devils, flashed the conspiracy card when its players returned home to disgruntled fans waiting at the airport. 

Italy and Spain showed similar hands after succumbing in the cauldron of South Korea’s stadiums packed by red-shirted fans. 

To be fair, the officiating has been terrible in stretches. Italy claims at least five goals disallowed over the course of three games because of bad calls and missed ones. Spain contends it lost three goals against Korea in its quarterfinal defeat alone. Replays show several of the claims have merit. 

But isn’t that what separates soccer from the other sports? It’s supposed to be less about justice than accepting fate and the hard circumstances of life. It’s why goals are so precious and grievances so long-lasting, why errors by everybody involved are part of the folklore of the game. 

It’s why the mention of Englishman Geoff Hurst’s “Wembley goal” inspires disgust in Germans nearly 40 years later. And Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal for Argentina in 1986 is still discussed in resigned tones by the Englishmen whose hopes it shattered. 

And so perhaps it’s no coincidence that all of the semifinalists — Germany, which plays South Korea; and Brazil and Turkey, who play each other for the second time in the tournament — have already been embroiled in officiating controversies of their own. 

The Germans advanced with a 1-0 quarterfinal victory over the United States, but not before defender Torsten Frings was accused of using his left arm to stop Gregg Berhalter’s header from crossing the goal line. 

No penalty kick was awarded, but veteran German goalkeeper and captain Oliver Kahn warned teammates not to get rattled if the same play is called the other way Tuesday night in Seoul. 

“We may have one or two refereeing decisions against us. That’s normal,” Kahn said. “It’s called advantage. We must not let it demoralize us.” 

——— 

Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org 

The 33,000 member student body of UC Berkeley has long been rallying for representation on City Council, and this November Zoning Adjustment Board member Andy Katz wants to be the one to bring it home for them. 

The 22-year-old Katz turned in his letter of intent with the Berkeley City Clerk’s office on Monday afternoon for District 8 — currently occupied by Councilmember Polly Armstrong who has chosen to not seek re-election — thus making him the third official candidate for the seat.  

He will be joined in the November race by Chair of the Peace and Justice Commission Anne Wagley and Planning Commissioner Gordon Wozniak. Wozniak has received the endorsement of outgoing Councilmember Armstrong. 

Landmark Preservation Commissioner Becky O’Malley is also rumored to have designs on the soon-to-be vacated seat. 

Katz, who graduated from UC Berkeley last Spring and plans to attend graduate school here, said that what District 8 needs is a councilmember who understands the concerns of all the residents and one who is responsive to the unique issues that students bring forward. 

“City Council really needs a Councilmember who will stand up for all the people and tackle the issues that really matter,” Katz said, adding that in his opinion transportation, affordable housing and public safety are top tier issues for council to address 

In terms of public safety Katz said he’s immediately concerned with disaster preparedness and crime. 

“We also need a councilmember in District 8 who will listen and bring council together,” he added. 

Last January City Council went through a redistricting process that increased the number of students in District 8. Prior to the redistricting process, student leaders had complained that their voting power had been diluted over several districts, making it statistically impossible for them to gain their own representative on council.  

Student leaders like Katz and Josh Fryday, vice president of external affairs of the Associated Students of the University of California have said in the past that it is very important for students to be represented by one of their own on City Council.  

Katz and Wagley both acknowledge that a big issue facing the city is the growing rift between the university and the city.  

In addition, both candidates say they are deeply concerned with development and the impacts on the neighborhoods of District 8. 

“Where the rubber really hits the road is about city projects and how they are impacting the neighborhoods in terms of traffic and shadowing,” Katz said.  

Katz does not agree with a proposed height initiative, which proponents contend is a tool to stop the “overdevelopment” of Berkeley, but he says that as a Zoning Adjustment Boardmember he is deeply concerned and experienced in dealing with land sue and development issues. 

“But the practical implications of the height initiative is that it undermines the general plan and requires a ‘super-majority’ on city council to get things done,” Katz said. 

He also stated that despite criticism from some saying there are a lot of students who care deeply about the city of Berkeley and who choose to hang around after they graduate and who want to participate in the city. And he thinks that he will increase voter participation across the board in the November election. 

For Wagley, the top order of business will be facing the city’s multi-million dollar deficit. She says she brings a variety of experiences and skills to get the job done. 

“I love this city. I love our neighborhood, and I think I can do a really good job on our city council,” Wagley said. “My legal background and my business experience would be a needed addition to our city council. I’ve done a variety of different things and have a variety of experiences I think will be an asset to council.” 

Among her many experiences Wagley listed working for the United Nations as part of field staff overseeing an asylum in Hong Kong were more than 24,000 Vietnamese were being held. In addition, she said she’s worked for various nonprofits in funds development. 

She stresses that the biggest priority for the city will be “Managing the budget deficit which is going to impact every program across the board. It’s got to be done wisely and fairly,” Wagley said.  

On July 15 nominations officially open where hopefuls must clarify their qualifications for running for council and also present the signatures of 20 Berkeley citizens who endorse their candidacy — nominations close on August 14. 

To the Editor: 

I was surprised and very displeased to learn that the City has been paying out $25,000 to the feral cat rescuers to maintain the feral cats in our neighborhoods (6/19).  

We've had feral cats defecating in our garden and killing birds for the 15 years we have lived here. We did not have this situation in other cities where we've lived. As we get a great deal of enjoyment from watching the birds in our garden, we do not appreciate finding piles of their feathers, not to mention remains of young birds as they are learning to fly.  

Of course we cannot even know what other species of ground-dwelling wildlife, such as garter snakes, lizards and frogs, might inhabit our garden if there were not the relentless pressure from these human-provided predators. I value and enjoy wild animals very much, and am frustrated that I cannot prevent their predation by cats in my own yard. 

I also find it difficult to enjoy gardening, cutting flowers or harvesting vegetables with cat feces lying about, covered by flies and the smell pervading the area. The cat-feeding people near here love to put out food, but they have yet to rush over to shovel cat feces out of my garden. For some reason, their right to feed any and all cats outdoors supercedes my right to a cat-and-poop-free garden. 

How responsible are these so-called cat-rescuers? Do they make sure that their charges receive regular health care after they are neutered and released?  

Do they protect them from cars, dogs, fleas, and internal parasites, or is this inconvenient? Are we talking about real pet ownership, or superficial feel-good behavior, basically leaving these animals exposed to danger, disease and fending for themselves most of the time? It is not surprising that outdoor cats have a life span about one fifth that of indoor cats. So much for saving ferals from an early death. 

I want to say to the cat-rescuers: there is not just one valuable animal in town. Why are you so blind to all the animals that cats injure, torture, and kill (namely, everything smaller than themselves)? Are these others not warm and furry enough? Should children learn that it is only domestic animals that deserve appreciation and protection? Cats can make fine pets and need not harm wildlife or become injured if they are kept indoors or in a frequently maintained outdoor enclosure. Besides rescuing, how about teaching yourselves a type of pet ownership responsibility that extends beyond your own needs to include the rest of the human community? 

By the way, there must be hundreds of less destructive uses for twenty five grand in this city. How about some new tire tubes for the neighborhood kids' bikes or a basketball hoop for them? Some bird feed? 

Karen Klitz 

Berkeley 

SAN FRANCISCO — The Blind Boys of Alabama have recorded nearly two dozen albums and are now in their 70s. But it is their most recent release, “Spirit of the Century,” that has brought wider fame and scores of new fans. 

The album has sold nearly 125,000 copies worldwide since its release in April 2001, and this year won the Blind Boys their first Grammy, for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. They are touring all year, and have a new album, “Higher Ground,” due out in September. 

The Blind Boys have always been men on a mission. 

“This is a gospel show,” front-man Clarence Fountain said before a recent concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore. “We’ve been doing this all our lives. We’re trying to get a message out and the message is that everyone should turn to the Lord.” 

After a string of hits in the 1950s, including “Oh, Lord Stand by Me,” and “I Can See Everybody’s Mother But I Can’t See Mine,” the Blind Boys were urged by their manager, Bumps Blackwell, to switch from gospel to more mainstream rock or R&B. 

They refused, preferring to spread gospel to new listeners. 

“You’re always going to have people who are curious,” says Fountain. “All types of people come to the shows and you’re hoping to reach them.” 

The Blind Boys began singing together at the Talledega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in 1939. Fountain, Jimmy Carter and George Scott — the three surviving members of the original group of seven — met as students in Alabama, learning to read music in Braille and singing in the glee club. They called themselves the Happy Land Jubilee Singers, and performed at churches and social functions. 

After school, they turned professional. 

“The plan was to go out and do what you can and hope to become famous,” Fountain said. 

The Blind Boys’ success in the South led to a recording deal with Art Rupe’s legendary Los Angeles-based Specialty Records, an R&B and gospel powerhouse that featured Little Richard and Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke. 

Members have come and gone, but Fountain says the Blind Boys always stick to songs with Christian themes, or ones that could be interpreted as such. Women, drinking and carousing — all traditional blues fare — are out. 

That didn’t seem to matter to the pot-smoking, mostly fortysomething, nearly all-white crowd at the San Francisco concert. 

“We’re singing with inspiration from on high,” said Fountain. “Everything we do comes from the Lord. We do things that are appealing to the Lord, we think.” 

Fountain, who lives in Baton Rouge, La., and Carter, who lives in Sacramento, were backed by a six-piece band that played on their Grammy-winning album. Although arthritis forced Fountain to sit while singing, his energy was infectious. Scott, who lives in North Carolina, no longer travels with the band. 

The album features a blend of traditional gospel and contemporary blues. Versions of the Rolling Stones’ “Just Wanna See His Face,” Ben Harper’s “Give a Man a Home” and Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole” fit comfortably alongside classics like “Motherless Child,” and “Amazing Grace” set to the melody of “House of the Rising Sun.” 

The project grew out of a 1998 collaboration between veteran bluesman John Hammond and the Blind Boys, who performed “Motherless Child” while on tour together. 

“Spirit of the Century” is “a combination of old techniques, old material with a modern sensibility,” says the Blind Boys’ manager, Charles Driebe. 

Hammond and harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite are among the guest musicians on the album. 

Musselwhite grew up on gospel in Memphis, Tenn. and first heard the Blind Boys in the 1950s. 

“I just love those guys,” he said. “Whenever I listen to them I get goosebumps. Their singing is always great. They have so much soul and feeling.” 

CHICAGO — Darryl Kile of the St. Louis Cardinals likely died from a blockage of a coronary artery, Cook County’s chief medical examiner said. 

An autopsy showed the 33-year-old pitcher had ”80-to-90 percent narrowing of two of the three branches of the coronary artery,” Dr. Edmund Donoghue said Sunday. He said the blockage was the “likely cause of death.” 

Kile was found dead in the team hotel Saturday. Police said there were no signs of forced entry or foul play. 

Donoghue said Kile had dinner with his brother, Daniel, on Friday night and had complained of shoulder pain and feeling weak. 

Donoghue said a final finding on the cause of death could take 4-to-6 weeks because he wants to study toxicology reports. He gave no indication that drugs or illegal substances were involved. 

“The complete results are pending,” Donoghue said. 

Donoghue also said “possible marijuana” was found in the hotel room, but added, “I want to make it very clear it had nothing to do with his death.” 

Kile’s heart condition, called coronary atherosclerosis, is commonly known as hardening of the arteries. 

Kile’s father died shortly after a heart attack in his mid-40s in 1993. 

SAN JOSE – Federal authorities are investigating claims that Sun Microsystems Inc. favored U.S.-based foreign workers over American citizens during a recent round of layoffs. 

The Justice and Labor departments launched their probes after a complaint filed in April by Guy Santiglia, who lost his Sun engineering job in October along with 3,900 other employees. 

Santiglia, 36, said the Unix server giant favored holders of H-1B visas because those engineers may be paid less.

LOS ANGELES — Word by word, one outlet after another, Tavis Smiley is building an empire of talk. 

He’s talking on radio: “The Tavis Smiley Show” launched in January on National Public Radio and is heard on a growing number of stations. He’s a regular on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” and has his own “The Smiley Report,” both nationally syndicated. 

He’s talking on television: Smiley appears regularly on CNN’s “Inside Politics” and “TalkBack Live” and on ABC’s “Primetime Thursday” and “Good Morning America.” He has a deal with Disney for a syndicated talk show. 

