An ongoing air study at the popular Harrison soccer fields in west Berkeley continues to show elevated levels of particulate matter, which some say can aggravate respiratory problems. 

Particulate matter is pollution, small airborne pieces of liquid or solid that originate from a variety of sources. It is most often associated with exhaust from automobiles, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management Web site. 

The findings come despite the installation of a long-planned dust suppression system that promised to improve safety standards for employees at the Berkeley Transfer Station. City officials had hoped the system would also reduce particulate levels at Harrison Field. 

The study revealed that each month since April the airborne matter exceeded state Environmental Protection Agency standards by nine to 15 times. 

And according to city Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy, the tests show that air at Harrison Field is twice as concentrated with the particulate matter as downtown San Jose, and three times as high as downtown San Francisco.  

Despite the findings, Al-Hadithy said there is no hard evidence that a significant health risk exists. 

“City staff is not going to make any assessments about possible health risks until further analysis is completed,” Al-Hadithy said.  

The field is used heavily by the Alameda-Contra Costa Soccer League, which consists mostly of players between the ages of 6 and 18. Despite the lack of specific information about health risks, the city posted a sign at the field warning users about possible risks from particulate matter. 

Particulate matter can be hazardous to children and the elderly who are more sensitive to respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis, according to the BAAQMD.  

Particulate Matter 10, which is responsible for the high levels at Harrison Field, consists of particles about 10 micrograms in size. PM 10 is not as dangerous as Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), which is much smaller and embeds deeper in the lung’s membrane. Data from the last four months of the air study shows PM 2.5 has not exceeded state standards, although 25 days of data are missing from the May and June reports.  

The field is adjacent to the Berkeley Transfer Station, where large amounts of dust are kicked up when waste is moved from trucks to hauling containers. In May, the city installed a $60,000 dust suppression system. As a byproduct of the installation, city officials had hoped the system would lower the level of PM 10 at Harrison Field. 

However, the results show PM 10 exceeded state EPA standards at a greater rate after the system was installed. In March, before the system was put in, the air at the field had elevated PM 10 levels on nine days. During May and June there were 11 elevated days in each month. 

Air quality could be a consideration in a recent proposal to build the Ursula Sherman Village, a transition home for 132 adults and children who are struggling to get off the streets. Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency is developing plans for the home, which would provide a variety of services including education, job training and an on-site health center. The project is proposed at the southwest edge of the field.  

Community Environmental Advisory Commissioner L A Wood, who is also a candidate for Council District 4, said the study ought to change its focus. 

“I would like the city to take their blinders off and look at the industry around the park instead of just the freeway and transfer station,” Wood said.

To the Editor: 

It is ironic that stories suggesting Colin Powell is in line to be the next vice-president are appearing the very time that President Bush is going to force the Secretary of State and his department to eat a healthy dose of crow.  

Unless the President has an abrupt change of heart, he will very soon order Mr. Powell or one of his close aides to announce that the U.S. is permanently blocking all funds for the United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] family planning programs. 

Last year, it was Secretary Powell who told Congress how important UNFPA's work was and how the administration supported international family planning for the well-being of women and children. At his urging, the President asked for $25 million for UNFPA and a bipartisan majority of both houses of Congress approved $34 million in a bill signed by President Bush last December. In January, the President inexplicably announced a "hold" on these funds pending a review of UNFPA's work in China [which more than 60 foreign diplomatic delegations had already reviewed and reported as exemplary and which no U.S. funding goes to, anyway.] The President's hand-picked team went to China and reported that UNFPA was doing good work and was helping China move away from its coercive population policies [that from "sources" since the White House has refused to release the report.] 

If the president is withholding the UNFPA funds only to appease his more vocal domestic supporters, it's hardly surprising. He owes his job, in some part, to those people. If withholding these funds only kept the UNFPA from saving the lives of 4,700 women and 77,000 children under the age of five or from preventing 800,000 abortions but served some larger foreign policy initiative, I would have been troubled, but perhaps understood that there is some “bigger picture.” 

But Bush's decision to withhold UNFPA funds is not only bad for women and children in the developing world, it is terrible foreign policy. This decision puts us at odds with our most important allies [The United Kingdom, Japan, Germany] and is counter to our strategic interests everywhere in the world. 

So Mr. Powell will eat his crow, the domestic radical right ideologues will brag of a victory, and our friends in the international community will wonder what has happened to America. Meanwhile, thousands of women and children who could have been saved will die, and and an outstanding Secretary of State will be left to ponder whether his job is to conduct foreign policy or to do the bidding of Mr. Bush's radical right. 

Peter H. Kostmayer 

President 

Population Connection 

Washington, DC

Wednesday, July 24 

Berkeley Gray Panthers General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

Pharmacist Fred Mayer prescriptions and their costs, etc. 

548-9696  

Free 

Getting Help When You Need It 

7:30 to 9 p.m.  

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annex A 

350 Hawthorne Ave. Oakland 

Free interactive workshop to help caregivers obtain free assistance, deal with paid in-home help, and create plans to care for loved ones. 

869-6737 

Free 

"Green Building" Workshop 

6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Meeting Room A, 2090 Kittredge 

Henry Siegel, Architect, on how to use building materials that are healthier for your family and the environment.  

614-1699 

Thursday, July 25 

Combat Medic: World War II 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Memoir presentation by San Francisco physician John Kerner, describing experiences as a combat medic in World War II.  

843-3533 

Free 

California Landscapes: A Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: 527- 4140. 

Free 

Saturday, July 27 

Test Ride Kestrel Bicycles 

11 a.m.-1 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Pristine Sandusky of Kestrel, a premier manufacturer of high-end, carbon-fiber road and mountain bikes, introduces their latest design. 

Free 

Graywater Workshop  

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave 

Learn the ins and outs of reusing water with the Guerrilla Graywater Girls 

548-2220 x233  

$10 members, $15 non ( no one turned away for lack of funds) 

Santa Fe Right of Way Path Walk 

10 a.m. 

Meet at the Ohlone Greenway at Cedar St, in Cedar Rose Park. 

A new path opportunity, recently funded by the City Council. 

649-9874, or http://www.internettime.com/path 

"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, non-members $5  

Grand Summer Rummage Sale 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar and Bonita Streets 

A benefit for ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Donations and volunteers are needed 

(415) 821-6545. 

Sunday, July 28 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

(510) 527-4140 Free 

Tuesday, July 30 

The Birdhouse Chronicles: Surviving the Joys of Country Life 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Reading and discussion of Cathleen Miller's personal account of moving from San Francisco to Amish Pennsylvania to restore an old house. 

843-3533 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31 

Twilight Tours at UC Botanical Gardens 

(through August 28) 5:30 p.m.  

200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley, CA.  

Tour the garden at twilight with an expert horticulturist every Wednesday. 

643-2755  

Free with garden admission.  

Mountain Adventure Seminars: Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 p.m.-9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Thursday, August 1 

Putting it Together 

7:00 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. 

Middle school students of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp perform dance techniques, spoken word, theater. 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan New National Historic Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Senior Center, 2525 Macdonald Ave. 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Nutrition Career Open House 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Institute of Educational Therapy, 706 Gilman St. 

Become a Nutrition Educator or Nutrition Consultant. 

558-1711 for reservations 

Free 

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 rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

10th Annual Stroll for Epilepsy 

Six Flags Marine World, Vallejo 

The public is invited to join the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California at Six Flags Marine World for a 5K walk/fundraiser. 

1-800-632-3532 for registration 

Storytelling at the Berkeley Public Library 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Storyteller Joel Ben Izzy will present a variety of stories filled with warmth, humor, drama in the Children's Story Room. 

981-6223 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to Noon  

200 Centennial Drive 

UC Botanical Garden; First Saturday of every month. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643 - 2755. 

Sunday, August 4 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Monday, August 5 

National Organization for Women East Bay Chapter monthly  

meeting 

6:30 p.m. 

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Ave. 

Discussion of harassment of females employed by the City of Oakland Fire Department 

Monthly meeting: NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN Oakland 

549-2970, 287-8948  

Arts Education Department Open House 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave, Richmond 

Meet teachers, see studios/galleries, info about classes in the arts. 

620-6772 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan a New National Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Public Library, Whittlesey Room 

325 Civic Center Plaza (near Macdonald Ave. and 25th St.) 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Saturday, August 10 

Poetry in the Plaza 

2:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch, 2090 Kittredge 

Quarter hour readings by well-known poets, dedicated to June Jordan. 

981-6100 

Free 

Tomato Tasting 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tasting and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Tea Bag Folding 

2 to 4 p.m.  

Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave, Albany 

Drop-in crafts program for ages 5 to adult.  

526-3720 ext 19. 

Sunday, August 11 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

West Berkeley arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Monday, August 12 

The First East Bay Senior Games 

10:30 a.m. clinic, 12:30 p.m. tee-off (approximate times) 

Mira Vista Golf and Country Club 

7901 Cutting Blvd. El Cerrito 

A golfing event for the 50+ crowd, in association with the California and National Senior Games Association. 

891-8033 (registration deadline July 29) 

Varying entry fees. 

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 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Saturday, August 17 

Author Reading and Signing: Haunani-Kay Trask 

3 p.m.  

Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave., Berkeley 

Meet Hawaiian author Haunani-Kay Trask. 

548-2350 

Free 

Cajun & More 

Four Live Bands, crafts fair, Cajun food, dance lessons, micro-brewery beer & dance floor. 

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, August 18 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician basic repairs such as brake adjustment and fixing a flat. 

For more information: (510) 527-7470 

Thursday, August 22 

Film: "Ralph Ellison: An American Journey" 

8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Berkeley filmmaker Avon Kirkland's stirring documentary about the great American author, Ralph Ellison. 

981-6205 

Free 

Friday, August 23 

Teen Playreaders present Bizarre Shorts 

(through August 24) 7 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Playreaders present 20 short, bizarre plays, contemporary and classic. 

644-6850 

Free 

Saturday, August 24 

Roller Derby & Big Time Wrestling 

6:30 p.m. 

Richmond Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza 

Roller Derby: Bay Bombers vs. Brooklyn Red Devils, Big Time Wrestling superstars 

636-9300 

$10 Advance, $20 Door 

Monday, September 2 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter  

6:30 PM.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley  

Chapter’s monthly meeting. Speaker: multicultural historian, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, received 

the prestigious Valitutti Award for non fiction.  

549-2970 

Free 

Sunday, September 8 

Lifelong Medical Care First Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk Fundraiser 

9 a.m. to noon 

West Berkeley 

Individual and team participation, a health fair, food, prizes, live music, free insurance eligibility screening - fun for all ages. 

704-6010 

To the Editor: 

The recent tragedy of Samantha Runnion reminds me that there is a wonderful workbook available for elementary-school-age children and their parents called Know & Tell: A Child Abuse Prevention Workbook for Parents and Young Children, by Yvette Lehman.  

The workbook, written in progressively intimate language that is warm and nonthreatening, offers a simple, step-by-step way for children to learn how to assess possibly dangerous situations and a tells how to deal with the confusion and fear associated with them.  

I highly recommend it to be used by families and schools. The author can be reached at 647-3442 or at yklehman@earthlink.net. 

Estelle Jelinek 

Berkeley

Medical staff at Berkeley’s only hospital with an emergency room got the go-ahead from city leaders Tuesday to upgrade the interior of its aging emergency department. 

The renovation was 10 years in the planning at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center when it was held up last spring by two appeals filed by neighbors in the south Berkeley neighborhood. Noise and the removal of trees were the residents’ chief concerns. 

But just hours before City Council was expected to rule on the appeals, both were dropped, according to City Manager Weldon Rucker. The appellants had called him late Tuesday afternoon. 

The appellants could not immediately be reached for comment, but neighbors indicated that an agreement had been struck with hospital officials that lead to the dismissal of the appeals. 

“The neighborhood got a lot of assurances,” said Mary Barclay, president of south Berkeley’s Bateman Neighborhood Association. “Over the past four weeks, everyone has worked hard to make sure the issues were going to be resolved.” 

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board approved a use permit for hospital work in April, but the two appeals had delayed the project. 

While the neighborhood has largely supported the hospital’s renovation project, deliberations about the way it should be done are what racked the planning process for the past decade. Concerns ranged from traffic and parking to the appearance of the new department. 

With the appeals dropped, hospital officials can move forward with expansion of the emergency department and with relocation of the radiology department. 

The hospital’s emergency department sees more than 45,000 patients each year, according to Alta Bates staff. The emergency department was built in the 1960s to accommodate only 12,000 patients, hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp said. 

Dismissal of the appeals allows certification of the project’s environmental impact report to stand and it moves forward operational guidelines that the hospital must act under once the new facilities are completed.

To the Editor: 

Pardon my ignorance, but I always thought breakfast grits were nothing more than coarsely ground corn. Silly me. I read the ingredients on the box and discovered I should have earned a degree in chemistry before I sat down to eat my morning cereal. 

No withstanding the fact I have no idea whether the corn is genetically modified because chemical companies fight tooth and nail to prevent dissemination of such information, the white corn is degerminated, I suppose to prevent grits from growing a corn stalk in my stomach – illegally. [And you thought abortion only applied to humans.] 

Chemists seem to love the hydrogenation of added oils. Don’t worry, it’s only partial. Perhaps too much may blow a paying customer away? After all, and according to the Websters Dictionary, hydrogen is an inflammable gas. 

Cereal companies, being health conscience though, also add soy lecithin instead of the more expensive egg yolk-amongst sundry and suspect ingredients too numerous to mention due to lack of box and column space. 

Of course, there are the ever present preservations that hold the grits in [perp¬etuity, just in case I plan to reincarnate and again have a taste for grits. Guess I’ll just have to grow and grind my own corn, organic, naturally. 

Charmaine Soedat 

Berkeley

Berkeley playgrounds are among the safest in the country, according to a nationwide study by the Consumer Federation of America and the Public Interest Research Group. 

The study, “Playing it Safe: The Sixth Nationwide Safety Survey of Public Playgrounds,” found that outside of Berkeley, seemingly innocent recreation yards are sometimes hazardous. Hard surfaces, equipment that is too high off the ground and swings that are too close together pose significant safety risks to children, according to the study. 

“Playgrounds can be wonderful places for children to have fun and face new challenges, but far too many playgrounds contain hazards that can injure and even kill,” said California Public Interest Research Group campaign director Becki Kammerling. 

According to federal data, more than 190,000 children injured on public playground equipment in 2001 required emergency medical treatment.  

Eighty percent of playground injuries were the result of falls – making the playground surface where a child lands one of the most important factors in park safety.  

All nine of the Berkeley parks examined in the study used a federally-recommended playground surface made of sand and hardwood chips or synthetic rubber. But none of the park surfaces were the recommended thickness of 9 inches. 

According to the study, Berkeley playgrounds also have adequate “fall zones,” or spaces to land around swingsets and climbers. Crowding the area with other equipment, by contrast, can lead to dangerous collisions for falling children.  

None of the Berkeley parks in the study had equipment that could entrap or entangle children. Kathy Swartz, CalPIRG campaign coordinator, said this type of equipment – a ladder with narrowly-spaced bars that could trap a child’s head, for instance – are most often to blame for the 15 to 20 children who die in playground accidents each year. 

Perhaps the most high-profile playground danger is chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, a wood preservative and pesticide used in play structures across the country. CCA is a type of arsenic, which is a known human carcinogen.  

Since the mid-1990s Berkeley’s City Council has provided at least $100,000 each year to address CCA and other playground hazards. 

The Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department has identified CCA in equipment at 12 of the city’s 48 play areas. In at least two cases the equipment has been replaced. The rest of the effected wood has been sealed to prevent leaks and is scheduled for replacement. 

There are no mandatory national standards for playground safety, though the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has published a series of recommended guidelines. 

California regulations that reflect the federal recommendations went into effect January 2000. 

Parents at Willard Park Tuesday afternoon said, in their experience, Berkeley parks are generally safe. 

“Most of them are pretty good,” said Lisa Cloud, a mother of a 4-year-old who has twins on the way. 

Parents said they simply avoid area parks with dangerous equipment or broken glass. 

The nine Berkeley playgrounds in the study include Grove Park, Willard Park, Peralta School Park, two playgrounds at Malcolm X school, two at Ohlone Park, and a pair at San Pablo Park. 

Retro Poll, a new organization planning to find out what Berkeley residents really think about things, is challenging the polling practices of the major media networks by doing some polling of its own.  

While none of Retro Poll’s surveys are yet completed, the group is developing questions for such issues as the war against terrorism and United States military involvement overseas. They hope to reveal misinformation in current corporate media polls.  

They want to examine public viewpoints, like 70 percent supporting Mr. Bush and ask, ‘What does that mean?’ “ said Kris Welch, a radio host for KPFA in Berkeley. 

Others agreed that vagueness in polling is a major problem. 

“The audience for good qualitative polling information could be quite broad, especially in the Bay Area and even in the corporate media, to varying degrees,” said Peter Phillips, a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and a Retro Poll board member. 

Retro Poll is made up of media activists and volunteers, including professors from universities across the country.  

The group does not claim to be capable of pure objectivity, but it aims to rework poll questions, polling methodology and to interview a diverse socio-economic sample. 

“In statistical analysis, the same questions need to be asked of republican, democrat, or green, in addition to people from all levels of income,” Phillips said.  

Retro Poll organizer Marc Sapir was interviewed on Welch’s daily radio program and gave a sample of one of the polls. He showed a series of true and false questions designed to reveal how little the U.S. public knows about U.S. military action. 

“I would love the public to be confronted with these questions, although I don’t know what they’ll say,” said Welch. “It’s what Gallop never asked.” 

It costs $15,000 to run a poll, according to Retro Poll. With funding from private donations, grants, and fund-raising benefit events, Retro Poll hopes to meet its goal of performing 10 polls a year.  

On July 30, Retro Poll will hold a benefit called, “Fighting for Clarity,” to raise funds for its first poll. The event will feature comedy, music, and commentary by media critics. Call 848-3826 for more information.

SAN FRANCISCO — Frustrated by the federal government’s determination to shut down medical marijuana clubs, San Francisco is thinking about growing its own. 

The city Board of Supervisors voted late Monday to put a measure on the November ballot that would have city officials explore growing marijuana on publicly owned lots and distributing it to ill patients. 

Supporters said such a program could double as job training for the unemployed. 

“I don’t think it would be all that dramatic a venture,” said Supervisor Mark Leno, who proposed the idea with three colleagues. 

The city already issues medical marijuana use cards to patients who have a doctor’s permission. California was the first state to approve medical marijuana with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. 

“The health department or some other entity would distribute it over their own counter,” Leno said Tuesday. “We already have 4,000 San Franciscans coming in to get medical marijuana ID cards, now they could also get their marijuana.” 

Leno said he drafted the proposal because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration remains determined to close down medical marijuana clubs in the city and across California. When DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson spoke here in February, Leno was protesting out front with a bullhorn. 

“If the federal government is going to continue to harass and shut down these clubs, then I think it’s the city’s responsibility to take action,” he said. 

Providing job training to unemployed or homeless residents would be “an added benefit to this project if, in fact, it happens,” said Board President Tom Ammiano. 

“If you don’t attempt these things there will never be any change,” he said. “We’ve got to give it a shot.” 

Still, hesitant to take on the federal government without being sure of their own political support, city supervisors voted to put the measure on the ballot. 

“Challenging federal law is a significant step for a city to take,” Leno said. “Before the elected body should do that, I think it’s important for voters to share their opinions. If 60 or 70 percent of voters say ’yes,’ the supervisors would be on very solid ground knowing that voters would be with us.” 

“We have a lot of land,” Leno added. “That’s not going to be a problem.” 

The problem is that cultivating, possessing and distributing marijuana are illegal under federal law. 

“Unless Congress changes the law and makes marijuana a legal substance, then we have to do our job and enforce the law, whether or not it’s popular,” Richard Meyer, a DEA spokesman in San Francisco. 

Meyer said if San Francisco began growing marijuana, it would be “business as usual. We’d conduct an investigation, collect the evidence and take appropriate action.” 

Pro-pot advocates in California have already faced a series of federal crackdowns that culminated when agents raided a medical marijuana club and arrested four people just hours before Hutchinson spoke. 

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, who also protested Hutchinson’s speech, was unavailable for comment but has been outspoken in his support of the clubs. Police have refused to participate in any raids and last year city leaders declared San Francisco a sanctuary for medical cannabis use. 

Medical marijuana advocates lauded the ballot measure. 

“The real fight we’ve been having is distribution,” said Wayne Justmann, who’s been HIV positive for more than 15 years, carries the first city-issued ID card and operates one of San Francisco’s 11 remaining pot clubs. 

Canada and Holland already grow and distribute medical marijuana, said Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative. 

“I think San Francisco in some sense is a petri dish for what will happen for policy around the country,” said Jones, whose club was set up to dispense medical marijuana but stopped because of federal pressure. 

The Berkeley Police Department and California Highway Patrol arrested a Richmond drug trafficker suspected of supplying Berkeley dealers with significant quantities of crack cocaine last week. 

Arness Frazier, 35, was arrested Thursday outside his Richmond apartment. Officers found more than nine ounces of base cocaine in his home, which equates to more than 2,500 individual crack rocks with an estimated street value of $25,000. 

The search also uncovered a .38-caliber pistol and 3.3 grams of powdered cocaine. 

Frazier was charged with felony possession of a gun and possession of crack and powder cocaine with intent to sell. 

“He is considered a major drug supplier in that he is above mid-level and he only sells quantities,” police spokesperson Lt. Cynthia Harris said.

The family of an Oakland man who was gunned down in January as he was preparing to testify against a murder suspect who moved closer to suing the City of Oakland today, alleging that police ignored his pleas for protection. 

Chance Grundy, 21, was killed on Jan. 27, weeks before the preliminary hearing of 24-year-old Michael Scott was set to begin. Scott was accused of killing Eugene Abraham, 26, in the 600 block of 31st Avenue in October. 

In June, a jury found Scott guilty of murdering Abraham. The jurors also found Scott guilty of four counts of dissuading witnesses, for allegedly masterminding the killing of Grundy and another witness while in custody at the Santa Rita Jail. 

Civil rights attorney Pamela Y. Price today filed a claim for $3.5 million against the City of Oakland on behalf of Oran Grundy, the father of the slain 21-year-old, and the victim's toddler, Jordan Grundy.  

The claim, which is a precursor to a formal lawsuit, alleges that investigators probing the Abraham murder coaxed Grundy to testify against Scott, and then unbeknownst to Grundy, played the tape to Scott. 

The claim states that in November of last year, Grundy began to receive threats.  

He reportedly requested police protection, but police allegedly told him that Scott did not pose a serious threat to his safety and that they had already notified Scott's associates on the outside that they would be looking at them if anything happened to Grundy. 

“Mr. Grundy and his family detrimentally relied upon the officers' assurances that (he) was not in danger,'' the claim states. “The officers' refusal to place Mr. Grundy in protective custody, or offer him any type of witness protection, and their assurances that they had already taken adequate steps to protect Mr. Grundy induced a false sense of protection.'' 

Based on information obtained at Scott's trial, Price and the Grundy relatives believe that Scott created a hit list from within the jail that included Grundy's name and mailed the list to his associates.  

They also believe that Scott placed telephone calls soliciting the murders of several witnesses, including Grundy, who were set to testify against him. The allegations are that Grundy was never told about the hit list or the telephone calls, which helped a jury convict Scott of dissuading witnesses in the case. 

In addition to suing the City of Oakland, Price says she intends to sue Alameda County, which operates the jail, and Gary Sherrer, who she alleges gave ill-redacted documents to Scott that included Grundy's name and address. 

Sherrer, who once worked in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, said he had not heard of the intended suit, and added that he couldn't comment on something that he has not yet seen. 

Karen Boyd, spokeswoman for the Oakland City Attorney's Office, said the city had not yet reviewed the claim and so couldn't comment on the allegations either. 

The lead prosecutor in the multiple murder trial of Cary Stayner said in court today that he expects to rest the first phase of his case on Wednesday morning. 

Prosecutor George Williamson said that he plans to call one additional witness after FBI expert in paint, tape and plastics Ronald Menold finishes on the stand. 

“We've got Mr. Menold and then one other witness,'' Williamson said. 

Stayner's lead attorney, Marcia Morrissey filed a motion asking for a continuance in the trial Tuesday afternoon. Morrissey said that after the prosecution rests the defense would need additional time to have its experts evaluate Stayner's mental state. 

“The neuro-psychiatric testing that we undertook as soon as it was recommended has not been completed,'' Morrissey said. 

Stayner, 40, faces a possible death penalty if convicted of the February 1999 murders of Eureka residents Carole Sund, 42, and her daughter  

Juli, 15, and their family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, of Argentina. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in federal prison after pleading guilty to the July 1999 murder of Yosemite National Park naturalist Joie Armstrong, 26. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges. 

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings told Morrissey that he would not delay the trial because of a defense witness’ availability. 

“We're not going to be captive to a witness for the defense,” Hastings said. 

The majority of Tuesday’s trial proceedings involved portions of Stayner's alleged taped confession in which he was negotiating with FBI agents for concessions, including access to child pornography, in exchange for his confession to the murders of the Sunds, Pelosso and Armstrong. 

“If I don't confess it's going to cost you guys a lot of time and money. I'd like to save you guys that time and money,'' Stayner said on the tape. “What difference is it ... viewing a little child pornography in light of the murders of four people.” 

FBI agent Jeffrey Rinek spoke to Stayner with a great deal of empathy on the tape in an attempt to get him to testify. 

“Christ, we'll send out and get the video and we’ll sit here and watch them with you,” Rinek said. 

Stayner told Rinek and FBI agent John Boles that his lifelong desire to view child pornography contributed to his allegedly committing the murders. 

“Maybe because I never got to see it, these things happened,” Stayner said. 

Stayner also attempted to negotiate two other concessions from the FBI. He wanted the $250,000 reward money that the Carole Sund's family had offered to go to his parents. He also wanted to be incarcerated in a federal prison near his Merced County home. 

Frances Carrington, Carole Sund’s father, said the reward money was offered for the safe return of the three Yosemite tourists and was never paid out.  

Carrington said today's playing of the tapes of Stayner negotiating with the FBI is further evidence of the former motel handyman's depravity. 

“What kind of mind would ask for his folks to get the reward money at the time of his confession and ask for kiddie, what did they call it, kiddie porn,” Carrington said. 

No evidence has been introduced that the FBI ever actually provided Stayner with child pornography. 

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s automakers say they will sue California to block a landmark anti-global warming bill that restricts carbon dioxide emissions from cars. 

The measure, which squeaked by the state Legislature despite a multimillion-dollar opposition campaign by carmakers and auto workers, was signed Monday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

California already has the nation’s most stringent standards for other vehicle pollutants. The new law sets emission standards for CO2 and other greenhouse gases that would apply to new passenger cars and light trucks beginning in 2009. 

It is “the first bill in America designed to combat global warming,” Davis said before signing the measure on a hot, smoggy day along a pine-scented trail in Griffith Park, the sprawling, hilly expanse near downtown. “We are going to set an example for the country.” 

The governor said he believed other states and the federal government eventually would follow suit. 

Opponents quickly condemned the measure, saying it would increase the price of vehicles and would reduce greenhouse gases globally by less than 1 percent. 

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said it would challenge the law in federal court. 

The bill “will reduce the freedom of choice” by pricing sport utility vehicles, minivans and other models out of some consumers’ range, said a statement from the American Highway Users Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group. 

The bill maintains that passenger cars and light trucks are responsible for 40 percent of California’s carbon dioxide emissions. The gases form a heat-trapping blanket in the atmosphere that scientists fear could cause disruptions in farming and the snowpack that provides much of Southern California’s water. 

More than 2 million cars were sold in California last year, making it the nation’s biggest auto market, so the law’s impact on the auto industry was expected to be enormous. 

