The Week
News
Much of the city a stage during Berkeley Arts Festival
Parts of the city will become an art gallery for two weeks as the fifth annual Berkeley Arts Festival’s schedule of performances and exhibitions liven the downtown district, neighborhoods in west Berkeley and even City Hall. Starting Saturday, a citywide spotlight will shine on musicians, writers, performers, tinkerers, filmmakers, designers and a panoply of people who operate artistically. -more-
Bears glad to be staying in Berkeley for fall practices
When the Cal football team opens fall practice on Saturday, they’ll do so in the friendly confines of Witter Field rather than the campus of Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock. -more-
Asbestos concerns in the district
To the Editor: -more-
Strike threatens Cal’s fall classes
University lecturers and clerical workers are setting plans for a strike that could disrupt the start of UC Berkeley’s fall semester. -more-
Lowe outduels Zito for his 16th victory
BOSTON – Derek Lowe became the American League’s first 16-game winner, outdueling Barry Zito with seven strong innings as the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 Thursday night. -more-
San Pablo Avenue activist couple fights eviction
Union, owners agree on minor issues
NEW YORK – Players and owners agreed to a $100,000 increase in baseball’s minimum salary Thursday, making more progress on minor issues as labor negotiations head into a key weekend. -more-
Traffic monitoring system pleases Bay Area planners
OAKLAND — In about a month, traffic sensors being installed along San Francisco Bay area highways will be able to track a quarter million drivers along their commutes. -more-
Oakland shooting brings city’s murder toll to 69
Latinos will learn basics of running for office
Running for elected office and campaigning strategies for young -more-
WorldCom Inc. uncovers another $3.3 billion in improper accounting
NEW YORK — Bankrupt telecommunications firm WorldCom Inc. said Thursday it has uncovered another $3.3 billion in bogus accounting, adding to the $3.85 billion fraud it revealed in June. -more-
FERC says state has contract deals with 5 generators
WASHINGTON — California has reached agreement with five more energy companies to revise long-term power contracts negotiated during the state’s energy crisis, the federal official overseeing the negotiations said Wednesday. -more-
State housing affordability continues downward spiral
LOS ANGELES— The number of Californians able to afford their own homes decreased 5 percentage points compared with a year earlier, bucking a national trend of greater affordability, according to an industry report released Thursday. -more-
HOME & GARDEN: Making your dorm room livable
Ask parents who’ve seemingly lugged every item their college-bound child owns into a dorm room and you hear the same moan: why did we bring so much stuff and how can it possibly fit into such a small space? -more-
Gardeners: Make friends with ladybugs
“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home ...” goes the children’s rhyme, and that’s just what ladybugs that you purchase for your garden might do. Well, not exactly fly away home, but fly away, at any rate. -more-
The fee is legal but the tactic isn’t
After buying a new car (a Toyota Tundra), I feel ripped off. Just when I was feeling good about the deal (we agreed to a price just 5 percent above invoice), the guy added on an "advertising fee" just as we were signing the papers. Four hundred bucks! When I asked what this was, he said "Everybody pays for this." So, feeling like we had no recourse, we dutifully signed the papers. Both my husband and I woke up the next morning thinking about that stupid fee and wondering just what it is?? Does everyone who buys a car pay for this, or are we being penalized because we didn't want any add-ons, like undercoating? -- Pamela -more-
Doctor who examined Stayner’s methods often criticized
SAN JOSE — Yosemite killer Cary Stayner thought about killing himself but didn’t plan to carry it out. -more-
State commission approves state funds for plan to end PG&E bankruptcy
SAN FRANCISCO — The Public Utilities Commission has approved the use of state funds in the forming of a partnership to get California’s largest utility out of bankruptcy. -more-
Body of slain Wall Street Journal reporter arrives in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The body of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist kidnapped and slain by Islamic militants, arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, a family spokesman said. -more-
Who wants a vehicle that screams "LOOK AT ME"?
SAN FRANCISCO: If Tiffany's were in Borneo, this is how you'd get there. Okay, of all the useless SUVs in the world, this is the most. Who really needs an SUV with a 5-liter, SOHC V8 putting out 292 rip snorting horsepower? Who really wants an SUV that looks like the box its more cultured brethren came in? Who really wants a vehicle that simply screams "LOOK AT ME"? Lord help me, I do. -more-
NC committee votes to ban Quran reading assignment
RALEIGH, N.C. — A state legislative committee voted to ban the use of public funds for a University of North Carolina reading assignment on the Quran unless other religions get equal time. -more-
Catwalk collapse spills guests into aquarium shark tank
NEW ORLEANS — Ten aquarium visitors, including four children, fell into a shark tank and thrashed around in terror for up to 15 minutes with the animals swimming beneath their kicking feet before they were pulled out. -more-
Bailing out AC Transit?
