Few glitches on
first day of class 

Teachers at John Muir Elementary School earned ‘As’ in heavy lifting and selflessness Tuesday after a leaky pipe flooded two classrooms and threatened to disrupt the first day of school. 

School staff who arrived intending to put the final touches on classrooms instead rolled up their pant legs and trekked through puddles to salvage supplies and furniture. They set up makeshift classrooms for kindergarten- and fourth-grade students whose rooms were drenched. 

“It was an incredible display of strength and perseverance,” said Principal Nancy Waters. “The entire staff worked on and off all day.” 

The teachers at John Muir were not the only ones working hard this week.  

As Berkeley’s 9,000 public school students strolled, grumbled and giggled their way back to classrooms Wednesday, teachers chalked up several classroom improvements that reflected their summer toil. 

At Rosa Parks Elementary School in west Berkeley, science teacher Nancy Bynes spent the first two weeks of her summer working with the school librarian and other teachers to integrate science curriculum into the classroom. 

Now, instead of teaching unrelated lessons, classroom teachers and librarians will join science lab work into regular classroom activities, such as book reports and vocabulary lists. 

“Before kids would come [to the lab] and have a great lesson on the anatomy of an earthworm, but if they didn’t hear about it again they’d forget it,” Bynes said. 

By reinforcing science labs during classroom lessons, students will better remember the information and more easily grasp new concepts, Bynes said. 

At Berkeley High School, the transition from a seven- to a six-class day led two science teachers, Kate Haber and Vern Spohn, to devote some of their summer to writing a new, advanced biology curriculum to compensate for reduced class time, co-principal Laura Leventer said. 

Several math teachers also worked this summer, to design a double period of algebra for students who were at risk of flunking the subject. 

“It’s crucial that students are given every opportunity to learn Algebra,” Leventer said. “They can’t be eligible to attend university unless they pass.” 

Parents at Rosa Parks said the devotion of many teachers had not gone unnoticed. 

“The teacher’s here [at Rosa Parks] are all amazing. Last year my daughter’s teacher took the time to visit the houses of all her students,” said Tom Killilea, whose daughter Marie started the second grade Wednesday. 

In addition to the wet welcome at John Muir, the whole district had it’s share of drama when a computer glitch accidentally dropped several middle school students from their classes. The error was remedied quickly, said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

“There was the normal first day of school chaos but overall, everyone was just terrific,” Lawrence said. 

Contact reporter at  

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

As the days shorten and nights lengthen, the darkening shadows grow longer. 

The darkening shadows of war and lies and greed and despoilage lengthen across the land. Bellicose shouts and acts of destruction will not save our economy from selfishness. Later, we'll arise from the dust our cities and wonder, “What were we thinking?” 

Bruce Joffe, 

Piedmont

LOS ANGELES — Harry Potter at Hogwarts, Frodo Baggins bound for Mordor, Hannibal Lecter in his nuthouse cell, Jean-Luc Picard on the bridge of the Enterprise, and James Bond in bed with Halle Berry. 

Who says there are no sure bets in Hollywood? 

Most fall films are uncertain commodities, but a handful have such built-in appeal, they can pretty much count their tickets before they’re sold: 

n “Red Dragon”: Anthony Hopkins does diabolical killer Lecter in his early asylum days in a prequel to “Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal.” Edward Norton stars as the FBI agent who captured Lecter and years later needs his help on a new case. 

Though it’s set years before the action of “Silence” and “Hannibal” and Hopkins is a decade older than when he first played the role, “he’s one of the greatest actors ever. If you’re looking at the wrinkles on his face, I’m not doing a very good job,” said “Red Dragon” director Brett Ratner. “In the first five minutes, you may say, ‘Yeah, he looks older,’ but then you get into the story. Anthony Hopkins is Hannibal. Whether he looks younger or older, he’s Hannibal Lecter.” 

n “Die Another Day”: Agent 007 (Pierce Brosnan) beats up on villains as he pursues a mega-weapon. Brosnan said he and Berry share one of the steamiest Bond love scenes ever and that the movie is ripe with fond allusions to earlier 007 flicks. 

“This particular film for any Bond aficionado will be a connoisseur’s delight in terms of picking out lines used in other movies and paying certain homages to past films,” Brosnan said. “I don’t think it will disappoint when you have the beautiful Halle Berry coming out of the water” in a take on Ursula Andress in the first Bond movie, “Dr. No.” 

n “Star Trek: Nemesis”: Patrick Stewart and the Enterprise crew find a nasty new enemy on a peace mission to the Romulans. For those subscribing to the theory that even-numbered “Trek” films are the best, this is No. 10. 

“In two or three years (when an 11th “Trek” film is likely), I will pooh-pooh that theory, but for now, I’ll hold on to it dearly,” said producer Rick Berman. “This is probably the most action-packed and exciting, edgy and dark of the movies we have made. There’s startling and shocking elements to it, and I would say we’ve probably got the best ‘Star Trek’ villain we’ve ever had (British actor Tom Hardy).” 

As for the season’s main events, need we say more than “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”? 

Blessed with lead-in films last year that each took in more than $300 million domestically, “Chamber of Secrets” and “Two Towers” are set to disprove the old Hollywood notion that audiences need a two- or three-year breather between blockbuster sequels. 

“Conventional wisdom would be that 12 months is too close together to have a sequel,” said Mark Ordesky, an executive producer of the three “Lord of the Rings” films. “But what’s become evident with ours is that people are perceiving the films as what they are. Not sequels, but one giant, epic story told in three installments.” 

Since director Peter Jackson shot all three “Lord of the Rings” films simultaneously, fans can expect another dose of class and quality. 

It doesn’t hurt that J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga of Middle-earth and a hobbit named Frodo has almost 50 years of built-in fandom, and that Jackson left audiences salivating for part two with last year’s opening chapter, “The Fellowship of the Ring.” 

Likewise, 2001’s top moneymaker, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” has fans itching for the next big-screen adaptation from J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series about the boy wizard. 

“Chamber of Secrets” director Chris Columbus, who also made “Sorcerer’s Stone,” said audiences can expect another two-and-a-half-hour adventure as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) fights fresh evil at Hogwarts school. 

Columbus found two big advantages this time. He could jump right in on the action, without the character set-up and scene-setting necessary in the first film. And he said “Chamber of Secrets” makes for a more visual tale — “I found it to be the most cinematic of all the books, except maybe ‘Goblet of Fire.”’ 

The action is buoyed by improved special effects, Columbus said, including a bigger and better round of quidditch, a game played on flying broomsticks, crafted by George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic effects house. 

Inevitable blockbusters, the only question about “Chamber of Secrets” and “Two Towers” is where they will stack up on a 2002 box-office chart that already has produced a $400 million sensation in “Spider-Man” and a $300 million smash in “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.”

Thursday, August 29 

The KGB, Solemite & The Penomenauts 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

525-5024 or www.ashkenaz.com 

$7 door/ Free for 12 and under 

The Unreal Band 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-1424 

$5 

Friday, August 30 

Capoeira Mandinga 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

525-5024 or www.ashkenaz.com 

$10 door/ Free for 12 and under 

Gipsy Kings 

8 p.m. 

Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley 

642-9988 

$32.50 to $70 

The Lab Rats, Damage Done,  

The First Step & Diehard Youth 

8 p.m. 

924 Gillman St. 

525-9926 

$5 

The Pre-teens, Hansi & Flair 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough 

3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-1424 

$5 

Saturday, August 31 

Blue on Breen, Ian Butler  

& Green Man Gruvin’ 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough  

3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-1424 

$5 

Plan 9, Wormwood, Hit Me Back  

& Dystrophy 

8 p.m. 

924 Gillman St. 

525-9926 

$5 

BACA National Juried Exhibition 

Through Sept. 21, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park 

40 artists from across the U.S. including 28 Bay Area artists. 

644-6893 

Free 

"Before and After"  

Reception 4 to 6 p.m.  

Through Sept. 19  

Albany Community Center and Library Galley 1249 Marin Ave. 

Jim Hair's photographs of the San Diego Hells Angels motorcycle chapter from the 1970s.  

524-9283  

Freedom! Now! 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery & Headquarters 2055 Center St. 

Reception 6 to 8 p.m. 

Through Aug. 25, Tues. - Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Commemorates the work of those who struggled for justice and freedom from government/state repression. 

841-2793 

Images of Love and Courtship 

Through Sept. 15 

Gathering Tribes, 1573 Solano Ave. 