Davis portrayed the measure as flexible and cost-effective. It doesn’t set any new fuel economy standards or mandate any changes to individual makes of cars, nor does it ban gas-hogging SUVs, the governor said. 

The emission standards would apply to the average pollution from an automakers’ line. Carmakers can partially meet the standards by reducing non-auto pollution, such as emissions from their factories. 

Though the legislation does not affect large polluters like big rigs or other commercial vehicles, environmental groups were jubilant. 

“This bill is an earthshaking event. This is going to start us on the fight against global warming,” said David G. Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

Supporters also included water districts worried about declining snow melt, the state’s largest cities and director Rob Reiner, who was at Monday’s signing. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Although he moved into the top income bracket long ago, billionaire Charles Schwab says he still relates to the small investors who helped transform his discount stock brokerage from a quirky upstart with four employees in 1971 to a financial services icon with 19,100 workers today. 

His empathy for Main Street — and desire for its business — is one of the reasons Schwab decided to run a satirical television advertisement skewering Wall Street for the alleged conflicts of interest that led some analysts to publicly tout stocks they privately derided. 

Schwab is also worried about the recent wave of accounting scandals 

The comedown since the market’s height in 2000 has been especially sobering for Schwab’s company. With trading activity down 35 percent from 2000, Schwab has jettisoned 7,200 jobs since the beginning of 2001. Last year, the firm suffered its first quarterly loss since 1987. 

The slump has ravaged Schwab’s stock, trading now in the $9 range, far below its peak of $51.67 reached in 1999. The downturn has wiped out at least $8.5 billion of Schwab’s personal fortune. 

AP: What do you think of market conditions? 

SCHWAB: In my career, it is clearly the worst market decline. This decline will end. They always do. Then we will have equity markets get back to a sort of normal state of affairs. 

AP: It seems like it’s going to be hard to know when we might be hitting a bottom this time. 

SCHWAB: There is so much in the winds right now. There is complete dissatisfaction with corporations and CEOs and politicians and fear of terror. All these things in combination give people just a complete lack of confidence. 

It’s one of those ugly things you have in a free market system. What is going on is ... correcting excesses of the past. And it’s cruel, absolutely cruel. 

But it is the most incredible mechanism that we have in a capitalist society. And if we don’t let it happen, if we legislate against everything, you end up having a socialist system instead of a capitalist system. Consequently, you have got to deal with the reality of the time. 

AP: Your company has been running ads suggesting that a lot of folks on Wall Street can’t be trusted, that the firms give people misleading advice ... 

SCHWAB: Well, it’s true. Many times you see that a commission-based broker is basically masquerading as a fiduciary. You see the same thing in respect to the analysts that reach over and have close relationships with the corporations and sort of sell their soul when they write up those reports that end up going to retail investors. Structure is the problem, frankly. 

AP: So what do you think needs to be done to start addressing these trust issues? Do we need to start throwing some of these guys in jail? 

SCHWAB: Certainly. Anyone who violates the law should pay the penalty, whatever the maximum penalty is. 

AP: Do we need stiffer penalties? It’s been said that white-collar crimes never really draw big penalties. 

SCHWAB: Well, they don’t get prosecuted. Like we all know, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is badly understaffed. They have been battling for more assistance for years and Congress has refused to give them the resources to do it with. It should be on the footsteps of our good people in Congress. It is absolutely essential to have the maintenance of the integrity of our markets never be in question. 

AP: You are on the audit committees on the boards of both Gap Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc. With all these accounting scandals, has it changed the way you approach your responsibilities on those committees? 

SCHWAB: Well, some of the thinking has probably been amended, given the things that have come to light. 

In each one of them, you have time alone with the accountants and the external auditors. You have time with the internal audit people separately from management. You drill them and you hope the hell they tell you if there is a problem. 

At the end of the conversation, you always say, ’Is there anything we need to know that you haven’t told us?’ You look them straight in the eye and you hope the hell that that’s the moment of truth. That’s what you do. You have got to rely on that kind of thing. 

AP: Do you think this market volatility is driven more by economic concerns, trust issues or a confluence? 

SCHWAB: I think it’s really the economic issues. But the economic issues can be impacted — and that’s what people worry about — by highly restrictive legislation of some kind. 

NEW YORK — When Carol Levey got married, her father gave her some investment advice: Buy stock in safe, dependable companies — the kind that pay dividends. 

Nearly eight years later, Levey wishes she had listened. Her portfolio, which contained mostly riskier tech shares, has crumbled as the market plunged over the past two years. Now Levey and her husband own Exxon Mobil, IBM, McDonald’s and Pfizer, all of which pay dividends to shareholders. 

“It is a little bit of safety,” the Encino, Calif., woman said of dividends. “My parents provided for me, and they didn’t have all these high-flying stocks. They did it the old-fashioned way.” 

During the bull market of the late 1990s, investors turned away from dividends. They were deemed passe in the new technology and dot-com era, when Wall Street’s most successful companies reinvested all their profits to maximize growth. But with a grueling bear market sending stocks to their lowest levels in years, the dividend is back in vogue, touted for giving investors a dependable source of income. 

“It is a certainty in terms of what you are going to receive versus stock prices going up, because everyone believes prices can only fall,” said Joseph Keating, chief investment officer at AmSouth Asset Management in Birmingham, Ala. 

With the market having lost about a quarter of its value over the past nine weeks, a 92-cent-per-share annual dividend from Exxon Mobil looks pretty good, representing a guaranteed cash return of $920 to investors who own 1,000 shares. 

”(Investors) are looking for, as we say, a bird in the hand, and dividends represent that,” said Arnie Kaufman, editor of Standard & Poor’s newsletter “The Outlook.” 

Low interest rates have also worked to make dividends fashionable again. The annual yield on a money market account is 1.8 percent, according to Bankrate.com. But the average yield on dividend-paying stocks in the S&P 500 index is 2.3 percent. 

“Investors are saying, ‘I need a certain rate of income. I need additional income from the common stocks I own,”’ Keating said. 

Stocks that pay dividends recently have also lived up to their reputation as safe — or at least safer — havens in terms of performance on Wall Street. So far this year, the 350 dividend-paying stocks in the S&P 500 have declined about 11 percent, less painful than the 29 percent drop among those that don’t pay dividends. 

Financial advisers have long recommended investors include dividend-paying stocks in their portfolios and for a variety of reasons.  

Dividends are more attractive during bear markets and particularly for investors who are retired and look to quarterly payments to supplement their income. 

With dividends, “you have the ability to wait out the stock market decline and still have some income,” said Steve Wetzel, a professor of finance at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and a certified financial planner. 

Another advantage to dividend-paying stocks is the opportunity for investors to reinvest the money. Rather than get a check, investors can use dividends to purchase additional shares. 

Some companies have responded to renewed interest in the dividend by increasing their payments. Dividends of S&P 500 companies were up 4 percent during the first half of 2002 from the same period last year. 

Procter & Gamble announced earlier this month it was raising its annual payment to $1.64 from $1.52 a share. 

Other companies, such as Ashland Inc., are keeping their dividends steady but have noticed a greater interest in them. 

“In recent months, I have had more questions about the dividend than I have had in my career,” said Paul Chellgren, chairman and 28-year veteran of Ashland Inc., an oil services and diversified chemicals company in Covington, Ky. 

Ashland’s annual dividend is $1.10 a share. During the last bull market, Chellgren said investors and analysts were asking: “Why don’t you eliminate your dividend? It is not important any more.” 

Indeed, back in the years of the bull, there was much less appreciation for companies that shared a portion of their profits with shareholders. The thinking was that if Microsoft didn’t pay dividends, then they were unnecessary, a throwback to an older generation that talked of safe bets rather than stellar returns. 

“We just sort of got caught up with the excitement of tech stocks. We weren’t looking for dividends,” said Levey, the Encino, Calif., investor. 

But investor Sanford Holstein said he’s been buying dividend-paying shares “because of how the market is. You don’t stand a chance.” 

The retired shop owner in Syracuse, N.Y. said, “My strategy now is to protect as much as I can, and earn as much as I can.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The state famous for its sunshine and beaches leads the nation in another summertime staple: ice cream. 

California produced about 145 million gallons of ice cream last year, 64 million gallons more than Indiana, the No. 2 state, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. 

“The dairies have gotten bigger, and there’s more milk per cow, and the number of cows has gotten bigger,” said Karen Dapper, a research analyst for the Dairy Marketing Branch of the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture. “The number of dairy farms is going down, but the number of cows and milk production has gone up.” 

Tulare County, the No. 1 agriculture county in the state, has 312 dairies that brought in about $1.2 billion in milk production alone in 2001. 

“We had the first $1 billion commodity this year and that was milk,” said Tulare County Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Bill Appleby. “A lot of dairies have moved up here from Southern California, where they’re paving over agricultural land.” 

California has more than 2,100 dairies, about 1.55 million cows and about 35 ice cream plants. 

Americans spent nearly $20 billion dollars on ice cream and other frozen desserts in 2000, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. 

Ice cream has become such a part of the American life, that it has surpassed apple pie as the No. 1 dessert — at least in the assessment of John Harrison, ice cream connoisseur. 

Harrison is the official taste tester for Oakland-based Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream. 

Using a golden spoon to prevent aftertaste, Harrison tastes about 60 samples a day, examining them for appearance, flavor and texture. He compares his work to that done in another California specialty — wines. 

“I start with the white wines of ice cream — vanilla, vanilla bean — and work my way up to the heavy Bordeaux of ice cream — black walnut, mint chocolate chip,” he said. 

Harrison’s work is so valuable that Dreyer’s insured his tastebuds for $1 million. He also takes care to avoid spicy foods, caffeine and alcohol during the week. 

“On Friday night, I can let the hair down and have a little pepperoni pizza or some garlic mashed potatoes,” he said. 

Harrison developed the flavor Cookies ’N Cream for Dreyer’s, but his favorite ice cream is the nation’s most popular flavor — vanilla. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters will decide this November whether the aging system that delivers water to more than 2 million people in the Bay Area will get a much-needed seismic retrofit under a $1.6 billion bond measure city leaders placed on the ballot. 

With an 8-3 vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a measure Monday that would help finance $3.6 billion of construction on Hetch Hetchy, a complex of aqueducts that supplies water to 2.4 million homes and runs more than 160 miles from Yosemite National Park to the San Francisco Bay area. 

An upgrade could prevent century-old aqueducts from collapsing in a major earthquake and leaving several Bay Area cities without their main source of water for as long as two months, according to scientists. The system’s pipes and tunnels cross three major earthquake faults — the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras. 

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

However, the water system is owned and administered by San Francisco. 

If approved, the average four-person household in San Francisco would see its monthly water bill more than triple from an average of $13 to nearly $44 by 2015. Suburban rates would rise to an estimated $70 from its current average, $38. 

LOS ANGELES — As the parents of a 5-year-old Orange County girl who was abducted and murdered prepare for her funeral and police search for a 7-year-old snatched off the street in Philadelphia, worried parents are looking to police and school officials for help coping with a phenomenon authorities are dubbing “stranger danger.” 

In the Los Angeles suburb of Stanton, where Samantha Runnion was abducted July 15, about 50 parents gathered for a seminar on child safety Monday night. In nearby Irvine, a “Keeping Your Children Safe” meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at City Hall. 

At the Orange County Fair, police handed out fliers with tips for protecting children from abduction, while hundreds of fairgoers took time out from rides and food booths to search sex-offender databases set up by the California Department of Justice and the Orange County Probation Department. 

In neighboring Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to ask Sheriff Lee Baca to work with radio and TV stations to create a countywide child-abduction alert system. 

In Tustin, police were fielding extra requests for safety presentations at local schools. 

“We are getting a lot more calls than usual for those,” said Stacy Margolin, in the community relations office of the Tustin Police Department. “We had a session at one school scheduled for August and we moved it up because all the parents are concerned.” 

The concern remains despite the arrest last week of Alejandro Avila, 27, of Lake Elsinore. He is charged with kidnapping, two counts of a lewd act on a child and murder in the slaying of Samantha Runnion, who was abducted just yards from her Stanton townhome as she played with a friend. She was carried off kicking and screaming for help. 

Thousands were expected Wednesday at Samantha’s funeral at the Crystal Cathedral, a nationally known church in nearby Garden Grove. 

The abduction and murder garnered intense national media attention, as has Monday’s abduction of 7-year-old Erica Pratt off a Philadelphia street, along with the unsolved disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart from her Salt Lake City home in June, and the Feb. 1 abduction and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of San Diego. 

The high-profile cases, coming so close together, have left many parents on edge. 

Phil Pierce, a minister and father of four, contacted police last week because parents at his Irvine church were upset by the Runnion murder and wanted information. 

“I knew we needed to do something to make parents feel a little bit safer and to make kids feel a little bit safer,” he said. 

Det. Tracy Jacobson, a child abuse investigator at the Irvine Police Department who will conduct Wednesday’s seminar, said parents need to be creative in teaching their children how to avoid what Jacobson called “stranger danger.” 

“It’s important to teach your child by example, by reinforcement and role playing,” Jacobson said. “Just explaining what to do doesn’t always work so well.” 

Neena Malik, a professor of psychology at the University of Miami, said the spate of child abductions, along with lingering concern about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, have parents on edge. 

“These isolated events of child abductions are getting more national attention. The national attention is a consequence of most people feeling like things are not so safe anymore,” Malik said. 

Taking action — by attending seminars, talking to children or gathering information — can help parents cope with their fears, she said. 

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, who appealed to the public for help during the investigation, said parental concern is a positive response to the tragedy. 

“We never wanted people to overreact. We wanted to make them aware of what we had and for them to pay maybe a little closer attention to their children,” Carona said. 

Juan Rivera, who stopped recently with his children and nephew at the makeshift memorial outside Samantha’s home, said he has reminded young family members about what to do if they are approached by a stranger. 

To prove his point, Rivera turned to his 5-year-old nephew. 

“What are you supposed to do if somebody you don’t know comes up?” he said. 

“I have to scream and run?” said 5-year-old Miguel Trejo. 

“What else?” Rivera asked. 

“I have to tell somebody,” the boy said.

CHICAGO — Passengers who fly aboard planes that re-circulate cabin air are no more likely to catch colds than travelers on aircraft that pump in fresh air, a study suggests. 

Still, all of the air travelers in the study got a lot of colds — significantly more than would be expected in non-fliers. 

Health experts have long suspected that re-circulated air carries more germs and causes more colds. 

Researchers called the latest findings encouraging, because planes that pump in fresh air are being phased out in favor of less costly, more fuel-efficient models with ventilation systems that re-circulate air. 

“Re-circulation of cabin air did not emerge as a risk factor for the development of upper respiratory-tract infection symptoms in our study,” Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter of the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues wrote. 

The study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, involved questionnaires given to 1,100 passengers leaving the San Francisco area and traveling to Denver between January and April 1999. 

A week after their flights, 21 percent of the fresh-air passengers and 19 percent of the re-circulated-air passengers reported having a cold. The researchers said the incidence of colds in non-travelers is about 3 percent. 

Researchers said the high number of colds among passengers in both groups could result from factors unrelated to cabin air, such as stress, sleep loss and poor eating habits sometimes associated with travel. 

Judith Murawski, an industrial hygienist for the Association of Flight Attendants, said the rate of colds in air travelers seemed high and could suggest that cabin air in general is poor. 

Many airlines use ventilation systems with filters designed to remove viruses and bacteria from re-circulated air, but not all do, she said. 

She also said there is no minimum standard for how much outside air is brought into airplane cabins. Her union, which represents 50,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines, opposes a move in the industry to set a standard significantly lower than that recommended for office workers. 

HAPPY VALLEY— Olive fruit flies have been discovered for the first time in Shasta County. 

“This is the farthest north they have ever been,” said Paul Kjos, deputy commissioner of the Shasta County Agricultural Department. 

The were found late last month and early this month in detection traps in the Happy Valley-Olinda area, where most of the county’s roughly 500 acres of olive trees are located. 

The department plans to monitor the traps the rest of the growing season, through September or October, to gauge the extent of the infestation. 

If not controlled, the olive fruit fly, first observed in North America in 1998, can damage a grower’s entire crop, Kjos said. 

“Any fruit that the eggs are laid in are destroyed,” Kjos said. 

Adult female fruit flies lay eggs in olive fruits, but it is the developing larvae that actually damage the fruit, he said. 

Kjos said his department is working with growers, processors and other northern counties to find ways to fight the pest. Tehama County, for instance, immediately to the south, has been spraying orchards from the air and ground with pesticide. 

PHILADELPHIA — Law school applications are up dramatically — the biggest increase in at least two decades — as more young people are deciding the job market out there is just too rough. 

With business schools and other graduate programs also reporting a surge in applications, it’s a big difference from late 1990s, when students skipped graduate school for high-paying jobs and big signing bonuses at dot-coms. 

“With the way the economy is, there’s really nothing I can do right now except go to graduate school and hope that in another three or four years something will change,” said Brett Tishler, 21, who is entering his senior year at Temple University and applying to law school. 

Some of those applying are going straight from college to graduate school. Others have been in the work force for a while and have decided to go back to school. 

Law school applications are up 17.9 percent for 2002-03, the biggest spike in more than 20 years, according to the Law School Admission Council. As of July 5, the council counted 88,418 applications nationwide, compared with 74,994 at the same time last year. 

A record 2,914 applications poured into the University of Connecticut law school in Hartford, up 46 percent from the previous year. The school expects to enroll about 240 people, up from the usual 210. 

“It got very crazy,” said admissions director Karen DeMeola. “Any given applicant could be a perfectly good attorney, or a great attorney, but there’s just no room at the inn.” 

Columbia University’s business school received 7,400 applications this year, up about 26 percent. Some 1,700 applied to the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate school of education, a 38 percent increase. 

“There might be a little bit of a dot-com backlash,” said Tom Kecskemethy, associate dean of the education school at Penn. “Graduate education tends to be a haven for students when you’re choosing between a lousy job market and the prospect of increasing your education, even if there is a price tag attached.” 

In a spring survey of 415 members by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies estimated they would hire 36.4 percent fewer graduating seniors this year than last. 

Starting salaries also are down. Computer science graduates saw their offers drop 5.9 percent to $49,957, sliding under $50,000 for the first time since the fall of 2000. Undergraduate psychology majors saw their offers fall 12.8 percent to $26,456, according to the association. 

Medical school applications have been falling since 1996, and interest remains low. Experts said those numbers may take longer to rebound in a slow economy. Most students cannot decide on the spur of the moment to go to medical school; they need a premed education as undergraduates. 

Medical school applications climbed from 37,402 in 1992 to 46,965 in 1996 before starting their slide to 34,859 in 2001, a drop-off attributed to the burdens of managed care and the big money to be made in business, technology and other fields. The 2002 figures are not yet available. 

“It may be bottoming out. That’s the impression we have,” said Dr. Jordan Cohen, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. 

Stacy Heenan, a 26-year-old television producer in Philadelphia, will start law school next month at Temple, where applications soared 32 percent this year. The Sept. 11 attacks convinced her it was time to get moving. 

“It gave me the sense that life is short, and you’ve got to make things happen — follow your dreams — while you can,” Heenan said. 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A jury held two retired Salvadoran generals responsible Tuesday for atrocities committed during El Salvador’s civil war two decades ago and ordered them to pay $54.6 million to three torture victims. 

The generals, who now live in the United States, were sued by a church worker, a doctor and a professor who fled their homeland after being brutalized by Salvadoran soldiers. 

The federal jury found that retired Gens. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and Jose Guillermo Garcia had ignored massacres and other atrocities against civilians. 

Two of the victims, Carlos Mauricio and Neris Gonzalez, were in court and wept as the verdict was read. 

“This has been a long, long struggle for justice,” said Mauricio, who was strung up by his arms, starved and beaten during eight days of torture. 

Defense attorney Kurt Klaus said the generals cannot pay the verdict and cannot even afford to appeal. He had previously advised them not to even fight the claims. 

“I’m disappointed. I wish I would have done a better job,” Klaus said. 

The victims, who also live in the United States, sued under the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act that allows U.S. courts to assess damages against perpetrators of human rights abuses committed abroad. 

The jury was asked to determine whether the generals knew their troops were torturing and murdering civilians but failed to try to stop it or punish those responsible. 

Jury foreman Arnie Esbin said he found the generals’ testimony to be “self-serving” and “inappropriate.” The jury deliberated for 20 hours over four days. 

“This reign of terror involved tens of thousands of deaths and torture,” attorney James Green said in his closing argument. “You have a historic opportunity and a historic obligation to set the record straight and to tell these generals what they did was wrong.” 

Klaus described the men as champions of democracy, like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and said they helped reform their country’s corrupt banking system and its agriculture-based economy. 

“There’s no doubt that what happened in El Salvador was horrible, that what happened to these people was horrible. It was a horrible war, a dirty war,” Klaus said. “But I don’t think the parties that are responsible for what happened to these people are here.” 

PHILADELPHIA — Authorities said Tuesday that a 7-year-old girl was grabbed, kicking and screaming, from in front of her home and less than 20 minutes later a caller demanded a $150,000 ransom to save the girl’s life. 

Police were seeking to question two men who know the girl’s family but wouldn’t say whether the men were considered suspects in the abduction of Erica Pratt. 

Police Inspector Bill Colarulo said they were searching for the men, James Burns, 29, and Edward Johnson, 23, because they may have information that “could possibly shed light” on the girl’s whereabouts. 

The men’s names were given to authorities by two people who witnessed of the girl’s abduction, Colarulo said. 

Erica was playing with her 5-year-old sister in front of their grandmother’s rowhouse Monday evening when two men drove up, called her by name and dragged her into their car as she screamed and resisted, witnesses told police. 

Less than 20 minutes later, Erica’s grandmother and primary caregiver, Barbara Pratt, received the first of at least six calls from a man who threatened to kill the girl unless he received a $150,000 ransom, police said. 

Colarulo declined to reveal details about the case Tuesday but said detectives believed the girl was still alive. 

“I’m confident that Erica is going to be returned safely,” he said. 

He wouldn’t say when the last ransom demand was made or whether the caller offered proof that he had the child. A $10,000 reward was offered for information. 

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — A popcorn plant worker has been diagnosed with a rare lung disease that health authorities have linked to inhaling the artificial butter flavoring used in microwave popcorn. 

Federal health officials are testing other workers at American Pop Corn Co. for bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as popcorn packers’ lung, a severe and irreversible disease. 

The man, who was not identified, still works at the plant. He has a “light case” of the disease that is not life-threatening, company vice president Tom Elsen said Monday. He no longer works in the department where butter flavorings are mixed with other ingredients. 

Elsen said the man’s condition was discovered when a federal health team visited the plant last year after eight popcorn workers in Missouri were sickened by the disease, prompting a national investigation. 

The disease is caused by inhaling damaging amounts of chemicals such as chlorine or ammonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A chemical called diacetyl in the butter flavoring of popcorn may be the cause of the illness found in the popcorn workers, the CDC said in an April report. 

The disease kills cells in the bronchial airway tubes in the lungs and causes scarring, which makes breathing more difficult. 

The CDC says scientists have found no evidence of danger to people who eat microwave popcorn. 

Berkeley ranks second only to Treasure Island when it comes to Bay Area demand for a new ferry service, according to a recent state-commissioned study. The results make the city a leading candidate for commuter boats. 

But ferry service still faces significant political hurdles with state approval hanging in the balance and local critics worried about the project’s economic feasibility and environmental impact. 

Written by the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority, the study found that by 2025, if service is in place, some 2,776 Berkeley residents will take the ferry to San Francisco on a typical weekday. The Treasure Island to San Francisco route would be the most popular with 3,587 commuters. South San Francisco placed third and Richmond was fourth. 

The Water Transit Authority, established by the legislature in 1999 to examine the potential for expanded ferry service, is now focusing on the four communities with the greatest demand. 

Under current WTA plans, construction on a Berkeley terminal would begin in 2009 and service would start in 2010, with trips to San Francisco and perhaps other parts of the Bay Area.  

The agency has not identified specific sites for a Berkeley terminal, but locals say Berkeley Marina and the shorefront at the end of Gilman Street are the leading contenders. 

Advocates say ferry service would be a boon. 

“Ferries are the people’s yacht,” said Linda Perry of the Berkeley Ferry Committee. “Anybody in this town can get out there and really get to know our Bay – all for the price of a BART ticket.” 

Still, ferry service in Berkeley is anything but a foregone conclusion. Next year, the Legislature will consider having the WTA prepare a planning document and a draft environmental impact report to help it decide whether ferry service is even viable. The costs of the service are yet to be determined. 

And on a local level, some city officials and activists have a range of concerns such as ferry service drawing money from other public transit systems, that it might disturb ducks on the bay or create a parking nightmare. 

“You start out thinking it’s a wonderful thing and you want it to happen,” said City Councilmember Linda Maio. “But the devil is in the details.” 

Heidi Machen, spokesperson for the WTA, said the agency will not drain the budgets of other public transit services like BART or AC Transit. The total funding that WTA would need is unclear. 

Machen said the WTA will draw on a proposed $1 toll hike on Bay Area bridges, which would take hold in 2005, and it would seek additional federal, state and local funding.  

The state would ask municipalities like Berkeley, she said, to help pay for the construction of terminals. 

Still, local officials said they are skeptical about the ferry service’s funding sources and they raised questions about issues like parking. The agency is projecting a need for 560 parking spaces at the Berkeley terminal. 

“The basic proposals generally involve building a massive parking garage and encouraging people to drive to the ferry, which is somewhat counterproductive for a public transit system,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Mayor Shirley Dean, who supports the push for ferry service, said anything approaching 600 spaces is unacceptable. But the city could cut down on the number of parking spaces by providing a bus service to the terminal, she said. 

Norman La Force of the Sierra Club said he has a number of environmental concerns regarding the project. Drudging the polluted bay to build a terminal would be a problem, he said. The ferries, he explained, would unsettle the water, preventing ducks from “drafting,” or getting proper rest on the water. 

The WTA’s Machen, though, said the drudging would be minimal and that birds would be unharmed. 

“The reality is, birds are a little smarter than we give them credit for,” said Machen. “Birds tend to relocate as necessary.”  

In the end, Dean said, the city and state should be able to work out any environmental concerns.  

“I don’t think anyone wants to kill a rafting duck, for goodness sake,” she said. 

Mayoral candidate Tom Bates was more cautious about the ability to prevail over environmental and economic barriers. 

“I would be skeptical about our ability to overcome those problems,” he said. “But I think it’s worth looking into.” 

Tonight, the City Council will consider naming Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier to a community advisory board for the WTA. Hillier said that if appointed to the board he will bring Berkeley’s environmental concerns to the table. 

The advisory committee has been up and running for a year-and-a-half, but a City Council fight over naming an appointee has left Berkeley without a representative.  

City Councilmembers said they don’t expect any opposition to Hillier’s appointment. 

To the Editor: 

I am the co-host of Unlimited Possibilities, one of the two shows on B-TV targeted for censoring by the proposed measure that the Berkeley City Council is considering. This proposed measure came about because a few people were offended by what we present on our show. A lot of letters have appeared in this forum about this proposed ordinance. They have been overwhelmingly against it, detailing the many dangers of this ordinance within the big picture of taking away our freedoms. 

But allow me to talk about the “small” picture of how this would censor our show and audience. I do the show with Frank Moore. Our show is politically, culturally, and artistically radical. Our show is a 2 1/2-hour variety show offering in-depth conversations about issues that affect us all with a wide range of people, live music, and cutting edge performances, films, and art. Although we get complaints that the show has too much talk, what the few people find objectionable is the cutting edge art... the same kind of art that got Frank targeted by Sen. Jesse Helms in the early 90s. 

This cutting edge art would get the show exiled to after midnight under this ordinance. This ordinance requires producers to label their shows' contents as sexually explicit. “Sexually explicit” shows will be moved to midnight. We don't know what sexually explicit means. But failure to correctly label a show will have your show moved to after midnight as punishment. 

