Developer Panoramic Interests bought the lot at 1950 Martin Luther King Jr Way, fueling speculation that the strip mall there will be razed for a building with apartments and commercial space. 

Currently on the property are Kragen Auto Parts, Radio Shack, and Pet Food Express, at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Way and University Avenue. 

According to Berkeley Development Project Coordinator David Fogerty, Panoramic plans to redevelop the site and has already settled on Daniel Solomon of the architectural firm Solomon ETC to design a new building. Solomon designed the planned five-story Fine Arts building at 2471 Shattuck Ave. 

Chris Hudson, project manager at Panoramic, would not confirm the official’s statement, saying that his company had not decided what to do with the property and that a final decision would not be made for at least six months. 

However, Gregory Edwards, lead associate manager at Pet Foods Express, said that Panoramic is not interested in renewing the lease and plans to redevelop the site to include living and commercial spaces. 

All three stores operate under the same master lease, which expires at the end of next year, according to Hudson.  

Kragen has expressed interest in remaining at the site but said the offer was too low.  

The site is one of the few strip mall developments in downtown Berkeley, with a parking lot in front of the storefronts. Although Hudson refused to speculate on Panoramic’s intentions, he called the development "not particularly attractive" and said that his firm "does not like strip malls." 

Another potential strike against negotiating a new lease is building height. The property is zoned for four stories, but the current structure is only one.  

A new development would probably include ground-floor commercial space and three floors of apartments. This has been a popular formula for developers recently, as the region’s housing crisis has made downtown housing developments highly profitable. 

Berkeley’s zoning law requires 20 percent of housing units in new apartment buildings to be rented below market rate. 

Panoramic bought the site last month from Aldar Investment, Inc., according to Hudson. 

Panoramic is one of the most prolific builders in downtown Berkeley and has recently built or planned several mixed-use developments in the area. In addition to the Fine Arts building the firm is planning a commercial and residential development at Darling Flower Shop at 2008 University Ave. 

To the Editor: 

Dr. Saba (June 29-30 edition of the Berkeley Daily Planet) gets personal, emotional and condemnatory in the letter stating "that the Palestinian movement wants...peace...and Palestinian state along side Israel." 

That impression is not supported by the Palestinian National Convenant (PNC). 

PNC Article 2 defines Palestine as all of Jordan and Israel, acknowledging Jordan is already the Palestinian state. Article 9 declares "armed struggle" as the "strategy to liberate Palestine." 

Article 19 declares "the establishment of Israel is...null and void." Article 20 states "the Jews are not one people (but) are...citizens of the states to which they belong." 

Finally, Article 22 claims "the liberation of Palestine will liquidate the Zionist presence." 

In this factual light, one can respond to Dr. Saba's references to "inexcusable" "cheap shots" and "crap" only by saying, "Physician, heal thyself." 

David Altschul, J.D. 

Berkeley 

P.S. Readers who are more interested in fact than in fiery rhetoric can learn more by reading "Politics, Lies and Videotape" by Yitschak Ben Gad.

SECAUCUS, N.J. — In the beginning, there was Phil. 

History reminds us that on Nov. 6, 1967, “The Phil Donahue Show” premiered. 

Then, 29 years and nearly 7,000 shows later, after a million audience members had passed through his studios in Dayton, Ohio, then Chicago and New York, he taped his final “Donahue” on May 2, 1996. 

By then, the genre he pioneered — the syndicated weekday talk show with audience interaction and viewers phoning in — was jammed with tawdry alternatives. 

“The daytime arena changed, the ground moved under my feet,” says Donahue with a knowing laugh, “and I was glad to leave.” 

Now he’s back, ready to start anew Monday night on MSNBC, a cable network that wasn’t born yet when he last asked “Is the caller there?” 

Since its July 15, 1996, sign-on, MSNBC has spun its wheels in competition with CNN and especially Fox News Channel. Now it hopes to gain traction with a revamped schedule on which “Donahue” will occupy a key position. 

During the same period, Donahue says he was happy learning how to sail and not wearing a necktie. He threw in with Ralph Nader’s third-party presidential bid, which in November 2000 received 3 percent of the vote. Last September, like millions of others, he was rocked by the terrorist attacks. 

Soon after that, corporate corruption and scandals in the Catholic church began to grab headlines. Donahue felt like getting back in the talk-show game. 

“There was never a smorgasbord of issues in my lifetime like we have now,” he says, cocking his silver head for that familiar pop-eyed take with which he highlights a point. 

In his freshly claimed office at MSNBC headquarters, he outlines “Donahue” Redux: news-based, most often live, no studio audience for him to dash up and down the aisles of. It will be, he promises, “a thoughtful program that we hope will feature lots of voices. We’re gonna spend a lot of time on what ails us” as a society. 

Airing weeknights at 8 p.m. EDT, the new “Donahue” will pit the Old Master against cable-news talk champ Bill O’Reilly on Fox and CNN’s recently acquired marquee talent Connie Chung. 

So here he is, a TV veteran who in December will turn 67, reprising his act on a medium usually beholden to the next new splashy thing. 

And, most intriguingly of all, he remains a self-avowed, unapologetic liberal — not exactly commonplace on TV, however vilified by some the media may be for its supposedly liberal slant. 

“Much buzz!” says Donahue. ”‘Here comes the liberal. Will he be fair? Will he be messianic?’ I don’t think conservatives have to take this test. They’re not scary. Liberals are scary. Liberals challenge the present order, and we cannot be surprised that they’re not very celebrated.” 

By contrast, conservative pundits are on a winning streak. 

Witness the success of the Fox News Channel personalities, who, like their network overall, have scored with a “fair and balanced” claim that, by implication, demonizes other outlets for leaning to the left. If liberals were celebrated, instead of suspect, wouldn’t scads of them already be on the air? 

“How would we know?” Donahue shoots back. “We’ve never really given anybody a chance, have we? (Paul) Begala, (James) Carville,” he says, citing the designated liberals on CNN’s weeknight “Crossfire” talk show — “these are centrists!”

Barons face must-win game  

The Berkeley/Albany Barons will play Alameda Merchants today for a spot in the Babe Ruth state tournament. 

The game will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Encinal High School’s Willie Stargell Field in Alameda. 

Berkeley/Albany had the best regular season record in the section, and manager Joe Pinguelo had assurances from the league office that his team was headed for the state tournament regardless of their sectional tournament results. But Wednesday’s forfeit loss to Fremont forced the Barons into today’s must-win game. 

Cal adds Colorado State to 2003 football schedule  

Cal has added a three-game series with Colorado State to its upcoming football schedules, beginning with the 2003 season, Athletic Director Steve Gladstone announced Thursday.  

The Rams, who compete in the Mountain West Conference and have made six bowl appearances over the last eight years, will play twice in Memorial Stadium before the Bears make the trip to Ft. Collins. Next year, Cal will host CSU on Sept. 6, with the Southern Mississippi game, originally set for that date, moving to Aug. 30. The CSU series resumes in Berkeley on Sept. 8, 2007, with Cal going on the road Sept. 27, 2008.  

As they are this season, the Bears will also play 12 regular-season games next year. After the home dates with Southern Mississippi and Colorado State, Cal visits Utah Sept. 13 and Illinois Sept. 20 before starting Pac-10 action vs. USC Sept. 27 in Memorial Stadium.  

The Utah game completes a two-game contract with the Utes, who visited Berkeley in 2000, a 24-21 Cal victory. 

Joyce to represent Canada at Commonwealth Games 

Former Cal star Jennifer Joyce was named to the 42-member national team that will represent her native Canada at the XVIIth Commonwealth Games. The games will take place in Manchester, England, July 25 to August 4.  

Joyce, who hails from Vancouver, B.C., was a two-time All-American in the hammer at Cal. She completed her eligibility as a Golden Bear last spring and holds Cal’s and the Canadian national record in the event. Last month, Joyce placed second in the hammer at the Canadian National Track and Field Championships with a heave of 205’03”.  

During her time at Cal, Joyce was one of the premier athletes in the hammer event. This past season she won the hammer at the Pac-10 Championships with a throw of 204’01”, after placing second as a freshman and sophomore and third last year as a junior. She earned her second set of All-America honors after placing seventh in the hammer at the 2002 NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La.

By Kurtis Alexander 

Daily Planet Staff 

City leaders are once again looking to offer comment to their senior policy makers in Washington. This time, the subject at issue is the USA Patriot Act. 

Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington is writing a resolution condemning civil rights violations that he and other critics say are imbedded in federal legislation that was passed last October in response to the threat of terrorism. 

“Under the Patriot Act, agencies like the FBI or state police or John Ashcroft can detain people whenever they want,” Worthington said. “And detainees are not given any opportunity to defend themselves.” 

“And almost all the people who are detained, from what I hear, turn out to be innocent.” 

Federal legislators, who passed the bill with bipartisan support, have claimed that expanded powers granted to law enforcement officials under the Patriot Act are critical to national security. 

In two weeks Worthington will bring the resolution he is drafting to City Council. If approved, the Council will forward it to the White House by the end of the month. 

Worthington is expecting unanimous support from the Council.  

“I probably will vote for it because I think the Act is stupid,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. “I think the government has gone way too far with this.” 

Berkeley leaders have a long and well-known history of weighing in on political issues outside city limits. Most recently, the city was thrust into the national spotlight when Council called for a quick end to the bombing in Afghanistan. 

Despite national and local concern that City Council often oversteps its boundaries, Worthington said the federal Patriotic Act was not a distant issue. 

“This affects people right here in Berkeley,” he said. 

Since the Patriot Act was passed last year, federal authorities ordered the detention of at least one resident, who officials at first thought lived in Berkeley, for suspicion of an association with terrorists, Berkeley police said. 

Police discovered later, though, that the resident did not live in Berkeley. 

The city is not alone in its opposition to the Patriot Act. Seven cities in the country have expressed written protest to the law, according to the Massachusetts-based Bill of Rights Defense Committee. 

The cities include Ann Arbor, Mich., Carrboro, N.C., Denver, Colo., and Amherst, Leverett, Cambridge and Northhampton, Mass., 

“Having cities pass resolutions on the Patriot Act and similar legislation can help remind the president and the attorney general that they’re not in charge,” said Berkeley resident Ann Fagan Ginger, a lawyer and professor at San Francisco State University who is currently teaching a course called “Human rights and peace law in the United States.” 

Fagan Ginger said the Berkeley resolution will not fall upon deaf ears. “The Bush administration will know about this.” 

In April, City Council voted to send a letter to President George Bush expressing local concerns about First Amendment infringements by the federal government. Worthington called the letter “mild.” Although his pending resolution is similar, he said, it is “more forceful and specific.” 

To the Editor: 

Polls show that the majority of Americans want medical care equally available to all through adoption of a single-payer "Canadian System". 

Long overdue is call for adoption of an analogous single-payer public education system. The Supreme Court's unreasonable green light for school voucher plans--assertedly to open equal educational opportunity to the children of poor families by at least partially paying with public funds for flight from inferior public schools--will tragically diminish the money available to those public school districts most in need. As vouchers produce a domino-effect collapse of public school districts, Bush-league over-priced private academies will proliferate, as occurred all too often under the post-WWII GI Bill of Rights. Our answer should be speedy adoption of a single-payer K-12 equal-expenditure-per-pupil nationwide public school system totally financed by steeply graduated federal income taxes in the upper brackets, with initial extra expenditures to rehabilitate ramshackle schools in poor neighborhoods. 

Judith Segard Hunt 

Berkeley

Flames broke out after warehouse employees had left for the day 

A two-alarm fire caused $200,000 in damage to two warehouses on Second Street near Gilman Street in west Berkeley Wednesday, fire officials and a warehouse manager said. 

No one was injured.  

Just before 6 p.m., city solid waste manager Tom Farrell was working across the street when he noticed flames jumping out of a warehouse roof. He called firefighters who arrived at 5:53 p.m., assistant fire Chief Tom Orth said. With help from the Albany Fire Department, firefighters contained the blaze by 6:33 p.m., Orth said. 

A wooden office inside the warehouse is primary what was burned.  

The business, Hawkins and Hawkins, makes street signs for cities and counties, most of which are in California.  

It is not known how soon the fire damage will be cleaned up for the warehouses to reopen, said Hawkins and Hawkins manager Patrick Hackett. 

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined but appears to have been accidental and not related to the heat, Orth said. 

The city needs to fill about 70 positions on more than 40 volunteer boards and commissions that advise the City Council. 

The Youth Commission leads the pack, with seven vacancies on the nine-member board. The Mental Health Commission, the South Berkeley Community Improvement Plan Advisory Committee and the Elmwood Advisory Board, which examines the refurbishment of the Elmwood Theater on College Avenue, each has six vacancies. 

To view the vacancies and obtain applications go to the City Clerk’s office, 2180 Milvia St., or to the city’s Web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions.

Q: I heard that condominiums are no longer exempt from rent control. Is this true? 

A: It’s true in certain circumstances. The Costa-Hawkins Act exempted most condominiums from rent control. An amendment to that state law, which went into effect January 1, 2002, says that units that were subject to rent control and are converted into condos, but not sold separately to a "bona fide purchaser for value," are still regulated by the Rent Ordinance if they are rented. In other words, if the same person owns the unit before and after it is converted, or if the owner merely transfers the property to, say, a relative for a token sum, then the unit is still subject to rent control. This amendment is designed to prevent owners from exempting units in rent-controlled jurisdictions merely by changing the form of ownership. Units that are converted into condos and then sold to a legitimate buyer, however, are exempt from the registration and rent ceiling requirements of the Rent Ordinance, but are still governed by the security deposit and good cause for eviction provisions of the Rent Ordinance.  

Q: I live in a house that is divided into five apartments, but only four are registered. My unit, the attic unit, is not registered. Does that mean my landlord is out of compliance for not reporting my unit? 

A: Not necessarily. If your unit was created by converting uninhabitable space into habitable space after June 30, 1980, the Rent Board considers it "new construction." (See Berkeley Municipal Code section 13.76.050 I.) Newly constructed units, including attics, basements, and garages that were converted into living space after that date are exempt from the registration and rent ceiling requirements of the Rent Ordinance (but the security deposit and good cause for eviction provisions still apply). If you discover that the attic was used as living space before 1980, then your apartment should be registered with the Rent Board. 

You can e-mail the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board at rent@ci.berkeley.ca.us for individual questions, or you can call or visit the office at 2125 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704 (northeast corner of Milvia/Center Streets) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, between 9 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., and on Wednesday between 12:00 noon and 6:30 p.m. Our telephone number is (510) 644-6128. Our website address is www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent. 

The City of Berkeley is joining the book-club craze, picking Ralph Ellison's “Invisible Man,” a first-person narrative on race that is considered by many as one of the great American novels, as the first selection. 

Beginning at noon Friday, the Friends of the Berkeley Library will give out 500 free copies of the novel while supplies last at all Berkeley public libraries. 

Published in 1952, the novel features an unnamed black narrator who is introduce in a basement in Harlem, stealing electricity to power his extensively illuminated dwelling from which the self-described invisible man tells his story. 

According to Pat Mullan, supervising librarian at the Berkeley Library, the idea for the book club began earlier this year, prompted by “Ralph Ellison: An American Journey” a documentary made by Berkeley filmmaker Avon Kirkland, as well as by the book's 50th anniversary. 

The documentary is scheduled to be screened on Aug. 22 at the recently renovated Central Library. Other events, including a community discussion on the novel on Aug. 15 and a couple of lectures in August, are also scheduled as part of the book club events. 

In addition to the events, several local bookstores have committed themselves to selling the book at discounted prices and are prominently displaying the title in their stores.  

The library also will be distributing special pins, so that those who are reading the novel can identify themselves on the street, which organizers hope will lead to a discussion on the book. 

“It's kind of like having an attempt at a community bonding experience through the book,” says Pat Mullen, supervising librarian at the Central Public Library. 

Mullen is the first to admit that the nearly 600-page book, which deals with the tough topic of race in America and is routinely in the annual list of banned books, is not typical community book club fare. But, she adds, this is Berkeley. 

“I think it would be a harder run in another city,'' Mullen says. “Where this one city, one book project has been done before, people tend to choose books from the more traditional cannon, but it seems like Berkeley's got a pretty open mind.'”

The Bay Area Freeway Service Patrol, a roving tow truck service that scours local freeways in search of stranded motorists and dangerous debris, is expanding its coverage area and hours of operation. 

The gradual increases will add 50 new miles of coverage to the current 394-mile regionwide network and boost the number of hours patrolled by almost 20 percent. In addition, six more trucks will be put out on the roads, bringing the total to 74. 

In Alameda County, a second truck and three more miles will be added July 15 to the coverage area along Interstate Highway 580 between Castro Valley and Pleasanton. 

"By quickly clearing accidents, stalls and debris in this congested corridor, the FSP can help commuters get to work and back safely and expeditiously,'' said Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty. 

In addition, both morning and evening hours of operation have been extended on Interstate Highway 880 and state Route 84 in Alameda County between Union City and Newark, and will be extended in Contra Costa County on state Route 4 between Martinez and Antioch and on state Route 242 in Concord as of July 15. 

The morning shift in Alameda County now runs from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. The evening shift will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Alameda County .

Interest in the technology
has grown since Sept. 11 

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — Military officials Thursday showed off a futuristic robot plane specifically designed to survive the rigors of combat, unlike other pilotless drones plagued by crashes on the front lines of the war on terrorism. 

Since the fall, at least eight robot planes used by the U.S. military have crashed, in and around Afghanistan, Iraq and the Philippines. The latest crash, of a Global Hawk reconnaissance plane, came on Wednesday in Pakistan. 

Despite the crashes, military officials remain bullish on unmanned air vehicles, or UAVs. The high-profile role the planes, most notably Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ much smaller Predator, have taken on has helped in attracting interest in the technology, military officials and analysts alike said. 

“I doubt you could have found 12 congressmen prior to Sept. 11 who could have told you what a Predator was, much less who made it,” said Larry Dickerson, senior unmanned air vehicle analyst for Forecast International/DMS in Newtown, Conn. Dickerson predicts the global market for military drones could be worth $7.5 billion over the next decade. 

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, which develops future technologies for use by the Pentagon, has at least a half-dozen other UAVs and UCAVs — the “C” stands for combat — under development. Among them are jet- and rotor-driven craft, some no larger than a cake pan. 

On Thursday, it displayed for reporters one of the larger of the planes, the X-45. 

Developed by DARPA, the Air Force and The Boeing Co. for $256 million, the sleek, tailless jet is the first unpiloted plane to be developed specifically to carry weapons into combat. Beginning in Vietnam, other drones, including the Predator now flying in Afghanistan, have been modified to carry missiles. 

“This is designed as a tactical aircraft. Global Hawk and Predator were not,” said Col. Michael Leahy Jr., manager of DARPA’s UCAV program. 

While Predator and Global Hawk have been pushed into combat while still under development, Leahy said the X-45 is being designed with that purpose already in mind. 

“The difference is, we see that coming, The assumption is it will be taken to the field,” he said. 

Boeing has built two X-45s so far, one trimmed in blue, the other in red. Only the blue plane has flown, taking to the air May 22 and June 13 above the Mojave Desert. The second will begin flight tests this fall. 

Sitting side-by-side, the two Y-shaped planes both sport a gaping air intake instead of a canopy. The planes have a 34-foot wingspan and are just 4 feet thick, giving them a slim, stealthy profile. 

Those working on the X-45 call it the “Stingray.” Leahy said he prefers the nickname “Shrike” for what could eventually be designated the A-45. 

Military officials said the slightly larger production model of the plane will be able to carry more than 3,000 pounds of bombs to drop on enemy radar and missile batteries, something it could be ready to do by 2010. The plane is designed to fly autonomously, with a single operator — military officials bristle if you call them “pilots” — overseeing as many as four of them at a time. 

The use of drones in combat in Afghanistan has already become the stuff of pop culture. This week’s “Doonesbury” cartoon strip is a running gag about a government agent’s intern accidentally launching a Predator and firing a missile. 

Richard Aboulafia, director of aviation for the Fairfax, Va.-based Teal Group, said it’s premature to spell out a combat role for robot planes when their use for less risky reconnaissance missions has yet to be perfected. 

“We’re getting way ahead of ourselves here,” Aboulafia said. “It could lead to great things, but don’t have any illusions. You’re not going to see 100 X-45s deployed by 2010.” 

Dickerson echoed concerns about overselling the capabilities of such planes. 

“There’s been a lot of hype and a lot of people are very excited about these systems and they’re trying to push them to bank on that interest, but there’s a danger they could overstep their boundaries and do themselves more damage than they realize,” he said. 

Leahy said he was aware of those concerns. 

“We’ve oversold ourselves in the past. We’re cognizant of that,” he said. “In this program, we’re trying to stay within our bounds.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — The California schoolgirl whose atheist father successfully sued to have the Pledge of Allegiance declared unconstitutional has no problem with reciting the pledge, her mother said Thursday. 

“I was concerned that the American public would be led to believe that my daughter is an atheist or that she has been harmed by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words ’one nation under God,”’ said the mother, Sandra Banning, in a statement. “In our home we are practicing Christians and are active in our church.” 

Banning, of Elk Grove, has never been married to Michael Newdow, the third-grader’s father, a Sacramento physician and attorney who is representing himself. 

It was her first public comment since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Newdow that the words “under God,” inserted by Congress in 1954, make the pledge an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. 

The San Francisco court based its June 26 ruling in part on Newdow’s claim that the girl was “injured” by being forced to listen to others recite the pledge at the Elk Grove Unified School District. 

Banning, who declined through her attorney to be interviewed, has full custody of the child, which Newdow also is challenging in court. 

But Newdow said in an interview Thursday that he also has the right to determine how she’s brought up. 

“This is MY issue. I have a right to send my child to a public school without the government inculcating any religious beliefs. I’m saying I’M injured,” he said. 

Some legal experts said the mother’s revelation that the girl herself willingly recites the pledge could cast doubts on the legitimacy of the case, giving the court grounds to dismiss it or send it to a lower court to weigh the allegations. 

Courts can only hear cases in which there is an injured party, and if there is no injury there is no grounds for a case, said Rory Little, a Hastings College of the Law professor who follows the 9th Circuit. 

“The federal courts can’t address anything unless it’s a case of controversy,” Little said. “You have to have injury.” 

Legal precedents also allow for cases to be reopened, even at the appellate level, if the legal standing of the plaintiff suddenly becomes an issue. 

Banning, who has hired lawyers in part to explore intervening in the case, said she hopes her efforts will lead to a reversal of the appellate ruling. 

She said her daughter “expressed sadness” after the ruling. 

“Because of her response and the potential impact of this case on her life, I have the responsibility as her mother to speak out, to set the record straight or clear up any misrepresentations,” she said. 

Newdow said that taking an 8-year-old to church doesn’t mean the girl is choosing to be religious — and at any rate, it doesn’t matter what the child believes. 

“The main thrust of this case is not my daughter, it’s me. A parent of a child has a right to send a child to a public school without the government introducing religious dogma, period.” 

Newdow said the girl is also injured, because the pledge interferes with her right to freely express her beliefs “without the government intruding religious beliefs upon her.” 

In its opinion, the 9th Circuit panel noted that Newdow asserted his daughter is injured when compelled to “watch and listen as her state-employed teacher in her state-run school leads her classmates in a ritual proclaiming that there is a God.” 

The court has put its decision on hold to allow for appeals. Paul Sullivan, the wife’s attorney, planned to file papers saying Newdow misled the judges.

SAN FRANCISCO — A former homicide detective was named San Francisco’s top law enforcement officer Thursday, replacing a chief who had come under harsh criticism for failing to solve enough of the city’s violent crimes. 

Mayor Willie Brown named Assistant Police Chief Earl Sanders to the post, replacing Fred Lau who stepped down to take a job in airport security. Lau’s decision came after a newspaper reported the department has a dismal record of solving, or even investigating, violent crimes. 

Sanders, a 37-year veteran, spent nearly three decades investigating homicides, according to a spokesman for Brown. 

“We have built this together,” Sanders said of the department. “I know the exact size of the shoes. I know they’re tough to fill, but I am ready to meet that challenge.” 

Brown also named Alex Fagan, captain at the city’s Northern Station, as assistant chief. 

The city’s police commissioners unanimously approved the appointments Thursday evening. 

Sanders and Fagan will start on the job Friday on Lau’s last day. 

NEW YORK — If investors haven’t thrown in the proverbial towel yet, they might be getting close after watching the market this week. 

Leading stock indicators sank to levels not seen in five years on Wednesday, and were down again in early trading Thursday, as investors showed no sign that they were ready to look past the accounting scandals that have plagued corporate America this year. 

“This market has completely broken the spirit of investors,” said Al Mirman, strategist at V Finance in Sarasota, Fla. “It is going to take a good year for investors’ confidence to be reinstated.” 

The latest selloff came amid a bear market that was already one of the worst in U.S. history. Wall Street has seen a widespread dumping of stocks for nearly eight weeks. 

Over the first three sessions this week, the Dow fell 566, including a drop of 282 on Wednesday, the blue chips’ biggest one-day loss since September. The market closed below 9,000 on Wednesday for the first time since October. 

In midafternoon trading Thursday, the Dow was down 22.70, or 0.3 percent, at 8,790.80. But the broader market was higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 20.47, or 1.5 percent, to 1,366.48, having closed Wednesday at a low not seen since May 1997. 

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.86, or 0.3 percent, to 923.33, having dropped Wednesday to a closing low not seen since November 1997. 

The week’s losses are no doubt stunning, especially when considering the market is just two years removed from one of the most remarkable runs of all time. At the height of the dot-com frenzy, the Nasdaq was above 5,000. 

While the latest losses weren’t prompted by a big new accounting fiasco, there was reason to question the strength and pace of a business recovery. 

For example, General Motors in early trading Thursday fell $1.16 to $46.45 after UBS Warburg cut its rating on the stock to “hold” from “buy.” On Wednesday, Banc of America downgraded GM. 

Bristol-Myers sank $2.15 at $21 on news that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether the drug company inflated revenues last year by $1 billion. 

The move left many investors feeling that few, if any, safe havens exist in the market. 

Pharmaceutical company Merck on Wednesday dropped $2.18 to $43.57 after announcing Tuesday it was postponing for the third time in two weeks the initial public offering of its Medco unit. The price showed little change Thursday afternoon. 

There were some bright spots, Thursday. Kodak climbed $2.16 to $28.80 by midafternoon after raising its second-quarter estimates. Wal-Mart rose 19 cents to $53.95 after raising its second-quarter earnings estimate due to stronger-than-expected sales in June. 

Although improved earnings in the coming months could provide a boost to the market, analysts say corporate trust is the key factor. 

“True, we need better (earnings) numbers, but we need numbers we can trust,” Mirman said. 

Investors might not be happy sitting on Wall Street’s sidelines, but with the problem-ridden market headed for a third straight losing year they see no reason to budge. 

After a string of accounting debacles at such firms as WorldCom, Xerox and Enron Corp. and more than two years of declines on Wall Street, investors can’t be blamed for sitting on Wall Street’s sidelines, analysts say. 

“Confidence is so low that the average investor is saying, ’I am fine keeping (my money) in a money market account at 1.5 percent. And when I see the worst is over, maybe I’ll think about putting more money in the stock market,”’ said Thomas F. Lydon, president of Global Trends Investments in Newport Beach, Calif. 

SAN JOSE — With corporate scandals popping up regularly and the high-tech industry still in a swoon, fewer than half the Silicon Valley consumers surveyed expect business conditions in the area to be better a year from now, according to a report being released Friday. 

The quarterly Silicon Valley consumer confidence survey by researchers at San Jose State University found much less optimism in the region than previous reports indicated. 

Using the same methods employed by University of Michigan researchers who generate a closely watched index of consumer confidence, the San Jose State team gave Silicon Valley a consumer sentiment rating of 88.1, down from 96.2 in March and 91.7 in December. 

That also is below the nationwide figure of 92.4, according to the Michigan index. 

When asked to describe their optimism about business conditions in the high-tech capital a year from now, 48 percent of Silicon Valley residents said they expect things to be better. About 36 percent said they expect conditions to remain the same and 11 percent said things will get worse. 

When asked about their own financial status, 38 percent said they expect to be doing better a year from now, 47 percent said they will be about the same, and 8 percent said they expect to be worse off. 

“There’s been a lot of positive news, but what appears to be sinking in is the bad news: accounting scandals, layoffs, recession, collapsing stock prices, these sorts of things,” said Phil Trounstine, director of the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State. 

Despite feeling harder hit than the rest of the country, Silicon Valley appears to be more optimistic about a long-term turnaround. 

The index of consumer expectations, which measures people’s outlook about the economy over the next five years, was 90.5 in Silicon Valley, down from 100.7 in March and 95.7 in December. That is higher than the Michigan expectations index for the nation, 87.9.

Web users might object
to the way advertisers
dominate the results 

SAN FRANCISCO — Virtually all the major search engines separate their results into paid and unpaid categories, though the dividing lines are frequently fuzzy. 

The Federal Trade Commission wants the search engines to make the distinctions much clearer. Although regulators didn’t mention it by name, Google could serve as a role model for complying with the guidelines. 

When The Associated Press typed the query “travel San Francisco” into Google in tests conducted July 10 and July 11, the results were sorted into two easily understood categories. 

Referrals to concierge.com and orbitz.com were identified as “sponsored links” in light green and yellow boxes at the top of the page. On the right, other shaded boxes of “sponsored links” pointed the way to travelworm.com and expedia.com. 

These sections resemble banner ads — content many veteran Web surfers gloss over, if they look at them at all. 

Google’s objective search results, sorted by relevance to the request, are displayed against plain white background and can be seen without having to scroll down the page. So, too, with alltheweb.com and lycos.com, although for these sites, the “sponsored links” aren’t offset by a different color. 

The same search at AltaVista on July 10 produced a list of sites grouped under “products and services” that dominated the results page. No plainly visible disclaimer told users that these products and services really represented advertisers that paid AltaVista or one of its search partners, such as Overture, to be ranked above other sites. 

By July 11, AltaVista had changed the label, describing its ad-driven results as “sponsored matches.” 

While this change might satisfy the FTC, some Web users might still object to the way altavista.com, askjeeves.com and some other search engines allow advertisers to dominate the results. 

In the AP’s test, AltaVista gave top billing to so many sponsored matches, including expedia and hoteldiscount.com, that it wasn’t possible to see any objective results without scrolling further down the page. 

Home Matters

Suppose you have a leaky gutter or need a new light fixture installed. 

Both are small fix-it jobs, so why hire a full-blown repair company when the neighborhood handyman could do the job? 

As with most home maintenance, the quick and easy decision on whom to hire isn’t always so quick and easy. 

In fact, according to Mike Turner of The Home Service Store, you need to approach and manage the work by a handyman or woman just as you would larger repair and improvement companies. Turner estimates nearly 15 percent of all U.S. household repairs and odd-jobs are done by solo contractors, otherwise known as handymen. He says if you can operate a screwdriver or hammer, you can call yourself a handyman. 

This group specializes in minor projects, usually in the $200 to $600 range. Often, individuals start small in hopes of building a real business leading to higher-paying work. Their skill sets might be limited, but they nevertheless take on projects outside their scope of ability because they simply need the work. 

“There are a lot of good handy-people,” says Turner, “but they can’t be a know-it-all. What you risk is people acquiring experience at your expense, taking jobs they’re really not suited for, and perhaps the inability to back their work if something goes wrong.” 

Many handymen also operate under the radar screen of local licensing agencies. Some jobs, such as replacing electrical wall plates or installing new doors, don’t require licenses. Still, some handymen perform more complicated tasks, such as rewiring a room or major plumbing, where licenses are mandatory. 

The trump card for most handymen is low pricing. Without an office, staff or other overhead costs, they can bid jobs at lower-than-going rates. But what appears as low pricing isn’t always so, says Turner. “If I pay the right guy $125 per hour and it takes two hours to do the job but a handyman charges $50 per hour and takes all day, which is the better deal? Most consumers will go with the $50 an hour guy but end up paying more. The real question becomes how long will it take to complete?” 

Turner advises homeowners to hold the handyman to the same set of standards as any other repair or improvement company. Make sure you get time estimates and pricing up front. You should also be satisfied they have the necessary skills, and that you provide a firm list of expectations. If the job is complicated, ask the job candidate if they have the appropriate licenses. 

Every neighborhood has one. That one standout home with a beautiful carpet of rolling green lawn that draws oohs and ahhs from passers-by. 

Envious? Here are a few things you can do to put your turf back on track. 

A beautiful lawn doesn’t just happen. 

A decision has to be made. Which is better — seed or sod? Seed is the most economical way to start a lawn. But it requires a great deal of attention and nurturing to get it successfully under way. With seed, there are four important things to remember: 

• Buy only top-quality seed. Bargain purchases often contain weeds and odd grass blends that grow in weird “mystery” clumps. Both spell trouble that you’ll have to deal with down the line. 

• Prepare soil properly. Till to create small clumps, from pea to marble-size. If soil is too fine, the surface will crust over after watering and dry out too quickly. Also, level the area to keep seeds in place. 

• Seed and fertilize the same day to get seedlings off to a strong and healthy start. Use a drop or rotary spreader. It doesn’t matter which you apply first. 

• Water often, rather than deeply. It is critical to successful germination. Only the top 1 inch needs to be kept moist until seedlings are well under way. 

If you’re in a hurry, or have a difficult area to seed (such as a slope), sod is the answer. But, it is also more expensive. Some species, such as warm-season grasses, should be started only with stems or sod. If in doubt as to which is best for you, consult an expert at a local nursery or garden-supply dealer. 

The next area of concern is watering — when, how much and how often. If you leave footprints in the grass, it is a good indicator your lawn needs watering. Moist grass springs right back; dry blades do not. Also, a lawn that appears silvery blue indicates severe lack-of-water stress, and — if not promptly watered — will soon turn brown. 

Wondering if you are over- or under-watering? One-half inch twice a week (1-inch total) from rain or watering is sufficient. To measure it, use a plastic rain gauge from the hardware store. The best time to water is from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contrary to popular belief, daytime watering will not burn or cook grass — rather it cools it down. Avoid windy days though as it speeds surface evaporation. 

If you tire of hand-watering and dragging hoses and sprinklers around your yard, look into an automatic sprinkler system. Most dealers offer free planning services with layouts showing where each sprinkler head goes and what type is needed for that specific area. They’ll also tell you to what depth to install your pipes, what water pressure is needed and what permits are required. The biggest cost is labor. Plastic PVC pipe is easy to install and doing it yourself saves big bucks. Then add an automatic timer. Set it and forget it. 

• An automatic garage-door opener will enhance the comfort and safety of your home — especially on rainy nights. Contrary to legend, automatic openers can’t be activated by low-flying planes, microwave ovens or transistor radios. On the other hand, a transmitter in the wrong hands could expose your home to entry by uninvited strangers. Transmitters should be treated like house keys. When shopping or parking somewhere other than in your garage, make sure that the transmitter is locked securely in the car or glove compartment. Take care of your transmitter and you’ll experience convenience, safety and security. 

WASHINGTON — Federal energy regulators on Thursday increased by 65 percent the price cap for wholesale electricity in California and neighboring states, where a heat wave and drought are straining energy supplies. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission boosted the maximum price from $55.26 per megawatt hour to $91.87. One megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes. 

“We act now because we cannot expose customers in California and other Western states to the risks of a low price cap,” FERC said in its order. “A low energy price cap could cause severe supply disruptions.” 

FERC requires companies to offer all their available power for sale. But as the cap declines, “in reality, firms are going to balk at being required to offer the power at a price that is below their cost, megawatt by megawatt,” said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute. 

The higher cap followed two days during which California power authorities warned that soaring temperatures and power plant breakdowns were thinning energy supplies. 

“This order is in the customers’ interest because it encourages adequate supplies and promotes market stability,” reducing the risk of summertime blackouts, FERC said. 

Little more than a year ago, in California’s newly deregulated electricity market, consumers faced rolling blackouts and hefty power bill increases. Utilities flirted with financial ruin struggling to meet demand amid wholesale power costs that reached $300 per megawatt hour. 

FERC also is investigating whether Enron Corp. and other companies engaged in sham power trades and other pricing schemes to manipulate western power markets. 

Federal energy regulators imposed a floating price cap in California and 10 other states last year that has been widely credited with calming the volatile energy market. 

The latest FERC order effectively scraps the formula, which used natural gas prices, the maximum price in effect during the previous power emergency and other factors to determine the top price. The price cap imposed Thursday is the formula-based maximum price that held throughout last summer, when power markets operated smoothly. 

“We welcome the stability this is bringing, not necessarily the higher price cap,” said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s electricity grid. 

But Gov. Gray Davis said “there was no need for FERC to act,” because the state could buy all the power it needed between $20 and $30 a megawatt hour. “If FERC believes nearly $92 per megawatt hour is a just and reasonable rate, it is way out of line. Once again, FERC is protecting generators, not consumers.” 