Ledger paintings by Michael Horse. 

528-9038 

Free 

The Creation of People’s Park 

Through Aug. 31, Mon. - Thurs., 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fri. 9 a.m. 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, with curator Harold Adler. 

hjadler@yahoo.com 

Free 

"New Work: Part 2, The 2001 Kala Fellowship Exhibition"  

Through Sept. 7, Tues.-Fri., noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon - 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

Featuring 8 Kala Fellowship winners, printmaking 

549-2977  

“If These Walls Could Talk” 

Through Sept. 8 

Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California Campus (just below Grizzly Peak Blvd.) 

See how various civilizations built all kinds of structures from mud huts to giant skyscrapers at this building exhibit. 

642-5132 

Admission: $8 for adults; $6 for ages 5-18, seniors and disabled; $4 for children 3-4; Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time Berkeley students. 

"Poems Form/From the Six Directions" 

Through Sept. 15 

Pusod: Center for culture, Ecology & Bayan, 1808 Fifth St. 

A visual poetry exhibition and presentation of a wedding happening, a Filipino tradition.  

883-1808 

Free 

Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida 

Through Sept. 1, Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. 

John Hinkel Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Road in North Berkeley  

704-8210 for reservations or www.shotgunplayers.org  

Donations accepted 

Henry IV: The Impact Remix 

Aug. 30 - Sept. 8, Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m. and Sun. 7 p.m. 

Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 

464-4468, www.impacttheatre.com 

$15 general/$10 students 

Thursday, August 29

2nd Annual LGBT Elders Conference 

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church  

685 14th St., Oakland 

Workshops and conference for LGBT elders to learn about senior services.  

705-8918 

$20 registration, no one denied for lack of funds 

Saturday, August 31

Berkeley Youth Orchestra Auditions (Wind, Brass, Percussion) 

All day 

Laney College Music Dept.,  

Fallon Street., Oakland 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will audition musicians aged 10-15 for the 2002-2003 season. 

For an application or more information call Penny Boys at 540-0812 or e-mail her at philiph@seismo.berkeley.edu 

Book Reading:  

21st Century Manzanar 

4 p.m. 

Eastwind Books  

2066 University Ave. 

Perry Minyake reads his debut novel, 21st Century Manzanar, a dark portrait of an America gone wrong. 

548-2350 

Free 

Monday, September 2

Labor Day Potluck Picnic and Poetry Reading 

Hosted by Bay Area Poets Coalition 

Noon to 4 p.m., Live Oak Park 

Walnut and Rose streets. 

527-9905, poetalk@aol.com 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter  

6:30 p.m.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Ave.  

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

the prestigious Valitutti Award for non fiction.  

549-2970 

Free 

Thursday, September 5

Nutrition Career Open House 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Institute of Educational Therapy  

706 Gilman St. 

Learn how to become a nutrition educator or consultant. 

558-1711 for reservations and information 

Free 

Friday, September 6

'The Winona LaDuke Reader'  

lecture and reception 

Presented by the American Indian Graduate Program 

5 p.m. Reception, 7 p.m. Lecture 

Native American environmental and Indigenous Rights activist and author 

of several books and articles Winona LaDuke will discuss the topics of 

her new book 'The Winona LaDuke Reader' and other work. 

atalay@sscl.berkeley.edu 

Free 

Saturday, September 7

Travel Careers Seminar 

8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

Vista Community College, 2020 Milvia St., Room 306 

The day’s program will include travel industry speakers covering a variety of career possibilities: Cruise specialists, tour leaders, tour operators, adventure operators, home-based travel agents and more.  

981-2931 

$5.50 for state residents 

Sunday, September 8

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

9 a.m. to noon 

West Berkeley 

Individual and team participation. Event includes a health fair, food, prizes, live music and free insurance eligibility screening. 

704-6010 

28th Annual Solano Avenue Stroll 

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Solano Avenue 

A mile-long block part featuring “Journey of a Thousand Cranes’ Parade” at 11 a.m.  

527-5358 or www.solanostroll.org 

Free 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Wednesday, September 11

Commemorating the tragedy of Sept. 11 

5:30 a.m., Justin Hermann Plaza,  

Market Street at the Embarcadero, San Francisco 

A day of remembrance with art, culture, spirit, politics, and words of hope 

Information: (415) 255-7296, www.initedforpeace.org 

Free 

Prostate Cancer Lecture 

2 to 3:30 p.m. 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way, Berkeley 

Understand the risk of prostate cancer and how to detect early symptoms from a survivor. 

869-6737 

Free 

Thursday, September 12

The 14th Small Business Development Trade Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The Pauley Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, near Telegraph Ave. and Bancroft Way, UC Berkeley 

The event will introduce small businesses to the UC Berkeley community and give campus departments a glimpse of the services and products small businesses have to offer.  

Caterina Rando discusses her new book Learn to Power Think: A practical Guide to Positive and Effective Decision Making 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. at Colusa Circla, Kensington/North Berkeley 

559-9184, www.bookpride.com 

Saturday, September 14

Basic Personal Preparedness 

9 to 11 a.m. 

Fire Department Training Center  

997 Cedar St. 

Learn five critical steps to take care of yourself, your family and your home. Classes open to those 18 or older who live or work in Berkeley. 

981-5605, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Free 

Heritage Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Fourth and University avenues 

International barbecue and beer festival 

Free 

Spin for the Stars Fund-raiser 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Spieker Aquatics Complex, Recreational Sports Facility on UC Berkeley campus 

Noncompetitive swimming and stationary cycling event. Proceeds will help Cal STAR enhance its facilities and programs for the disabled. 

$20 registration fee, $35 for biathlon challenge  

West Berkeley Open Air Market 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

University Avenue between Third and Fourth streets 

West Berkeley celebrates Neighborhood Heritage Day with crafts, food, live music, art and family entertainment. 

841-8562 or sfbayshellmounds@yahoo.com 

Free 

Thursday, September 19

Sukkot Holiday Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Join Dawn Kepler, director of Building Jewish Bridges, for hands-on crafts, food projects, creative sukkah decorations and tips for making your own sukkah (hut). 

848-0237 Ext. 127 

$10 BRJCC members/$12 public 

Saturday, September 21

BREAD and Roses Garden Party 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Peralta Community Garden, Berkeley 

Hopkins & Peralta, Wheelchair accessible  

BREAD's birthday party - five years of dismantling corporate rule through local currency. 

644-0376 

$12 advance, $15 door, low-income rate $10 

Coastal Cleanup Day 

10 a.m. 

Work at the outflow of Strawberry Creek to clean up the San Francisco Bay coastline. 

info@strawberrycreek.org  

or 848-4008 

Free 

Saturday, October 12

Indigenous People's Day Pow Wow, Indian Market & Fall Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Tuesday, October 15

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

2 to 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Saturday, October 26

Pumpkin Carving & Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, October 27

Spirit Day 

11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Fourth and University avenues 

Construct altars in a day of reflection. 

Free 

Saturday December 7, 14, 21

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

The Mersey Hot Shots, a Berkeley club soccer team, recently made the journey to Europe to take part in two of the world’s biggest soccer tournaments. The players kept a diary of their travels and experiences. Part 1 of the diary: 

Day 1 

What day is it? It is 10:30 pm and it’s still dusk outside! After traveling for 36 hours, we are exhausted. We’re at the Dana Cup in Hjorring, Denmark. We are staying in a classroom in a big brick building surrounded by 4 others. We had our first money exchange and questions about exchange rates. 

We were told that we are 1 of 125 teams to arrive just today! Throughout the Dana Cup, all 10,000 players from 820 teams will be eating together; over 4,000 meals per hour are served! 

Catherine Charpentier 

Day 2 

We found a good bakery for breakfast, which I will be revisiting. Other teams have come and the mugging has started. Tonight we had a practice and then went out for dinner. Then we played pool and raced cars. We’re going to shop tomorrow and spend all our money.  

Mei-Lin Ha 

Day 3 

After breakfast at a bakery, it was really exciting to find a store that sold fruit. It was pouring rain all day. It would have been nice except that we had to play two, count them, two scrimmages against a Washington, D.C. team and a team from Saudi Arabia. Then we had our first dinner in the Dana Cup cafeteria. There were so many different kids from all around the world all sizing each other up. Awesome. Then came opening ceremonies. This was the most fun I’ve had the whole trip. All the teams lined up and paraded around the town ending at the stadium where each team was announced and “danced” across the stage. Everyone got totally into it and we were dancing with the Ghana team. 