We have always requested our show be shown after 10 p.m. to have the freedom to cover a wide range of topics. But exiling the show to after midnight denies people easy access to it in a very intrusive way. It denies the show “foot traffic,” cutting down the number of people discovering the show.  

It is like moving a store from Shattuck and University to Dwight Way and Eighth... or limiting a politician to halls of 50 or less. Imagine the uproar. 

Linda Mac 

Berkeley 

Tuesday, July 23 

Myanmar (formerly Burma): "The Golden Land" 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Ricky Fishman gives a slide presentation/talk about this isolated and remote land. 

843-3533 

Free 

Q & A with a Personal/Business Coach 

noon to 1 p.m. 

YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way 

For those interested in professional coaching careers, speak with a pro. 

848-6370 

$3 

Wednesday, July 24 

Berkeley Gray Panthers General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

Pharmacist Fred Mayer prescriptions and their costs, etc. 

548-9696  

Free 

Getting Help When You Need It 

7:30 to 9 p.m.  

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annex A 

350 Hawthorne Ave. Oakland 

Free interactive workshop to help caregivers obtain free assistance, deal with paid in-home help, and create plans to care for loved ones. 

869-6737 

Free 

"Green Building" Workshop 

6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Meeting Room A, 2090 Kittredge 

Henry Siegel, Architect, on how to use building materials that are healthier for your family and the environment.  

614-1699 

Thursday, July 25 

Combat Medic: World War II 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Memoir presentation by San Francisco physician John Kerner, describing experiences as a combat medic in World War II.  

843-3533 

Free 

California Landscapes: A Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527- 4140. 

Free 

Saturday, July 27 

Test Ride Kestrel Bicycles 

11 a.m.-1 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Pristine Sandusky of Kestrel, a premier manufacturer of high-end, carbon-fiber road and mountain bikes, introduces their latest design. 

Free 

Graywater Workshop  

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave 

Learn the ins and outs of reusing water with the Guerrilla Graywater Girls 

548-2220 x233  

$10 members, $15 non ( no one turned away for lack of funds) 

Santa Fe Right of Way Path Walk 

10 a.m. 

Meet at the Ohlone Greenway at Cedar St, in Cedar Rose Park. 

A new path opportunity, recently funded by the City Council. 

649-9874, or http://www.internettime.com/path 

"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, non-members $5  

Grand Summer Rummage Sale 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar and Bonita Streets 

A benefit for ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Donations and volunteers are needed 

(415) 821-6545. 

Sunday, July 28 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

(510) 527-4140 Free 

Tuesday, July 30 

The Birdhouse Chronicles: Surviving the Joys of Country Life 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Reading and discussion of Cathleen Miller's personal account of moving from San Francisco to Amish Pennsylvania to restore an old house. 

843-3533 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31 

Twilight Tours at UC Botanical Gardens 

(through August 28) 5:30 p.m.  

200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley, CA.  

Tour the garden at twilight with an expert horticulturist every Wednesday. 

643-2755  

Free with garden admission.  

Mountain Adventure Seminars: Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 p.m.-9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Thursday, August 1 

Putting it Together 

7:00 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. 

Middle school students of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp perform dance techniques, spoken word, theater. 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan New National Historic Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Senior Center, 2525 Macdonald Ave. 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Nutrition Career Open House 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Institute of Educational Therapy, 706 Gilman St. 

Become a Nutrition Educator or Nutrition Consultant. 

558-1711 for reservations 

Free 

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 rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

10th Annual Stroll for Epilepsy 

Six Flags Marine World, Vallejo 

The public is invited to join the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California at Six Flags Marine World for a 5K walk/fundraiser. 

1-800-632-3532 for registration 

Storytelling at the Berkeley Public Library 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Storyteller Joel Ben Izzy will present a variety of stories filled with warmth, humor, drama in the Children's Story Room. 

981-6223 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to Noon  

200 Centennial Drive 

UC Botanical Garden; First Saturday of every month. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643 - 2755. 

Free 

Sunday, August 4 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Monday, August 5 

National Organization for Women East Bay Chapter monthly meeting 

6:30 p.m. 

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Ave. 

Discussion of harassment of females employed by the City of Oakland Fire Department 

Monthly meeting: NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN Oakland 

549-2970, 287-8948  

Arts Education Department Open House 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave, Richmond 

Meet teachers, see studios/galleries, info about classes in the arts. 

620-6772 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan a New National Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Public Library, Whittlesey Room 

325 Civic Center Plaza (near Macdonald Ave. and 25th St.) 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Saturday, August 10 

Poetry in the Plaza 

2:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch, 2090 Kittredge 

Quarter hour readings by well-known poets, dedicated to June Jordan. 

981-6100 

Free 

Tomato Tasting 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tasting and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Tea Bag Folding 

2 to 4 p.m.  

Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave, Albany 

Drop-in crafts program for ages 5 to adult.  

526-3720 ext 19. 

Free 

Sunday, August 11 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

West Berkeley arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Monday, August 12 

The First East Bay Senior Games 

10:30 a.m. clinic, 12:30 p.m. tee-off (approximate times) 

Mira Vista Golf and Country Club 

7901 Cutting Blvd. El Cerrito 

A golfing event for the 50+ crowd, in association with the California and National Senior Games Association. 

891-8033 (registration deadline July 29) 

Varying entry fees. 

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 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Saturday, August 17 

Author Reading and Signing: Haunani-Kay Trask 

3 p.m.  

Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave., Berkeley 

Meet Hawaiian author Haunani-Kay Trask. 

548-2350 

Free 

Cajun & More 

Four Live Bands, crafts fair, Cajun food, dance lessons, micro-brewery beer & dance floor. 

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, August 18 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician basic repairs such as brake adjustment and fixing a flat. 

For more information: (510) 527-7470 

Thursday, August 22 

Film: "Ralph Ellison: An American Journey" 

8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Berkeley filmmaker Avon Kirkland's stirring documentary about the great American author, Ralph Ellison. 

981-6205 

Free 

Friday, August 23 

Teen Playreaders present Bizarre Shorts 

(through August 24) 7 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Playreaders present 20 short, bizarre plays, contemporary and classic. 

644-6850 

Free 

Saturday, August 24 

Roller Derby & Big Time Wrestling 

6:30 p.m. 

Richmond Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza 

Roller Derby: Bay Bombers vs. Brooklyn Red Devils, Big Time Wrestling superstars 

636-9300 

$10 Advance, $20 Door 

Monday, September 2 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter  

6:30 PM.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley  

Chapter’s monthly meeting. Speaker: multicultural historian, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, received 

the prestigious Valitutti Award for non fiction.  

549-2970 

Free 

Sunday, September 8 

Lifelong Medical Care First Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk Fundraiser 

9 a.m. to noon 

West Berkeley 

Individual and team participation, a health fair, food, prizes, live music, free insurance eligibility screening - fun for all ages. 

704-6010 

STOCKTON — The only things missing from the first day of the San Francisco 49ers’ training camp were the projected 100-degree temperatures — and first-round draft pick Mike Rumph. 

The 49ers kicked off the NFL’s second-earliest camp on Monday under gorgeous conditions at the University of the Pacific. Terrell Owens was smiling, Jeff Garcia was completely healthy and general manager Terry Donahue was in good spirits even without Rumph, one of just two draft picks who haven’t signed. 

But even Rumph’s absence wasn’t enough to cause big problems as the 49ers began eight days of workouts before their trip to Japan to play the Washington Redskins in the Osaka Dome. 

Unlike past seasons, when every top draft choice was expected to contribute immediately to a rebuilding club, these 49ers are already rebuilt. 

“We’ve been looking forward to having increased expectations,” coach Steve Mariucci said. “For two or three years, we were in such a rebuilding mode. We’ve gone through that, and now we have many pieces of the puzzle together.” 

Rumph isn’t expected to be more than a nickel back this season, but his negotiations with the 49ers bogged down on Monday, Donahue said. Since so few first-round picks have signed yet, it’s difficult to assess the former Miami star’s market value. 

“He gets a little further behind with each passing moment,” Mariucci said. 

The only other rookie remaining unsigned is defensive lineman Josh Shaw, a sixth-round pick from Michigan State who’s still recovering from a knee injury. 

But the rest of the Niners seemed to be enjoying what has been an unusual luxury in recent seasons — familiarity with their teammates and their game plan. Twenty of San Francisco’s 22 starters returned from last year’s 12-4 playoff season, with Pro Bowl guard Ron Stone and safety Tony Parrish the only newcomers immediately slated as starters. 

“We know the whole playbook already,” defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield said. “It’s really just refreshing our minds. In the team meetings (defensive coordinator) Jim Mora flew through all the defenses we put in. We pretty much knew them already.” 

Stubblefield helped keep that familiarity fresh by calling his defensive teammates and persuading nearly all of them to spend weeks worth of offseason workouts at the 49ers’ training complex in Santa Clara. 

The 49ers wore shoulder pads and helmets during afternoon workouts, but those couldn’t hide the smile on Owens’ face. The mercurial All-Pro receiver pronounced himself finished with minor league basketball “for six months, at least” and even spoke of becoming a team leader this season. 

“A couple of friends told me I’ll have to step up a little bit, and I’ll try to take that role,” Owens said. “There are going to be times when I might have to say something, but at the same time, I’m going to perform, and let my leadership come from that.” 

It was yet another change of tactic for Owens, who has bemoaned his lack of friends on the 49ers’ roster in the past. But with Owens’ volatile relationship with Mariucci simmering on low for now, the talented wideout seemed happy and healthy — even though he claimed to be “overweight” despite a minuscule body fat percentage. 

“We’ve already ironed that out, and it’s in the closet,” Owens said of his disagreements with Mariucci. “It’s not even an issue. It’s not on my mind. We’re thinking about other things. 

“Guys around here are hungry. They’re hungry for wins and for a championship. It’s been a while since people were like that around here.” 

As the city’s need for more housing is pitted against a burgeoning slow-growth movement, City Council will consider appeals against three proposed developments tonight that could result in 179 housing units, 31 of which would be designated for low-income residents. 

The basis for the appeals includes complaints about too little parking, a plan that is too dense with development and a lack of conformity to the neighborhood aesthetics regarding height and design. The Zoning Adjustments Board had previously approved use permits for the projects, all of which were proposed by Berkeley-based Panoramic Interests. 

The projects include a 44-unit project with 3,000 square feet of commercial space at 2119 University Ave. near Shattuck Avenue; a 100-unit project with 8,500 square feet of commercial space at 2471 Shattuck Ave. near Haste Street and a 35-unit project with 5,200 square feet of commercial space at 2700 San Pablo Ave. near Derby Street. 

Berkeley resident Howie Muir, whose name appears on all three of the appeals, is leading the opposition against the developments. Muir, who lives near the 2700 San Pablo Ave. proposal, is also co-author of the height initiative, a slow growth initiative slated for the November ballot. 

At tonight’s meeting, the council has three options. It can follow the recommendation of the ZAB and dismiss the appeals and move the project forward; send the projects back to the ZAB for further consideration; or void the use permits and set additional public hearings regarding each project. 

According to Current Planning Manager Mark Rhoades, city staff has painstakingly reviewed the projects and has recommended that council dismiss all three appeals. 

“We’ve reviewed the project and we didn’t find new or extraordinary circumstances that would require further review of these projects,” he said.  

Panoramic Interests Project Manager Chris Hudson said if the council sent any of the projects back to the ZAB or held more public hearings the developments would be unnecessarily delayed, and that building more housing is a high priority. 

“Staff has been reviewing these projects for a long, long time and I think they are correct in their response and I hope the council supports them,” he said. “There just isn’t a lot of factual background to these appeals.” 

Muir could not be reached Monday to comment on the appeals.  

Mayor Shirley Dean said she couldn’t comment on the specifics of the appeals but is not happy about delaying more housing. 

“Berkeley is in sore need of more housing and especially affordable housing,” she said. “I’m concerned because Mr. Muir doesn’t even live close to two of these projects.” 

But Councilmember Dona Spring said that while more housing is needed in Berkeley, there must be more assurances that affordable housing will be built for those who really need it – people who earn 60 percent or less of area median income, which is $36,000 for a family of three in Berkeley.  

In keeping with the state’s criteria for affordable housing, the 31 units set aside for low-income units are evenly split between those who earn 50 percent of the median income and those who earn 80 percent of the median income, which is $48,640 for a family of three.  

“I support development in the downtown area but I would like to see height bonuses given to developers who will provide more housing for people who earn 60 percent of the AMI [Area Median Income],” Spring said. “The rents are so high that many people who live in affordable housing can’t afford food or medicine after paying rent.”  

Perhaps the most controversial of the three projects being considered is the 35 units proposed at 2700 San Pablo Ave. During the last two years, the project has been kicked around the Department of Planning and Development, the ZAB and the City Council.  

Originally, Panoramic Interests and its partner in the project, Jubilee Restoration, a nonprofit developer, proposed 48 units and 5,392 square feet of commercial space. The size of the proposal generated intense opposition from the surrounding neighbors who lead the ZAB to reject the developers’ application. 

Panoramic Interests and Jubilee Restoration appealed to the City Council, which was considering the issue when the developers abruptly withdrew the application. Several months later, the developers resubmitted an application for the project, but scaled it down to 35 units and 5,266 square feet of commercial space. Much less neighborhood opposition ensued and the ZAB unanimously approved the use permit in February.  

“We first bought this property four years ago,” said Hudson. “It’s really a shame it takes this long to build housing in Berkeley and it’s why more housing isn’t built here.” 

To the Editor: 

Tom Bates says he's not a leftist, yet he is surrounded by leftists from every corner of town, all hoping against hope that he can unseat Shirley Dean. Tom Bates laments about the loss of rent control, a most important issue to leftists. Just what does Bates mean?  

Passage of Costa Hawkins (vacancy decontrol) does not mean that rent control has ended in Berkeley; it has just been modified from the draconian environment that prevailed under the leadership of former mayor Loni Hancock. Thousands of tenants throughout Berkeley enjoy low rents and eviction controls virtually unprecedented in any American city, yet Tom Bates says rent control is a thing of the past. 

Tom Bates says he can work with both sides to solve disputes. Does he mean he'll convince leftist councilmembers like Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington to change their minds on important issues like housing, development, and sensible conversion of warehouse space? What specifically are the disputes that Mr. Bates hopes to resolve? 

Just what is Tom Bates up to? Is he temporarily disassociating himself from the left, very conveniently, to give us the impression that he is a moderate? Sounds like Berkeley voters are in for a slick campaign of deception from Mr. Bates. 

Leon Mayeri 

Berkeley

BOSTON — Nine white doves took flight from home plate toward Fenway Park’s famous Green Monster, soaring over the outfield where Ted Williams once roamed before turning and climbing over the Red Sox dugout and out of the ballpark. 

Then, one-by-one, current and former Red Sox players took their positions on the field — leaving left field empty except for a garland of white carnations in the shape of a ”9.” 

With a wave from shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, they all headed out to Williams’ former domain to say goodbye. 

The Hub bid the Kid adieu a final time on Monday, as Red Sox fans came by the thousands to pay their respects to the team’s greatest player at a pair of events honoring the baseball and war hero. 

About 12,000 people came to the ballpark in the morning to meander around the warning track past mementos of Williams’ Hall of Fame career. At night, those artifacts came to life in the form of Red Sox greats from Carl Yastrzemski to Garciaparra and dignitaries such as John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut and Williams’ squadron leader in Korea. 

“Just saying his name means excellence in baseball,” said Glenn, who flew more than a dozen missions with Williams. “For me, Ted also stood for excellence in a setting far removed from baseball and for which he is less well-known. ... He never held back.” 

About 20,500 people bought tickets for the star-studded service to remember Williams and forget the fight among his children over whether to have his remains cremated or preserved in cryonic ice. (Williams’ three children declined an invitation to attend.) 

The subject was broached only by former teammate and longtime friend Dom DiMaggio, who drew a standing ovation when he broke from the program with an impassioned plea to scatter Williams’ ashes over his favorite fishing spot, the Gulf of Mexico. 

“I hope and pray this controversy will end as abruptly as it began and that the family will do the right thing by honoring Ted’s last wishes as to his final resting place,” DiMaggio said. “And may he then finally rest in peace.” 

Williams died July 5. Williams’ life was celebrated, with nine “innings” dedicated to No. 9, touching on his life as a young rookie who proclaimed his goal to be known as “the greatest hitter who ever lived”; a veteran of two wars; a tireless charity fund-raiser; and an elder statesman who was inducted into the baseball and fishing halls of fame. 

Fans entering the ballpark for the evening tribute were given a folder with Williams’ stats, a postcard of his Cooperstown plaque and a copy of John Updike’s famous New Yorker piece, “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.” 

Once inside, they said goodbye for good. 

The park was decorated with memories of Williams’ life and his career. Giant banners covered the Green Monster to illustrate three of his biggest passions: hitting, serving in the Marines and talking to kids with cancer. Proceeds of the evening event were donated to the Jimmy Fund, Williams’ favorite charity. 

Stenciled in the infield dirt were the numbers .406, Williams’ batting average in 1941, and 521, his home run total, and “USMC,” just one of many reminders of his patriotism and of the statistics he lost during five years he spent fighting in two wars. 

“What would his baseball records have been if he had not been called back to active duty? Who knows?” Glenn said. “But I never heard Ted complain about that. Not once. Not a word.” 

For five hours in the morning, a steady stream of fans that included families with strollers, camp field trips and even Red Sox first baseman Brian Daubach filed in under a blazing sun to walk along the warning track and see artifacts of Williams’ career. 

The fans peeked in the dugouts and bullpen, pretended to make catches against the Wall and, as they were leaving, had a chance to shake hands with team owner John Henry. 

Two Marines stood guard as fans left a mounting pile of flowers, baseballs and caps and posed for pictures at the base of the center field wall. At night, the bouquets left by fans were used to fill in the No. 9 in left field. 

Williams’ Hall of Fame plaque was affixed to the left-field wall. A dozen more artifacts from Cooperstown were on display under the center-field bleachers, including the bat and ball used when he homered in his last at-bat. 

The Wall also featured a picture gallery of Williams’ career, showing shots of him with Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and Yastrzemski and Muhammad Ali and former president and fishing buddy, George Bush. Forties music wafted from the speakers while the scoreboard video screen played highlights of Williams career and testimonials from friends and colleagues. 

Billboards hung in the netting above the Green Monster in left field called Williams “An American Hero” and “the greatest hitter who ever lived.” 

Fans also had a chance to sign condolence cards, with many choosing to say simply, “Thanks, Ted.” 

“I saw your last homer,” one wrote. “Awesome.” 

And that’s how the Red Sox chose to finish the program as well, with broadcaster Curt Gowdy narrated Williams’ final at-bats on Sept. 28, 1960. With former Orioles pitcher Jack Fisher on the mound, Gowdy called Williams’ final homer. 

“What a way to go out.” 

Called “"Frankenfoods” by critics because they’re designed in a lab, genetically engineered foods are increasingly drawing attention and raising concerns among Berkeley residents.  

Friday, environmental group Greenpeace transformed a Berkeley backyard into a teach-in, seeking to share information about the unknown safety risks of using genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, in food. 

“The [biochemical] industry likes to say [GMOs are] an extension of traditional breeding but it’s not,” said Heather Whitehead of the San Francisco Greenpeace office. “It’s an extension of green revolution pesticides and monoculture farming.” 

Between 60 percent and 70 percent of processed food in American supermarkets contains genetically modified ingredients, according to Whitehead.  

Greenpeace wants to bring this number down. Last year it pursuaded local Trader Joe’s chain management to eliminate GMO ingredients in all of the store’s brand products. 

Now they’ve stepped up the battle by taking on the supermarket giant Safeway. Greenpeace has set up tables in front of the supermarkets in San Francisco and Berkeley, and has gathered more than 600 signatures. It has held demonstrations at Safeway corporate offices in Pleasanton.  

As for the cultivation of GMOs in California, Whitehead said that little is done commercially. She sees greater danger in university’s partnerships with certain industries. 

“UC Berkeley has a partnership with Novartis, doing mostly genetics research. Last year they did genetic studies on the corn crop,” she said. “A lot of initial genetic research is needed by industry... and what industry is making money off on their proprietary products is that initial research. They are using our land grant, publicly-funded universities as their research grounds.” 

The health effects remain an issue. 

“I think people are really concerned about it,” Whitehead said. “All of us are guinea pigs right now. There have never been any human tests. They haven’t asked us, they haven’t told us.” 

A recent ABC news poll showed that 93 percent of Americans would favor the labeling of genetically modified foods. 

Whitehead was pessimistic about a recently-introduced Congressional bill that would require labeling. She was more positive about spreading the non-GMO gospel. 

“The goal of this meeting was to share ideas about why GMOs are bad and talk to parents,” she said. “Parents are a group that is very concerned about it.” 

Judith Barish was one such parent. As her children Sasha, 4, and Rafael, 1, ran around at the backyard teach-in, she said, "As a mom, I just got really concerned about the food that my kids eat. We’ve always eaten organic but now we have a heightened concern about the scary chemicals and organisms that might be in our food.” 

Barish was realistic about education and labeling. 

“I think there’s a huge, slow process of educating people,” Barish said. “I think we do need bigger meetings and mass tools of communication but I also think these smaller gatherings where people can sit down and talk face to face is an important part of this.” 

To the Editor: 

Our political leaders need to realize what we taxpayers and 401k pension-savers already know: that our economic system is under attack. 

Three imperatives are necessary to repair our damaged economy. 

1) We need a special prosecutor to investigate the corporate accounting cheats, from the President and Vice President all the way down. 

Their self-serving actions have betrayed the trust that fuels our free market system. They have attacked our country just as surely as Osama bin Laden did, and have caused far more economic damage. 

2) The ill-gotten gains of the stock market cheats must be confiscated. Their bank accounts must be frozen and put in the U.S. Treasury. Take back their money, here and abroad, where their profits are being tax-sheltered by Bush's “tax reform” that allows an “exception for active financing income,” which enables multi-national corporations to shift their money to off-shore subsidiaries, away from our economy. 

3) Rescind the tax loopholes that were passed last year. Bush's repeal of the alternative minimum tax [back to 1986] gave corporations “free” money with no incentive to use it to help support the economy from which they sprang. The estate tax reductions [which the Republicans have tagged as the “death tax”] is the only tax that some well-sheltered wealthy people have to pay. It must be rescinded immediately as well. 

The economy is in the tank and government finances are deep in debt, while security spending is higher than ever and necessary social programs are being cut. It is time to rescind those tax breaks for the rich. Taxpayers need a fair system where those that have benefited most in our country pay the most to maintain it. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

VAISON-LA-ROMAINE, France — Lance Armstrong is taking the suspense out of the Tour de France. 

For the fourth straight year, his rivals are stranded long before the finish. His early success is angering French fans and ruining organizers’ plans to make the Tour less predictable. 

Don’t blame Armstrong: He’s only doing his job. 

“It is what they pay me to do,” the Texan said Sunday. “They say, ’Lance, we want you to win the Tour de France.’ 

“I can’t really concern myself with, ’Is it bad for the event?”’ 

After Monday’s rest day, six stages remained in the world’s toughest cycling race, including three grueling stretches in the Alps. 

Nevertheless, a fourth consecutive title seemed easily within Armstrong’s reach, thanks to his performance in the Pyrenees and on the formidable Mont Ventoux. 

The U.S. Postal Service rider leads his biggest challenger, Joseba Beloki of the Once team, by nearly 4 1/2 minutes in the overall standings. 

Barring injury or illness, or a sudden and drastic loss of form, that advantage is likely to grow in the coming days. 

“Armstrong has shown he has the blood of champions flowing through his veins,” Once team director, Manolo Saiz, told French daily Le Parisien. “He is much stronger than us, we see it day after day. 

“Of course, we will still do the maximum and hope Armstrong has an ’off’ day,” Saiz said. “But it would really have to be a big ’off’ day for us to catch up.” 

Tour organizers saved some of this year’s toughest stages for last in a bid to make the race more suspenseful. In 2001, almost the whole final week was made up of flat stretches, in which rivals had nearly no chance of reducing Armstrong’s lead. 

On Tuesday, riders were to trek from Vaison-La-Romaine, in the southern Provence region, to Les Deux Alpes ski station. Wednesday’s 16th stage is probably the hardest of the three-week race, taking competitors over three exceptionally difficult climbs. Thursday’s leg also runs through the Alps. 

Mountain stages are often unpredictable, but Armstrong looked so strong in the first three that a serious challenge in the Alps seems highly unlikely. 

He won the opening two mountain stages in the Pyrenees, finishing with a sprint both times. 

Although he didn’t win Sunday’s stage on Mont Ventoux, he made the fastest climb to the summit in Tour history. He climbed 5,280 feet over 13 miles in 58 minutes, knocking 53 seconds off the previous best set by Marco Pantani two years ago. 

Frenchman Richard Virenque took the stage, but his victory had almost no impact on Armstrong’s title bid. After the leg, Virenque was 10th overall, 13:12 behind Armstrong. Meanwhile, Beloki’s deficit grew from 2:28 to 4:21. 

During Armstrong’s incredible climb to the top, French fans fearing Virenque would be overtaken jeered the American, and some branded him a drug-user by shouting “Dop-AY! Dop-AY!” (“Doped! Doped!”). 

Armstrong, who has never failed a drug test and repeatedly denied taking banned substances, said his four-year domination of the Tour was likely to blame for the fans’ hostility. 

“Perhaps that’s part of the reason the people are so angry on the climbs,” he said. “They would rather have a new winner every year, a new winner every day, a constant evolution. 

“But I care too much about the event, I care too much about winning to factor that in.” 

To the Editor: 

Our political leaders need to realize what we taxpayers and 401k pension-savers already know: that our economic system is under attack. 

Three imperatives are necessary to repair our damaged economy. 

1) We need a special prosecutor to investigate the corporate accounting cheats, from the President and Vice President all the way down. 

Their self-serving actions have betrayed the trust that fuels our free market system. They have attacked our country just as surely as Osama bin Laden did, and have caused far more economic damage. 

2) The ill-gotten gains of the stock market cheats must be confiscated. Their bank accounts must be frozen and put in the U.S. Treasury. Take back their money, here and abroad, where their profits are being tax-sheltered by Bush's “tax reform” that allows an “exception for active financing income,” which enables multi-national corporations to shift their money to off-shore subsidiaries, away from our economy. 

3) Rescind the tax loopholes that were passed last year. Bush's repeal of the alternative minimum tax [back to 1986] gave corporations “free” money with no incentive to use it to help support the economy from which they sprang. The estate tax reductions [which the Republicans have tagged as the “death tax”] is the only tax that some well-sheltered wealthy people have to pay. It must be rescinded immediately as well. 

The economy is in the tank and government finances are deep in debt, while security spending is higher than ever and necessary social programs are being cut. It is time to rescind those tax breaks for the rich. Taxpayers need a fair system where those that have benefited most in our country pay the most to maintain it. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

OAKLAND – The Oakland City Council will vote Tuesday on an exclusive negotiating agreement with developer Forest City Residential West, which is looking to build on a plot of land that has been deemed as the most suitable location for a new baseball-only stadium. 

The exclusive agreement would prohibit city officials from discussing development plans with any other party, including the Oakland Athletics, on the so-called uptown site, located north of City Hall along Telegraph Avenue, an area that includes the shuttered Fox Theatre building. 

The move, along with a decision to scratch a presentation on the baseball stadium from the agenda, has some baseball fans crying foul, alleging that city officials are ruining the chance of getting a new stadium in Oakland. 

“This site in Oakland is the only viable site for a ballpark,'' says Lil Bartholo, a member of the Oakland A's Fan Coalition. “We fear that (city officials) are setting us up for a situation where the Oakland A's will have no other ballpark opportunities.'' 

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente says that the characterization is unfair. 