Borenstein said FERC’s approach is arbitrary and no better than the floating cap. “It just doesn’t seem to be much like economic reasoning,” he said. 

Fishman said power prices had only rarely bumped up against the cap. Electricity prices generally have been closer to $40 a megawatt hour, he said. 

FERC also noted that prices generally have been below the cap during the past year. “We do not expect this to change,” regulators said. 

Limits on power prices are set expire at the end of September, although elected officials and consumer groups throughout the West want them continued. FERC Chairman Pat Wood has said regulators almost certainly will impose a new plan, but has yet to provide details. 

SACRAMENTO — California’s efforts to conserve energy appear to be working, but it wasn’t enough to keep the state out of the red zone Wednesday, state officials say. 

Electricity demand has fallen by more than 3,000 megawatts since 2000, when the state bumped up efforts to encourage energy conservation, said Richard Katz, energy adviser to Gov. Gray Davis. The amount of energy used in June was 11 percent less than two years ago. 

The supply of energy being produced in the state also jumped by 3,000 megawatts. This year, California has 13 more power plants than last year, with another one coming online this week. 

Conservation efforts and new programs designed to draw energy from businesses during peak hours prevented California from hitting a Stage 3 power alert yesterday, Katz said. 

But state officials warned that California is not yet in the clear. The state is continuing its $50 million advertisement campaign.  

The television ads will target specific groups, including teen-agers who spend more time at home during the summer months. 

A number of other programs have been implemented this year that “adds another layer of security,” said Wally McGuire, coordinator of the Flex Your Power campaign. 

The 20/20 Energy Rebate program was reinstated, in which electricity customers who reduce their energy use by 20 percent will see a 20 percent decrease in their monthly bill. San Diego residents only have to reduce usage by 15 percent to get the same discount. 

The state has also created a coordinated rebate program, in which more than 1,000 retailers across the state offer discounts on energy-efficient lights and home appliances. 

SACRAMENTO — Former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot denied Thursday that his consulting company showed power suppliers how to manipulate California’s energy market to drive up wholesale prices. 

“These allegations are unfounded,” Perot told a panel of state lawmakers. 

A California Senate committee is investigating the state’s energy crisis and any role played by Perot Systems as well as power suppliers. 

State Sen. Joe Dunn said Perot Systems outlined “flaws in the system to market participants” after providing computer help to the California Independent System Operator, the power grid manager, and the now-defunct Power Exchange as the state launched its deregulated energy market several years ago. 

Internal e-mails show Perot Systems tried to take advantage of what one Perot consultant described as “over a thousand loopholes in the California system,” committee attorney Larry Drivon said. 

Last year, a shortage of electricity led to the near-collapse of California’s three largest investor-owned utilities and a round of rolling blackouts. State officials have blamed many of the problems on market manipulation by out-of-state electric generating or trading companies, including the now-bankrupt Enron Corp. 

Perot said his company had no conflict of interest in its “unsuccessful attempt” to capitalize on its knowledge of California markets. He said the information presented to energy companies was publicly available. 

“The market rules were public knowledge. Everybody could have access to the market rules,” Perot testified.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Supporters of a Los Alamos scientist who was prosecuted for making copies of sensitive nuclear weapons data have gathered 15,000 signatures seeking a presidential pardon. 

The petition was sent to President Bush on July 2 on behalf of Wen Ho Lee and will be sent Friday to the Justice Department, said Cecilia Chang of Fremont, Calif., who launched the petition drive. 

Almost 10,000 signatures were gathered in the last few days of June, Chang said. Lee, a Taiwanese-born naturalized U.S. citizen, issued a recorded statement in Mandarin Chinese thanking his supporters. 

The signatures went to Bush with a cover letter that said Lee was “the only American who has been charged with felonies where there is evidence of security violations but there is no evidence of transfer of classified information to an unauthorized person.” 

The letter said Lee was held unnecessarily without bail and had to plead guilty to get out of jail. 

Lee pleaded to a single count of downloading data to computer tape at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has said he made copies to protect data with backup files. 

The petitions said the case “stands as an example of a miscarriage of justice that should be remedied. His treatment at the hands of our government weighs heavily on his fellow scientists, the national laboratories, and other Americans” and shakes their confidence in constitutional protections. 

Signatures have been gathered over the past two years, but two-thirds of them came in during the last week of June, Chang said. 

As of June 21, she said she had 5,800 signatures with “no chance you’ll get 10,000.”’ 

But she took her appeal to the airwaves. Speaking Cantonese, Chang made an appeal on the Chinese-language Sing Tao Radio and in the Sing Tao newspaper in San Francisco for people to support a pardon for Lee. 

“It must have gotten some message out there. I got 60 calls that one day,” she said. 

Organizers had 10,000 signatures by June 30, she said, and hope to have 30,000 by Labor Day. 

“We don’t have a presidential pardon yet, but so many people putting their names out there — ’We support you, let’s fight to the end, let’s get justice for Wen Ho Lee, let’s get justice for all’ — it’s a powerful thing,” Chang said. 

Former inmate’s health was poor  

OROVILLE — An ailing, 92-year-old man who had pleaded to be allowed to stay in jail jumped to his death from a bridge less than two weeks after he was released. 

The body of Coval Russell was found Wednesday under a 40-foot bridge over the Feather River. Officials believe he may have been California’s oldest county jail inmate. 

Russell had served 14 months while waiting for sentencing on an assault charge for stabbing his landlord. He was put on three years’ probation and released from the Butte County Jail on June 26. 

A judge had denied his request to stay in jail, saying that it was not an appropriate place for a man of Russell’s age and health. 

“He was in constant pain, and he was running out of living options,” said Jim Pihl, a private investigator who talked to Russell by phone on Tuesday. 

The World War II veteran had received four types of medication in jail, was blind in one eye, suffered from prostate cancer and could barely walk several feet unassisted, Pihl said. 

“I know he felt like he didn’t have any other place to go,” Pihl said.

LOS ANGELES — Followers of a late yoga guru say DNA testing has cleared the man of accusations that he broke his vow of celibacy and fathered a child. 

But the man who claims to be the son of Paramahansa Yogananda, one of the first Indian masters to introduce yoga philosophy to the West 80 years ago, disputes the results. 

Yogananda’s organization, the Self-Realization Fellowship, released the results to followers on Wednesday. It was the latest development in a seven-year paternity dispute over whether the guru, who died at age 59 in 1952, fathered Ben Erskine during an affair with a married disciple. 

“For members who revere Paramahansa Yogananda as their profound spiritual guide and guru, the claims were very hurtful and very sad,” fellowship spokeswoman Lauren Landress said. “But these results conclusively show there is no truth to them.” 

Erskine, informed of the results, told the Los Angeles Times he still believed “Yogananda is my father.” 

His attorney, Shane Reed, said they would review the results to decide whether to continue with a court request to disinter Yogananda’s body, which was buried in Glendale, for further testing. 

The Self-Realization Fellowship operates more than 500 temples and meditation centers in 178 countries. Its members have ranged from late Beatle George Harrison to famous botanist Luther Burbank. 

Yogananda introduced Mahatma Gandhi to kriya yoga and authored “Autobiography of a Yogi.” 

The paternity dispute first surfaced in 1995 when Erskine’s daughter approached the fellowship with the paternity claim and financial demands. Erskine said his mother, Adelaide, had been a disciple and photographer of Yogananda in the late 1920s. 

Erskine, now a 69-year-old Oregon miner, acknowledged his mother never told him he was Yogananda’s son or that she had been physically intimate with the famed guru. But he said his mother hinted at the “wonderful blood” in his veins. 

An initial round of DNA testing on hair samples was found inconclusive. A second round of testing on blood samples last July showed no apparent relationship. But Reed and Erskine rejected the results as biased because the blood specimens were collected and sent to labs by a fellowship monk. 

Last year, the fellowship hired former San Diego criminal prosecutor G. Michael Still to establish an independent testing process to compare the DNA of Erskine to samples taken from three of Yogananda’s male relatives in India. 

Results from two separate labs both showed no relationship between Erskine and Yogananda, said Still, who added he was not a fellowship member. 

At stake was more than the guru’s integrity. Any successful paternity action could have led to claims on the assets of Yogananda’s spiritual organization. 

Fellowship members said they were satisfied with the latest DNA results. 

“As far as I’m concerned, this whole thing was kind of a nonevent,” said Mike Baake, marketing manager for the group’s publication center. “Anyone with any awareness of who Paramahansa Yogananda was knew that story wasn’t true. When someone in the world tries to do something good, someone else always wants to pull them down.” 

SACRAMENTO — Student testimony at school expulsion hearings is now considered privileged information under a new law signed by Gov. Gray Davis Thursday. 

The law’s author, Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, sponsored the bill after a student witness who reported hearing another student talk about killing people was slapped with a civil lawsuit in 2000. The student who made the threats was expelled, but later returned to school and hit the student witness with a defamation lawsuit. 

Although the suit was eventually dismissed, the student who reported the threats racked up $40,000 in legal bills. 

“We are all aware of the horrible shootings at our nation’s schools. Had someone reported those threats, countless lives could have been saved,” Davis said in a statement, adding that the law is meant to encourage students to report possible problems without having to worry about retaliatory civil suits. 

The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2003. 

A potentially deadly problem 

I've just been told that I need to have the right front tie rod on my 1986 Volvo 740 replaced. It has a lot of "play" and causes the steering wheel to wobble and shake. So what exactly IS a tie rod, and what does it do? – Sue 

RAY: The tie rod is a crucial piece of the steering system, Sue. Essentially, it "ties" the two front wheels together so they both steer the car in the same direction. 

TOM: So if a tie rod breaks, you would only be able to steer one wheel of the car, and the other would be free to turn in any direction it feels like. 

RAY: This -- as Dave Barry would say -- is not good. 

TOM: As you can imagine, when you're driving at a high speed and one of your front wheels suddenly decides to make a left turn on its own, that's a recipe for the undertaker. 

RAY: So if it's already at the point where the steering wheel is shaking or has play in it (that means it's pretty far gone), you should absolutely get it fixed right away. Today or tomorrow. This is a potentially deadly problem, Sue. 

TOM: While we generally favor increased freedom and independence throughout the world, we want to go on record as saying that we make an exception when it comes to front wheels.  

Keep your car on the road and out of the repair shop by ordering Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" Send $3 (check or money order) and a stamped (57 cents), self-addressed, No. 10 envelope to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.  

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

ARTHUR, Ill. — Amish buggies ramble up and down the road that winds around Reuben Schrock’s farm, the horses tearing tiny chunks out of the oil-and-chip surface with their studded horseshoes. 

He can see, as anyone can, that the roads are in disrepair and that the horse-drawn buggies are partly to blame. But he doesn’t believe the Amish, himself included, should pay anything extra for the repairs. 

“I can’t deny the horses are gouging the roads, but I pay taxes just like everyone else,” said Schrock, one of four horseshoe fitters in this Amish community. “Are you going to tell me those trucks roaring up and down our roads aren’t causing more damage?” 

News has begun to circulate among the Amish in central Illinois that the governor signed into law a bill allowing townships to charge a fee for repairing roads damaged by horse-drawn carriages. Under the law, townships can charge up to $50 a year for each horse and buggy. 

The buggy bill, sponsored by Sen. Duane Noland, came out of discussions between Amish leaders, lawmakers and road commissioners in Douglas County, where about 4,000 Amish reside. 

Noland said the fee is warranted because of the damage the buggies cause to the region’s roads. 

Amish horseshoers, including Schrock, weld cleats onto the horseshoes to provide extra traction when summer temperatures cause the oil-and-chip roads to become soft and slick. The studded shoes work like snow tires, and without them, horses would likely slip and fall. 

“On a day when it’s hot, it’s damaging the roads,” Noland said. “I’m not going to say they’re excited about (the fee), but they’re law-abiding people and they understand the safety concerns.” 

They understand them, but they say the studded horseshoes aren’t to blame. 

Chris Helmuth, an Amish farmer who lives outside Arthur, said he would pay the fee, but reluctantly. He said the slick roads forced the Amish to use studded horseshoes, which otherwise wouldn’t be necessary. 

“We wouldn’t use these shoes if they wouldn’t put oil and gravel all over the roads,” he said. “My question is, ’Which came first?’ The road caused us problems, and these horseshoes were the solution.” 

Amish buggies have created questions before for lawmakers more accustomed to regulating cars. 

A judge ruled last month that an ultraconservative Amish congregation in Pennsylvania must use orange-and-red reflective triangles on their buggies for safety despite arguments by the group that gaudy decorations violate their beliefs. 

The Illinois law, which took affect this week, doesn’t force all buggy owners to pay the fee. Each township has to approve the fee, and only residents in the township would be subject to the licensing requirement. 

Drivers of buggies would pay the fee once a year and would be issued a license plate like the one used on cars. In Bourbon Township, where the idea for the law originated, the fee would generate about $125,000 a year. 

It also would help police identify the drivers of buggies, many of which are driven by teenagers who have no identification, Noland said. 

Paul Herschberger, who drove his buggy into town to have an aching tooth worked on, said most Amish would pay the fee and move on with their lives, raising crops and looking after their children. 

For others, the fee is the just the latest disruption of their lifestyle, which often finds itself at odds with the rest of society. 

“To me, this is just more red tape — another law from a government that my people aren’t used to dealing with and one some don’t understand,” Schrock said. “But we’ll survive. We’ve survived worse.” 

SEATTLE — Hundreds of office workers were evacuated after military-style smoke grenades were detonated at two buildings, and police said animal rights activists might be responsible. 

The smoke bombings Wednesday, set off two minutes apart at the Financial Center and another downtown building, have been tentatively classified as acts of domestic terrorism, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said. 

Police said the devices appeared to be aimed at two subsidiaries of Marsh & McLennan Cos., an insurance firm that does business with British-based Huntingdon Life Sciences, which has been targeted by groups that oppose animal testing. 

No injuries or damage were reported. About 700 people were evacuated at the Financial Center, along with workers on two floors of the second smoke-bombed building. 

A spokesman for Marsh & McLennan Cos. would not comment late Wednesday. The two subsidiaries that are believed to be targets are Seabury & Smith and Guy Carpenter & Co. 

A spokesman for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty denied any role, but acknowledged Marsh has been a previous target. 

“We do run a campaign against them,” said volunteer Frank Hampton at the organization’s office in Franklin Township, N.J. “We’re just not the ones responsible for this incident. We certainly support these actions as long as they are nonviolent in nature.” 

MOSCOW, Idaho — A topless car wash held to raise rent money was drained when some of the bare-breasted businesswomen were kicked out of their communal home. 

City officers served trespassing notices on five of the 11 residents Wednesday, threatening arrest if they returned, Police Chief Dan Weaver said. The residents do not have a lease and not subject to formal eviction procedures, he said. 

The action came at the behest of landlords David and Sis Clift, who said the residents were not paying rent. 

“This has nothing to do with the toplessness,” David Clift said. 

But Daisy Mace, the 22-year-old woman leading the carwash, said rent has been paid and they were kicked out because of neighbors’ complaints. 

Clift said the person at the house responsible for paying him the entire rent bill reported the five tenants had not paid their share for July. He also said complaints have cropped up since news reports of the sudsy spectacle surfaced. 

Moscow, home of the University of Idaho, is a liberal anomaly in a staid state. Still, the City Council is trying to enact a law that would prevent future topless car washes. The proposed indecent exposure ordinance would replace one the courts voided three years ago because it was too vague. 

The car wash had been open for business about five times in the past month. Patrons were asked only for donations, with most paying from $15 to $20, Mace said. 

The City Council plans to send a letter to China asking its government to stop arresting people for practicing an ancient spiritual movement called Falun Gong. 

The Chinese government has jailed and tortured people, Falun Gong supports say, because the government believes the growing group who practice Falun Gong threatens stability and state control.  

At a meeting Tuesday City Council agreed to sign a letter written by a local peace group and Berkeley resident and Falun Gong observer Steve Ispas. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that many people around the world are doing the same. 

“Some people think it’s just Berkeley against the world, but we are supporting a social movement,” Worthington said. “We are working towards peace and justice, we’re supporting what Amnesty International has been saying for years.” 

Ispas visited China last year to protest the government’s repression of Falun Gong and its abuse of people practicing it. He said the focus of the spiritual group is to keep the mind and body fit, not politics.  

“It doesn’t go against communist theory,” Ispas said. “It’s just that there are so many people [who practice] and the communist government is worried about that.” 

Outside Tiananmen Square on Feb. 14, Ispas and five others were beaten by Chinese policemen, arrested, and taken to a detention center with 60 more Falun Gong supporters. Ispas was held for 24 hours but was not charged with any crime. 

Ispas left China with a sense of accomplishment despite being arrested. 

“Even if we didn’t make the Chinese government realize anything, we helped the Chinese people,” he said.  

Worthington pushed for the resolution, and is hopeful about its success.  

“When you’re dealing with big bureaucracies that are abusing human rights, you can never be sure which rally or which letter may turn the tide,” Worthington said. “But this is part of the cumulative impact of people around the world.” 

Falun Gong is an ancient Chinese practice that became popular in the early 1990s and was outlawed in 1999. 

Its members were denied legal protection and status in China. Ispas said more than 400 people were tortured and killed for being associated with Falun Gong. 

The City Council wants copies of its letter to go to Berkeley’s sister city in China, which is actually the Haidian District of Beijing, to the mayor of Beijing, its director of public safety and a governor.

To the Editor: 

Thanks to University Avenue Andronico's, for once again hosting its annual July 4 parking lot barbecue. What a good community event it is - people of all ages and races talking, eating and dancing together. I especially appreciate it for the seniors, and for those who don't have their own backyards or grills. How nice to be able to sit out in the sun with your neighbors, listen to live music, and enjoy a July 4th barbecue. 

Thanks, also, to Andronico's for its participation in the escrip program - 5 percent of all my purchases now goes to my favorite arts organization.  

We are fortunate to have Andronico's in our midst, with its dedicated, friendly staff and sense of community. The old University Avenue Co-Op maybe gone, but its spirit continues.  

Dory Ehrlich 

Berkeley 

Author is scheduled  

to play music tonight at Berkeley book store 

The Hobo, the Tramp, the Bum. He (or she) has been lionized and villanized by the American public; celebrated in the songs of Jimmie Rogers, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan; iconified in the literature and art of the 19th and 20th century. In his decade-plus on the road, Eddy Joe Cotton (born Zebu Recchia) has lived the life, and shared the campfires, wine jugs and mulligan stews with these people who populate the margin of society, "a whisper beneath the wind."  

Cotton is scheduled to perform at Black Oak Books 7:30 tonight with his jug sideshow “The Yard Dogs Road Show.” 

Cotton’s first book, "Hobo: A Young Man’s Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America," is an account of his life riding the rails, and otherwise making his way around the country. While it offers a coming-of-age story in its pages, the real art of the book is the rich language and homespun philosophies that explain the hobo life without ever descending into stereotype or cliché. While other literature exists on the hobos (Cotton provides an bibliography), this is hoboing for the 21st century.  

Most of the book details the first month Cotton spends on the road when he was 19. He gets angry with his father for firing him from their two-man construction business, and takes to foot down the highway outside of Denver, armed only with a "down Ford jacket, a couple of dollar bills, and a good pair of workboots."  

The time he spends traveling between Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada is populated with unforgettable characters: Half Step ("lost four of my toes falling off a train"), Alabama, Billy the Kid, Carny Chris, Bear and Yukon Sam. Cotton is adopted at first by the Vietnam veteran Alabama, who shows him some of the tricks of the wayfaring trade, and Cotton in turn takes a younger teen-ager under his wing for a spell.  

There is the menace of violence, the feeling of dispossession and despondence, the longing for home, the twin pangs of sex and love, and the screw-it attitude of a free spirit with nothing left to lose.  

One gets the feeling of what it's like on the road: the brutal clickety-clack of a train speeding through the Wyoming winter night; the painful wrench of the empty stomach with only enough change to buy a cup of coffee, and the disapproving stares of the straights in the roadside cafes.  

Cotton brings the beauty and ugliness of the landscape to life with his prose. A Rocky Mountain morning is described: "The evergreens were draped with the gowns of winter... birds were chanting as they untied the gifts that fell from the tree." Dodging the railroad police, he hops a car and "all my dark thoughts just passed overhead--like lonely black crows." Although he relies on his own description, some of the songs Cotton quotes are by Iggy Pop and J.J. Cale, two American music icons.  

In one of the "Journal Entries" that pepper the book without interrupting its narrative flow, Cotton distills his philosophy: "If you really want to have a good time, you’ve got to spill a little wine, sleep in the dirt, get pissed off and sad, and run across the great tundra like a castrated bull." He talks of living "not a dime past survival." His summary of the lifestyle is poignant and straight-talking: "The jungle tramp lives every moment as his last breath and looks for nothing more... than a hotshot to haul his sorry ass out of town." 

And if you don’t know what a "hotshot" is, there’s a rich glossary in the back of the book. Cotton explains the terms and their historical significance. He also imparts a good deal of practical survival wisdom throughout "Hobo." You might want to get yourself a "California Blanket" for sleeping – newspapers stuffed inside your clothes for warmth or to be used as bedding. If you need a fire, food and drink, let ‘em know at the nearest jungle fire that you’re "C, H and D" (cold, hungry and dry). This glossary shows the reader how greatly the American lexicon has been enriched by these itinerant gadflies.  

The only problem bump in the book was the section on Cotton’s brief dalliance with Misty, the go-go dancer/crystal methamphetamine freak who treats him to a few days of carnal bliss and then dumps him on the side of the road. Their sideshow in Reno is comical but this bit goes on too long and cuts the flow of the book.  

Cotton meets the challenge of a shattered heart by taking to the open road once again, and it is out there, among the carnies, speed freaks, broken angels, tricksters and outright criminals that he finds some measure of solace and truth. If his book makes you want to walk out of your cubicle and down the road, he offers only this advice: "I’ll give you enough information to have yourself a new trade. Your own personal truth will come later, when your summer of hoboing and sleeping in the dirt is over."  

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

What Do You Believe? Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers 

6:30 to 8:00 p.m. 

Ellen Driscoll Playhouse 

325 Highland Avenue, Piedmont  

Film presented by Piedmont diversity groups; discussion with filmmaker, Sarah Feinbloom.  

655-5552, or maudep@aol.com 

Free 

Friday, July 12

Celebration of Emma Goldman's Birthday  

8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity Hall  

390 27th St  

An all-ages, alcohol-free party with live music, DJ, and dance lessons 

http://www.ebcaw.org  

$5 to $10 sliding scale  

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

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 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

Wedneday, July 17

Doctors Without Borders 

Until July 18 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Springer Gateway, West Entrance Crescent 

Interactive exhibit expalining medicines for people in developing countries; Film screenings 

www.doctorswithoutborders.org 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Mystique of the Widerness 

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 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

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 slideshw 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, intrduces their latest design. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

"Neon: The Living Flame" 

7:00 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, nonmembers $5  

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike techician basic repairs such as brake adjustments and fixing a flat. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 to 9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Saturday, August 3

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Saturday, August 10

Tomato Tastings 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tastings and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Sunday, August 11

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m. to noon 

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 

West Berkeley Arts

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Tuesday, August 13

Tomato Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club  

Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

525-3565 

Free

Yow’s odd sixth-inning ejection prompts Pinguelo to forfeit game; Berkeley/Albany may be headed for state tournament 

In a disturbing re-enactment of Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game fiasco, the Berkeley/Albany-Fremont Babe Ruth District Playoffs baseball game was ended prematurely on Wednesday evening, with Fremont claiming a 10-4 win just two outs into the sixth inning. 

Like Bud Selig’s fiasco in Milwaukee, Wednesday’s cancellation came down to pitching. Berkeley/Albany manager Joe Pinguelo was down to his last healthy pitcher in Derek Yow by the fifth, and when Yow was tossed from the game by the home plate umpire, Pinguelo decided his team couldn’t go on. 

“It’s an unfortunate thing, but I just ran out of pitching,” Pinguelo said. “Why waste pitchers?” 

Yow’s ejection was, at best, a questionable call. After a called third strike, he dropped his head and dragged his bat behind him toward the dugout. Without warning, the umpire told Yow he was out of the game, drawing disbelief and more than a few comments from the Barons’ bench. 

“I didn’t say a word to him,” Yow said of his first ejection ever. “I just dropped my bat and dragged it. It’s the same thing I always do when I strike out.” 

According to Pinguelo, the umpire objected to Yow’s dragging of the bat, considering it an insult. 

“(The umpire) said, ‘He can’t stick his bat in my dirt,’” Pinguelo said in disbelief. “There’s no way the ejection was warranted.” 

Yow’s ejection was the second of the game. In the fourth inning, Fremont’s Troy Howard earned an automatic thumbing when he tried to run over Barons catcher Jeremy LeBeau. Both high school and Babe Ruth rules mandate a runner must slide into home if contact is imminent. 

Pinguelo said after the game that he had been assured by the league office that, thanks to the section’s best record, the Barons would advance to the state tournament regardless of Wednesday’s result. With that in mind, Pinguelo’s decision to forfeit the game is a bit more understandable. But Fremont manager Anthony Rojo’s take was a little different. 

“We just earned ourselves a bid to the state tournament, but I think Joe’s in for a surprise,” Rojo said. “I’m positive he’ll have to win another game to make the state tournament.” 

The Black Sox earned their bid by knocking around starting pitcher Jeremiah Pinguelo for nine runs in the first three innings. Fremont ran themselves out of the first two innings with three runners cut down on the basepaths, and Chase Moore’s three-run homer to leftfield gave the Barons a 4-1 lead after two and a half innings. But the Sox tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the third, then teed off for five more in the fourth, with the big blow a two-run triple by Nick Rutchena, the first batter faced by reliever Randy Renn after Pinguelo was lifted. 

The Babe Ruth state tournament starts on Saturday at San Leandro Ballpark.

A group of 250 neighbors and business owners in central Berkeley filed a lawsuit against the city Tuesday seeking to block construction of a four-story building at 2517 Sacramento St. that would include a mix of commercial space and affordable housing for seniors. 

Neighbors for Sensible Development claim the city approved the project without a valid General Plan in place to guide the process, without adequate parking and without a report detailing the environmental impact of the proposed development. 

The City Attorney and other officials said they had not yet received copies of the suit and could not comment on pending litigation. But, in discussing the approval process that unfolded earlier this year, some officials cast doubt on the plaintiffs’ claims, arguing for instance that an environmental impact report was not necessary. 

The neighbors say they are not opposed to affordable housing or commercial development in their neighborhood. They say they simply do not want a building as tall and bulky and as the project proposed by the developer, the non-profit Affordable Housing Associates of Berkeley. 

“It’s out of character,” said Marie Bowman, one of the residents involved in the suit, raising concerns about parking, traffic and the shadows the building would cast on neighboring homes and apartments. 

But Kevin Zwick, project manager for Affordable Housing Associates, said the neighbors worked to block another low-income housing project at the corner of Dwight and Sacramento and are simply at it again. 

“We think it’s unfortunate the levels that some neighbors will go to oppose an affordable housing project in their neighborhood,” said Zwick. “The intent is to delay or kill the project and we will continue to fight, as we have for the past three years, to see the project through.” 

Bowman replied that the neighbors had legitimate concerns about the public process surrounding the Dwight and Sacramento development. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sacramento St. project, which includes 40 residential units, Feb. 14. After an appeal by the neighbors, the City Council upheld the ZAB ruling May 28 by a 5-2 vote. 

The neighborhood and the developer were in the midst of mediation when the City Council voted to approve the project. Neighbors, who did not attend the May 28 meeting because mediation was scheduled to continue into June, say the city should have waited for the mediation process to end before voting on the project. Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmember Betty Olds, who voted against the project, say the neighbors have a point. 

“I thought, ‘why do this when we were moving towards some kind of resolution?,’” said Mayor Shirley Dean. 

But Councilmember Kriss Worthington said approval was necessary so the developer could apply for state tax credits by a July 16 deadline. 

“Creating senior housing and affordable housing is a very high priority,” he said. 

Arthur Friedman of Steefel, Levitt & Weiss, a San Francisco law firm representing the neighbors, said the city approved the project based on adjustments to its General Plan in December that were not in compliance with state law. 

“It was built on a strawman,” he said. “They don’t have a valid General Plan.” 

Friedman also argued that the city improperly allowed a reduced number of parking spaces, and said the Zoning Adjustments Board should have called for an environmental impact report, or EIR, given the traffic and congestion the development will create. 

“I don’t think an EIR was necessary for this project,” said Andy Katz, a City Council candidate and member of the Zoning Adjustments Board, arguing that the project is not large enough to warrant a report. 

Katz also said ZAB approved a relatively small number of parking spots, 13, because the tenants will be low-income seniors who are less likely to own vehicles.  

Bowman countered that discount car insurance plans for the elderly make heavy car ownership a real possibility. 

David Blake, another ZAB member, said that 13 spaces may not be adequate given that the development does not have a shopping center nearby and tenants may therefore be more likely to own cars than they otherwise would. Still, he voted for the project Feb. 14.

To the Editor: 

Thank you for printing comments on my letter regarding the dangers of cumulative radiation; too bad no one responded to the gyst of it. There is no doubt that my views are not mainstream, but shouldn't be confused with local environmentalists now branded as hysterical by those who claim to have more scientific 'knowledge" than you or I. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand human health, you may chose to study nature. 

While scientists may be able to explain the composition of tritium or any other substance, they cannot explain the effects that these substances have on the human organism, especially with numbers and statistics. Fortunately, the human body does not operate according to the laws of science (if it did we'd be robots). The human body operates according to the laws of nature.  

Until we fully understand this, we will continue to be baffled as to why cancer, AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, etc...have reached such epidemic proportions, despite all the continued medical research being conducted at LBNL and elsewhere. $30,000,000 later, disease runs rampant and researchers cite the viciousness of cancer, rather than to re-evaluate their approach in light of such failure. The money continues to flow to find a 'cure."  

Cancer statistics, cited by David M. Smith, tell us very little; we all have different tolerance levels based on various factors, one of them being immune function. Since we have not determined the pre-existing health of the residents near LBNL, it makes no sense to come to any conclusion based on cancer rates alone. Certainly public policy should not be determined by such faulty, incomplete data. We should not be made guinea pigs nor our community turned into a scientific experiment based on numbers. 

Because my viewpoint differs from David A. Smith does not mean I am hysterical about tritium, have "no knowledge," that I need "education," have exhibited "no concern," and that I "provide(s) ammunition to...conservatives and corporations." It means that I reject the commonly held belief that life itself can explained from this overly-scientific approach that dominates our world today. It is not tritium, per se, or any other substance that is so dangerous; it's our own arrogance.  

Michael Bauce 

Berkeley

Anna Nicole Smith to star
in reality TV show 

PASADENA — Anna Nicole Smith is taking on Ozzy Osbourne and his foul-mouthed family in her own reality TV show. 

“I’m doing it because I’ve been stuck in my house so long because of the litigation,” she said. “It was time to get out.” 

The former Playmate and Guess? jeans model is best known for her court battles over the fortune of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall. She won $88 million from Marshall’s estate, but the case is tied up in appeals. 

Bathed in a pink spotlight — her favorite color — Smith sat stroking her black poodle, Sugar Pie, as she told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday how cameras film her from the time she gets up to the time she goes to bed. 

“At first it was kind of crazy,” she said. “You forget to turn your speakers off when you go to the bathroom. It’s kind of embarrassing.” 

Viewers will see Smith bowling with her son, taking driving lessons and attending Hollywood parties. 

Although E! officials promise the series will highlight Smith’s uninhibited personality, she was demure while discussing the show. 

“I’m pretty nervous,” said Smith, who often asked reporters to repeat questions because she didn’t understand them. 

Smith’s husband died at 90 in August 1995, just 14 months after their wedding. He left behind a fortune estimated at as much as $1.6 billion. 

Drummer knocked out in a pool 

LONDON — The Scottish band Travis said Wednesday it canceled four European concerts after drummer Neil Primrose was seriously injured in a swimming pool accident. 

Primrose was knocked unconscher tests,” Travis said in a statement. 

“We wish to apologize to all our fans for any inconvenience caused but hope you will join us in wishing Neil a full and speedy recovery.” 

Primrose was quoted Wednesday as telling the Scottish Sun newspaper from his hospital bed that he was fortunate to be alive. 

“If I’d hit my head a different way, it could have been a lot worse,” he said. 

“We went back to the hotel for a couple of beers and I dived into the pool. It was too shallow and I bumped my head and knocked myself out.

League shows commitment to younger players, will try to mirror European style 

SANTA MONICA – Spurred by the United States’ success in the World Cup, Major League Soccer plans to increase its commitment to developing young players. 

Commissioner Don Garber said Wednesday the league plans to have all 10 teams field reserve squads of players in their teens and 20s, with the eventual goal of the reserve squad players earning spots with MLS teams. 

“This will require a fairly significant investment on our part over the next number of years,” Garber said. “The World Cup proved to us that we’ve got a pretty good model in place, the concept of developing these players from within the league is working, so now we’re going to expand on that process.” 

The MLS eventually will modify its draft to allow players on the reserve teams to join the parent MLS teams. Reserve teams will enable some young players to have professional careers that perhaps otherwise would not, Garber said. 

Garber believes having homegrown players also will help boost attendance for the teams. 

“By having these development teams, we’ll be able to find those kids who are not necessarily playing with some organized club team under the auspices of U.S. Soccer and assist them in playing in our league and for the national team,” Garber said. 

The Chicago Fire, D.C. United, Los Angeles Galaxy and New York/New Jersey MetroStars currently field reserve squads, playing in either the Premier Development League or in amateur leagues. The use of reserve teams is a standard practice elsewhere in the world. 

Another stated MLS goal is to expand to 20 teams, in part to help increase television ratings. But the league contracted two teams this year, and no timetable has been set for adding new teams. 

“Our challenge is that we have to have a better business plan to attract investors to come in and believe this is something that will be financially beneficial — and also something they can hold their head high by going into their country club or cocktail party and say I own a soccer team,” Garber said on Wednesday. 

The U.S. World Cup success will help attract investors, Garber claimed. 

“After last month, there’s a lot more people who feel good about this game than before last month,” Garber said. 

MLS operates under a single-entity concept, with team operators owning a financial stake in the league, not just their individual teams. Investment in MLS is dominated by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which operates five MLS teams and shares operation of a sixth.

Interprets law to mean the city
cannot deny the proposal 

Expecting a residential project on Hearst Street to be shot down by the city’s zoning adjustments board tonight, the project applicant is questioning the city’s right to deny housing at a time when the city needs it more than ever. 

Because the proposed housing complex includes four affordable-housing units, the applicant claims that the city must approve the 14-unit complex even though it is larger than the current zoning regulations allow. 

California housing law forbids a city's zoning laws from blocking the building of affordable housing, and that’s what’s happening on Hearst Street, said Rena Rickles, the attorney for project applicant Lynda Hart. 

No one has ever used the state housing statute to defend a development in Berkeley, zoning board officials said.  

Many fear the law, if enacted, could undermine the zoning board’s ability to exercise control over all new housing projects in the city. 

Rickles said the city by law must approve the project. If it doesn't, her client, the daughter of the property owner at 1155 Hearst Ave., could take the city to court. 

The zoning board, though, says the state statute does not apply to Berkeley and is not afraid to be challenged. 

“The law is designed for cities that are not supportive of affordable housing,” said boardmember Andy Katz. Berkeley is aggressive enough in affordable housing, he said. 

City planners said they’re on their way to meeting the state requirement of 1,269 housing units be built in Berkeley by 2007. Furthermore, city zoning law requires that all residential complexes with five or more units be built with at least 20 percent of the units as affordable. 

The city’s housing element, which provides a blueprint of future housing, is currently being reviewed by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. 

Rickels says the city’s numbers are all wrong. The city counts projects that are in various planning stages as meeting the state's requirement, instead of the “number of new housing units approved for construction,” she said. 

“Something in the pipeline is highly speculative to rely on as a housing unit that can be built,” Rickels said. 

She said that California law is on her side. Until the city can prove that it meets state requirements, the Hearst Avenue project by law cannot be denied, she said. 

Another point of contention, Rickels said, is that the city changed zoning laws at the Hearst Avenue site after her client submitted her project proposal. 

A March decision by the zoning board reclassified the Hearst Avenue property and nine others as R-2A from R-3, meaning the number of living units allowed at site is eight instead of 14. 

While Rickels says the action undermines the necessary push for housing. City planners contend that housing is not needed in that neighborhood.  

“The board concluded that the 74 affordable units approved by the board so far this year, in addition to the approximately 75 affordable units pending board action, were more than enough to meet the regional fair share housing target,” a recent staff report read. 