Hannah Grenfell 

Day 4 

Our first day of the Dana Cup. Walked to the cafeteria and had cereal and toast. Our first game of the day was against a Swedish team, which we lost 6-0. Our second game of the day was against a team from Norway, and we lost that one 1-0. Even though we were all tired from our two games, we decided to go to our first disco in Europe. We heard that there was one provided by the Dana Cup. Well, when you think disco, you think maybe a gym transformed or some sort of big building… wrong! It was a huge tent over a muddy field! After the little shock of our first “disco,” we got over it and had a great time. 

Grace Sampson 

Day 5 

Happy Birthday Hannah! Today we woke up at 7 a.m. for an early game. We lost both games, but we still are guaranteed another game in the B flight. 

We surprised Hannah with a birthday cake at dinner and everyone went out with her after dinner to celebrate her 18th birthday. 

Anya Schwin 

Day 6 

YES. Finally we won our first game 1-0 against a Norwegian team. It feels so good to finally win a game. We are all tired. Our bodies ache, our uniforms are filthy. The smell of our classroom is gross. Dirty jerseys, socks and shoes line the stairs. It’s hard to imagine we could be so disgustingly messy. We lost our second game and are out of the Dana Cup. Too bad.  

The rest of the week we’ll just soak up the experience of being here. Tomorrow we are going to watch a women’s Nigerian team play and our English (boy)friends play. It’s a mini-World Cup. The rest of our time here will be relaxing and fun, meeting new people from all over the world sharing one common interest… SOCCER! 

Lauren Lieberman 

Day 7 

This was the first day we were able to sleep in. It felt so good to finally get a good night of sleep. We went to the semi-final game for the under-19 girls to see the Nigerian team. They won 3-0. We were so impressed by their level of play that we went to see them in the final game this evening. Everyone who watched them seemed excited and moved by their victory when they won 3-0 again. You could tell how serious they took this tournament and how much they’d prepared themselves for it. Hopefully we were able to learn a few things by watching them to help us in our next tournament! 

Jessica Hanzo 

Day 8 

We went to the laundromat to wash all of our dirty clothes. It took a long time and cost a lot. We skipped eating in the cafeteria and ate lunch in town instead, then most of us went to watch a bunch of the final games. At night, half the team went to go hang out with some Camden boys we met and the other half went to the pool hall. It was a nice last day in Denmark. 

Elise McNamara 

Day 9 

We left Denmark, had a short stopover in Norway and now are on our way across the North Sea to England. I’ve never slept on a boat before and it wasn’t bad considering that our cabin, shared with four girls, was the size of my mother’s closet. Another setback was the motion sickness that a few of the girls struggled with. Despite these small things, the team had a fun time on the “color line” ferry. Between the teenage disco and the all-you-can-eat buffet, our trip from Denmark to Newcastle, England was great. The team looks forward to a successful tournament in England.  

Katie Lieberman 

Pick up next Thursday’s Daily Planet for Part 2 of the Mersey Hot Shots’ European diary.

UC Berkeley’s three-day strike took its greatest toll Wednesday as numerous classes were canceled after lecturers marched alongside clerical workers on the final day of their strike. 

Lecturers are nontenured professors who teach approximately one-quarter of the university’s classes – and like the striking secretaries, telephone operators and child care workers – the lecturers have been without a contract for more than a year and accuse the university of purposely stalling contract negotiations. 

Students said Wednesday that several graduate student instructors and tenured professors joined lecturers in canceling class to show sympathy for the striking workers. 

“I probably should have stayed home today,” said one student whose anthropology class was canceled due to the strike. 

On an otherwise sparsely populated campus at least 700 strikers were joined by elected officials and a strong contingent of students at a boisterous final campus rally outside California Hall. 

Berkeley mayoral candidate Tom Bates, a former UC Berkeley lecturer, drew cheers when he told strikers that his department could not have functioned without clerical workers. 

Bates’ opponent this November, incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean, lead strikers in the chant “negotiate now.” 

After appearing uninterested at the beginning of the strike Monday, most students now say they support the strikers. 

“People have started talking about it,” said Danilo Trisi, a graduate student. “From what I read, it seems that the college can offer them more.” 

After the rally, clericals said the strike had clearly demonstrated their importance to the university. 

“I don’t care what they say, I think they’re scared to death,” said Jude Bell, an administrative assistant for the art practice department. 

But Paul Schwartz, a university spokesperson, said the strike can’t change the fact that state budget cuts prevent the university from meeting the union’s salary demands. 

“We have given the unions everything we possibly can,” Schwartz said. “When the state is looking at a $23.5 billion budget deficit, I think we were lucky that the universities weren’t cut more.” 

The clericals, represented by the Coalition of University Employees, want a 15 percent raise over two years, but the university says it can only guarantee them 2 percent this year, and just another 1.5 percent next year if state funding remains stable. 

Lecturers, who say that on average they make less than local grade school teachers, want increased pay and job security. Presently, a lecturer can only get a contract that extends longer than one year after six years of continuous employment. And they can never receive a contract longer than three years. 

“I’ve worked here two years, but I didn’t find out until the final day of last semester if I’d have a job this fall,” said Stuart Tonnock, a lecturer in the school of education.  

University officials and union spokespeople continued to give conflicting accounts of the strike’s impact on university services and operations. 

University spokesperson Carol Hyman said that 60 percent of the clericals had crossed the picket line. She said that the clericals’ strike coupled with sympathy strikes by other unions hindered telephone service, slowed construction projects, prevented overnight mail deliveries and reduced available medical service. 

Students said Wednesday that the inconveniences caused by the strike added up. 

“For me this has been a pretty big deal,” said Ben Durie, a senior whose job at a university child care center was postponed due to striking child care workers. 

Yuri Pan said he went to the math department for advice about a class, but found that all of the counselors had refused to work out of respect for the clericals. 

Today, striking clericals and lecturers are expected to return to their jobs. Lucy Montanez didn’t envision any difficulty in working under the same contract after three days of picketing. 

“We all love what we do and we want to make this the best institution possible,” she said. 

University negotiators will meet with lecturers and a state-appointed mediator Sept. 5 and 6. There is no confirmed date for further negotiations between the clericals and the university. 

Officials for both unions said more strikes are possible if negotiations continue to falter. 

Contact reporter at  

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

Devorah Liss’ letter (Aug. 26), deploring a previous letter which she finds insensitive to anti-Jewish vandalism simply perpetuates the churlish insensitivity of many Jewish Americans to Palestinians and Arab-Americans. 

Liss says a Passover bombing in Israel is the culmination of violence there, ignoring the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed by Israel in its brutal, illegal occupation. She frets about insignificant damage to Hillel, and is silent about the total destruction by arson of a large, beautiful Palestinian church in Los Altos Hills that will cost a million dollars to rebuild. And she speaks only of anti-Jewish “attacks,” not of the harassment of those who are or “look Arab.” Violence against these folks has caused San Francisco to distribute “We are not the enemy” posters. Perhaps they're needed in Berkeley as well.  

When Jewish Americans break with Israel once and for all and join in solidarity with Palestinian-Americans and other supporters of freedom for Palestine, there will be much greater moral clarity on this issue. 

Progressive whites, many of them Jews, helped lead the fight against South African apartheid; progressive Jews can do the same here in the worldwide struggle against the racist Israeli state. 

Kenneth E. Scudder,  

San Francisco 

There is no relief in sight for patients like Dee Strandvold who will lose an important resource when the Alta Bates Summit pain management clinic in Berkeley closes this year. 

Strandvold, who suffers chronic back pain, will be among the hundreds left searching for new treatment centers because of the clinic’s financial problems under umbrella organization Sutter Health. 

“ We can’t continue to provide a service when we can’t cover the cost of that care,” said Jill Gruen, spokesperson for Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. 

For patients like Strandvold the explanation doesn’t ease the pain. 

“If Medicare and Medi-Cal don’t pay enough, why must the disabled be the ones to pay?” Strandvold asked. 

State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson have searched for ways to answer that question, but so far have been stymied in their efforts. 

“We’re really just trying to bring the parties to the table so that the patients don’t have to go so far when they close this place,” Perata representative Simeon Gant said. “We’re urging the pain clinic to at least inform [the patients] of their options.” 

Carson added that the county, while hoping to find a way to offer the missing service, is running into an ever-present hurdle in the health care industry – a lack of money. 