He’s talking to readers: He’s written and edited books, including “How to Make Black America Better,” and publishes “The Smiley Report,” a quarterly magazine. 

Through his nonprofit Tavis Smiley Foundation, which includes a Web site, conferences and newsletter, he’s talking to young people. 

Just what does Smiley have to gab about? Anything and everything that grabs him, with an emphasis on issues that touch the lives of black Americans. 

But let him tell it. Even after starting at 3 a.m. for his NPR show’s East Coast airing, even with giveaway dark circles under his eyes, Smiley launches into an energetic job description for a visitor to his Los Angeles offices. 

“Enlighten, encourage, empower people” is the goal, says Smiley. His rush of words has a preacher’s cadence, testimony to the hours he spent in church in Kokomo, Ind., where his mother is a minister. 

The pulpit that Smiley, 37, has found for himself requires that he balance his dual roles as journalist and commentator, as well as his two audiences: black listeners and listeners in general. 

His public radio newsmagazine, for instance, is NPR’s effort to meet the needs of about 38 black-oriented stations, many of which are connected to traditionally black colleges such as Morgan State University in Maryland. 

NPR had long been contemplating such a venture. They snapped up Smiley after he left his Black Entertainment Television talk show in a dispute over an interview he sold to ABC (“a godsend” is how Smiley describes his departure). 

Smiley has quickly become a valuable part of NPR, said the network’s president and chief executive officer Kevin Klose. 

“This man’s presence, his charm, his humor about life and his thoughtfulness about the human condition, in a universal sense, is immediately affecting to listeners,” Klose said. 

He added that Smiley has an impressive bank of sources. 

Among Smiley’s NPR reports: a look at whether diversity can be found in newsrooms, and how film depicts black-white “buddy” relationships. He has interviewed prominent blacks including basketball great Magic Johnson and Princeton professor Cornel West. 

While he refuses to dilute his show’s black perspective, Smiley says he wants to appeal to non-black listeners. Trying to include a variety of voices, he featured Microsoft magnate Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton among his early guests. 

His newsmagazine is gaining ground beyond its black-station core, with NPR outlets in Seattle, Philadelphia and New York among those who have added it. 

(The show stumbled in Los Angeles. A station that was interrupting the popular “Morning Edition” to air Smiley dropped him because of viewer complaints. He is heard on KPCC, another NPR station in the area.) 

Smiley’s goal at NPR is to make news by breaking news, he said. His goal with his separate radio commentary is to stir things up. 

“What is it of all the issues I have in front of me that I could discuss? What are these black folk most likely not to hear if they don’t hear it from me?” he said he asks himself each day. 

Consider the recent indictment of singer R. Kelly on child pornography charges. Smiley’s approach to the story included a caution to listeners that Kelly “does not deserve a ’ghetto pass’ just because he’s black, like a get-out-of-jail-free card.” 

“I try to push stuff out there that makes us think,” said Smiley. 

His boldness has given him star status among black audiences: An uproar greeted his firing from BET. 

While Smiley reaches out to a new audience he can’t be accused of losing touch with his fan base. He lives and works in a largely black section of Los Angeles and not just, he says, because Beverly Hills was beyond his financial reach. 

To create a headquarters for his various enterprises, he took a dilapidated, graffiti-smeared building and transformed it into an elegant space filled with modern art and African artifacts (a design buff, Smiley picked the look himself). 

The office is a way to illustrate a point. “I wanted people in the community to see we could take what was old and ugly and fix it up,” he said. 

A valuable picture. But can it be worth more than a thousand words to Smiley? 

“One day when I was about 3 or 4, I was running my mouth at a family gathering,” he recounted. “My aunt said to me, ’Boy, do you ever shut up? Why do you talk so much?’ 

“I shot right back, ’Because I’ve got a lot to say.’ All these years later, I’ve still got a lot to say.”

LOS ANGELES — Slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl left behind a legacy of truth and compassion that was enough to fill with pride anyone who ever came in contact with him, his parents said Monday night in their first interview since his death. 

Pearl’s father, Judea, and his mother, Ruth, made their remarks on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” where they also discussed a book of Pearl’s Journal stories they are bringing out and a foundation being created to honor his memory. 

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal disappeared Jan. 23 in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, while researching links between Pakistani militants and shoe-bombing suspect Richard C. Reid. A grisly videotape received Feb. 22 by U.S. diplomats in Karachi showed Pearl dead. 

Three things summed up Pearl’s personality, his father, Judea Pearl, told King: “Truth, compassion and creativity.” 

He added that he was not surprised by the public attention given to his son’s murder and kidnapping. 

“There were two factors here. One, he was a unique individual. And second, the circumstances under which he died were a sort of magnifying glass to amplify Danny and his character. Put the two factors together and I’m not surprised that the public is so moved,” said Pearl, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Trial began in April in Hyderabad, Pakistan, for four men accused of playing a role in Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. Besides the men on trial, police are seeking seven others in connection with the kidnap and killing.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, — More than 250,000 people turned out Sunday for the 32nd annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade and Celebration. 

Among the 134 parade entries were local law enforcement personnel who paraded behind a banner reading, “Gay & Lesbian Peace Officers -- serving with pride.” 

“I think it really shows how far we’ve come,” said Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief David Kalish. “As you can see, there are literally 50, 100 gay cops in the parade.” 

The parade was led by grand marshals Peter Paige, of the Showtime cable television series, “Queer as Folk,” and Doris Roberts, of the CBS series “Everybody Loves Raymond.” 

SACRAMENTO — Years of persistent lobbying by high-technology leaders have led California’s tax board to give tentative approval to a $30 million tax break in software sales taxes at a time when the state faces a more than $23 billion budget shortfall. 

Though the proposal has received little public attention, it has caught the attention of budget-cutting lawmakers who are spending endless hours slashing everything from aid to the elderly to child abuse prevention programs. 

Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said his legislative budget committee is not in a position where they can afford additional tax breaks. 

“Every decision which impacts our budget in a negative way has to be looked at carefully, because the choices are already stark enough,” he told The San Jose Mercury News. 

The decision also caught cities in Silicon Valley by surprise. State tax officials gave no indication they planned to support the tax break until a few days before it was tentatively approved last month by the state Board of Equalization. 

Upset city officials, who rely on state sales taxes to pay for crucial services, fired off last-minute protest letters. But industry executives said it is too late. 

“On the one hand, I don’t disagree,” said William Lasher, a former tax partner at Arthur Andersen who spearheaded the negotiations for the industry. “But on the other hand, it is merely reinterpreting something under existing law that arguably should have been the case all along.” 

The dispute centers on a section of the tax code covering software maintenance contracts. State tax officials and software companies have argued for years over how much sales tax, if any, purchasers should have to pay on these contracts. 

The state had rebuffed industry arguments until one small company successfully persuaded the state Board of Equalization to ease the tax restrictions on his business. Then the tax officials launched a new round of discussions earlier this year with the American Electronics Association, an industry trade group. 

Publicly, the board staff opposed any change. But internal e-mails show the two sides had laid the groundwork for the tax break more than two months before the state publicly embraced a deal. 

The staff was trading e-mails with executives at Intel, a Santa Clara chip maker, and at Arthur Andersen, who were negotiating for the high-tech industry group to fine-tune language for a 50 percent tax break on software maintenance contracts.

United Airlines seeks  

$2 billion in federal loan help 

CHICAGO — United asked the government for $2 billion in federal loan assistance Monday, making it the biggest airline yet to seek help under a program set up after Sept. 11 to prop up the ailing industry. 

The nation’s No. 2 airline has lost about $1 billion since the terrorist attacks. It is the third major airline to seek federal loan guarantees under the program, behind America West and US Airways. 

United said it asked the Air Transportation Stabilization Board for a loan of $2 billion, with $1.8 billion guaranteed by the recently established panel. 

United chairman and chief executive Jack Creighton called United “the perfect candidate” for the program, since it was a target of the attacks. 

Creighton had said United would apply if it got wage concessions from its employees. It has since ordered pay cuts for its 11,000 management and salaried employees, estimated at $430 million over three years, and reached a tentative pay-cut agreement with its 9,200 pilots worth $520 million over three years. 

Federal approval of its application is not assured. Not only have United’s mechanics and flight attendants not agreed to cuts, but the airline has come under fire within the industry for seeking government help when it was trouble even before Sept. 11. 

Gas prices rise slightly  

over two-week period 

CAMARILLO — Gas prices rose by less than a penny in the past two weeks because of higher prices in western states and a temporary slowdown in gas production. 

The average price nationwide, including all gasoline grades and taxes, was about $1.44 a gallon on Friday, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 stations. 

That was up 0.65 per gallon since June 7. 

“Since wholesale buying prices are already in a downward correction, further retail hikes may not occur,” said analyst Trilby Lundberg on Sunday. “Nationally, the pump price direction will be determined mostly by OPEC’s upcoming crude oil production decision and whether OPEC members and cooperating countries adhere to agreed quotas.” 

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet Wednesday in Vienna, Austria, to discuss output levels and pricing. 

Prices dropped in most regions of the country. But price hikes in some western states offset falling national prices. 

Current prices remain about 19 cents below gas prices a year ago at this time. 

Demand for high-speed  

Internet access growing 

NEW YORK — Consumers’ appetite for high-speed Internet access and the online activities associated with it is growing, recent surveys show. 

Roughly 24 million Americans, or 21 percent of all Web users, now have high-speed connections at home, an increase of more than a quarter since the start of the year, and quadruple the number of broadband users just two years ago, according to a survey conducted last month by Pew Internet and American Life Project. 

“This places broadband adoption rates on par with the adoption of other popular technologies, such as the personal computer and the compact disc player, and faster than color TV and the VCR,” said researchers for Pew, a nonprofit initiative of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. 

Nearly six in 10 broadband users have generated their own online content such as a personal Web page, posted information to a Web site or shared music and other types of files online, according to a survey of 507 adults with high-speed service conducted in January and February. About a quarter of them perform such activities on a typical day.

SAN FRANCISCO — California home prices surged to another record high in May, a real estate research service said Monday, magnifying worries that hyperactive buyers are creating an investment bubble by shifting money once earmarked for the sagging stock market into the state’s housing market. 

The concerns about absurdly high housing prices are particularly acute in the San Francisco Bay area, where a mid-priced home in May sold for $413,000, a 9 percent increase from the same time last year, according to DataQuick Information Services. The May figure eclipsed the previous high of $402,000 reached in April. 

Prices are rising even more rapidly in Southern California, where a mid-range home sold for $264,000 in May, a 17 percent increase from last year, DataQuick said. But the risks of a bubble developing in Southern California appear lower, largely because prices remain so much less expensive than in the Bay Area. 

A mid-priced home in the Bay Area now costs $84,000, or 25 percent, more than in March 2000, generally considered the stock market peak for the high-tech mania that forced housing costs to skyrocket in the nine-county region. 

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq stock index — the primary yardstick for measuring high-tech investments — is 71 percent below its March 2000 high. 

The tremendous wealth generated by the run-up in tech stocks during the last half of the 1990s is considered the main reason why Bay Area home prices are so much higher than in Southern California, where deep cuts in defense spending a decade ago devastated the region’s aerospace industry. 

Bay Area home prices dipped briefly last year amid the ruins of the high-tech wreck, but they have bounced back quickly to reach new highs with the help of the lowest mortgage rates in a generation and a spreading conviction that California real estate is a better bet than the stock market. 

Buying a Bay Area home “has always been a solid, long-term investment and people are a little more interested in that now,” said Steve Hanleigh, a San Jose real estate agent and president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. 

Despite a history of steady price appreciation in the Bay Area’s housing market, the recent run-up appears unsustainable, according to a report released last week by economist Edward Leamer of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. 

Leamer reasons that home prices ultimately are driven by a cost-to-benefit analysis similar to the price-to-earnings ratio widely used to value stocks. The price-to-earnings equivalent for a home is the rent-to-price ratio, Leamer said. If it would cost $25,000 annually to rent the same kind of home that sells for $500,000, then the home has a rent-to-price multiple of 20. 

With home rents coming down at the same time ownership prices are rising, the Bay Area’s housing market is now 6 percent above its previous “bubble” peak of 1989, Leamer estimated. In contrast, rents in Southern California are still rising, leaving the region’s home ownership market 17 percent below its 1989 peak, Leamer said. 