He notes that the baseball team has not expressed an interest in the uptown site, and adds that the city can't afford to put everything on hold at the location, especially when there's the possibility of movement on the long-dormant, blighted corridor. 

“The A's haven't made any decision -- or any commitment -- they've made no indication that they want an uptown stadium,'' De La Fuente said. “I don't know why these people want the A's to force the decision.'' 

The council gave approval to the exclusive negotiating agreement with Forest City in closed session earlier this month.  

At a July 9 meeting of the Community and Economic Development Committee, an amendment was passed calling for the agreement to allow the city to keep negotiating with the Oakland A's about a baseball only stadium. 

But a report from CEDA staff signed by City Manager Robert Bobb, a proponent of the new stadium, recommends that the city council not expand the agreement with Forest City to include the baseball team. 

The report says that the proposed inclusion “negates the objective of exclusivity because it would permit the [Redevelopment] agency to negotiate simultaneously with Forest City and the Oakland Athletics.'' 

The report concludes that the amendment would also be costlier and take more time, since Forest City would have to consider the effects of the ballpark in an environmental impact document. 

So far, the baseball team has kept quiet when it comes to talking about a location for a new ballpark. At a news conference earlier this month, team co-owner Steve Schott dodged questions about the team's preference for a new home. 

The news conference was held to address another aspect of the relationship between the team and its host city -- one that the Oakland officials are also expected to consider at the Tuesday meeting. 

City officials are expected to approve a five-year lease extension agreement with the Athletics that would allow the baseball team to keep playing at the Oakland Coliseum until 2007, with a three single-year extension options. 

According to De La Fuente, accepting the lease extension is as far as the city can go with the A's until the team makes further indications of its plans. 

“I'm absolutely ready to work with the owners of the A's when they decide where they want to be,'' De La Fuente said. 

He added that even if the baseball team expresses interest in the uptown location after the exclusive agreement is reached, there is still a chance that the team can work an agreement with Forest City that could lead to an uptown stadium.

SAN FRANCISCO — Apartment rents remain in a holding pattern in most major Western markets except California, where the contrasting fortunes of the state’s northern and southern regions continue to push rates in opposite directions, according to a real estate survey released Monday. 

Pressured by a long run of layoffs in high-tech industries, San Francisco Bay area apartment rents during the three months ended June 30 fell for the sixth consecutive quarter, according to RealFacts, a Novato-based research firm. 

Although rents in most markets remain about the same as a year ago, RealFacts said signs of weakness are appearing in Seattle, Denver, Phoenix and Reno, Nev. 

Although apartment rents in the San Francisco metropolitan area remain the West’s highest, the average June 30 rate of $1,653 is 19 percent below its December 2000 peak of $2,036, RealFacts said. The June rent represents a 14 percent decrease from a year ago. 

Rents in Santa Clara County — the Silicon Valley’s hub — have plunged even further, falling to an average of $1,432 in June, down 27 percent from a high of $1,951 in early 2001. Santa Clara County rents are 21 percent lower than a year ago. 

Sacramento continues to attract more residents fleeing the Bay Area’s high housing costs, keeping it as the only Northern California rental market on the upswing. Second-quarter rents in Sacramento averaged $853, a 5 percent increase from the same time last year. 

Meanwhile, Southern California rents continued to climb, reflecting the region’s healthier economy, experts said. While unemployment has climbed higher throughout the state, the job losses haven’t been as dramatic in Southern California as in the Bay Area. 

Riverside and San Bernardino counties emerged as the West’s strongest rental market with an average second-quarter rent of $857, a 6 percent increase from the same time last year. 

In San Diego, the average rent rose 5 percent to $1,112. Average rents went up 4 percent in Los Angeles to an average of $1,248 while Orange County’s rents edged up 2 percent to $1,215. 

Outside California, rents barely fluctuated, moving up or down by 1 percent or less everywhere but Boise, Idaho, RealFacts said. The firm surveys 6,000 apartment complexes in 19 major markets west of the Mississippi River every three months. 

The San Francisco Bay area’s steady decline in rents is raising concerns that the region’s still-rising home prices are headed for a hard fall in the next year or two. 

A mid-priced Bay Area home in May sold for $413,000 — 21 percent higher than at the height of the region’s tech boom in early 2000, according to industry research firm DataQuick Information Systems. 

Some economists believe the Bay Area home prices reflect an unrealistic expectation of a robust high-tech recovery. 

“The only people that appear to be betting on a near-term tech recovery are the people buying homes in the Bay Area right now,” said economist Edward Leamer of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. “Investors around the world certainly aren’t expecting it.” 

Unless the tech industry recaptures its former vigor, Leamer fears Bay Area home prices will crash, dealing another financially demoralizing blow to households that have already absorbed substantial losses in the freefalling stock market. 

Home prices also are hitting new highs in Southern California, but the accompanying increase in rents make those gains look more rational, Leamer said. A mid-priced home in Southern California sold for $273,000 in June, a 17 percent increase from the prior year, DataQuick said.

LIVERMORE — U.S. supercomputers have been the world’s most powerful since the first high-performance machines analyzed virtual nuclear blasts, climate change and the makeup of the universe. 

Now, one built in Japan with an “old” design runs five times faster than the previous record holder, a machine that simulates nuclear tests at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

Japan’s Earth Simulator supercomputer hasn’t quite rattled the United States like the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957. But it does highlight some drawbacks of recent U.S. machines — and it has made more than a few scientists envious. 

“This machine is powerful enough that a researcher who uses it can do in one day what it takes a researcher in the U.S. to do in one month,” said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee professor who tracks the world’s 500 speediest computers. 

More than national pride is at issue. Certain research is better suited to machines like the Earth Simulator, whose design was abandoned by most U.S. manufacturers in favor of one that melds better with the rest of their computing businesses. 

Supercomputers are built with thousands of processors that work in tandem to analyze the most complex issues — including nuclear test simulations, aircraft designs, drug creation and others — for governments, research centers and corporations. 

Livermore’s ASCI White supercomputer, like most recent U.S.-built machines, used off-the-shelf processors rather than custom parts specifically geared for high-performance scientific jobs. 

The trend took off in the 1990s, as such processors grew increasingly powerful, making it difficult to justify the cost of developing chips just for the small scientific supercomputer market. 

Now, supercomputers like ASCI White use the same chips — but thousands more of them — as do servers sold to businesses. 

Such machines now make up nearly 92 percent of the top 500 supercomputers worldwide. In 1993, they made up only about 27 percent. 

But some say the move away from custom processors places business concerns ahead of scientific needs. 

“The arguments are all based on strange economic theories — none of them are based on technical grounds,” said Burton Smith, chief scientist at Cray Inc., which still sells custom supercomputers. 

NEC-built Earth Simulator, which will be used in climate and earthquake studies, is faster than all 15 of the biggest supercomputers in the United States combined, Dongarra said. 

It performs 35.9 trillion calculations a second with 5,104 processors. ASCI White, by contrast, performs 7.2 trillion calculations a second with its 8,192 microprocessors. 

“U.S. scientists want to use it,” said Kiyoshi Otsuka, leader of the Earth Simulator’s research exchange group in Yokohama, Japan. 

The high-performance title isn’t expected to stay in Japan forever. IBM, which built ASCI White, Hewlett-Packard Co. and other U.S. supercomputer makers say they are working on even more powerful machines. 

“We could do that in a heartbeat and we could do that for a lot less money,” said Peter Ungaro, vice president of high performance computing at IBM, which sells supercomputers to foreign nuclear governments, research centers and corporations. 

Officials at the Livermore Lab say their machine and others like it offer better price performance than those designed like the Japanese supercomputer. Earth Simulator cost about $350 million, compared with ASCI White’s $110 million. 

“For global climate, (Earth Simulator) is a great advance,” said David Nowak, the ASCI program leader at Livermore. “It’s just a very expensive machine.” 

But supercomputers built with off-the-shelf parts can be more expensive in the long run, said Guy Robinson, research liaison at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, where scientists study everything from climate change to how galaxies form. 

Price isn’t the only factor, however. Scientists say certain research problems work better or are easier to program on one supercomputer type over the other. 

Custom supercomputers, for instance, have bigger data pipes, known as memory bandwidth, which is critical in climate modeling and some nuclear research. 

That can be a drawback for off-the-shelf processors. 

“In one sense, we have a tiny straw for data,” Dongarra said. “And we have the processor, which would like a fire hose of data to come at it.” 

But off-the-shelf machines work best on data analysis such as in genetic research. 

It’s a case of finding the best fit for the research — and budget, said Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center. 

“From a political and financial perspective, we’re not in an environment where we could build all these different kinds of tools with equal emphasis,” she said. 

J. David Neelin, atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said computing is ultimately just another tool, like a laptop is for a student assigned to write a paper. 

A faster machine does not guarantee quality. 

“Are they going to get that essay out any faster or is it going to be any better? Well, their spell checker is going to run a little faster,” he said. “In the end, it’s the thought that goes into it that really makes the essay.” 

SANTA ANA — The factory worker arrested in the abduction and slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion was charged Monday with murder and other counts that could bring the death penalty. 

The charges against Alejandro Avila came a week after Samantha was abducted kicking and screaming outside her apartment while playing with a friend. The girl’s nude body was found a day later. Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. 

Avila, 27, was charged with murder, kidnapping and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child. Prosecutors could seek the death penalty under special circumstances included with the charges: the murder occurred after a kidnapping and the crime involved lewd acts with a person under 14. 

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackackaus said no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty. 

“I do want to make one thing very clear,” he said. “Anyone who commits an act like this in Orange County will either die in prison of natural causes or be executed. It is almost impossible to overstate the amount of damage this type of crime causes in our community and the entire nation.” 

Avila, who works at a plant that makes pacemakers and other medical devices, appeared at the hearing via video from a jail. He did not enter a plea Monday and was ordered held without bail. He was scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 9. 

Avila has denied involvement in the girl’s disappearance.

OAKLAND — Negotiations over a new West Coast dock workers contract broke off late Sunday with longshoremen and shipping lines accusing each other of ignoring their good faith offers and ruining what had appeared to be a hopeful exchange of proposals. 

Officials at both the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been publicly upbeat about negotiations — even as they conceded there was little progress since their contract officially expired July 1. 

Talks this weekend, they said, would foreshadow either a quick conclusion or a protracted dispute over a deal that governs about $260 billion worth of goods that transit 29 major ports from San Diego to Seattle. 

Last week, the union offered what it cast as a fair and reasonable proposal to the tangled problem of how to introduce more efficient technology to the waterfront without making too many jobs obsolete. Shipping lines countered Sunday afternoon and the two sides emerged pointing fingers. 

“They seem to almost reject my proposal out of hand and it’s a bitter disappointment to me,” Joseph Miniace, the association’s chief executive officer, said after Sunday’s negotiations. “This was a melding of both proposals and we’ve come a great distance since negotiations began.” 

A union spokesman responded that the association had hardly budged from a preliminary offer of months ago — and that was galling because the union had offered to accept job cuts for job security as computers do more work on the docks. 

“We offered him everything he asked for. He gave us nothing. Zero, zip, zilch,” said Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the union which represents 10,500 dock workers. “It’s a major disappointment and it shows that he’s not really trying to negotiate.” 

Both sides did approve another 24-hour contract extension, as they have done since July 1. Union negotiators also will present the association’s latest proposal at a meeting of delegates from local chapters that convenes this week in San Francisco, where the negotiations are taking place. 

“I wouldn’t call it a breakdown yet,” Miniace said. “I consider it a significant event, but I wouldn’t say it’s a breakdown.” 

Both sides have promised harmony on the docks. The union downplayed initial murmurs of a strike and shipping lines say they won’t lock out workers unless they determine there has been an organized slowdown. 

With Pacific Rim trade projected to double in the next decade, shipping lines complain West Coast ports won’t be able to keep up unless they catch up with their more automated Asian peers. 

That made technology the focus this contract. 

Early last week, the union pitched a proposal that Stallone said would cost about 600 of the 2,100 longshoremen clerk jobs. The trade-off was that the union would control new jobs generated from increased efficiency. 

The association responded guardedly, saying the proposal wouldn’t cut costs at all. On Sunday, Miniace reiterated his promise that no current longshoreman clerk would lose his job. 

“When you guarantee somebody that I am going to protect your job as I modernize, that is a tremendous offer,” he said. 

He also said his proposal would give longshoremen a 17 percent increase in compensation — wages, health benefits and pension — over five years. He said the union had asked for a 57 percent increase in those costs over three years. Overall, he said, the cost of the contract would rise about $200 million to $1.4 billion. 

The union’s response to the association’s offer will emerge soon. 

About 80 rank-and-file longshoremen from along the coast are set to meet this week in San Francisco. During negotiations in 1999, that caucus offered a chance to debate a draft contract. This year, it could become a forum for the union to brace for battle. 

Already, the union has scheduled a Wednesday demonstration outside the association’s San Francisco headquarters. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers sought Monday to undo California’s strict arbitration standards when it comes to resolving securities disputes. 

The exchange and the association said in a federal suit that the new ethics standards for California arbitrators should not apply in securities disputes. 

California’s rules, adopted by the state Judicial Council in April, “may work to the detriment of investors,” the two stock groups said in court papers. The Judicial Council, the state judiciary’s rule-making arm, enacted the guidelines over the groups’ objections. 

The groups said that arbitration agreements between investors and their brokers should be governed by the less-restrictive rules used by the association and exchange. 

Many brokers demand that investors arbitrate some disputes rather than go to court. 

The suit says California requires an arbitrator to disclose too much personal and professional information, a cumbersome requirement that may limit the number of arbitrators. The suit also says California’s rules make it easier to disqualify an arbitrator. 

No court date has been set. 

EMIGRANT GAP — The U.S. Forest Service is considering allowing the first large rock quarry within the Tahoe National Forest, to provide granite for rebuilding Interstate 80. 

The quarry would cover about 60 acres near Yuba Gap, 40 miles east of Auburn.  

The interstate is being rebuilt between Auburn and the Nevada border for the first time since its construction 42 years ago, a process expected to take another 10 to 15 years. 

The rebuilding will require so much rock that Granite Construction Co. proposed quarrying it nearby, within the national forest, said Jim Robertson, vice president of the Watsonville-based company. 

The proposed quarry is within the 1,370 acres burned in last summer’s Gap Fire, though the proposal predates the fire, Forest Service geologist Bob DeTar said. 

The site is about 1 1/2 miles from I-80. It can’t been seen from the interstate, but is in an area used by cross-country skiers, DeTar said. A private ski lodge is on the county road leading to the site. 

The proposal will undergo extensive public environmental review, he said. 

Granite is the only company that has indicated interest in quarrying rock in the national forest, DeTar said, but the forest service may solicit bids from others who might also use the quarry. 

While other national forests host quarries, the Tahoe National Forest has only a few small gold mines, said Tahoe forest supervisor Steven Eubanks. However, a granite quarry has been operated on nearby private lands, he said. 

BYRON — On a grassy hillside a 30-minute drive from the 21st-century bustle of San Francisco lies a secret from California’s past — rock art left by the region’s original inhabitants. 

They are paintings that time forgot, faint etchings of red and black in tantalizing swirls and patterns inscribed by the Indian tribes who once met here for ceremonies and purposes that now can only be guessed at. 

Getting to the cave paintings isn’t easy. The area is secured by locks and fences. Local parks officials, who own the land, have a caretaker on site to keep off trespassers. 

Time and the elements are slowly destroying the paintings, drawn on the walls of shallow caves amid the rolling hills of Contra Costa County. The rock surface is slowly flaking away as water seeps in from the hillside. But birdlike figures and possibly other animals, which may be representations of tribal gods, can still be seen. 

Some would like to see the paintings made more accessible to the public before they are swept into oblivion. 

“We would love to open this area up so we could tell schoolchildren at an early age about history,” says Tom Mikkelsen, assistant general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District. 

Before that happens, officials would have to find a way to address the concerns of California Indians, who consider the site sacred. They also have to figure out how to keep it from being vandalized or simply loved to death. 

“It’s extremely fragile, that’s the problem,” says Jeff Fentress, an anthropologist who has studied the paintings. 

The paintings, known as pictographs because they consist of symbols, are about four miles from the town of Byron and about 50 miles east of San Francisco. 

The caves are believed to have been in use as early as 500 A.D. and carry a variety of rock art styles. The site is striking — rocky outcroppings jutting out from gentle hills where golden eagles soar. But there isn’t much in the way of food here, few oaks or other nut-bearing trees, leading researchers to conclude the site was reserved for ceremonial and spiritual purposes. 

Tribal traditions link the caves to two other nearby landmarks — Mt. Diablo, now a state park and at 3,850 feet the San Francisco Bay area’s highest mountain, and Brushy Peak, which is about 1,700 feet high. The three sites are part of the creation mythology of the region’s Miwok, Ohlone and Yokurt Indians. 

“For native people, these weren’t casual use places. They weren’t places that everyday people went to,” says Bev Ortiz, an ethnographic consultant who has also studied the pictographs. 

The issue of how to appreciate, but not destroy, ancient sites has been tackled all over the world. In Egypt, the number of visitors allowed daily at the Great Pyramid was cut from thousands to 300 to prevent damage. 

At the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, home to fascinating ruins of the prehistoric Anasazi culture, officials offer guided tours and keep some trails unmarked as they try to balance public access and historic preservation. 

“There are some special rock art sites that we have actually covered up and we now no longer show people because of the vandalism,” says park guide G.B. Cornucopia. 

The tension between ancient ways and modern life has also played out at Brushy Peak, a 1,700-foot mountain about 10 miles south of the Northern California pictograph caves, where a plan to provide more access to the summit drew protests from some California Indians. 

“This site was visited by certain people in our society to conduct private secretive ceremonies,” says Don Hankins, a Plains Miwok Indian. “Not only is it the place of our origin as referred to in our creation stories and songs but it’s also a place where many of our ceremonies stem from.” 

Park officials agreed to monitor access to the peak and work out a way to make sure the area is protected if more trails are open, perhaps through guided tours. But they aren’t getting the budgetary support they’d hoped for — in March, voters defeated a parcel tax that would have paid for projects including fencing, gates and staff to lead tours to the pictograph caves. 

A bill now before the Legislature would give added protection to sacred sites such as the pictographs. The legislation, written by state Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, would stop approval of projects deemed to adversely affect such sites unless tribal officials accepted mitigation measures, such as allowing public access but keeping the site closed during periods deemed particularly sacred. The bill has passed the Senate and is pending before the Assembly. 

For now, the pictograph caves are surrounded by chain link fences. When the weather warms up, rattlesnakes join the anti-trespasser patrol, slithering through tall grasses surrounding the rocky outcroppings. 

For those who do get to see them, the pictographs are a glimpse of a culture that was all but wiped out by the disease, destruction and dispossession wrought by colonialism and the Gold Rush.

SAN JOSE — Yosemite killer Cary Stayner told FBI agents that he would have struck again if he hadn’t been caught. . 

Stayner’s tape-recorded confession was played Monday to the jury that could give him the death penalty in the killing of three park tourists. 

The confession is the centerpiece of prosecutors’ case, who say it details how Stayner plotted the killings, how he carried them out and how he tried to throw investigators off his trail. 

On the tape, Stayner said he wanted tell someone that he had killed tourists Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, in February 1999 and then six months later beheaded park nature guide Joie Armstrong. But he kept quiet until the FBI interrogated him.

ARGONNE, Ill — With Congress headed into summer recess, President Bush called on lawmakers Monday to make the Homeland Security Department a reality as he showcased new anti-terrorism technology at a national research lab. 

“This Department of Homeland Security is not a good Republican idea, it’s not a good Democratic idea, it’s simply an American idea, and they need to get their work done,” Bush told hundreds of workers at the lab. 

The House leaves Friday on its summer break, the Senate a week later. 

“If they don’t get it done, Congress is setting itself up for a great traffic jam” leading into the weeks before adjournment this fall, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, referring to the trade, corporate responsibility and homeland security measures left unfinished. 

As part of his effort to bolster security, Bush has called on Congress to thoroughly review the 19th century law that bans the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps from participating in arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other police-type activity on U.S. soil. 

Some lawmakers have expressed concern about rushing decisions on far-reaching changes in the bureaucracy that Bush envisions. House Majority Leader Dick Armey said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “It’s time to move forward with this. The president’s got a good plan.” 

In the Senate, a version of the measure by Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., tracks closely with Bush’s plan. It also would augment the department’s ability to gather and analyze intelligence from the FBI, CIA and others. Lieberman’s panel is to take up the bill Wednesday. 

Bush told reporters that “I believe there’s a good chance” he will get the legislation by Sept. 11. 

In his sixth visit to politically vital Illinois, a state he lost in 2000, Bush toured the lab on Monday and viewing new technologies aimed at thwarting terrorism. 

“That’s why I’m here: to look in the eyes of those who possess the genius and creativity of the American people,” Bush said. “Our scientific community is serving on the front lines of this war by developing new technologies that will make America safer, and as you tackle new kinds of challenges, I want you to know, our government will stand by your side to make the job easier.” 

Among the technology Bush saw: A computer simulation of how disasters could affect infrastructure such as transportation and energy conduits; DNA analysis of biological agents; and a portable system of sensors for detecting their release. 

Argonne, an Energy Department lab, is not slated to be absorbed into the Homeland Security Department, but the department would likely channel research dollars to the facility, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for domestic security chief Tom Ridge. 

A few years ago, at the height of the swing dance revival, Bay Area hipsters could find live music for lindy-hops and rock-steps seven nights a week. But as its popularity ebbed, many hung up their zoot suits and saddle shoes for a different kind of dance. 

Today, salsa and its Caribbean kindred samba have fast become a Bay Area favorite, and a Berkeley nightclub has been attracting young and old, novice and experienced, to step into its polyrhythms. 

Salsa and samba are not, or course, new to the area. The annual Brazilian Carnival celebration in San Francisco’s Mission District has been attracting large and spirited crowds for years. After the last Brazilian Carnival in May, the Down Low club on Shattuck Avenue hosted an evening of Afro-Carribean dancing to keep the energy of the carnival going, said organizer Theo Williams. 

Saturday Williams and his company Cuice Y Clave returned to the Down Low for the third time, presenting “Salsamba Carnival,” which, as the title suggests, is a mixture of Cuban Salsa and Brazilian Samba. 

And the crowd turned out. The club, formerly Mr. E’s, was filled with young and old dancers. Most of the tables were open because few people were sitting down. The dance floor was packed. 

Performing on stage was Oakland-based, Cuban band Orquesta Charanson, whose name comes from another mixture of musical styles – charanga and son. Charanga is a traditional Cuban music played with violin and flute. Son is the type of music made popular in the United States by the Buena Vista Social Club movie and soundtrack. 

With added saxophone, percussion and upright electric bass, the Orquesta Charanson never lost the crowd’s enthusiasm. Between sets the band broke for a DJ to spin music, but the dance floor did not clear. The salsa turned to Carribean-styled hip-hop and the crowd kept swiveling and spinning. 

One of the great appeals of salsa dancing – which it shares with swing– is that it is a partner dance. Rather than the frenetic freestyle bouncing and gyrating of techno or hip-hop dancing, the discipline of salsa steps require response and reaction from a partner – which is why it is also a sexy dance. 

A performance by a Carnival troupe showed another reason why salsa is sexy. In full costume of feathered headgear and sequined G-strings, Sambadat put on a show in space on the dance floor cleared by the crowd. Headed by Tedje Rose, a professional dancer and instructor, Sambadat performed showcase dancing in a chorus line and solo routines. 

The night also featured a freestyle solo performance by Silfredo la o Vigo, a dancer from a small village near Santiago de Cuba who mixed styles and movements in an Afro-Caribbean stream of physical consciousness. 

Williams said the Bay Area is a magnet for performers and enthusiasts, coming from Cuba and all over the Caribbean and Latin America, and even a Peruvian company nearby. And because Down Low used to be Mr. E’s where Caribbean music was a mainstay, people are accustomed to coming to the corner of Shattuck and Bancroft to hear salsa and samba. 

Williams said that there will be more nights like this. “We’re pumping (the Brazilian) Carnival all year long.”

To the Editor: 

The July 5 article on the Police Tower missed the point. The tower is not on the roof but is in the rear of the residentially zoned block. Without consulting neighbors, city staff, not residents, proposed the council item for further study of the tower. 

The new tower was not publicly reviewed in 1997 (and remains out of compliance) and in 2000 was erected on the weekend (also our of compliance). It violated the processes of review in multiple ways. 

Who expected the historic civic center to have a massive 170-foot industrial structure? No other city has had the bad taste to have erected such an embarrassing structure in its city center. It is humiliating to live in a city that has so little sense of taste or respect for itself.  

Would Gordon Wozniak's neighborhood tolerate placement of such a ridiculous structure or such a lack of process? I think not. 

Wendy Alfsen 

Berkeley

Monday, July 22 

An evening of song & resistance 

7 p.m.  

AK Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St. Oakland 

With music from Samsara, James Tracy and David Rovics 

208-1700, or akpres@akpress.org 

$5 donation 

Tuesday, July 23 

Myanmar (formerly Burma): "The Golden Land" 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Ricky Fishman gives a slide presentation/talk about this isolated and remote land. 

843-3533 

Free 

Q & A with a Personal/Business Coach 

noon to 1 p.m. 

YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way 

For those interested in professional coaching careers, speak with a pro. 

848-6370 

$3 

Wednesday, July 24 

Berkeley Gray Panthers General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

Pharmacist Fred Mayer prescriptions and their costs, etc. 

548-9696  

Free 

Getting Help When You Need It 

7:30 to 9 p.m.  

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annex A 

350 Hawthorne Ave. Oakland 

Free interactive workshop to help caregivers obtain free assistance, deal with paid in-home help, and create plans to care for loved ones. 

869-6737 

Free 

"Green Building" Workshop 

6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Meeting Room A, 2090 Kittredge 

Henry Siegel, Architect, on how to use building materials that are healthier for your family and the environment.  

614-1699 

Thursday, July 25 

Combat Medic: World War II 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Memoir presentation by San Francisco physician John Kerner, describing experiences as a combat medic in World War II.  

843-3533 

Free 

California Landscapes: A Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527- 4140. 

Free 

Saturday, July 27 

Test Ride Kestrel Bicycles 

11 a.m.-1 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Pristine Sandusky of Kestrel, a premier manufacturer of high-end, carbon-fiber road and mountain bikes, introduces their latest design. 

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

Graywater Workshop  

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave 

Learn the ins and outs of reusing water with the Guerrilla Graywater Girls 

548-2220 x233  

$10 members, $15 non ( no one turned away for lack of funds) 

Santa Fe Right of Way Path Walk 

10 a.m. 

Meet at the Ohlone Greenway at Cedar St, in Cedar Rose Park. 

A new path opportunity, recently funded by the City Council. 

649-9874, or http://www.internettime.com/path 

"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, non-members $5  

Grand Summer Rummage Sale 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar and Bonita Streets 

A benefit for ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Donations and volunteers are needed 

(415) 821-6545. 

Sunday, July 28 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

(510) 527-4140 Free 

Tuesday, July 30 

The Birdhouse Chronicles: Surviving the Joys of Country Life 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Reading and discussion of Cathleen Miller's personal account of moving from San Francisco to Amish Pennsylvania to restore an old house. 

843-3533 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31 

Twilight Tours at UC Botanical Gardens 

(through August 28) 5:30 p.m.  

200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley, CA.  

Tour the garden at twilight with an expert horticulturist every Wednesday. 

643-2755  

Free with garden admission.  

Mountain Adventure Seminars: Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 p.m.-9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Thursday, August 1 

Putting it Together 

7:00 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. 

Middle school students of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp perform dance techniques, spoken word, theater. 

642-9988 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan New National Historic Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Senior Center, 2525 Macdonald Ave. 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Nutrition Career Open House 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Institute of Educational Therapy, 706 Gilman St. 

Become a Nutrition Educator or Nutrition Consultant. 