East Bay bus agency wants
parcel tax on November ballot
-more-
Maio supporting Albany’s interests over Berkeley’s?
To the Editor: -more-
Cake guitarist looking forward to homecoming
Berkeley graduate McCurdy can’t wait to play the Greek -more-
Basketball’s a means to an end for Harris
Former pro gives Berkeley
players a chance to shine
-more-
State to help city with flawed housing plan
State regulators who rejected Berkeley’s affordable housing plans earlier this month said Wednesday they expect that the city will ultimately win state approval. -more-
Long’s heroic catch saves Koch’s bacon
Centerfielder robs Ramirez of game-winning
homer with two out in bottom of the ninth
-more-
Oakland follows Berkeley’s lead on living wage law
Last month, Berkeley leaders put pressure on marina restaurant Skates by the Bay to pay its employees a “living wage” – an attempt to make the Bay Area’s high cost of living more bearable. This month, the city of Oakland is following suit. -more-
Baseball players agree to test for steroids
Union gives in on hot topic, but no penalties
have been established for positive results
-more-
Lawrence Lab custodians upset
Citing dangerous work conditions and a heavy workload, about 30 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory custodians used their lunch hour to wear bright union T-shirts, waive placards and chant labor slogans at the entrance of the lab. -more-
Berkeley celebrates night against crime
Part potluck and part crime prevention, Berkeley residents, city officials and public safety officers met Tuesday evening at various locations to celebrate the annual National Night Out Against Crime. -more-
Oakland’s 68th slaying comes on the heels of anti-crime events
OAKLAND – The Oakland Police Department is investigating the city’s 68th homicide this year, as a 19-year-old man was shot to death Tuesday night. -more-
Cheney pokes his head out for speech in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO – Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday he’d like to serve a second term “if the president’s willing and if my wife approves.” -more-
Protestors rip vice president
Upon hearing Dick Cheney’s remarks about corporate responsibility halfway through his hour-long speech to 500 guests of San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, five members of the activist group Global Exchange stood up, stripped an outer layer of business attire and revealed anti-Cheney T-shirts. -more-
Vacaville company trying to fight cancer with tobacco drug
Small biotech firm
announces positive
results in battling
non-Hodgkins
-more-
Privacy bill being resurrected despite high-profile failures
Companies would be required to acquire
permission before selling customer info
-more-
State snubs city’s housing plan
State regulators this week rejected Berkeley’s affordable housing plan, putting the city at risk of losing valuable state housing funds and weakening its ability to regulate new housing developments. -more-
Mets owner accuses Selig of manufacturing losses
NEW YORK – A co-owner of the New York Mets accused baseball commissioner Bud Selig of conspiring with a former Arthur Andersen accountant to “manufacture phantom operating losses” in the sport’s books. -more-
Real estate transfer tax to go before voters
A’s start road trip by putting a hurt on Sox
BOSTON – Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer, and Olmedo Saenz added a two-run shot to lead Mark Mulder and the Oakland Athletics over the Boston Red Sox 9-1 Tuesday night. -more-
More on Berkeley’s height initiative
To the Editor: -more-
Aroner takes position on council race
Developer working to replace Gaia bookstore
To the Editor: -more-
Students say parking lots steal needed housing space
Heeding long-standing requests from city officials and student activists, UC Berkeley plans to add more than 1,000 new beds for students over the next three years. -more-
Berkeley activist remembered
Hank Henson, 57, a long-time Berkeley tenants’ rights activist, died unexpectedly July 28 of a heart attack. -more-
Joint effort extinguishes county fire
LIVERMORE – A spokesman for the California Department of Forestry reported that mutual aid helped extinguish a 549-acre grass fire before it threatened any structures near the Alameda/Contra Costa county line Monday. -more-
Bay Area car owners may face tougher smog tests
SACRAMENTO – A proposed crackdown on millions of Bay Area motorists, blamed for the wind-blown smog that spills into an already-polluted Central Valley, cleared a key committee Tuesday on its way to a Senate vote expected this month. -more-
Nimitz Freeway, I-80 among most hostile roadways
Professor testifies that Yosemite killer had an above-average IQ
SAN JOSE – The brain of Yosemite killer Cary Stayner is probably damaged in a region that controls emotional impulses, a neuropsychologist testified Tuesday as the triple-murder trial resumed. -more-
Twins joined at head separated by surgeons
LOS ANGELES – One-year-old Guatemalan twins joined at the head were separated in a 22-hour operation that ended early Tuesday, but one of the girls underwent nearly five more hours of surgery to remove blood that built up in her brain. -more-