“Buying a home in the Bay Area right now is like investing in the Nasdaq at 4,000 after it came down from 5,000 because you thought you were getting a really good deal,” Leamer said Monday. 

Other observers downplay the chances of a real estate bubble developing in the Bay Area. 

Unlike a few years ago, Bay Area buyers aren’t getting into cutthroat bidding wars that push the sale price far beyond the asking price, said Will Carrillo, who runs several Re/Max Real Estate Services in the Silicon Valley. “It’s not as hot as it was a couple years ago.” 

And even though Bay Area home prices are higher than a couple of years ago, the real costs aren’t as great because a sharp decline in long-term interest rates have pushed 30-year mortgages well below 7 percent. DataQuick estimated the typical Bay Area monthly mortgage payment in May stood at $2,075, still 2 percent below the peak monthly payment of $2,124 in May 2000. 

“I know everybody is talking about a bubble in the Bay Area real estate market, but I don’t see it yet,” said John Karevoll, a DataQuick analyst. “If there is one, it’s still a long way off.” 

The DataQuick report factors in the sales of all homes, including condominiums, recorded by counties. The California Association of Realtors, a trade group, is expected to show even higher May prices this week when it releases its study, which is limited to single-family homes and doesn’t include all recorded transactions. 

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On The Net: 

http://www.dqnews.com. 

Affordable housing is topic of Saturday’s town hall meeting in Oakland 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D–Oakland, and a panel of housing specialists provided more than 200 attendees of an Oakland town hall meeting Saturday with tips, reassurance and resources on how to begin the process of buying a home in the high-priced Bay Area market. 

"Affordable housing is an issue that touches our community in many, many ways," said Lee, who introduced an Affordable Housing Trust Fund initiative in Congress last week. The initiative is a part of Lee's efforts to bring the issue of housing back to the forefront of both local and national policy agendas. 

Alongside Lee, many of the panelists at Saturday's forum focused on programs designed to increase home ownership among minorities. While 68 percent of all Americans own their own home, the percentage is less for minorities, according to Philip Williams, director of the Fannie Mae Bay Area Partnership Office. 

Williams said only about 45 percent of African Americans, 49 percent of Hispanic Americans and 55 percent of Asian Americans own their homes. 

Janice Crump, the national director of With Ownership Wealth, explained that efforts have been made to change the disparity. According to Crump, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation hopes to see 1 million new African American homeowners by 2005 with support from the With Ownership Wealth initiative launched last year. 

"We're going to see if we can change some of the housing demographics here in Oakland," Crump said. 

Housing specialists from local nonprofits East Oakland Community Development Corporation and the Oakland Housing Authority provided attendees of the town hall meeting with an update on affordable housing projects in the area. 

According to John Westly, executive director of the OHA, the nonprofit is currently working to restore Lockwood Gardens, a group of low income housing units on International Boulevard in need of restoration. Westley says that through the Hope Six housing program authorized by Congress in 1993, OHA has been able to restore and rehabilitate a number of affordable housing units. 

LEE/From Page 1 

Westley added that planning has begun for a new housing project to be built near the Oakland Coliseum. The new project would include a series of affordable housing units, a new school and a recreation area. 

Many attendees of Saturday's conference were pleased that efforts are being made to build additional affordable housing units. Others, however, were skeptical, citing past projects which have lacked sufficient planning and are considered by many to be failures. 

In addition to the nonprofits, specialists from a number of mortgage lending corporations and credit unions provided advice and resources for those beginning the long and arduous task of buying a home. 

The panelists encouraged prospective home buyers to establish a pattern of solid credit history, thoroughly research competing loan agencies and read all forms before signing any paperwork.  

Roy Schweyer, with the city of Oakland's Community Development Corporation, encouraged prospective home buyers to be diligent in their quest for homeownership. "Everyone can own a house. There are ways to do it but you have to get down to work," he said. 

According to Schweyer, the city of Oakland is working to help residents buy homes, but the system is the greatest challenge. "We need to break through a system that works well for people who can afford it. It works really well for them. We need it to work for everyone," he said. 

A second group of panelists discussed how home buyers can avoid predatory lending companies, many of which charge exorbitant interest rates on home loans. 

Oscar Wright, a long-time Oakland resident applauded the efforts of the panelists at Saturday's forum but said that more needs to be done to prevent predatory lending companies from taking advantage of uninformed home buyers. 

"This is what's happening today to black communities. They are taking advantage of black people all over the place. We need to constantly inform and repeat these warnings. It's only after the fact that home buyers realize they've been victimized," Wright said. 

Other attendees of the forum emphasized the importance of faith-based organizations in educating the public about the home-buying process.  

Congresswoman Lee reassured residents that members of the clergy will be an important part of her affordable housing push. "We will be following up with our clergy to make sure they are part of disseminating this information," she said.

Last year Governor Davis’ early budget projections estimated that California would finish the 2001/2002 fiscal year with a $10-12 billion surplus. After the state’s allocation of your tax dollars to bail out energy providers, that estimate was reduced to approximately $4.5 billion. One year later, Governor Davis announced an estimated $23.6 billion dollar state deficit. Furthermore, if local governments (cities, counties and special districts) had not made their ERAF (Education Relief Augmentation Fund), “contributions” today’s deficit would be $28 billion. 

Local government has often been called a stepchild of the state; unfortunately, the parent in this relationship is abusive. Since 1993, state government has taken over $1.5 billion as a result of ERAF from Alameda County and still millions more from cities and other local jurisdictions according to the Association of Bay Area Governments. The county’s total annual budget is $1.5 billion. 

Once again, it’s budget time for local, state and federal governments; and because of the massive state deficit, local government will be forced to make deeper cuts in the delivery of local services. Local government collects many of your tax dollars. However, state statute requires that we forward the money to Sacramento. The state government returns a portion of the funding to local governments. On average the state sends counties 16 cents, cities 18 cents and special districts like East Bay MUD and AC Transit 13 cents of every tax dollar collected.  

State statute dictates that local governments are mandated to provide a certain level and certain types of services; and in return are reimbursed for a portion of the operating cost. The problem is current funding formulas and reimbursement strategies do not yield enough money to effectively deliver these state mandated services. Thus when there is a shortfall, which is always the case, local governments are forced to make service cuts. Alameda County also has a structural problem, the cost of providing our mandated services is rising faster then the increase in the amount of money we take in every year. Furthermore, Proposition 13 has limited the ability for local government to raise revenue. 

Prior to Governor Davis’ budget announcement this year, Alameda County had identified a $46.7 million projected shortfall for the next fiscal year. County officials developed a strategy for closing our own gap however; we are expecting an additional hit from the state of approximately $38 million. Currently, cuts to critical services and valuable programs are being considered; discussions about creative new programs to address unmet needs are almost non-existent. 

Alameda County is required by law to pass a balanced budget by June 30. This means local elected officials once again have to look our residents and constituents in the eye as we make grave decisions. We will read about the tough choices to cut local programs and their affects on residents in the press for months to come.  

While the issue is problematic there are things everyone can do. First, we must realize that in difficult times we must all share the load. The question is, are we sharing the load equally or does the governor disproportionately cut services to people and communities most in need?  

I have convened a working group with local administrators and elected officials from Alameda and Contra Costa counties to discuss how to make the cuts as painless as possible. We will advocate for an equitable distribution of the cuts. I encourage residents to take a similar approach. Ask the governor and the state legislature, to maximize all revenue generating possibilities? Inquire how the cuts being allocated – are their any “sacred cows,” and if so why? Do not let those in Sacramento operate under a cloud of secrecy; they will have a more difficult time making the cuts if they know you are watching.  

Keith Carson 

Alameda County Supervisor 

District 5

Monday, June 24

Shakespeare Festival Auditions 

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Rehearsal Hall 

701 Heinz Ave. 

California Shakespeare Festival is looking for people aged 14-18 to appear in The Winters Tale. 

548-3422 ext. 105, or www.calshakes.org 

Tuesday, June 25

Vigil Opposing the Sanctions  

Against the People of Iraq 

12 p.m. 

Oakland Federal Building 

1301 Clay Street 

548-4141 

Berkeley Camera Club  

Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other  

photographers. 

525-3565 

Free 

Magic School Bus Festival 

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Video Adventures. Other events for kids take place every Wednesday through Aug. 21. 

643-5961 

$8 for adults, $6 for ages 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Wednesday, June 26

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil 

6:30 pm 

BART Station, Shattuck & Center 

Weekly candle-lit vigil and peace walk to raise 

awareness and gather support for opposition to the 'war on terrorism' 

vigil4peace@yahoo.com, 528-9217 

The Lost Spacecraft:  

Liberty Bell 7  

Recovered 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Chabot Space and Science Center,  

10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland 

Preview new exhibit of resurrected  

1961 spacecraft. 

RSVP June 20, (415) 864-6397 or news@davidperry.com 

Paramount Movie Classics 

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  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. 

$5 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

"Really Rosie" Kids  

Theater Performances 

7:30 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins Street in North Berkeley 

"Kids On Stage" Stage Door Conservatory's " programs presents musical theater performances by kids, for kids. 

527-5939 or StageDoorCamp@aol.com. 

Free 

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m.- 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St., Berkeley 

Learn what your rights are and how to observe the police effectively and safely; hosted by Copwatch. 

For more information: 548-0425 

Free 

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

Disaster First Aid: Learn to apply  

basic first aid techniques. 

981-5605 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Stanford Jazz Festival,  

June 29-August 10 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m. kids 8-12, Campbell Recital Hall  

Stanford Campus  

Early Bird jazz for kids and families  

with Jim Nadel & Friends. 

Free 

Maybeck High School  

30th anniversary  

6 p.m. to 10 p.m.  

Piedmont Community Hall  

711 Highland Ave. Piedmont 

Call 841-8489 for reservations 

Tuesday, July 2

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, Suite 320  

Oakland.A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

533-1747, ext. 12. 

Saturday, July 6

Capoeira Batizado 

2-6 p.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison, Berkeley 

A celebration of Capoeira with performances by local arts organization. 

For information: 666-1255, www.capoeiraarts.com 

Free 

Saturday, July 6 - 

Sunday, July 21

Marin Classic Theatre 

presents "Born Yesterday" 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sunday matinee; 7 p.m. Sundays 

A bittersweet comedy by  

Garson Kanin. 

For information: (415) 892-8551 or 

www.MCTheatre.com 

$18 evening performances, $15 matinee 

St. Mary’s High boys’ basketball head coach Jose Caraballo submitted his resignation to the school late last week, Athletic Director Jay Lawson confirmed this weekend. 

Caraballo’s resignation came as a surprise, as he led the Panthers to the school’s first state championship two years ago as well as a Northern California semifinal berth in Division I last season. Caraballo, 39, was also a teacher at the private school. 

“I’ve thought about it for a while,” Caraballo said. “I just didn’t feel supported by the administration as a teacher or coach.” 

“I’m glad they gave me the opportunity. Sometimes you just can’t stay in a certain situation when you don’t agree with certain things that are being done.”  

St. Mary’s qualified for North Coast Section play in each of Caraballo’s seven seasons, compiling a 147-67 record. The Panthers won the last two Bay Shore Athletic League titles, going undefeated in league play both years with a 59-8 overall record. 

“I’m most proud about my kids, the commitment they made to me, the school and the program. What I’m most proud of is their hard work and dedication. I had two goals when I started the job: to win and to go to Division I. I guess I accomplished both those goals.” 

Caraballo was an assistant under legendary coach Frank LaPorte at St. Joseph before taking the head job at St. Mary’s in 1995.  

Caraballo said he doesn’t have another job yet, although he interviewed with USC head coach Henry Bibby about an assistant position. 

St. Mary’s assistant coach Mark Olivier has reportedly accepted the head coach job at Hercules High. 

Lawson said he hopes to have the St. Mary’s vacancy filled within the next two weeks.

James Ellroy scraped rock bottom for a long time. Things got so bad for the 54-year-old Ellroy that selling his own blood for money, eating out of garbage cans and waking up in drunken stupors became commonplace at one point in his life. 

But now, as a successful writer, the best-selling crime novelist will tell you the straight and narrow is the place to be. 

"I've been flying high for 20 years. I believe in monogamy, I believe in the good lord and treating people right... What can I tell you? I'm a different guy," he beamed. 