With the city convinced that it has met state guidelines, the zoning board tonight will not discuss the state housing statute – California Government Code Section 65589.5 d. Instead, the board will consider the Hearst Street project based on its compliance with zoning law.

To the Editor: 

I am writing in response to the article naming my neighbor, Cynthia Papermaster, who I support for the Berkeley School Board. 

Most reasonable people will agree that running an anonymous quote from a clearly angry person on the front page of your paper does Cynthia harm. 

Advocating parents' involvement and power sharing with all levels of the school district is Cynthia Papermaster's clear platform. This clear position inevitably creates fiction and opposition. 

I have known Cynthia since our daughters were born a year apart over 14 years ago. Our daughters are very close friends. 

I have been able to observe Cynthia's unwavering commitment to her daughter's schools and to our public school system for that amount of time. Time after time, I have witnessed Cynthia pour herself into a projec, selflessly and without concern for her own benefit. She is willing to exhaust herself, and risk being short and curt in public. Have no doubt, Cynthia can be single-minded and blunt. Those are two good reasons to put her on the education board. 

I have also known that Cynthia will not speak out on a subject or ask others for support until she has worked in some very direct way with that matter. Cynthia can be direct and aggressive, but I know in her heart she has great passion for what she believes. 

Direct. Honest. Forthright. Hard working. 

If you are among the hundreds of people who know Cynthia through her work with the schools, and if you are so inclined, please help her now. 

John Sloan 

Berkeley

Music 

NEW YORK— Conductor Kurt Masur displays a framed copy of the first and last pages of the score of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on the wall of his office at Avery Fisher Hall. 

The last page has musical notes handwritten in red, editing changes by one of Masur’s predecessors at the New York Philharmonic — Gustav Mahler. 

The first page has writing by another predecessor — Arturo Toscanini. 

“Changes by Gustav Mahler — unworthy of such a musician,” Toscanini scrawled. 

Laughing at Toscanini’s pique at anyone with the audacity to edit Beethoven, Masur said: “He edited the violoncello because it wasn’t loud enough for him.” 

This summer, Masur joins Toscanini and Mahler in the ranks of former music directors of the nation’s oldest orchestra. After an 11-year tenure — second-longest in the 160-year-old orchestra’s history — he is leaving. 

On Thursday night (July 18), his 75th birthday, he makes his final New York performance as director. The concert, nationally broadcast on PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center,” starts with Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture and crescendos to conclusion with Ravel’s “Bolero.” The “Candide” will be performed without a conductor in a special gesture to Bernstein’s legacy to the philharmonic. 

The final bow comes Sunday (July 21) at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., with Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and “Emperor” Concerto, featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman. The 3 p.m. EDT concert will be broadcast on National Public Radio. 

Next season, Masur becomes music director of the Orchestre National de France. He also returns to New York in guest conducting appearances as the philharmonic’s music director emeritus, an honorary title previously held only by Bernstein. 

The philharmonic baton goes to Lorin Maazel, who Masur says will inherit a finely tuned ensemble. 

“They bring me into heaven each night,” he said. “This is incredible. How sensitive this orchestra can play. How sure they can do. How committed they are. How great they are in sometimes being flexible for singers or for soloists. This is a dream. They can fulfill dreams of a conductor. And they do.” 

The birthday concert includes the world premiere of Lukas Foss’ “Baroque Meditations” and an assortment of solo performances by orchestra members. Among them: movements from Brahms’ Double Concerto, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Dittersdorf’s Sinfonia Concertante for Viola and Double Bass. 

“I wanted really to show the result of our collaboration, that in this orchestra are high-level soloists sitting every day and playing together,” Masur said. 

It was this philosophy that enabled Masur — who led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in eastern Germany for 26 years — to restore the philharmonic. He inherited an orchestra that had foundered by the end of Zubin Mehta’s record 13 years at the helm and had been seen as an unmanageable collection of egos unwilling to sacrifice self for the common good. 

“Certainly, we’re not the bad boy of music anymore,” concertmaster Glenn Dicterow said. “He’s managed to get everybody to focus on the product of what we are doing. ... No matter playing the Brahms’ Third Symphony for the 20th time, he will come back to it a year later and find something new. ... So it’s always fresh.” 

Masur said one way he was able to gain the musicians’ respect was to break their anonymity. “We started immediately to give the audience a knowledge — who’s sitting on the second violin? Who’s sitting on the second flute? What are they doing? What is the background? ... They felt more and more proud to be in that orchestra.” 

Another way was his knowledge of the repertoire and the composer. 

“He’s a very, very serious musician and he never comes to an opening rehearsal without talking to us about what he wants from this piece,” principal violist Cynthia Phelps said. “This is what he thinks, this is why it was written this way. And then he translates that into technical terms during the rehearsal process. ‘You know, this man was very tortured, therefore the tension in this phrase can’t be let up, because this is what he was thinking.’ It’s very, very intelligent music-making without ever sacrificing a huge emotional commitment.” 

He also is a stickler for perfection, expressing his opinions frankly. 

“I think as I started here, the orchestra felt immediately that I am absolutely honest, that I never lie,” Masur said in his German-accented English. “And I tell them honest if it sounded ugly. I tell them honest if it sounded wonderful. And this was the kind of connection that they felt. I never am too shy to say what I feel and what I think. And this brought us together, to trust each other.” 

Masur’s valedictory season began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Instead of opening with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, he had the orchestra perform Brahms’ “A German Requiem” in memory of terror victims. 

“I was convinced that it was the right music for the people who wanted to come to the hall because ... they all came to be helped by music, and maybe to come again into a feeling of life can be beautiful again. And this is the only piece (that) can do that.” 

The final concerts will be bittersweet, too. 

Masur, who got a kidney transplant last year in Germany, didn’t want to leave New York. He was forced out, losing a power struggle with then-Executive Director Deborah Borda. The board wanted someone younger and preferably American. After Borda’s abrupt departure in 1999 and the embarrassing rejection of Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, the philharmonic selected Maazel, who is American and 72. 

“It’s somehow hurting a little bit because you say farewell to somebody you love and that you admire, where you had a wonderful time together,” Masur said. 

The sweet part, though, is that he and his family have a home and feel at home in New York — and he thinks he leaves behind what is now one of the top five orchestras in the world. 

“I feel much more grateful that it worked that way. It could have gone wrong, it could have gone bad. As I came to New York everybody told me you are very adventurous to go there. And I must say, this was maybe the nicest adventure of my life.” 

It is a summer camp for 2002. Sure, there’s capture the flag and frisbee, but the kids at Cybercamps on the UC Berkeley campus also spend five hours a day in a computer lab, studying 3-D Animation, web design and robotics. 

“I’m aspiring to build a robot with my dad for BattleBots,” said one camper, referring to a Comedy Central television show that features robot combat. 

The UC Berkeley camp is one of 45 nationwide, operated by the Cybercamps company, founded in Seattle in 1997. 

“We see ourselves as a supplement to schools,” said founder Pete Findley. “With all their other essential priorities, many schools don’t have the time, money or training necessary to offer advanced technology learning opportunities during the school year.” 

Corporate sponsors like Microsoft, Sony and Electronic Arts provide the camp with digital cameras, games and software, including expensive programs that campers might not otherwise encounter. 

Robotics instructor Mario Roaf-Esparza, who will be a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. in the fall, said campers are learning both tangible and intangible skills. 

“They’re learning some basic mechanical engineering,” he said, noting that campers are learning to build circuits on their robots.  

But in programming the robots, they’re also learning something about logic and troubleshooting. 

All the camps, including the UC Berkeley program, accept children ages 6-17, although Berkeley camp director Erica Allen said most tend to be on the older end of that scale. This week the program has 29 campers, about half of them commuting each day and half staying the night in campus dorms.  

“They learn about a lot of new technologies that give them a step above,” said Allen. “But our number one rule is to have fun.” 

Case in point: a relay race called “soak the counselor” involves dousing one of the camp’s five counselors with water. 

“They have a blast,” said Jeff Claybaugh, assistant camp director, who supervises the residential campers. Lights-out time is 10 p.m., he said, but he often hears kids talking past midnight. 

The camp is scheduled to run through Aug. 10. The weekly fee is $600 to $1,000, depending on whether a camper commutes or stays the night. Scholarships are available for children from low-income families. Call 888-904-2267 to register.  

TAMPA, Fla. — Talk show host Jerry Springer was sued Wednesday by the son of a former guest, killed by her ex-husband hours after the airing of an episode the couple had appeared on involving love triangles. 

Jeffrey Campbell of Kalamazoo, Mich., alleged that The Jerry Springer Show episode on which Nancy Campbell-Panitz appeared created “a mood that led to murder.” 

A spokeswoman for the program said that neither the show nor its producers were responsible for the death. 

Ralf Panitz, 42, was convicted of second-degree murder and received a life sentence in May for the July 24, 2000, beating death of his ex-wife. The show had been taped in May 2000. 

The lawsuit said the show encouraged Ralf Panitz, who appeared on the episode with his new wife, to lie to Campbell-Panitz in order to get her to appear. 

The suit claims Campbell-Panitz thought she was on the show to reconcile with Ralf Panitz. Instead, she learned that her ex-husband had secretly married Eleanor Panitz in March 2000. 

Campbell-Panitz stormed off the stage as she was mocked by Eleanor Panitz and jeered by the audience. 

Panitz and Campbell-Panitz divorced in 1999 but still lived together off and on, even after he remarried. The trio spent months filing a flurry of domestic violence allegations against each other as Ralf Panitz bounced between the two women. 

Prosecutors say that Ralf Panitz, upset about having to move his belongings out of Campbell-Panitz’s home, choked and beat her to death after watching the episode on TV at a bar, where he was drinking heavily. 

Springer spokeswoman Linda Shafran on Wednesday noted the murder came three months after the show was taped.

A party for you and 80 friends 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Beavers fans: Beware of inflated scores and shredded programs. 

The Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres is sponsoring “Arthur Andersen Appreciation Night” to poke fun at the beleaguered accounting firm. 

At the July 18 home game against Edmonton, anyone named “Arthur” or “Andersen” will receive free admission. And the first person named “Arthur Andersen” will get a gift package that includes a party inside a luxury suite for 80 friends. 

Fans are encouraged to bring old documents to be destroyed at several “shredding stations” throughout the park. The team also will tuck away certificates for a game of “massive debt hide-and-go-seek.” 

Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was convicted of obstruction of justice last month related to an investigation into Enron Corp.’s complex accounting practices. 

“With all the negative stuff that’s come out of this, sooner or later you have to laugh about it,” Beavers general manager Mark Schuster said. 

Portland plays at PGE Park, named for Portland General Electric, a utility owned by Enron. 

Prohibition ends in Ohio town 69 years after it ended in US 

TALLMADGE, Ohio — Prohibition has finally ended for this Akron suburb. 

For the first time in more than 80 years, alcohol sales became legal Monday in Tallmadge, with Mayor Christopher Grimm getting things going by sipping on a microbrew beer at Delanie’s Neighborhood Grille. 

When Prohibition ended in 1933, Tallmadge refused to allow local sales, fearful of too many taverns. 

The change, approved by voters last year, was prompted by a desire to attract chain restaurants that depend on liquor sales. 

“It’s definitely not a coincidence that there are no big chain restaurants in Tallmadge,” said Delanie’s owner, Nicholas Dadich. “It’s because it has been dry.” 

‘Botox party’ theme too flip 

BALTIMORE — A “Botox Night” at a world-renowned medical center is furrowing the brows of some consumer advocates. 

A Johns Hopkins Hospital spokesman defended the event as an informational seminar, though people who attend the free event will be able to receive Botox treatments. 

“We think it’s insidious erosion of the culture of medicine being promoted by an institution that counts itself as one of the world’s leading medical centers,” Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said Tuesday. 

Gary Stephenson, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said the event was designed purely for Hopkins staff and employees who were interested in the purified strain of poisonous botulism used to smooth frown lines. 

He emphasized that procedures would be done by a trained physician and said Hopkins regularly holds similar events for other medical developments. 

Lurie said the reception, which includes refreshments, sounded much like Botox parties that have sprung up in spas or at upscale private homes, where alcohol and on-the-spot injections of Botox can be had. 

Stephenson said the letter about the event may have been “a bit lighthearted.” 

“We surely did not want to characterize this as a Botox party,” Stephenson said. 

California is inching closer to its first rolling blackouts in more than a year. 

A rolling blackout is when power supply is low and the power company intentionally turns off power grids, leaving people in the dark. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the state’s power grid operator declared a stage 2 out of 3 possible stages of emergency. If the level 3 is reached, it could be lights out for Bay Area residents.  

Total usage came within 5 percent of the state’s total reserves at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The alert followed the first preliminary emergency of the year on Tuesday.  

The extreme heat wave thinned energy supplies this week, according to the Independent System Operator, the agency that manages the state’s power grid. 

During the current alert, grid managers can call on a group of power users who agree to scale back electricity use during emergencies in return for lower energy rates, said ISO spokesperson Kristina Werst.  

By this time last year, the ISO declared 65 stage two alerts and 38 stage three alerts. An increase in public conservation awareness and keeping more power plants on line have helped avoid blackouts this year, Werst said. 

The ISO and Pacific Gas and Electric are still stressing that continued conservation will keep the lights on in California.  

The last rolling blackout in California happened on May 8, 2001. 

- The Associated Press contributed to this report

With temperatures soaring around the Bay Area, local senior centers and extended care facilities have taken extra steps to stay safe and beat the heat. While there have been no emergencies involving heat stroke or dehydration at any of the Berkeley senior centers, supervisors are taking precautions. 

“We’re still operating under normal circumstances but I think the most important thing is to take good common sense measures,” said Larry Taylor, director of the west Berkeley Senior Center. 

Taylor says the staff keeps pitchers of water on every table. It has additional fans running and recommends its residents wear hats and sunscreen outdoors. Supervisors said they have closely watched weather reports and were not surprised by this week’s heat wave.  

“We knew this was coming,” said Diane Mitchell, director of admissions at Berkeley’s Chaparral, a skilled nursing facility.  

Most centers in Berkeley benefit from a cooler climate compared with facilities to the east that have experienced scorching temperatures.  

Sacramento reached 112. Reno hit 109. Carson City was 104. 

According to Mitchell, the Chaparral facility, though it does not have air conditioning, benefits from the shade of surrounding trees, fans and high ceilings.  

Throughout the year seniors attended health and safety workshops at the west Berkeley center that helped prepare them for unusually warm conditions, said Suzanne Ryan, director of the north Berkeley senior center. 

“It’s full steam ahead here,” Ryan said. “Other than a request to move one of our meetings down to the first floor instead of the second because of the heat, we haven’t had much of a change.”  

Ryan said that seniors at the north Berkeley facility attended a piano concert Wednesday and took a bus trip to Jack London Square.  

A heat advisory was issued Wednesday for inland portions of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas as high temperatures were expected to reach or exceed 105 degrees.  

Heat advisories are issued by the service after temperatures exceed 105 degrees in a general region. Temperatures in Berkeley are expected to be moderate, in the 70s and 80s today. 

According to Carolina Horn of the Bay Area’s National Weather service office in Monterey, warnings are disseminated through wire services, the internet and other media outlets.  

RODEO — Residents near the Phillips Petroleum Co. refinery were ordered to stay in their homes for about an hour and a half Wednesday afternoon after black smoke began billowing from the facility. 

A loss of power caused part of the plant to shut itself down. As part of that process, it’s programmed to flare and burn off excess material, said Michael Marchiano, of the Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services. It was unclear what caused the plant to lose power. 

The black smoke was the result of an overflare involving unburned hydrocarbon that spewed from the refinery about 4 p.m., he said. Phillips was working to put the plant back online Wednesday evening. 

Residents of nearby Crockett were asked not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary, and were advised to stay inside with the windows and doors shut. They also were told to turn off air conditioners and fans, and to close fireplace dampers and vents and cover cracks around doors and windows with tape or damp towels. 

The shelter-in-place order was in effect from about 4:24 p.m. to 5:40 p.m. Officials then advised residents to open their windows and doors and let fresh air inside. 

The release comes during a record-breaking heat wave with a high pressure system that has reduced winds and sent temperatures soaring into the triple digits. Normally, the wind would blow the smoke out over the bay, said Paul Andrews, a county hazardous materials specialist.

WASHINGTON — The world’s most popular software for scrambling sensitive e-mails suffers from a programming flaw that could allow hackers to attack a user’s computer and, in some circumstances, unscramble messages. 

The software, called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, is the de facto standard for encrypting e-mails and is widely used by corporate and government offices, including some FBI agents and U.S. intelligence agencies. The scrambling technology is so powerful that until 1999 the federal government sought to restrict its sale out of fears that criminals, terrorists and foreign nations might use it. 

The new vulnerability, discovered weeks ago by researchers at eEye Digital Security Inc., does not exploit any weakness in the complex encrypting formulas used to scramble messages into gibberish. Instead, hackers are able to attack a programming flaw in an important piece of companion software, called a plug-in, that helps users of Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook e-mail program encrypt messages with a few mouse clicks. 

Outlook itself has emerged as the world’s standard for e-mail software, with tens of millions of users inside many of the world’s largest corporations and government offices. Smaller numbers use the Outlook plug-in to scramble their most sensitive messages so that only the recipient can read them. 

“It’s not the number of people using PGP but the fact that they’re using it because they’re trying to safeguard their data,” said Marc Maiffret, the eEye executive and researcher who discovered the problem. “Whatever the percentage is, it’s very important data.” 

Maiffret said there was no evidence anyone had successfully attacked users of the encryption software with this technique. He said the programming flaw was “not totally obvious,” even to trained researchers examining the software blueprints. 

Network Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., which until February distributed both commercial and free versions of PGP, made available on its Web site a free download to fix the software. The company announced earlier it was suspending new sales of the software, which hasn’t been profitable, but moved within weeks to repair the problem in existing versions. The company’s shares fell 50 cents to $17.70 in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Free versions of PGP are widely available on the World Wide Web. 

The flaw allows a hacker to send a specially coded e-mail — which would appear as a blank message followed by an error warning — and effectively seize control of the victim’s computer. The hacker could then install spy software to record keystrokes, steal financial records or copy a person’s secret unlocking keys to unscramble their sensitive e-mails. Other protective technology, such as corporate firewalls, could make this more difficult. 

“You can do whatever you want — execute code, read e-mails, install a backdoor, steal their keys. You could intercept all that stuff,” Maiffret said. 

Experts said the convenience of the plug-ins for popular e-mail programs broadened the risk from this latest threat, since encryption software is famously cumbersome to use without them.

SACRAMENTO — Two more top officials said Wednesday they are leaving the nation’s largest public pension fund, following a similar announcement in May by the fund’s chief executive officer. 

James Gomez, the deputy executive officer of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, has been named president and chief executive officer of the California Association of Health Facilities in Sacramento. 

Kayla Gillan, the system’s general counsel, has been named vice president of Independent Fiduciary Services in Washington, D.C. 

James E. Burton, who has headed CalPERS for 7 1/2 years, said in May he plans to leave this fall. He said Wednesday he expects his replacement to be named within 60 days. 

The duties performed by Gomez and Gillan will be picked up by other managers, Burton said. 

Gomez ran the system’s day-to-day operations since 1996. He has spent 32 years in state service, including stints as director and chief deputy director of the Department of Corrections. 

Gillan has been with the system 16 years, and became general counsel in 1996. 

She led the legal team that prompted former Gov. Pete Wilson to turn over $2 billion to the system and establish the principle that CalPERS members have a vested right to a fiscally secure retirement system. She also led the CalPERS team in the Cedant lawsuit that brought the largest securities fraud class action recovery in history. 

CalPERS provides retirement and health benefits to more than 1.3 million state and local employees and their families. 

SACRAMENTO — A Senate committee put off confirmation of the governor’s appointee to the Public Utilities Commission Wednesday because Michael Peevey’s term ends at the end of this year. 

Peevey, a former Edison International and Southern California Edison executive, was appointed in March to fill the position vacated by Richard Bilas, who had nine months left to serve. 

The state Senate has one year to confirm Gov. Gray Davis’ appointment, and since Peevey’s term runs out in December, Senate Leader John Burton said there was no need for a vote. He said he asked Peevey to testify in order to have his positions on energy issues on record in case he is reappointed to the commission for a full term. 

The Senate Rules Committee heard Wednesday from business groups that supported Peevey’s appointment and from consumer groups who said the former utility executive is too close to the industry the PUC oversees. 

Peevey said told the committee that he has had a “checkered” work history — from union official to utility president. 

“Some people accuse me of being too close to the utilities, some people accuse me of being too close to other groups,” he said. “I’m on the PUC to try and serve the public interest and I happen to agree that the first charge of the PUC is to serve ratepayers.” 

Peevey’s appointment was applauded by the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the California Chamber of Commerce. 

But several consumer advocates said they were concerned that Peevey has conflicts of interest that could harm the state’s utility customers. 

Burton was most concerned with Peevey’s position on direct access — the ability of industrial and other large power users to sign up for electricity service from companies other than the utilities. The PUC halted direct access, but is allowing customers who signed up for the alternative service before Sept. 20, 2001, to complete their contracts. 

Those customers could face undetermined exit fees that would pay off some of the debt incurred by utilities who were under retail rate caps that were far less than the soaring wholesale prices last year. 

At Burton’s urging, Peevey said he would push to ensure that utility customers weren’t left paying the bills accrued on behalf of those direct access customers. 

Davis appointees hold four of the five commission seats, which could help Davis promote his energy policies as the state attempts to settle a $10 billion power-buying debt and resolve its flawed attempt at deregulating its electricity market. The remaining GOP-appointed commissioner is Henry Duque. 

Peevey has been chief executive of TruePricing Inc., a technology company focused on helping large companies and government institutions track their energy costs. From 1995 to 2000, he was president of NewEnergy Inc., the nation’s largest energy service provider. He led Edison between 1990 and 1993. 

A legal settlement negotiated in secret by the Davis administration last year helped Edison avoid bankruptcy by maintaining record high electric rate hikes for the next several years and forgoing shareholder dividends. Before the settlement, Davis spent months lobbying the Legislature to buy Edison’s transmission lines to help the utility stay financially stable. 

Peevey also advised Davis during the energy crisis last spring, working without pay to secure long-term energy contracts to stabilize California’s power supply. 

Peevey holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is married to Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge. 

SANTA ANA — The U.S. government urged a California appeals court Wednesday to throw out slave labor lawsuits brought by World War II prisoners of war against Japanese companies, arguing a state law that allows such action is unconstitutional. 

The government argued the 1999 law allowing wartime forced-labor victims to seek redress against multinational firms that operate in the state interfered with the country’s foreign affairs powers. 

“This is a power California has assumed but is allocated to the federal government,” federal attorney Douglas Hallward-Driemeier told a three-judge panel, which was expected to issue a ruling sometime before November. 

But state Deputy Attorney General Angela Sierra argued the state law did not interfere with the country’s ability to make decisions about foreign affairs. 

She said the law only extended the statute of limitations for past crimes and had “nothing to do with the present Japanese government.” She said it created a forum for personal injury claims. 

“We believe California does have the constitutional authority to enact this statute,” Sierra said. 

At stake in the judges’ decision is the fate of lawsuits brought by former American soldiers who say they were forced to work for Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co., in mines and factories without pay, adequate food or medical care. 

The U.S. departments of State and Justice have contended the lawsuits violated a 1951 peace treaty that expressly waived any rights to reparations from Japan. 

“There is no question about the extent of which they suffered. ... This case is not about the extent of sympathy or gratitude owed them,” Hallward-Driemeier said. ”...This case can be resolved by looking at the treaty and the treaty alone.” 

The former POWs, however, contend the treaty did not cover their slave labor, which allegedly occurred at the hands of Japanese companies. 

Although a federal judge dismissed similar lawsuits, a state court cleared the way for the POWs to sue. The government appealed the ruling. 

Attorney Ronald W. Kleinman, who represented the POWs, argued clauses in the treaty, which was signed by more than three dozen countries, allows for reparations to be paid. 

But Hallward-Driemeier told the judges that POWs were allowed to collect damages from a reparations fund established after the treaty was signed. 

Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary asked how prisoners of war were notified then of the possibility of collecting reparations. 

“They come home in 1946 and in 1951 they have right to the claims. ... Were they notified they had this right?” O’Leary said. 

Hallward-Driemeier said he was unaware of the efforts made by the government. 

Seven POWs watched the proceedings. Outside the courtroom, 87-year-old Carlos Montoya call the government’s argument “terrible,” saying he had never heard from anyone in the government or the military of receiving reparations from Japan after he returned. 

“We came back in 1945 and here it is 2002, and I’ve never heard that. Not once,” said Montoya, who was among those who survived fighting on Bataan and the notorious death march on the Philippine island. 

Montoya, of San Diego, said he was later sent to work in mines and factories. 

Joseph Della Malva, 84, of Seal Beach, was taken prisoner in May 1942 when soldiers on the island of Corregidor surrendered. 

“This really isn’t about money. It’s about holding them accountable,” he said. “We paid a penalty greater than anybody understands ... and then our own government tells us we don’t deserve that. Can you believe it?” 

Congressional support for the veterans has been strong. Currently, three bills — one House and two Senate bills — support the efforts of World War II POWs. 

Of the 36,000 American servicemen captured by Japan during the war, only about 5,300 are still living. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Chemicals that are feared to cause birth defects have been found in toiletry products ranging from hairspray to deodorant, the same substances that also have been discovered in high concentrations among women of childbearing age, an environmental group reports. 

The chemicals, called phthalates and pronounced THAH-lates, were found in 52 of the 72 products tested. Phthalates have been shown to cause birth defects in laboratory tests on animals — especially in males — although the effect on humans has not been determined. 

The report, released Wednesday by Washington and Oakland-based Environmental Working Group, shows that 70 percent of the products tested contain phthalates, but not all of them list the chemicals on the packaging. 

Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the group, said the chemicals should be listed so cosmetics users can decide whether they want to avoid products with phthalates. 

“Almost across the board, phthalates did not appear on the label because there are so many loopholes in the labeling law,” she said. “Women are left in this bind — how do they choose products that are phthalate free?” 

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association posted a statement on its Web site Wednesday defending the use of the chemicals. 

“The use of phthalates in cosmetics and personal care products is supported by an extensive body of scientific research and data that confirms safety,” the statement said. 

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000 found that women of childbearing age absorbed more phthalates than other groups. The chemicals are excreted from the body within days. 

While nail polish has been targeted as the product most likely to explain the higher absorption of the chemical in young women, the substances are found in a number of other products, from plastic toys and food packaging to adhesives. 

The Food and Drug Administration requires that phthalates be listed on consumer products marked for retail sale.  

But individual ingredients in fragrances do not have to be identified. 

If the FDA determines that phthalates pose a health hazard, it can take steps to get the product removed or force a labeling change. 

SAN JOSE — It was one of the most infamous crimes in California history: Three women disappeared while visiting Yosemite National Park and were savagely killed by the handyman at their motel. Caught months later after beheading a nature guide, Cary Stayner gave the FBI a detailed confession to all four murders. 

Three years later, Stayner, 40, is finally going on trial for killing the tourists, with opening statements expected Monday. 

Despite the notoriety, there is an anti-climactic aspect to Stayner’s trial. He already is serving life without parole in federal prison after pleading guilty to killing the park guide, Joie Armstrong. 

But state prosecutors want to execute him. 

Stayner, who once said he would prefer the death penalty to life in prison, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Executing him will require slogging through a trial that is expected to last almost three months and cost taxpayers $3 million. Then there are the appeals. 

“You have to imagine there are better ways of spending the money, even though I support the death penalty,” said Ken Hawkins, the auditor for Mariposa County (population 16,000), where the killings occurred. 

The county, which has an annual budget of $31 million, has spent $940,000 on the case and expects to shell out at least $2 million more for the prosecution’s costs and Stayner’s defense. Most of the costs are being reimbursed by the state. 

“Even if you are successful in getting the death penalty, that’s still setting up 15 years of appeals,” Hawkins said. “If you’re just looking at dollars and cents, you think about what could be spent on children in schools, roads. You think about what you’re trading just to drive home a point that the guy should be executed.” 

Mariposa County District Attorney Christine Johnson did not return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors handling the case refused comment.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is moving radioactive
material from research site to landfill in Nevada 

Officials from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a Berkeley citizens group but heads Tuesday over the removal of an enormous, obsolete machine called the Bevatron.  

The particle accelerator that contains radioactive material is being removed from the laboratory in the Berkeley hills. 

The group, the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, is concerned that the lab is not doing enough to ensure that no health risk is involved with the moving of radioactive material.  

At a City Council meeting Tuesday, they came to support Councilmember Donna Springs’ calling for a temporary cessation of the project until an environmental impact report is done. 

The lab contends that the project meets state and federal environmental standards and can proceed without an impact report. 

"[We] comply with the laws," said Robin Wendt of the laboratory’s Environmental, Health and Safety Division.  

Representatives from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have said no health risks are associated with the shipments of metal and concrete – some of which is radioactive – beyond normal risks associated with moving traffic.  

"The level of radiation contained in the concrete and metal pieces will not rise to a level where the Department of Transportation is concerned," Wendt said.  

The Bevatron was first used in 1954. It was instrumental in many important discoveries in the field of particle physics, primarily the discovery of nuclear antimatter. The building that houses the Bevatron takes up 10 percent of the land area of the lab, and is larger than Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. In 1993 the Bevatron was decommissioned. Trucks started hauling away material this year. The process to transport all of the concrete and metal that once made up the machine will take roughly 10 years. 

The City Council is expected to continue discussions at its next meeting.

The problem with the Berkeley City Council's newest hate crime proposition (as reported in the Daily Planet) is that it only adds to the glut of laws that currently protect people from such crimes. Simply enforce the laws you have concerning breaking windows, destorying property and threatening others instead of trumpeting new plans that simply add paper to the current legal code and make politicians look good. If Berkeley law officials want to curb the violence, make an example out of some offenders and throw them in jail. Perhaps then people will realize this town is serious about stopping hate crimes. Instead it looks like Berkeley politicians are more interested in using this issue as an election soapbox rather than enforcing a real, worthwhile solution that already exists in the form of current law. Stop talking. Stop legislating. Start acting. 

Adam Sapp 

Danville, Ohio 

Formerly of Berkeley 

‘The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course’

You may be wondering, as I did: Does the world really need a feature-length movie about crocodile hunter Steve Irwin? Especially after three installments of Paul Hogan’s “Crocodile Dundee” series, each of which was lamer than the last? 

And the answer, surprisingly, is: yes. 

Because “The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course” is the laugh-out-loud comedy of the summer — mainly when it doesn’t mean to be. 

The movie expands on Irwin’s TV series on cable’s Animal Planet, in which he wrestles crocs and other Australian creatures and explains their behavior in manic, animated detail. In between, he injects his message of wildlife conservation. 

Irwin is good-looking and likable, but it’s his broad Australian accent and infectious enthusiasm that make him so much fun to watch. His protracted soliloquies are often so over the top, he’s like a “Saturday Night Live” parody of himself. 

“What an honor to share territory — share space — with such a BEAU-tiful creature!” he exclaims after tangling with a deadly king brown snake — and every venomous snake is “BEAU-tiful!” 

His other favorite word is “Crikey!” which he shouts when he’s excited or in danger, and he uses it so many times, it could be a drinking game. This is a family movie, though, and kids will enjoy gross-out thrills from the many slithering and crawling creatures. 

Irwin’s American wife, Terri, gamely goes along for the ride, but she’s so calm by comparison, she’s practically comatose. With her lifeless, B-movie line delivery, she’s also the source of most of the unintentional laughs. 

Terri explains in a deadpan monotone that breeding season is “a real bummer” for the male bird-eating spider ... because the female eats him soon after they mate! 

“It seems pretty harsh,” Irwin adds, his eyes bulging, “but THIS is nature’s way.” 

But the downtimes are so flat, it makes me wonder whether director John Stainton and writer Holly Goldberg Sloan made them intentionally bad, just so we’d look forward to seeing Irwin again. 

The mind-boggling, paper-thin story line has something to do with the data recorder from a fallen satellite landing in Far North Queensland, where a 12-foot crocodile promptly chomps on it. The CIA sends undercover agents Wheeler (Lachy Hulme) and Archer (Kenneth Ransom), who’ve barely strayed from their desk jobs, to retrieve it. But cantankerous rancher Brozzie Drewett (Magda Szubanski, Mrs. Hoggett from the “Babe” movies) also is after the crocodile for nabbing her cattle, and has a shotgun constantly cradled in her arms to blast the creature. 

So Steve and Terri are sent to rescue the crocodile — one of the movie’s more thrilling segments — and place it in a safer environment. But the clueless G-men think Steve and Terri are after the data recorder, too, and suspect they’re spies. 

None of that really matters, though. 

“The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course” is all about Irwin and his goofy shtick, and the filmmakers wisely devote most of the screen time to him.

Tuesday, July 9

Mother’s Morning Out 

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Upaya Center for Wellbeing 

478 Santa Clara Ave. 

Craniosacral Therapy for Infants and Children 

www.upayacenter.org 

Free 

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

What Do You Believe? Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers 

6:30 to 8:00 p.m. 

Ellen Driscoll Playhouse 

325 Highland Avenue, Piedmont  

Film presented by Piedmont diversity groups; discussion with filmmaker, Sarah Feinbloom.  

655-5552, or maudep@aol.com 

Free 

Friday, July 12

Celebration of Emma Goldman's Birthday  

8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity Hall  

390 27th St  

An all-ages, alcohol-free party with live music, DJ, and dance lessons 

http://www.ebcaw.org  

$5 to $10 sliding scale  

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

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 

Introduction to Accessible Software and Hardware  

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

Wedneday, July 17

Doctors Without Borders 

Until July 18 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Springer Gateway, West Entrance Crescent 

Interactive exhibit expalining medicines for people in developing countries; Film screenings 

www.doctorswithoutborders.org 

Free 

Mystique of the Widerness 

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 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

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 slideshw 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, intrduces their latest design. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

"Neon: The Living Flame" 

7:00 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, nonmembers $5  

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike techician basic repairs such as brake adjustments and fixing a flat. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 to 9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

After seven innings of hard-fought baseball, a little hustle was the thing that made the difference for the Berkeley/Albany Barons. 

Jason Moore’s hard slide into second to break up a possible inning-ending double play allowed Chris Morocco to score the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning against the San Leandro Braves, giving the Barons a 4-3 win in the opening game of the Babe Ruth District Tournament. 

The Barons loaded the bases on a leadoff infield single by Morocco and walks to Derek Yow and Moore. Up stepped Chase Moore, who hit a groundball to second base. But the relay throw from Braves shortstop Ray Stokes never even made it to first base as he was barrelled into by Jason Moore.  

Stokes and the Braves coaches protested that Moore’s slide was excessive, but the umpires quickly removed themselves from the field, cutting the argument short. 

“I just went straight at the bag, and he was right there,” Moore said. “I knew that since they were playing back I had to break it up. That was the game right there.” 

The Barons struggled against San Leandro starter Eric Willis, who blew the ball by several hitters and cruised through the first four innings. That was a big departure from the teams’ meeting on July 4, a 16-6 win for Berkeley/Albany. 

“They came in here with their best pitcher, a guy I haven’t seen before,” Barons manager Joe Pinguelo said. “He did a nice job, kept us down for most of the game.” 

Meanwhile, the Braves scratched out single runs in the third and fourth innings off of Barons starter James Assia. The righthander worked out of a jam in the fourth, as a Jason Moore error, a single and a walk loaded the bases. It looked as if Assia would escape unscathed when Stokes hit a line drive right at Tom Carman in leftfield, but Carman couldn’t handle it, allowing Tim Schultz to score from third. Assia retired the next two batters without further damage. 

The Barons finally turned on the offense in the fifth inning, scoring three runs, all with two outs. Five straight hits, including RBI doubles by Yow and Chase Moore, were enough to take a 3-2 lead. The lead could have been bigger, but Moore hesitated rounding third on Benny Goldenberg’s single and was gunned down at the plate despite a remarkably nimble attempted leap over the catcher. 

Pinguelo went to his bullpen with the lead, but Ricky Arias walked the first batter he faced, Josh Eisenhart, then wild-pitched him to second. San Leandro’s Steve Petros singled home the tying run two batters later, setting up the last-at-bat dramatics. 

The Barons now face Fremont, one of the two seeded teams, today at 5:30 p.m. Pinguelo thinks his team has the talent to win the district and head to the state tournament next week, noting that the Barons beat the defending state champions San Leandro Rangers earlier this summer. 

“I’m trying to figure out our lineup right now. We’ve got kids working, kids on vacation, kids who want to party,” he said. “If everyone shows up, I feel like we can win it all.”

Nurses at four area hospitals, including Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, are planning a one-day strike July 19 after contract negotiations hit a brick wall this weekend. 

Alta Bates spokesperson Jill Gruen said the hospital may have to reduce services on the day of the strike. 