“There are not currently any plans in motion for [the county to reopen the clinic]. There just isn’t a funding source,” Carson said. “Those services are needed but even the hospitals are having to fight hard for those dollars.” 

County health Director Dave Kears has also been involved in trying to find a solution. Kears has requested that Alta Bates provide a profile of the program so that other agencies might try to replicate it but make the program pay for itself. 

Still, Kears acknowledged that the problem will probably get worse before it gets better. 

“As health costs rise and the difficulty in paying for those services continues, this will be reoccurring,” Kears said. 

Alta Bates clinic officially stopped accepting new patients July 15 and has been reducing its services ever since. 

“We have a devoted full time staff dedicated to contacting patients and working with appropriate referrals,” said Alta Bates’ Gruen. 

But this may not be good enough, patients say. 

“I don’t know what will happen now,” Strandvold said. “I fear that if the pain clinic dies, I won’t be far behind it. Before the Summit pain clinic, I was in so much pain. I used to grind my teeth so hard I would break off my molars in my sleep.”  

Strandvold and the “Painfighters”, a group of former patients organized to fight the clinic’s closing, will be holding a demonstration 11:30 a.m. Sept. 2 at the Summit South Pavilion, where the pain clinic is located.

To the Editor: 

How can Will Youman (letters, Aug. 21) honestly deny that hate graffiti on a Kosher restaurant, or bricks thrown through a Hillel center window, or assaults on Chasidic-garbed Jews are anything but anti-Semetic hate crimes. 

This denial is far more dangerous than the violent hate crimes themselves. As long as progressive communities like ours are steadfast in decrying hate crimes, the few perpetrators are marginalized and defused. But the recipe for disaster exists when the populace is willing to look the other way or to excuse the conduct as a fraternity prank or to blame the victims for “bringing it on themselves.” That is why Mr. Youman's glib legalisms are so much more dangerous than the brutal thugism that he seeks to protect. 

Hate crimes attack us all. Jews, gays, Arabs, hispanics, African-Americans – anyone who is attacked because of perceived differences –share the common enemy of intolerance and need the common protection of a community that will not abide it. If Mr. Youman doesn't understand this, he needs some lessons in law and morality. 

As a veteran anti-Semite and erudite law student, Mr. Youman understands the significance of denying that anti-Jewish violence qualifies as a hate crime, and blaming Jews themselves for being victims. He takes a page from Nazi Germany, whose propagandists were similarly adept at deflecting attention away from the abhorently racist nature of their conduct. 

If white-sheeted thugs assaulted African Americans on College and Bancroft, nobody would excuse it as a “wild partying fraternity prank.” Similarly, if an abortion clinic were vandalized and painted as a home of “baby killers,” only the most cynical apologist would claim that the message is too “ambiguous” to warrant condemnation. 

Mark I. Schickman, 

Berkeley 

president, Holocaust Center  

of Northern California 

When environmental activist Darryl Cherney returned home from vacation this week, he was delighted to hear that his legal victory over the FBI and Oakland Police Department had been confirmed by a federal judge. 

“We’re really pleased. The judge didn’t even alter, or even worse, reverse the verdict,” Cherney said. 

A 10-person jury in June awarded $4.4 million in damages to the activist and fellow plaintiff, the late Judi Bari, who alleged that the FBI and Oakland police had violated their civil rights by treating them as suspects in a 1990 East Bay car bombing. On Aug. 13, U.S District Court Judge Claudia Wilken made the jury’s decision official. 

The judge’s actions clear the way to legal challenges, for which both sides have recently begun planning in hopes of landing a more favorable settlement. 

“We’d like to see the judge reverse the decision or have the trial thrown out,” said Maria Bee, the Oakland deputy city attorney who defended the police department. 

On the flip side, Cherney wants to see more law enforcement agents charged and greater damages awarded. 

Neither side has formalized a challenge yet. 

Post-trial motions, which serve to question the court proceedings, are due within the month and are scheduled to be heard by Wilken on Nov. 1. Appeals can be filed only after the post-trail motions have been addressed. 

The June verdict, which Cherney and supporters touted as a huge blow to law enforcement credibility, found three Oakland police officers and three FBI agents guilty of First and Fourth amendment rights violations. 

Illegal search, false arrest and conspiracy were among the charges made by Cherney and Bari following the 1990 explosion in Bari’s Subaru station wagon in Oakland which led to their arrest.  

Oakland police and the FBI claimed at the time that Cherney and Bari, members of politically active Earth First!, had accidentally detonated their own bomb. Oakland police said that FBI agents had believed the two were tied to domestic terrorism. 

Charges were never filed against the two, and instead the activists painted a government conspiracy against them and their environmental cause, which led to their successful suit this year. 

In the June verdict, only Cherney’s false arrest charge was not upheld by jurors. The 10-member panel was hung over the issue, which would normally require a retrial. But Cherney, who now lives in Humboldt County, said he would drop the charge as long as no surprises came up during the appeal process. 

- Contact @Kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

The Daily Planet is doing a great job covering the clerical workers' strike at UC. The front page articles for the past two days have really sent the message that the workers are trying to get across.  

Congratulations to Daniel Freed for giving the readers a personal view of the clerical workers' motivation for the strike. As the daughter of an administrative assistant working at UC for 15 years or more, I know firsthand the struggles they have to face in trying to get paid and treated fairly. The clericals do many many important jobs at UC Berkeley. In effect, they run the university. Without their hard work and dedication, the school could not operate. I hope the new students and the chancellor and faculty realize that and start giving them the respect and financial compensation they rightly deserve. 

Acacia St. John, 

Oakland

$1 saves at least $20 million 

ELKHART, Ind. — Bayer Corp. is selling a former Alka-Seltzer factory for less than you would pay for a box of the fizzing tablets — $1. 

But whoever buys the building may need to stock up on the tablets, since its $6 million to $7 million a year in maintenance costs could give anyone a case of indigestion. 

For Elkhart Mayor Dave Miller, though, the news helped ease any concerns he had about the site. 

“Bayer’s willingness to essentially give the building to a qualified operator is probably the best news for the city of Elkhart,” Miller said. 

The building has 933,000 square feet of space and includes space for manufacturing, laboratories, offices. It also includes large refrigeration units that could be used for a company working with foods, said Joe Martin, senior vice president and general manager for Bayer Diagnostics. 

Bayer would save the cost of maintaining the building, as well as the $20 million it would cost to demolish. “So it’s really a win-win situation for everybody,” Martin said. 

It’s a prison,
not a country club 

CARSON CITY, Nev. — When some Nevada prison inmates who wanted to work on their golf game started to build a driving range, the state prison director got a bit teed off. 

Now it’s a baseball field. 

Prisons Director Jackie Crawford said convicts at the prison system’s 100-inmate Tonopah Conservation Camp got the idea for their own driving range after volunteering time to build one for the city of Tonopah. 

“Our inmates made a beautiful driving range for the city,” Crawford said when asked Friday about the convicts’ activity. “Then they said, ’Why not make our own?”’ 

Crawford quickly stopped such talk. 

“I can assure you that there are no golf courses at our prisons,” Crawford added. “Not under this director.” 

Softball’s another matter, she said, adding, “That’s something all the prisons should have. It helps expend energy.” 

‘Urban Warfare’ overseas
helps soldiers feel at home 

LOS ANGELES — Some 10,000 Navy submariners are skateboarding, racing cars and playing hockey — all thanks to a donation from the video game industry. 

Each of the Navy’s 72 subs has been given a video game console and about 20 top-selling games as part of the industry’s post-Sept. 11 effort to boost morale of soldiers fighting terrorism. 

The donation comes from members of the Interactive Digital Software Association, a trade group for the video game industry. Consoles donated include Microsoft’s X-Box, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s GameCube. 

“While overseas on active duty, our troops can’t enjoy many of the things they relax with at home, so we decided to bring the games they love to them as our small way of saying ’thanks”’ said Doug Lowenstein, IDSA president. 

About 1,700 games were donated, including titles ranging from “Star Wars Rogue Leader” and “Delta Force Urban Warfare” to “Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3.” 

BERKELEY – A risk analysis by a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher and a University of Michigan physicist has turned up some unexpected results about the comparative safety of big and bulky SUVs. 

The study by lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division energy analyst Tom Wenzel and University of Michigan professor Marc Ross says most cars are safer than the average sports utility vehicle, and pickup trucks are “much less safe than all other types.” Minivans and import luxury cars have the safest records. 