The high-flying Ellroy entertained a full house Friday night at Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue, reading from his latest novel “The Cold Six Thousand,” a fast-paced thrill ride through the undergound politics of 1960s America. 

Ellroy, whose previous works include a quartet of novels about Los Angeles in the 1940s, among them “L.A. Confidential,” has made exposing the hidden workings and culture of police forces and federal agents an art form. 

In the new novel, Ellroy provides an account of the John F. Kennedy assassination, billionaire Howard Hughes' attempt to buy Las Vegas and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's war against the civil rights movement. 

The book begins in Dallas in 1963 as three individuals – a Las Vegas cop with family ties to the Christian right, an FBI agent turned Mafia cohort and a dope-runner with connections to anti-Castro radicals – meet to clean up the loose ends of the JFK hit. 

The novel darts and whirls from plot to counterplot and includes a number of document inserts from fictionalized conversations between Hoover and FBI agent Ward J. Littell. Ellroy describes Hoover as a man bent on compiling dirt on each and every important liberal figure in 1960s America and condoning the JFK assassination. 

The book also provides an account of Howard Hughes' frequent transfusions of so-called "clean Mormon blood" and his attempt to rid Las Vegas of the "germ-infested" black population. 

During a question and answer session at Friday's reading, Ellroy made no apologies for his thoughts on the Kennedys, Jack Ruby's supposed sexual relationships with animals and his own sordid past.  

When asked about his personal opinion of the JFK assassination, Ellroy responded, "It was a business dispute and in the end, according to the rules he lived by, he got what he deserved." 

ELLROY/From Page 1 

For the author, America's love affair with the Kennedy family is certainly a bizarre and excessive one. 

Many of the dark moments and characters in Ellroy's novels are the result of the author's personal struggles with alcohol, drugs and near schizophrenia.  

When Ellroy was 10, his mother was murdered, an event that left Ellroy at a great loss but also charged his fascination with crime. 

According to his biography, the novelist lived on the streets of Los Angeles for a number of years, experiencing first-hand the grit, grime and brutal reality of a life that would later be used in his novels. 

According to one anecdote, Ellroy, who would occasionally have blackouts caused by binge drinking, began one night in Los Angeles with a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of malt liquor and ended up the next morning completely unaware of his surroundings in a bedroom in a San Francisco apartment building next to a 300-pound woman. According to the story, Ellroy began the night with $9 and ended up with $40 and later presumed that he may have prostituted himself. 

According to Ellroy, his current life, with a home and wife in Kansas City, is the "white-trash comfort zone of which I've long aspired to." He says his next project will be to write the second in a trilogy of novels about America in the 1960s.

We would like to thank Dairne and Linda of Fix Our Ferals for their recent letter responding to the Daily Planet article with the unfortunate title "Feral Cats Not Welcome." We would also like to take this opportunity to draw a distinction between Fix Our Ferals and Home At Last, and to specify more clearly what our complaints are regarding the cats in our neighborhood.  

To clarify, we understand and support the concepts promoted by Fix Our Ferals. We are less concerned about the maintenance of feral colonies in Berkeley because, if dealt with appropriately, over time a feral population will reduce in number. In our neighborhood, however, the problem is more complex because of our neighbor’s involvement with Home At Last, a rescue organization. Our neighbor claims that she is only maintaining the neighborhood feral colony; yet, she also "rescues" and houses a substantial number of "tame" cats. 

Home At Last is an organization that rescues animals from the City of Berkeley Municipal Animal Shelter shortly before they are due to be euthanized, with the goal of finding permanent homes for the animals through adoption. Until the animals are adopted, however, they must be housed somewhere. The unfortunate truth is that many of the animals that are being rescued from euthanization in Berkeley end up at 1408 Fairview Street. We have been told that there are as many as 30-40 cats living on our neighbor’s property, and recently she began housing dogs as well.  

Because many of the rescued animals end up staying for long periods of time, they learn to escape the house and/or makeshift "cage" in the backyard. Thus, the so-called feral population seems to change rather than reduce in number. Adding new animals is not part of the program promoted by Fix Our Ferals. 

Such a high concentration of animals in a residential area is inappropriate. In response to Fairview residents’ requests for help, several members of city staff have said that their "hands are tied" because there is no policy that restricts the number of cats a resident can have. While it is specified under current city policy that a person can have a maximum of four dogs, individuals are allowed to have an unlimited number of cats. Additionally, because the Berkeley City Council grants Home At Last money, staff is forced to take a hands-off approach to avoid a situation in which the city is talking out of both sides of its mouth. 

While we also love animals, we have serious concern about a city policy that leaves the responsibility of "rescuing" animals to citizens who operate shelter-like conditions in residential neighborhoods. I believe that the members of City Council must reconsider this policy and its unintended consequences. Berkeley neighborhoods cannot be the dumping ground for "rescued" animals. Such a policy is not a solution, but a creation of another problem.  

Jennifer and Aran Kaufer 

Berkeley

YOKOHAMA, Japan – European teams have only twice failed to be in the top two in the World Cup’s 72-year history – in 1930 and 1950. 

It could happen again on June 30 in Yokohama, Japan – a signal that soccer’s center of gravity might be shifting away from the old continent and toward Asia, Africa – and even North America. 

With the quarterfinals completed on Saturday, the World Cup semifinals look like this: South Korea-Germany on Tuesday in the South Korean capital, Seoul; and Brazil-Turkey on Wednesday in Saitama, Japan. 

A Brazil-Germany final is not out of the question. But neither are the other three possibilities: Brazil vs. South Korea, Turkey vs. Germany, or even Turkey vs. South Korea. 

For the first time since 1978, there are only two European teams in the final four – three-time champion Germany and Turkey, hardly one of the usual European powers. Turkey is appearing in only its second World Cup, its first since 1954. 

The other two semifinalists again represent the old and new. 

Four-time champion Brazil is the tournament favorite, a role it assumed when defending champion France was knocked out in the first round without scoring a goal. South Korea – the first Asian team ever to reach the semifinals – is the sentimental favorite. By reaching the semifinals, South Korea went one better than its northern neighbor, which made it to the quarterfinals in 1966. 

Tuesday’s Germany-South Korea semifinal is a repeat of a group game in 1994 in the United States, which Germany won 3-2. The two starting goalkeepers – Oliver Kahn and Lee Woon-jae – were on the bench in the match. Lee came in as a substitute when Germany ran off to a 3-0 lead after only 20 minutes. 

German coach Rudi Voeller was still playing for Germany in that match and came on as a second-half substitute. 

Brazil and Turkey have only played twice – in an exhibition in 1951, which Brazil won 1-0, and again in the first round of this World Cup, when the Brazilians won 2-1 on a goal from a controversial penalty kick with three minutes left. Earlier this year, Turkey tuned up against two South American teams in exhibitions, beating Chile 2-0 and losing 1-0 to World Cup qualifier Ecuador. 

Strangely enough, Brazil and Germany have never met in the World Cup. 

The shift in power away from Europe has been gradual but seems to be gaining speed. 

In the previous five World Cups going back to 1982, Europe took 16 of the 20 semifinal places. In 1982, it claimed all four semifinal spots. 

The semifinal lineup this time is the most diverse since the first World Cup was played in 1930 in Uruguay when one North American team (United States), two South Americans (Argentina and Uruguay) and one European (Yugoslavia) reached the final four.

The Berkeley Courthouse at 2120 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way will close from September through December of 2003 for seismic retrofit and other improvements, Alameda County Superior Court officials have announced. 

Beginning on July 1, the Berkeley Criminal Division, as well as court Departments 201 and 202, will be relocated to the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, at 661 Washington St. in Oakland. 

Applications for restraining orders, which had formerly been processed by the criminal division, will be filled at the Civil/Small Claims Division, located in the second floor of 2000 Center St. in Berkeley. 

Starting Sept. 2, 2002, the Berkeley Traffic Division, Accounting Division and Administration Division will also be relocated to the Center Street address. 

The Traffic Division, Civil/Small Claims Division, Accounting Division and Administration Division will return to 2120 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in January of 2004.

CINCINNATI – This sweep belongs to the A’s. 

Eric Chavez hit a two-run homer and the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep in the ballpark where they couldn’t win during the 1990 World Series, beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-1 Sunday. 

The resurgent A’s have won seven in a row and 15 of their last 16, moving a season-high 12 games over .500. They’ve been the major leagues’ hottest team in June, going 18-3. 

Cincinnati lost its seventh straight and suffered another setback to its frail offense when Ken Griffey Jr. left the game after pulling up on a double in the fourth inning. 

Griffey’s tender right hamstring, which he pulled on June 7, tightened up as he rounded first base, prompting him to leave the game as 23,961 fans sat in silence over the latest misfortune. 

A torn tendon in the right knee and the pulled hamstring have limited Griffey to 20 starts this season. The Reds are 7-13 with him in the starting lineup. 

Left-hander Mark Mulder (8-4) won his sixth straight start, giving up six hits in six innings, including Aaron Boone’s RBI single in the fifth. Three relievers finished off a seven-hitter. 

The A’s pitchers have led their rebound from a 10-game deficit on May 8 to a contending spot in the AL West. Mulder and left-hander Barry Zito have gone unbeaten in 10 June starts. 

Oakland also has taken advantage of the National League along the way, going 14-1 in interleague play. The A’s have won 22 of their last 24 games overall against the NL. 

Chavez’s 18th homer off Chris Reitsma (3-5) in the sixth inning put Oakland ahead. Mark Ellis had an RBI triple and Miguel Tejada drove in two more runs, a happy send-off from the ballpark that was the setting for one of the biggest disappointments in franchise history. 

Oakland hadn’t played in Cincinnati since the 1990 World Series, when the A’s were heavy favorites with Dennis Eckersley in the bullpen and “Bash Brothers” Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in the lineup. 

The Reds won the first two games at Riverfront Stadium, then completed the sweep in Oakland. 

There were only two holdovers from that series. Reds right-hander Jose Rijo, the MVP of the ’90 Series, is on the disabled list with a weak shoulder. Shortstop Barry Larkin played all three games and went 0-for-11. 

Reds manager Bob Boone juggled his slumping lineup throughout the series, with no luck. Before Sunday’s game, the Reds demoted outfielder Austin Kearns to make a spot for another reliever. 

Cincinnati has gone 4-for-53 (.075) with runners in scoring position during its longest losing streak since it dropped eight in a row last August. 

Notes: The A’s also played in Cincinnati during the 1972 World Series, which Oakland won in seven games. ... Oakland is 8-1 on its longest trip of season — 13 games. It ends with four games against the first-place Mariners. ... A’s OF Jermaine Dye was out of the lineup for a third straight game with a tight hamstring. He pinch-hit in the ninth and was hit by a pitch. ... Mulder is 5-0 in five June starts with a 2.10 ERA. Zito is 5-0 in five June starts with a 2.25 ERA. ... Reitsma opened the season 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA, but has lost his last five decisions over six starts and has a 4.89 ERA over that span.

Color of space is  

‘Cosmic Latte’ 

BALTIMORE — Good news for coffee lovers: Space, the final frontier, is the color of a latte. So say astronomers Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry at Johns Hopkins University. 

In January, the two determined that the universe was a sprightly pale turquoise, then after discovering a glitch in their software in March, they realized that the average color was actually a milky brown. 

Not knowing what to call it, besides beige, they solicited suggestions, prompting nearly 300 e-mails with ideas including Big Bang Beige, Cappuccino Cosmico, Galactic Gold and Infinite Sand. 

The winner? Cosmic Latte. 

Baldry, a postdoctoral fellow, said he and Glazebrook both love coffee, which factored into the decision. Cosmic Latte is also appropriate because it’s close to “latteo,” which “means Milky Way in Galileo’s native Italian,” the pair wrote on their Web site. 

Auto shops often can’t crack the diagnostic code 

ARLINGTON, Va. — At least a couple of times a week, mechanic Ernie Pride tells customers at his independent repair shop he can’t fix their cars because he doesn’t know what’s wrong with them. Go to the dealer, he advises. 

He has the experience and knowledge to service vehicles but lacks the closely guarded information needed to diagnose problems with today’s high-tech cars. 

Automakers refuse to make much of it available to independent shops that compete with higher-priced dealerships. The practice is raising hackles in Congress and a vigorous defense by the industry. 