“It’s a normal process, hospitals are used to it,” said Charles Idelson, spokesperson for the California Nurses Association, which represents the nurses. Picketers will be available to work if a medical emergency arises, he said. 

The Nurses Association is seeking wage increases, a better retirement package and improved nurse-to-patient ratios at all four hospitals.  

The union is negotiating separate contracts with each of the hospitals, all owned by Sutter Health. Alta Bates talks are set to resume today, with a federal mediator present. 

Union officials say that good wages and benefits are needed for Sutter Health to attract nurses while a nurse shortage is affecting the country. 

“There’s a turnstile at the front of these hospitals,” said Idelson. “Unless we can address the downward spiral, hospitals are going to turn into dangerous medical factories.” 

Gruen said Alta Bates, which has about 200 unfilled nursing positions, is taking the issue seriously. 

“This is the most generous wages and benefit offer in Alta Bates and Summit history,” she said. 

Alta Bates is offering a 16 percent pay raise over three years. The union is asking for a 27 percent hike. 

Connie Arburua, an Alta Bates nurse on the union’s negotiating team, said that the 27 percent figure is “above average,” but not high enough to retain nurses. 

“We’re interested in stopping the hemorrhaging at Alta Bates and Summit,” she said. “The nurses are leaving.”  

Arburua pointed to a recently-negotiated 26 percent increase over three years at the Sutter-owned Mills-Peninsula hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo as a precedent. 

In the 26 percent figure the union includes a 7.5 percent raise retroactive at the beginning of the year. Gruen says the true number is 19 percent and the Alta Bates offer is comparable. 

Arburua said the retirement package offered by the hospital – which includes pension and health care provisions – may be acceptable if Alta Bates agrees to provide acceptable health benefits for early retirees. 

Currently, the hospital is offering early retirees a maximum of $12,000 to spend on health insurance until they reach 65, when Medicare kicks in. 

“That’s not going to pay for much,” she said. 

Gruen said the Alta Bates offer is generous, and akin to what the Nurses Association has accepted in negotiations elsewhere. 

In January, Gov. Gray Davis announced preliminary, statewide nurse-to-patient ratios and the figures are currently moving through the regulatory and public comment process. 

The union wants to include those preliminary ratios in the Alta Bates contract. The hospital wants to wait until the state-mandated ratios are approved and is offering to form a management-labor committee, in the meantime, to discuss the issue. 

Gruen pointed out that the Nurses Association accepted this arrangement in the recently-signed University of California nurse’s contract. But Idelson said the comparison is unfair since UC hospitals tend to have better nursing rations than Alta Bates.  

The other three hospitals scheduled to take part in the July 19 strike are Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo and St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco.  

To the Editor: 

Thanks for the fine article describing my concerns about dangerous trees. The writer was very diligent in contacting the other persons for a variety of comments. 

Jerry Koch, senior arborist for the city misrepresents my views when he says I want to tell Berkeley residents what kinds of trees they should plant, which I do not. 

What I have in mind is that the city should provide a description sheet of details about each specific tree for persons who are planning to plant a seedling. Citizens need to know the longterm details so they can make very reasoned decisions based on most of the facts. (Extreme height, shallow roots, shed badly, frequent limb drops, kill birds, highly flammable, etc. These problems all exist at Indian Rock Park.) 

Some forestry experts have pointed out that a high percentage of the trees on a city list published by Mr. Koch are exotic trees which are not suitable for Berkeley. I'll be glad to furnish the names of those experts if requested. Just because a state agency furnishes seedlings does not guarantee their suitability. 

The city of Albany has published a list that fulfills most of the descriptions of a few of their trees. 

The city of El Cerrito has a Tree Demonstration Project with trees alongside BART near the Del Norte Station. Trees there are supposedly suitable for parks, parking between sidewalks and curbs, and back yards. However, of those trees, three are obviously not suitable. They are a midwest Oak which needs summer rain; a Norwegian maple which has highly invasive surface roots which go out about thirty feet; and a Chinese tree which sheds badly and is dangerous at certain times of the year. 

The Berkeley City Parks Commission recently asked city staff to furnish them with monthly lists of limb drops and fallen trees.  

We all need this information. Following the 1967 city manager's request that all local reports be available in city libraries, any person who is interested should have ready access to the data needed without bothering city staff. 

Once the various lists are compiled, I am certain citizens will find them very helpful. Mr. John Wagers, author of tree articles for The Monclarion, suggests that the Grecian Laurel, Saratoga hybrid would be one of the excellent trees for this area. He has furnished me with a spec sheet on it which I will place in local libraries along with other data which I have assembled. 

Charlie Smith 

Berkeley

Says black music artists  

are most often victims 

NEW YORK — Multiplatinum singer Michael Jackson, already feuding with his record company, charged Saturday that the recording industry was a racist conspiracy that turns profits at the expense of performers — particularly minority artists. 

“The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists — they steal, they cheat, they do everything they can,” Jackson said in a rare public appearance. ”(Especially) against the black artists.” 

Jackson, 43, who began his recording career as a child, spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. recently formed a coalition to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited by record labels. 

He also singled out Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola, saying he was “mean, he’s a racist, and he’s very, very, very devilish.” Jackson also accused Mottola of using “the n-word” when speaking about an unidentified black Sony artist. 

Sony Music issued a statement calling Jackson’s comments “ludicrous, spiteful and hurtful. It seems particularly bizarre that he has chosen to launch an unwarranted and ugly attack on an executive who has championed his career ... for many, many years.” 

Sony produced Jackson’s last album, “Invincible,” which has had disappointing sales despite an estimated $25 million in promotion. The singer’s fans say Sony didn’t do enough to launch the album. Others in the industry say sagging sales were indicative of Jackson’s declining appeal. 

Jackson mentioned several black artists as victims of the industry, including James Brown, Mariah Carey and Sammy Davis Jr. Jackson alleged that Davis died penniless, although Davis’ attorney said in 1990 that the “Rat Pack” member left an estate worth more than $6 million when he died. 

“If you fight for me, you’re fighting for all black people, dead and alive,” Jackson said, adding: “We have to put a stop to this incredible injustice.” 

Outside Sony’s Manhattan headquarters, about 150 fans gathered later Saturday, hoisting signs reading “Please Sony, stop killing the music,” “Terminate Tommy Mottola,” and “Invincible is Unbreakable.” 

Jackson arrived at the Midtown building on a double-decker city tour bus that twice circled the block. He stood in the open top deck and, raising his fists, joined the crowd in chanting “Down with Tommy Mottola!” 

Jackson held up a poster with three boxes marked “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” — with an image of himself in the “The Good” box and Mottola’s face with devilish horns in “The Bad” box, while Mottola’s real image adorned “The Ugly” box. 

OAKLAND – The Oakland Athletics extended their lease at the Coliseum through 2007 on Tuesday, securing the team’s short-term future and likely pushing it further down the list of candidates for contraction.  

Owner Steve Schott remains committed to building a baseball-only stadium in the East Bay for the A’s, but he reached another compromise in his team’s stormy relationship with its government landlords at the Coliseum, its home since 1968.  

“We’ve put the A’s in position to stay and play baseball at the Coliseum while we look at sites for a new stadium,” Schott said. “Now the real work begins.”  

With their relatively small fan base and outmoded stadium, the A’s were thought to be among the second tier of candidates for the contraction favored by baseball commissioner Bud Selig.  

But with a solid lease and a commitment to explore new stadium options, Schott said the A’s “are much more stable in major league baseball’s eyes.”  

The A’s will pay $500,000 annually in rent over the first three years of the agreement, with increases to $550,000 in 2006 and $600,000 in 2007.

One late night on Virginia Street in 1966 may have been one of the most influential moments of Maudelle Shirek’s life. 

In a house full of young, nationally-minded activists debating how America could move out of a controversial war and away from 1950s social values, the fledgling politician convinced UC Berkeley graduate student Ron Dellums to run for U.S. Congress. 

Dellums proved successful in his congressional bid. After that, he spent 24 years in Washington, where he introduced a leftist agenda to the national legislature. He was a huge inspiration for black politicians, said Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. 

“Had it not been for Maudelle, we wouldn’t have had Dellums in Congress,” he said. 

Now 91, Shirek is in her fifth, four-year term as a Berkeley councilmember and is the oldest elected official in California. The granddaughter of an American slave, Shriek represents District 3, a working class district in south Berkeley, and is known as an advocate of the poor and the underrepresented. 

Having created a local legacy of her own, Shirek downplays her impact on state and federal politics. 

“Dellums says I convinced him to run for Congress, but I’m not so sure,” she said. “I do know he took the torch and ran with it.” 

Shirek is often referred to as the “mother of progressive politics” in the offices of Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

Tuesday morning, friends and followers of Shirek gathered in Oakland to recognize the councilmember’s political career. Proclamations came from the County Board of Supervisors, Assemblywoman Dion Aaroner, Congresswoman Lee and President George Bush. 

“I’ll be anxious to see what Maudelle does with President Bush’s proclamation,” joked Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, referubg to Shirek’s well-known aversion to the Bush administration. 

Dean, herself representing a more moderate element of Berkeley, has encountered the fierce and sometimes fiery activism of her colleague. 

Shirek has put the welfare of organized labor, the homeless and AIDS’ victims at the forefront of her political agenda, sometimes isolating the issues of fellow councilmembers. 

With two years remaining in her council term, Shirek hasn’t thought much about re-election. 

“I don’t know how many more years I have. I could go at anytime,” she said. “I’m just continuing to work for the homeless and the hopeless.” 

Shirek spends much of her free time volunteering at local senior centers, having retired from a credit union where she had worked as a loan officer. Her husband was the late Brownlee Shirek, also a political activist. 

Longtime friends of the councilmember know Shirek not only as a progressive political figure, but as a friend and neighbor. 

“If you need something, you call Maudelle. That’s the way it is,” said Berkeley teacher Jesse W. Anthony, who has known Shirek for 34 years. “Whether it’s a place to stay or something to eat, she’ll help.”

To the Editor: 

I was dismayed by the conduct of an attorney claiming to represent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the City Council meeting. I assume that personal attacks and name calling is not the official protocol for community relations at LBNL. I request an apology for those who were personally attacked at the meeting. I hope that the city, community and lab can settle issues of environmental responsibility at LBNL with reasonable discourse and not insults. 

Andy Katz 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES — Responding to the rampant spread of unauthorized music swapping on the Internet, Universal Music Group plans to put a large chunk of its vast music library online through a subscription service beginning Tuesday. 

UMG, the largest of the five major record companies, will make about 1,000 of its 11,000 albums available to subscribers who pay between $10 and $15 a month. 

Unlike most other initiatives announced during the last six months, UMG’s partnership with Emusic.com, a downloadable music subscription service, gives customers the same ownership rights as if they had bought the music on a CD. 

That means users will be able to store tracks and transfer them to CDs or portable players using the popular MP3 file format. 

But UMG is selecting the content it makes available selectively. Rather than offering the work of best-selling artists like Eminem and U2, UMG has chosen older, less popular content that doesn’t sell quickly in stores. 

UMG executives want to see if the music service can actually boost sales inside stores, or whether it ends up cannibalizing physical sales. 

“Our feeling is people signing up are not going to say, ’Boy, I don’t have to go out and buy the CD now,”’ said Larry Kenswil, president of Universal Music Group eLabs. “We’ll see what happens.”

MILWAUKEE – In Bud’s backyard, even the All-Star Game ended with fans booing baseball.  

Despite Barry Bonds hitting a home run and Torii Hunter making a spectacular catch, the All-Star Game finished in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings Tuesday night when both teams ran out of pitchers.  

Commissioner Bud Selig, who lives in Milwaukee and formerly ran the Brewers, made the ultimate decision to call the game. It was the first tie in All-Star play since a game in 1961 was stopped by rain.  

“I want to take this opportunity to apologize to the fans,” Selig said. “Given the health of the players, I had no choice.  

“The decision was made because there were no players left, no pitchers left,” he said. ‘This is not the ending I had hoped for. I was in a no-win situation.”  

Amid worries about a players’ strike and steroids looming over the sport, baseball had hoped put the focus back on the field – at least for a day.  

No luck.  

“With everything going on in baseball, I’m sure the fans were very upset,” Hunter said.  

They sure were.  

There were loud chants of “Let them play!” and “Refund!” from the sellout crowd of 41,871 at Miller Park as Freddy Garcia struck out Benito Santiago with a runner on second base to end it.  

Once it finished, some fans in right field threw bottles.  

“They treated it like it was a meaningless game,” said David Cuscuna of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “They’re telling the fans this game doesn’t matter. Not to mention the $175 face value for tickets. It sends a lot of bad messages.”  

An entertaining evening that began with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Cal Ripken taking part in festivities to honor the past wound up with fans even more angry and upset.  

“This is a very regrettable situation,” Selig said.  

There was no MVP picked. Bad timing, too, since the trophy was renamed this week to honor Ted Williams, the Hall of Famer who died Friday.  

It became apparent that a tie was possible after the top of the 11th when AL manager Joe Torre, NL manager Bob Brenly and umpire crew chief Gerry Davis went over to talk with Selig in the front row next to the first-base dugout.  

At one point during the five-minute discussion, Selig threw up his arms.  

After Luis Castillo flied out to start the bottom of the 11th, the stadium public-address announcer informed the crowd of the bad news, saying a tie would be declared if the NL didn’t score in the bottom half.  

Garcia and Vicente Padilla, who finished for the NL, each pitched two innings. All 60 players on the two rosters were used.  

The result left intact the AL’s five-game winning streak. The NL leads the overall series 40-31 – and now with two ties.  

“I feel bad for Bud,” Torre said. “Bob and I had talked. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have all the people see all the players.”  

“If I was a fan, too, I would be disappointed,” said Arizona catcher Damian Miller, who doubled twice. “Obviously, you want to see someone win. You have to look out for the players and their health.”

Berkeley leaders appeared uncomfortable about a law that would impose strict height limits on apartment buildings, offices, and shopping centers within city limits. But at last night’s City Council meeting, state election rules outweighed city sentiments and forced councilmembers to approve a height limit ordinance for the November ballot. 

Proponents of the ordinance, hoping to keep buildings small and neighborhoods intact, had gathered 44 more than the 2,000 signatures required to take the proposal to voters this fall. 

Voter approval would mean a reduction in current height limits for new buildings by at least one story in most of the city and up to three stories in high-density residential neighborhoods and commercial strips. Current height limits vary drastically according to zoning districts. 

Shoring up nearly a month of study, city planners concluded that the ordinance goes against the grain of the city’s general plan and reduces incentive to create more open space, parking and housing in Berkeley. 

“It would reduce by 40 to 60 percent the zoning capacity for producing housing,” said senior planner Tim Stroshane. 

The height limits, instead of allowing developers to build up, would prompt developers to build out in order to attain building sizes that are financially viable, Stroshane explained. In such a process, opportunities for open space and parking would be lost, he said. 

But authors of the ordinance Howie Muir and Martha Nicoloff, and their more than 2,000 supporters, have embraced the argument that more building in Berkeley is simply unnecessary. 

The number of people living in Berkeley has dropped in the last 30 years and the population density is already greater than in many other cities, including Los Angeles, proponents say. 

The proponents’ written statement, in addition to citing problems associated with population growth, notes that taller buildings block sunlight, create wind tunnels and eliminate views of the hills. 

The desire to retain a neighborhood-feel in Berkeley has fallen in direct opposition to the demand for affordable housing. 

City planners said that if the ordinance is adopted, the city will have a difficult time meeting state quotas for affordable housing. Developers of affordable housing typically use upward development to make their project profitable, they said. 

“We are mandated to give some concessions. Height is the easiest concession to make,” said City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

City planners concluded that if the initiative is passed, to meet state requirements, the city may be forced to make greater financial subsidies for affordable housing. 

To the Editor: 

May I suggest a Rational New Pledge: 

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for Americans of all colors, creeds and cultures. 

Gerta Farber 

Berkeley

Annoying parrot on the loose 

TACOMA, Wash. — Gail and Bill Brooks hope whoever stole their parrot is annoyed enough with his noise to be having second thoughts. 

The owners of the Pet Pavilion have collected nearly $3,000 to offer as a reward for the return of Bonzo, a 10-year-old African gray parrot they raised from birth and brought with them when they moved from Florida. 

Bonzo, less than a foot tall and worth about $2,000, vanished from the Brooks’ emergency animal care and boarding operation June 23 while they were on vacation in Hawaii. 

African grays are not rare and have a typical lifespan of 50 years in captivity and 75 years in the wild. Bonzo is uncommonly noisy, Gail Brooks said. 

“Whoever stole him is probably getting tired of him asking, ‘Where’s Bill?”’ she said. “It really is like having a child in the house when he’s here.” 

Bonzo readily sings a version of the song “Bingo” using his own name and squawks “Bonzo pretty, Bonzo smart” and “Night, night” at bedtime. 

Other routines include “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too” from the “Wizard of Oz” and “A parrot’s life for me” from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. 

No fans allowed at this game  

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The starting pitcher said it felt like playing in a cemetery. It was so quiet he could hear the beer and peanut vendors in the stands. 

The Charleston Riverdogs lost 4-2 to the Columbus RedStixx on Monday night as the Class A Tampa Bay Devil Rays affiliate padlocked the gates and kept hundreds of fans outside Joe Riley Stadium. 

This was “Nobody Night” — a promotion designed to set the record for professional baseball’s lowest attendance. 

“I understood what was going on, but you know, a couple of guys said, ’We’re professional athletes, it kind of stinks not to have fans there the whole time cheering you on,”’ Riverdogs pitcher John Vigue said. 

Only reporters, scouts and employees were allowed into the game. Fans were turned away and sent just outside the ballpark to a party where discounted food and beer were offered. 

Hundreds gathered outside the main gate, waiting to come in once the game was declared official after the fifth inning and the attendance was recorded as zero. 

Dogs, lamps not
the same as kids 

HARRISBURG, Pa. — No matter how much some people treat their pets like children, the law doesn’t allow a divorced couple to have joint custody of a dog, a state appeals court ruled. 

Anthony DeSanctis worked out an agreement with Lynda Hurley Pritchard when they divorced in 2000 that dealt mostly with the future of Barney, a dog Pritchard had gotten from an animal shelter two months before the couple separated in 1996. 

The agreement said the dog was Pritchard’s, but set up an arrangement that allowed DeSanctis to visit him, according to court records. 

In March of 2000, however, Pritchard moved from Chester County to Bucks County and no longer made Barney available for DeSanctis to visit. 

In a decision released Friday, the Pennsylvania Superior Court agreed with the Chester County Court of Common Pleas that the law cannot treat the dog like a child. 

“Despite the status owners bestow on their pets, Pennsylvania law considers dogs to be personal property,” Justice Frank J. Montemuro wrote. 

He said he agreed with the trial courts that DeSanctis was seeking a court order that is “analogous, in law, to a visitation schedule for a table or a lamp.” 

The court noted that DeSanctis still had a legal recourse: He could sue for breach of contract, but all he could get would be the dog’s monetary value. 

For Shawne Jones, growing up in Berkeley wasn't always easy. The 19-year-old says she certainly could have chosen the wrong path in life.  

However, 10 summers with the Berkeley Boosters Association’s summer activity programs had a positive impact on her, and may have kept her out of trouble, Jones said. 

As a kayak instructor for the booster's summer program and a former camper, Jones is hoping to provide other kids with the same opportunities.  

“I could have gone down another road but I'm still here because I want to be able to give back to the kids and to be a positive role model,” she said. 

In its third year, the kayaking program is one example of the many activities the boosters organize to help low-income, at-risk kids in the area.  

The association models itself on the Outward Bound philosophy, using outdoor education as a tool to teach life skills, said David Manson, executive director of the Berkeley Boosters Association.  

“We provide so many activities that, due to financial or cultural reasons, a lot of these kids would not have access to,” Manson said, naming rock climbing, camping, windsurfing, kayaking. “They're just things they wouldn't otherwise have the chance to appreciate.” 

Part of the boosters’ mission is to provide low-cost activities. 

The two-week kayaking program costs $85 for members and $110 for non-members. Eighty percent of the kayaking class participants were given scholarships, another means of making the program accessible to children. 

Once the kids are in the programs, the outdoor settings provide new challenges. Participants develop new skills and grow as individuals through these challenges, Manson said.  

“Enjoying and appreciating the outdoors is one thing, but the behavior change is so much quicker because the kids have to respond differently than they normally would,” he said. “They can't use the same attitudes they do on the street. Outdoors, if you want to survive, you have to take a different approach.” 

On her second day kayaking at the Berkeley Marina, eighth- grader Canon Jones and his cousin, Julian Johnson, had high hopes to improve both their balance and speed in the water.  

“I want to improve my racing and be able to go faster in the water without tipping over,” Johnson said. 

For Gesita Melkamu, a fifth-grader at Washington Elementary School, the boosters’ summer camp has already provided the chance to tackle a number of new activities. In the past few weeks, Melkamu has done everything from camping to kayaking to white water rafting, all for the first time. Enjoying the surroundings is a big part of the thrill says Melkamu. 

“My favorite part is getting out in the middle of the water and looking at the view. I love the noise of the water,” Melkamu says. 

Esteban Yanez, a kayaking instructor who has been with the boosters for almost 10 years, said the outdoor programs are positive alternatives to other activities. “It gives them a place to go besides watching TV,” Yanez said. “It gives them outdoor fun.” 

A participant in the bike riding and backpacking programs, eighth-grader Gerald Archos says the Boosters program has mad a difference. “If I wasn't here I'd have nothing to do over the summer. I'd probably be outside in the streets doing something I shouldn't be doing,” Archos said. 

Though the Boosters do not currently have a strong teen oriented program, Manson says that he hopes many of the younger campers will return as counselors-in-training and as instructors. Older campers are often given leadership roles and by the age of 15 are considered for employment opportunities. 

Utility supply, air quality are at risk 

High temperatures are driving people to crank up air conditioners, collectively tapping deep into the state’s power supply. 

Officials are asking the public to curtail electricity consumption because California power companies are in danger of having to buy energy from out of state. People should limit use of air conditioners and appliances – anything electrical other than lights and computers. This warning is effective until Thursday, when temperatures are expected to drop in Berkeley from the low 90s to the mid 80s, Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman Jason Alderman said. 

“Continued conservation is the key to success,” Alderman said. “Make sure the thermostat is set to 78 degrees or higher. And we are asking [energy consumers] to hold off on using appliances until after 7 p.m.”  

In addition to conserving energy, residents can help with air quality. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District warned of high levels of smog Tuesday and today.  

Although coastal winds helped keep air quality good in Berkeley this week, the surrounding areas were not as lucky. 

The air quality management district is asking residents to protect themselves on days like today, when readings of ground level ozone, or smog, are high. It can be harmful to people who inhale it. 

“Ozone is hard on the elderly, young people who exercise and asthmatics are very susceptible (to it),” said Will Taylor, public information officer for Bay Area Air.  

Smog levels were particularly high in Santa Clara County and the city of Livermore on Tuesday.  

Alderman said that now is a good time for people to participate in PG&E’s 20/20 rebate program. Users who reduced their usage by 20 percent compared to a year ago will get 20 percent off their current monthly bill. The program began July 1 and runs until the end of October.  

A high-pressure system covering the Western United States is responsible for the heat that has energy and air officials sweating. In Livermore, the thermometer touched 107.  

LOS ANGELES — A man who attempted to cash a $161,000 tax refund check payable to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss was sentenced to two years in federal prison. 

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ordered Kenneth Reeves, 42, who is free on $25,000 bond, to surrender July 29. His co-defendant, Dwayne Kellum, 38, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 12. 

Authorities are still trying to determine who stole the state-tax refund check.  

Kellum claimed to be “Jerry Buss Jr.” when he tried to open an account at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Reeves opened another account with the brokerage firm and tried to convince employees the refund check was being used to invest in a purported energy company, prosecutors said. 

Employees at the brokerage firm alerted the FBI after determining that Buss did not have a son named Jerry. 

Kellum was convicted in February in another case involving the cashing of stolen checks, including some belonging to a trust set up by the late “My Three Sons” star Fred MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver MacMurray.

SANTA CLARITA — Firefighters patrolled for hot spots Tuesday after a wildfire burned 250 acres of brush, burned down one home, damaged two and blistered others before firefighters contained it. 

About 155 firefighters tightened firelines and extinguished spot fires in a blaze that had raged in temperatures approaching 100 degrees and 20 mph winds Monday, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Roland Sprewell said. 

Embers from the fire torched one fire, blistered the siding on other homes and torched brittle dry shrubs in yards of homes throughout the neighborhood. 

“It just so happened that one of the embers flew over the front of the fire and just happened to land on the one roof that happened to have a wood shake roof,” said Inspector Edward Osorio. 

About 200 residents were evacuated.

HOUSTON — The nation’s oldest black civil rights organization voted Tuesday to oppose a ballot initiative that would bar the state of California from classifying residents by race. 

The resolution to oppose University of California regent Ward Connerly’s “Racial Privacy Initiative” and similar ballot measures was approved by delegates at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s annual convention. 

“We intend to stop it before it spreads across the country to other states,” said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP’s California state conference, which oversees local branches. 

The initiative failed to qualify for this November’s ballot but could go to voters in spring 2004. State officials will know by week’s end whether Connerly’s American Civil Rights Coalition collected the necessary 671,000 signatures to qualify for 2004. 

The initiative would bar state and local governments from recording race in everything from educational achievement to whether a city’s police force is as diverse as its population. 

The NAACP resolution denounced Connerly’s proposal as “bad public policy for California and a bad precedent for the nation,” and it opposed the initiative and all similar acts. 

A lack of racial data would make it impossible for many agencies and the public “to understand the positive or negative impacts of their policies or programs on ethnic communities including in the area of education, delivery of public services and public assistance,” the resolution said. 

Connerly champions the initiative as the next step toward a “colorblind society.” 

He has said that gathering race data does not help people, and certainly cannot prove discrimination. 

Connerly was not available for comment Tuesday, but a spokesman downplayed the vote. 

“The NAACP needs to re-examine its position back in the mid-20th century when it was against racial classifications and officially sanctioned racial distinctions,” said Kevin Nguyen, executive director of Connerly’s Sacramento-based coalition. “For them to reverse course 50 years later betrays their current goal of pure political power accumulation instead of freeing people from these restrictive and arbitrary boxes.” 

At a keynote speech at the NAACP convention Sunday, board chairman Julian Bond had harsh words for Connerly. 

“Ward Connerly, affirmative action’s poster child, is at it again,” Bond said. “You remember he was the fraud behind California’s anti-affirmative action initiative, Proposition 209,” Bond said. 

“Now con-man Connerly is behind the deceptively titled ’racial privacy initiative’,” which would “eviscerate civil rights enforcement. 

“As long as race counts, we have to count race,” Bond said. “What Ward Connerly will do — unless the voters of California stop him — is to institute the denial of different outcomes dictated by race. We have to work to defeat this dangerous initiative.” 

If ratified by the NAACP’s national board of directors in October, the vote will become the association’s official policy. 

Connerly’s efforts also came under fire Tuesday in California, where he was accused of breaking state law by not disclosing donors who contributed $1,570,400 to the initiative through his coalition.

LOS ANGELES — The health care industry, tired of playing the bad guy in movies such as “John Q” and television shows, has hired an agent to help get better roles. 

The American Association of Health Plans, which represents more than 1,000 health maintenance organizations, has hired the William Morris Agency to help “build bridges” with writers, producers and directors and to offer technical advice for shows. 

“A huge segment of America is impacted by drama, which you could also call ’soft news,”’ Mark Merritt, senior vice president of the AAHP, said Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do is get a level playing field. We’re not saying it’s verboten to attack some part of the health care system. We’re saying there is another side to what we do.” 

Films and TV programs have often portrayed dedicated doctors fighting heartless hospital administrators or insurance companies. In recent years, that theme seems to have escalated with movies such as “As Good as it Gets” and television shows such as “ER” and “Chicago Hope.” 

Two hospital shows set for ABC and CBS this fall feature doctors providing care for patients in defiance of HMOs. 

The AAHC said it is hoping to have some influence on plot lines and scripts, but is not expecting to have veto power over stories. 

“We’re not here as censors,” Johnny Levin, senior vice president of William Morris Consulting, said. “No one wins by telling people what to write, what to produce and what to direct.” 

Earlier this year, “John Q,” starring Denzel Washington, told the story of father who can’t afford a heart transplant for his son and holds a hospital’s emergency room hostage. 

Instead of attacking the film, the AAHC bought ads deflecting the focus of anger from insurance plans to “a runaway litigation system and expensive government regulations.” 

Financial terms of the AAHC’s hiring of the agency were not disclosed. 

President has called for
longer prison terms for
executives guilty of fraud 

LOS ANGELES — More than seven years behind bars with murderers, rapists and other violent criminals taught Barry Minkow a few things about the failures of corporate America. 

The former entrepreneur and executive insists political and regulatory efforts under way to rein in business corruption won’t have any meaningful effect unless wrongdoers face tough prison sentences. 

“The criminal justice system isn’t sending a message to white collar criminals. It never has — with the exception of my case,” said Minkow, who was 22 when he received a 25-year sentence in 1989 for defrauding investors in his ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company. 

He started the company as a teenager in the garage of his family’s San Fernando Valley home. 

A judge convicted Minkow of 57 counts of securities, credit card and mail fraud after prosecutors said his schemes cost victims more than $100 million. Others involved in the scandal received shorter sentences. 

His sentence remains one of the stiffest ever given a white collar criminal. Although he served only 7 1/2 years, he spent most of that time in maximum and medium security prisons, at one time sharing a cell with a convicted murder. 

Two of the most notorious white collar convictions of recent years involved bond trader Michael Milken and financier Ivan Boesky in the late 1980s. Milken served nearly two years after pleading guilty to six felony security violations. Boesky also served nearly two years after pleading guilty to one criminal count involving insider trading. 

On Tuesday, after a wave of scandals that has cost investors in Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom and other companies billions of dollars, President Bush called for longer prison terms for corporate executives guilty of fraud. He also announced a new task force for the pursuit and prosecution of corporate criminals. 

Minkow, 36, remains on probation and likely will spend the rest of his life paying back $26 million in court-ordered restitution. Now a fraud-detection consultant in San Diego, he criticized the light punishment given to other corporate wrongdoers. 

Senior executives today have too much to gain and not enough to lose by misleading or even lying to investors and regulators, Minkow said. 

In most fraud cases, executives succumb to the temptation of reporting fictitious financial data or hiding information because they think the act is just a temporary plan while they improve their operations. They don’t think they are committing fraud and they don’t think they will get caught, Minkow said. 

At ZZZZ Best, which grew into a ponzi scheme, Minkow said his plan was to survive long enough to publicly trade his stake in the company to repay investors. 

ZZZZ Best claimed to be making a fortune restoring water and fire-damaged buildings. Investors were given badges and hard hats and taken on tours of alleged restoration projects in abandoned buildings with which ZZZZ Best had no connection. 

The temptation to break the rules won’t disappear unless punishment is severe, Minkow said. Executives who break the rules should be “hammered” and get a minimum seven years of hard time, he said. 

Minkow said he spent 11 months in solitary confinement at Terminal Island Federal Prison in Los Angeles, locked in a cell 23 hours a day for most of his first year behind bars. 

“They thought I was an escape risk,” said Minkow, now a pastor at Community Bible Church in San Diego. 

Young, athletic and pumped up on steroids when he was sentenced, Minkow said he was bench-pressing 380 pounds in the prison gym. 

“Not a lot of people were picking on me,” he said. 

But the situation would be very different for any of the senior executives in the middle of high-profile corporate scandals today. 

“They’d be preyed upon,” Minkow said. “They’d be paying for protection.” 

It’s a severe scenario, but essential if the new audit and corporate governance rules authorities and lawmakers are considering are to have any teeth, he said. 

“Right now, there’s no perception of prosecution,” he said. 

Minkow’s sentence remains an anomaly, in part because he drew a particularly tough judge, said David Nesbitt, an FBI agent at the time of Minkow’s conviction and now a director of forensic accounting in Los Angeles with the consulting firm KPMG. 

“We almost fell over when they pronounced his sentence,” Nesbitt said. 

As much as law enforcement applauded Minkow’s sentence at the time, Nesbitt said it probably has had no effect on other scandals in corporate America. 

In addition to wanting the courts to start setting new examples, Minkow said companies and investors need to become more vigilant about fraud. 

“The average consumer does more due diligence in the grocery store, differentiating between good bananas and bad bananas, than they do putting their life savings into an investment,” he said. 

Mattel wins licensing rights to Batman 

LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros. has awarded Mattel Inc. the right to produce toys and games based on its Batman, Superman and Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny, for the next five years. 

The deal gives Mattel the right to produce plush dolls, vehicles, games, action figures and other toys for upcoming movies and television shows featuring the Warner Bros. characters. 

The deal is estimated to be worth between $200 million and $500 million over the life of the agreement according to people familiar with the matter. Mattel, based in El Segundo, Calif., will have worldwide rights, except in Asia. 

The agreement gives Mattel the lucrative Batman rights now held by rival Hasbro Inc. Those rights will go to Mattel when Warner’s current deal with Hasbro runs out at the end of this year. 

eBay buying online payment provider PayPal 

SAN JOSE — Online auction giant eBay Inc. hopes to get even bigger by attracting more users through buying Internet payment provider PayPal Inc. in a $1.3 billion stock deal. 

EBay executives said Monday they hope acquiring PayPal would make the trading site faster, easier and safer and give eBay a significant chunk of e-commerce action it is missing out on. 

“It brings together two companies in a way that will benefit our users,” eBay’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, told financial analysts in a conference call before the stock market opened Monday. 

EBay shares then fell $4.31, or 7.1 percent, to close at $56.24 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. PayPal stock jumped $1.61, or more than 8 percent, to $21.61. 

Mountain View-based PayPal lets buyers and sellers exchange money via e-mail. Buyers make payments online through credit cards and bank accounts, and PayPal relays the funds to sellers’ accounts. Basic usage is free, but sellers who use added features must pay fees based on the amount transferred.

FRESNO — Two of the state agriculture department’s most heralded programs stand to lose the most in cuts aimed at reducing the state’s $23.6 billion deficit. 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture plans to cut $3 million from Gov. Gray Davis’s highly touted program to promote the state’s farm products and $1.57 million from a program to eradicate the glassy-winged sharpshooter. 

Though lawmakers continue to haggle over the $99 billion state budget, agriculture officials are bracing for $7 million in cuts. 

The proposed cuts are only 2.5 percent of the agriculture department’s $280 million budget, but officials say they will make a dent in some programs. 

“It will have an impact; there is no question about that,” department spokesman Steve Lyle said. “On the other hand, we don’t think any of our core programs will suffer serious damage.” 

Other department cuts include: 

n $983,000, wildlife trapping program. 

n $800,000, public affairs. 

n $580,000, plant pest diagnostic lab. 

n $180,000, weights and measurements program. 

The sharpshooter eradication program has been a major focus of the department. The pest threatens the $2.7 billion grape industry by injecting an incurable bacterial disease that kills grape vines. 

Lyle said the department expects federal funding to restore cuts to the program, which has made gains against the pest. Northern California has very few infestations, according to a statewide survey. Discovered in Southern California in 1989, the disease has spread as far as Kern County. 

“We’ll tighten the belt a little, but we still have a very healthy, very viable program,” Lyle said. 

But a San Joaquin Valley legislator said any cuts are too many for the state’s $27 billion agriculture industry. 

Assemblyman Mike Briggs of Clovis is one of a handful of Republicans being courted to help pass the budget. The spending plan fell five votes short of passage in the Assembly the day before the new fiscal year began July 1. But Briggs said he refuses to accept a budget that increases taxes and may affect the agriculture industry. 

He’s also disappointed with cuts aimed at the sharpshooter and Buy California programs. 

“We could save a little bit of money in the short run, but in the long run, the cost to the ag economy could end up being billions of dollars in exchange for those cuts,” he said. 

Lyle said for most programs, such as the plant pest diagnostic lab and weights and measurements, other funding can be found from federal grants. Some divisions, such as the wildlife trapping program that captures animals on farms, may be eliminated. Lyle said he hopes counties can pick up the slack. 

The Buy California program will fare well because of $64 million in federal grants, Lyle said. The department will kick off the program later this summer. 

But George Gomes, who manages the California Farm Bureau’s government affairs division, said the agriculture department will have to be creative in managing with less. 

“If you have a reduction in dollars, you will have a reduction in personnel,” he said. “We’ve just got to make sure we don’t go backward.” 

Some related agriculture programs were spared the ax after public outcry. Last month, a budget committee recommended restoring $39 million to a program designed to preserve farmland. The Williamson Act gives farmers tax breaks if they promise to farm their land at least 10 years. 