The report, “An Analysis of Traffic Deaths by Vehicle Type and Model,” was prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy and is available for $12 from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy or through its web site at http://aceee.org. 

Ross and Wenzel reviewed government statistics on deaths each year for vehicles sold between 1995 and 1999. Their study is among the first to examine the “combined risk” of all drivers involved in a crash, and they also tracked the age, sex and driving style of the typical driver of each vehicle model. 

The study found that “sports cars as driven are extremely risky for their drivers, who tend to be young males, and minivans are extremely safe for their drivers, very few of whom are young males,” Wenzel and Ross. They found no evidence that the age and sex of the typical SUV driver increased the risk of the average SUV compared to the risk of the average midsize car or a safe smaller car model. 

The safest SUV, the Suburban, has at least a 40 percent higher combined risk than the three safest midsize and large cars, the Avalon, Camry, and Accord, the scientists say in their report.  

The analysis found the Chevy Suburban to be the safest SUV, but it was still nowhere near as safe as a Camry or an Accord, and the report says the wide range of risks between different subcompact and compact models is evidence that vehicle quality is a more important safety consideration than weight. 

“In looking at all vehicles, cars designed by Honda and Toyota consistently are safer, and weigh less, than comparable cars designed by domestic manufacturers,” Wenzel said. The study found that the safest small cars, the Volkswagen Jetta and Honda Civic, were twice as safe as the comparably sized Chevrolet Cavalier, Ford Escort, and Dodge Neon. 

“All the evidence in our study shows that vehicles can be and in fact are being made lighter and more fuel efficient without sacrificing safety,” Wenzel said. “The argument that lowering the weight of cars to achieve high fuel economy has resulted in excess deaths is unfounded.”

The Oakland Police Department reports that three shootings on Tuesday night within one hour have left one man dead and two in stable condition. 

Authorities say that officers responded to the 600 block of Louisiana Street at about 9:43 p.m. to find a male victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Medical authorities pronounced the man dead at the scene shortly afterward. 

Police units responded to reports of a shooting in the 1600 block of Seminary Avenue at about 9:14 p.m. A male victim was found suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso and was taken to an area hospital in stable condition. 

The third shooting of the hour occurred in the 700 block of 105th Avenue just before 9:59 p.m. when a male adult was found suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the left arm after the suspect drove by in his car and shot the man. Medical units took the man to Highland Hospital where he was treated and said to be stable condition, said a police spokesman. 

Police say that the homicide unit is investigating the shooting at Louisiana Street. No suspects are currently in custody for any of the incidents.

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority has won two court rulings in the past two days in disputes with the Golden State Warriors that could net the coliseum $23.5 million in back revenues – if the rulings stand up on appeal. 

In the first decision, a state appeals court in San Francisco on Tuesday upheld a 1999 arbitration award that requires the Warriors to pay the coliseum $17 million for premium seating revenues and other fees between 1997 and 1999. 

Coliseum authority lawyer Jon Streeter said interest since 1999 amounts to $4.5 million, making the total $21.5 million in that case. 

Streeter said that in a second ruling, an Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday confirmed another award in which a different arbitrator in January said the basketball team must pay $2 million for proceeds of a ticket surcharge over the past two years. 

The disputes began after the Warriors started playing in November 1997 in a new arena constructed in the coliseum, which was financed in part through taxpayer-guaranteed bonds. The premium seating revenues were intended to help retire the bond debt. 

Streeter said the double decisions are “a great thing for Oakland.” 

Lawyers and spokesmen for the Warriors were not immediately available for comment this afternoon. 

Both rulings could be appealed.

SAN JOSE – The developers of San Jose's Santana Row residential and retail complex have announced a new grand opening date for the mixed-use development that was devastated by fire earlier this month. 

Retailers in seven of Santana Row's buildings plan to be open for business on Nov. 7.  

Santana Row was originally slated to open on Sept. 19, one month to the day after the 11-alarm fire destroyed a number of residential units, a few retail shops and parking lots. 

Developers say they are working through the issues associated with the impact of the fire and have a goal to open as much of the retail space in the damaged building as soon as possible. 

“In light of last week's fire, the November 7 opening demonstrates our steadfast commitment to making Santana Row rewarding and successful for the community, our tenants and our shareholders,” said Steven Guttman, chairman and CEO of Federal Realty,  

“Words cannot express our appreciation for the outpouring of support from the city of San Jose, surrounding neighborhoods, merchants and future residents during the past week.” 

The damaged building contained 18 percent of the retail space and 940 retail parking spaces. 

Developers said all of the residential units in the building, which were still under construction and scheduled to be completed beginning in January 2003 were destroyed. 

One thing firefighters, law enforcement, city officials and Federal Realty representatives are all grateful for is that no one was killed or injured in the fire that was one of the largest in San Jose's history. 

“We are grateful that this fire didn't result in any loss of life and that it was contained to one building,'' Guttman said. 

The Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust specializes in the ownership, management, development and redevelopment of shopping centers and street retail properties. The trust currently owns and operates about 15 million square feet of retail space in major metropolitan areas across the country. 

Santana Row was designed as a groundbreaking facility combining a vibrant and diverse mix of shopping, dining, entertainment and living. The completed complex was slated to include a state-of-the-art movie theater, a 213-room hotel, three-level executive villas, a farmer's market, landscaped parks and plazas, 36 retail shops, several restaurants and 246 townhomes, flats and lofts. 

So far officials have not determined the cause and have not tallied a damage estimate. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information about the cause of the fire. 

Gov. congratulates school district
for raising credentials 

OAKLAND— Gov. Gray Davis issued an official proclamation Wednesday to Oakland Unified School District for successfully reducing its number of emergency permit teachers by 64 percent last year. 

Davis credited the district’s participation in the Transition to Teaching pilot project for its decrease in teachers with emergency credentials. The program is part of Project Pipeline, a nonprofit group that operates the state-sponsored Northern California Teacher Recruitment Center. 

In the 2001-2002 school year the district reduced the number of emergency permit teachers from 257 to 93, said Margaret Fortune, the center’s director. 

When school opens Thursday, only 35 teachers with emergency credentials will show up for work, compared to 500 in 2000. 

Fortune said some teachers were eligible for credentials and just applied, and others put in the work needed to earn theirs. Teachers who did not pursue credentials were replaced. 

Defendants in SF killing
of senator’s son in court 

SAN FRANCISCO – After a three month delay, the preliminary hearing of evidence resumed Wednesday against two young men accused of killing a state senator's son during a San Francisco street robbery last fall. 

Hunter McPherson, 27, was shot on Potrero Hill's Mariposa Street on Nov. 17 while walking home with his girlfriend after a night of socializing with friends. The two men arrested a few weeks later are charged with committing a series of similar armed robberies that night, ending with the shooting death of one of their intended victims. 

One defendant, 22-year-old Dwayne Reed, had asked for and received a new attorney well into the preliminary hearing in May leading Superior Court Judge Ksenia Tsenin to grant postponements so that newly appointed attorney Cheryl Wallace could prepare.  

Several witnesses, including McPherson's girlfriend Alexa Savelle, had either pointed out a shooter that was different than who police expected or they were unable to identify either defendant as present at the scene. 

On Wednesday, homicide Inspector Thomas Cleary took the stand again to continue responding to defense questions about how officers identified Reed and his co-defendant, 18-year-old Clifton Terrell, as suspects.  

Still unanswered is whether one narcotics investigator involved – Officer Paul Lozada, who interviewed Reed in jail during late November – would respond to a defense subpoena issued while he was off duty on disability pay. The judge had threatened to issue a warrant if he didn't show up. 

US Commerce secretary gives
$6.4 million for tech uncubator  

HAYWARD – U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans Tuesday gave a $6.44 million check to a technology incubator housed in the former U.S. Navy base in Alameda, the largest economic development grant issued by the Bush administration so far. 

The award will go toward the construction of a home for the organization Advancing California's Emerging Technologies, which helps fledgling high-tech, biotech and environmental technology companies as they strive to become self-sufficient. 

A project of the California State University at Hayward, the incubator opened in 1998 and has "graduated'' seven companies which have created between 900 and 1,000 jobs and raised an estimated $150 million in venture capital. 

By its fifth year in operation, the new facility – scheduled to open in 2004 – will graduate 12 to 15 companies per year, add an estimated 6,000 new jobs to the Bay Area economy and attract $1 billion in investment.