Flying creatures help deadly West Nile virus move west
PHOENIX – Infected mosquitos and birds will bring the sometimes-fatal West Nile virus into Arizona within the year, and the virus will be coast-to-coast by the end of next summer, state health officials say. But they add that the chances of getting sick from the virus are low. -more-
Biotech giants battle over cancer drug profits
SACRAMENTO – Two of biotechnology’s biggest companies are locking horns in a courtroom battle over nearly $1 billion in profits generated by Genentech Inc.’s breast cancer drug Herceptin. -more-
Speaker proposes trading car tax hike for higher cigarette tax
SACRAMENTO – Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson proposed Tuesday to abandon a plan to raise California’s car tax and instead increase cigarette taxes to $3 a pack – the highest in the nation. -more-
California teachers at odds with feds over classroom credentials
Years of inaction alleged against water regulators
EUREKA – State senators plan a new showdown Wednesday over fellow Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’s stewardship of the state’s environment – this time over alleged inaction by his appointees that protected a key campaign contributor. -more-
S.F. toddler dies after three-story window fall
SAN FRANCISCO – A toddler has died after falling three stories from her bedroom window onto a concrete driveway. -more-
Students find kinder rental market
Thrown to the wolves of the city’s merciless housing market for many years, UC Berkeley students may finally be getting a reprieve. -more-
More on tearing down the tower
To the Editor: -more-
Raiders just want to stay healthy
Ageing team taking it easy during training camp -more-
Old City Hall may be in for a face-lift
This November Berkeley voters will decide if Old City Hall – where the city’s unique style of politics has been staged for the last 94 years – is worthy of a $21.5 million face-lift. -more-
Berkeley High pool may need some regulations
To the Editor: -more-
SDSU announces self-imposed football penalties
SAN DIEGO – San Diego State announced a series of self-imposed penalties Monday for violating NCAA rules by holding summer football workouts at a local beach. -more-
Flower shop in council’s hands
Future of University Ave.
development is uncertain
-more-
Funeral held for UC grad killed in Israel bombing
SAN DIEGO – Spilling beyond the doors of a synagogue, thousands of people gathered Monday to honor Marla Bennett and to mourn the 24-year-old California woman they remembered as accomplished, loving, idealistic and filled with promise. -more-
Fire blazes at the border of Alameda and Contra Costa
A spokeswoman for the East Bay Regional Park Police said that they sent at least 25 people and a helicopter Monday to assist with a fast-moving grass fire near the Alameda and Contra Costa county border. -more-
Bush prepared to block port slowdown or strike
President could declare a national economic
emergency to keep West Coast workers on the job
-more-
Both sides win on state high court’s tobacco rulings
SAN FRANCISCO – An effort by California’s Supreme Court to clarify the state’s convoluted tobacco liability law only clouded the issue Monday, with both sick smokers and cigarette makers claiming victory. -more-
Wireless firms hope to escape telecom fallout
LOS ANGELES – The nine telecommunications companies that have filed for bankruptcy in the last 13 months suffered a common problem. They were unable to cover massive debt racked up as they acquired competitors or built vast fiber-optic networks for an expected Internet traffic explosion. -more-
D.A. to seek death penalty in Samantha Runnion killing
Prosecutor says there is “no question” on issue -more-
Mother bear, cub die in house fire that they started
FOREST FALLS – A mother bear and cub foraging for food broke into a home in a San Bernardino National Forest mountain community and died in the house fire they started. -more-
Breast-feeding record set
On Saturday afternoon 1,136 tot-totting moms filed into the Berkeley Community Theater. Each mom settled a hungry baby in her lap, readied a lactating breast and sat poised to suckle their way into the Guinness Book of Records. -more-
A few suggestions for public transit
To the Editor: -more-
Lidle has another dominating performance
OAKLAND – Cory Lidle teamed with three Oakland relievers on a one-hitter, and Miguel Tejada hit a three-run homer Sunday as the Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers 4-0. -more-
Protesters oppose more police, new Juvenile Hall
About 700 people rallied at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland Saturday in protest of plans to hire 100 new Oakland police officers and build a new 420-bed juvenile hall to serve Alameda County. -more-
Another All-Star fiasco – MLS game cut short
WASHINGTON – Well, they got the halftime show in. -more-
A challenge to Harrison Park air studies
To the Editor: -more-
Another hat in 8th District council race
A fifth candidate has entered the race for Berkeley’s hotly contested 8th District City Council seat. -more-