Growers also were worried about $3.4 million in cuts to a San Joaquin Valley program designed to reduce cattle rustling, tractor thefts and other agriculture crime. Created in 1997, the Rural Crime Program began in Tulare County and spread to seven other counties. 

About $1.7 million has been restored to the program, said Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy. 

Driver charged with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated 

POINT ARENA — A skateboarder was killed while being towed by a vehicle on the road, police said. 

Robert Powers, 20, of Monte Rio was found lying on the road unconscious suffering from head injuries. He died after being air lifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital about 2:15 a.m. Sunday, police said. 

James Crowl, 22, of Monte Rio, was allegedly driving the car that was pulling Powers. Crowl was found at a nearby location after authorities arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving while intoxicated and causing injury, according to a police statement. 

Crowl was being held Monday at the Mendocino County Jail, police said. 

RIVERSIDE — Mexican immigrants in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are working to get voting rights in their homeland. 

Mexico President Vicente Fox promised during his 2000 election campaign that millions of Mexicans living abroad would be allowed to vote by absentee ballot. But the proposal, backed by many immigrants and Hispanic activists in the United States, remains mired in debate here and Mexico. 

It is undecided who would be allowed to vote absentee or whether first-generation Americans who have never lived in Mexico should be able to vote. 

The process may require Mexican nationals living in the United States, along with their adult children born here, to claim Mexican nationality. It was not immediately determined what tax and military service consequences are involved in dual citizenship. 

“We need (political) representation over there and here,” said Riverside resident Roberto Tijerina, 36, a U.S.-born son of Coachella Valley migrant farmworkers. “It re-establishes our connection to Mexico. It re-establishes that umbilical cord.” 

Tijerina joined other members of the National Alliance for Human Rights in establishing his Mexican nationality. 

Alliance leader Armando Navarro, professor and chair of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Riverside, said the group is urging other first-generation Mexicans to apply. 

Mexican government officials estimate that 5 million to 10 million Mexican adults live abroad, making up 14 percent of the voting bloc. Nearly all of those who may be eligible to vote absentee live in the United States. 

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, nearly 1 million of the counties’ residents claimed Mexican ancestry on the 2000 census, but it is not known how many are first-generation Americans. 

Until 1998, the Mexican government required emigrants to give up Mexican citizenship if they became U.S. citizens. Immigrants who became U.S. citizens before 1998 can now apply to the Mexican government to regain their Mexican nationality. The deadline is March 2003. 

Mexico’s president, during a visit to Tijuana in June, said it was unlikely an absentee voting system could be in place for the 2003 Mexican congressional elections, but he hoped a system would be in place by 2006. 

Mexico’s Congress is still debating the issue. 

SACRAMENTO — Opening another front against Gov. Gray Davis, Republican candidate for governor Bill Simon said Monday the California National Guard’s readiness to respond to a major terrorist attack has deteriorated under the Davis administration. 

Simon focused on the findings of a February report by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that found a number of inoperable helicopters in the guard’s air fleet and an internal review that found that six out of 52 soldiers guarding Bay Area bridges flunked basic weapons tests. Simon also pointed to a 2000 Pentagon survey that ranked the California National Guard 52nd out of 54 programs in recruitment and retention. 

“The sad state that these stories communicate should not be altogether surprising, given the leadership — or the lack thereof — that Gray Davis has provided our soldiers,” Simon said. 

Simon proposed a plan that would create an integrated emergency response plan in coordination with the Air and Army National Guard, allow fee waivers for soldiers at state colleges and universities, and offer “Freedom Pay” so soldiers called to active duty do not suffer financially. 

Gen. Paul Monroe, the guard’s commanding officer, said Simon could send the wrong message to terrorists that California has weak spots. 

“It is not appropriate,” Monroe said. “That puts people at risk. We are ready.” 

But Monroe acknowledged the audit showed the need for improvements. 

“As we get more intelligence on the threat we’re facing, we have to change our procedure. We’re always looking for ways to improve our operations,” Monroe said. 

While Simon criticized Davis, the Democratic governor’s campaign responded with a new campaign advertisement that compared Davis’ military and public service record to Simon’s. 

Titled “Bronze,” the commercial points out that Davis was awarded a Bronze Star for his service during the Vietnam War, while noting Simon’s failure to vote regularly, his refusal to release personal income tax returns and his lawsuit to recover his losses when the federal government took over the Simon family owned Western Federal Savings and Loan. 

The spot will air along with other Davis ads, which began airing in June. 

State election records show Simon failed to vote in 13 out of 20 elections since moving to California in 1992. 

Teen-ager now at a
drug rehab center 

SAN FRANCISCO — Police arrested a San Francisco Chronicle reporter on suspicion of sexual and physical abuse of a minor. 

Police arrested Craig Marine on Monday. According to information given to the sexual assault and child abuse team, the victim, now 18, was Marine’s neighbor. 

Authorities said Tuesday the teen-ager’s family sent her to a drug rehabilitation center in Utah. Authorities said she told people at that facility that Marine gave her cocaine and that they had consensual as well as forced sex involving a knife. 

Authorities also said the teen-ager, now at a drug rehab center in Oregon, had cigarette burns and scars consistent with the abuse she reported. But authorities also said the teen-ager has a history of self mutilation. 

Mark MacNamara, a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, said Marine admitted to some of the abuse and to taking nude pictures of the teen-ager in a phone call with the teen-ager that police helped set up. 

Marine is a general assignment reporter for the Chronicle Magazine, which appears on Sundays. He has worked for the Chronicle and, before that, the San Francisco Examiner, for 20 years. 

“It’s a police matter so the newspaper as a company doesn’t have any comment on it,” said Chronicle spokesman Joe Brown.

SAN DIEGO — Two clerks at a busy immigration office have admitted to issuing bogus work permits to at least 100 illegal immigrants. 

Ruben Marquez, a clerk with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, pleaded guilty Monday to issuing the work authorization cards to immigrants who paid between $3,000 and $4,000 each. 

The cards normally cost $100. 

Marquez, who began working for the INS last year, operated the machine that produced the cards but did not have authorization to decide who received them. 

Roberto Barajas, another INS clerk, admitted to using his badge to wave the illegal immigrants through security at the downtown federal building. 

Federal authorities arrested the men after Marquez issued a fraudulent card to an undercover agent. 

A third man, Jeovanny Pascano, also pleaded guilty in the case and admitted that he escorted illegal immigrants to the federal building. 

The three face up to five years in prison when they are sentenced Sept. 30. 

NEW YORK — After weighing an offer to jump to ABC, David Letterman said he ultimately felt his comfort with working at CBS was more important than the challenge of someplace new. 

But the talk show host admitted ABC’s overture was tempting. 

“It’s like dating,” he said. “You show up at the prom with a girl and look across the floor and think, ‘Maybe I’ll have more fun with that girl over there.’ It’s human nature.” 

Letterman, who rarely gives interviews, talked to ABC’s Ted Koppel, whose “Nightline” would have been displaced if the comedian accepted ABC’s offer. It was broadcast early Tuesday on the premiere of “Up Close,” an interview program being aired after “Nightline” until a new entertainment show starring Jimmy Kimmel begins next winter. 

Koppel, who has missed few opportunities to tweak ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co. since it nearly supplanted his show, did it again by booking Letterman. 

“Since we always like to make our friends at Disney happy,” Koppel said, “we considered who to invite for our first guest. That’s when it struck us, the irony. They wanted Letterman, so here he is.” 

Although they talked about what Koppel called the “recent unpleasantness,” the newsman never asked why Letterman seriously considered an offer that would have cost Koppel “Nightline.” 

Letterman, 55, said he was quite comfortable at CBS. 

“It would have been an enormous challenge to go anywhere, not just ABC,” he said. “I think at a certain point in a person’s career ... the comfort and ease and the comfort of surroundings and environment are far more important than undertaking a new challenge.” 

His quintuple bypass surgery two years ago gave Letterman a new outlook on life, and he told viewers not to be afraid about getting themselves checked out.

Jan Marinissen, an active resident of Berkeley since 1962, died of natural causes Thursday. He was 74. 

As a longtime member of the American Friends Service Committee and chair of the Berkeley Mental Health Commission, Marinissen was an advocate for prison reform and mental health both in Berkeley as well as on the state level.  

Marinissen, a native of Holland, grew up during the Nazi occupation. He was active in the resistance. 

“It was a powerful influence on his life’s work,” said Naneen Karaker, a Berkeley resident who met Marinissen at UC Berkeley. “It gave him a strong sense of what can happen when power gets out of hand.”  

Karaker thought of Marinissen as a mentor as did many other students during the 1970s, both at UC Berkeley and the Pacific School of Religion, where Marinissen earned his bachelors degree of divinity in 1959 and taught a class titled “Ministry of the Marginalized.” 

“He was a person called to a genuine ministry in a difficult industry,” said Bill Trampleasure, a former American Friends Services Committee member. “It connected him with a lot of people - homeless people. He did a lot of good.” 

Marinissen’s daughter, Judith, recalls her father’s custom of talking with people at a Berkeley coffee shop, offering advice to those with a mentally ill family member.  

In the 1970s, Marinissen authored a book titled “The Struggle For Justice.” The book was known to help shape state and national prison reform policy.  

Along with a “wonderful sense of humor, he had a profound sense of truth and of justice,” Karaker said. 

Marinissen is survived by his sister, Janna, and his son, Jonathan, both of Berkeley. He is also remembered by his daughter Judith Fairchild with her husband Tom Fairchild and their one-year-old son Joshua, also Berkeley residents. 

A service will be held 2 p.m. Saturday in D’Autrement Hall at the Pacific School of Religion. 

- by Ethan Bliss

Bay Area mothers want to break  

a world record, generate awareness 

Got milk? 

There will be plenty of it flowing at the Berkeley High School Community Theater Aug. 3, when Bay Area mothers attempt to break a record for most women simultaneously breastfeeding in one location. 

“Here in the United States, not enough emphasis is being placed on breastfeeding,” said Ellen Sirbu, Berkeley’s health nutrition program coordinator, who is spearheading the effort. “In order to do something educational, we had to have an event like this.” 

The current record, set in Tuggerah, Australia, last year, is 536. Sirbu said organizers, who also include health officials from the surrounding counties, hope to draw more than 1,000 participants to Berkeley. Two hundred women have already signed up, including one from as far away as San Diego. 

The breastfeeding will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the auditorium.  

Volunteers from the Bay Area Lactation Association will do the counting and, in accordance with Guinness Book of World Record rules, two independent observers will be on hand to verify the record. One of the observers will be Mayor Shirley Dean. 

Organizers will host a fair, with booths, a band and T-shirts for preregistered moms, from noon to 4 p.m. in Civic Center Park, next to the theater on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Sirbu said she hopes the event, which will take place during World Breastfeeding Month, will bring attention to the benefits of breastfeeding. 

“We know that breastfeeding is the best way to feed the baby,” Sirbu said. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, breastfeeding can reduce the risk of infectious and noninfectious diseases for infants and may reduce the risk for obesity and diabetes. Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of premenopausal breast cancer and ovarian cancer for women. 

Sirbu said there are also intangible benefits. 

“It fosters bonding with the mom and baby,” she said. 

Still, in 1998, only 29 percent of U.S. mothers breastfed six months after giving birth, according to a federal statistic. 

“It all comes down to changing people’s attitudes on breastfeeding,” Sirbu said. 

Those attitudes may be difficult to change. One mother at Sirbu’s office, Richmond resident Irene Guzman, said she would have to consult with her husband before deciding whether to participate in the Aug. 3 event. Her husband, she said, does not like the idea of Guzman breastfeeding in public. 

Sirbu said she hopes the event raises awareness and contributes to concrete change. In a visit to Australia, where she heard about the existing world record, Sirbu saw decals in the windows of many businesses informing customers that breastfeeding mothers and their babies are welcome. She is hoping to get similar decals in place throughout Berkeley. 

For more information call Ellen Sirbu at 981-5131.

Perspective 

To the Editor: 

It has taken over a century for our university to develop into one of the greatest centers of learning and research in the world, and a significant part of that achievement is the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. At that extraordinary institution, scientists have discovered new chemical elements, found new subatomic particles, helped explain the basis of photosynthesis, invented better lamps and energy-efficient windows, and discovered a genetic cause of heart disease, to name a few of their accomplishments. 

For the past eight years a little cabal of fear-mongering extremists has worked full time to destroy the Berkeley Lab. Unhappily, they managed to enlist the city council in their campaign which led last year to the closing of the world-renowned tritium labeling facility. Now, they are continuing to search for other aspects of the lab to assault. As usual, they invent non-existent threats to our health and safety and impugn the honesty and competence of the scientists who work at the lab. And, as usual, they come time after time to the city council to demand that the city fund their depredations. In the last few years they have talked the council into paying for two studies of lab safety. The studies, which were done by scientists chosen by this little group, failed to support their contention that the lab was a hazard to our health. This was also the finding in 5 studies by other scientific groups including the National Institutes of Health, the California State Department of Health, the United States Public Heath Service and an independent risk analysis organization. 

At the June 25th council meeting a spokesperson for the anti-lab group made a personal attack on the honesty of a lab representative. This was quite in keeping with the traditional behavior of these people, insulting and demeaning everyone who disagrees with them. They call their opponents fascists, baby-killers, liars, snake-oil salesmen, and shills. Finally, the lab people who spoke next at the meeting responded with appropriate vigor, pointing out the nonsense, distortions and untruths with which the so-called CMTW and their allies have bombarded our community.  

The response from Councilmember Worthington was astounding. He angrily berated the lab representatives for pointing out the dishonesty of their attackers, and he complained that he did not have enough facts to judge the problem! For years he has heard the anti-lab group fulminate and slander without offering a single comment on their behavior. He has heard and seen the lab’s June report to the council and he must have read the seven health studies which demonstrated that the tritium lab has never been a risk to any of us. And he says he needs more information!  

The anti-lab cabal and their friends on the council have abused the democratic process, wasted our time and our tax dollars, destroyed a small but valuable research lab, and subjected us to poisonous paranoia for too long. They have made our city council meetings into an ordeal and a laughing stock. It is high time that Berkeleyans who respect the scientific process speak up to defend the Berkeley Lab and oppose the degradation of rational public discourse in our city. 

Elmer R. Grossman 

Berkeley 

Ad is among earliest  

graphic representations of the Wild West legend 

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The crumbling brick facade of a downtown building revealed a long-forgotten secret: a 124-year-old billboard promoting a dramatic appearance by “Buffalo Bill” Cody. 

Experts say the 26-by-10-foot billboard, uncovered when workers began removing the wall last month to prevent its collapse, is among the earliest graphic representation of the Wild West legend. 

Pasted to wood sheathing behind the bricks was the paper poster of Cody waving his hat to a crowd, announcing “Buffalo Bill in his new theatrical drama ... May Cody” on March 14, 1878. 

“We knew we had to act quickly,” said Keith Schmitt, acting director of the Chautauqua County Arts Council, which quickly began preservation work on the fragile paper. “Some of the pieces were already coming away from the wall and blowing away.” 

Schmitt and volunteers photographed the pieces and collected those that were removable as historians began researching the performance at the Allen Opera House in this city 60 miles south of Buffalo. 

Historian Karen Livsey found that the show was part of a sixth-anniversary tour of “The Buffalo Bill Combination,” an early theater troupe organized by and starring Cody. “May Cody” depicted the Mormons’ early settlement in Utah. 

Experts believe the wall was built over the poster the year of the performance, hiding it ever since. 

William F. Cody, who died in 1917, was a prospector-turned-Pony Express rider and Civil War veteran who later hunted buffalo to feed railroad construction crews. Legend has it he earned the name “Buffalo Bill” in a daylong shooting match with a hunter named William Comstock, presumably to determine who deserved the title. 

Cody became a national folk hero in the pages of the “Buffalo Bill” dime novels of Ned Buntline, who in 1872 persuaded Cody to take to the stage to tell stories of the Wild West. The Buffalo Bill Combination toured the country for 10 years until 1883, when Cody began the Wild West Show. 

Tuesday, July 9

Mother’s Morning Out 

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Upaya Center for Wellbeing 

478 Santa Clara Ave. 

Craniosacral Therapy for Infants and Children 

www.upayacenter.org 

Free 

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

What Do You Believe? Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers 

6:30 to 8:00 p.m. 

Ellen Driscoll Playhouse 

325 Highland Avenue, Piedmont  

Film presented by Piedmont diversity groups; discussion with filmmaker, Sarah Feinbloom.  

655-5552, or maudep@aol.com 

Free 

Friday, July 12

Celebration of Emma Goldman's Birthday  

8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity Hall  

390 27th St  

An all-ages, alcohol-free party with live music, DJ, and dance lessons 

http://www.ebcaw.org  

$5 to $10 sliding scale  

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

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 

Introduction to Accessible Software and Hardware  

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

Wedneday, July 17

Doctors Without Borders 

Until July 18 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Springer Gateway, West Entrance Crescent 

Interactive exhibit expalining medicines for people in developing countries; Film screenings 

www.doctorswithoutborders.org 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Mystique of the Widerness 

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 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

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 slideshw 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, intrduces their latest design. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

"Neon: The Living Flame" 

7:00 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, nonmembers $5  

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike techician basic repairs such as brake adjustments and fixing a flat. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 to 9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Saturday, August 3

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Saturday, August 10

Tomato Tastings 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tastings and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Sunday, August 11

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m. to noon 

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 

West Berkeley Arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Tuesday, August 13

Tomato Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

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 — After closing the first half of the regular season with seven straight one-run games, the Oakland Athletics could use a few days off before they attempt to duplicate their second-half heroics of last season. 

“It’s been a tough week, but it’s been a tough season,” All-Star left-hander Barry Zito said. “It’s a good time for everybody to get some time off.” 

After a three-day break to relax and recharge while Zito and shortstop Miguel Tejada go to Milwaukee for the All-Star Game, the A’s seem destined for another exciting playoff chase. They got in shape for it last week by playing a series of games that went down to the last at-bat, capped by a 3-2 victory over Kansas City on Sunday. 

Despite their difficult final week, the A’s got back in the thick of the postseason race with a 30-12 record leading up to the break. Oakland is 50-38 overall, trailing first-place Seattle by five games and second-place Anaheim by two in the AL West. 

The A’s have their best record at the All-Star break since 1992. Last season, they were just 44-43 at the break, but they streaked to a second straight playoff berth in the second half with some of the best baseball in franchise history. 

Once again, the A’s are chasing the mighty Mariners in the division race; this season, however, it’s much more of a contest than in 2001, when Seattle streaked to the majors’ best record and won the division with 116 victories despite the A’s phenomenal second half. 

At 102-60, Oakland earned the majors’ second-best record in 2001 by going 58-17 after the break. The A’s had the majors’ best record in the months of July, August, September and October, posting the second-best winning percentage after the break in major league history. 

Nobody expects Oakland to repeat those numbers again — not with Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon playing in the AL East, and not with the A’s lineup struggling for consistent production. Only Tejada and Eric Chavez have stayed injury free and produced in the manner expected of them this season. 

“We’ve had some struggles to score runs, but we had some of the same problems last year in the early going,” said Chavez, who has 58 RBIs and a team-high 20 homers. “We’re not getting as many big homers as we did with Jason in the lineup, but we’re still winning and getting the job done.” 

Once again, the A’s are winning with dominant starting pitching. Each member of Oakland’s Big Three has returned to top form, though Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder both pitched through struggles. 

Hudson, who appeared to be laboring under heightened expectations in the season’s first weeks, has found his groove again and improved to 6-7 with a 3.44 ERA. Mulder, whose forearm injury still won’t allow him to throw at full strength, was spectacular in June, earning AL Pitcher of the Month honors while padding his 9-5 record in just 14 starts this season. 

Zito has been outstanding from the start, improving to 11-3 by beating Kansas City on Sunday. He may not pitch in Tuesday’s All-Star game, but there’s no doubt he belongs on the AL roster in Milwaukee. 

Manager Art Howe will soon decide the odd man out of the rotation among rookie Aaron Harang, inconsistent right-hander Cory Lidle and left-hander Ted Lilly, who was acquired from the Yankees last week. 

“It’s a good decision to have,” Howe said. “Whatever we do, we’ll need good pitching from all three of those guys this season.” 

Oakland gets back to the business of chasing Seattle on Thursday with a series in Baltimore. The A’s return home on July 17 for five division games against Anaheim and Texas. 

The A’s have won just five of 13 games over the Mariners this season. The teams will meet just six more times this season, with two three-game series in September — just about the time this division race seems likely to be at its hottest. 

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Howe said. “If we keep improving, we’ll be right where we want to be.” 

Arts center says organizer broke contract 

Employees at south Berkeley’s Crucible arts center said the gunfire that injured two people during a weekend hip hop show happened when an overcrowded party got out of control. 

The shootings, some employees said, were fueled by fraud and misrepresentation by event organizer Eugene Cockerman. But police have not yet determined a motive. 

According to employees, Cockerman told them he was a member of nonprofit fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi when he asked the Crucible to host a “small” community dance at which 1,500 people showed up - five times the number that was agreed upon.  

Two people were injured by what police described as “random” bullet fire. San Francisco resident Duwane Fields, 23, was taken to Alameda County Hospital. The second victim, a juvenile whose name was not released, refused medical treatment. The victims’ conditions were not know Monday. 

Marketing director Kate Rutter said the Crucible routinely rents space to community groups. As is standard, the Saturday group hired security people while Crucible had staff on hand to monitor the event. 

The arts center staff said that by 10 p.m., an hour after the party started, people at the party were obviously violating several rules in the contract. Alcohol was illegally served. Minors were present. Many more than the limit of 300 people were there, and more were pouring in.  

“The organizers refused to comply and became physically threatening to Crucible staff,” Rutter said in a written statement. 

At about 10:30 p.m., police arrived to help shut down the event. When they heard gunfire, teams of officers swept through the crowds in pursuit of the shooters. 

Crucible staff said the victims were shot two blocks from the building. But police did not confirm that, and said details are still being investigated. 

The shots drew more than 100 police officers from eight law enforcement agencies who shut down several blocks along Ashby Avenue and the nearby Interstate 80 entrance. No one has been arrested. 

Crucible directors feel betrayed. 

“It’s tragic that anyone would hijack a community organization and hold an event for personal profit at the expense of a respected artist community,” Crucible Executive Director Michael Sturtz said in a written statement. 

Police have no suspects and are unaware of any motive, Lt. Cynthia Harris said. 

Event organizer Cockerman could not be reached for comment. But according to police, the local promoter has planned hip hop shows in other cities at which similar contract violations happened. 

To book Saturday’s show, Cockerman had provided proof of insurance and a security deposit, and had signed a contract binding him to the center’s regulations, Crucible staff said.

To the Editor: 

Is there a fellow named Steve Geller out there who thinks local environmentalists are hysterical regarding tritium ? Well good for him.. 

The Michael Bauce response to Geller blaming tritium and X-rays for the continuing “rise of cancer “is statistically unsound.  

Yes certainly the amount of cancer deaths in the US has risen but so has the overall population. It is also true that the rate of cancer is higher on a per capita basis but this is primarily due to the increased lifespan in the US. Thanks to water treatment, sewage tretment ,antibiotics and the availability of good food the average lifespan in the US is the highest in history. So it is obvious that that rate of cancer would increase since many people who today get cancer would have long since died of infectious disease in the old days. 

Age adjusted figures put out by the American Cancer Society indicate that the rate of cancer has remained approximately constant since 1930 with the exception of lung cancer attributed to a large increase in the rate of smoking. Therefore tritium, x-rays, cell phones, TV's, electric lines are out as causes of cancer and, if fact, I believe the work of the Lab is part of the fight against cancer. 

Wayne Huber 

Berkeley 

‘Me Without You’ 

Movie review 

The first half of “Me Without You” is so compelling, that it’s a real disappointment when the second half collapses. 

The movie stars Michelle Williams of “Dawson’s Creek” and Anna Friel as Holly and Marina, best friends who grew up next door to each other in suburban London in the 1970s and ’80s, and form a suffocating, co-dependent relationship. 

Writer-director Sandra Goldbacher follows them from girlhood through their teenage years, college and their early 20s, with a 2001 coda that wraps everything up too easily and feels tacked-on. 

The first part of the movie is evocative of the time — with its big hair and poofy skirts and songs from The Clash and Depeche Mode — without going over the top for laughs, like Adam Sandler’s “The Wedding Singer.” 

Early on, Williams and Friel are completely believable in their best-friends-for-life fervor — an aspect of the movie that may appeal more to women than men. When you’re 15, an all-encompassing female bond can seem crucial, impenetrable. Goldbacher, who based the story on a childhood friendship of her own, clearly understands that. 

She also accurately depicts the need for teenage girls to belong. Holly and Marina try too hard to look cool when they show up at a punk party wearing torn fishnets and dresses fashioned from black garbage bags, and they have no qualms about doing drugs and engaging in casual sex if it means they’ll be accepted. The scene works because it’s played matter-of-factly, and not for shock value; this is what teenagers do. 

But the movie’s second section is less vivid, and Goldbacher makes it hard to believe that Marina and Holly’s friendship could withstand such bitterness and jealousy as the young women become adults. 

Marina seems to have it all — she’s beautiful, stylish and vivacious. Her mother (Trudie Styler) chain smokes, drinks and pops pills, which gives her a glamorous edge in Holly’s eyes; her father, an airline pilot, is never there. 

Holly is the more serious one — she’s studious, introspective and conservative. Her parents are stable but overprotective. She believes she’s a good girl and dreams of becoming a writer, but her mother repeatedly puts her down. 

Each girl has insecurities, though, and each wants to live the other’s life. 

They make a pact as young girls to stay friends forever, which becomes increasingly difficult as they mature. Holly has a crush on college lecturer Daniel (a sleazy, duplicitous Kyle MacLachlan), which prompts Marina to go after him, too. Holly’s always carried a torch for Marina’s cute, romantic older brother, Nat (Oliver Milburn), which Marina repeatedly tries to snuff out. 

Friel, whose previous films include Barry Levinson’s “An Everlasting Piece” is impossible to stop watching.  

Williams — doing a flawless British accent — shows far more depth then her “Dawson’s Creek” role ever allowed her to display.  

Even when the script weakens toward the end, Friel and Williams work beautifully together, and their on-screen chemistry seems effortless. 

SAN DIEGO — A soccer goalie had a piece of his finger bitten off when a brawl erupted during a recreational match between two adult teams, police said. 

The dispute started when a referee whistled a foul in the penalty box toward the end of a closely contested tie game between the Jaliscos and the Haciendas on Sunday, said Sgt. Tracy Dishno. 

The foul could have produced a decisive penalty kick but the ensuing benches-clearing brawl ended the game. About 20-30 people started fighting on the field, Dishno said. 

The mother of one of the two players involved in the foul ran onto the field and was struck by a player on the opposing team, Dishno said. 

Goalie Alejandro Garcia Lara, 28, came to her aid. He grabbed the head of her attacker, who, in turn, bit off the tip of his pinkie, Dishno said. 

Police located the tip of Lara’s finger and brought it to a nearby hospital, but doctors were unable to reattach it. Doctors bandaged his wound and released him. 

No arrests have been made. Police are trying to narrow down the list of players to determine who bit the finger. 

When Vic Touriel’s father bought the Darling Flower Shop 65 years ago, neither son nor father had an inkling the property would one day be deemed a historic landmark. Thirty four years ago Touriel took over the downtown business when his father retired. Today, he wants to sell the shop because its time for him to retire.  

But he has a problem.  

After receiving several offers for the property, Touriel decided to sell it to developer Patrick Kennedy.  

Marketing director Kate Rutter said the Crucible routinely rents space to community groups. As is standard, the Saturday group hired security people while Crucible had staff on hand to monitor the event. 

The arts center staff said that by 10 p.m., an hour after the party started, people at the party were obviously violating several rules in the contract. Alcohol was illegally served. Minors were present. Many more than the limit of 300 people were there, and more were pouring in.  

“The organizers refused to comply and became physically threatening to Crucible staff,” Rutter said in a written statement. 

At about 10:30 p.m., police arrived to help shut down the event. When they heard gunfire, teams of officers swept through the crowds in pursuit of the shooters. 

Crucible staff said the victims were shot two blocks from the building. But police did not confirm that, and said details are still being investigated. 

The shots drew more than 100 police officers from eight law enforcement agencies who shut down several blocks along Ashby Avenue and the nearby Interstate 80 entrance. No one has been arrested. 

Crucible directors feel betrayed. 

“It’s tragic that anyone would hijack a community organization and hold an event for personal profit at the expense of a respected artist community,” Crucible Executive Director Michael Sturtz said in a written statement. 

Police have no suspects and are unaware of any motive, Lt. Cynthia Harris said. 

Event organizer Cockerman could not be reached for comment. But according to police, the local promoter has planned hip hop shows in other cities at which similar contract violations happened. 

To book Saturday’s show, Cockerman had provided proof of insurance and a security deposit, and had signed a contract binding him to the center’s regulations, Crucible staff said.

To the Editor: 

Congratulations to the Daily Planet for a story on the gay parade. As one of the many people who go over from Berkeley every year it felt good to see a story.  

But why was there no mention of the Berkeley contingents? UC Berkeley students had a beautiful banner, as well as beautiful bodies. Kriss Worthington won an award for "absolutely fabulous individual contingent." The colorful artwork of the signs on his convertible was quintessentially Berkeley.  

The Unitarian Church of Berkeley, and the First Baptist Church of Berkeley also had contingents. Over a hundred Berkeley residents were in the parade and over a thousand Berkeley spectators. The best part of having the Daily Planet in town is more local flavor. It would be fabulous to see more coverage of Berkeleyans in the parade. 

Kevin Strother 

Berkeley

SAN JOSE — Due to the recent merger between high-tech firms Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp., the San Jose Sharks will have their home arena renamed for the second time in two years. 

The facility, which had been called the San Jose Arena until last year, was renamed the Compaq Center when that company bought the naming rights. But when Compaq was swallowed up by HP this May, HP chairwoman and CEO Carly Fiorina said the arena’s name would change to the HP Pavilion. 

Sharks President Greg Jamison said Monday the NHL team and HP have reached final agreement on that name switch, contingent upon approval from the San Jose City Council. The Sharks’ deal with HP runs through 2015. 

The U.S. Department of Energy will listen to public feedback as it writes the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s environmental impact statement.  

The report, which is done about every 10 years, could influence the direction of the UC-operated laboratory and the allotment of its approximately $1.4 billion annual budget for roughly the next decade. 

The Laboratory will hold public hearings July 10 and July 11 as part of its research in drafting the report. The research started June 17 and will continue until Aug. 13.  

“We’re analyzing the full scope of operations of the lab,” said National Nuclear Securities Administration document manager Tom Grim. The report is scheduled to be complete in 2004. It will forecast the impact of activity at the laboratory. The last environmental impact report was published in 1992.  

The purpose of an environmental review is to provide the public with an analysis of the potential environmental impact from research and testing.  

The laboratory will analyze alternatives to its current operations including an increase or decrease in activity at the lab. 

One concern of many local watchdog groups like the Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment is the construction of a nuclear weapons facility. 

Leuren Moret worked at the Livermore Laboratory from 1989 to 1991. She is currently on the City of Berkeley’s Environmental Commission. She is concerned that this report will result in more weapons-grade plutonium at the laboratory, and that it will have a negative impact on the environment. 

Another issue to be discussed will be proposals to consolidate where necessary, Grim said. This could include the removal unnecessary facilities. Building 25, the heavy element facility, could be closed down. 

The Lawrence laboratory has an annual budget of approximately $1.4 million and employs about 8,000 people. The experimental test facility, also called site 300, is a high-explosives test site 12 miles southeast of Livermore, between Livermore and Tracy. 

The public hearings are scheduled 1 and 6 p.m. July 10 at Double Tree Club (formerly the Holiday Inn), 720 Las Flores Road., Livermore; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. July 11 at Holiday Inn Express, 3751 N. Tracy Blvd., Tracy.

Krauses are  

pit-spitting royalty 

EAU CLAIRE, Mich. — The Young Gun was a little better than the Pellet Gun. 

Rick “Pellet Gun” Krause — a 12-time winner of the annual Cherry Pit Spitting Championship — was defeated by his eldest son, Brian “Young Gun” Krause on Saturday. 

Brian Krause, 24, spit a cherry pit 61 feet, 2 inches to beat his 48-year-old father, who topped out at 55 feet, 10 inches. 

Rick Krause’s youngest son, 19-year-old Matt “BB Gun” Krause, was third with a distance of 45 feet, 2 1/2 inches. 

“This is the first time we ever did that,” Brian Krause said of the one-two-three finish. Brian’s son, Braden Krause, won the under-5 division with a spit of 14 feet, 4 inches. 

The Krauses have come to embrace their status as pit-spitting royalty. Rick Krause appeared for his turn to spit wearing bright red tights and riding a sparkling purple motorcycle as rock music played in the background. 

Everybody knows Sally 

STOLLINGS, W.Va. — Sally Wall is more than a waitress. She’s a fixture at Morrison’s Drive-In, so popular with customers that the establishment offers $1 gift certificates with her picture called “Sally Dollars.” 

“She’s been here so long, I thought she’d die right there on the curb,” said Bob Mayhorn, Morrison’s owner and the son-of-law of co-founder Leonard L. Reffeitt. 

But Morrison’s soon will lose its star waitress. Wall turns 75 on Aug. 13, and she has decided it will be her last day on the job. After 47 years, she is putting away her order pad for good. 

“She’s fantastic,” Mayhorn said. “She’s great for public relations. I’ll probably have to hire two people to replace her. Everybody in town knows Sally. When people pull up, she orders for them. She knows what everybody wants.” 

Donkey is a democrat 

ST. LOUIS — In case anyone in Tom Bauer’s ward wonders if the alderman is a Democrat, the politician’s donkey should be a giveaway. 

And if Bauer has his way, he’ll ride Dan the donkey all the way into another term in the city’s 24th Ward. 

Bauer walks or rides the 4-year-old pet donkey more than three miles a day through the neighborhood, often getting a double take or two. 

Dan has replaced Bauer’s beloved Scotty, a 10-year-old donkey that died unexpectedly last summer while Bauer was vacationing. Scotty had been a neighborhood fixture, carrying Bauer door-to-door as a campaign gimmick on behalf of Bauer or another Democrat the alderman backed. 

Bought in Paris, Tenn., Dan also is being groomed to one day hit the campaign trail for Bauer, running for re-election next spring, or for other Democrats running locally before then. 

Police said fight was about a parking space 

Montclair resident and actor Delroy Lindo was charged by police on Independence Day because he allegedly put his hands around a man’s neck during a fight over a parking space at Whole Foods Grocery outlet at Telegraph and Ashby avenues. 

Lindo is best known for his work in several Spike Lee films. 

Last Thursday, because there was no officer to witness the fight a citizen asked that Lindo be arrested. The incident was called a citizen’s arrest, said Berkeley Police Lt. Cynthia Harris.  

Lindo was charged with misdemeanor assault and is scheduled for a hearing Aug. 1. Police cited Lindo at the scene but did not take him into custody. 

Police did not identify the victim.  

As an actor, Lindo has played lead roles in several films including “Crooklyn,” and has had strong supporting roles in “Clockers” and “Malcom X.” Lindo starred in the films “Romeo Must Die,” “Get Shorty,” and “The Cider House Rules.”  

Born in San Francisco, Lindo attended the most highly-esteemed acting academy in the Bay Area — The American Conservatory Theater (ACT). Actor Denzel Washington is also a graduate of the ACT. 

Lindo could not be reached for comment. 

DAVIS — The University of California, Davis, has been rated one of the most interesting colleges in America. 

“The Unofficial, Unbiased, Insider’s Guide to the 320 Most Interesting Colleges” selects Davis because of its small town, rural environment, research projects and veterinary school, one of only a few in the nation, said Lori Duggan Gold, a Kaplan Publishing spokeswoman. 

The guide is based on a national survey of high school guidance counselors. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Doctors at an Oakland hospital jabbed decades-old smallpox vaccine into the arm of a volunteer Monday, the first of 50 people they hope to soon inoculate as part of government-sponsored human experiments nationwide. 

For three decades, 120 liters of the vaccine that’s now being tested sat nearly unnoticed in a walk-in freezer at a remote mountainside lab owned by Aventis Pasteur in Swiftwater, Pa. 

Officials with the Paris-based company thought the vaccine was so worthless, they were planning to destroy the stockpile of about 70 million doses until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Aventis has since donated the vaccine to the federal government, which now must determine whether it’s still useable. 

About 330 volunteers will be inoculated with diluted doses over the next two weeks. Results are expected by mid-August, including those of the 50 volunteers at the Vaccine Research Center at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center. 

“In the past year, I think we’ve all become more aware of the possibility of a bio-terrorist attack in the United States,” said Steve Black, co-director of the center. “I hope we never need to use this vaccine again, but it’s important to make certain that if we do it will be available and it will work. 