Figuring out what’s wrong with an automobile is no longer as simple as poking around under the hood and examining parts. Computers control many modern vehicle systems, including the engine, the air bags and the antilock brakes. Mechanics now diagnose problems by connecting a handheld computer to the vehicle. 

The computer gives the mechanic a code of numbers or letters that designate the source of a problem. Without the reference material to interpret the code, a mechanic can’t fix the car. 

“We just say, ‘We’re sorry. You’ve got one option — go to the dealer,”’ said Pride, manager of The Car Store outside Washington. 

All repair shops must get some emission system codes because of the Clean Air Act. 

Some members of Congress worry that higher-priced dealer repair shops are using the codes to corner the repair market. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to require manufacturers to share diagnostic codes with car owners and shops.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On June 24, 1908, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 71. 

On this date: 

In 1314, the forces of Scotland’s King Robert I defeated the English in the Battle of Bannockburn. 

In 1497, the first recorded sighting of North America by a European took place as explorer John Cabot spotted land, probably in present-day Canada. 

In 1509, Henry VIII was crowned king of England. 

In 1647, Margaret Brent, a niece of Lord Baltimore, was ejected from the Maryland Assembly after demanding a place and vote in that governing body. 

In 1793, the first republican constitution in France was adopted. 

In 1940, France signed an armistice with Italy during World War II. 

In 1948, Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the western allies to organize the massive Berlin Airlift. 

In 1968, “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities. 

In 1975, 113 people were killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashed while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. 

In 1987, comedian-actor Jackie Gleason died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at age 71. 

Ten years ago: 

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, strengthened its 30-year ban on officially sponsored worship in public schools, prohibiting prayer as a part of graduation ceremonies. 

Five years ago: 

In Freehold, N.J., 18-year-old Melissa Drexler, who gave birth during her prom, was charged with murder in the death of her baby. (Drexler served three years in prison.) The Air Force released a report on the so-called “Roswell Incident,” suggesting the alien bodies that witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies. Actor Brian Keith was found dead in his Malibu, home. 

One year ago: 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in the United States for talks with President George W. Bush. Karrie Webb won the LPGA Championship by two strokes, completing the Grand Slam. 

Today’s Birthdays: 

Actor Al Molinaro is 83. Comedian Jack Carter is 79. Movie director Claude Chabrol is 72. Actress Michele Lee is 60. Musician Mick Fleetwood is 60. Actor-director Georg Stanford Brown is 59. Rock musician Jeff Beck is 58. Singer Arthur Brown is 58. New York Governor George Pataki is 57. Rock singer Colin Blunstone (The Zombies) is 57. Actor Peter Weller is 55. Rock musician John Illsley (Dire Straits) is 53. Actress Nancy Allen is 52. Reggae singer Derrick Simpson (Black Uhuru) is 52. Reggae singer Astro (UB40) is 45. Singer-musician Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) is 43. Rock singer-musician Curt Smith is 41. Actress Danielle Spencer is 37. Actress Sherry Stringfield is 35. Singer Glenn Medeiros is 32.

White powder
 

delivered to SF homes 

SAN FRANCISCO — Powder-filled envelopes purportedly from a fictitious Jewish charity were left at about a dozen San Francisco homes, but the powder was determined to be flour or another starch. 

The white, legal-sized envelopes were hand-delivered to Richmond District homes Saturday and slipped through mail slots, police said. 

“Special Events No. 2002 of the Jewish Charity Awards” was in the return address space, but no return address was included and there appears to be no known Jewish group by that name. 

In the space typically used for the recipient’s address was a 10-digit number and the statement, “If this number matches the number inside, you have won valuable free prizes.” 

Most of the recipients were not Jewish, but at least one recipient had a Jewish symbol on his front door. The homes were located near a synagogue, Temple Emanu-el. 

The envelopes were empty expect for the powder, which the fire department’s hazardous materials team tested and found to be harmless. 

“This definitely appears to be a hoax,” said Battalion Chief James Barden. 

“It doesn’t appear they were targeted specifically,” said police Sgt. Rachel Benton. “It could be someone just walking down the street.” 

The incident occurred a day after the FBI’s most recent warning that terrorists could use fuel tankers to attack Jewish synagogues and schools. 

Taco Bell customers go home sick  

NAPA — A virus that can be passed on by unwashed hands or sneezing into food has been linked to several food poisoning cases last month at a Taco Bell. 

A Norwalk-like virus was discovered in three stool samples sent to a state laboratory. The virus can be transmitted through food contaminated by fecal matter, by direct person-to-person contact or from bodily fluids of infected workers. 

The results showed the first laboratory confirmed cases of the virus in 20 years, said Trent Cave, chief of the Napa County department of environmental health. 

No specific food contamination has been identified, but two Taco Bell employees were identified as possible carriers. 

About 100 people reported that they became ill after eating at the Taco Bell at lunchtime May 11, although not all of them were linked to the restaurant. 

A Taco Bell corporate spokeswoman said the restaurant has passed several inspections since the incident. 

Cove said the case will go to the district attorney to determine whether charges will be filed. Fines or an injunction that push for change in the restaurant could be filed. 

San Quentin hearing postponed  

NOVATO — A hearing on whether San Quentin State Prison is violating prisoners’ civil rights by practicing racial and ethnic segregation has been postponed until July 11. 

The evidentiary hearing was granted to prison inmate Viet Mike Ngo, who is serving 17 years to life for the shooting death of a 14-year-old Alameda boy in 1988. 

Ngo contends the prison houses and disciplines inmates according to four designations: white, black, Hispanic and other. He claims the designations violate the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection. 

The state attorney general’s office denies using race as a basis for housing inmates, and instead relies on information such as gang affiliation, health concerns, disciplinary behavior, age and psychiatric condition. 

SFO expansion takes hit  

SAN FRANCISCO — Runway expansion at San Francisco International Airport has hit another snag with a proposed cut in funds to study the project. 

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin said a majority of board members will vote Monday for his proposal to cut funds from $11.2 million to $6.2 million. 

The money would pay for studies of different runway configurations that include the possibility of filling in a portion of San Francisco Bay. 

Airport officials said the cuts would hinder the environmental review process, but Peskin said the money was enough to complete an environmental impact report.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has sent a letter to the FBI asking whether the federal agency is currently conducting unlawful intelligence activities at the University of California. 

The letter, dated June 18, 2002, comes as the Bush administration and Congress are expanding the FBI’s domestic intelligence powers to prevent terrorist acts. 

“We did receive the letter, and we will respond to the senator as quickly as possible,” Bill Carter, an FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C., told The San Francisco Chronicle. 

On June 9, The Chronicle reported that FBI records, obtained by the newspaper after a 17-year legal battle, showed that the bureau had conducted unlawful intelligence activities at the University of California in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Feinstein, a Democrat who is California’s senior senator and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, gave a copy of her letter to The Chronicle. 

In the letter, the senator said she was concerned by court findings that the FBI had repeatedly violated the Freedom of Information Act by delaying the release of bureau records on the University of California and by blacking out public information on its activities. 

Feinstein added that she was especially concerned now, following Attorney General John Ashcroft’s new policy allowing the Justice Department to defend federal agencies seeking to deny freedom of information requests. 

“Many read this as a signal to agencies that future FOIA requests are to be stonewalled,” Feinstein said. “As you know, and we have seen from this Chronicle article, FOIA is often the only way the American people can be assured of government accountability.”

OAKLAND — University of California registered nurses voted to ratify a new contract Friday, the culmination of months of negotiations and a threatened strike that was narrowly avoided last month. 

The nurses voted by 95 percent to approve a new contract. Final vote tallies were not immediately available. 

The new contract was been lauded by the California Nurses Association for promoting the retention and recruitment of RNs and reducing the nursing shortage. 

“This raises the bar for RNs and hospitals across the nation and sets a model that is being watched by nurses everywhere,” said CNA’s executive director Rose Ann DeMoro. “It’s a watershed event in the resurgence of registered nurses taking control of their practice.” 

The new contract means staff RNs at the University of California at Los Angeles will earn up to $42.33 an hour — the highest rate for any RNs in Southern California. 

In Northern California, the pay rate rises to $47 an hour for UC registered nurses. 

“UC RNs are ecstatic with the monumental gains we have achieved for nurses and for UC patients who will benefit as the University is making an unprecedented commitment to retain its professional, career RNs,” said Maxine Terk, a UCLA RN and nurse negotiator. 

The new contract also brings to an end UC’s merit pay system for nurses, which ties increases to evaluations by managers.

SAN JOSE — Momentum for children’s universal health care is spreading to cities throughout California, a trend that goes against scaled-back state support for the uninsured. 

Five months ago, San Francisco followed Santa Clara County’s successful plan. Now, it has 1,000 children enrolled. 

“We are limited only by our imaginations; it could go statewide within a year,” said Jean Fraser, chief executive officer of San Francisco’s health plan. “And it’s incredibly critical, with the funding cuts, that we do something.” 

Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed budget includes cuts in health services to help shrink a $23.6 billion shortfall. It would eliminate 300,000 working parents from state-funded health benefits, reducing children’s dental checkups from biannual to annual, and suspending plans to expand state-funded health care to working poor families. 

The county programs rely on various sources resources to provide the health care, including general fund money, private donations, and money from tobacco settlements and cigarette taxes. 

“A current notion says that we all must share in the pain of the budget crisis,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill, when announcing a $7.7 million initiative. “The children of San Mateo County shouldn’t have to share that pain. We’ll do all we can to see that they don’t.” 

The state has about 1.6 million uninsured children with a death rate that’s about 150 percent higher than those with health coverage. 

Most local insurance programs rely on increasing enrollment for existing health care programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. Those with incomes too high to join the programs — but too low to afford health care — can sign up for Healthy Kids. 

San Mateo and Alameda counties provide universal health care. Contra Costa, Orange and Riverside counties are in the process of creating plans, while Sacramento, Solano, Sonoma, San Joaquin, San Diego and San Bernardino counties are in the discussion phase. Los Angeles was expected to begin discussions soon. 

The counties are increasing outreach, making enrollment simple and quick, and not requiring parents to prove legal residency — something that keeps many from seeking help. 

The drive to get families signed up not only benefits poor families, but also helps counties in the long run. 

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of money for counties to cover these kids relative to the cost of them going into the emergency room,” said Liane Wong, policy director for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Health Policy Solutions.

OAKLAND – In his halting English, Elvia Marin’s husband struggled to tell the nurses and doctor that the pain in his wife’s stomach and back was so intense, it was worse for her than giving birth. 

But the words that would have helped pinpoint her ailment — urinary tract stones — eluded him and doctors in the Oakland, emergency room couldn’t identify the problem by her discomfort alone. A few hours later, the pain subsided and she left without treatment. 

Others who don’t speak English relate similarly disheartening tales of failing to receive medical help. It’s a tough problem hospitals and doctors are trying to solve as immigrants with limited English increasingly flow into their hospitals and offices. 

“I felt really desperate and also frustrated at my inability to communicate in English and explain my own problem,” said Marin, a Mexican immigrant. “I feel like we’re not being listened to, not being paid attention to. We’re not considered important.” 

Doctors say they want to help patients, but object to interpreter costs that can range from $30 to $400, according to the American Medical Association. 

Others, like the Arlington, Va.-based advocacy group ProEnglish, say requiring doctors to provide interpreters is “a good example of multicultural ideology gone berserk.” Newcomers should assimilate by learning English, the group says. 

About 21.3 million speak English “less than very well,” according to 2000 census data, compared with 13.9 million people in 1990. 

Without adequate translation, health care for patients who speak limited English is at best inconvenient, and at worst life-threatening, advocates say. 

According to The Access Project, a community resource center at Brandeis University, a survey of more than 4,000 uninsured patients found 8 percent needed an interpreter but did not get one. Of that group, more than a quarter said they did not understand instructions for taking prescribed medications, the survey found. 

“The health care delivery system has been a little slow to appreciate the growing diversity of our nation,” said Mark Rukavina, the project’s executive director. “Over and over again, community systems are being strained by the changing demographics.” 

Without an interpreter to tell her what was going on, one Hmong woman thought she was being kidnapped when she was driven 100 miles from a clinic in Fresno, Calif., to one in Modesto. 