SACRAMENTO — California will face a “perfect storm” if the lawmakers can’t pass a state spending plan by the end of the month, state Controller Kathleen Connell said. 

“There would be a series of rippling financial problems if the Legislature does not get a state budget passed,” Connell said. 

Starting on Sept. 1, the state will be unable to make payments for services that aren’t mandated by federal and state law, Connell said. Abortion services and state programs for the developmentally disabled are the latest programs in jeopardy. 

Those programs were protected under special legislation passed in 1998, which authorized the controller to continue cash payments through Aug. 31. 

Connell also announced that revenue was down for June, July and most likely August, meaning the state could face an additional $3 billion deficit that will have to be worked into this year’s or future budgets. 

In the worst-case scenario, the state would not have enough cash to meet financial obligations in October and November. If that’s the case, California will have to sell a “super-sized” revenue anticipation warrant, a short-term debt security, which could come with a high interest rate and bump up future financial obligations, Connell said. 

With just four days left until the end of the legislative session, Assembly Republicans said Wednesday they are still “miles apart” from Democrats in reaching a budget agreement.

LOS ANGELES — Bill Simon, who signed a pledge during the gubernatorial primary stating “domestic partnership” benefits belong exclusively to marriage, told a gay Republican group he supports domestic partnership laws if they’re not based on sexual orientation. 

The GOP gubernatorial candidate also said he would proclaim a Gay Pride Day, as past administrations have done, and promised to uphold a variety of gay-friendly laws and regulations. 

Simon’s responses to the Log Cabin Republicans questionnaire earlier this month prompted angry responses from some conservative backers Wednesday. 

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, said he felt “misled and conned” by Simon and his campaign. 

“I spent months with Bill Simon touring Anglo and Hispanic churches where he vowed support for traditional values,” Sheldon said in a statement. “His responses on this questionnaire tells me otherwise.” 

The Campaign for California Families, which circulated the Marriage Protection Pledge that Simon signed, issued a press release titled “Bill Simon’s Gay Agenda” condemning the candidate’s responses as “shocking.”

Senate passes bill banning
imports of genetically
altered salmon 

SACRAMENTO — California’s fish farmers will have to wait at least until 2005 to begin growing genetically altered salmon if a bill passed Wednesday by the state Senate becomes law. 

The bill temporarily bans the so-called “superfish” from being introduced into California, requiring the state to decide by 2004 if the ban should become permanent. The Senate passed the bill 21-11, sending it back to the Assembly for agreement to Senate changes. 

The federal government is presently deciding if salmon should become the first altered animal or fish approved for human consumption. 

Many farmers and environmentalists worry that genetically enhanced salmon, which grow to full size in half the time of natural fish, could escape from farms in Washington state and prey on California’s native salmon. They cite studies by Purdue University that altered salmon could overpower natural species for food, mates and habitat. 

Growers dispute the notion, saying they only use sterile females. 

Consumer group says one
gas grade could curb prices 

SANTA MONICA — Californians could save billions of dollars if oil companies were forced to offer only a single grade of gasoline, a consumer group estimated Wednesday. 

A law requiring stations to offer only one grade of gas with an octane of 87 or 88 “would greatly reduce the ability of oil companies to create price spikes” by artificially lowering supplies of the most sought-after gas, said the study released by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. 

By eliminating underused premium and mid-grade varieties, the state could free storage space for a public fuel reserve that could be used to cushion higher future prices, according to the two-year study. 

“Rather than drill in the Arctic, let’s clean the pumps of the 50 percent of higher-octane fuel that is not used,” Jamie Court, executive director of the foundation, said in a statement. 

About 95 to 97 percent of California cars could use the single grade and motorists whose vehicles need higher octane could use additives, the study argued. 

Judge dismisses case filed
by former Mexican workers 

SAN FRANCISCO — In a blow to Mexican laborers who had hoped to claim money they said they were owed for working on American farms and railroads more than 50 years ago, a judge Wednesday granted requests by the United States and Mexican governments and Wells Fargo Bank to dismiss their case. 

The workers were among more than 300,000 Mexicans who came to the United States between 1942 and 1949 to harvest crops and maintain railroad tracks as guest workers. Called “braceros,” after the Spanish word for arm, they came under an agreement between the United States and Mexico aimed at filling labor shortages caused by World War II. 

Under the agreement, 10 percent of each worker’s wage was to be withheld and transferred, via U.S. and Mexican banks, to individual savings funds set up for each bracero. But many braceros said they never received that money when they returned to Mexico. 

SF’s Asian Art Museum
acquires 999 new works 

SAN FRANCISCO — The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is the proud owner of 999 new works of art for its growing collection, the museum announced Wednesday. 

The new works include more than 800 objects from the LLoyd Cotsen Bamboo Basket Collection. Costen also provided the museum with a research endowment. 

The remaining objects come from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Southeast Asian Art Collection. 

The Duke collection includes many rare paintings and decorative arts as well as Thai, Burmese and Cambodian sculptures. One of the Duke objects is an 11-foot-tall, 19th century gilded Burmese throne for a Buddha image. 

“We rearranged the entire gallery plan at our new facility to showcase some of the new objects from the Duke collection,” said chief curator Forrest McGill. “The pieces were so important and stunning that we had to give the a prominent place.” 

The Asian Art museum outgrew its home in Golden Gate Park and is set to reopen in a new facility at the city’s Civic Center in January. 

The museum’s collection now stands at more than 15,000 objects.

They were allegedly
aware that the company
booked false revenues 

Two former sales vice presidents of Critical Path Inc., a San Francisco high-tech company, were criminally charged with insider trading in federal court Tuesday. 

The charges in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Jonathan Beck, 33, of San Francisco, and Kevin Clark, 37, of Pleasanton, follow guilty pleas by two other former executives earlier this year in a fraud investigation. 

In February, former President David Thatcher pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud by booking false revenue during the third and fourth quarters of 2000 in order to meet predicted financial results. 

In April, former Vice President Timothy Ganley pleaded guilty to engaging in insider trading by selling stock in January 2001 at a time when he knew the company was executing illegitimate revenue deals and hiding expenses. 

Thatcher and Ganley have not yet been sentenced. 

In Tuesday's charges, Beck and Clark were also accused of insider trading by selling stock in January 2001 when they were allegedly aware that the company had been booking false revenues and that the fraud had not yet been revealed.  

Beck was accused of selling more than $600,000 in Critical Path stock and Clark was accused of selling more than $350,000 worth.  

The charges were filed by the U.S. Attorney's office. They carry a theoretical maximum sentence of 10 years in prison upon conviction, but the actual penalty, if the defendants are convicted, would be determined under federal sentencing guidelines. 

Critical Path restated its revenues in April 2001, saying it overstated income by about $10 million in each of the third and fourth quarters of 2000. The company's stock price fell from $116 per share in March 2000 to less than $4 per share on Feb. 15, 2001. 

The company, which provides e-mail and other communications services, has said the employment of all executives accused in the probe has been terminated and new management is in place. 

Also today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud and insider trading lawsuit against Clark and former Critical Path executive William Rinehart. The charges were settled at the same time the lawsuit was filed, the SEC said.

REDWOOD CITY— Bankrupt Napster Inc. on Thursday plans to seek a Delaware court’s approval of its proposed sale to Bertelsmann AG, which hopes to revive the silenced Internet music-sharing service. 

No other bidders emerged for Redwood City-based Napster after German-based Bertelsmann forced the company into bankruptcy in June. Bertelsmann values its bid for Napster at about $100 million, including debts that will be waived as part of the deal. 

Bertelsmann’s bid still faces a potential obstacle. The Music Publishers Association and the Recording Industry Association of America — two powerful trade groups that have fought Napster for years — have objected to the sale. 

Before federal courts ruled Napster’s online file-swapping service violated copyright laws, the service had attracted 60 million users and revolutionized the way people obtained music. 

Although Napster’s service has been idle since July 2001, millions of Web surfers still exchange music files on the Internet, much to the frustration of recording studios and artists who say they are being cheated out of sales and royalties. 

If its takeover bid wins court approval, Bertelsmann hopes to resurrect Napster as an industry-approved subscription service. 

Microsoft must respond to
Sun injunction request by Oct. 4 

BALTIMORE — Microsoft Corp. must respond by Oct. 4 to Sun Microsystems’ request for a federal court injunction that would require the software giant to integrate Sun’s Java programming into Windows, a spokeswoman for Sun reported Wednesday. 