558-1711 for reservations 

Free 

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 rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

10th Annual Stroll for Epilepsy 

Six Flags Marine World, Vallejo 

The public is invited to join the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California at Six Flags Marine World for a 5K walk/fundraiser. 

1-800-632-3532 for registration 

Storytelling at the Berkeley Public Library 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Storyteller Joel Ben Izzy will present a variety of stories filled with warmth, humor, drama in the Children's Story Room. 

981-6223 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to Noon  

200 Centennial Drive 

UC Botanical Garden; First Saturday of every month. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643 - 2755. 

Free 

Sunday, August 4 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Monday, August 5 

National Organization for Women East Bay Chapter monthly meeting 

6:30 p.m. 

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Ave. 

Discussion of harassment of females employed by the City of Oakland Fire Department 

Monthly meeting: NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN Oakland 

549-2970, 287-8948  

Arts Education Department Open House 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave, Richmond 

Meet teachers, see studios/galleries, info about classes in the arts. 

620-6772 

Free 

Public Meeting to Plan a New National Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Public Library, Whittlesey Room 

325 Civic Center Plaza (near Macdonald Ave. and 25th St.) 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Saturday, August 10 

Poetry in the Plaza 

2:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch, 2090 Kittredge 

Quarter hour readings by well-known poets, dedicated to June Jordan. 

981-6100 

Free 

Tomato Tasting 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tasting and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Tea Bag Folding 

2 to 4 p.m.  

Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave, Albany 

Drop-in crafts program for ages 5 to adult.  

526-3720 ext 19. 

Free 

Sunday, August 11 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

West Berkeley arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Monday, August 12 

The First East Bay Senior Games 

10:30 a.m. clinic, 12:30 p.m. tee-off (approximate times) 

Mira Vista Golf and Country Club 

7901 Cutting Blvd. El Cerrito 

A golfing event for the 50+ crowd, in association with the California and National Senior Games Association. 

891-8033 (registration deadline July 29) 

Varying entry fees. 

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 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Saturday, August 17 

Author Reading and Signing: Haunani-Kay Trask 

3 p.m.  

Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave., Berkeley 

Meet Hawaiian author Haunani-Kay Trask. 

548-2350 

Free 

Cajun & More 

Four Live Bands, crafts fair, Cajun food, dance lessons, micro-brewery beer & dance floor. 

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, August 18 

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair 

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Learn from an REI bike technician basic repairs such as brake adjustment and fixing a flat. 

For more information: (510) 527-7470 

Thursday, August 22 

Film: "Ralph Ellison: An American Journey" 

8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - Central Branch 

2090 Kittredge St. 

Berkeley filmmaker Avon Kirkland's stirring documentary about the great American author, Ralph Ellison. 

981-6205 

Free 

Friday, August 23 

Teen Playreaders present Bizarre Shorts 

(through August 24) 7 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Playreaders present 20 short, bizarre plays, contemporary and classic. 

644-6850 

Free 

Saturday, August 24 

Roller Derby & Big Time Wrestling 

6:30 p.m. 

Richmond Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza 

Roller Derby: Bay Bombers vs. Brooklyn Red Devils, Big Time Wrestling superstars 

636-9300 

$10 Advance, $20 Door 

Monday, September 2 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter  

6:30 PM.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley  

Chapter’s monthly meeting. Speaker: multicultural historian, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, received 

the prestigious Valitutti Award for non fiction.  

549-2970 

Free 

Sunday, September 8 

Lifelong Medical Care First Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk Fundraiser 

9 a.m. to noon 

West Berkeley 

Individual and team participation, a health fair, food, prizes, live music, free insurance eligibility screening - fun for all ages. 

704-6010 

Mexican Premier League teams Morelia and Atlas played in front of a raucous crowd at Cal’s Edwards Stadium on Sunday, giving Bay Area fans a rare glimpse at soccer tradition and passion. 

The exhibition game was a bit of a snoozer, with just one goal and few opportunities, but that didn’t matter to the fans of the two teams, who came decked out in red and black (for Atlas) or yellow and red (for Morelia). Plastic trumpets blared constantly from thirty minutes before the kickoff until the final whistle and the crowd cheered loudly for their favorites and booed lustily at the villains. 

Atlas won the game on an early goal from Jose Luis Calderon, who received a feathery flick-on from Martin Machon and slid the ball under Morelia goalkeeper Moises Muñoz. Morelia had a golden opportunity to equalize late in the first half when Hernan Bujan was pulled down in the penalty area, but Tato Antonio Noriega shanked the ensuing penalty kick wide left. Each team hit the woodwork in the second half, but no more goals were scored. 

There were distinct factions to the crowd, which numbered approximately 2,500. Most of the fans seemed to be rooting for one team or the other, but there were scattered faces that was there simply to see good soccer. Cal assistant coach Brad Agoos was one of those, although Sunday’s game could hardly compare to his last experience as a fan. Agoos returned not long ago from watching his brother Jeff and the rest of the U.S. men’s national team at the World Cup in Asia. 

Agoos has played soccer all over the globe, including in our own domestic league, the fledgling Major League Soccer. According to him, the main difference between a Mexican game and an MLS game is the atmosphere. 

“Just look at how many fans showed up with just week’s notice,” Agoos said. “That’s a big part of soccer. Mexicans are a passionate people, and they don’t hold back. There’s not a lot of etiquette at these games.” 

Fremont’s Jorge Parra was wearing an Atlas jersey and hat, clearly identifying which side he was on. But for Parra, 47, the game was mainly a chance to relive memories of watching games as a teenager in Monterrey, Mexico. 

“I haven’t seen a live Mexican game since I was 18,” he said. “Mexican soccer is the best in the world outside of Europe.” 

Daniel Montero, 36, moved to Oakland from Mexico a decade ago, and his son, Eddie, had never seen a Mexican game in person.  

“He’s been to MLS games, but I wanted him to see a Mexican game,” Montero said of his 9-year-old son. “It helps him understand where he comes from. Soccer is life in Mexico. This feels like real soccer.”

Scholars from around the globe come to Berkeley to study a variety of subjects. This month, one of those subjects was trash. 

Sonia Mendoza came from the Philippines. Zini Mokhine came from South Africa. And Shibu Nair came from India. Supported by Berkeley’s Ecology Center and the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance’s Zero Waste Fellowship, the visitors spent three weeks gaining first-hand insights into Berkeley’s waste removal and recycling programs. 

While Berkeley has had recycling and composting programs in place for nearly three decades, less developed nations are just beginning to address the growing piles of waste in their homeland. 

We don’t have anything like [these recycling programs]. Everything [in South Africa] goes in one container," said Mokhine, who works for Earthlife Africa, one of the oldest environmental organizations in South Africa. “I learned quite a lot here.” 

What they learned in Berkeley was to reduce, reuse and recycle and to ‘please don’t burn.’ 

Mokhine marveled at Berkeley’s recycling infrastructure. “Recycling is quite an accomplished process here," he said. “The other thing that was an inspiration to me is the reuse." He pointed to the Urban Ore site as an example of this kind of thrift. 

But the South African man also said that American ways could be improved and that the United States has trash problems too. 

There is a lot of waste because there’s a lot of unnecessary consumption, driven by the profit-making American psyche,” he said. “When you look at some of the materials that are discarded, it totally explains the [attitude]. I wouldn’t copy America on that score.” 

Mendoza, who works for Mother Earth Unlimited in Manila, echoed Mokine’s sentiments. “I learned that people [in the United States] are disciplined, putting plastics #1 and #2 in the right containers,” she said. “But there’s still a lot of waste... directly proportional to per capita income level. We generate a lot less in Philippines.”  

Nair, who works for Thanal Conservation Action Network in India, also offered perspective on America’s ways. 

“[Here in the United States] I saw glass bottles, perfect in shape, being crushed and melted for making glass,” he said. “Actually, that is energy lost. In India [that is] employment for washing and cleaning.” 

Nair offered some positive sentiments about Berkeley as well. “Berkeley has a lot of community-based activities and lots of laws. Americans have 30 years of experience.” 

The common goal of the visiting scholars is to introduce “Zero Waste” programs in their homes. 

While the focus of Berkeley’s Ecology Center is reuse and recycling, the international GAIA’s goal is to eliminate incineration as a waste-disposal means. Incineration is hardly common in the West, but many developing nations are being asked by manufacturers to consider burning as a quick-fix method of getting rid of mounting consumer and industrial debris. 

Incinerators are banned in the Philippines, but not in South Africa or India. 

Dave Williamson, operations manager of the Ecology Center, said the international fellowships were a good platform for information exchange. 

“We got a feeling of solidarity and of confidence. They [the visiting scholars] learned a lot about the people of the United States,” he said. 

Williamson said he learned from the visitors. 

“With plastic, there’s not much you can do with it, so in India they are replacing it with jute,” a fiber for sacking and cordage obtained from two Asian plants, he said. “They also use banana leaves to make disposable utensils [which] are different looking, but first world Americans would feel comfortable using them.” 

The Ecology Center and GAIA have plans to train as many as 100 international colleagues through similar programs.

To the Editor: 

At time when Americans have just caught sight of the tip of the iceberg of corporate malfeasance on Wall Street, it's a bracing exercise to pry our eyes from the balance sheet and glance at what's happening in the far reaches of our global empire where, when people lose out to corrupt corporate management, they pay not merely with their life savings, but with their very lives. 

Remember that at the Bhopal insecticide plant run by Union Carbide in the 1980s, emergency alert systems were deliberately turned off as part of cost-cutting measures meant to protect the bottom line. 

Nearly 18 years later, the death toll from the largest industrial catastrophe in history stands at 20,000. And it is not over yet. 

Now, under pressure from the Union Carbide Corporation, and its parent, the Dow Chemical Corporation, the Indian government is seeking to use part of the Bhopal disaster victim reparations fund to clean up the contaminated soil and water of the region – a financial burden that ought to be borne not by the surviving, disease-ridden victims, but by Union Carbide and Dow. Moreover, as a sweetener to its Hindu voter base, the government wishes to stretch the limited reparations fund to include several districts, populated predominately by Hindus, which are thought never to have been exposed to the toxic clouds. 

Finally, and in a spirit wholly subservient to Wall Street hubris, it seems clear that the Indian authorities will succeed in diluting or dismissing the culpable homicide charges against Warren Anderson, former CEO of Union Carbide. 

What started as a case of sensational corporate negligence far removed from the American public's eye has evolved into a case of election manipulation and government corruption encouraged by unbridled corporate power – a destructive force that Americans have only just begun to examine critically.  

Sheila Newbery 

Berkeley 

By Greg Beacham 

The Associated Press 

OAKLAND – Precious little luck has run the Texas Rangers’ way since Alex Rodriguez joined them before last season. 

When a big dose of good fortune helped the Rangers snap their eight-game losing streak on Sunday with a remarkable victory, Rodriguez hoped it was the start of a bigger change. 

Ivan Rodriguez drove in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded single in the 12th as the Rangers survived three straight innings of peril before rallying for a 7-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics. 

Gabe Kapler had a two-run single and Alex Rodriguez hit an RBI triple in a five-run burst in the 12th as the Rangers escaped the Coliseum with just their second victory since the All-Star break. 

The final score made it look easy, but the 16 runners left on base by the A’s — including nine in the final four innings — suggested otherwise. On almost every key play, the Rangers got the break. 

“It felt so good to sneak one out,” said Alex Rodriguez, who went 3-for-5. “I think we’ve hit rock-bottom. It was nice to come up with a big win. Hopefully, we’re on the way up now. This could change a lot of things for us.” 

Oakland wasted another strong start by Mark Mulder and several chances to claim their fourth straight victory. The A’s stranded two runners in the ninth and left the bases loaded in the 10th and 11th. 

“We finally got some big outs when we needed them,” Texas manager Jerry Narron said. “When you do that, you win ballgames.” 

In the 12th, Jim Mecir (3-2) allowed Ivan Rodriguez’s drive to center field and Michael Young’s sacrifice fly before Kapler and Alex Rodriguez put it out of reach. 

Jay Powell (2-1) allowed three hits and three intentional walks while pitching out of two jams for the victory, giving Texas a rare dose of resilient relief pitching. 

“All it takes is one hit. They got it, we didn’t,” Oakland manager Art Howe said. “It looked like we were taking strikes and swinging at balls.” 

Adam Piatt had an RBI single in the 12th against Todd Van Poppel.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson made an official endorsement of Berkeley mayoral candidate Tom Bates at a rally Saturday. He told about 60 of the candidate’s supporters that he was endorsing the former state assemblyman because of their political like-mindedness and their long personal friendship. 

Carson, who said he has had a productive working relationship with incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean, did not endorse a Berkeley mayoral candidate in the last two elections, which were both won by Dean. 

“I didn’t have to give a second thought about supporting Tom Bates,” Carson said, citing their 20-year political and personal relationship. “Tom has focused in on the issues that affect people like affordable housing and the disparity of health care especially among people of color.” 

Also attending the rally were city councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Bates’ wife, Loni Hancock. Hancock is running for the 14th District state Assembly seat, the same position her husband held for 20 years before he was forced out by term limits in 1996. 

Carson joins a growing list of political incumbents who have endorsed Bates, including U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and 14th District state Assemblywoman Dion Aroner.  

Carson said the state is facing a $26 billion deficit that is bound to impact critical housing, health and education programs. He said the personal working alliance he has formed with Bates and Hancock will help the city and county attain state funds. 

“We have to focus in on how we are going to help the least of us, the homeless, the battered, the hungry and the unemployed,” Carson said. “I think, with the economic state of affairs, it’s important to have the best possible collaboration with federal, state and local bodies to figure out ways to deal with our fiscal challenges.” 

Dean, who plans to launch her re-election campaign in August, said that like Bates, she has enjoyed a productive working relationship with Carson while collaborating on such issues as the Alameda County Courthouse, health disparities and affordable housing. But Dean admitted that she wasn’t surprised when Carson endorsed Bates.  

She said in the last election she won 60 percent of the vote without any endorsements from the “political machine” and she’s confident she can do it again. 

“I’m energized to take my campaign to the streets,” Dean said. “I have been a 24-7 mayor and have worked really, really, really hard to bring this city back from the precipice and people can see the difference.” 

Bates said Carson’s endorsement doesn’t have anything to do with a “political machine” and reflects simply what the supervisor feels is best for Berkeley residents.  

“Eight years she’s been mayor and the people are ready for a change and now is a good opportunity,” he said.  

Bates said he has spent nearly 24 hours walking the precincts since his campaign launch July 13. He has discovered that the issue people are most concerned with is education, and he has already begun devising plans to address the issue. 

If elected, he will not draw a salary because he would have to forfeit his state pension plan from the state Assembly, he said. “Instead I’ll take the money that would have gone to my salary and assign a deputy mayor to deal with education issues such as the development of Vista College downtown,” he said. “I want somebody in my office day in and day out to be accountable.”

To the Editor: 

The eruptive surfacing of the corporate accounting scandals in the past few months exposes a much deeper pathology in the human family. Unfortunately, what it demonstrates is that we are not acting like a family at all. With American big-business practices leading the charge, it has become painfully clear that, for the most part, the players on the world stage have yet to see beyond their atomized self-interest and reconcile themselves to the fact that actions have consequences for the entire fabric of human society, including the perpetrators of the socially solipsistic self-serving mantra of the ‘marketplace.’ 

Greed, avarice and stupidity are nothing new in the denouement of this planet’s evolution, or perhaps lack thereof. What is new is the spiraling, momentous effects of unbridled ignorance, in the spirit of infinite opportunism, infesting the mythology that suggests anyone and everyone can have it all.  

Despite appearances, this pathetic condition “inhumane” is not confined to American capitalism. Corruption and the hoarding of economic power has earmarked virtually every social-political community from the inception of the agricultural era and what is commonly accepted as the beginning of history. But it is in American capitalism that the moral pathogens display themselves with such inglorious abandon. Moreover, the technology and communications revolution that the western economic fortress has spawned, has thrown its ugly ethical emptiness smack back in the face of its pollyanna poses and counterfeit commercial smiles. 

In what may be evolution’s greatest ploy, it is this irony wherein lies our greatest hope: To see ourselves for what we are becoming while having the presence of mind and resolve to act upon ourselves before we are all girdled in passive witness to an orgy of rapacious, elitist entitlement and the complicit, convulsive consumption that has come to define modern man and his aiding abetting, better half. 

Marcus O'Realius 

Oakland

Plastic pistol packer files suit 

MINNEAPOLIS — A 72-year-old man has filed a lawsuit over an incident last year in which he was arrested for carrying a plastic pistol while delivering a singing telegram. 

Fritz Herring said he told deputies at the Hennepin County Government Center why he was there and they retrieved paperwork from his pocket that had information about his telegram appointment. 

Still, he was taken to jail and held for nearly 12 hours, he says. 

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Minneapolis, Herring seeks damages for false imprisonment and defamation, among other claims. 

Man bites pit bull 

NEW YORK — Man bites dog. Really. 

Police said a Long Island man bit a pit bull that was attacking his pet Siberian husky, and may have saved the pooch’s life. 

Richard Robbins, 44, said he was walking his three dogs Saturday morning when three pit bulls dashed from their owner’s side and one attacked his husky, Gina Marie. 

Robbins sank his teeth into the attacking pit bull’s head. He suffered multiple puncture wounds in the attack. 

“I wasn’t going to watch my dog die,” Robbins said. 

Suffolk County Police Lt. Kenneth Fasano said Gina Maria “would have been severely injured or even killed” without Robbins’ intervention. 

Judge finds a jury of ‘Gs’ unfair 

MIAMI — A man who won a new trial on federal gun charges because his jury had too many people whose last names started with the letter “G” has been acquitted. 

Roderick B. Carter, 24, of Opa-Locka, had been charged with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan granted Carter a new trial after Carter’s attorney argued that his client’s right to a jury of his peers had been violated. 

Federal jury pools in Miami are selected by dividing potential jurists alphabetically by the first letter of their last name and then selecting letters randomly. 

Carter’s attorney, David O. Markus, argued that because the jury pool was full of Hispanic names that started with “G” — such as Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez and Gutierrez — Carter, who is black, could not have gotten a fair trial because the jury did not have a fair cross sample. 

The judge declared a mistrial in May. The original 12-person jury had seven Hispanic members; last week, Carter was acquitted by a jury of six blacks, two whites and four Hispanics.

By Katie Flynn 

Daily Planet Intern 

Vietnam was a country that Berkeley High School teacher Rick Ayers never thought he'd visit. But after five months of planning and a 20-hour plane ride, Ayers made the journey. It was the ultimate field trip for 13 of his students who explored the bustling cities and wet rice paddies. 

“Vietnam was far more advanced than I expected,” said Arose Umar-Bey, a senior at Berkeley High. “You think of a third world country lacking technology, but really it was almost like being at home: People were going to work, going CD shopping.” 

For two weeks last month, the students and four teachers toured the country by bus and stayed in inexpensive hotels. Tran Tuong Nhu, a Vietnamese-born Berkeley High parent, and Lan Cao, a professor at Hanoi University, helped guide the group. 

They traveled to Halong Bay where they swam in the warm ocean water. They visited a traditional Moung village and went to Hanoi and saw the Temple of Literature, Ho Chi Min's Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace. In Danang, they met the family from the film “A Girl from Danang.” And in Hui, the group saw Buddhist pagodas.  

They met with Vietnamese war veterans who told the group about how they won the Vietnam War, which they call the “American War,” through determination and guerrilla fighting. 

“I use to idealize Vietnamese like the ultimate jungle warriors that couldn't be beat,” Ayers said. “But I learned they got beat up too. They just kept going back at it.” 

The group visited the Amsterdam School, where a class of mostly girls was learning English and hoping to one day attend an American college. The United States and Vietnamese students paired up, sang songs, taught each other dances, and went to a karaoke bar that night. 

“It was so great to meet other high school kids,” said Umar-Bey. “We realized we had a lot of things in common and we talked about boyfriends and crushes and parties.” 

The group also met children at the Peace Village, a school for people born with disabilities blamed on Agent Orange, a toxin that Americans used to defoliate the Vietnam jungles during the war. 

“Seeing kids who had these huge physical deformities like the wrong size head or eyes, made such an impression on us... We all started crying when we first got there,” Umar-Bey said. “It’s like looking at what carelessness can do.” 

When summer vacation is over, the Berkeley High students plan to focus on sending funds to the Peace Village, as well as teaching others about it. 

“We got a sense of responsibility and how it is our job to help at the Peace Village,” said Gabby Miller, a senior who has visited Vietnam three times before. Miller said she wished they could have done more for the Peace Village while in Vietnam. 

A highlight of the trip was an unexpected meeting with the vice president of Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Binh, who was a friend of Nhu.  

For Ayers, Binh represented the many years of fighting with the National Liberation Front, the group that opposed the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. 

Ayers and two students met Binh in her office and discussed Vietnam's history while eating litchi nuts and drinking tea. 

“The idea that I, a high school English teacher who was a rather small light in the peace movement of 30 years ago, should be sitting having a cup of tea with Mme. Binh and a few students, seemed almost unbelievable to me,” Ayers wrote in an e-mail about the meeting. 

Next year, the students will present their trip photos, videos and notes to other students. 

“Vietnam is this country filled with amazing stories. Everyone has a story of war, determination and pride,” Miller said. “You almost become jealous that you are not a part of such a proud culture.” 

The trip cost about $1,600 for each person, with some of the expense offset by fundraising. 

“For me it was a real pilgrimage, a trip of a life time,” said Ayers. “I never thought it would happen.”

LOS ANGELES — An unattended suitcase prompted the evacuation Sunday of part of a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said. 

The Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was notified about 5 p.m. of a suspicious suitcase in the upper level of Terminal 3, said Officer Don Cox, a police spokesman. 

Only the upper level of the terminal, for departing flights, was evacuated, Cox said. The lower level arrival area and all other terminals continued to operate normally, he said. 

“They’re trying to determine who it belongs to and what might be there,” said Cox. “There are no threats, they don’t have anything to indicate that it is a device.” 

Several airlines operate out of Terminal 3, including: Alaska, American, Frontier, Horizon and Midwest Express. 

San Jose woman sentenced  

to jail for hate crime 

SAN JOSE — A San Jose woman was sentenced to nine months in jail after being convicted of a hate crime in which she attacked a man of Middle Eastern descent while shouting slurs during a road rage incident. 

Angel Ann Coley, 28, also was ordered Friday to pay restitution to Mohamed Aram, the 31-year-old man she kicked, bit, and punched in November after using her car to ram Aram’s limousine into an intersection for not getting out of her way at a red light. 

Witnesses told police Coley got out of her car and confronted Aram. She bit his hand, kicked him in the groin and punched him, they said. During the attack Coley called Aram, who emigrated from Egypt six years ago, a “towel head” and “foreigner.” 

Aram tried tossing his cell phone to a passerby to call 911, but the man took the phone and left the scene. 

During her trial Coley maintained that Aram refused to show his identification after his vehicle hit her car — which conflicted with evidence and testimony from witnesses. 

Coley’s sentence comes three weeks after a Superior Court jury found her guilty of committing a hate crime resulting in injury, making threats to commit death or injury, hit-and-run, and battery. 

Fourth week without budget 

SACRAMENTO — California is entering the fourth week without a state budget, which is putting the squeeze on state workers. Legislative employees were the first to go without a paycheck last week, leaving others to wonder who’s next. 

Still, Assembly Republicans maintain they will not vote for the state spending plan that uses tax hikes to help fill a $23.6 billion budget hole. 

Man accused of stealing car caught  

after demanding air 

FAIRFIELD — A man accused of stealing a truck was caught after he threatened a service station clerk with a sawed-off shotgun and demanded two quarters to put air in his tires. 

Shane V. Cavalin was ordered to stand trial on robbery and auto theft charges, which carry a possible eight years in prison. Using the shotgun could tack on an additional 10 years. 

Cavalin allegedly went into a gas station on May 4 and asked to use the air machine for the tires of the stolen truck he was driving. 

The cashier told him he needed two quarters for the machine. Vacaville police officer Brian Larsen testified at a preliminary hearing Friday that Cavalin returned a moment later toting a sawed-off shotgun and ordered the cashier to empty the cash register. 

ACRAMENTO — There are plenty of ingredients easily accessible in California to assemble a “dirty bomb,” or explosives laced with radioactive material, according to a newspaper’s investigation. 

The Sacramento Bee reported Sunday that radioactive materials are scattered across the state at thousands of sites, and hundreds of them hold enough for a “dirty bomb,” according to state and federal records. 

Machines that operate using large amounts of radioactivity have become commonplace in medicine, research and construction. Radioactive material can be found in the lunchbox-sized construction tool used to peer inside pipelines and walls; in the giant irradiators used to purify foods and sterilize medical supplies; in the medical equipment used to cut brain tumors and treat blood. 

In some places, such equipment is left unattended for hours or days behind locked doors, the Bee reported. 

With the exception of nuclear plants and weapons sites, the nation’s system of radiological safeguards is aimed at preventing accidents, not thwarting well-planned thefts. 

“Safety is different from security. We need to do a much better job of controlling the radioactive materials we have out there,” said Steven E. Koonin, a nuclear physicist and provost at the California Institute of Technology who has advised the government on security issues. 

A “dirty bomb,” known formally as a radiation dispersal device, probably would kill no more people than a conventional blast. It would cause far fewer deaths than a chemical or biological attack, experts say. 

But some predict the dirty bomb is one of the likeliest weapons to be unleashed by terrorists because the ingredients are so easy to get and the potential damage in panic and cleanup costs are so huge. 

“I would be surprised if we didn’t see one within a decade,” Koonin said. 

Although medical and industrial uses of radiation are widely documented, The Bee chose not to identify the owners of significant quantities in light of concerns about how simple it might be to gather enough radioactivity to create a “dirty bomb.” 

People have to take safety courses before getting a license to own even small amounts of radioactive materials, but they do not need to undergo criminal or background checks. A federal law to require background checks for hazardous materials haulers is at least two months away from being implemented. 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently reduced the frequency of inspections for most radioactive materials license holders and does not fully check large inventories to ensure their owners know what is on hand. 

SACRAMENTO — California relies too heavily on natural gas to fuel the power plants that generate nearly half of its electricity, leaving the state’s consumers vulnerable to price swings, a new study has found. 

In pursuit of cleaner power, California increasingly has switched to natural gas for its power plants during the past 20 years. But that means higher prices and even electricity shortages if the gas supply dwindles, according to RAND, a nonpartisan Santa Monica-based research organization. 

California produces only 15 percent of its natural gas, importing the rest from Canada, the Rocky Mountain states and New Mexico. 

Consumers already saw their natural gas bills zoom upward during late 2000 and early 2001 because of tight supply, which state power regulators blamed on gas sellers not using pipelines to their full capacity. The industry has denied any wrongdoing. The shortage, however, raised electricity prices because gas fuels 45 percent of power plants in the state. 

RAND, which wrote the report for the Energy Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, projects the state’s natural gas consumption will increase between 18 percent and 50 percent by 2010, mostly due to new power plants. Researchers say there could be supply bottlenecks unless more pipelines are built or existing pipes widened. 

Rather than completely shift away from the fuel, the state should speed the permitting process, boost reliance renewable energy and expand incentives for electricity conservation, the study recommended. 

Coal and nuclear power fuel a third of the state’s power plants. Hydroelectric dams and alternative energy sources comprise the rest. 

RIVERSIDE — A giant cane, the largest member of the grass family, swallows up gallons of water, grows up to a foot a day and is stubbornly resisting efforts around California to control it. 

“It’s kind of unstoppable,” said Kyle Washburn, who was working with crews using tractors to cut through dense growth of the grass known as Arundo donax along the San Jacinto River in western Riverside County. 

So far, the oversized reed has taken over 20,000 acres of riverbed in three Southern California counties. The plant, which is not native to California, sends up new shoots when it is cut down. It also becomes a natural fire carrier when it dries out. 