“If we can show that this vaccine stock is still effective, it will go a long way toward making a dose of smallpox vaccine available for everyone in the U.S.,” Black said. 

The tests are part of a $12.6 million National Institutes of Health grant awarded last year to Vanderbilt University, which is overseeing the experiment and will enroll about 90 volunteers of its own. The University of Iowa and Baylor College of Medicine also are enrolling volunteers. 

Volunteers will receive a vaccine that either has been diluted to 20 percent or 10 percent of its current strength. It’s possible that the Aventis stockpile could provide up to 700 million doses if the most diluted treatment proves effective. That would add to the 15 million doses the federal government already has on hand. 

The United States stopped vaccinating the public in 1972 and smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1977. But the disease can be used in germ warfare, renewing interest in mass vaccinations. 

Federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now are considering vaccinating as many as 500,000 health care workers and emergency personnel who would be first to see any smallpox cases. Because the vaccine carries significant risks — including death — officials do not want to resume mass vaccinations. 

All volunteers taking the Aventis vaccine are required to be healthy and between the ages of 18 and 32. The vaccine, which is a small dose of live smallpox, is dangerous for people with weakened immune-response systems. Scientists believe that if everyone were vaccinated, approximately one in every million persons inoculated would die. Thousands more likely would suffer side effects ranging from rashes to encephalitis. 

Two studies were released in March by The New England Journal of Medicine. They found that out of the 700 previously unvaccinated young adults who received some of the 15 million doses of the government vaccine, one-third had pain bad enough to miss school, work or other activities after being inoculated. While no one in the study fell seriously ill, some experienced fever, headache, nausea, muscle aches, lesions and swelling.

IRVINE — Days after a shooting at the El Al Israel Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport left three dead, the biggest question facing investigators was — Why? 

“Why would a man walk into an airport with two fully loaded weapons, extra (ammunition) and a hunting knife with a six-inch blade? It’s obvious he was going to kill people, the question is why?” FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said Monday. 

FBI agents have interviewed friends and family of Hesham Mohamed Hadayet and scoured the Egyptian immigrant’s Orange County home for clues to a motive in the July 4 shooting spree. 

But so far the investigation has come up with “nothing irrefutable that points to a motive,” McLaughlin said. 

Earlier Monday, Hadayet’s wife told The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, that she spoke with her husband hours before the shooting and he gave no hint he was planning any violent act. 

Hadayet, 41, was fourth in line at the ticket counter when he opened fire, killing two people, authorities said. He fired 10 or 11 bullets before he was killed by an El Al security guard. Two security guards and a Canadian woman were injured. 

Although federal authorities had not officially labeled the shooting an act of terrorism or a hate crime, Israeli officials said they consider it a terrorist act. 

“Based on what we know, it looks like terrorism,” said David Douek, a spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles. “The FBI is also considering terrorism as a possible motive. I don’t think we’re as far apart as it appears.” 

He said the FBI had been in contact with Israel’s consul general. He nor the FBI would elaborate on the conversations. 

But Hadayet’s wife said her husband had never expressed anger at Israel or at the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence that has sparked anti-Israeli protest across the Arab world. 

“No, this wasn’t an issue,” Hala Mohammed Sadeq El-Awadly, 41, told the AP. She did not elaborate. 

Hadayet emigrated 10 years ago to California from Egypt, seeking asylum for himself and his family. The Immigration and Naturalization Service rejected his application and in 1996 started deportation proceedings against him. 

But the following year, Hadayet gained U.S. residency when his wife received a valid visa through an INS lottery. 

Russ Bergeron, an INS spokesman in Washington D.C., would not say why Hayadet’s initial application was rejected. 

El-Awadly and her two sons have reservations to fly back to California Aug. 20 and they have an appointment later that month to be interviewed by immigration authorities considering their citizenship request. 

“I don’t know now whether I am going back or not. Our lives are upside down,” El-Awadly said. 

Bergeron would not comment on El-Awadly’s case. But he said typically the death of an individual who was not the primary INS applicant has no impact on immigration status. 

NEW YORK — After five years of high flying, the dollar has begun weakening. That’s not necessarily bad news for the U.S. economy. 

To be sure, American travelers will pay more for hotels and souvenirs when they travel overseas. And foreign investors — hit by the double whammy of depreciating dollars and corporate accounting scandals — have begun pulling their money out of U.S. markets. 

At home, however, a lot of people stand to benefit from a weaker greenback. 

“The biggest gains will be for U.S. industries and workers that compete internationally,” said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. “So will exporters and the firms that make products that compete with imports.” 

That’s because the weaker dollar will make U.S. goods less expensive abroad, stimulating sales. And it will make imports more expensive, improving the competitiveness of American-made goods. 

A weaker dollar also will benefit companies that earn money overseas. Their profits in euros or yen will buy more dollars and translate to improved earnings statements back home. 

Why is this happening now? 

Experts point to the U.S. trade deficit, which grew to nearly $350 billion last year — a level that can be sustained only if the United States continues to draw investment capital from the rest of the world to finance it. But low interest rates and the slumping stock market have made American investments less attractive. 

Bergsten said the dollar has fallen 5 percent over the past five months on a trade-weighted basis, which factors in the value of the currencies of major U.S. trading partners. He believes it could drop 20 percent before it stabilizes. 

The National Association of Manufacturers has been complaining for months that the dollar was inordinately strong. The Washington-based industrial trade group estimates the strong dollar cost the U.S. economy $140 billion in lost exports and 500,000 in lost manufacturing jobs over the past year and a half. 

Frank Vargo, NAM’s vice president for international economic affairs, believes that one reason the dollar dominated other currencies for so long was the U.S. Treasury’s “strong dollar” policy. 

“People took this to mean that the administration was happy with the dollar as strong as it was and would intervene (in the currency markets) to keep the dollar where it was,” Vargo said. 

He noted that after Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill told a Senate committee in early May that the market should set the value of the American currency, “traders picked up on that and the dollar moved downward.” 

Depreciation of the dollar in the past has resulted in inflation. That’s because imported goods become more expensive, and domestic producers have the incentive to raise their prices, too.

HAVANA — Inside modern towers that are a pride of Fidel Castro, scientists peer through huge microscopes at tiny proteins they hope to tailor to treat such major killers as AIDS, heart disease and cancer. 

More than 1,000 people work at Cuba’s Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center to save lives, ease human suffering — and generate more cash for their socialist country’s battered economy. 

Cuba’s biotech products and technology currently reach markets in more than 40 countries, generating about $100 million annually. 

Havana thinks it can do a lot better. 

It has ambitious plans to increase its drug profits by greatly expanding its overseas markets through the development of novel pharmaceuticals and the sale of other drugs. 

For years as a Soviet bloc adherent, Cuba was among nations that refused to acknowledge Western intellectual property laws, manufacturing its own generic versions of popular drugs. 

Now, Cuba is aiming to sell abroad the genetically engineered protein erythropoetin, or EPO, which is by far the best-selling biotechnology drug. 

EPO is used by kidney dialysis and chemotherapy patients as well as illegally by athletes to boost oxygen-laden red cells in the body. 

It accounted for $6 billion in sales last year for three corporate giants that own commercial rights throughout the industrialized world. But in developing nations, an increasing number of biotech drugs are being produced without any attempts to obtain licenses. 

With 1.3 billion people, China is the largest of these markets — and its potential for EPO sales is huge. 

Amgen Inc., which invented the drug, shares patent rights with Johnson & Johnson and Kirin Brewery of Japan in the most lucrative markets — the United States, Europe and Japan. 

But they have little influence over Cuba, whose well-developed biotechnology program already offers EPO for sale in Argentina, Brazil, India and other countries that don’t acknowledge most U.S. and European drug patents. 

“We are very careful about intellectual property laws,” said Blanca Tormo, a Cuban biotechnology executive. She said Cuba sells EPO only in countries where no entity has exclusive patent rights. 

U.S. patent holders consider this boisterous trade in generic drugs a challenge to their intellectual property. But from Cuba’s perspective, it’s merely good business, and consumers in developing countries are grateful to pay the lower prices. 

In joining the World Trade Organization last year, China agreed to abide by its intellectual property agreements. But those pacts contain mechanisms that can allow developing nations to circumvent patents — especially in pharmaceuticals — where concerns such as public health are deemed to override them. 

But Cuba is not alone in trying to enter China’s seductive EPO market. Amgen, Kirin, the small Canadian biotech company Dragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. and at least four Chinese companies are already selling EPO there. 

While Amgen charges upward of $36 a dose in the United States, the generic EPO sells for as low as $5 in China. U.S. patients each pay upward of $10,000 annually for Amgen’s product, which it calls Epogen. 

Cuba has plenty more to offer, of course, than generic EPO, including its novel biotech products: hepatitis B and meningitis B vaccines, a skin growth factor, interferons, thrombosis and heart attack medicines as well as AIDS treatments. 

It is seeking more partnerships with foreign companies in research into vaccines for AIDS, eight different kinds of cancer and cholera. 

Cuban officials, some of whom attended last month’s annual BIO 2002 industry conference in Toronto, said negotiations for new biotech trade and production agreements were under way with Brazil and nine other countries: Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ukraine, Germany, and the United States. Cuba has or is negotiating technology transfer agreements with 14 countries — most of them developing nations including India, Algeria and South Africa. 

Meanwhile, this island nation has produced more than 78 million doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. 

It has also licensed its meningitis B vaccine to Britain’s Glaxo SmithKline, which hopes to eventually sell it in the United States under an exemption to the Cuban trade embargo granted by the Clinton administration. 

In another North American partnership, Cuba is working with the small Canadian company YM Biosciences on trials of a head and neck cancer treatment. 

But not everyone is bullish on Cuban biotech. 

“The U.S believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort,” John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, said in a May speech. “Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states.” 

Bolton’s accusation was widely dismissed as unfair by scientists, by Castro himself and by former President Jimmy Carter, whose visit to the island it directly preceded. 

In fact, Cuban biotechnology officials said Bolton unintentionally gave their program an international publicity boost. 

“That man did us a favor,” Tormo said. “Now, everybody is taking a good look at our biotechnology programs.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.cigb.edu.cu 

SAN FRANCISCO — Supermarket giant Safeway Inc. on Monday reported its first quarterly sales decline in more than nine years, prodding the grocer to lower its prices to lure back bargain-hunting shoppers and fend off increasingly popular discount merchants. 

Laying most of the blame on a listless economy, Pleasanton-based Safeway said its second-quarter “identical-store” sales — a key industry barometer — fell by 1.1 percent from the prior year. It marked Safeway’s first year-to-year drop in identical store sales in 37 quarters, dating back to the final three months of 1992. 

The identical-store yardstick measures sales at stores that had been open for at least a year and hadn’t been remodeled. Factoring in the sales from all 1,792 of its stores, Safeway’s revenue in the 12 weeks ended June 15 totaled $8.1 billion, a 1 percent increase from last year. 

Safeway earned $309.3 million in the second quarter, a slight increase from net income of $307.3 million at the same time last year. 

If not for a series of special accounting charges, Safeway said its second-quarter profit would have been $350.4 million, or 69 cents per share, a 2 percent decrease from the same time last year. 

Monday’s announcement wasn’t a surprise. Safeway warned its second quarter would be disappointing nearly a month ago, provoking the biggest one-day drop in the company’s stock since the 1980s.

LOS ANGELES — State Justice Department officials arrested more than 70 people in the last three months in a probe of a fraud ring that allegedly infiltrated the state’s nursing assistant testing system and issued assistant certificates to unqualified people. 

As a result of the scheme nursing homes throughout the city unwittingly hired dozens of unqualified nurse assistants, officials said. State health officials have so far revoked 124 certificates for nursing assistants. 

“It’s a new crime of opportunity,” said Deputy Attorney General Mark Zahner. “There are people out there so motivated by greed that they take advantage of the job situation and the elderly and infirm. They don’t care that they’re putting lives at risk by sticking people in nursing homes under false pretenses and putting them into a position to really hurt somebody.” 

More cases are likely to surface. The California Department of Health Services and the Justice Department confirmed that other probes were under way but declined to reveal specifics, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. 

The fraud was made possible in part by a shortage of certified nurse assistants, who perform 70 percent of all hands-on patient care while earning the least of all nursing staff — on average $9.17 per hour in 2000. 

Seventy-six people have been charged so far with paying for a nurse assistant certificate and then using the credential to find work at nursing homes.  

Officials expect another 20 or so arrests before the investigation is closed. 

Two of the key figures in the case, Juan Carlos Cano, 25, and Carole Ann Lopez, 40, pleaded no contest last month to felony charges that they orchestrated the scheme. Both were sentenced to 300 days in jail and five years’ probation, and together they owe nearly $100,000 in fines and restitution. 

Cano, a licensed vocational nurse, recruited non-English-speaking Latinos to take the state-mandated, English-only test, authorities said. For a fee of as much as $500, “applicants” took the exam at South Orange County Community College, where Lopez, a registered nurse, taught classes and proctored the certified nurse assistant test for a private company contracted by the state. 

Lopez doctored the scores before sending them to the Department of Health Services, which unwittingly issued certificates based on the bogus results. Over the course of a year, the “proctor and doctor” scheme netted the pair more than $32,000. 

The scheme was found out when a nursing home administrator called authorities at DHS questioning how an employee who didn’t read or speak English passed the test.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — A kayaker from the San Francisco Bay area was in serious condition Monday after a collision with a ski boat at Lake Tahoe, authorities said. 

El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies said the collision occurred shortly after noon at the entrance to Emerald Bay on Tahoe’s west shore. 

The kayaker, Steve Fletcher, 50, of Santa Cruz, was flown to Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nev., where he underwent surgery for severe leg and foot injuries. 

Hospital spokeswoman Judy Davis said Fletcher was in serious condition on Monday. 

An investigation into the cause of the accident is under way and the sheriff’s office said no further information would be released until it was complete. 

The people aboard the ski boat pulled the kayaker into their boat after the collision and transported him to the nearby Vikingsholm pier, deputies said. 

Emergency personnel stabilized the kayaker’s injuries at the pier before he was picked up by helicopter and flown to the Reno hospital. 

Both the kayaker and ski boat operator, an unidentified man from Boise, Idaho, were vacationing at Tahoe. 

A Hip Hop dance party went awry late Saturday night when gunfire erupted at a South Berkeley arts center where more than 1,000 party-goers crammed performance space scheduled for 300 people, according to the Berkeley Police Department. 

Two people were wounded in the crossfire, which broke out at about 11:15 p.m. both inside and outside of the packed beyond-capicity Crucible, at 1036 Ashby Ave, authorities said. 

Berkeley officers had arrived at the Crucible about 45 minutes earlier to assist with the unexpected crowds exiting the DJ show, according to police. When gunshots were fired, Berkeley police were joined by officers from seven other law enforcement agencies to help locate the shooters amid the crowd. Gunfire continued as the backup teams arrived. 

Several blocks along Ashby Avenue and the nearby Interstate 80 freeway entrance were shut down by police during the search. The perpetrators were not found. 

SHOOTINGS/From Page 1 

“It was a massive fiasco of a party gone sour,” said Sgt. Garen Nielsen of the Berkeley Police Department, noting that more than 100 officers ultimately joined in the crowd control and search efforts. 

A nearby resident, who did not want his name mentioned, said he came home around 1 a.m. Sunday to find people swarming Murray Street, an ally between the industrial lots adjacent to the Crucible. 

“This whole ally was completely packed with thousands of people and surrounded by cops,” he said. “Police were staked out in the (Orchard Supply Hardware) parking lot.” 

Police say the south Berkeley neighborhood was cleared by 2 a.m., and no arrests were made. Police officers from Oakland, Albany, Emeryville, UC Berkeley, BART and the California Highway Patrol assisted in the incident. 

One of the victims of the shooting was transported to Alameda County Hospital and the other victim refused medical treatment. Details of the injuries could not be obtained Sunday. 

The dance show was sponsored by local promoter Eugene Cockerman. The promoter, nor employees at the Crucible could be reached before press time.

To the Editor: 

I have prepared this letter to express my concern regarding unnecessary construction work scheduled for the old Civic Center Building. I feel the city should be more conscious of the shortfall that is projected over the next several years. It is unheard of that additional moneys will be used in such a wasteful manner. As you know the city of Berkeley spent millions of taxpayer’s money to retrofit City Hall and the Library. 

Recently while visiting the Housing Department on the second floor of the Civic Center Building I learned that office space (on the southside of the building) is slated to be altered to make special accommodations for one staff member to have a private office. I would like the mayor/council to investigate this situation; I feel it’s wasteful and unnecessary spending given the budget constraints that face the city and I feel that it is not in the best interest of the city as a whole.  

Government employees need to make themselves available to all parties that request services. This type of spending shows lack of regard for more important issues that are facing the city of Berkeley at this time. Money being used to remodel an office to accommodate one individual staff person is wasteful spending!  

Incidentally I learned that the staff person has stated that “if she doesn’t get a private office she will leave and seek employment elsewhere.” I do not want my taxpayer money spent towards remodeling office space on a building that costs the taxpayers millions of dollars already. (How much will this cost? What ever the amount, it is too much.) However, I do support the use of additional moneys (if any-I understand there is a shortfall) being used for our social programs that assist in more critical and pressing needs.  

If we start altering the building in this manner we might think of knocking the entire Civic Center down and building a 10-story skyscraper. Thank you for looking in to this misuse of city funds. 

Lillie Baugh 

Berkeley

Monday, July 8

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home Owners Meeting  

Monday, July 8th, 2002 at 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office,1403 Addison Street-behind University Avenue Andronico’s Super Market. 

Laurie Capitelli of Red Oak Realty runs down the options of selling homes 

All Welcome 

548-9696 or 486-8010 

Free 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121- Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

Tuesday, July 9

Mother’s Morning Out 

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Upaya Center for Wellbeing 

478 Santa Clara Ave. 

Craniosacral Therapy for Infants and Children 

www.upayacenter.org 

Free 

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

What Do You Believe? Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers 

6:30 to 8:00 p.m. 

Ellen Driscoll Playhouse 

325 Highland Avenue, Piedmont  

Film presented by Piedmont diversity groups; discussion with filmmaker, Sarah Feinbloom.  

655-5552, or maudep@aol.com 

Free 

Friday, July 12

Celebration of Emma Goldman's Birthday  

8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity Hall  

390 27th St  

An all-ages, alcohol-free party with live music, DJ, and dance lessons 

http://www.ebcaw.org  

$5 to $10 sliding scale  

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. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

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 

Introduction to Accessible Software and Hardware  

10:30 a.m. to noon 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

Wedneday, July 17

Doctors Without Borders 

Until July 18 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Springer Gateway, West Entrance Crescent 

Interactive exhibit expalining medicines for people in developing countries; Film screenings 

www.doctorswithoutborders.org 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Mystique of the Widerness 

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 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121. Alan Bern, Special Services Coordinator 

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 slideshw 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, intrduces their latest design. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

"Neon: The Living Flame" 

7:00 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, nonmembers $5  

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m. to noon 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike techician basic repairs such as brake adjustments and fixing a flat. 

For information: 527-4140 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 to 9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rockclimbing including knot tieing, belaying and movement. 

For information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members

OAKLAND – The Oakland Athletics hope Ted Lilly can turn their Big Three into a formidable quartet. 

The A’s acquired Lilly, a spot starter for the pitching-rich New York Yankees, in a three-team trade late Friday. The 26-year-old left-hander joins a rotation anchored by the talented trio of Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson. 

While leaving the mighty Yankees was something of a shock, Lilly was grateful to be joining a team that has a legitimate postseason shot. 

“My first thought was I’m going to a team that wants to win, and win all the way,” he said. 

Lilly arrived in Oakland late Saturday and joined his new team on Sunday. The A’s say Lilly will be part of the starting rotation, throwing the futures of rookie Aaron Harang and Cory Lidle up in the air, probably until after the All-Star break. 

“I’ll let you know,” A’s manager Art Howe said, adding that Lilly would be in the bullpen for Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. 

The A’s sent minor league first baseman Carlos Pena and right-handed pitcher Franklyn German to Detroit Friday night for right-hander Jeff Weaver and cash. 

The A’s then turned around and sent Weaver to the Yankees for Lilly and two promising minor leaguers, outfielder John-Ford Griffin and right-hander Jason Arnold. 

“Ted Lilly is someone we’ve tried to get for the last several years,” A’s general manager Billy Beane said. “It’s a success for us for a number of reasons. We get a major league pitcher and we get top picks from the Yankees.” 

Lilly is 3-6 with a 3.40 ERA in 11 starts and two relief appearances. On April 27 he pitched a one-hitter in a 1-0 loss at Seattle and on June 22 he pitched a three-hitter at San Diego for his first major league shutout. 

“I had heard that he (Beane) was trying to acquire me earlier in the year – but you don’t really pay attention to trade rumors,” Lilly said. 

Lilly will likely take over Lidle’s spot in the rotation. 

A roster move to make room for the new pitcher was not immediately announced. 

Lidle has struggled, going 2-7 with a 5.30 ERA in 15 starts, while Harang, the rookie of the lineup, has shown promise with a 3-2 record and a 2.43 ERA in his first seven starts. 

Harang, called up from Triple-A Sacramento on May 25, started Saturday against the Royals. 

“It’s nice to know we have some depth in that starting position, which we haven’t had all year,” Howe said. “We were a little thin there.” 

Already schooled by the likes of David Wells, Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens, Lilly said he was excited about the prospect of joining the A’s. 

“You see watching them from the dugout that these guys play hard,” Lilly said. 

Both Howe and Beane said it was tough to let go of Pena, who opened the season for the A’s at first – Jason Giambi’s spot before he bolted for the Yankees as a free agent in the offseason. In fact, Pena was touted as Giambi’s heir apparent at first. 

While Pena got off to a fast start, batting .264 with seven homers and 16 RBIs in April, he fell off in May, batting .108 in 14 games before he was sent down to Triple-A Sacramento. 

“Originally we intended to have Pena be here for a long time,” Howe said. “He just didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. That’s not to say he won’t be a great player, he just needs a little time.”

Unbeknownst to many residents, Berkeley has a reputation among music lovers as a hub of accordion music. 

It all started when Boaz Rubin, a former commercial fisherman/truck driver/machinist, got together with UC Berkeley students at Berkeley’s Hilel House where they jammed to Klezmer, a type of Eastern European Jewish wedding music. Los Angeles refugee Rubin quickly realized the instruments in his repertoire didn’t fit the style he was looking for and decided to pick up the accordion. 

And he hasn’t put it down since. Rubin became so immersed in the subculture of the accordion that now, seven years later, he makes his living repairing, teaching and generally promoting the instrument. Rubin and wife Judy, with the help of apprentice Emily Esner, run Boaz Accordions out of a warehouse-like space at 1040 Folger Ave. 

As a former machinist and current musician, his appreciation of the accordion is both technical and artistic. 

"You move the bellows and air goes through,” Rubin said. “On another level, they’re very subtle. To make them work and respond well, that’s the art." 

While others in the industrial park import French foods or African carvings, the Rubins’ exotic imports draw fans of every nationality. Indeed, Rubin points out how central the accordion is to the music of many cultures. 

The variety of compact discs for sale in the front of the shop and the instructional books and tapes in a couple of different languages illustrate the variety of appeal. 

The Boaz workshop/salesfloor/performance space has drawn Slovenes, Mexicans, Bosnian Serbs, Irish and Americans, all interested in learning more about the instrument. 

"What’s interesting is that there are these enormous communities of accordion (players) that are completely under the radar. There are gatherings of people, hundreds if not thousands, up and down the Central Valley. It’s a huge subculture," Rubin said.  

Judy Rubin added, "someone joked we ought to have a ‘refugee of the month club.’ We get every refugee and we get to hear them play. There was a Bosnian guy in here who had lost everything and come over with his family. He had been a doctor and now he makes living playing accordion." 

The Rubins see themselves as ambassadors of the instrument, offering a wealth of information through $15 drop-in classes, a monthly newsletter, a variety of fliers and a website. 

Concerts at their shop showcase the many genres of the accordion. July’s event stars an Argentine Tango duo, September’s a Klezmer band and October has a "Cowboy" trio. Visiting artists also pop in, such as French provincial master Daniel Thonon, who will light up the performance area on August 18. 

Last week, local musician Mark Growden dropped in to pick up an accordion for one of his gigs. 

"They are incredibly supportive of the accordion and the music community. That’s what I love about this place,” said Growden. 

He and Boaz Rubin went on at length about how they borrow tricks and styles from each genre of music, be it French, Cajun, Conjunto, Norteno, polka, etc. 

“The accordion is absolutely fascinating. The possibilities are endless and it also has technical challenges that you can never get tired of trying to meet,” Rubin said. 

The shop is eye candy for a lover of musical instruments or someone who simply likes the way the well-crafted appliance looks. Though an accordion might just be a bunch of reeds and an aluminum sounding board inside a wood box, there are many variations of the design, and some people collect them just for the way they look. 

A beginner’s model may cost as little as $300, while a top-of-the-line model anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. While Rubin says that Italians definitely make the best accordions, "it’s like sports cars– at a certain level it becomes a matter of taste.” 

“There are certain factories that produce things that are so fine, then it becomes a matter (of) do you want one that sounds brighter, stiffer action, (or) one that sounds darker," he said. Rubin is a fan of the Armando Bugari, for which he is an authorized dealer. 

Accordions can be classified by what tuning they are in, whether they have buttons or piano keys and how many rows of keys they have. 

They are often grouped into these basic categories: diatonics which are tuned to an eight note scale, chromatics which are tuned in half steps, concertinas and piano accordions. Within these classifications are many varieties, indicative of how far and wide the instrument has traveled. For example, the South American bandoneon is considered a direct descendent of the German Concertina.  

For as many variations on types of accordions exist, there are corresponding styles of music. In fact, there are particular pairings of instruments to genres, such as the Alfred Arnold bandoneon which is used to entice dancers of Argentine tango while Gabbanelli boxes are favored by practitioners of Tex-Mex. 

And for those who "hate accordion music," think again. "Accordions are like beans. People say they don’t like beans, but they like humus, tacos and other things made of beans. Just like people like music with accordions in it, they just don’t realize it," said Judy Rubin, who has a background in public relations and journalism, specializes in the "customer advocacy" aspect of the business. 

The biggest showcase for Boaz Accordions and their associates is the annual Cotati Accordion Festival in August, during which Sonoma County is overrun with accordion players. Boaz has been an official sponsor for the past three years, helping to coordinate talent for the shows, and naturally, supplying top-of-the-line instruments. 

And whether it be a Yugoslavian-made Slovenian polka box, a chromatic Irish button box, a 30-pound "full house" number or the more recent 14-pound "lite" innovation, you can bet that you’ll find it on the shelves at the shop on Folger Avenue.

To the Editor: 

Michael Bauce's letter (July 5), while dismissing the need for understanding the relative magnitudes of radiation risks in making public policy, perfectly illustrates why such education is necessary. 

Natural sources (e.g. naturally-occurring uranium, thorium, radon and cosmic rays) give all of us an unavoidable annual dose of ionizing radiation about 10-20 times higher than a medical x-ray and a thousand times higher than the dose received by the average worker at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory due to tritium released from the National Tritium Labeling Facility (a report on the amount of tritium released and the associated health risks is available at http://www.lbl.gov/ehs/epg/tritium/). The increase in the rate of cancer mortality for the 11,000 people closest to LBNL is estimated to be 5/1,000,000 for a full lifetime of exposure, compared to a total rate of 9,000/1,000,000 from other causes. That additional risk is very small but not zero, and it could be part of an informed debate comparing this risk to the benefits of the medical research that the facility performs. Speaking only for myself, as someone who works within a mile of LBNL, I find that risk acceptable and those benefits obvious. 

As an environmentalist and a scientist, I'm concerned when other environmentalists waste two precious commodities battling activities that carry low risks. The first commodity is our effort, which could be spent instead opposing tremendously harmful activities such as the excessive human production of greenhouse gases and the discharge of toxic chemicals into fragile river ecosystems. The second commodity is our credibility. When some vocal environmentalists have no knowledge (and worse, no concern) about relative levels of risk, it taints the entire environmentalist movement and provides ammunition to those conservatives and corporations who seek to block progress on crucial environmental issues. 

David M. Smith 

El Cerrito

WIMBLEDON, England – Lleyton Hewitt made certain this Wimbledon of upsets wouldn’t end with one. The No. 1-ranked player kept his temper in check, his strokes on the lines, and wasn’t fazed by rain delays or a streaker’s show. 

Hewitt won his second Grand Slam title with a command performance, beating greener-than-grass David Nalbandian 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 Sunday in a baseliners’ duel that produced the most lopsided Wimbledon final since 1984. 

At 21, the Australian is the tournament’s youngest champion since Boris Becker won it a second time in 1986 at 18. 

“I kept looking at the scoreboard to see if it was real,” Hewitt said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling. I always dreamed that some day I would be playing for this trophy.” 

Nalbandian’s nerves showed on the match’s very first point – a double fault. He had every right to be a bit shaken: Before this fortnight, the 20-year-old Argentine had never played in a tour-level grass-court event, had never been past the third round in three majors, and owned exactly one career title. 

His first shot on Centre Court came the morning of the final, when he practiced with coach Gabriel Markus for 30 minutes. 

“I didn’t care about the conditions, the stadium, the situation,” the 28th-seeded Nalbandian said. “It was difficult because Lleyton is playing very good.” 

Despite dictating play and going for corners or lines repeatedly, Hewitt had more winners (30-12) and fewer unforced errors (25-41) than Nalbandian. 

Ripping returns off both wings, Hewitt broke Nalbandian’s serve eight times. 

Nalbandian was a big beneficiary of a topsy-turvy tournament in which Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin all lost in the second round. Nalbandian would have had to face Sampras in the third round, Safin in the quarterfinals, and Agassi in the semis. 

Instead, he got to play George Bastl, Nicolas Lapentti and Xavier Malisse. 

Before Sunday, there had been four straight first-time major winners, and eight men had won the last eight Grand Slam events. 

In a wide-open era of men’s tennis, Hewitt is as close to dominant as anyone right now, and it’s been a quick trip to the top. 

In 1997, at 15 years and 11 months, he became the youngest qualifier for the Australian Open. He turned pro the next year and upset Agassi en route to a hard-court title in his hometown of Adelaide while ranked 550th – the lowest for a tournament winner in ATP Tour history. 

When Hewitt beat Sampras in September for his first major title, he was the U.S. Open’s youngest champ since Sampras in 1990. 

He finished 2001 as the youngest year-end No. 1. 

Hewitt, however, hasn’t always been adored by his sports-wild countrymen because of his brash style. 

While playing James Blake at the U.S. Open, he made a comment interpreted by some as racist during a tirade. 

He’s been fined for using foul language on court and for calling a chair umpire at the 2001 French Open “spastic.” He angered fans in Adelaide by calling them “stupid” for cheering for his opponent during a match in 2000. 

A more mature Hewitt was on display at Wimbledon. 

He did nothing to rile up the partisan crowd during a straight-set semifinal victory over Britain’s Tim Henman and was never rattled during Sunday’s match, which was suspended twice for a total of 49 minutes because of rain. 

Just as the players came out of the locker room after the first delay, a male streaker hopped out of the stands, dropped his clothes and shoes on court, and pranced around for two minutes. He danced, somersaulted over the net and bowed to a laughing crowd while being chased by guards brandishing red sheets like matadors. 

It might just have been the most excitement on court. 

Not only was Nalbandian never in the match (he trailed 4-0 after just 16 minutes), but both players were content to stay anchored to the baseline for double-digit-stroke rallies. 

Often, it had the feel of a clay-court encounter. 

Or two buddies in a public park, hitting a ball for exercise. 

Nalbandian provided the only real sparks – and not with his play. 

On break point at 2-2 in the third set, Hewitt hit a backhand return that Nalbandian thought was out. Replays appeared to show some line chalk flew. Nalbandian looked at the silent line judge, but continued the point, which ended on his backhand into the net. 

Nalbandian flipped his racket halfway to the net – a ball boy brought it to him – and then grabbed a ball and placed it a couple of inches behind the baseline, as if to say, “Couldn’t you tell that’s where the ball landed?” 

He questioned other calls, kicked a ball after one unforced error and smacked himself in the forehead following mistakes, 

Hewitt, meanwhile, was completely composed. Until, that is, he had his first match point, serving at 5-2, 40-0. 

He double faulted. 

When the next point ended with Nalbandian sending a forehand long, Hewitt fell on his back, got up and swatted a ball out of the stadium. After putting his racket down, he climbed through the stands to the players’ guest box, where he greeted his coach, parents and girlfriend, Kim Clijsters, with hugs and kisses.

A new Longs Drug Store and a handful of living units will soon appear on the lot at 1941 San Pablo Ave. between University and Hearst avenues, according to David Fogarty, a community development project coordinator with the city. 

The plan marks a victory for city planners, as they continue to promote the development of residential units above commercial space to help alleviate the region’s housing shortage. City planners had failed to convince former property owner Smart & Final to restore the abandoned apartments on the site. 

According to Fogarty, the city helped conduct a feasibility report which found that the site’s seven studios and a one-bedroom apartment presented a valuable market opportunity. Smart & Final, which closed its discount food store in April after it proved unappealing to Berkeley shoppers, decided to sell the property after learning of its housing value. 

Fogarty, who facilitated the sale, would not disclose the names of the new owners, but said that they planned to rent the apartments at market value. 

The building has a varied history. Opened in 1926 as an ornate single screen movie theater, it has been home to several supermarket chains since the theater’s closure in 1955. 

Fogarty said that Longs will keep the building’s original fresco ceiling, which was restored by Smart & Final in 1993. Longs and the new owners will both contribute money to refurbish the building and they have not determined when it will re-open. 

The Longs project is seen as one of the first steps in the city’s effort to increase foot traffic and population density along busy San Pablo Avenue. 

Because Smart & Final specialized in selling bulk items, most shoppers arrived by car and did not frequent other neighborhood shops, said Council member Kriss Worthington. He hopes that a pharmacy will generate pedestrian shoppers, which are typically more likely to patronize nearby stores. 

The city’s effort to remake San Pablo Avenue is also getting a boost from AC Transit. When the apartments were built in 1944, San Pablo Avenue was a transportation hub, equipped with Key System streetcars, the Bay Area’s original mass transit system that ran along major streets and connected residential neighborhoods to downtown Oakland and San Francisco. After the train service was shut down in 1958, the avenue was redeveloped for automobile traffic. 

Now local authorities are trying to restore San Pablo Avenue as a public transit center. According to Worthington, AC Transit will convert its bus routes along the avenue into an integrated bus rapid transit system. The plan calls for new environmentally friendly buses, attractive and comfortable stops for passengers to wait and board, high-tech traffic signals that will enable buses to face fewer red lights and transit-only lanes that will allow buses to get through high traffic areas.  

Worthington added that the city has identified eight sites along the avenue that it hopes can be developed into new housing units, depending on the health of the local economy. 

"It’s a destination location," Worthington said of the stretch of San Pablo bordering University Avenue. "It’s time to market it."

To the Editor: 

May I suggest a rational new pledge: 

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for Americans of all colors, creeds and cultures. 

Gerta Farber 

Berkeley 

To the Editor, 

I hear a great many people who are clamoring that we must retain the daily pledge say that this nation operates under god’s protection. I do not hear anyone explaining how they know god exists. 

Meanwhile, I have a dandy little bridge back in Brooklyn that I would like to sell for a reasonable price. 

Marion Syrek 

Oakland

Kicks and punches spilled into the streets Saturday, as hundreds of onlookers circled around a pair of smiling capoeira dancers, known as capoeiristas. The crowd cheered as the two gracefully ducked their opponent’s offensive and countered with closed fists and elbows, never making contact and always moving to the rhythm of the live musical accompaniment called the roda. 

Saturday was the Capoeira Arts Cafe’s fifth annual Brazilian Festival, which celebrated the “batizado”– the baptism of new students into the world of capoeira. 

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art which combines dancing and acrobatics with kicks, blocks and spins common to other marital arts forms. Capoeira, however, is more lighthearted and joyful than other martial arts– it’s considered a game, a ritual, a way of life. 

Berkeley happens to be the home of Mestre (Master) Acordeon, founder of the United Capoeira Association and the Capoeira Arts Cafe and the first person to teach capoeira in the United States. 

Since 1978, Acordeon has taught hundreds of students the native art form and is considered an icon in the capoeira community. Saturday's event not only demonstrated the community’s widespread admiration and respect for Acordeon, but also showed the increasing popularity of capoeira– now practiced by an estimated 5000 capoeiristas nationwide. 

"To my students outside of Brazil, capoeira is a complex and fascinating art, a physical challenge and a philosophical enigma that comes from a socio-cultural and historical context that is completely different from their own," Acordeon said. "However, capoeira has deep meaning for all true capoeiristas, responding to each one's many questions of existence, independent of his or her nationality, sex, age, economic situation or ethnicity," he added. 