Xe Chue told her sister Pang Thao, “they kept driving, driving away. As they went further away, she got more afraid,” Thao said. “She thought they were going to take her to some bad places and just do whatever they wanted to her.” 

When she arrived, Chue motioned to two security guards she wanted to phone her family, but they ignored her, Thao said. 

“You’re supposed to trust doctors and nurses with your life,” Thao said. 

Federal civil rights law requires hospitals and doctors receiving federal funds to provide services that can be understood by non-English speakers. In general, doctors cannot turn away patients simply because they don’t speak English. 

An executive order signed by President Clinton emphasized that programs provided in English that are not accessible to those who speak limited English are discriminatory.

Lawmaker says new evidence could prove antitrust behavior 

SACRAMENTO – Documents turned over by Perot Systems Corp. to California investigators detail instructions for “gaming” California’s energy market and could be evidence of “antitrust behavior,” a state lawmaker said Friday. 

But managers of the state’s power grid said gaming is different than a blatant abuse of market power — the ability to charge astronomical prices — to which they attribute $9 billion in overcharges. 

The Texas-based software company, which designed computer software for the state’s energy markets in 1997, sent the documents this week to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and to a state Senate committee — both investigating the state’s power crisis. 

Some of the strategies outlined in the Perot documents mirror those detailed in recently released Enron memos. Sen. Joe Dunn, the Santa Ana Democrat heading the legislative probe, has said he wants to know if Perot Systems’ actions were at the heart of the energy crisis. 

Some of the documents discuss acts that Dunn said “fall squarely into antitrust behavior.” 

That includes advice on how energy suppliers could communicate without leaving a trace, Dunn said Friday. “Proving communications between market participants is one of the key elements of an antitrust suit.” 

The Texas firm first came to the committee’s attention earlier this month, when a Perot Systems presentation was found among subpoenaed documents turned over by Houston-based Reliant Energy. 

Perot System’s chairman, two-time presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, is expected to testify at the state Legislature in July. 

The new documents show that Perot Systems’ strategy was to “exploit the flaws” of the market, Dunn said, and that any gaming was not just the work of a “rogue employee.” 

Though Perot Systems and energy consultant George Backus approached several energy companies and utilities in 1997 and 1998, no business resulted from the joint marketing effort, said Perot Systems spokeswoman Mindy Brown. 

In a letter submitted with the Perot documents, Backus said none of the information presented to energy companies was confidential but was based on publicly available data. 

Dunn said that’s not true: Perot Systems was paid for at least one presentation and he’s still investigating whether any contracts developed from the sales pitches. And, he said, the “holes” they describe would only have been known to market players after years of trading in the market. 

Memos and presentations from Perot employees and Backus detail intricate strategies for taking advantage of “thousands of loopholes” in California’s energy market, and the fact that it could take months for regulators to close them. 

In an undated letter included among the documents turned over to Dunn’s committee, Backus compares gaming the California market to “multiple simultaneous games of chess. You can’t make the same move over and over and for every move there is a counter move.” 

The California Independent System Operator, which manages much of the state’s power grid and the spot market for energy sales, reported in early 2001 that the state saw nearly $9 billion in overcharges due to the exercise of market power. 

Market power is when a company or companies can command excessive prices for a commodity. California has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to refund the overcharges. 

ISO spokesman Gregg Fishman said attorneys for the grid operator were looking at the documents to determine if Perot broke its contract with the ISO. 

But, he warned, these presentations, and recently released memos from Enron detailing other gaming strategies, may not be the smoking gun that investigators are seeking. 

Calling some claims “outlandish,” Fishman said the memos show Perot was trying to develop business. 

There is a difference, he said, between gaming the market and exerting market power. 

Dunn said gaming and market power are connected, because it takes market power to game the market successfully. 

Davis administration officials, looking for ammunition in the state’s refund request, said they don’t have to prove a crime took place in order to get a refund, but these new documents could help their cause. 

“The more FERC tries to say this was some minor aberration in the market, and the more revelations like this that come out, you see that there was widespread gaming of the system,” said Richard Katz, an energy adviser to Gov. Gray Davis. 

The additional Perot documents could also bolster California’s ability to renegotiate the long-term contracts the state entered at the height of the energy crisis, Katz said. 

“As ratepayers in this state, we never stood a chance. This game was rigged before we even sat down at the table,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO – It wasn’t his first job choice, but at least the Pets.com sock puppet hasn’t joined the high-tech unemployment line. 

One of the most recognizable icons of the dot-com era has a new agent and has inked a new deal for a California financing company. 

The puppet is now represented by Hakan & Associates, Inc., the same company orchestrating the comeback of Taco Bell mascot Gidgey the Famous Chihuahua. The black-and-white spotted dog puppet has just signed on as the mascot for 1-800-Bar None, a Pleasanton-based company that provides car financing for people with bad credit. 

The sock puppet has been out of work since online pet store Pets.com was forced to shut down for lack of funds in November 2000. Hakan Enterprises, Inc. bought the rights to the icon in 2001 for $125,000 during the Pets.com liquidation. 

“It is not often that a company will adopt the mascot of a defunct company,” said Christina Duffney of The Direct Marketing Association. “Such a company runs the risk of being associated with a business that wasn’t a success.” 

Duffney said the sock puppet may be a different case since it generated a lot of attention on its own and many consumers did not associate it with Pets.com. That could work in 1-800-Bar None’s favor, she said. 

“It will be interesting to see how the business uses the puppet and if they succeed in associating the puppet with the company,” she said. 

The sock puppet will be featured in a series of television ads for 1-800-Bar None beginning in July. 

Jim Crouse, chief executive officer of 1-800-Bar None, said he hopes the sock puppet will send the company’s message — everyone deserves a second chance — “cleverly and with a touch of humor.”

Decade of issues leads lawmakers to call for tighter restrictions 

SACRAMENTO – California’s decade-old experiment with charter schools is entering a new stage, as lawmakers angered by a series of revelations about flawed schools are calling for tighter restrictions of the publicly funded schools. 

Since the state’s first charter school was approved in 1993, the system has expanded to include 130,000 students in 360 schools across the state. 

Mixed with that batch, however, is a list of more than 50 charters that failed, including many that made headlines because they acted in ways that were questionable, if not illegal. 

A Fresno charter was closed because it hired convicted felons. In Union City, a school that taught creationism was shut down. In Los Angeles, a school’s charter was revoked after it used public money to lease a sports car for the school principal. 

Perhaps most striking among them is the GateWay Academy, which closed in January after it racked up a $1.3 million debt, charged students tuition and hired teachers without checking their criminal backgrounds or credentials. At one point, the Fresno-based charter operated 14 schools with nearly 1,000 students from Oakland to Pomona. 

“People believe (charter schools) are doing a good job, but they also know there are some problems,” said Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, whose district has one of the highest charter school failure rates in the state. “People are going to start asking, ’What’s happening with my taxes?”’ 

In response to the spate of recent problems, Reyes and other legislators are pushing a handful of bills that seek to limit how and where charter schools operate. 

Charter schools are public schools funded with state dollars but run by private organizations. They are given contracts, called charters, by school boards in exchange for promises to improve student performance. 

Disappearing charter schools have left students and parents scrambling to find a new school and saddled districts with massive debts. They have even prompted a statewide audit by the Bureau of State Audits due in August. 

When the Renaissance Charter School in Fresno closed last month — the most recent charter to be revoked — teachers and staff were left without jobs or paychecks. 

“We found out that our deferred paychecks for June and July had disappeared, and then our May paychecks also didn’t make an appearance,” said Nancy Hudleson, a part-time English teacher at Renaissance, who estimates the school owes her $6,000. 

Hudleson said the charter’s employees are considering a lawsuit, but she doesn’t “have a lot of hope that we are going to see anything.” 

While charter schools have the freedom to decide what to teach and how, they still must follow the same set of laws that govern public schools. But monitoring schools to make sure they obey the rules hasn’t been easy, said Eileen Cubanski, manager of charter schools for the California Department of Education. 

“In theory, school districts are the ones that are supposed to be on top of what’s going on at the schools,” she said. 

But many districts have enough trouble watching their own schools and say they don’t have the resources to police the charters, which can spread out with multiple campuses across the state. 

“The (Fresno) school districts were created to take care of their own students. Why are they providing services up in Ukiah and Santa Cruz?” said Fresno County Superintendent Peter Mehas. “There is really no ultimate accountability regarding fiscal oversight of these schools.” 

Mehas is pushing for a state takeover of the West Fresno School District following a string of doomed charters. It comes as tensions between other districts and school boards heat up. 

On Wednesday, a southern California school board unanimously approved the five-year renewal of the Desert Sand Charter School in the Antelope Valley Union High School District, despite the superintendent’s warning that the school was misusing funds and hiring unqualified teachers. 

At least a dozen bills have been introduced this year to deal with a range of issues from how schools are funded to how they spend their money and how they are monitored. 

Reyes has a bill, AB1994, that would prohibit charter organizations from operating satellite schools in counties where they are not chartered. It would also outline a process for dealing with finances, teachers and students if a school closes. 

Another bill, authored by Assemblywoman Lynne Leach, R-Walnut Creek, would give the county superintendent the power to oversee charter school operation. 

Both bills passed the Assembly and will be considered by the Senate Education Committee on June 26. 

Other states, like New York and Massachusetts, have created a statewide agency to oversee the schools, rather than requiring over-stressed school districts to do it or establishing restrictive laws. About 36 states and Washington, D.C., allow charter schools. 

Charter advocates have criticized the California bills, saying schools operate best without the bureaucratic red tape that bogs down public schools. 

David Patterson, director of government relations at the California Network of Educational Charters, said the problems of a handful of charters shouldn’t be allowed to hurt the majority of charters that have improved student test scores and offered educational alternatives to parents and students. 

“The frustration here is that charters need to follow the law, and the overwhelming majority (do),” he said, noting that his organization supports increased oversight rather than tighter restrictions. “Sometimes they get off track and then it’s important that the district does their job. When it’s done well, it’s an excellent system.”

SACRAMENTO – For 20-year-old Sadie Gardere, it just makes sense to call home on her cell phone. Instead of paying 9 cents a minute through Sonoma State University, she pays a flat fee of $45 a month to call her family in the Bay Area. 

In California, land of wireless communications, Gardere’s situation is not unusual. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that 61 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds carry a cell phone. And 3 to 5 percent of the country’s population has dropped standard telephone land lines for cell phone use only. 

But cell phone carrying students nationwide are costing cash-strapped public universities millions because they aren’t using the school-provided telephone services in residence halls and dorm rooms. While universities are only now starting to realize this, they say it’s only a matter of time before they will have to consider raising student costs to make up the difference. 

“I would imagine over time that if there continues to be a further and further drop, it would be reasonable to expect that there would be (an increase in tuition),” said Toni Beron, a spokeswoman for California State University, Long Beach. 

Years ago, becoming a mini phone company meant big business for universities, said Sherry Manning, director and CEO of Educational Communications and Consortia Incorporated, a national university telephone billing service. Universities become wholesalers, setting prices a little higher than what they paid for it, while still offering students a lower price than the local carrier. 

Eventually, however, students started using calling cards and long distance dialing such as 1-800-CALL-ATT because the advertising was aimed at the youth population, Manning said. 

“And now, everyone is shocked that students use the Internet and cell phones as much as they do,” she said. 

Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, a Washington-based wireless trade group, said it’s logical students would use cell phones because in the span of four years, they could live with a dozen different people and move four times. 

“Just imagine the nightmare at the end of the month trying to divide up the phone bill,” Larson said. 

Although many universities contract out phone services through their local telephone provider, many, like the University of California, Davis, have implemented their own switchboard. Either way, officials say, they are still losing out. 

“Schools are saying, I am an educator, not a telephone service,” Manning said. 

The University of California, Davis has seen a 12 percent drop in the last three years, San Diego State has lost 20 percent or $40,000 in two years, Cal State Long Beach a 40 percent drop and University of California, Santa Barbara has lost $500,000 in the last two years. Chico State has lost $400,000 in the last year. The University of Wyoming has seen a 66 percent drop in two years. Florida State University officials also said they have seen a “significant” decrease in revenue. 

And at the University of Rhode Island, student telephone billing has dropped from about $800,000 a year five years ago to just $100,000. Most campuses used the money to offset housing and telephone service costs. 