“The only thing I can compare it to is cancer. It spreads so fast, and it won’t let anything else live in its midst,” said Kerwin Russell, an environmental horticulturist with the Riverside-Corona regional conservation district. 

The cane, with its firm, straight structure, was first mentioned in the Bible and Greek myths, and is considered the best material available for clarinets and other reed instruments. 

No one is sure when or how the plant first came to the United States, but Spanish settlers used it as building material for California missions. 

Since 1960, when the federal government started planting Arundo along riverbanks to control erosion, the cane has spread dramatically. It is now spotted as far north as Willamette, Ore., and as far east as New Orleans. 

“They had the right idea, but they put it near water,” Russell said. “It loves water, and it has no natural enemies here.” 

To control the cane, stalks must be bulldozed, then shredded and, finally, pesticides must be applied to keep the plant from coming back, Russell said. 

LAKE ISABELLA— A 350-acre wildfire damaged or destroyed 10 homes Sunday afternoon and forced the evacuation of residents, officials said. 

Evacuations are underway in the area near Erskine Creek, near Lake Isabella, as the fire moves in a southeasterly direction, said Tomas Patlan, a spokesman with the Kern County Fire Department. It is not known how many homes are in the area and how many people are being evacuated, he said. 

About 75 firefighters and three helicopters are working to save homes in the area, he added. No injuries have been reported. 

The fire erupted about 2 p.m. and the cause is under investigation, he said. 

Authorities are warning residents to stay out of the area. 

Lake Isabella is about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles and about 30 miles northeast of Bakersfield. 

In another blaze, firefighters contained a wildfire that burned 25 acres of brush and destroyed two structures in the hills northeast of San Diego, authorities said Sunday. 

The fire, which began Saturday, briefly threatened the popular Angel’s Landing Country Inn and Resort. 

Two structures, possibly trailers or mobile homes, were destroyed, said Chris Hess of the California Department of Forestry. 

No injuries were reported. 

At its peak, more than 250 firefighters worked to contain the blaze. 

The cause of the fire remained under investigation, Hess said. 

SAN FRANCISCO – As the stock market’s losses piled up last year, brokerage executive Charles Schwab began appearing in television commercials urging individual investors to remain calm. But by early last week, he realized people aren’t heeding his advice. 

“You can start to see people get a sense of panic now,” Schwab said in an interview last week. “You see it in the market, you (hear) it in conversation, you see it in the writings to the letters to the editor. For some investors, it’s getting pretty desperate. Of course, that’s the time you just got to hold your cool.” 

Remaining levelheaded is getting tougher for individual investors caught in the maelstrom of accounting scandals, terrorism fears and economic queasiness that shoved last week’s stock market to its lowest levels in nearly four years. 

Logic says the market should be reaching a bottom, that Monday should yield great deals for investors with extra cash and the desire to buy blue-chip stocks deeply discounted by the waves of selling that have washed over Wall Street. 

But emotions might drive even more people out of the market as they ruminate over the losses reflected in their second-quarter investment statements and realize the damage got even worse during the last two weeks. 

All of the stock market’s bellwether indexes have been badly battered during the last two weeks. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most famous index of all, got hit the hardest, dropping by 1,360 points, or 14.5 percent, to fall to 8,019. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 141 points, or 14.3 percent, and the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index dropped by 129 points, or 8.9 percent. 

The rapid descent, combined with substantial erosion that had already occurred since the stock market’s March 2000 peak, is bound to cause a lot of soul searching among investors, said Tom Lydon, president of Global Trend Investments in Newport Beach. 

“There are going to be a lot of couples sitting across from each their dining room tables this weekend and one spouse is going to say to the other, ’That’s it. We’ve had it. Let’s get out of the market and take something off the table while we still can,”’ he said. 

This kind of behavior is known as “capitulation” — a phrase used in the stock market to describe a time when exasperated investors throw up their hands and sell all their holdings regardless of the economic circumstances. This phenomenon is the polar opposite of the giddiness — famously described by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as “irrational exuberance” — that propels markets to staggering highs. 

Historically, the moment of investor capitulation heralds the end of a bear market. That’s the good news. The bad news is no one really recognizes the moment of capitulation until it’s already occurred. 

“I’ve been thinking the market had capitulated for the last three weeks, but it just keeps capitulating,” said Richard Del Monte, an investment adviser in Danville. He said three more of his clients threw in the towel after Friday’s sell-off, telling him to sell all their stocks. 

Most money managers think this is a time savvy investors should be seeking out bargains in the market. “You might see opportunities out there that you won’t see again for years,” Lydon said. 

But don’t tread into the market turbulence unless you have a cast-iron stomach because investment professionals warn the market might plummet even further in the next few days. 

“To buy stocks now, you have to be like the people who traveled across the country during the Gold Rush of 1849,” Del Monte said. “It takes a lot of courage.” 

Canan Korustan of Alamo is already on the prowl for bargains. During Friday’s sell-off, she picked up stock in General Electric and discount retailer Target. If the market falls further Monday, she is eyeing investments in drug company Pfizer Inc. and perhaps a cable company. 

By buying now, she hopes to offset some of her losses on past investments in high-tech companies. The value of her holdings in one-time high-fliers like BroadVision Inc. and Exodus Communications have fallen from $20,000 at the market’s peak to $200 today. 

Korustan, 46, is trying not to glance back as she forges ahead. 

“I haven’t even looked at my stock portfolio in the last three weeks because every time I do I just get kind of nervous and upset,” she said. “I start thinking I was stupid for not getting out a long time ago.”

LOS ANGELES – Acres of brown, blue, red and yellow 40-foot containers fill the shipyards. They run as far as the eye can see, stacked three high, forming long steel corridors down the length of the docks. 

Their contents include nearly everything a consumer could imagine — furniture, clothing, toys, tractors, computers, waste paper, pet food. 

Some goods are on their way to low-cost manufacturers in Asia, such as 2,389 cubic feet of raw cotton destined for Jakarta. 

Others are inbound to shops in nearly every town across America, such as the boxes of butane lighter fluid just arrived from China. 

The profound scale of the operation leaves no doubt that a labor disruption during ongoing contract talks between carriers and longshoremen would reverberate in every corner of the U.S. economy. 

“The effect could be chaotic,” said Monroe Milstein, founder and chief executive of the Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse. 

The New Jersey-based chain of 294 department stores receives about 60 percent of its product through West Coast ports. 

The contract between carriers and West Coast longshoremen expired July 1. Since then, the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been extending the contract on a 24-hour basis at each negotiating session. So far, the union has disavowed any intent to stage a slowdown, and it has not yet taken a strike vote among its members. 

The PMA has argued that West Coast ports are becoming bottlenecks in the supply chain of goods from Asia because the union has spurned technological improvements in an effort to save about 2,100 clerk jobs. The ILWU says it’s not against technology, but the new jobs must stay within the union. 

Together, goods crossing the docks at the combined Los Angeles and Long Beach ports — the third-largest complex in the world — and at smaller West Coast ports from San Diego to Seattle, represent nearly 8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. 

Some 4 million jobs around the country rely on the smooth flow of goods through those ports. 

West Coast ports have helped sustain the national economy by funneling billions of dollars worth of furniture, automobiles and automobile parts into the country — the key ingredients of the consumer spending binge that kept the recession mild — said Larry Keller, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. 

The ports also are the gateway to Asia for businesses across the country. 

A large percentage of Asian goods destined for the eastern United States come through the West because it’s often cheaper to put them on cross-country trucks or trains than to send them on longer routes through the Suez Canal and across the Atlantic Ocean. 

The top imports by dollar value through the Port of Los Angeles last year were apparel, toys, computers and office machines, and furniture. The leading exports were resin, raw cotton, waste paper, scrap metal and pet and animal food. 

A work stoppage on the West Coast wouldn’t create much damage if it lasted less than two weeks, Milstein said. But anything beyond that would disrupt his company’s supply of clothes, handbags, belts, perfumes, shoes, furniture and other merchandise coming from Asia, he said. 

“Most everything today comes through West Coast ports,” he said. “Twenty years ago at least half of it was made in the United States.” 

Each year, about 5,500 vessels move through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, some more than 1,000 feet long. Each holds several thousand containers, or “cans,” which are unloaded by 105-foot high cranes that permanently hover above the ships’ berths on the docks. 

Some 34,000 trucks line up each day to deliver exports and haul away the incoming merchandise. 

The Port of Los Angeles on its own sprawls over 3,800 acres of water and another 3,700 acres of land. Eighty shipping lines moved $113.9 billion worth of goods through the facility in 2001 — 35 percent of the nation’s container traffic. 

For business owners like Charlie Woo, founder and chief executive of Megatoys, the port is an irreplaceable life line to his suppliers in China, offering the fastest and cheapest travel time for his goods. 

“The port has made my business competitive in L.A. Without it I wouldn’t be able to survive in this industry,” said Woo. 

Megatoys has found its niche selling toys to small retailers that giant toy companies such as Mattel don’t serve. In 13 years, Woo has built a $25 million-a-year import business that employs 70 people. 

The firm imports dolls, radio-controlled cars and other battery toys from manufacturers in China’s special Shenzhen economic zone. 

The merchandise is loaded into 40-foot containers, which hold several thousand toys each. The containers travel by truck to the south China port of Yantian, and 12 days later they arrive in Los Angeles. Door-to-door delivery costs him $1,500 per container, Woo said. 

Last month Woo brought in an extra $1 million of inventory to cushion his business during any labor disruption, he said. 

“I have no other contingency plans because they would not be economical,” he said.

The decision to add a written essay to the widely taken SAT college entrance exam has raised new questions. 

Can someone from a home where another language is spoken whip out polished prose in English in 25 minutes? If not, does that mean he or she doesn’t deserve to go to a competitive college? 

“The time limit is particularly difficult for kids who have to translate in their head,” says Robert Schaeffer of Fair Test, a Massachusetts-based group that advocates less reliance on standardized tests. In the real world of college, he argues, “if you write slowly or need a dictionary or have to stay up all night, you can do it.” 

On the other hand, the writing test “gets at real behavior,” and the ability to speak, read and write in English is key to undergraduate success, says Wayne Camara, vice president for research at the College Board, the New York-based nonprofit that owns the SAT. 

The SAT changes were prompted when University of California President Richard C. Atkinson proposed dropping the SAT. With 150,000 undergrads, UC is the test’s biggest user. 

UC faculty proved reluctant to go test-free, suggesting development of a new exam, an ambitious plan that never really flowered. Meanwhile, the College Board and Iowa-based ACT, Inc., makers of the rival ACT entrance exam, made changes. 

ACT is adding an essay for California students only; its officials are still working on the format. 

The point is not to keep English-learners out of college, but to measure their ability to write, says ACT spokesman Ken Gullette. “They will need the skills, so to measure the skills and to give them information to help them improve their skills is a good thing.” 

The SAT makeover, which included dropping the often-criticized analogy section and making math questions tougher, was heralded by Atkinson as “a transforming event in the nature of education.” 

But at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, executive director Margaret Fung has heard from several concerned parents and students. 

“It’s clear that Asian families want to be sure their children speak English. It just seems as if that (essay requirement) may put people at a disadvantage,” she says. 

At the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, officials say it’s too soon to know if the new requirement will be a problem, “but at a minimum we know the essay will not improve the situation,” says attorney Victor Viramontes. “The older version of the SAT discriminates against English-learners and on its face the changes do not address the problem.” 

A 2001 College Board report found that students whose first language was not English had a mean score of 455 on the SAT verbal test, compared to a mean score of 517 for those who spoke English first. 

The report also found that students from Hispanic or Asian backgrounds in general had lower verbal scores than white students. 

The essay requirement isn’t a change for UC-bound students. UC already requires the SAT II writing test, which also includes an essay, a requirement that likely will be dropped now. 

The SAT is a “reasoning test” that tries to measure overall academic ability. The SAT IIs are “subject tests,” that try to assess what students have learned in the classroom. UC requires three SAT IIs, writing, math and a third to be chosen from a variety of subjects. 

Patrick Hayashi, associate president of UC, says making the essay a national requirement, along with the other SAT changes, has “the potential of actually helping nonnative speakers because I think it will encourage the development of better writing classes.” 

As for the time-limit complaint, “I think you have plenty of time to write that essay,” he says. 

The SAT IIs have also been criticized, with complaints focusing on the Chinese and Spanish language tests, which are among the options students can choose for the third test. Critics say students from homes where those languages are spoken ace the tests even though they didn’t study the languages in high school. 

SAT II scores count twice as much as regular SAT scores at UC. But UC officials note that any one SAT II score makes up only 25 percent of the total test battery and also point out that mastering a second language is an academic skill. 

UC research shows the language tests don’t have a big impact on the ethnic makeup of students admitted — a hot-button issue at UC, where race-based admissions have been banned since 1998. 

The number of black and Hispanic students dropped sharply immediately after the ban, especially at highly competitive Berkeley and UCLA. Since then, the numbers have increased, although Berkeley still admits far fewer black students. 

Meanwhile, Asian-Americans, who did not get affirmative action, comprise the largest single group at four of UC’s eight undergraduate campuses; at one of those, UC Irvine, they are the majority at 55 percent of the student body. Statewide, Asian-Americans make up about 11 percent of the population. 

Berkeley ethnic studies professor Ling-Chi Wang says he has heard from some who worry that the emphasis on writing is a way to boost diversity by curbing admission of Asian-Americans. 

UC and testing officials deny that. 

Wang, meanwhile, says he is not troubled by the issue, because “I personally strongly support the notion of diversity,” and because he expects Asian-Americans will meet the new challenge. 

Some think it’s a bad idea to put too much faith in testing, revamped or not. 

At Bates College, a small liberal arts college in Maine where applicants aren’t required to submit test scores, students who don’t submit scores end up having slightly higher grade point averages. 

“Do the tests screen out more students who would be successful in college than they help you find? Bates’ answer to that question is a clear, ringing, ’Yes,”’ says Bill Hiss, the college’s vice president for external and alumni affairs. 

Hiss recalls the case of an applicant with a very low SAT verbal score of 400. The student, a Vietnamese immigrant who was valedictorian of her high school class, was accepted, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in biology, took a year off to found a mentoring program for immigrant students and went on to medical school. 

UC has switched to “comprehensive review” admissions which means they can consider hardships a student has overcome, so it’s possible they, too, would have admitted that student. 

Still, Hiss asks, “Is a controlled writing sample going to help Latino and international and immigrant kids? For most of them it won’t. A writing sample is going to help youngsters who are at the best suburban high schools and prep schools.”

SACRAMENTO – A Gilroy high school’s move toward “academic tracking” that prompted the surprise resignation of the school’s top officials has stirred the debate among educators who say tracking unfairly excludes low-income and minority students. 

So-called academic tracking is a classification system in which students are placed in groups based on their academic ability, with the brightest kids taking separate classes or receiving more challenging coursework. 

Historically, students were placed in high or low “tracks” in elementary school and stayed in those same groups throughout their educational careers. Lower tracks often focused on vocational training rather than intense academic work. 

Although tracking has evolved into many different forms, it still exists around the country today, according to Sylvia Seidel, who runs a professional school development program for the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. 

While schools rarely categorize kids as high- and low-performing any more, many districts do offer continuous honors courses starting in elementary school and running through high school. 

“Tracking is still one of the most highly debated issues,” Seidel said. “There are vestiges of it everywhere, but the trend is moving away from tracking.” 

Most educators agree that students learn best when course work is geared toward individual ability, but critics worry that some students won’t have equal access to the classes if they are deemed as low achieving early on. 

In California, many districts say they are trying to focus on a tough curriculum for all kids, not just the brightest few. 

So when the board of the Gilroy Unified School District announced last week that it would implement a pilot honors program that includes separate classes for some of its ninth-graders, school principal Wendy Gudalewicz promptly resigned, calling the decision “morally and educationally wrong.” 

“At our high school, we’ve made dramatic gains. We’ve doubled the number of students going to college,” Gudalewicz said. “We’ve met (state testing) targets, and all the subgroups have met the targets. When that happens, why put something in place that is going to turn us backward?” 

Gudalewicz, along with assistant principals Cec Bell and Rosa Nieto, resigned to protest the decision, citing fears the district is reinstating academic tracking. 

The ninth-grade pilot program will close the gap in the district’s honors programs, giving priority to kids who took honors classes in eighth-grade and helping pave the way for Advanced Placement classes in 11th- and 12th-grade. 

Gudalewicz maintains that low-income or minority kids who didn’t get into honors classes early on would have trouble breaking into them in high school. 

The program, which will start this fall, was approved after a group of parents turned in a petition with more than 200 signatures and packed school board meetings pushing for the change. 

Jackie Caldwell, who is sending her 14-year-old son, Austin, to a private school rather than Gilroy High so he would have more challenging classes, said tracking is not about race. 

“As an African-American, I support the program,” said Caldwell, who is a member of the parent group that turned in the petition. “Both my husband and I were tracked in the 60s and 70s, and we do not see this a race issue.” 

Caldwell, who attended California public schools all her life, says the move away from tracking hurts high-performing students. 

“We have a daughter in junior high who is also a high achieving student,” Caldwell said. “We’re waiting to see if the curriculum is going to be changed before deciding if she goes (to Gilroy High.) They would have to have an honors program if she did.” 

Gilroy Superintendent Edwin Diaz said that although he was disappointed with Gudalewicz’s resignation, the classes are needed to bring Gilroy High students up to speed. 

“This isn’t such a huge leap,” Diaz said. “The typical model in Santa Clara County and the state is to have some sort of accelerated class.” 

Gilroy, which is south of San Jose, is a rural area that is quickly turning into a bedroom community for Silicon Valley workers. By 2000, Gilroy’s population had grown by 29 percent compared to a decade before. 

At the same time, Gilroy has also seen a rise in low-income and minority residents. More than half of Gilroy residents are Hispanic. 

Diaz said he’s concerned that some parents will choose to pull their kids out of public schools unless the schools offers classes for higher-achieving students. 

“If we’re not able to meet the needs of the whole spectrum of kids, then the public education system is falling apart,” Diaz said. “We’ve spent the last two years improving the achievement of students below grade level. We also have to be mindful and diligent to students that are already performing well.” 

But many school districts, like Sacramento City Unified School District, which groups kids of all levels together in a single class, maintain that students can benefit from a heterogeneous learning environment. 

Lee Yang, assistant principal at Pacific Elementary School, said classes at the school have an equal mix of high- and low-performing students. The high-performing students get extra work tacked onto their homework assignments, while students who have difficulty with the work get extra help from classroom tutors. 

“It’s beneficial to both groups,” Yang said. “Lower-end students get more tutoring and they also get help from kids who are doing well in the class. At the same time, it gives the higher-end kids a chance to apply what they’ve learned.” 

Diaz said Gilroy’s pilot program will benefit lower-achieving students, allowing teachers to devote more time to help them reach their potential. He said that people can sometimes overlook the benefits because the discussion often is centered around “issues relating to access and race and privilege” 

“I made it very clear that if we do end up with these classes, they will be open to everyone,” he said.

By Brian Melley 

The Associated Press 

ALTAMONT PASS – The seemingly benevolent breezes that power giant windmills on these hills also carry pollution inland to one of America’s smoggiest regions, fueling a battle between rich and poor. 

At the center of the dispute is something central to California: the automobile. 

Lawsuits and legislation are pending that would require San Francisco area cars to undergo the same stiffer auto emissions tests required in every other urban area of California. 

“You have the greenest, wealthiest area dumping pollution into one of the poorest areas,” said Bruce Nilles, a former Earthjustice lawyer who has worked toward improving air quality in the valley. 

The Bay Area, which sends significant pollution as far as the Sierra Nevada foothills, has escaped the requirement because of an exemption written into state law by a former lawmaker from the coastal region. 

It doesn’t take sophisticated air monitoring equipment to witness the pollution. 

Nate Moehlman, an engineer and private pilot from Fresno, said that when he flies over the valley, he can follow a path of “gunk” all the way from the Bay Area to Bakersfield. 

Ocean breezes blow east, through the Carquinez Straits to Sacramento and points north, and through the Altamont Pass south to the mountains that rim the valley’s southern border. Currents swirl in an eddy of concentrated pollution east and south of Fresno, which has some the highest smog levels in the nation. 

The debate has illuminated the distrust and even contempt that has existed for decades between the industrial farm region and the city by the bay. 

Valley folk have sensed a holier-than-thou attitude among Bay Area lawmakers and environmentalists they believe are forcing a liberal agenda on hard-working families who farm the nation’s most productive land. 

To Bay Area denizens, the Central Valley is the hot, dusty, backward plain that must be endured on the drive to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite National Park. 

When Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, filed a bill this year require Bay Area residents to pass the stiffer emissions test, Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, blamed part of the problem on tire fires and junk heaps in the valley. 

The Fresno Bee responded with an editorial headlined “Bay Area airhead.” 

Migden said the legislation is punitive, not supported by science and is motivated by “an irresistible impulse to pick on the Bay Area.” 

Still, the state Air Resources Board has found that the Bay Area has had an “overwhelming” impact on inland pollution — 27 percent of the smog in Stockton came from the Bay Area. In the southern end of the valley, where air pollution is worse, the figure drops to slightly less than 10 percent. 

Air pollution control districts in the Central Valley haven’t challenged a state exemption for agriculture that has allowed farms to remain largely unregulated for years. But they have sued the state board to reverse the Bay Area’s smog exemption, which was written during a brief period when the Bay Area met federal Clean Air Act standards for smog. 

The enhanced Smog Check II checks required for every other metropolitan area in California cost most motorists about $10, but much more for repairs if the cars fail to meet the standard. 

Ending the exemption would eliminate an estimated 27 tons of pollutants which contribute to smog downwind, said Ellen Garvey, air pollution control officer for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. 

“It doesn’t do anything to help us but it does help them,” Garvey said. “I think we ultimately want to do the right thing for clean air and we want to do the right thing for our neighbors.” 

A study should be complete by the end of the month on how much of those smog-forming emissions are contributing to inland pollution. 

Garvey said her agency is trying to determine what is cost effective. The enhanced smog check would cost about $5,500 to remove each ton of pollution-forming gases. The same goal could be achieved for $900 a ton if diesel-burning boats on the bay were equipped with cleaner burning engines. 

The legislation passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly, 57-4, in May. It stands a good chance of passage in the upper house. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, said he might make some changes to the legislation but he will not block it. 

“It’s an issue of fundamental equity,” said Mike Lynch, chief of staff for Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres, who fought for years to bring the Bay Area into compliance. “They think they’re special and they think everyone should give them a break because they’re special. Unfortunately, the break comes at the expense of our health and our jobs.” 

Even if the legislation is passed, it is only expected to make a small dent — less than 10 percent — in the valley’s pollution problems. The San Joaquin Valley has failed for years to meet federal standards and needs to remove about 300 tons of pollution, a third of its daily total.

By Chelsea J. Carter 

The Associated Press 

STANTON – DNA evidence found on the body of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion matches that of the man arrested in her killing, The Associated Press learned Saturday. 

A source close to the investigation, who declined to be identified, confirmed a report in the Los Angeles Times Saturday that DNA from the girl’s body matched that of Alejandro Avila. 

The source would not elaborate on the type of genetic material that was used for the match. 

Jim Amormino, a spokesman with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, would not specifically confirm or deny the report, but did say authorities were “100 percent sure we have the right man.” 

“Forensic testing has confirmed our initial suspicion. DNA is a component of forensic testing,” he said. 

Avila, 27, was arrested Friday for investigation of kidnapping and killing Samantha. He has denied the charges and claims he was at a shopping mall on Monday evening when the girl was abducted. His sister, 22-year-old Elvira Avila, told the Orange County Register that he unexpectedly missed a family dinner Monday night, when Samantha was kidnapped. 

The district attorney’s office was expected to file formal charges by Tuesday. 

Samantha was playing with a 5-year-old friend just yards from her home when a man claiming to look for a lost puppy carried her away, kicking and screaming. 

The DNA evidence helped seal a rapid investigation following the discovery of Samantha’s body on Tuesday about 10 miles from Avila’s home. 

A tip naming Avila came into the Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday, and by that evening he was under surveillance, Amormino said. 

Friday’s arrest did not end the emotional turmoil of Southern California parents and children who have taken in Samantha as one of their own. 

Hushed mourners gathered Saturday at an impromptu memorial in the courtyard of the townhome complex where Samantha lived. 

Samantha’s mother ended nearly four days of seclusion to thank the gathered crowd for the support. 

“We will have a service as soon as we can. It has to be perfect. I’m sure you can understand,” she said between tears. “So thank you. It really has been helpful.” 

Tables overflowing with flowers, balloons, cards and stuffed animals have become a magnet for many in the community trying to cope with the fear and frustration brought by the little girl’s murder. An estimated 1,000 people had visited in the past day. 

“If there’s one (killer), there will be another,” said Kathleen Siliuta, 30, who brought her 6-year-old daughter, Alexis. 

Juan Rivera, 36, of Stanton, said his visit was a life lesson for his 7-year-old daughter, Arias. 

“I wanted to bring her to see you’ve got to be careful,” he said. 

“I have to scream and run” if attacked, Arias said. 

Laurance Montgomery, 53, passed out flyers of his daughter, Daniela, who was 14 when she disappeared from her Riverside home ten months ago. 

He hoped the attention to missing children from Samantha’s case might help generate leads to his daughter’s disappearance. 

“Unfortunately, it’s not a good time for the Runnion family or the rest of the community,” he said. 

Several other child murders in Southern California remain unsolved. 

Jahi Turner, 2, came to San Diego from Frederick, Md. just days before his April 25 disappearance from a playground in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Turner, who is still missing, was left alone by his stepfather, Teiray Jones, who told police the boy disappeared when he left to buy a soda. 

Victoria Angelica Ramirez, 10, of the Central California agricultural town of Hanford, vanished at a swap meet in nearby Visalia in 1994. Witnesses said she had argued with her mother and ran off. Her body was later found 30 miles away in an irrigation canal. The case remains unsolved. 

Riverside County authorities have sought a suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Anthony Martinez since April 1997. Martinez was abducted as he played in the front of his home. His body was found in a shallow grave two weeks later near Palm Springs.  

They believe the case is unrelated.

Doctors Without Borders 

“Today, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. I will have to stay in the hospital six months in order to be cured. Since I’ve been diagnosed fairly early, the chances of my recovery are good,” said a role player in a game put on by health organization Doctors Without Borders. 

The role-player’s anticipated recovery cannot be shared by many who get what is sometimes referred to as “the White Plague.” Every minute, four people around the globe die from this treatable disease, according to the international health care group. 

The volunteer organization was in Berkeley this week as part of a 30-city, yearlong tour of Access Expo, an exhibit that spotlights a lack of medical access in the developing world.  

Each year up to 14 million people die from treatable, infectious diseases, organizers said. 

The aim of the Access Expo is to collect one million signatures to send to President George W. Bush, and encourage pharmaceutical companies to consider health care before profits. Petitions, due in the Spring of 2003, will also go to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. People visiting the Access Expos’ 48-foot truck this week are asked to deposit signed postcards in pill-box shaped bins. 

The tour of the truck starts with participants spinning the “Wheel of Misfortune,” which determines the disease the participant must feign. One person’s spin comes up green.  

He is given a plastic laminated green card detailing his symptoms: “I live in Uzbekistan and have a continual cough, night sweats, and experience dizzy spells.” 

The participant enters the exhibit to learn about the illness. He reads about Lida from the Republic of Georgia who now has a multidrug resistant form of TB (many persons like Lida stop taking pills before the treatment is complete, resulting in these dangerous strains).  

The participant passes by a bank of eerily ticking clocks that show the number of people who die of worldwide maladies each minute.  

Then it’s time for the participant’s consultation.  