Susan McCallister, who has two capoeirista children, had only praise for the cafe’s ability to create a sense of place and community for the students who train there. 

“The cafe has become a place that people count on, it’s like another family,” she said. In addition, said McCallister, capoeira is not a loner’s sport, because to practice capoeira one must have a partner. “You’re dependent on another person, so when you play it’s like a musical improvisation. People are riffing off one another,” she said.  

It’s the element of music and dance that attracted 13-year-old Jonah Katz, who said he first saw capoeira on his friend’s video game. "In Teken there's a guy in it who does capoeira, and I thought that was totally cool," said Katz. He added that capoeira’s constant flow of motion has helped improve his dance and increased his self-awareness. 

Mestre Rony flew in from Sarasota, Florida for Saturday's event. A capoeirista for more than 20 years, Rony first became interested in Capoeira for its aspect of combat, yet over time his performance style, like his reasons for continuing to practice, have evolved. 

"You learn it's something different, and you end up staying because of the friends and music. The martial arts are always there but you end up playing with friends who love what I love. We all fell in love with capoeira," he said. 

Rony trains every day so as to not be defeated by his opponent and stay on top of his peers who are as determined as he is. All the hours of dedication lead to a language of motion, said Rony, by which capoeiristas can decipher their opponents’ move seconds before it’s made, then execute a defensive move and counter attack. 

"It's ongoing, it never stops,” said Rony. “It's like chess– there's always somebody trying to do better and it's happening all over the world," he said. 

Also in attendance at Saturday’s event was 27-year-old Jeremy Bigalke, a self-proclaimed martial arts sympathizer. Bigalke watched intently as two capoeiristas stood on their hands, kicked, back-flipped and hopped in an attempt to better their opponent. Bigalke said that while he no longer practices capoeira, a brief stint as a capoeira student has fostered a respect for the art’s non-violent exertion of energy and an admiration for its ability to wed fighting with dance and music. 

In particular, he added, what continues to attract him to capoeira events is the physical appearance of the capoeiristas. 

"These are the healthiest, strongest people in a group. It's my elemental idea of a body mood," he said. "It's a combination of motion and strength and people standing around and talking. It's how the sidewalk feels. It's an inspirational crowd even if you don't talk to anyone. But I'll go home and do my 100 push-ups, and when I run I'll have a new purpose." 

First drawn to capoeira for its aggression and acrobatics, 23-year-old Kelly Johnson, of Sacramento, said she appreciates the way that capoeira has taught her to channel energy. Otherwise, she says, energy can become stagnant or frustrating if not given the proper outlet. She also enjoys learning Portuguese in the roda and knows that, if faced with a confrontational situation in the streets, she could defend herself. 

"I feel like if someone wanted to mess with me, I could take them on if I had to," she said. When asked about where she'll go with capoeira, she mirrored a sentiment held by many capoeiristas at Saturday’s event: "Wherever it takes me, if it took me to Brazil, that'd be nice."

To the Editor: 

We are writing to appeal to residents of Berkeley to donate their reusable objects-toys, furniture, clothing, etc.-directly to charitable agencies which handle such things instead of putting them on the curbside for collection. 

We were horrified to see the garbage collection truck picking up and crunching good furniture and toys which had been passed over by the recycling truck. 

Agencies which accept reusables of many descriptions include Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, the Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center. Many others are listed in the flyer put out by the Berkeley Public library titled “How Can I help? Donations.” 

Jacqueline Sokolinsky 

Berkeley

Capoeira originated in Brazil approximately 400 years ago as a way for slaves to practice self-defense without alerting their masters to the true intentions of the art. Capoeira training, disguised as ritualistic dance, helped unite the diverse slave populations stolen from Africa and shipped to Brazil. 

As capoeira became more popular among slaves, so did rebellion. Capoeira was subsequently outlawed and practiced underground until the 1930s when it was recognized as a sport and an intrinsic part of Brazilian history.

An easy target 

BREMEN, Ind. — The T-shirt said: “Fugitive, You never saw me.” The man wearing it wished police hadn’t. 

Christopher J. Antus was arrested Monday during a routine traffic stop while sporting the bright orange shirt. 

“Well, I guess you are going to have to come with me,” state police Trooper Jerrod Patty said. 

Antus asked why. 

Patty pointed to the T-shirt: “Well, your shirt says you’re a fugitive.” 

The trooper learned that the shirt Antus was wearing was no joke. 

Antus, 24, was wanted on an arrest warrant charging him with failure to appear in court, a felony in northern Indiana’s Marshall County. 

Antus was jailed without bond Tuesday. 

Dizzy, but famous 

BRISTOL, Conn. — After riding a Lake Compounce roller coaster for two weeks, Noel Aube and Michael Barillaro are record setters — and new friends. 

The two Meriden men rode the Wildcat 2,002 times, breaking Aube’s 1975 record of 2,001 continuous rides. 

Four contestants originally sought to break the record when the contest began June 17. It was down to Aube and Barillaro as of June 21.

A 37-year-old Fremont man was arrested today for driving the wrong way down the Dumbarton Bridge with his headlights off and causing a head-on collision that killed two adults and critically injured two children out of Redwood City. 

The California Highway Patrol says Luis Armando Hidalgo has been arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving, gross vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run for allegedly causing the nasty accident that occurred near the Dumbarton Bridge toll plaza just before midnight Saturday. 

The CHP said Hidalgo, driving a 1999 Chrysler 300M, was traveling east on westbound state Route 84 and struck a 2002 Toyota Tacoma driven by Oakland resident Maria DelCarmen before hitting a Plymouth Voyager minivan carrying the Redwood City family. 

A CHP spokesman said DelCarmen, 26, was traveling west and didn't see Hidalgo approaching because his headlights were off. At the last minute, she saw his car coming at her and swerved to avoid it. Hidalgo sideswiped her vehicle anyway, and allegedly continued down the wrong way on the bridge. 

DelCarmen, having suffered minor abdominal injuries, stopped at the collision scene. 

The CHP said Hidalgo then collided head on with the Voyager. Both vehicles erupted in flames. 

CHP officers and other motorists pulled the injured parties from their vehicles and initiated medical aid, but for some it was too late. 

The male driver, 35, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 38-year-old woman, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was taken to Eden Medical Center where she died soon after her arrival.  

The Alameda County Coroner said this afternoon that it was not ready to release the names of the deceased, whom a spokeswoman said were not a married couple.

RENO — Organizers have secured a permit to stage the annual Burning Man counterculture festival on the Nevada desert, but won’t be able to dodge higher federal fees. 

Bureau of Land Management officials say they’re required by regulation to assess organizers a $4 per person fee to hold the popular event on the Black Rock Desert 120 miles north of Reno near Gerlach. 

Burning Man founder Larry Harvey last year urged the agency to lower the fee for the event known for its offbeat artwork, music and games, noting it was $2 before it doubled in 1999. 

Billed as a celebration of art and radical self-expression, the event is expected to draw about 28,000 people from at least 40 states and 20 countries over the week leading up to Labor Day. 

“It’s pretty clear in the regulations what we have to assess,” said Dave Cooper of the BLM’s Winnemucca field office. “We told them we have no flexibility and I think they understand it.” 

Organizers say the issue is not so much the fee itself but what the BLM does with the money. They complain the agency raked in $502,000 from the fee last year, but only spent about half on the festival itself. 

Organizers say BLM now is trying to pay less for law enforcement costs than they did last year. 

The event is staged by Black Rock City LLC, a non-profit based in San Francisco. 

“We’re not trying to get the regulations changed. That’s tilting at windmills,” said Burning Man spokeswoman Marian Goodell. “But at this point we can put pressure to make sure the money is being used for things it should be used for. 

“That money should be going to management of the event itself. We want more bang for our buck,” she said. 

Nearly all the fee revenue from the 17-year-old event goes to the BLM’s Winnemucca district, which manages the Black Rock Desert. 

Cooper said half of the money is spent on law enforcement and other festival-related costs, and the rest goes to the district’s budget. 

“It has definitely helped us financially,” Terry Reid, field manager for the Winnemucca office, told the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Organizers have discussed the fee in Washington, D.C. with aides of eight congressmen, including Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both D-Calif., Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. 

“They were sympathetic to our position,” Goodell said. “The issue is we are the largest special recreation permittee in the United States and this fee is extraordinarily large.” 

No other major issue surfaced during the permit process for the event this year, Cooper said. 

For a third straight year, the festival will be staged at the same spot seven miles north of Gerlach. About half of the site is in a newly created National Conservation Area designed to protect historic trails and unspoiled terrain in the area. 

BLM officials are warning participants that drug laws again will be enforced. 

Organizers are hoping a wet winter will help cut down on dust at the festival site. Streets will be watered to reduce dust during the event.

SAN FRANCISCO — Mutant, drug-resistant strains of HIV are growing among San Francisco’s newly infected gay men, a new study suggests. 

The results of the five-year study show an increase from 2.5 percent in 1996 to 13 percent in 2000 in those tested who were resistant to two different classes of drugs. 

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The results were presented at the 14th International AIDS Conference being held July 7-12 in Barcelona, Spain. 

“Some people are becoming infected with a virus that is much more difficult to treat,” said Dr. Frederick Hecht, the study’s co-author and a San Francisco General Hospital AIDS specialist. 

He said the study is important because patterns found among HIV-infected men in San Francisco often provide a blueprint for how the epidemic will evolve in other cities. 

The study found that resistance to the latest class of AIDS drugs developed quickly. The mutated viruses also are being spread by those who are undergoing treatment, the study found. 

However, Hecht cautioned interpreting the results to mean mutant viruses are more dangerous.

With national economy in tatters, island nation’s
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center
generates about $100 million per year 

HAVANA – Inside modern towers that are a pride of Fidel Castro, scientists peer through huge microscopes at tiny proteins they hope to tailor to treat such major killers as AIDS, heart disease and cancer. 

More than 1,000 people work at Cuba’s Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center to save lives, ease human suffering — and generate more cash for their socialist country’s battered economy. 

Cuba’s biotech products and technology currently reach markets in more than 40 countries, generating about $100 million annually. 

Havana thinks it can do a lot better. 

It has ambitious plans to increase its drug profits by greatly expanding its overseas markets through the development of novel pharmaceuticals and the sale of other drugs. 

For years as a Soviet bloc adherent, Cuba was among nations that refused to acknowledge Western intellectual property laws, manufacturing its own generic versions of popular drugs. 

Now, Cuba is aiming to sell abroad the genetically engineered protein erythropoetin, or EPO, which is by far the best-selling biotechnology drug. 

EPO is used by kidney dialysis and chemotherapy patients as well as illegally by athletes to boost oxygen-laden red cells in the body. 

It accounted for $6 billion in sales last year for three corporate giants that own commercial rights throughout the industrialized world. But in developing nations, an increasing number of biotech drugs are being produced without any attempts to obtain licenses. 

With 1.3 billion people, China is the largest of these markets — and its potential for EPO sales is huge. 

Amgen Inc., which invented the drug, shares patent rights with Johnson & Johnson and Kirin Brewery of Japan in the most lucrative markets — the United States, Europe and Japan. 

But they have little influence over Cuba, whose well-developed biotechnology program already offers EPO for sale in Argentina, Brazil, India and other countries that don’t acknowledge most U.S. and European drug patents. 

“We are very careful about intellectual property laws,” said Blanca Tormo, a Cuban biotechnology executive. She said Cuba sells EPO only in countries where no entity has exclusive patent rights. 

U.S. patent holders consider this boisterous trade in generic drugs a challenge to their intellectual property. But from Cuba’s perspective, it’s merely good business, and consumers in developing countries are grateful to pay the lower prices. 

In joining the World Trade Organization last year, China agreed to abide by its intellectual property agreements. But those pacts contain mechanisms that can allow developing nations to circumvent patents — especially in pharmaceuticals — where concerns such as public health are deemed to override them. 

But Cuba is not alone in trying to enter China’s seductive EPO market. Amgen, Kirin, the small Canadian biotech company Dragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. and at least four Chinese companies are already selling EPO there. 

While Amgen charges upward of $36 a dose in the United States, the generic EPO sells for as low as $5 in China. U.S. patients each pay upward of $10,000 annually for Amgen’s product, which it calls Epogen. 

Cuba has plenty more to offer, of course, than generic EPO, including its novel biotech products: hepatitis B and meningitis B vaccines, a skin growth factor, interferons, thrombosis and heart attack medicines as well as AIDS treatments. 

It is seeking more partnerships with foreign companies in research into vaccines for AIDS, eight different kinds of cancer and cholera. 

Cuban officials, some of whom attended last month’s annual BIO 2002 industry conference in Toronto, said negotiations for new biotech trade and production agreements were under way with Brazil and nine other countries: Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ukraine, Germany, and the United States. Cuba has or is negotiating technology transfer agreements with 14 countries — most of them developing nations including India, Algeria and South Africa. 

Meanwhile, this island nation has produced more than 78 million doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. 

It has also licensed its meningitis B vaccine to Britain’s Glaxo SmithKline, which hopes to eventually sell it in the United States under an exemption to the Cuban trade embargo granted by the Clinton administration. 

In another North American partnership, Cuba is working with the small Canadian company YM Biosciences on trials of a head and neck cancer treatment. 

But not everyone is bullish on Cuban biotech. 

“The U.S believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort,” John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, said in a May speech. “Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states.” 

Bolton’s accusation was widely dismissed as unfair by scientists, by Castro himself and by former President Jimmy Carter, whose visit to the island it directly preceded. 

In fact, Cuban biotechnology officials said Bolton unintentionally gave their program an international publicity boost. 

“That man did us a favor,” Tormo said. “Now, everybody is taking a good look at our biotechnology programs.”

Secretive “Intel-killer” has been plagued by delays, slow acceptance 

SAN JOSE– For nearly five years during the high-tech boom, engineers at a small start-up secretly cobbled together a new microprocessor that promised to turn the PC world upside down. 

Rumors mounted as the company, Transmeta Corp., maintained silence but hired talent such as Linux luminary Linus Torvalds while attracting investors including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. 

Finally, on Jan. 19, 2000, Transmeta unveiled a new Intel-compatible processor dubbed Crusoe that offered power savings, performance and low cost. 

Media and analysts hailed Transmeta as a potential Intel-killer, a product that could beat the semiconductor giant with small, cheap and energy-efficient chips. 

But in the more than 2 1/2 years since that flashy debut, the Silicon Valley upstart has faced more rough seas than its namesake, Daniel Defoe’s resourceful castaway. 

Despite praise for innovation and some acceptance by computer makers, especially in Japan, Crusoe has not been built into any U.S. manufacturers’ notebooks. And a second Crusoe offering with more power, the TM5800, was delayed for six months by production problems. 

The sour economy also softened demand. Revenues plunged, and Transmeta’s top job changed hands three times. Though its stock jumped as high as $45.61 after the initial public offering, it now trades at about $2 per share, down 95 percent. 

“At the moment, the problem isn’t the product,” said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner. “It’s figuring out exactly what to do with it, finding the market and making it a success.” 

Transmeta hitched itself to long-sought goals in the high-tech world — the need for performance computers that are both small and don’t drain electricity like water leaking from an old tin bucket. 

The result is a hybrid chip that shifts some of the workload of the microprocessor from the hardware to software, with obvious advantages: with fewer transistors, the Crusoe’s processors are smaller, allowing greater integration of components that previously required two or more chips. They don’t require a fan and can fit into small, nontraditional designs. 

More importantly, they require less power and are far more flexible than hard-wired CPUs like Intel’s Pentium or the Athlon made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. They could also be reprogrammed to run software designed for non-Intel computers. 

Transmeta executives say their production problems are past, and the company is well-positioned to take advantage of trends toward low-power, high-performance and low-cost mobile computing. 

“We’re a young company,” said Matthew Perry, Transmeta’s chief executive. “It’s taken a little bit for the innovative spirits of (manufacturers) combined with the very innovative technology of Crusoe to get some really interesting devices. You’re just now seeing it.” 

Crusoe will be used in Hewlett-Packard Co.’s upcoming Evo PC tablet, a next-generation lightweight notebook that can be written on using a stylus, and in OQO Inc.’s “ultra personal computer,” which can run Windows XP Professional and still fit into a shirt pocket. 

The chip also is used in lightweight offerings by Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and NEC. 

But it’s not yet clear how much demand there is for small gadgets powerful enough that a full-fledged PC operating system can run on them. 

Transmeta shipped just 70,000 chips in the first quarter of this year, compared to Intel’s 35 million overall and 5 million in the mobile market, according to Mercury Research. 

“They do need to increase their unit volume to be a long-term concern,” said Dean McCarron, president of Mercury Research. 

Transmeta, which reports its latest financial results later this month, declined to estimate when it might become profitable. 

It had $216 million in cash at the end of the first quarter of 2002 and reported, for the six months ending March 29, a net loss of $80.6 million on sales of just $5.6 million. 

As it prepares its latest Crusoe, the TM6000, Transmeta faces even stiffer competition from Intel, which is now also pursuing low-power chips, a niche it had largely ignored until Crusoe. 

Some analysts believe Transmeta’s mistake was to take on Intel. 

Within a month of Crusoe’s launch, Intel made low-cost mobile Celeron processors available. More competitive offerings followed, with Intel launching a dozen different chips on a single day last October. 

“It was quite easy for Intel” to reduce the clock speed on its chips and thus decrease their power requirements to come up with products that could compete with the Crusoe, McCarron said. 

And because of their unique design, Crusoe-based PCs only met, or trailed, in performance compared to the competition in devices built to run with Intel or AMD’s chips, said Eric Ross, a semiconductor analyst at Investec Inc. 

“Essentially, they have designed a novel processor that doesn’t run the Intel architecture natively,” he said. “They emulate it in software. So there’s an overhead cost built into it.” 

Additionally, some Crusoe-based computer makers shrunk batteries or added power-hungry extras that negated the power-savings from Transmeta’s processors, which are not among the computer components that consume the most energy. 

Meanwhile, Intel and AMD continue to improve the power, performance and price of their mobile offerings. 

“Intel and AMD have been cascading their most advanced technology down to the lowest-end products,” Ross said. “Transmeta’s a very small player that might get crushed as they get more price competitive with each other, particularly at the low end.”

NEW YORK – In a sign that the Internet sector may be nearing the end of its brutal shakeout, the number of shutdowns and bankruptcies by dot-com companies in the first half of this year fell 73 percent from the same period last year, a new report from Webmergers.com shows. 

At least 93 Internet companies closed their doors or filed for bankruptcy protection in the first six months of 2002, down from 345 such casualties during the same period last year, according to the San Francisco research firm that has been keeping a tally of shutdowns. 

June, which had 13 shutdowns, marked the sixth consecutive month in which the number of shutdowns came in at less than 20. That’s a considerable contrast from the 16-month period preceding January, when casualties averaged 44 a month. 

Since January 2000, when the Internet froth was at its peak, at least 862 dot-com companies have failed, according to Webmergers.com data. 

E-commerce and content companies — many of which were business-to-consumer concerns that were quick fatalities during the first wave of the Internet shakeout — dominate the Internet company failures to-date. 

Of the 862 shutdowns, 368, or 43 percent, are e-commerce companies, while content companies have a tally of 217, or 25 percent. Infrastructure, Internet access and professional-services companies account for 16 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent of shutdowns, respectively. 

Over the past two months, shutdowns were dominated by Internet-content providers, infrastructure companies, Internet-services providers, and other providers of dial-up and broadband Internet-access service.

LOS ANGELES – A man allegedly knocked an officer down and drove off in his squad car, then fought with several other officers on a freeway before police fatally shot him, authorities said Sunday. 

The incident began when two officers approached the man to conduct a drug investigation in South Los Angeles on Saturday evening, said Lt. Horace Frank. As one of the officers got out of their squad car, the man ran up to him, punched him and knocked him down. 

A fight and gunbattle involving both officers ensued, and the suspect managed to jump into the car and drive away, Frank said. 

The man was then stopped on the Harbor Freeway near downtown. He struggled with officers and disobeyed orders, and they tried to use beanbag rounds and a taser gun to subdue him, Frank said. Police shot and killed the man when they saw him grabbing at one officer’s gun. 

The man’s identity was not immediately determined. 

An unnamed officer was shot in the wrist and underwent surgery. The officer who was knocked down in the initial encounter received a minor hand injury. 

The shooting forced closure of the freeway in both directions for several hours, causing a backup that stretched for miles.

Popular river rafting locale could be bottled up by proposed dam that would hold in 228 billion gallons of water 

TRIMMER – Soaked by 58-degree snow melt, the rafters share a group high-five, then slap their paddles in unison in the Kings River. 

No one has gone into the drink in their run through the river’s most challenging rapid, Banzai. 

Such moments explain why people pay more than $100 to spend a few hours on the river. Whitewater rafting is a thriving business on this river that descends unimpeded from the Sierra Nevada. 

Less than two hours from Fresno, this section of the Kings is among the state’s more popular rafting destinations. It supports three outfitters during a season that lasts from early spring to midsummer in average years. 

Plans that have been studied off and on for 40 years would stop the rafting excursions. A proposed dam would flood the river canyon and turn the rapids to a placid lake that could hold 228 billion gallons of water to supply farms and households, and generate power. 

Legislation recently introduced in Congress by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would protect the 11-mile stretch of the Kings and 21 other California rivers from dams and other developments. The bill also would give “wilderness” designation to 2.4 million acres of California land, restricting mining and logging. 

William McGinnis, owner of one of the Kings River outfitters, mixes his advocacy for protecting the river with instructions to the three paddlers in the raft he is guiding. 

“Why would you ever want to destroy this?” McGinnis says, pointing out a large granite outcropping high above the river. 

McGinnis, 55, has run Whitewater Voyages for 27 years. He lives in the Bay Area, but eagerly agrees to make the trip to take an Associated Press reporter on a tour of the river. 

Upstream, as it courses through Kings Canyon National Park, the river gained “wild and scenic” status in 1987. Downstream is Pine Flat Dam, built nearly 50 years ago to generate power and regulate water supplies in the Central Valley. Pine Flat Lake, the reservoir created by the dam, also is alive with recreational boaters on a recent hot, sunny weekend. 

But the portion of the river used by whitewater rafters was not protected because of the possibility of building a dam at Rodgers Crossing, a couple of miles north of where the outfitters have campgrounds and parking areas for their customers. 

A compromise reached 15 years ago ultimately would require Congress to approve building the dam, which would cost around $600 million, according to the current estimates. 

The compromise provides ample protection, say Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Hanford, and David Orth, general manager of the Kings River Conservation District. 

“It is unlikely that you ever will build the project on the Kings River,” said Dooley, who opposes including the Kings River in the legislation. “But in legislation that would preclude it in perpetuity, the harm is that you then have totally precluded any option in the future to really revisit this.” 

Orth, who said he had a lot of fun on his two outings on the river, said the water district has no plans to build the dam at the moment. During last year’s energy crisis, staff did rough calculations on the costs of generating electricity at the proposed dam, then concluded the benefits were too small, he said. 

Orth estimated it would take at least 15 years to get necessary go-aheads from state and federal regulators. 

“I think we recognize today’s political reality, but we’re not willing to accept that it’s the reality for ever more,” Orth said. “I was reminded by board members that at one time, Pine Flat Dam was thought to be politically unfeasible.” 

That kind of talk motivates McGinnis and other members of California’s Wild Heritage Campaign. While there are a handful of active logging and mining proposals in California forests, Boxer’s bill mainly is an effort to kill tomorrow’s development plans in the state’s forests and on its rivers. 

Both sides cite California’s projected population growth. Boxer wants to preserve recreation; opponents want to be able to supply water and power when more than 50 million people live in California in the next 20 years. 

The prospects for her legislation and two companion bills in the House of Representatives are dim this year. Boxer hopes merely to have a hearing on the legislation by the end of the year in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Corey Brown, a Boxer spokeswoman, said. 

Boxer has said she plans to reintroduce the bill in the next Congress, which begins in January, and attempt to pass it in pieces. 

She has yet to secure the support of her fellow California Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is seeking input from interested parties around the state, spokesman Howard Gantman said. 

McGinnis’ company tries to capitalize on the thrills of the river trip to get clients to offer Feinstein their views. 

His raft is one of seven being used by emergency room workers who have driven more than seven hours from San Diego for an overnight stay that includes two trips down the river and meals. 

Just before the final rapid, Rooster Tail, the boats draw near along the river bank, the group grateful for the sliver of shade beneath a narrow bridge. 

McGinnis launches into his talk about protecting the river for all time. “For those of you who want to do something about it, you’re in luck. We have pens and paper for you to write a letter to Sen. Feinstein telling her you want to protect the river,” McGinnis says. 

The brief lecture complete, McGinnis guides his boat through the rousing finale, which must be what it feels like to take a quick trip through a washing machine — wash, rinse and spin all in one.

Fourth of July weekend rally draws hordes of bikers and police after April rally in Nevada left three dead 

HOLLISTER – Tens of thousands of motorcycle fans jammed into this sleepy farm town Saturday for a Fourth of July holiday weekend rally that recalled one of the pastime’s darkest hours. 

With warm weather expected to push into the 90s, tattooed and leather-clad bikers filled the narrow sidewalks, jostling with goggle-eyed tourists as they snapped up souvenirs, hot dogs and beer or just watched as roaring motorcycles cruised the town’s main drag. 

Hollister’s population swells from 36,000 to 100,000 or more with the rally crowd. Saturday’s crowd was estimated as one of the largest in the event’s five-year history. 

Every inch of curb for blocks on San Benito Street was taken up with gleaming motorcycles parked side by side. Two more rows of bikes were parked down the center of the two-lane blacktop, which was closed to all but motorcycle traffic. 

An army of officers, including local police, California Highway Patrol officers and San Benito County sheriff’s deputies, were on hand to make sure the weekend didn’t turn into a repeat of violence between the Hells Angels and the Mongols biker clubs that left three dead at a rally in Laughlin, Nev., in April. 

Brett Lackey of Martinez worked one of the souvenir booths and soaked up the sun with family and friends Saturday. He said business traffic was brisk, despite talk of violence that has rumbled since the Nevada incident. 

“After what happened in Laughlin, people get nervous,” Lackey said. “There were rumors going around that there might be a showdown, but it has been really peaceful and nice.” 

John Kempf of Hanford also dismissed notions that the event might turn violent. 

“There were rumors, but we didn’t care,” Kempf said. 

In front of Johnny’s Bar & Grill, a life-size image of a young, leather-clad Brando as he appeared in the film “The Wild One” greeted hordes of thirsty riders. 

“At first it would seem like a strange thing to celebrate the original Hollister run, which led to the movie “The Wild One,” which gave motorcycling such a big black eye,” said Dave Edwards earlier in the week. Edwards is the editor of Cycle World, one of the most popular motorcycling magazines in the country. 

While some motorcycle events around the country were canceled after Laughlin, three major runs, in Nevada, Northern California and New Hampshire last month were trouble-free. 

City officials estimate the riders leave behind $6 million to $8 million over the three-day weekend event. 

Ellen Brown, executive director of the Hollister Independence Rally Committee, said the community’s charities depend on the rally for fund-raising, selling food and souvenirs. 

“We’ve been very lucky since Laughlin,” she said. “I really thought that was going to give a lot of ammunition to people who were against the event. We got two negative letters.” 

In hopes of limiting problems, the city passed ordinances banning cans or bottles on the streets and outlawing the carrying of knives over 4 inches long. 

“We have zero tolerance for alcohol violations,” said police Capt. Bob Brooks. “We want to make sure they stay within the bounds of their fantasy and that alcohol doesn’t cloud the line between fantasy and reality.”

SACRAMENTO – Smoother-rolling tires, quick-shifting transmissions and even credits for telecommuting. These are ways California may curb carbon dioxide emissions if Gov. Gray Davis targets the nation’s largest vehicle fleet to fight global warming. 

Though California’s proposed war on tailpipes doesn’t begin until 2009, experts and automotive authorities say there are countless ways to wage it. They cite prospects for more hybrid gas-electric cars and engines that shut down at traffic lights. 

They also tout cleaner-burning natural gas. 

But first Davis must sign the contentious global warming bill that narrowly passed the Legislature last week. The bill proposes the nation’s first state government crusade against carbon dioxide in vehicle exhaust. 

Davis has said “in all probability,” he’ll sign the bill, which triggered bitter opposition from global automakers. They call it a “backdoor” attempt to force higher fuel mileage from more than 2 million cars and trucks sold annually in California. Fewer than 13 percent now get more than 30 miles per gallon, according to the California Motor Car Dealers Association. It also opposes the bill. 

The legislation by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, requires the California Air Resources Board to write regulations by 2005 to “achieve the maximum feasible reduction of greenhouse gases.” 

A consortium of 13 American, European and Japanese automakers, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, is now vowing to explore “any option” to block the bill if it becomes law, including lawsuits, a public referendum or new legislation next year. Industry lobbyists have long maintained that no technology exists to remove carbon dioxide, a natural nontoxic byproduct of internal combustion, from vehicle exhaust. 

But environmentalists, exulting in their narrow legislative victory, claim the state has plenty of options to rein in vehicle emissions — and hope other states follow its lead. 

“There are a lot of things that are really easy,” says Julia Levin, California policy coordinator for Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “There are straightforward no-brainers.” 

Among suggestions are financial incentives for fuel-efficient tires that increase mileage by 5 to 8 percent, and greater use of natural gas fuels to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent. 

“There are continuously variable transmissions that shift through large number of gears and smoother transmissions that are not on the market, but are on the shelf,” offers Russell Long, director of the Bluewater Network, the San Francisco-based environmental group that sponsored the bill. 

“It may be slightly more expensive,” he says, “but not much.” 

Jerry Martin, spokesman for the Air Resources Board, which would write regulations to implement the law, says automakers won’t have to invent new technology. He cites technical improvements already in motion to make cars cleaner and more efficient. Among them: variable cylinder valve timing to cut carbon dioxide emissions about 5 percent and cylinders that stop when unnecessary to keep the vehicle moving — cutting emissions up to 6 percent. 

“It’s not so much that it will demand new inventions and force the industry to do a lot that it hadn’t planned on doing,” Martin says. “It would be more like speeding up the evolution of what is happening already.” 

At Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales USA, officials are banking on plans to sell 300,000 hybrid gasoline-electricity vehicles a year worldwide by 2005. Many of those would land in California, a company spokesman says. 

“That’s one very obvious way that Toyota plans to deal with fuel efficiency and lower emissions levels,” says John Hanson, Toyota’s national product news manager. Many of those cars already get up to 50 miles per gallon, he says. 

Hanson says the next generation of hybrid vehicles, expected before 2009, will raise fuel mileage even higher, even for larger vehicles such as sedans and mid-size sport utility vehicles. 

American Honda Motor Co. also touts its fuel efficiency as a primary tool to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. 

“Honda has the highest average fuel economy of any major manufacturer,” says Ed Cohen, the firm’s Washington, D.C.-based vice president of industry and government relations. 

Cohen notes numerous other ways to trim emissions and fuel burning, including lightweight materials to cut weight, four-valve cylinders to cut fuel consumption, integrated starter-generators that shut off the engine at traffic stops and bigger batteries to run the vehicle’s “amenities,” while drawing less power from the engine. 

General Motors Corp. referred calls to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. 

More reductions will come from trimming nitrous oxide emissions — 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide — from catalytic converters designed to curb smog. 

“My guess is in newer cars emissions are going to be lower,” says Tom Durbin, assistant research engineer at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California, Riverside. 

Solutions that aren’t in the mix include new taxes on gasoline or sport utility vehicles. The Air Resources Board also can’t force carmakers to sell lighter vehicles, require lower speed limits or make Californians drive less. Those bans were added to the bill to undercut an auto industry advertising blitz that suggested all were possibilities. 

Levin admits that California’s efforts will trim less than 1 percent of the world’s “greenhouse gases” which contribute to global warming. Even in California, she says, new emission limits won’t keep up with dramatic growth projections for driving and fuel consumption in the years to come. 

The California Energy Commission reports gasoline demand could rise to 20 billion gallons yearly by 2020, compared to more than 14 billion gallons annually today. 

“Nobody’s talking about reversing that and getting below today’s level,” Levin says. “Nobody’s talking about reversing the trend. They’re just to slow the growth.”

LOS ANGELES – A 47-year-old man sued a former Roman Catholic bishop, who was forced to resign in a 1999 sex scandal, for alleged sex abuse that began when he was an altar boy in 1968 and continued for nearly two decades, it was reported Saturday. 

The Superior Court lawsuit was filed Friday by John Manly, a Costa Mesa attorney, who represents the unidentified man, whose name was not part of the civil claim. Manly’s client alleges the molestation began while he was a sixth-grade altar boy at St. Matthias Church in Huntington Park when he allegedly was forced to take a shower with the bishop after playing basketball. The amount of money being sought was undetermined. 

At 17, the plaintiff alleges, the bishop began paying him for various sexual acts, and he continued the relationship after being named spiritual director of the now-closed Queen of Angels Seminary in San Fernando Valley in 1985. 

The suit against G. Patrick Ziemann, 60, who now lives in an Arizona monastery, claims the relationship went on until Ziemann was named auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles in 1987, the Los Angeles Times said. 

Ziemann worked under then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, overseeing parishes, schools and other church institutions in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In 1992, the Vatican named him bishop of Santa Rosa. 

Manly also claims that the archdioceses of Los Angeles and San Francisco recommended to Pope John Paul II that Ziemann be appointed bishop of Santa Rosa “in part as a reward for his agreement to engage with them in a conspiracy to conceal sexual abuse” within the church. 

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese said the church hadn’t seen the lawsuit and could not comment. 

Neither Ziemann nor his attorney could be reached by the Times for comment late Friday. 

Ziemann stepped down as Santa Rosa bishop in 1999 after a priest filed a lawsuit alleging sexual battery, forced oral copulation and abuse of authority. Father Jorge Hume Salas claimed the bishop forced him into a two-year sexual relationship in exchange for withholding from police evidence of Salas’ admitted theft of church collection money. 

Ziemann’s lawyers said that the affair was consensual and that Salas filed the suit after seeking a secret $8-million settlement. The Santa Rosa diocese agreed on a $535,000 settlement payment 10 months later.

California’s budding geniuses can attend community college without going through high school 

SACRAMENTO – Eleven-year-old Levi Clancy wasn’t happy in public schools with kids his own age. Spending time in an intensive college-level chemistry class, however, is what he calls a good time. 

He is part of a growing number of highly gifted kids in California who are opting out of traditional public schools – where they complain of being teased and harassed – in exchange for more challenging college courses. 

Levi Clancy, who was taunted by other students, says he decided to attend community college because he was depressed at public school. 

So far, it’s been an uphill battle for Levi Clancy, who started taking classes at Santa Monica College when he was seven. 

“When I first showed up at the college with my son, they laughed at me,” said mother Leila Levi, who complains there are very few public school programs for highly gifted kids. 

Although Levi Clancy’s IQ measures around 150 – the average community college student ranks at 116 – school officials said he wasn’t old enough for college courses, she said. 

Through a series of lawsuits, Leila Levi was able to get her son out of public school and into a two-year college, but only if she went with him as a chaperone. 

Four years later, Levi Clancy says he is ready to move on in pursuit of his bachelor’s degree. He already has his eye on UCLA, wants to become a biological medical engineer and dreams of curing cancer, but universities won’t consider him because he’s too young. 

“They say 13,” Leila Levi said. “So we’re just going to hang out for a while.” 

Sitting back and doing nothing, however, has not been Leila Levi’s style. When they said her son couldn’t take the high school exit exam until he was 16, she bugged the school until they let him take the test at age 10. When they said her son couldn’t go to college, she sued and won. 

“Children in California are only entitled to an education at age level,” she said. “It’s ludicrous. We need to enable our brightest citizens to change the world, not hold them back.” 

Now, Leila Levi is sponsoring two bills to help other highly gifted kids test out of high school and receive a publicly funded education at community college. 

Roughly 408,000 California students were identified as gifted in California last year. Of those students, up to 60,000 students are highly gifted. 

A bill authored by Assemblywoman Lynne Leach, R-Walnut Creek, would nix the age requirement for the high school exit exam, allowing kids with an IQ above 150 to take the test regardless of their age. The other bill, authored by Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa, would provide financial assistance to help with tuition and books. 

Both bills, AB2626 and AB2607, stalled in the Senate Education Committee because of concerns that the kids may not be mature enough to handle a college atmosphere. The bills are expected to be heard by the committee in August after a possible amendment is added to allow community colleges to require chaperones. 

Levi Clancy said students at Santa Monica College showed him greater respect, which made the transition easier. 

“People are really nice to me. We are academic peers,” he said. “In elementary school, they were only my age peers. I was singled out.” 