“Clearly it has been a problem,” said Paul Valenzuela, associate director of communications services at UCSB, which charges 10 cents a minute for long distance calls through its own switchboard. “The last couple crops of freshman have been more cell phone oriented. They are also using e-mail and instant messenger technology more.” 

As a result, some college campuses are going all wireless, dropping landline telephones and equipping students with cell phones and hand-held computers, such as Washington’s American University and the University of Southern Mississippi. 

Greg Roberts, director of marketing and national promotions at Cingular Wireless, said wireless providers are always trying to improve coverage, and campuses that go wireless will have some unique advantages. 

“Teachers could tell students class is canceled because of a snow day and students could access homework information and sporting events,” Roberts said. 

Others, like the University of Wyoming, are simply thinking of inventing its own calling card for students. UC Davis is lowering their landline phone rates to be competitive with wireless and telephone long distance companies. 

UC Davis charges less than it did two years ago, and students can tap into online Web services to subscribe for phone service when they enroll, said Doug Hartline, director of communication resources. 

But when cell phones can offer unlimited night and weekend minutes, as well as free long distance, the reasons are simple, said Gardere, the Sonoma State student. 

“I am renting a house next year with some friends and unless I run into a problem, I will just continue to use my cell phone then too,” she said. “It’s just easier.”

LOS ANGELES – Cardinal Roger Mahony chose his boyhood parish Sunday morning to read a pastoral letter apologizing for not acting sooner in the face of evidence of clergy sexual abuse. 

“I ask for your forgiveness for not understanding earlier the extent of the problem and for not taking swifter action to remove from ministry anyone who had abused a minor in the past,” Mahony said, reading from a two-page letter that was being read to congregations at every parish in the archdiocese. 

“I can assure you today that as far as is humanly possible to know, there is no priest serving in ministry in the archdiocese of Los Angeles who has abused a minor even one time,” he continued. 

About 400 parishioners applauded after Mahony’s remarks and greeted the cardinal warmly as they left the church. 

“It’s encouraging. I’m very pleased,” said Nida Ball of Sun Valley. “It strengthens the faith in us. We’re going to keep going.” 

“I’m glad he came and I was impressed by what he said,” said Jeff Roger of North Hollywood. 

During his homily, Mahony said scandals and controversy have rocked the Catholic Church in the past and have provided the opportunity for renewal and purification. 

“As difficult as this has been for me and everyone else, it is also a time for renewal,” Mahony said, referring to the current sex abuse scandal. “It is a time for us to remember the sinfulness, not only of us as individuals, as priests and bishops, but also as church.” 

Mahony, who leads the nation’s largest archdiocese with 287 parishes and approximately 5 million Catholics, returned from a summit of U.S. bishops in Dallas last week to announce reforms to the Los Angeles archdiocese misconduct review board. 

The cardinal reviewed the steps the Los Angeles archdiocese has taken, including strengthening the role of the laity in supervising the conduct of priests. 

“It is my role to be able to assure you that our church is safe for everyone, but most especially, the most vulnerable of all, our young people, our children.” 

Los Angeles police and sheriff’s officials are reviewing sexual abuse allegations against about 60 priests. Many of the cases involve allegations from years or decades ago and some of the priests named may have died, according to authorities.

SAN FRANCISCO – When pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel student groups clashed verbally at San Francisco State University in May, racial taunts and epithets flew but violence was avoided though tensions roiled in for days. 

Now the university has doled out what it considers just punishments for both sides: The pro-Palestinian group was put on probation for one year during which it loses its university funding and Web site. 

The pro-Israel group San Francisco Hillel received a warning letter. 

“We are using all our resources as a university to make the recent tensions, which echo so painfully the whole Middle East situation, an occasion for learning and growth,” said the university’s President Corrigan. “We believe firmly that the skills and habits of open, yet civil, dissent can be modeled and taught. I can think of no more critical work for us to do.” 

Corrigan’s “critical work” became necessary after a May 7 clash in which police had to stand between students from the two groups who shouted derogatory slurs at each other in tense moments captured on videotapes that were reviewed by the university. 

Pro-Israeli students said pro-Palestinian students yelled “die Jews” among other things, while pro-Palestinian students said they were called “camel jockeys” and other names. 

The university reviewed the conduct of both San Francisco Hillel and the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) for their actions at the May 7 rally. GUPS was found to have “violated procedures and guidelines for rallies/demonstrations,” the university announced Friday. No similar finding was made of Hillel. 

The conflicts began on May 6, when the Muslim Student Association scheduled a pro-Palestine rally titled “Zionism in Palestine and Around the World.” San Francisco Hillel registered to hold a counter-demonstration. 

As a precaution, barricades were set up to ensure public safety and maintain a distance between the two groups. 

But the turnout was low for the May 6 rally and Hillel did not hold a counter demonstration. Hillel vowed to return the following day and hold a demonstration. 

The university allows counter demonstrations as long as participants stay 30 feet apart. 

Hillel drew 350 students and community supporters on May 7 for its demonstration. A GUPS-sponsored counter demonstration drew about 75 people. 

Hillel’s rally ended and student members began to leave the area when a small number of pro-Palestine supporters entered the plaza and began to wave flags, the university said. Some of the pro-Israel supporters returned and the harsh words began to fly. 

Hillel students were eventually escorted, at their request, from the area by police. No one was physically harmed and no arrests were made, the university acknowledged 

But the university singled out GUPS for harshest punishments, stripping the group of it’s funding and placing it on probation. 

Nabeel Silmi, a San Francisco State junior serving as spokesman for the General Union of Palestine Students, called the sanctions against his group unfair. 

“Things were said on both sides. However, the whole GUPS being held responsible for everybody’s comments on May 7 is completely unacceptable,” Silmi told the Los Angeles Times. 

The University’s hopes to smooth relations between the two groups with the creation of a Task Force on Inter-Group Relations, a campus-community group that will make its first recommendations by August 1. 

A three-day retreat for student leaders was also planned for members of the groups involved in the protests.

Study finds nearly a third of gay men at clinics use anti-impotence pills 

SAN FRANCISCO – Dr. Jeffrey Klausner realized he had to do something when he walked through one of the city’s sex clubs and heard pill wrappers crunching beneath his feet. 

“I picked one up, and it was a Viagra sample,” said Klausner, who heads the city health department’s sexually transmitted disease unit. “I thought, ’What’s happening if people are using Viagra in sex clubs?”’ 

His research revealed that nearly a third of gay men surveyed at sexually transmitted disease clinics were using the anti-impotence drug Viagra, often in combination with illegal drugs that encourage risky behavior. 

Health experts say Viagra alone seems to pose no real danger to men who use it recreationally even though they don’t need it to get erections. 

But Klausner found that people who use it to offset the impotence effect of “party drugs” such as Ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine also acknowledged having unprotected sex with more partners — which can breed disease. And Viagra can be deadly if used with amyl nitrite, commonly called “poppers,” which some gay men take to facilitate anal sex. 

Klausner’s study, published June 10 in the London-based journal AIDS, focused on a particularly high-risk group of men in San Francisco. But public health experts say other cities have similar subcultures where both gay and straight men combine Viagra with other drugs. 

“It’s not just something going on at an STD clinic in San Francisco — this is actually pretty common,” said Patricia Case, who directs the Program on Urban Health at Harvard University and is studying “club drug” users for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS experts were already concerned about rising rates of STDs among people who have become complacent about condom use because effective AIDS drugs now allow infected people to appear healthy and live longer. 

Now, Viagra needs to be studied more closely as another possible factor in sexually reckless behavior, said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, the CDC’s deputy chief of sexually transmitted diseases. 

“I see the Viagra story as sort of a subplot in all of this,” he said. “We take all of this very seriously.” 

Sipping a drink with friends at a popular gay bar at the edge of San Francisco’s Castro District, Lim, a 22-year-old gay man, said Viagra is simply another part of the drug scene at nightclubs, sex clubs and raves. 

Lim, who gave only his last name, says he began mixing Viagra with crystal meth or Ecstasy about two years ago. It takes about 30 minutes to kick in, he says, and can keep sex going strong for hours. 

Lim says he’s never had to buy these party pills, because if you’re “young and cute, it’s just there.” 

Viagra is supposed to be available only by prescription, after a doctor’s consultation, at a cost of $8 to $10 a pill. However, Internet companies sell the drug to anyone who completes an online survey. Viagra then gets traded among friends or resold for $20 to $30 a pill. 

Pfizer Inc., which introduced Viagra in 1998 and now makes about $1.2 billion a year on the drug, says it’s not responsible for drugs obtained without a prescription, or Viagra knockoffs made by someone else. 

“We were opposed to the recreational use of Viagra from day one,” said company spokesman Geoff Cook. 

Pfizer has marketed Viagra mostly to men 40 and older who suffer from erectile dysfunction, but the little blue diamonds have also become known for boosting the sexual stamina of younger, healthy men, both gays and heterosexuals. 

“I thought, ’Hey, what a good idea!”’ said a heterosexual 33-year-old Web illustrator, recalling the time he first combined Viagra with Ecstasy. It was at Burning Man, the no-holds-barred, weeklong counterculture festival held in a Nevada desert each year. 

“If I had not been on Ecstasy at the time I would have never thought of it,” the San Francisco man said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was an all-night lovemaking session.” 

He now uses Viagra regularly, and has combined it with Ecstasy twice in the past two years, although he considers it an “unsafe decision.” 

While prescribed and marketed mostly to men 40 and older who suffer from erectile dysfunction, Viagra quickly became known for boosting the sexual stamina of younger, healthy men. 

“Those of us really close to the street see what’s going on,” said Alan Brown, who runs the Electric Dreams Foundation, a national group that promotes health and safety at gay nightclubs. In the complicated mix of legal and illegal drugs partyers use to medicate themselves, Viagra is a “prolonger,” considered a natural companion to the “disinhibitors.” 

Both come in handy at places like The Power Exchange, a four-story building in the South of Market district that is the largest, best advertised and busiest of San Francisco’s five regulated sex clubs. 

The Power Exchange offers everything from jail cells to camping tents where strangers can act out sexual fantasies in front of onlookers. Patrons are required to read the rules and sign in, and monitors are required to troll the clubs to make sure safe sex is being practiced. No alcohol is served, and a sign warns against illegal drug use. 

Unfortunately, there’s little research on what happens when Viagra is combined with illegal “club drugs.” 

“Nobody knows about these interactions,” Case said. “There have been fatalities — they just haven’t been published.” 

In San Francisco, 43 percent of the gay and bisexual Viagra users surveyed said they mixed the drug with Ecstasy, 28 percent with speed and 15 percent with “poppers,” a liquid inhalant that relaxes muscles and heightens sensation during anal sex. 

That 15 percent is worrisome, since combining Viagra and poppers can cause an extreme, deadly drop in blood pressure, according to Dr. Eric Christoff in Chicago, a former medical volunteer at gay dance parties. 

Still, Christoff says he prescribes Viagra “to lots of men in all age ranges.” 

“If the person is using Ecstasy and can’t get an erection, then takes this to obtain one, is that a problem? I’m not sure that it is,” he said. 

Christoff says he warns his patients not to take Viagra with amyl nitrite, and documents the warning in their medical records. “I will say, ’You cannot combine this with poppers. Don’t do it. Don’t even be in the same room with it.”’ 

Tests for Viagra aren’t routine in emergency rooms or autopsies, so it’s unknown how many deaths have resulted from the popper-Viagra cocktail, said Dr. Edward Boyer, a Boston-area toxicologist. 

But Boyer believes the combination killed an apparently healthy 48-year-old man he saw in an emergency room. The man had a heart attack in a place where gay men meet for sex, and carried bottles of poppers in his pocket. 

Klausner is concerned about these potential fatalities — but he’s even more worried about the alarming rise in STDs. 

Syphilis cases jumped to 183 in the first four months of this year, up from just 41 by April 1998. Rectal gonorrhea is up nearly 50 percent in the same period, and the city expects 750 to 900 new HIV infections this year, up from about 500 five years ago. 

Klausner’s study didn’t conclude that Viagra leads to these diseases, but it did find a significant correlation. His survey also showed that uninfected Viagra users were twice as likely to have had unprotected sex with someone who is or might be infected with the AIDS virus than uninfected men not taking Viagra. 

“It enables them to have more sexual partners and sex for a longer periods of time,” he said. “Both of those are major factors for getting STDs.” 