At a table at the rear of the truck, he describes his symptoms to Annie Whitehouse, a volunteer nurse with Doctors Without Borders. Whitehouse has spent the last year in the Republic of Abkhazia, which broke off from Georgia in the ’90s and is feeling the effect of the breakup of the former Soviet Union and years of civil war.  

Annie tells the participant that his prognosis is good if he keeps taking the pills. However, there is a catch. He has to stay in the hospital for six months. (The TB bacilli is spread most often through coughing or sneezing.) And the hospital is 15 miles away. 

“We’re dealing with medicines where the length of treatment is too long... what happens usually, is that they start the treatment, and then they stop it,” Whitehouse said. 

Brigg Reilley, an epidemiologist from Los Angeles, explained, “The problem we’re looking at with malaria and tuberculosis is that the main drugs are decades old – no new TB drugs have been developed in 30 years. Drug companies are going where the money is... drugs like Viagra and Rogaine. As a result, we’re worse off than we were in infectious diseases 10 years ago.”  

This is what the organization calls the “10/90 disequilibrium.” Doctors Without Borders statistics show that only 10 percent of global health research is devoted to conditions that account for 90 percent of global disease.  

Maria Vargas, a 17-year old senior at Ukiah High School, hopes to become a pediatrician. She is on campus visiting the UC Berkeley School of Medicine, and the exhibit opened this prospective doctor’s eyes. 

“I heard of this disease before but I never knew how bad it was,” she said. “We have to get the pharmaceutical companies aware that we need new medicines for these people.”

To the Editor: 

At time when Americans have just caught sight of the tip of the iceberg of corporate malfeasance on Wall Street, it's a bracing exercise to pry our eyes from the balance sheet and glance at what's happening in the far reaches of our global empire where, when people lose out to corrupt corporate management, they pay not merely with their life savings, but with their very lives. 

Remember that at the Bhopal insecticide plant run by Union Carbide in the 1980s, emergency alert systems were deliberately turned off as part of cost-cutting measures meant to protect the bottom line. 

Nearly eighteen years later, the death toll from the largest industrial catastrophe in history stands at 20,000. And it is not over yet. 

Now, under pressure from the Union Carbide Corporation, and its parent, the Dow Chemical Corporation, the Indian government is seeking to use part of the Bhopal disaster victim reparations fund to clean up the contaminated soil and water of the region – a financial burden that ought to be borne not by the surviving, disease-ridden victims, but by Union Carbide and Dow. Moreover, as a sweetener to its Hindu voter base, the government wishes to stretch the limited reparations fund to include several districts, populated predominately by Hindus, which are thought never to have been exposed to the toxic clouds. 

Finally, and in a spirit wholly subservient to Wall Street hubris, it seems clear that the Indian authorities will succeed in diluting or dismissing the culpable homicide charges against Warren Anderson, former CEO of Union Carbide. 

What started as a case of sensational corporate negligence far removed from the American public's eye has evolved into a case of election manipulation and government corruption encouraged by unbridled corporate power – a destructive force that Americans have only just begun to examine critically.  

Sheila Newbery 

Berkeley 

‘Ripped from the News’ 

We’re in Vietnam in the 1960s, as a tough U.S. marine bends over the trembling local girl he’s about to ravish. “I’m an American,” he growls, leaning ominously nearer, “and this is what we do.” The line is about as politically incorrect as you can get these days—no one is supposed to poke fun at American imperialism—but as the climax of a wild and woolly satire, it brought down the house at the Magic Theater last weekend. 

Want to see this far-out, funny show for yourself? 

Sorry, you can’t. It will never be performed again. 

So why read about a play you can’t see? Because you can see the actors who created it, and that’s what counts. Called “True Fiction Magazine,” they’re a talented local troupe that invents a completely different show each night out of scraps of paper. 

The results are mixed, dud moments alternating with explosions of wit, but if you’re willing to ride out the dead spots, you’ll have a pretty good time. 

“True Fiction Magazine” has been around for fifteen years. Most improv groups specialize in skits, five or 10 minutes at most, but “Magazine” aims for sustained, evening-long narratives. It takes nerve to play this tricky game, but the troupe hits the target often, scoring bull’s-eyes along the way. 

In the show I saw, evil corporate execs kidnapped children and dogs to keep unruly employees in line. That’s just one sample of the off-beat flavor. 

“Magazine” calls its latest outing “Ripped from the News,” for reasons that become obvious once you enter the theater. There you’re greeted by a pile of newspapers, from which you’re invited to tear out a story. These cuttings are then tacked up around the play space, and the actors improvise from them. 

The results? On opening night the stories featured man-made viruses, walking fish, rapacious sea gulls and corporate greed.  

Impossible to meld these into a coherent narrative? “True Fiction Magazine” did it, sort of, by shooting for fun rather than sense, with predictably wacky results. Conjuring a homicidal mom, a fanatic EPA watchdog, a macho pilot, and a dysfunctional brat, they bounced from an Asian street market to a World Com board room to a Kabul-bound plane loaded with bubonic plague. 

They’ve got stopovers in a troubled household where all the servants were named Matilda. 

The effect was mind-bogglingly surreal. Lines like, “I’ve overstepped my intelligence,” tripped over lines like, “Someone has stolen Fluffy,” and, “If I don’t die inside a week, you’re in big trouble.” There were improvised songs, too: “The Walking Fish Blues,” and one that rhymed “Matilda” with “killed ya.” 

The five players, Paul Killam, Craig Neibaur, Diane Rachel, Regina Saisi and Barbara Scott are bright and skilled, and they work together well, giving one another time to slip in and out of every opportunity in the loopy narrative. Joshua Raoul Brody’s mocking music enhances the silliness, and Mark Rachel dims, brightens and tints the lighting effectively. Yet they, and their creation, were a little too polite. I longed for the manic invention of someone like Robin Williams. “True Fiction Magazine” inspired giggles and the occasional bellylaugh, but its material wore thin, and its careful method didn’t take enough chances, so that instead of being shot into the stratosphere, we circled pleasantly before landing with a gentle bounce. 

That’s not bad, and “True Fiction” is a likeable troupe, but I wanted them to lift me out of my seat. That isn’t to say their next one-of-a-kind fabrication won’t fly higher, and I would be unfair if I didn’t report a conversation with a Magic Theater V.I.P., who shall remain nameless. He’d seen “Ripped from the News” a couple of times already. “One night they were good,” he reported, “but the next night they were brilliant.” 

Maybe that’s the way it is with improv: you take your chances, and in the case of “True Fiction Magazine,” the choice between good and brilliant is better than lots of theaters offer. 

July 25 

Midsummer Motzart  

Festival Orchestra 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2345 Channing Way 

Divertimento in D, Piano concerto #17, Symphony #38 “Prague” 

(415) 292-9624 for tickets 

$25-50 

Saturday, August 3 

Bata Ketu 

8 p.m.  

Alice Arts Center,  

1428 Alice St. 

Oakland. 

Interplay of Cuban and Brazilian  

music and dance  

www.lapena.org 

$20 

“Red Rivers Run Through Us”  

Until Aug. 11,  

Wed. - Sun.  

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center,  

1275 Walnut St. 

Art and writing from Maxine Hong Kingston's veterans' writing group 

Reception, 2 to 4 p.m.  

644-6893 

From the Attic: Preserving  

and Sharing our Past 

Until July 26, Thur.-Sat. 1 to 4 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building 

1931 Center St. 

Exhibit shows the 'inside' of museum work 

848-0181 

Free 

The Creation of People’s Park 

Through Aug. 31, Mon.-Thur. 9 to 9 p.m., Fri. 9 to 5 p.m., Sat. 1 to 5 p.m. Sun. 3 to 7 p.m. 

The Free Movement Speech Cafe  

UC Berkeley campus 

A photo exhibition, curated  

by Harold Adler 

hjadler@yahoo.com 

Free 

Jan Wurm: Paintings and Drawings 

Mon. and Fri. 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Flora Hewlett Library at the Graduate Theological Union 

2400 Ridge Road 

649-1417 

Saturday, July 20 

“First Anniversary  

Group Show”  

July 18 to Aug. 17 

Ardency Gallery, Aki Lot, 8th Street 

Reception, 5 to 8 p.m. 

13 local artists display work ranging from sculpture to mixed media 

836-0831 

Antony and Cleopatra 

Directed by Joy Meads 

Through July 20,  

Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m. 

La Vals Subterranean Theater  

1834 Euclid 

234-6046 for reservations 

$14 general, $10 student 

Grease 

Through Aug. 10, Sunday matinees  

July 21,28 Aug. 4 

Contra Costa Civic Theater,  

951 Pomona Ave. El Cerrito 

Directed by Andrew Gabel 

524-9132 for reservations 

$17 general, $10 for under 16 and under 

Don Pasquale Opera 

July 17, 19 at 8 p.m.  

July 21 at 2 p.m. 

Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek 

From the Festival Opera  

Association, a comedy by  

Gaetano Donizetti about an arranged marriage 

www.festivalopera.com 

Benefactors 

July 18 to Aug. 18, Wed.-Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 and 7 p.m. 

Previews: July 12-14 and 17 

Michael Frayn's comedy of two neighboring couple's interactions 

Aurora Theatre Company  

2081 Addison St. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org  

for reservations. $26 - $35  

The Shape of Things 

Sept. 13 to Oct. 20 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Neil LaBute's love story  

about two students 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 - $35  

The Heidi Chronicles 

Through Aug. 10 Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m. 

Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley present Wendy Wasserstein’s play about change. 

528-5620 

$10 

A Thousand and One Arabian Nights 

Through Sept. 28, Fri.-Sun. 8 p.m. Sun. 4 p.m. 

Forest Meadows Outdoor Amphitheater, Grand Avenue at the Dominican University, San Raphael 

Marin Shakespeare Company’s presents this classic story with original Arabic music. 

(415) 499-4488 for tickets 

$12, youth; $20 senior; $22 general 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 to Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about the irony of modern technology 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 - $35  

Poetry Diversified 

First and third Tuesdays,  

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

World Ground Cafe,  

3726 Mac Arthur Blvd., Oakland 

Open mic and featured readers 

Boas Writing Group 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

Stefani Barber, Jean Lieske  

and many more 

845-7852 

$2 

Open Mike and Featured Poet 

7 to 9 P.M. First Thursdays and second Wednesdays each month  

Albany Library 1247 Marin Ave 

Thursday, July 11: Poets Tenesha Smith-Douglas and Judith Annenbaum. 

Second Wednesdays are a monthly Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Alison Seevak.  

526-3720 Ext. 19 

Free 

Thursday, July 18

Intro to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library - Central Branch 

Electronic Classroom (3rd Floor) 2090 Kittredge Ave.  

Non-profit training organization for software and hardware useful to seniors and disabled people in Berkeley. 

981-6121 for reservations 

Free 

art.Sites Paris 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Slide show by Sidra Stich offers overview of Paris' exciting innovative changes, new museums, new art and media centers, parks etc. 

843-3533 

Free 

Mystique of the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

527-4140 

Free 

"Green Building" Workshop 

6 to 8 p.m.  

Building Education Center, 812 Page Street 

With speaker Greg VanMechelen, Architect, VanMechelen Architects 

614-1699 or lclarke@stopwaste.org 

Free 

Simplicity Forum 

7 to 8:30 p.m.  

Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave.  

Topic is the Cost of various life choices to the Planet well as to our Happiness, Pocketbook and Community. 

549-3509, or www.simpleliving.net. 

Free 

Introduction to Accessible  

Software and Hardware  

3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge Street 

RSVP to 981-6121 

Friday, July 19

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

In solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian Women in Black to urge an end to the occupation  

548-6310, wibberkeley.org 

Saturday, July 20

Public Meeting to Plan a New  

National Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Oakland Museum, Lecture Hall, 1000 Oak St. (at Lake Merritt BART) 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517 

Free 

Puppet Shows 

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level) 

The Kids on the Block educational puppet troupe present a show about accepting and understanding physical, mental, medical and cultural differences. 

$2 donation, children under 3 free 

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

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

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

812 Page Street 

981-5605 

Free 

Connoisseurs' Marketplace 

(through July 21) 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Santa Cruz Ave. Menlo Park (between El Camino Real and Johnson St. 

16th annual mid-summer festival of the arts featuring music, artisans, celebrity chefs, international cuisine, kids' fun zone and more. 

(650) 325-2818 

Free 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA)  

9:30 to ll a.m.  

Fireside room, Live Oak Park l30l Shattuck Avenue 

City wide neighborhood meeting on local issues. 

Mtbrcb@pacbell.net 

Sunday, July 21

Top of the Bay Family Days 

1 to 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC campus 

Enjoy an afternoon outdoor concert in our family picnic area as well as art and science activities and hands-on exhibits inside LHS. 

643-5961 

$8 adults 

Monday, July 22

An evening of song & resistance 

7 p.m.  

AK Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St. Oakland 

With music from Samsara, James Tracy and David Rovics 

208-1700, or akpres@akpress.org 

$5 donation 

Tuesday, July 23

Myanmar (formerly Burma):  

"The Golden Land" 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Ricky Fishman gives a slide presentation/talk about this isolated and remote land. 

843-3533 

Free 

Q & A with a  

Personal/Business Coach 

noon to 1 p.m. 

YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way 

For those interested in professional coaching careers, speak with a pro. 

848-6370 

$3 

Wednesday, July 24

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

Pharmacist Fred Mayer prescriptions and their costs, etc. 

548-9696  

Free 

Getting Help When You Need It 

7:30 to 9 p.m.  

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annex A 

350 Hawthorne Ave. Oakland 

Free interactive workshop to help caregivers obtain free assistance, deal with paid in-home help, and create plans to care for loved ones. 

869-6737 

Free 

"Green Building" Workshop 

6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, Meeting Room A, 2090 Kittredge 

Henry Siegel, Architect, on how to use building materials that are healthier for your family and the environment.  

614-1699 

Thursday, July 25

Combat Medic: World War II 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Memoir presentation by San Francisco physician John Kerner, describing experiences as a combat medic in World War II.  

843-3533 

California Landscapes:  

A Geologist's Perspective 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527- 4140. 

Free 

Saturday, July 27

Test Ride Kestrel Bicycles 

11 a.m.-1 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

Pristine Sandusky of Kestrel, a premier manufacturer of high-end, carbon-fiber road and mountain bikes, introduces their latest design. 

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

Graywater Workshop  

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave 

Learn the ins and outs of reusing water with the Guerrilla Graywater Girls 

548-2220 x233  

$10 members, $15 non ( no one turned away for lack of funds) 

Santa Fe Right of Way Path Walk 

10 a.m. 

Meet at the Ohlone Greenway at Cedar St, in Cedar Rose Park. 

A new path opportunity, recently funded by the City Council. 

649-9874, 

http://www.internettime.com/path 

"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, non-members $5  

Grand Summer Rummage Sale 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar and Bonita Streets 

A benefit for ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Donations and volunteers are needed 

(415) 821-6545. 

Sunday, July 28

Hands-on Bicycle Repair  

11 a.m.-12 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

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

For more information: (510) 527-4140 

Free 

Tuesday, July 30

The Birdhouse Chronicles:  

Surviving the Joys of Country Life 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

Reading and discussion of Cathleen Miller's personal account of moving from San Francisco to Amish Pennsylvania to restore an old house. 

843-3533 

Free 

Wednesday, July 31

Twilight Tours at UC Botanical Gardens 

through Aug. 28 5:30 p.m.  

200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley, CA.  

Tour the garden at twilight with an expert horticulturist every Wednesday. 

643-2755  

Free with garden admission.  

Mountain Adventure Seminars:  

Introduction to Rock Climbing 

7 p.m.-9 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo 

An introduction to rock climbing including knot tying, belaying and movement. 

For more information: (209) 753-6556 

$115 REI members; $125 non-members 

Thursday, August 1

Public Meeting to Plan New  

National Historic Park in Richmond 

1:30 p.m. 

Richmond Senior Center,  

2525 Macdonald Ave. 

Meeting to gather input for National Park Service to prepare plans that will guide development of historic WWII sites in Richmond. 

817-1517

Depleted Berkeley/Albany lineup can’t solve
Mountain View pitchers in state tournament 

The Berkeley/Albany Lions’ season ended Wednesday night in a 3-1 loss to Mountain View in the Babe Ruth state tournament in San Leandro. 

The Lions, playing with a weakened lineup due to several key absences, managed to scratch across just one unearned run in the sixth inning as Mountain View’s Brian Johnson and Todd Frassotti combined to allow just three hits in the game. 

Berkeley/Albany’s best chance came right out of the gate, as a walk and two singles loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first inning. But Benny Goldenberg struck out and Joe Storno grounded out to end the inning without a run crossing the plate. 

“They did a pretty good job pitching against us today,” Berkeley manager Joe Pinguelo said. “We weren’t able to hit them very well. When we didn’t produce in the first inning, that really hurt us.” 

While the Lions were doing nothing with a lot of baserunners, Mountain View was efficient in the first three innings, taking advantage of three walks by Lions starter Randy Renn. Matt Martinez led off the first with a free pass, advanced to third on two groundouts and scored on an opposite field flare by Matt Means. 

Mountain View scored the deciding runs in the third. After two quick outs, Renn lost the plate and walked two batters. Means followed with another single, this one a line drive just over the leap of second baseman Derek Yow, scoring Jack Chapman from second.  

Bryan Beres’ single to center scored Johnson, although Berkeley/Albany centerfielder Chase Moore gunned down Means at the plate for the third out. Renn didn’t allow another hit in the game, but the three runs stood up. 

Moore led off with a double to start the next inning, but was called out for leaving early while tagging up on a flyball despite the protests of the Lions coaching staff. 

Franklin led off the sixth with his third straight walk and went to second on a wild pitch before scoring on an error by Mountain View shortstop Will Norton. The Lions had two men on with two outs, but Storno grounded out to second base. 

Three missing starters depleted the Berkeley/Albany bench, forcing Pinguelo to put every available player in the lineup. The result was an 0-for-13 day by the last five batters in the Lions order, which effectively snuffed any chance of an extended rally. 

“I definitely think that if we had our full roster here, we would have won this game,” said Pinguelo, who had to work the phones all afternoon just to get a full lineup. “It’s tough when you only have nine ballplayers show up.” 

Ricky Arias extended a ray of hope with a leadoff walk in the seventh, but Frassetti struck out the next three batters to end the game. 

Regardless of the disappointing finish, Pinguelo said he was satisfied with the summer season. The Lions advanced to the state tournament for the third straight year and were just two wins away from the championship game. 

“It’s been a fantastic season,” he said. “To get back to the state championships and come in in the top four, it’s nice to see for the kids.”

Ten years after Berkeley voters supported a $55 million bond to improve fire protection, City Council approved a long-awaited plan for a fire station in the Berkeley hills. The unanimous decision came Tuesday night. 

“We’ve had four fires already in the month of June that could have been major problems in the hills, and we haven’t seen the worst of it yet,” said Berkeley Mayor Shirely Dean. “We need to keep the fire station project moving forward.” 

The station’s approval came after city leaders shot down arguments from residents who claimed the proposed firehouse does not live up to terms specified in the voter-approved 1992 Measure G bond. 

Critics have charged that the new station does not embrace the promised partnership with neighboring jurisdictions that includes, among other things, sharing costs.  

Additionally, some have argued that the new firehouse does not adequately address its goal of combating wildland fire threats, and instead merely replaces a nearby neighborhood station that has been left in disrepair. 

“We voted for what was promised in Measure G and that is not what is planned,” said Berkeley resident Cindy Fulton at Tuesday’s council meeting. She claimed the city’s actions were a case of “bait and switch.” 

But safety concerns lingering from the devastating hills fire of 1991 won out, and Tuesday night, City Council dismissed two legal appeals to the proposed fire station and certified the long-debated environmental impact report. 

City officials are still deciding whether they need approval from a county judge before moving forward with the project, given that changes have been made to the plan since voters approved it in 1992. 

“I believe that nothing significant was changed,” Dean said. 

The new fire station is blueprinted to be a two-story building cut into the hillside at 3000 Shasta Road and encompass 6,800 square feet of space for four fire vehicles. The city is expected to house a year-round city fire crew at the facility and host summer firefighters from the East Bay Regional Park District. 

City fire officials did not return repeated phone calls to discuss the station’s firefighting capacity. Chief Reginald Garcia, at Tuesday night’s council meeting, though, said the proposed station “represents a significant increase and improvement in fire protection in the hills area.” 

The chief’s plea to approve the station was backed by city planners who said in a staff report that “there is no basis to the appeal [of the project].” 

Specifically, at Tuesday’s meeting, protest to the project was packaged as an appeal of two city use permits, a building variance and the project’s environmental impact report. 

Noise, loss of scenery and an incomplete study of alternative projects were cited as problems, in an appeal filed by Berkeley resident Peter Cukor. 

The second appeal of the project challenged the project’s landscaping and requested that only native plants be used to dress up the site. The city agreed to the request. 

City leaders have also scheduled a public hearing July 23 regarding the amendment of a tree ordinance, which would allow relocation of a live oak tree from the building site. 

The city’s fire department would not say when it hopes to start construction of the new fire station. 

To the Editor: 

The Racial Privacy Initiative is very much alive and is one to watch. The initiative cleverly wraps itself in the banner of individual rights and protecting personal privacy. But it is not at all about rights. It’s about denial: denial that racial inequalities continue to persist in our society. If passed, the initiative will amend the California Constitution to prohibit the state government from collecting information on the race and ethnicity of people needing or receiving government services. 

The major reason for the government to collect racial data is to allow us to evaluate the effects of special policies and actions taken by the government and the private sector. For example, physicians and epidemiologists have demonstrated that collecting data about race and ethnicity is of great importance in improving public health measures. The social and economic health of our citizens is no less important, and indeed, directly impacts physical health. 

Racial data are essential to assure that bank loans and mortgages are made in accordance with nondiscrimination laws, and to see where our educational delivery may be falling short. We need to collect racial data to assure that everyone is being treated in a fair and equitable way. Why would we not want to have this information? We all benefit when public health programs target specific ethnic groups with appropriate health education, based on their experiences and needs. We all benefit when public contract money is distributed in a fair and racially nondiscriminatory way. We all benefit when our friends and neighbors are treated ethically by lending institutions. We need to continue to know if our policies and actions are increasing or decreasing the health and well-being of different racial groups. Our obligation to know is directly linked to the 14th Amendment, which guarantees “equal protection” of all citizens. 

I’ve had to ask myself why the Racial Privacy Initiative would be placed on the ballot. Even if the sponsors and supporters of this initiative have the best motives (which they assert is to try to reduce racial inequality) the effect of its passage would mean that we will not be able to identify racially discriminatory practices. By making it illegal for racial data to be collected, the Initiative would deprive policy makers and the public of the only way we can follow compliance with long-standing nondiscrimination laws. If we don’t gather information we won’t know, and if we don’t know, as a society we certainly won’t be able to act. 

Tom Bates 

former state Assemblyman

NEW YORK — Concert grosses for the first half of the year were up 17 percent, but so were ticket prices — the average cost of a ticket for top tours was about $51, compared to $47 last year, according to an industry report. 

Attendance at concerts was down for a second straight year, according to the survey released Friday by Pollstar, a weekly trade publication. 

The survey of the top 50 tours, including those by Paul McCartney, ’N Sync, the Dave Matthews Band and Creed, showed that from January to June, the top tours recorded about $538 million in sales, compared to last year’s $508 million. 

The record for that period was in 2000, when $579 million worth of tickets were sold. 

But the survey also showed that the top 50 concerts combined sold about 10.6 million tickets, down 300,000, or 3 percent, from last year. In 2000, 12.9 million tickets were sold in the first half of the year. 

“When you’ve lost essentially 2 million ticket buyers in the space of a couple of years, you have to wonder where those people went and what it will take to bring them back,” Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar said Monday. 

The top-grossing tour was Paul McCartney’s, which grossed about $53 million. That was followed by Billy Joel and Elton John; the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion tour; ’N Sync; and the Dave Matthews Band.

OAKLAND – Garret Anderson homered and doubled, and light-hitting Jorge Fabregas drove in the go-ahead run Wednesday night as the Anaheim Angels edged back ahead of Oakland in the AL West standings, beating the Athletics 10-4. 

David Eckstein hit a three-run homer and reached base five times for the Angels, who jumped all over Tim Hudson for a rare victory over their upstate rivals. Anaheim has won just four of its last 19 meetings with the A’s. 

In the first of two games at the Coliseum, Anaheim (55-38) moved in front of the A’s (55-40) for second place in the tight division race. The Angels also got a good start to a string of 11 straight games against Oakland and Seattle. 

Anaheim’s lengthy injury list got longer with the pregame addition of catcher Bengie Molina, who went on the disabled list with a strained hamstring. Fabregas, who entered the game hitting .206, went 1-for-4 in Molina’s place, but he got the game’s key hit against Hudson (7-8) in the sixth. 

Miguel Tejada, Jermaine Dye and John Mabry homered for the A’s, who might have been feeling the effects of a 3 a.m. arrival in Oakland on Wednesday following a cross-country flight from Tampa Bay. The A’s, who went 5-1 on their road trip, lost for just the third time in 11 games. 

The Angels rallied from a 3-2 deficit by batting around in a three-run sixth. Scott Spiezio, who had three hits and three runs scored, had an RBI double before Fabregas put Anaheim ahead with a single up the middle off Hudson, who allowed eight hits and walked three in 5 1-3 lackluster innings. 

It was a distubring turn for Hudson, who was back in the dismal form he showed during an eight-game winless skid in May and June. He had won four of his previous six starts, allowing just one run in his last three. 

Anaheim added four more while batting around again in the eighth. Eckstein, the Angels’ diminutive leadoff hitter, cracked his fifth homer of the season over the left-field fence against reliever Mike Venafro. 

Former A’s starter Kevin Appier (8-7) allowed seven hits and four walks over six shaky innings, but he kept the A’s off the scoreboard except on their two homers. 

Anderson put the Angels up 2-0 in the first after Hudson threw high and tight with a 2-2 pitch. Anderson glared at Hudson, dusted himself off and launched the next pitch past the right-field pole. It was his 18th homer. 

Notes: OF Darin Erstad didn’t start, but he was available to pinch-hit for Anaheim. Erstad, who’s in an 0-for-17 slump, had a blood blister drained from the top of his left foot on Tuesday. ... Attendance at the Coliseum, helped by $1 hot dogs, was a surprisingly robust 38,547. ... Eric Chavez went hitless in four at-bats. He’s in the middle of an 0-for-25 skid — the worst of his career. ... Angels closer Troy Percival and relievers Dennis Cook and Al Levine also are injured.

Neighbors show mixed reactions 

Berkeley residents showed strong, varied reactions to protection measures put in place Tuesday to preserve the historical facade of the Claremont Resort and Spa. 

Surrounded on three sides by the city of Berkeley, but sitting on a finger of Oakland, the Claremont was granted “landmark” status by Oakland City Council for its stately, 85-year-old physical structure. The designation puts extensive restrictions on the changes that can be made to it. 

While the “landmark” designation was widely celebrated, many neighbors were disappointed that Oakland leaders failed to grant the same protection to the resort’s 15-acre grounds.  

Critics fear that the resort owner, Palm Spring-based KSL Resorts Corp., could build additional facilities on the property and ruin the Claremont’s historical integrity. 

“Buildings on the grounds could drastically affect views, ambiance and open sight lines,” neighbor Wendy Markel said. 

Neighbor Ellen Peterson noted that the hotel has expressed interest in building a three-story parking garage and condominiums on the site. 

In lieu of granting “landmark” status to the property, Oakland’s City Council strengthened the zoning standards in an attempt to prevent overdevelopment.  

“Our measures give a much higher level of protection for the grounds than if they were not there,” said Oakland Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents north Oakland. 

Anything built on the Claremont property is required to be “in harmony” with the main building, she said. 

“My preference would have been to landmark the entire grounds or at least a part of it but I wasn’t going to get that [support from other councilmembers],” Brunner said. “As it stands, it gives the hotel the right to manage it’s property but still gives the community certain protections.” 