“The thing is, if you’re unhappy in elementary school and happy at a college, in my opinion you should be able to go to college,” he said. 

Frank Quiambao, president of Los Angeles College, said he expects more colleges to design programs that tailor to the needs of gifted kids. 

“Because they are profoundly gifted, everybody thinks they have it made,” Quiambao said. “But these kids are forgotten. They are overlooked.” 

A pilot program at the college, which starts in August, will help kids ages five through 14 adjust to college life. Quiambao said it will give the kids a challenging academic setting while also giving them with a chance to socially interact with their peers. 

“Community colleges are supposed to respond to the need of the communities they serve,” he said. “We have to develop their talent at an early age to maximize their potential. One of these kids could be the doctor that cures cancer or Alzheimer’s.”

LOS ANGELES – The government had started deportation proceedings in 1996 against the Egyptian immigrant who gunned down two people at Los Angeles International Airport. But the following year, he gained U.S. residency because of his wife, officials said Saturday. 

It wasn’t clear what caused the Immigration and Naturalization Service to reject Hesham Mohamed Hadayet’s first petition for permanent residency, INS spokesman Francisco Arcaute said. 

The deportation process was started after that rejection, then was stopped when Hadayet gained residency in 1997 through his wife, Hala, who had received an immigration visa through the Department of States’ Diversity Lottery Program, Arcaute said. 

Hadayet’s uncle, Hassan Mostaffa Mahfouz, told The Associated Press in Egypt that Hadayet had only about a year remaining before he qualified for U.S. citizenship. 

Hadayet was happy in the United States, Mahfouz said. 

“I don’t believe what happened,” he said. “I felt that he could not do that.” 

On the Fourth of July, Hadayet was the fourth person in line at the ticket counter for El Al, Israel’s national airline, when he began firing, killing two people and wounding three others, authorities said. He fired off 10 or 11 bullets before he was shot dead by a security guard. 

His wife and sons, Adam, 8, and Omar, 14, were visiting family in Egypt at the time. 

FBI special agent Richard Garcia said Saturday it still wasn’t known if Hadayet harbored anti-Israel feelings, as a former employee claimed he did, and may have been motivated by hate. 

Authorities had also not ruled out terrorism as a motive, and they were also considering the possibility that Hadayet was despondent over his personal or business affairs. Israeli officials said they would consider the attack an act of terror unless it was proven otherwise. 

“We are pursuing all three motives,” Garcia said. 

What is clear, Garcia said, is that Hadayet walked into the airport intending to kill. He was armed with a .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock pistol, a 9 mm handgun and a 6-inch knife. 

The FBI searched the family’s apartment and took a computer, books, binders and other material, but released no details Saturday of what they contained. 

Results from an autopsy conducted Saturday found that Hadayet died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen, said Dr. James Ribe of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Shooting victim Yaakov Aminov died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The other shooting victim, Victoria Hen, who worked behind the El Al ticket counter, died of a gunshot wound to the chest, Ribe said. 

Abdul Zahav, a man who said he worked for Hadayet until he was fired two years ago, said Hadayet once told him he hated all Israelis. “He kept all his anger inside him,” Zahav said. 

A bumper sticker on Hadayet’s front door read, “Read the Koran.” However, Hadayet was apparently an unknown in the mosques attended by most of Southern California’s 1 million Arab Americans. 

After the FBI released his name as the gunman, members of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles began calling members and mosques in suburban Orange County where he lived. No one recognized his name. 

“It’s a very bizarre case because this man is unknown to the community and was not part of any organization,” said Salam Al-Marayati, director of the council. “At this point it just seems like the work of a deranged individual.” 

Police records in Irvine show officers had little contact with Hadayet over the 10 years he lived there. Police were called to his apartment once for a domestic dispute in May 1996, three months after his petition for permanent residency was rejected. They found Hadayet and his wife had been in a “physical confrontation,” but no charges were filed. 

The only other Irvine police files on Hadayet were when he was robbed in 1997 while driving a cab and when he was listed as a witness and victim in a fraud case reported in 2001. 

Also Saturday, authorities evacuated 700 people from an area near the scene of the shooting for about an hour because they found an unattended bag. A broken bottle of vodka was found inside a novelty package shaped like an instrument case that had the words “hunting rifle” printed on it, said Los Angeles Police Officer John Crispins.

NEW YORK — Multiplatinum singer Michael Jackson, already feuding with his record company, charged Saturday that the recording industry was a racist conspiracy that turns profits at the expense of performers — particularly minority artists. 

“The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists — they steal, they cheat, they do everything they can,” Jackson said in a rare public appearance. ”(Especially) against the black artists.” 

Jackson, 43, who began his recording career as a child, spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. recently formed a coalition to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited by record labels. 

He also singled out Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola, saying he was “mean, he’s a racist, and he’s very, very, very devilish.” Jackson also accused Mottola of using “the n-word” when speaking about an unidentified black Sony artist. 

Sony Music issued a statement calling Jackson’s comments “ludicrous, spiteful and hurtful. It seems particularly bizarre that he has chosen to launch an unwarranted and ugly attack on an executive who has championed his career ... for many, many years.” 

Sony produced Jackson’s last album, “Invincible,” which has had disappointing sales despite an estimated $25 million in promotion. The singer’s fans say Sony didn’t do enough to launch the album. Others in the industry say sagging sales were indicative of Jackson’s declining appeal. 

Jackson mentioned several black artists as victims of the industry, including James Brown, Mariah Carey and Sammy Davis Jr.

Beach wedding at 7-Eleven 

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A former manager and employee of a convenience store returned to the place they met for their wedding — the 7-Eleven at 7:11 a.m. on July 11. 

“I figured if I got married at 7:11 on 7/11 in 7-Eleven, it’d be hard to forget my anniversary,” groom Randy Kimball said. 

Kimball met his bride, Sharon Stehli, at the store when she applied for a job two years ago. 

“We met here so we didn’t consider getting married any other place,” Stehli said. 

The brief ceremony was performed Thursday by Dee Blazina, a notary who is an assistant manager at another 7-Eleven store. 

The couple also hauled in a pile of sand for their altar — the concrete slab between the convenience store and the parking lot — to give their wedding a tropical theme. 

The groom wore dark sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. The bride donned a Hawaiian print sarong dress. Both wore shark tooth necklaces. 

After the ceremony, the newlyweds sipped coffee from a foam 7-Eleven cup. 

Late officer buried at pet
cemetery near late police dog  

INDIANOLA, Iowa — A man loved his drug-sniffing dog so much that he decided they should remain together after death — at a pet cemetery. 

The cremated remains of Jim Crovetti and his Rottweiler, Lady, are buried in separate urns at the Loving Rest Pet Cemetery in Warren County, about 10 miles south of Des Moines, in a section dedicated to service animals. 

Nancy Crovetti, Jim’s widow, said she knew people might question burying a man in a pet cemetery, but it was her husband’s wish. 

“It is a beautiful spot,” she said. “When I go there, I remember the good times when I had them both. For them to be together forever gives me comfort.” 

She said her husband and Lady spent thousands of hours teaching kids about drugs with the program he created called “Keep Your Paws Off Drugs.” 

“The morning Lady died, I thought I would lose Jim that same day. Lady and Jim were so close. The bond between them was phenomenal. They were always together,” she said. 

Jim Crovetti died of a heart attack in November 2000, less than six months after Lady died. He was 69. 

Fla. couple catches a big one  

KEY WEST, Fla. — A young couple fishing in the Florida Keys reeled in a big one — a leather bag with about $80,000 inside. 

The couple, visiting from Vero Beach, Fla., found the bag floating south of the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys on Saturday. And they can keep the money inside if the owner doesn’t claim it in three months, authorities said. 

“They saw a baseball cap floating out there, and they were going to retrieve the baseball cap, and they found a little leather bag,” said George Rogers, head of the U.S. Customs Service in Key West. 

The couple called the FBI, who contacted Customs. 

“It’s either drug money or alien smuggling money,” Rogers said. “It was soaked, it had been floating in the water for a while.” 

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is holding the cash. State seizure rules allow people who find unclaimed property to keep it if the legitimate owner doesn’t come forth in 90 days. 

——— 

Johnnie can read about
health risks now 

NEW YORK — There’s technical school, there’s parochial school — and now there’s Johns School. 

That’s John as in those who patronize prostitutes. 

Under a new policy announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes on Tuesday, arrested johns will get to choose between attending a class on the evils of prostitution or facing 90 days in jail. 

“Pimps and prostitutes are only two-thirds of the age-old crime; the remaining one-third is the john,” Hynes said. “Johns School will not only educate offenders but remind them that, as an equal part, they are in fact committing a crime.” 

Under the program, offenders will be taught the health risks of prostitution, the adverse effect on the quality of life within the community and the negative impact on the prostitutes themselves. 

The five-hour course will be taught by assistant district attorneys, former prostitutes, health professionals, police officers, social workers and community leaders. 

Previously, johns were given community service or had their cases dismissed with time served. 

Defendants with violent criminal records will not be offered the class. 

Cow stolen in Denver  

DENVER — Call it urban cattle rustling. 

A 150-pound fiberglass cow has been stolen from a Chick-Fil-A billboard in Denver. 

The cow, one of the company’s mascots urging customers to “Eat Mor Chikin,” was apparently taken during the weekend. The $3,200 replica was unbolted from the billboard and lowered to the ground. 

“The little bandits were very innovative,” said Gina Francis, a spokeswoman for the fast-food chain. 

Francis said they left tread marks on the ground below the billboard, suggesting a truck was waiting. “They weren’t covering their hooves,” she said. 

The company has filed a police report with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. “It was hard to get a straight face,” Francis said. 

Chick-Fil-A is also offering free chicken sandwiches for a year for information leading to the safe return of the cow. The reward could be altered if a vegetarian assists in solving the crime, Francis said. 

In the long run,
should have kept tickets  

MILWAUKEE — An Eagles concert didn’t produce a “Peaceful, Easy Feeling” for a local politician when he was caught trying to sell two extra tickets before the show. 

Alderman Marvin Pratt wound up with a city citation for illegal ticket selling at the Summerfest music festival over the weekend. 

Pratt and Summerfest officials confirmed Tuesday that a security guard stopped Pratt as he sold the extras for their face value of $150 just outside the Marcus Amphitheater ticket office. 

Pratt said he was trying to sell the tickets at face value rather than scalp them for extra cash. He said he had the extras because friends canceled plans to join him for the sold-out show. 

But direct ticket sales within 500 feet of Summerfest are prohibited by city ordinance — at any price. 

Pratt said he plans to review the ordinance to see if it could use some fine-tuning.——— 

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A cat stuck for weeks inside the wall of a home after getting caught up in a remodeling project has been found and reunited with its owners. 

Sophia was accidentally walled in when workers finished repairs at a neighborhood home, and the cat spent about three weeks in a crawl space foraging for bugs. 

The cat’s owners, Jeff and Nataline Runkles, had no idea where the pet had gone, and presumed it lost. 

But the Runkles later read a news story about a cat being rescued from a crawl space and raced to the animal shelter to see if it was Sophia. 

“When they opened the cage, she jumped up on his shoulder and planted herself,” Nataline Runkles said. “There was no doubt it was our cat.” 

Sophia picked up a not-so-glamorous habit during her stay in the crawl space and now chases moths and beetles. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Fifty years ago, on July 11, 1952, the Republican national convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president. 

On this date: 

In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass. 

In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. 

In 1934, President Roosevelt became the first chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal. 

In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. 

Ten years ago: Undeclared presidential hopeful Ross Perot, addressing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People convention in Nashville, Tenn., startled and offended his listeners by referring to the predominantly black audience as “you people.” 

Five years ago: President Clinton was cheered by tens of thousands of people in Bucharest, Romania, where he raised hopes for NATO membership.  

One year ago: The Democratic-led Senate voted to bar coal mining and oil and gas drilling on pristine federally protected land in the West, dealing a fresh blow to President Bush’s energy production plans.  

Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musician Kirk Whalum is 44. Singer Suzanne Vega is 43. Rock guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 43. Actress Debbe Dunning is 36. Actor Michael Rosenbaum is 30.  

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Forty years ago, on July 10, 1962, the Telstar communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

On this date: 

In 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state. 

In 1940, during World War II, the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. 

In 1943, U.S. and British forces invaded Sicily. 

In 1973, the Bahamas became independent after three centuries of British colonial rule. 

In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic. 

Ten years ago: A federal judge in Miami sentenced former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to 40 years in prison. A judge later cut Noriega’s sentence by 10 years. 

Five years ago: President Clinton, visiting Poland, told cheering Poles in Warsaw that “never again will your fate be decided by others” following his successful drive to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO by 1999.  

One year ago: The White House backed off a plan to let religious groups that receive federal money, such as the Salvation Army, ignore local laws that ban discrimination against gays and lesbians.  

Today’s Birthdays: Former NBC and ABC News correspondent David Brinkley is 82. Eunice Kennedy Shriver is 81. Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins is 75.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On July 8, 1950, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. 

On this date: 

In 1663, King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island. 

In 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia. 

In 1889, The Wall Street Journal was first published. 

In 1919, President Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France. 

In 1947, demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations. 

In 1975, President Ford announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976. 

Ten years ago: Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Group of Seven leaders holding their economic summit in Munich, Germany, where he offered a startling proposal to swap factories, energy resources and other properties for Russian debt. 

Five years ago: The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee opened politically charged hearings into fund-raising abuses, with chairman Fred Thompson accusing China of trying to influence the 1996 U.S. elections. NATO extended membership invitations to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The Mayo Clinic and the government warned the diet-drug combination known as “fen-phen” could cause serious heart and lung damage. 

One year ago: Cable operator Comcast mounted a $41 billion hostile bid to merge with AT&T Broadband. (Although AT&T spurned that offer, the company’s board ultimately agreed to merge the cable unit with Comcast, subject to approval by federal regulators.) Venus Williams won her second consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Belgian Justine Henin.  

Today’s Birthdays: Blues musician Johnnie Johnson is 78. ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge is 71. Actress Kim Darby is 54. Children’s performer Raffi is 54. Actor Kevin Bacon is 44. Rock musician Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) is 41. Rock singer Joan Osborne is 40. Writer-producer Rob Burnett (“Ed”) is 40. Actor Corey Parker is 37. Singer Beck is 32.  

Bruce Lee’s martial arts teacher retires 

ALAMEDA — Wally Jay, who was Bruce Lee’s martial arts teacher and a pioneer in the martial art of jujitsu, is retiring. 

Jay taught the late Lee at his Alameda school from 1962 to 1964 when the martial arts star was on the brink of fame. 

“He was good and fast,” said Jay. “He was made for the sport.” 

Lee’s displays of physical might and featherweight acrobatics earned him a cult following when he began starring in thrillers such as 1972’s “Fists of Fury” and 1973’s “Enter the Dragon.” 

But less than a year after his starring debut, he died at 32 from a brain edema. 

Jay, a Honolulu native, who first learn martial arts to fight off bullies became an innovator in jujitsu, a Japanese form of self-defense that employs locks and holds of the hands, fingers and wrists, as well as throws and sweeps. 

Jay, 85, created small-circle jujitsu, an energy-efficient form of jujitsu that combines smaller, more calculated movements that give opponents less room to escape. 

Jay, who is retiring after 45 years of teaching, produced national champions and team winners in three countries earning him the highest respect in the martial arts community. 

For him, the sport is not about is not about using brute force. 

“It’s not about how much you can hurt a person,” said Jay. “It’s how little you can hurt a person and still control them.” 

North Bay man held  

for murder 

PETALUMA — A Petaluma man was being held on suspicion of murder after allegedly fatally shooting a childhood friend with a gun he said he thought was unloaded. 

Witnesses said Andrew Karl Johansen produced a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun during a party at his house. He allegedly dry-fired the gun several times while aiming it toward people’s heads. When he allegedly pointed the gun at Justin Pope, 18, and pulled the trigger, it fired a bullet into Pope’s head, said Detective Sgt. Dave Kahl. 

Johansen and most of the other guests fled the house after the shooting. Johansen arrived at the police department several hours later with a friend and turned himself in. 

A search of the friend’s car produced a gun believed to be the one used in the shooting. A later search of Johansen’s home and vehicle found two assault rifles, a semiautomatic assault pistol, approximately $3,000 in cash and around three pounds of marijuana. 

Johansen told police he thought he had unloaded the gun before he began pointing it at people. He could not explain why he was pointing it at others or why it fired when pointed at the victim, Kahl said. 

Big gender gap in Marin  

NOVATO — Marin County women earn nearly $16,000 a year less than their male counterparts, according to 2000 census data. 

Men earn a median income of $61,282 and more than $100,000 in Belvedere, Kentfield, and Tiburon. Women earn $45,448 countywide. 

In fact, the wealthy county north of San Francisco has the widest pay gap of all the counties in the San Francisco Bay area. 

Statewide, the census reported median earnings of $40,627 for men and $31,722 for women, a difference of $8,905. 

“The commonplace thinking is that the playing field has been leveled,” said Rachel Allen, spokeswoman for the Marin County and California chapters of the National Organization for Women. “The thinking is that the second wave of the women’s movement fixed everything. We’ve seen a lot of improvement, but there remain many steps to take.” 

Analysts say a number of factors are responsible for the gap, including the median age of workers: The older a woman is, the greater the likelihood her paycheck will be lower than that of her male colleagues. And, with a median age of 41, Marin is graying ahead of the statewide median of 33. 

Nationally, women between ages 16 and 24 earn 91 percent of what their male co-workers take home, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. By contrast, women between ages 55 and 64 bring in only 68.5 percent of what their male counterparts earn. 

Career choice also remains a factor.

ARCADIA, Fla. — Shortly before Rick Georges died of liver cancer in April, he started talking about being buried in the back yard next to his beloved pit-bull, Bocephus. 

Georges shared the idea with his ninth wife and sought help from a lawyer. Beverly Georges considered it his dying wish and vowed to make it happen. 

The widow’s effort to get city permission for the unconventional interment has enraged neighbors in their quiet, middle-class neighborhood. It has also sparked a bitter family feud, kept the local gossip mill churning and brought mostly unwelcome media attention to this picturesque town of 6,300 about 65 miles southeast of Tampa. 

“I’m just trying to do what he wanted,” said Beverly Georges, who wed Rick one week before he died at age 58. “He just wanted to be back there with his dog.” 

The city’s planning and zoning board officials say the burial would violate city codes, as well as diminish property values and set a bad precedent. Georges and her attorney, Sandra Sanders, argue that city codes permit the burial because the house is near a real cemetery. 

The City Council will have final say next month, but it’s unlikely Georges will win support from town leaders. 

“The primary use of residential property is for living persons, not for burying dead persons,” City Attorney David C. Holloman said. 

Neighbors fear that a gaudy monument will be going up in full view of most houses on the street. There’s already a cross and a garden marking the grave of Bocephus, who was buried four years ago. 

They’re also sick of the TV satellite trucks cruising the street and out-of-town reporters knocking on doors. 

“It’s bizarre,” said Lyle Kepple, whose front yard overlooks the dog’s grave behind a high chain-link fence. “We feel this is a quiet, family atmosphere, and this will change it considerably.” 

While the city decides, Rick Georges’ body is at a funeral home. Son Johnny Georges, 36, and other family members are angry he has not been buried in a cemetery. 

“We’re just trying to get him buried without having to go into this woman’s yard to kneel down and visit his grave,” the son said. 

Johnny Georges worked with his father for 20 years in their agricultural irrigation and frost-proofing business. He said his father was a flamboyant gambler and drinker who worked his way through women at a pace that left relatives shaking their heads. 

Rick Georges also enjoyed a good laugh, and his son said he was joking about being buried in the yard. It was, the son said, a ploy to secure his ”15 minutes of fame,” albeit posthumously. 

ST. LOUIS — A homeless mother of three who helped a television news photographer rescue a driver trapped in a burning truck received dozens of offers for money and support from people moved by her plight. 

Mary Whitehead, 31, said the generous response to her part in the rescue of 35-year-old Doris Householder was “overwhelming and exciting.” 

“I don’t feel like I did something extraordinary or heroic,” she said. “I did what I would want someone to do for me or my children if we were in need.” 

Whitehead and Bobby Hughes, 45, a news photographer for KTVI-TV, pulled Householder from her pickup truck after it crashed and burst into flames on a highway exit ramp early Wednesday. Another man also helped in the rescue but left before anyone learned his name. 

Householder lost part of a leg and remained hospitalized Friday in fair condition. 

Whitehead and her three children, who shuffle between shelters and low-budget hotels, were in their 1987 broken-down car when they heard the collision. Hughes arrived a short time later.

‘Love Parade’
to be toned down 

BERLIN — This year’s Love Parade, the techno street festival that’s expected to draw hundreds of thousands of ravers to downtown Berlin this weekend, promises to be cleaner and more orderly than in years past. 

In response to complaints from environmentalists that partygoers relieving themselves and throwing garbage into the city’s main Tiergarten park was destroying trees and flowers, organizers have pledged to be more vigilant in monitoring the event. 

Some 2,000 police officers and 1,000 medical workers will be there, and parade organizers have hired a company to clean up after Saturday’s daylong event. 

“We’re also deploying ushers this year who are meant to keep overly wild ravers in check,” said Ralf Regitz, manager of Planetcom, one of two companies organizing the event. 

This year’s floats, loaded with speakers blasting techno music, will snake through the Tiergarten under the motto, “Access Peace.” Internationally famous disc jockeys are scheduled to appear at the event and at parties in nightclubs Saturday evening. 

The Love Parade has been waning in popularity since 1999, when it drew a record 1.5 million people. Last year, only 800,000 attended, down from 1.3 million the year before. 

This year, the parade has the cloud of a terrorist threat hanging over its head as well, although Berlin police have said a report they received of a plot to set off a bomb during the festival was unsubstantiated. 

Art gallery to
pull all-nighter  

LONDON — Britain’s Tate Modern art gallery is extending its opening hours, including one all-night session, to cope with demand to view its Matisse Picasso exhibition. 

The show has been one of the gallery’s most successful — more than 250,000 people have visited already — and 150,000 more are expected before it closes at the end of August. 

In response, the Tate Modern will open beyond normal hours until 10 p.m. every day from July 19 until the last weekend of Aug. 17-18 when it will stay open for 36 hours. It usually closes at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. on weekends. 

The gallery said in a statement Thursday that an “extraordinary number” of people had visited the exhibition, which examines a complicated, decades-long friendship between the two artists. 

Matisse Picasso opened May 11. It moves to the Grand Palais in Paris from Sept. 25-Jan. 6, then to New York’s Museum of Modern Art from Feb. 13-May 19, 2003. 

‘The Jerry Springer Show’
named worst
show of all time  

NEW YORK — The worst TV shows ever are pretty bad — but “The Jerry Springer Show” tops TV Guide’s list. 

“Awful television shows are a storied part of our society,” TV Guide editor-in-chief Steven Reddicliffe said Friday. “Some of them actually are very successful and are great guilty pleasures. And no one has turned guilty-pleasure TV into more of an art form than Jerry Springer.” 

The list is in the July 20 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday. 

“The Jerry Springer Show,” a syndicated daytime talk-show hit since 1991, was first on a list of 50 worst shows only two months after “Seinfeld” was No. 1 on a TV Guide list of the best 50 shows. 

Second worst on the new list was NBC’s “My Mother The Car,” 1965-66, followed by NBC, UPN and TNN’s “XFL,” 2001; ABC’s “The Brady Bunch Hour” (1977); and CBS’ “Hogan’s Heroes” (1965-71). 

Rounding out the top 10 were “Celebrity Boxing” (Fox, 2002-present); “AfterMASH” (CBS, 1983-84); “Cop Rock” (ABC, 1990); “You’re in the Picture” (CBS, 1961); and “Hee Haw Honeys” (syndicated, 1978-79). 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Musee Mecanique, a collection of 150 antique coin-operated games, has found a new home on Fisherman’s Wharf. 

Port officials agreed Tuesday to negotiate a lease to house the Musee with the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society on Pier 45 for at least the next 2 1/2 years. 

Musee owner Ed Zelinsky said he was happy with the decision. The Musee’s future has been uncertain since Zelinsky learned earlier this year that he would have to move the collection from the Cliff House when renovations on the building begin this September. 

“It’s good to have a home,” he said. 

The proposed lease is set to begin Sept. 1, but the Musee probably will not open until October, said Musee spokesman Jim Lazarus. 

The combined exhibits are expected to draw 150,000 visitors to the pier annually, port officials said. 

Zelinsky will continue negotiations with the Park Service for a permanent home within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is the Musee’s present home. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Musee Mecanique Web site: http://museemecanique.citysearch.com/1.html 

——— 

HOUSTON (AP) — Todd Frazier got the idea for an opera about a heart transplant when he heard Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 while watching his father in the operating room. 

“That was going through, this beautiful music, and this person was receiving a new life with a new heart,” he said. The idea for his opera was born. 

“It just struck me as such a modern subject,” Frazier told the Houston Chronicle this week. “The art of a culture kind of defines what’s important in a culture.” 

Frazier said the heart transplant “was the only procedure that I had kind of a dramatic response to” while watching his father, Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier, chief of transplant services at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston. 

He found it amazing, he said, that the seemingly dead organ would begin functioning again when ties are released, allowing blood to rush in. 

“My dad always said when the warm blood hits the new heart, the heart just remembers how to beat,” he said. “And it does. Right when the blood hits it, it erupts and it starts beating.” 

Frazier said his opera is “a way to recognize through art the advancements of science that are happening in particular in Houston, but also to shed light on all these modern challenges that are created.” 

In his opera, the donor is a young artist, the daughter of a blind woman who acted as her mother’s eyes until her untimely death. 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The potentially dangerous fuel line cracks already discovered on three space shuttles also afflict Endeavour, the fourth and newest shuttle, NASA says. 

The news Wednesday came as no surprise to the space agency, which has already delayed at least one flight and, despite weeks of exhaustive work, has no clear picture as to how or when the cracks occurred. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, two cracks had been discovered in the metal liners of hydrogen-fuel lines inside Endeavour, the last of the four shuttles to be examined. The inspection was expected to continue into Thursday. 

“We’ve got it on the other three, so we’re not necessarily surprised to see that Endeavour has cracks, too,” said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham. He added: “I think a reasonable person can assume we’ve been flying with these cracks.” 

The problem was first detected three weeks ago on Atlantis. Inspections quickly uncovered cracks in the plumbing of Discovery and then Columbia. The work on Endeavour had to wait until the shuttle returned from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where it landed June 19 following a space station visit. 

Alex Roland, a former NASA historian who teaches at Duke University, said he is just as perplexed as everyone else. The fact that space shuttles of different ages are exhibiting the same trouble makes age an unlikely cause, he said. 

Columbia, the oldest shuttle, has been flying for 21 years, Endeavour for 10. NASA plans to keep the fleet flying for at least another decade.

HURON, S.D. — An HIV-infected college student whose arrest on charges of having unprotected sex with a woman spread fear on campus and prompted the testing of hundreds of people for AIDS pleaded guilty Thursday and could get up to 15 years in prison. 

Nikko Briteramos, a 19-year-old SiTanka-Huron University basketball player from Chicago, is the first person prosecuted in South Dakota under a 2000 law against knowingly exposing someone to the AIDS virus. 

Sentencing was set for Aug. 20. In return for his guilty plea, two other charges involving the same woman were dropped. 

Prosecutors said Briteramos had learned in March after donating blood that he was HIV-positive, and had unprotected sex with the woman in April. 

Health officials became alarmed when Briteramos and three other people in and around Huron, a town of 12,000, were diagnosed with the AIDS virus. He was arrested in April. 

Because Briteramos reported multiple sex partners and many of those people also had several partners, 237 people were tested for the AIDS virus. The woman has tested negative for HIV, prosecutors said. 

“This plea bargain protects the victim from ever having to testify in open court,” prosecutor Mike Moore said. 

74 of 1,100 remain in U.S. custody 

NEWARK, N.J. — The government said Thursday that it has released most of the detainees it picked up as part of its investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Of the more than 1,100 detainees, only 74 remain in custody, Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said. Most have been deported, though some were released after being cleared of criminal involvement in the attacks. 

Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said 38 of the remaining detainees are on the verge of being deported. That would leave 36 people being held by the government. 

“These numbers speak for themselves,” said Sohail Mohammed, an immigration lawyer who has represented dozens of detainees held in jails in northern New Jersey. “Ninety-five percent have been released, and not a single one has been charged in the World Trade Center attacks. Not one. 

“Right from the start, I said racial profiling is not an effective law enforcement tool,” he said. “Are we more secure now than we were before? No.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the government and two New Jersey counties over the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the identities and treatment of detainees. 

“Obviously they’re not terrorists because you don’t deport terrorists,” said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the Newark branch of the ACLU. 

On June 26, the government deported 131 Pakistanis, most of whom were arrested in a sweep of immigrants who had ignored deportation orders. The sweep targeted about 1,000 people who came from countries where the al-Qaida terrorist group is known to operate. 

Among the Pakistanis were people who had been arrested in the United States on felony charges, including sexual assault, drug trafficking and burglary, INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar. But others were detainees being held in New Jersey on nothing more serious than immigration violations. 

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — A couple was charged with manslaughter in the dog mauling death of a woman who police believe was attacked by the couple’s three pit bull terriers. 

A sheriff’s dispatcher said Thursday the dogs’ owners, Carl and Kim Smith, were charged with felony manslaughter in Pope County Circuit Court last month. They were released Friday on $5,000 bond, the dispatcher said. 

The charges came after an investigation into the Oct. 13, 2001, death of Carolyn Shatswell, 50, whose body was found in woods near the Smiths’ home. 

Shatswell, who had been staying with a friend who lived nearby, was taking a walk when she was attacked, investigators said. 

According to court records, an autopsy found Shatswell had multiple bites to her face, torso, arms and legs and died from blood loss. After the dogs were euthanized, an expert compared the wounds to the dogs’ teeth and concluded the dogs were responsible. 

Investigators said neighbors had complained the dogs were violent. 

There is no telephone listing for the Smiths, and their attorney was not immediately available early Thursday. 

Manslaughter is punishable by three to 10 years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine. 

The case recalls the dog-mauling case against San Francisco dog owners Marjorie Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, in the death of neighbor Diane Whipple. Knoller is awaiting sentencing for involuntary manslaughter after her murder conviction was overturned. Her husband was sentenced to four years in prison, also for involuntary manslaughter.

He admitted to giving low
appraisals on items then
reselling for more money 

PHILADELPHIA — An antiques dealer was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison and ordered to repay $830,000 for staging phony appraisals on the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” and defrauding Civil War collectors. 

Russell Pritchard III, 39, pleaded guilty to making the bogus TV appraisals. He also admitted defrauding artifact owners by giving them low appraisals on items, then reselling them at much higher prices and pocketing the profit. 

According to prosecutors, Pritchard made between $800,000 and $1.5 million on the fraudulent transactions. He could have gotten up to 135 years in prison and more than $5.2 million in fines. 

Pritchard’s business partner, George Juno, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Aug. 1. 

“Antiques Roadshow” has people bring in their old or unusual items and get on-the-spot appraisals. Often, people are surprised to learn their item is extremely valuable. 

In a segment shown in 1997, Pritchard and Juno staged an appraisal in which a man who claimed to have found a Civil War sword in his attic was told the weapon was worth $35,000. 

It turned out the story was made up; Pritchard and Juno had previously obtained the sword and arranged for a friend to bring it on the show. 

With 80 percent of its members older than 35, group courts younger people 

HOUSTON — At the NAACP convention’s youth banquet, college students snapped photos of a special guest, rapper Reverend Run of Run-DMC. Later, a young woman delivered a fiery spoken word performance about a racial epithet. 

The next day, the convention returned to its regular session and the mood moved from hip-hop to gospel. People at the meeting clapped and nodded their heads to songs by a Baptist choir. 

The two events at the meeting, which ended Thursday, said something about the roots of the 93-year-old National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and where it may be going. About 80 percent of the venerable civil rights group’s 500,000 members are over the age of 35, and it’s looking to reach out to a younger generation. 

“When you ask people ’What is the NAACP?’ there’s a segment of the community that is so unfamiliar with hearing those five letters, they confuse it with everything, including the NCAA,” said Jeffrey Johnson, the 29-year-old national director of the NAACP’s youth and college division. 

“It’s a challenge for us as an organization to address issues that are relevant to young people.” 

In his new book, “The Hip Hop Generation,” Bakari Kitwana says the NAACP is “often out of synch with the hip-hop generation.” 

“Right now, for most young people, they’re not relevant,” said Kitwana, 35. “They see them as an outdated group, not so much because of what they stand for, but because what makes them a significant group are not things that have happened in our lifetime.” 

Kitwana defines the hip-hop generation as those born between 1965 and 1984, who have grown up in post-civil rights America. 

“Voting rights, affirmative action, the rise of black elected officials and social programs benefitting the poor have all been part of life as we know it,” Kitwana says in his book. 

Indebted to civil rights and black power movements, “our generation’s lack of a mass political movement has also influenced our activism.” 

Johnson said the NAACP is grooming a new generation of leaders through its youth and college division. Its more than 600 youth councils and college chapters are “walking billboards for the NAACP,” he said. 

“The community programs they’re involved in, and even just their example, serves as a solicitation to other young people.” 

He also points to leaders like 29-year-old education director John Jackson, 36-year-old member director Roger Vann and 36-year-old vice chairwoman Roslyn Brock as proof the NAACP is moving younger people into positions of power. 

College student Ebony Moore became a member of NAACP seven years ago, after entering the group’s Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympic competition in poetry, oratory and essay writing. 

Since then, she’s helped organize marches supporting affirmative action, and is concerned about issues such as police brutality. 

“We are still the biggest and baddest civil rights organization ever,” said Moore, a 19-year-old student at the University of Cincinnati. 

There’s also the hip-hop connection. It’s a sign of the NAACP’s attempt to attract other young people “we have not engaged in the past,” Johnson said. 

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume sits on the board of the hip-hop Summit Action Network, a group of rap stars, record company executives and civil rights and community organizations working to mobilize rap fans to political action. 

The NAACP is working with the network on a “rap the vote” registration and education effort. 

Reverend Run’s appearance — with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons — is another sign “there is a partnership between this civil rights organization that has stood the test of time and the largest hip-hop institution,” Johnson said. 

In Los Angeles, Derrick Carolina and Jahmal Durham, members of the rap group The B.L.A.C.K Experience, have joined an activist organization called the Hip Hop Congress. 

Carolina, who is in his 20s, calls the NAACP a “prestigious organization that has a long-standing good reputation in the black community.” 

Despite that, Carolina, also known as Lyrix, said there is a “generation gap in between what the black hip-hop youth are doing, and are all about, versus the NAACP. They don’t have any ears to the street.” 

But Moore, whose spoken word piece encouraged youth at the NAACP dinner to act out against discrimination, said she is ready to one day join a new generation of leaders at the NAACP. 

“In a little while, Kweisi and Julian won’t be there,” said Moore, referring to Mfume and board chairman Julian Bond. “We’ll have to step into their positions.” 

Shaquille O’Neal to make a movie 

LOS ANGELES — Shaquille O’Neal has provided plenty of drama on the basketball court. Now, he wants to produce a drama for television. 

The Los Angeles Lakers center has met with executives from the major networks to pitch a one-hour drama that he would executive produce, the trade newspaper Variety reported Tuesday. 

The story, which O’Neal created, would follow the friendship that develops between two basketball players. No network has approved the show yet. 

While his commitment to the NBA champion Lakers would prevent him from starring in the series, O’Neal would plan to make occasional guest appearances. 

Off the court, he’s starred in the comedy feature “Kazaam,” the superhero adventure “Steel” and the basketball drama “Blue Chips.” 

He also released five albums, including “Shaq Diesel” and “Shaq Fu: Da Return.” 

The Boss is on tour  

NEW YORK – One week after the July 30 release of his much-anticipated new album, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off a 46-city, 46-show barnstorming tour that begins — where else? — in New Jersey. 

The Aug. 7 date at the Continental Airlines Arena begins the first leg of the tour supporting “The Rising,” Springsteen’s first album with his bandmates since 1984’s “Born in the USA.” It ends Dec. 13 at the Pepsi Center in Albany. 

The tour dates were released Wednesday. 

Springsteen, a Freehold, N.J., native, and company will play 39 dates in North America and another seven in Europe. Unlike past tours, the Boss will play just a single date in each city. 

“Our approach is to bring the music out to as wide a cross section of the country as we could,” said Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau. “So we’re taking this barnstorming approach — one city, one show.” 

Fear not, though, Springsteen fans — the tour will continue into next year, when Bruce and the band visit Australia and Europe before returning to the United States for a series of multiple shows in major cities next summer. 

One other change for this tour: To add “looseness and excitement” to the show, there will be no seats on the floor, Landau said. U2 took the same approach on its recent tour.