The government has cracked down recently on abuse of Viagra and other prescription drugs. Internet pharmacies in California, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and other states have been targeted, including a Los Angeles operation that allegedly filled more than 3,500 prescriptions for Viagra and other drugs without a “good-faith medical examination.” 

Klausner and other public health officials also want stronger warning labels, including urging Viagra users to wear condoms. 

Pfizer says Viagra labels and advertisements clearly indicate that the drug doesn’t protect against STDs. Cook, the Pfizer spokesman, said the drug maker also supports the crackdown on Internet sales and knockoff pills. 

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Klausner’s complaints about Pfizer’s labels, said FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan. 

But Viagra, which enables erections for up to 12 hours after taking it, may be just the beginning. Eli Lilly and Co. is developing another anti-impotence drug, Cialis, which promises to last 24 to 36 hours.

SHOW LOW, Ariz. – Two mammoth wildfires were burning together Sunday and were expected to push flames unchecked into this mountain city. Firefighters prepared to defend homes where they could. 

“This fire is going to hit Show Low,” said Larry Humphrey, the incident fire commander. “How hard and how quickly depends on Mother Nature.” 

The fires were about 1 1/2 miles apart and would form a 50-mile-long line of flame advancing through paper-dry forest in eastern Arizona, said fire spokesman Jim Paxon. 

“This is going to be a tough day,” Paxon said. “We’re going to get beat up pretty hard.” 

About 293,000 acres — 457 square miles — have burned since Tuesday, he said. As many as 25,000 people have fled homes from more than half a dozen towns. 

At least 185 homes have been destroyed, Paxon said. Of those, 115 burned in towns just west of Show Low. Seventy were in Heber-Overgaard, a community 35 miles west of Show Low that was overrun Saturday by the other fire. 

Paxon said firefighters were able to save hundreds of homes. 

Show Low’s 7,700 residents were ordered out late Saturday after the flames jumped a fire line crews were building about eight miles west of town, and the 3,500 residents of neighboring Pinetop-Lakeside followed early Sunday.

Similarities of two recent incidents in which a male suspect allegedly laid in wait inside the UC Berkeley dorm rooms of female victims have the police thinking the occurrences are related. 

On Monday, a man reportedly entered a dorm at 2300 Warring St. and hid in a closet before fleeing after a female resident opened the closet door.  

After hearing of Monday’s incident, another resident of the same building reported to police that she saw a man with a video camera approach her and pull back curtains while she was showering on June 14.  

Both women described the intruder as about 6 feet tall, 30 years old, 200 pounds with short hair. Police believe that because the descriptions of the suspect and crimes are so similar, they may be indeed looking for one man.  

According to Inspector Lui of the Berkeley Police Department, the intruder in each incident likely entered the dorm building through the front door which had been left open on both occasions.  

On Monday morning a 20-year-old dorm resident heard noises coming from a hallway closet at about 11:45. She tried to open the door, but felt someone pulling on the handle from inside. According to a police report, the resident at first believed someone was playing a joke on her. 

However, after repeated attempts to open the door, the resident walked away, fearing an intruder. From the hallway, she saw a man backing out of the closet while carrying a garbage can. The man left carrying the can through the front door and headed south on Warring Street. The resident later found the can discarded on the street. The suspect was wearing khaki shorts and sunglasses. 

Police at Stanford University are also searching for a man suspected of prowling inside two campus dorms in May and early June. On May 25 a suspect described as heavy-set, Hispanic, mid to late 20s, 5 feet and 3 inches tall, allegedly approached a student and followed her into her dorm after she had been sunbathing. The suspect then allegedly groped and grabbed the 20-year-old victim from behind before a dormmate helped scare him away. 

A man fitting the same description was seen June 10 in the women’s restroom of Stanford’s Stern Hall at midnight. A resident’s assistant reportedly escorted the same man out of Stanford’s Wilbur Hall an hour later. 

Police are reminding students that they should not open the doors to their dorms to anyone they do not know. Anyone with information about the UC Berkeley case is urged to call either campus police at 642-6760 or Berkeley police at 981-5900. With information about the Stanford incidents call police at 650-723-9633.  

Contact reporter at  

chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net

When Berkeley was incorporated in 1878, Shattuck Avenue was already established as its "main street" at Berkeley Station. There was a hotel, a handful of shops, a social hall, a railroad station and a few homes. The blocks surrounding Berkeley Station soon became the civic center as well as the business center, linking Berkeley’s early shoreline community of Ocean View with the campus community nestled around the University of California. 

Berkeley's population remained small until the early 1900s when Berkeley experienced a dramatic increase in population. There were three primary reasons for this increase: the growth of the University of California which brought a corresponding increase to the population; the introduction of an electric rail system in 1891; and the 1906 Earthquake and Fire which drove about 20,000 San Franciscans to Berkeley within a few months.  

With the economic growth stimulated by the increased population, downtown was rebuilt and transformed. Between 1901 and 1916 nineteenth-century wood-frame buildings were replaced by impressive Classic Revival styled masonry buildings. Inspired by the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Berkeley's downtown became an essay in Neo-classicism. First-floor shops were often combined with upper-story offices or hotel space in a classic three-part composition where the ground floor served as the base, the upper floors as the shaft, and the heavy decorated cornice as the capital. Windows were deeply recessed into the wall of the building and regularly spaced in symmetrical compositions. Classical decorative details were molded from stone, terra cotta, concrete, or sheet metal, and used as ornamentation around entries, windows, and cornices to emphasize the composition of the building. A variation on the Classical theme, the Mission Revival style was equally popular with its tile roofs, balconies, and square corner bays.  

Downtown Berkeley escaped the redevelopment that gutted so many California cities and because of this retains its early 20th century character. In 1991 the Downtown Berkeley Association and the City of Berkeley, in recognition of downtown's potential for economic revitalization through historic preservation received a Main Street Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Under the auspices of the Main Street Project, Design Guidelines were adopted to preserve, and then enhance, downtown’s historic ambience. Since these guidelines have been adopted several projects have been completed that contribute to, and enhance its historic character. The goal of Berkeley's Downtown Design Guidelines is to protect downtown's special early 20th century character while providing design guidance for new businesses and housing.  

The Downtown Design Guidelines (available from Zoning) use the Masonic Temple building as its primary example of a Classic Revival Styled building. The four-story building of light buff-colored brick on a steel frame is divided vertically and horizontally into a classic three-part composition. The entrance to the former Temple is in the center of the Bancroft Way facade and is surrounded by carved gray granite with a stained glass Masonic square-and-compass emblem in the transom. There are stores on the first floor and elaborately decorated Masonic Temple meeting rooms above. With the declining popularity of fraternal organizations, the Berkeley lodges merged with the Albany Temple in 1970 and abandoned the downtown Berkeley temple building. 

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

To the Editor: 

The fires are stoked and flaming in the Bari v. FBI case. Judge Wilken has ordered everyone back into court at 10 am and at 1:30 pm (the 1:30 pm may be consolidated into the 10 am slot, stay tuned) Friday June 28 for two hearings at the Oakland Federal Courthouse, 13th and Clay, Oakland, 4th Fl. We would encourage our supporters to pack the courtroom. What will be heard is as follows:  

n 10 am.The SF Chron & Oak Tribune motion to remove the gag order on the jury will be heard with newspaper attorneys arguing that gagging the jury from speaking to the press is a violation by Judge Wilken of the First Amendment of the Constitution. The newspapers are expected to prevail either in the lower court or in the appeals court. Judge Wilken's reasoning for the gag order makes no sense to anyone. She stated that it would affect the appeals court's ability to rule on future motions in our case. How these back robed appellate court judges could be affected by a jury interview in the paper is a mystery to all.  

n 10 am or 1:30 p.m. (tba) Judge Wilken has yet to enter the verdict into the court record which, in effect, freezes all appeals on both sides. She is holding a hearing to set a new trial date forDarryl Cherney's single claim of false arrest against Agents Reikes, Sena, and Doyle and OPD officers Sims and Sitterud. The options for the Bari-Cherney legal team are as follows:  

a) set a new trial date. This could generate additional attention on the FBI and generate addition jury awards. It will not affect the other verdict.  

b) Drop the claim. This will not occur on Friday.  

c) Stipulate with the FBI and OPD to hold the new trial after all appeals are settled. This could happen but the judge may not allow it.... or she might.  

d) Settle the claim out of court. This settlement could be for a dollar amount for just the single claim or it could be a global settlement for the FBI and OPD to 

drop all appeals in exchange for our side not taking the false arrest claim to trial this year.  

e) the judge may dismiss the claim herself with a directed verdict in favor of the defendants  

All options are on the table at this time and we are awaiting the FBI and OPD's verbal response as to what they intend to do Friday June 28. 

Darryl Cherney  

A girl comes of age 

Cuban-born lesbian playwright Maria Irene Fornes had her first play produced in New York in 1963. She quickly became part of a coterie of underground off-off-Broadway playwrights in the 1960s that included Sam Shepard, Terrence McNally, Murray Mednick and others. 

Now in her seventies, and the author of more than 20 plays, Fornes is still writing. In fact, she is one of the few playwrights in America who has managed to make a career out of small New York productions. 

On Thursday at Berkeley’s Julia Morgan Center, Shotgun Players opened a curious production of Fornes’ 1987 Obie Award-winning play "Abingdon Square." 

Set largely in an upper middle class New York parlor, "Abingdon Square" is the story of a 15-year-old girl-woman’s coming of age in the decade beginning 1908. 

Orphaned waif Marion (an enthusiastic, girlish Myla Balugay) marries a much older wealthy man (affably remote Christopher Herold). The play then follows Marion’s maturing process as a person, and the evolution of her marriage. 

Structurally, "Abingdon Square" is told in a series of scenes, some of them very short, punctuated by blackouts. In fact, in director Shana Cooper’s production, some of the scenelets are very short indeed, lasting only a few seconds and containing no dialogue—just an emotionally motivated crossing of the stage by a character, or a moment of portentous eye contact between two actors. 

Soon the romantic fantasies that Marion can’t control disturb her enthusiasm for her marriage. She discovers other men. 

Marion’s naïve, outgoing personality grows more somber and devious. Her husband’s benign affability sours. A potential lover materials and identifies himself as Marion’s shadow. 

But "Abingdon Square" is a difficult and disjointed script. Under Cooper’s direction there is little continuity between story segments, and the timeline is often unclear. 

Thematically, the play is about innocence and loss of innocence. In a 1908 of repressed conventionality, Marion struggles fearfully with her own vivid romantic imagination. 

Although the story is simple, however, the script manages to be didactic, telling its tale without subtlety. Structurally, the many short scenes work against the opportunity to examine relationships in depth. 

When the one-dimensional character identifies himself as Marion’s shadow, "Abingdon Square" waffles between simplistic psychological story and ponderous allegory. 

Ultimately, the characters in "Abingdon Square" represent types and conditions. It becomes, then, a play about ideas rather than people, so it’s hard to take the characters seriously, or care about them. 

Much of "Abingdon’s" story arrives in a rush in the play’s final quarter. By its conclusion, we’ve witnessed largely a formulaic melodrama with stock characters. 

Director Cooper’s carefully mapped staging never gels. Much of the action—really the fault of the script—telegraphs itself in advance. Scenes repeat or reinforce the obvious. 

Most important in this production, perhaps, Balugay doesn’t merge into a single character Marion’s initial joy at marriage, and her subsequent disconcerting fantasy about sex. Herold, usually a strong performer, doesn’t find a way to make interesting his cartoon husband. 

Both husband and wife are ideas, and their relationship is a theory. Because the dialogue is ungraceful and speechifying, it’s a handful for the actors. 

Andrea Day is amusing in a smaller role as Marion’s prurient sex-obsessed friend. Jacob Thompson is an enthusiastic, boyish stepson Michael. Lisa Clark has designed a clever, lacy Edwardian set, which includes a parlor and a garden. 

It’s odd that "Abingdon Square" won a Best Play Obie in 1987. That’s a good example of the eccentric vagaries of literary award-giving. 

This play may be interesting to hard-core theater buffs who won’t have another opportunity to see it performed, but for the average theater-goer, "Abingdon Square" probably will not be exciting. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for "American Theatre," "Backstage West," "Callboard," and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@hotpop.com or fax him at 419-781-2516.