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz set a Dec. 3 hearing on Sun’s request for the preliminary injunction, in which Sun also asks that Microsoft be prevented from distributing Virtual Machine for Java in an unlicensed manner. 

Java is software used to run servers that run large computer networks. 

Oracle introduces new guide
to explain prices, policies 

REDWOOD SHORES — Hoping to quell criticism of its sales practices, slumping business software maker Oracle Corp. on Wednesday introduced a new customer guide that spells out its pricing policies. 

Redwood Shores-based Oracle characterized the 40-page guide as a breakthrough in an industry that often hammers out complex business deals in a freewheeling style similar to the back-and-forth negotiations of a used car lot.

University officials claim that at least 600 of the 1,800 striking UC Berkeley clerical workers crossed the picket line and went to work Monday, despite the start of a three-day strike. 

Such statistics lent credence to the university’s position that striking operators, library assistants and secretaries have not drastically impacted university operations. 

The clerical workers are trying to disrupt campus operations in an effort to draw attention to UC’s alleged unfair labor practices during a contentious contract negotiation process. 

Union officials, however, called the university’s numbers bogus, and said that two days into their strike they’ve put a tremendous amount of pressure on UC administrators to treat them better at the bargaining table. 

“I really question their figures,” said Amattulah Alaji-Sabrie, spokesperson for the Coalition of University Employees, which represents the clericals. “The university has realized the strength of our support and has orchestrated a campaign of misinformation.” 

Carol Hyman, university spokesperson, said UC Berkeley conducted an informal survey of several large departments at which 1,000 of the 1,800 striking clericals work. Of the 1,000 clericals covered, 600 had come to work, she said. 

Union officials said they had no estimate of how many members are working during the strike, but said they had more strikers on the picket lines Tuesday than on Monday and that their work stoppage has caused the university numerous headaches. 

The math department has been closed and the clericals and administrative assistants are out at Boalt Law School, Alaji-Sabrie said, adding that most construction sites remained unmanned and that union-driven delivery trucks were being turned away. 

Sympathy strikes have also hindered university operations, union officials said. 

Many graduate students have refused to work or teach classes during the strike, said Dan Lawson, president of Local 2865 of the United Auto Workers, which represents approximately 2,500 graduate student instructors. 

Snehal Shingavi, a graduate student instructor in the English department, said that he knew of at least 12 other graduate students who were refusing to teach classes during the strike. 

Fifty nurses represented by the California Nurses Association are also participating in a sympathy strike with the clericals. 

“We all suffer from the same delay tactics,” said Donna Nicholas of the nurses union. 

The nurses strike has forced the university to cancel medical appointments at the campus health center. A staff of doctors and management level nurses are still providing urgent and primary care. 

The university denied that any departments had completely shut down. Hyman said that although the math and anthropology offices were closed at certain times, nonunion staff remained at their jobs and returned telephone calls. 

“Each department has worked on its own plan to keep offices running. Obviously, some things are lagging, but managers and supervisors are picking up tasks,” she said. 

The clerical workers have been without a contract for 18 months and remain far from settling a salary increase. Clericals want a 15 percent raise over two years but the university system is offering only 3.5 percent. 

Wednesday’s strike will likely strain university resources even further. Six hundred university lecturers, who union officials say constitute 45 percent of university teachers (the university puts the number at 22 percent) will strike alongside the clericals. More than 300 classes are expected to be canceled during that one-day walkout. 

The lecturers, represented by the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, are nontenured professors whose primary responsibility is to teach, not research. 

According to union representative Michael Eisencher, the university has failed to support them financially and professionally. 

“Lecturers have the same qualifications as tenured professors, but they don’t get the same pay,” Eisencher said. 

The average lecturer makes $40,000, less than half the average salary for a tenured professor. 

Lecturers also have less job security. Presently, lecturers must accept one-year contracts. Only after six years are they eligible for three-year contracts. 

Many lecturers who have been without a contract for two years held classes Monday and Tuesday to inform students about their strike. 

“We’ve planned this to minimize the consequences for students,” said Jim Stockinger, a sociology lecturer. 

Creating playing fields in Berkeley has proven to be a drama with no end in sight. As the issue unfolds, everyone in our community loses over our inability to fulfill the simple, basic need for more playing fields for our young people. Our city is dense and small, but people, young and old alike, have a real need for stretching their bodies in the joy of an informal game of touch football, for girls breaking from old stereotypes by functioning as a soccer team, or for having a hard-fought competition between high school baseball teams. After years of studies and meetings, people are still saying in public hearings that playing fields are needed, but put them somewhere else. Berkeley clearly does not have fields of dreams, but rather can only offer inadequate dreams of fields.  

It is time for this picture to change. We cannot continue to ignore the facts:  

n Berkeley is 80 percent below national norms for recreational space. 

n Has less than 3 percent of its land area in city parks. 

n Playing field space is about one-fifth that of the average for U.S. cities of our size. 

n Turns away about 500 children every year from outreach sports programs for lack of space. 

n Is projected to turn away nearly 900 youth and 300 adults by 2005 for lack of space. 

n High school and UC campus both lack adequate playing fields. 

n Public and private sports organizations, including programs which serve disadvantaged youth, must compete with Berkeley High and UC Berkeley for use of field space. 

Grim facts indeed when research confirms over and over that participation in youth sports brings substantial benefit to both girls and boys. Active sports participation is one response to the epidemic of obesity now being reported. Youth participation in sports also encourages constructive interaction among young people of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds and strengthens an individual’s self-esteem, self-discipline and motivation for achievement. Most importantly, sports participation has been shown to improve attendance and performance in school. Current television ads are pointing out that the future careers of women are enhanced by opening up opportunities to young women traditionally discouraged from sports. 

These significant benefits should make people think when they read about the tragedy of so many young people becoming the victims and perpetrators of crime on our streets. I’m not saying that more playing fields is a magic cure. I am saying it is one of the things that a concerned community can do to help our young people find constructive outlets for their considerable energy.  

Today Berkeley has a rare opportunity to support playing fields in an appropriate place or places in the new Eastshore State Park. It is of the utmost import that wildlife in that special park be protected, that places be set aside for the quiet contemplation of nature and that places be created to learn about the wonders that we are so fortunate to have in our very own front yard. All of that must be done, but that doesn’t mean we must exclude a few playing fields. No question, these playing fields must be built and maintained without using pesticides.  

So, planners and citizens, how about supporting playing fields within the new park? We might start by looking at eliminating some of the huge parking lots that are planned. Let’s also re-open the discussion around the closing of Derby Street to address the crisis of the lack of playing fields for Berkeley High students.  

For everyone’s sake, let’s get together and turn our dreams of fields into some real fields of dreams. 

Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean

If the Cal football team is going to have success this season, the Bears will need a big contribution from senior cornerback Jemeel Powell. And if the Bears do show marked improvement, no one will better symbolize the ups and downs of the last four years than Powell. 

Powell’s Cal career began in earnest in 2000, when as a sophomore he showed tremendous skills as both a defensive back and punt returner. He intercepted a team-high four passes, including a third-overtime, game-clinching pick over huge UCLA wideout Brian Poli-Dixon. Against USC, he returned four punts for 138 yards, including an 83-yard touchdown, and grabbed an interception to help seal a win. He earned all-conference honors as both a cornerback and return man, and it seemed as if the Bears had at least one spot on the field covered for the next two years. 

But 2001 was a far cry from the glory of the previous season. Powell was nagged by groin and hamstring injuries all year, missing spring practice and four games. He also suffered a complete disintegration of his confidence after being burned early in the season and was eventually benched. 

“I hate to get beat, I just hate it,” Powell said Tuesday. “When it happens I’m real disappointed. I was getting down on myself, and wasn’t playing with the same intensity. Last year we were just getting smashed, and it takes away all your confidence.” 

During 2002 spring practice, Powell was the fourth option at cornerback, and it looked as if he would be an afterthought in the defensive scheme. But when fellow corners Atari Callen and Ray Carmel were ruled academically ineligible, it became apparent that Cal would be depending on Powell for more than just punt returns for the upcoming season. 

A starter once again, Powell has looked good in fall camp, blanketing receivers in defensive coordinator Bob Gregory’s new defense. It helps that Gregory’s scheme doesn’t leave defensive backs in one-on-one man coverage nearly as much as last season’s, which relieves some of the pressure to be perfect. Powell said it also helps that he is now allowed to vary his techniques from time to time to keep opponents off-balance. 