Landlord to appeal misconduct charge
The Rent Stabilization Board will hear the appeal tonight of a Berkeley landlord accused of overcharging residents and ignoring sanitary regulations at a boarding house for UC Berkeley students. -more-
Davis boosts unemployment checks
SACRAMENTO — About 1 million Californians laid off as a result of the terrorist attacks will get an extra bonus in their unemployment checks starting this week, Gov. Gray Davis announced Sunday. -more-
Prosecutors stumble in efforts to battle biotech espionage
DAVIS – Former University of California eye researcher Bin Han, his wife and their two sons, ages 9 and 14, were home watching “Jurassic Park III” on May 17 when police showed up with a search warrant. -more-
A neighborhood eyesore
Dozens of residents in south Berkeley are burning mad about two vacant buildings on the bustling 3000 block of Telegraph Avenue. Gutted by fire earlier this year, the structures have since become a haven for graffiti and the homeless. -more-
Negotiations between UC and clericals get personal
To the Editor: -more-
Early developers valued light, air and views
In 1902 the Berkeley Development Company purchased approximately 2000 acres of land in north Berkeley that would become the Northbrae and Thousand Oaks residential subdivisions. -more-
Upsurge!: Spoken word like you never heard
For Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, it’s all about finding a blend and balance between art and commerce, music and language, social justice and entertainment, Jewish New York and African-American Los Angeles and the personal and public personas that they project through Upsurge!, their jazz-poetry ensemble. The Oakland couple, who has lived together and collaborated for more than a decade, addresses these issues in their newest CD “Chromatology,” which hits the streets in October. -more-
Players continue holding off setting strike date – for now
NEW YORK – With a pivotal week of talks upcoming, baseball players hope there’s enough progress in negotiations to make setting a strike deadline unnecessary. -more-
Personnel matter may have cost district its payroll precision
New questions are surfacing about the November 2000 departure of a high-ranking Berkeley Unified School District employee and an $800,000 consulting contract that followed. -more-
Tie-dye shirts, rainbows and VW vans converge on Wisconsin town for Grateful Dead reunion
EAST TROY, Wis. – They came with Garcia-esque beards. Tie-dyed T-shirts. Tattoos. -more-
Tigers break Zito’s home winning streak
OAKLAND – Mark Redman outpitched Barry Zito at the Coliseum, where the Oakland ace hadn’t lost a regular-season game in 14 months, as the Detroit Tigers beat the Athletics 3-1 Friday night to snap a five-game losing streak. -more-
Narrowing of Albany’s Marin Avenue worries Berkeley leaders
“Berkeley should be consulted about possible impacts,” she said. -more-
Students at Hebrew University return to class on somber note
JERUSALEM – A day after a bombing that killed seven people, including five Americans, many U.S. students opened a new semester at Hebrew University saying they wouldn’t be driven away by the attack. But some were shaken enough to consider leaving. -more-
PG&E discloses potentially deceptive practices
SAN FRANCISCO – An unregulated division of PG&E Corp. engaged in potentially deceptive energy-trading practices during the California power crisis that drove the company’s utility into bankruptcy, according to documents filed Friday. -more-
Alameda County issues welfare aid through debit card system
SAN FRANCISCO – Alameda County on began a pilot program to test making payments to welfare recipients using debit cards instead of issuing checks. -more-
State audit: Bay Bridge upgrade causing overrun
SACRAMENTO – Strengthening the state’s toll bridges against earthquakes, a job already costing twice initial 1990s estimates, could rise another $630 million and imperil other transportation projects, a new state audit warns. -more-
Another inmate dies at Sacramento County jail
SACRAMENTO – A convicted child molester apparently committed suicide Thursday in Sacramento County jail by overdosing on psychiatric medication. -more-
Opinion
Editorials
Rash of toddler falls sparks preventative reminders
The recent spate of toddlers falling from windows in the Bay Area – including one last night – has prompted safety advocates to remind parents to be diligent and to use protective window guards that can ensure a measure of prevention. -more-
Oakland police charge man with third murder
OAKLAND – Oakland homicide investigators say that a man who stands accused of two unrelated killings has been charged with murder for a third time. -more-
Missing Chinese girl found Saturday
SAN FRANCISCO — A 12-year-old Chinese girl missing for two days was found safe with relatives on the East Coast early Saturday after disappearing from her youth tour group, authorities said. -more-
Overcoming fence obstacles
It is said, “good fences make for good neighbors.” And good fences provide a margin of safety and security, as well. -more-