Claremont officials applauded council’s action. The hotel had been on record for supporting neighborhood calls to grant “landmark” status to their building, but not the grounds. 

“We’re very pleased with the decision taken by the Oakland City Council,” the resort said in a written statement. 

Neighbors, formally organized as the Berkeley Oakland Neighbors of the Claremont, had gathered 900 signatures on a petition calling for “landmark” designation for both the hotel and the grounds. 

For this reason, Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington was critical of Oakland’s decision. 

“I’m glad the building was landmarked, but I don’t think the grounds decision respects the concerns of the community or the magnificence of the property,” he said. 

“Oakland’s decision tells KSL that the Oakland City Council will blink,” Worthington said. “A one block difference in the Claremont’s location would have made a big difference [in the outcome of the ‘landmark’ decision].” 

To the Editor: 

First, accept my compliments for the great improvement you’ve made in the paper. One thing in particular impresses me and that is your sticking to the “Letters to the Editor” rule that only 350 words or less are acceptable. Though I complained to your predecessor, I never saw any change. You now have room for three and often more letters on the page. Thank you. 

Second, I think the Daily Planet and other publications eager to increase their circulation should support mass transit. People driving in cars don’t read; they listen to the radio. 

It’s so obvious that AC Transit and BART riders are your best bet for more readership, I’ve often wondered why newspapers and magazines don’t see it. As a nondriver myself, I never board a bus or train without something to read. 

Keep up the good work. 

Rose M. Green 

Berkeley

Sure, summer is here. And even though the fog sometimes plays havoc with the concept of the perfect, dreamy summer dusk – you know the kind where you can sit on a porch and lazily watch the sun set, batting away flies and listening to deep, melodic tunes – the concept of dreamy isn't lost to musicians Paolo Giordano and Michael Manring. Their music, which swirls like a firefly out of reach, sets the perfect tone for a twilight of gazing, reflection and pure dreaminess, even if there is fog. To promote their new CD "Kids in a Toyshop (Step Musique)," Italian acoustic guitarist Paolo Giordano and Oakland bassist Michael Manring are playing a show at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse this evening. 

On the CD, Giordano plays acoustic and slide guitar and performs the vocals, while Manring is strictly bass. Though the album also features Jacqueline Perkins on vocals and Alex Acuna on percussion, tonight just Giordano and Manring will be playing– though that should satisfy pretty much anyone interested in a night of astonishing, ambient music. 

Giordano and Manring have a long history of producing absorbing music, both together and separately with various solo efforts. This may be the second CD collaboration between them but it sounds like they've been playing together for years, and they have– for nearly a decade. This is their second United States tour. 

Their musical resumes cover a huge swath of varying musical styles and distinct musicians. Giordano, mostly known for classical guitar, has worked with guitarists such as Pierre Bensusan, Peter Finger, Alex De Grassim, Michael Hedges and Lucio Dalla. He also has worked with singer Patti Cathcart, from the duo known as Tuck & Patti. 

Manring, on the other hand, known for his unorthodox tunings, techniques and methodologies, has worked with the Yo Miles group, New Age keyboardist Suzanne Ciani, Henry Kaiser, John Gorka, and with the late Michael Hedges, with whom he had a fifteen-year collaboration. He has recorded with the experimental post-metal trio, Attention Deficit, which features Tim Alexander of Primus and Alex Skolnick of Testament. Manring also plays with the Seattle punk-jazz trio Sadhappy and has published four solo albums through Windham Hill records, where he was the house bassist. He has two gold records, Grammy and Bammie nominations and is a Berkeley School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award winner. He has also been featured on a recent PBS documentary, "The Artist's Profile: Michael Manring." 

This story is part of a series that will profile city election candidates. 

For Anne Wagley, City Council candidate in District 8, it’s all about process. 

“I’m very concerned with fair process and transparency,” said Wagley. “I would like to make sure that when a decision is made, everyone who had an interest felt they were heard.” 

Wagley’s supporters say it is her commitment to process, and her ability to listen, that attracts them to her candidacy. 

“She’ll probably vote for projects I don’t like,” said Tim Hansen, who serves on the board of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. “But she’ll be fair. And I think that’s all you can ask.” 

Supporters say that fairness and transparency will be a relief to neighbors who often feel left in the dark as development projects move through the system. 

“I am looking for candidates who are going to understand neighborhood points-of-view, and Anne has proven she cares,” said Landmarks Commission Chairperson Carrie Olson.  

Wagley, 46, currently heads the Peace and Justice Commission. She also serves on the board of a local human rights group and family foundation, the Dallas-based Partnership Foundation, that has funneled $300,000 in grants to East Bay organizations focused on social justice issues. 

Wagley faces three rivals in her bid for the District 8 seat – Planning Commissioner Gordon Wozniak, Zoning Adjustments Board Commissioner Andy Katz and Housing Advisory Commissioner Jay Vega. Incumbent Polly Armstrong will not run for re-election. 

The district, located in southeast Berkeley, has a tradition of producing moderate councilmembers like Armstrong. But progressive Chris Kavanagh nearly unseated Armstrong in 1996. Observers say the district is almost evenly split between moderate and progressive voters. 

“I know it’s not as easy a district for us as we always thought it was,” said moderate councilmember Betty Olds, who is backing Wozniak. 

In a district of both moderates and progressives, homeowners and renters, seniors and students, candidates have worked to place themselves in the middle, shunning the traditional “moderate” and “progressive” labels and arguing that the two sides must come together. 

Still, those traditional labels have begun to creep into the campaign. Wozniak said Wednesday that his base is in the moderate camp. Katz said that tenants’ rights will be a guiding theme for his candidacy. Vega could not be reached for comment. 

Wagley, who aligns herself with the upstart Berkeley Party, sought to place herself outside the fray. She will not seek endorsements from sitting City Councilmembers, in an attempt to distance herself from the notoriously divided body, she said. 

Progressive Councilmember Dona Spring, who has endorsed Katz, said Wagley could be effective at bridging the divide on the council. 

“I think she has the potential to work with people coming from different political views – spanning the political spectrum from progressive, liberal to moderate, conservative,” Spring said, adding that Katz could bring similar skills to the council. 

But Wagley said transparency and bridging the progressive-moderate gulf will not be her only issues. A recent wave of car break-ins in the neighborhood is also a concern, she said. 

“We think we’re fairly isolated here, but we’re not,” she said. 

Wagley said the police will probably have to remain focused on other neighborhoods with higher crime rates. But she suggested that residents look out for each other and refrain from leaving cell phones and loose change in their cars. 

Wozniak said he has also picked up on the issue, making the rounds in the neighborhood. He suggested that the police might temporarily beef up their presence in the area during the crime wave. 

All the candidates say traffic is an issue in the district. Wagley said she supports transit passes, or “Eco Passes,” for the employees of UC Berkeley and other large employers in the area to ease traffic. Katz, who helped negotiate an EcoPass deal for UC Berkeley students, and Wozniak also voiced support for the concept. 

Wagley, who worked as a financial analyst for Chemical Bank in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said she will also bring budget expertise to bear as the city faces a $3 million shortfall. 

But ultimately, she said, it will be about listening to neighbors. 

“I’m a very open, friendly person,” she said. “I’m approachable and I’m a good listener.”

Brooklyn Bridge for sale? 

BROOKLYN, Iowa — Wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge? 

Not the New York City landmark — but the one in Brooklyn, Iowa. 

Mayor Jim Rhinehart thinks the bridge over Little Bear Creek could be resold now that a $1.7 million replacement is on the way. 

“We’re trying to figure out what to do with that bridge,” said Rhinehart, mayor of the town of 1,367 people about 40 miles west of Iowa City. 

The narrow steel truss, built in 1927, could be used as a driveway, for example, or put in a park or recreation area. 

“I thought we should put it on the Internet,” said local businessman Alex Wehrle. “There aren’t too many Brooklyn Bridges for sale.” 

Canine not a qualified elector 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It’s back to the doghouse for one aspiring House candidate. 

State election officials refused to qualify Percy, a 5-year-old border collie mix, as a rival to Secretary of State Katherine Harris in her bid for Congress. 

Percy barked loudly when veteran elections official Ed Kast told the dog’s owner, Wayne Genthner, his dog didn’t meet the state’s elections requirements. 

“He’s a canine and therefore not a qualified elector,” Kast said. 

Genthner, a Republican, then decided he’d run himself as a write-in candidate. The 42-year-old charter boat captain said he was frustrated with highly financed, sterile campaigns that avoid meaningful debate. 

“People are almost disdainful of the political system as it is now,” Genthner said. “Percy exists to me as a binding none-of-the above ballot selection.” 

Percy and his volunteer campaign staff had been handing out flyers with slogans such as, “Never made a mess in the House! Never will!” and “PERCY! Putting the LICK back into Republican.” 

Harris, who drew worldwide attention in her role as Florida’s chief elections officer during the 2000 presidential recount, is a heavy favorite to win the race. 

Michael Delacour, a four-time candidate for mayor, has joined the school board race. And he’s got a radical message. 

“I run on a working-class program,” Delacour said, arguing that the schools need to stop “creating slaves for the corporate machine.” 

Delacour said, as a school board member, he would push for more working-class history in the schools. He would also provide education for students who might end up outside the system. 

“Let’s prepare them for being homeless,” he said. 

Delacour did not take a position on getting the district out of its financial mess – prefering to look beyond the numbers at the general direction of the school system. He also declined to take a position on converting Berkeley High School to a series of small schools by fall 2003.

LONG BEACH — California State University’s board of trustees took its first step Wednesday toward adopting tougher policies for smokers at its 23 campuses. 

The trustees directed committee members to draft a policy that would give CSU presidents the authority to set smoking regulations, such as banning smoking within 20 feet of campus buildings, said CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow. 

The 20-foot rule has been heavily lobbied by anti-smoking advocates and CSU students, who petitioned the trustees earlier this year to adopt stricter smoking policies. 

“It doesn’t mean each president will create a rule that says you can’t smoke 20 feet from the building. But it means they will have the authority to decide,” she said. “It could be a longer distance or a shorter distance.” 

The trustees are expected to adopt the policy at their September meeting. 

Under the policy, Potes-Fellow said CSU presidents could ban smoking altogether on campuses. 

“It’s an option they would have,” she said, adding that an outright ban was unlikely. 

Potes-Fellow also said campus presidents would be required to consult with faculty and staff before making any policy change because it would affect working conditions. 

“The campus presidents will have to work with the faculty, staff and students to come up with an acceptable policy,” she said. 

Smoking has been banned in California’s public buildings since 1994. CSU prohibits smoking within five feet of the entrances and exits of buildings, a limit set by state law. Some campuses have implemented even stricter guidelines, limiting smokers to 15 feet to 30 feet from campus buildings.

CORONADO — When a plane trailing a banner declaring “One Nation Under God” flew over the home of an appellate judge and demonstrators surrounded the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, the two jurists who sparked the reaction were surprised. 

“It’s the noisiest thing I’ve ever experienced,” said Circuit Judge Alfred T. Goodwin who, with his colleague, Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, heard plenty of feedback about their Pledge of Allegiance decision at this week’s annual 9th Circuit conference. 

“I think it’s a bit excessive,” said Reinhardt, who was at his office last Saturday when he heard about crowds of demonstrators and a plane with a banner flying over his home. 

Reinhardt quipped that the controversy may be more heated because “It’s the middle of the summer and there are no scandals.” 

But he and Goodwin said that politics, notably the upcoming congressional elections, are fueling the controversy. 

“I can’t think of any decision where the entire Congress immediately rushes to condemn a decision by the court,” Reinhardt said. “It’s getting to be election time and this gives everyone in Congress a chance to prove they are patriotic.” 

Goodwin noted that, “The climate of public opinion is different after 9/11. There’s anxiety. There’s fear and it’s an even numbered year so you have a political reality.” 

Goodwin, who wrote the decision, said criticism also was exacerbated by misleading news reports. 

“The first sound bites that went out said the court had ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, which it didn’t,” said Goodwin. He said the only thing ruled unconstitutional was the phrase “one nation under God” being required during recitations in schools by school children. 

The lawsuit that brought the decision was filed by a California atheist, Michael Newdow, who did not want his second-grade daughter to be forced to listen to the pledge. the 2-1 decision held that the phrase amounts to a government endorsement of religion. The words “under God” were inserted by Congress in 1954 after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic organization. 

The dissenting judge on the pledge decision, Ferdinand Fernandez, did not attend the gathering of the nation’s largest circuit court which drew hundreds of jurists. 

The 78-year-old Goodwin noted that when he learned the pledge, the phrase “under God” was not included and until the case was brought before the court, “I can’t recall giving it much thought.”

WASHINGTON — Federal energy regulators on Wednesday capped electricity prices in California and other western states at $250 per megawatt hour, beginning on Oct. 1. 

However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also put in place a process that could lower wholesale power prices when they top $92 per megawatt hour — if certain criteria are met. 

Power prices currently are capped at $92 per megawatt hour through September. 

A megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes. 

California power officials and political leaders had asked FERC to leave the lower limits in place. 

FERC said it would maintain a requirement that power generators make all their power available for sale, preventing them from withholding power as a way to force prices to rise. 

The commission also voted to overhaul the board of the California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s electricity grid. 

FERC said the board is not independent. 

NEW YORK — Apple Computer Inc. Wednesday announced Windows versions of the acclaimed iPod digital music players, moving Apple more firmly into the PC peripherals market. 

Chief executive Steven Jobs, speaking at the MacWorld Expo and Conference here, also unveiled a new iMac computer with a larger display. 

The iMac, available in two weeks, has a 17-inch flat-panel display and a DVD-burning drive. It will sell for $1999. 

The most expensive of the existing iMac models, which have 15-inch screens, had its price reduced by $100 to $1799. 

Jobs also announced $100 price cuts on the slim white iPod MP3 players, bringing the 5-gigabyte model to $299 and the 10-gigabyte model to $399. A 20-gigabyte model, holding approximately 4,000 songs, will be introduced in early August. 

Current iPod models are made to connect only to Apple’s Macintosh computers. Windows versions of all three models will be available at the end of August. 

On Tuesday, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple reported disappointing second quarter sales, reflecting an industrywide slowdown. 

“We are investing, and we are going to innovate ourselves out of this downturn,” Jobs said in his keynote speech. 

At midday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Apple shares were down $2.36, or 13 percent, at $15.50. 

Noting that most Web sites that once provided free file storage and e-mail now charge fees for some or all of their services, Jobs said Apple will start charging $99 a year for its iTools services in September. 

ITools, which includes e-mail, file storage and online photo albums, will be expanded with calendar, backup and antivirus functions, and its name will be changed to ”.mac,” Job said. 

“Where did we get this name? Well, Microsoft has .NET, which is about Internet services, and that’s what iTools is all about,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s program of tying Internet services to its software. 

Jobs also touted the new version its OS X operating system, called Version 10.2 Jaguar. It will go on sale Aug. 24 for $129. It has incremental improvements in several areas, including file organization and networking. 

Responding to media reports that users have been adopting OS X slowly since its introduction last year, Jobs said the transition from older operating systems was “going well.” 

He projected that 20 percent, or 5 million, of all Macintosh computers would be running OS X by the end of the year. 

The keynote speech opened with video testimonials by Windows users who had switched to Macintosh, echoing a current marketing campaign. 

“The response we’ve had to this campaign is off the chart,” Jobs said, noting that a Web site set up in connection with the campaign has been visited by 1 million Windows users since set up June 10. 

SAN FRANCISCO — University of California officials are reacting warily to an ambitious proposal to bring the entire state education system, from preschool to Ph.D.s, under the same organizational framework. 

Major concerns include a proposal to drop extra credit for honors courses and a plan to create a new commission responsible for approving all education programs. 

California’s public universities and community colleges now operate under principles set out in the 40-year-old Master Plan for Higher Education. 

The new project, started in 1999 and being carried out by a legislative committee, would extend that planning document to include the K-12 system. 

On Wednesday, UC regents meeting for their regular session in San Francisco raised a number of objections to a rough draft of the new plan released in May. 

“My main concern is that ... we don’t destroy the benefits that the current plan has given us,” said Regent John Davies. 

Calls by The Associated Press to the committee working on the report were not immediately returned Wednesday. 

The master plan was written to cope with the wave of college-aged Baby Boomers that added 600,000 students to the higher education system within a single decade. 

Legislators say bringing California’s troubled K-12 system under the plan will provide a coherent framework for improvement. Several other states have already streamlined their system. In Florida, for instance, all public education is under a single state board. 

UC officials agree higher education must collaborate with the K-12 system, but they have problems with some of the changes proposed in the draft report. 

Regents indicated they’d be unlikely to support a proposal to eliminate extra credit for advanced-placement classes. Many California public universities give five points for an “A” in such a course because it is more difficult than a regular class. 

Legislators say that’s unfair, since about 15 percent of the state’s public high schools didn’t offer advanced-placement courses in the 1999-2000 school year. Schools without the courses tended to be predominantly made up of minority and low-income students. 

In 1999, regents rejected a proposal to drop the extra credit from one point to half a point. 

Regardless of what the plan ultimately says on extra points, regents must approve any change to UC admissions policy, since the system is not required under state law to follow all policies passed by the Legislature. 

Another change that UC opposes is a plan to replace the California Postsecondary Education Commission with a new commission responsible for approving K-16 educational programs. UC officials say they’re worried that the new commission will be overwhelmed by the problems of the K-12 system. 

UC is proposing keeping the postsecondary commission and giving the new commission review rather than approval power over higher education. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson said some of the draft report wording may be inadvertent. 

For instance, a section of the draft referring to transferring community college students says they can go to “any” CSU or UC campus. In fact, admission to the top campuses in UC’s nine-campus system is very competitive. 

UC has representatives working with the legislative committee on the new report, but regents said their comments don’t always make it into the final report. 

“Many of the conclusions that seem to be written into the report are not the result of the committees that met,” said Regent Judith Hopkinson. “There are hidden agendas here.” 

STANTON— The body of a kidnapped 5-year-old girl was dumped in the open near a rural highway like a “calling card” warning that the killer intends to strike again, investigators said Wednesday. 

Samantha Runnion was believed to have been sexually assaulted and there were signs of trauma to her nude body but no clear cause of death, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona told a press conference near the girl’s home. An autopsy was under way. 

“Don’t sleep, don’t eat, because we’re coming after you,” Carona warned the killer, saying he is likely both a serial rapist and serial killer. 

A sexual predator who kills is going to do it again, FBI agent Richard Garcia said. The body was found Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the kidnapping. 

“The way the body was found, the fact it was not buried, not hidden and such, and how it was left is almost like a calling card, like a challenge: ’I’m here and I’m coming back again.’ This is the reason why we’re saying this person is going to strike again,” he said. 

Samantha’s 27-year-old mother, Erin Runnion, who made an anguished plea for the return of her daughter a day earlier, stayed in seclusion after the body’s identification. 

The news spread fear in Stanton, a city of 38,000 southeast of Los Angeles. 

Tammie Fike, 31, clutched the hand of her 6-year-old son, Anthony, as she headed to a memorial to say a prayer for Samantha. “I’m scared to let him go out,” said Fike, who instructed her son to yell “fire” and to run if a stranger approached him. 

“I’m only allowed to talk to friends of my mom,” Anthony said. 

Brenda van Dam, whose daughter Danielle was abducted and killed in February in San Diego, said she spoke with Samantha’s mother to offer consolation. 

“They were both sweet, wonderful girls who loved life and their family,” van Dam said in a statement released to reporters. 

Garcia addressed the unknown killer directly during the televised news conference. 

“The individual is in fact watching us right now. I want to tell you ... we will find you and we will bring you to justice,” Garcia said. 

The kidnapper was described as Hispanic, but used Americanized language that indicated he was probably not foreign-born. He had slicked-back black hair and a thin black mustache and wore a powder blue button-down shirt at the time. 

Samantha’s abduction Monday evening was the nation’s fourth high-profile disappearance of a child this year. Her remains were identified by her grandmother through photos from the site where the body was found. 

The body was discovered Tuesday afternoon in neighboring Riverside County near two-lane Highway 74 on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles from Stanton. The road is a heavily traveled route between the two counties. 

Two men spotted the body about 3 p.m. in a ravine near a hang-gliding launch site. 

“Because the body was found very quickly, we have a high expectation that there will be significant forensic evidence found at the scene and significant forensic evidence found on the body of Samantha Runnion,” the sheriff said. 

Samantha and friend Sarah Ahn, 5, were sitting on a wall playing a guessing game about 150 feet from Samantha’s home Monday evening when a man drove up in a two-door light green Honda or Acura after making a U-turn. The man got out and asked for help finding his puppy, then took off with the kicking and screaming girl. 

Samantha’s mother, a British Petroleum analyst in Long Beach, and stepfather, Ken Donnelly, who works at an investment firm, were at work and her grandmother, Virginia Runnion, was at home at the time. 

Samantha’s biological father, Derek Jackson of Sunderland, Mass., was contacted by authorities and ruled out as a suspect, Erin Runnion said Tuesday. 

Samantha, who was born in Massachusetts, would have turned 6 on July 26. She was an advanced student who had just finished first grade at a private elementary school. 

Her abduction follows the high-profile cases of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City and 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and 2-year-old Jahi Turner in San Diego. Danielle’ body was found and a neighbor is on trial. Elizabeth and Jahi remain missing. 

SAN DIEGO — Tests detected the presence of coliform bacteria in the water supply of San Diego County’s main water provider, officials said Wednesday. 

Tests from three treated water pipelines detected coliform, an indicator of the possible presence of fecal or harmful E. coli bacteria. 

The tests did not find any E. coli in the water, leading authorities to suspect the results were error. Results from a second round of tests were expected by Thursday. 

A check of local hospitals and schools didn’t turn up an increase in gastrointestinal complaints that would be an indicator of E. coli contamination, said spokeswoman Donna Nenow. 

“The fact that there’s clean water on both ends and we’re showing a reflection of coliform bacteria in the middle doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Nenow said. 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. But in Berkeley, there is a free retrofit. 

For the second consecutive summer. California Youth Energy Services, a program funded by the city and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, is providing Berkeley residents with free energy and water conservation retrofits that save the average resident $200 per year on utility bills, according to organizers. 

The program, which employs 20 Berkeley High School students, is aimed at middle-class residents who do not qualify for the city’s low-income weatherization and house repair programs. 

“This is our concerted effort to go out and focus on a market that hasn’t been touched yet,” said Alice La Pierre, an energy analyst for the city. 

“These are people who have energy bills of more than $20 to $30 per month,” she continued. “It is very possible to have a bill of less than $10 per month.” 

The city spends $40,000 a year on the energy program. 

The students, who earn minimum wage and work 30 hours a week, perform a variety of services, from weather stripping doors, to cleaning refrigerator coils, to installing energy-efficient lightbulbs and “low-flow” showerheads. 

All the services are free, but residents are asked to reimburse the program for the weather stripping and lightbulbs. Low-flow showerheads and faucets, which reduce the amount of water that drops into a sink or bathtub yet maintain adequate water pressure, are donated by EBMUD and are free. 

Last summer, students retrofitted 289 households and four homeless shelters. 

Co-manager David Margoliash said the numbers have slipped a bit this year. CYES has served about 70 households since the program got under way with a weeklong orientation for students June 24. 

“We really haven’t been working at the level we’re capable of,” he said, noting that students are performing one or two retrofits a day when they could be performing three or four. 

The key to boosting work orders, he said, is outreach. Students have canvassed door-to-door this summer, and last week the city mailed out 10,000 brochures about the program. Press accounts, Margoliash added, should help. 

Part of the problem, according to students in the program, is that residents have a hard time believing the program is free. 

“People in Berkeley think there must be a catch,” said Jessica Baron, who just graduated from Berkeley High in June. “There isn’t.” 

Margoliash said the program also has a positive impact on the environment. Last year, CYES retrofits reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by an estimated 185 tons. 

It was the environmental angle that attracted recent Berkeley High graduate Hakan Menda to the program. 

“I thought it was a great idea that I could help the environment and work at the same time,” he said. 

Menda is working on a promotional video that he is hoping will inspire other cities to launch similar programs. 

Residents interested in a free retrofit can call the CYES office Monday through Friday at 428-2357. 

OAKLAND – Oakland police searching for the parents of an abandoned newborn baby girl said they will run out of leads unless someone who knows the mother steps forward. 

The infant was just 2 to 3 hours old when she was discovered lying on a residential lawn in the 1500 block of 22nd Avenue at 2:51 a.m. Sunday. 

The homeowners said they found the crying newborn immediately after she was dropped off, and were alerted of the child by sounds of someone trespassing on their property. The baby girl, who was covered in placenta with her umbilical cord still attached, was wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. 

The dark-haired, 6-pound girl, suspected to be either white or Hispanic, was taken to Children's Hospital Oakland where she was treated for dehydration and is today listed in stable condition. A quick response by paramedics and the family who found her is credited with saving her life. 

Once the baby requires no further medical attention, she is expected to be handed over to Alameda County Child Protective Service and will likely be placed in foster care. 

Police spokesman George Phillips said today that investigators scoured the area near the abandonment, and have probed hospitals for clues that could lead them to the baby's mother or father, but so far nothing has turned up. 

“The only thing we can do is appeal to people who possibly know the mother,'' Phillips said. “We're hoping they'll step forward and do the right thing.'' 

If found, whoever abandoned the newborn could face several felony charges, including child endangerment. 

Under a 2000 state law, the parents could have avoided any criminal prosecution by turning the infant over to medical professionals. The Newborn Abandonment Law allows parents to abandon their babies at any California health care facility anonymously within 72 hours of the birth. They can have the baby back if they change their minds within 48 hours. 

OAKLAND— Police were searching Sunday for the parents of a newborn baby who was found dehydrated but alive in a garbage bag in the city’s Fruitvale district. 

The infant was in stable condition Sunday at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The newborn girl was treated with antibiotics. 

Oakland police Sgt. Paul Figueroa said the baby was found just hours after birth about 2 a.m. with her umbilical cord still attached.  

She was wrapped in clothing and did not appear premature. 

Figueroa said the baby’s parents could have taken advantage of a new state law that allows parents to leave babies at any California hospital with no questions asked. Since they abandoned the infant, they could now face criminal charges. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On July 18, 1947, President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president. 

On this date: 

In A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome began. 

In 1792, American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45. 

In 1927, Ty Cobb hit safely for the 4,000th time in his career. 

In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway. 

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began. 

In 1940, the Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office. 

In 1944, Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II. 

In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard; passenger Mary Jo Kopechne died. 

In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before he was shot dead by police. 

In 1984, Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco. 

Ten years ago: Britain’s opposition Labor Party chose John Smith as its leader to replace Neil Kinnock. 

Five years ago: German businessman Thomas Kramer was slapped with a record $323,000 penalty by the Federal Election Commission for making illegal U.S. political contributions. All key systems on the Russian space station Mir returned to near-normal, about 24 hours after the already disabled spacecraft lost power. 

One year ago: President Bush, en route to an economic summit in Italy, stopped over in Britain as he began his second trip to Europe in a month. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Hume Cronyn is 91. Former South African President Nelson Mandela is 84. Former Sen. John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat, is 81. Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 73. Author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson is 65. Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 64. Singer Brian Auger is 63. Singer Dion DiMucci is 63. Actor James Brolin is 62. Singer Martha Reeves is 61. Blues guitarist Lonnie Mack is 61. Actor Kurt Mann is 55. Singer Ricky Skaggs is 48. Rock musician Nigel Twist (The Alarm) is 44. Actress Audrey Landers is 43. Actress Elizabeth McGovern is 41. Rock musician John Hermann (Widespread Panic) is 40. Rock musician Jack Irons (Pearl Jam) is 40. Actor Vin Diesel is 35. Rock musician Tony Fagenson (Eve 6) is 24. Actor Jason Weaver is 23.