“When you do the same thing over and over and over, the opposition knows what to expect,” he said. “These coaches don’t restrict what I can do, and that makes a big difference.” 

With Powell and junior James Bethea the only cornerbacks with any college experience, they won’t be looking over their shoulders if they make a bad play. Two young safeties have been converted to corner to cover for the loss of Bethea and Carmel, but until they get up to speed, it’s Powell and Bethea for better or worse. 

Head coach Jeff Tedford knows what Powell has gone through the last two seasons; as Oregon’s offensive coordinator since 1999, he watched tape of Powell in preparation to play Cal. It was like watching two different players, and Tedford is glad to see the Powell of 2000 back in place. 

“I think Jemeel is back to his old form, I really do,” Tedford said. “The big key is if something bad happens, can he bounce back? You never go through a game without setbacks, so it’s up to him to react the right way.” 

The theme of this year’s Cal team is a new start, and Powell is no exception. He has nothing but praise for the new coaching staff, especially defensive backs coach J.D. Williams, who has been demanding of his new charges. He is especially tough on Powell, who Williams says has the potential to play in the NFL. 

Powell knows he’s down to his last chance, as are all of the Cal seniors. 

“A lot of us are nervous to get the season started,” Powell said. “If we lose this year, it’s not on the coaches. It’s on us as players, with no debate about it.” 

When asked for a prediction about what the upcoming season holds for the Bears, Powell was short and to the point. 

“I just don’t want what happened last year to happen again,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

While regional planners move forward with a strategy to accommodate 1 million new residents expected in the Bay Area 20 years from now, skeptics, including a handful of Berkeley residents, are saying to slow down instead. 

“They just assume you want to grow,” said Zelda Bronstein, a Berkeley planning commissioner. 

The Association of Bay Area Governments, which operates under state mandate, expects that population density will increase in Berkeley through the construction of more apartments along transit corridors. Planners say this will help accommodate an estimated 7,000 new residents by 2020. 

But anti-growth advocates say housing construction and job growth should be slowed to prevent an unsustainable increase in population. 

“The most effective way to limit population growth is to limit job creation,” said Stuart Flashman, an attorney representing a neighborhood group that recently stopped a proposed housing development on Hearst Street. 

“We should first decide how many people we can hold and then cap commercial development,” he said. 

Adding more people to population centers near public transportation puts undue pressure on cities like Berkeley, which are already too dense, said Flashman. 

“A six-story building in Berkeley might be better than a three-story one in Dublin, but it will still have an impact,” he noted. 

Flashman added that unfettered job growth could require Berkeley taxpayers to spend more on expanded transportation, sewage treatment plants and drinking water supplies. 

“Given the fact that we are right on an earthquake fault, this is going to be very expensive,” he said. 

Other cities have already tried limiting job growth to keep population stable. In 2000, Portland, Ore., gave tax breaks to Intel Corporation to slow job growth at its local facility. 

A similar move in Berkeley would probably not be as effective, many say. The city’s biggest employer, UC Berkeley, is run by the state, while many residents work in other cities, said Berkeley resident John McBride. 

“It’s a really interesting debate,” said Victoria Eisen, a principle planner for ABAG. “Either provide more housing or provide fewer jobs.” 

Eisen said that the anti-growth advocates were a minority and that most planners, politicians, neighborhood groups and environmentalists favor housing. 

“People don’t want to risk economic growth,” she said. 

The entire Bay Area, she said, would be harmed if Berkeley and other cities convenient to public transportation do not expand their housing stock.

SACRAMENTO – A bill that could help find out whether women’s athletic programs in California are meeting national requirements passed the Senate Tuesday. 

The bill, by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, would require the state to study middle school, high school and post-secondary athletic programs to ensure girls have equal access to school sports. 

Title IX, a federal law which passed in 1972, bans gender discrimination in public schools. Since it passed, the number of girls participating in high school sports has jumped from just 295,000 to more than 2.7 million, according to the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. 

The measure passed the Senate in a 27-5 vote and returns to the Assembly for a vote on Senate amendments. 

If AB2295 becomes law, a final report would be expected by 2004 and would include recommendations to improve compliance with the law. 

Earlier this month, the Assembly formed a committee to study the issue.

The Bay Area received some good news Tuesday when the U.S. Olympic Committee announced that San Francisco is one of two U.S. cities competing to host the 2012 Olympic games. 

On Nov. 3 the committee will choose between San Francisco and its competition: New York City. 

The announcement bodes well for Berkeley sports fans, says the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC), because the Bay Area bid calls for indoor volleyball, beach volleyball and soccer to be played on the UC campus. 

“They loved Berkeley,” Winnicker said of the U.S. Olympic Committee. “What they loved was the whole mind, body and spirit attitude that is it at both [UC Berkeley and Stanford University]... great, world renowned universities. That’s really what the Olympic ideals are all about.” 

Haas Pavilion, which seats 12,000 people, would be used for indoor volleyball, both the preliminaries and the finals. Edwards Stadium, seating 22,000, would be used for beach volleyball finals. Memorial Stadium, seating 73,347, would host the preliminary soccer games.  

The Recreation Sports Facility, holding several large training gymnasiums, would also be used.  

Improvements to Berkeley’s sports venues are also in the plan and would be funded by BASOC. 

“I would think some renovations would be [appropriate],” said Bob Rose, UC Berkeley’s executive associate athletic director. “But, at this point, we’re not really sure what will be done.” 

Along with the immediate improvements to facilities, long-term benefits to transportation are expected. 

“Historically, the host sites have benefited greatly in a lot of different ways,” Rose said. “From an awareness standpoint, so many more people become aware [of your location]. The greatest benefits are seen over the span of many years.” 

Berkeley city officials have been concerned about the potential for traffic jams and increased congestion if San Francisco were to be named the site for the 2012 games. But Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the Bay Area could accommodate the influx of people. 

“The facilities here can handle it,” Rentschler said. “The people who live here are comfortable getting on public transit and understand it.” 

With nearly 80 percent of the sports facilities required for the 2012 Olympics already in place, Rentschler said that, unlike other cities that have recently hosted the games, this area would not have much else to build. 

“The Bay Area isn’t really building for the Olympics,” Rentschler said. “We’re building for the Bay Area and it also happens to be a great fit for the Olympics.” 

The Bay Area already has plans to add 50 miles of HOV lanes to the existing 275 miles, improve express bus service and continue BART service to San Jose. 

Along with Berkeley, Olympic events would be held in Oakland, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto. The proposed Olympic Village, or headquarters, would be placed near Mountain View. 

San Francisco and New York edged out Houston and Washington D.C./Baltimore for final consideration for the 2012 games, the Olympic committee said today. 

If San Francisco is the final U.S. city to emerge, the Bay Area will then contend with Toronto; Rome; Paris; France; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Cape Town, South Africa. The final decision is slated to be made in 2005.

HOUSTON – UC, which is the lead plaintiff in the shareholder class action lawsuit against the Enron Corp. and Arthur Andersen, announced Tuesday that it has reached a tentative agreement with the international division of the accounting firm. 

The $40 million settlement – which still has to be approved by a number of principals and the courts – would drop Andersen Worldwide SC and all of its non-American members from the lawsuit and find them not liable of the allegations. 

The American-based portion of the accounting firm, Arthur Andersen LLP, and its subsidiaries would still remain in the suit, as would Enron. 

James E. Holt, an attorney for the University of California, said that the settlement represents one of the largest securities recoveries from an accounting firm. 

“This substantial settlement is a favorable result for the class in light of the limited role of the non-U.S. Andersen entities,” Holt said.  

“We regard this settlement as only a first step in obtaining recovery for the class, and will continue to pursue damages from the remaining defendants, most of whom had far deeper involvement in the Enron debacle than the overseas Andersen firms.” 

In February, a federal judge in Texas named the university system – whose pension fund took a $144.9 million hit from the collapse of the energy company – as the lead plaintiff in the suit filed by Enron shareholders against some of the company's executives and their accountants at Arthur Andersen. 

In an amended complaint filed in April, the university system named Andersen Worldwide and other international firms associated with the accounting firm as defendants in the lawsuit. Only the domestic Andersen LLP was Enron's auditor and signatory of financial statements. 

Andersen Worldwide denies any wrongdoing or liability in the Enron debacle. 

The settlement money will eventually be split among the members of the class, which is extensive and represents an estimated Enron loss of $25 billion. Of the money, $15 million would go to pay for the cost of the lawsuit, but not attorney's costs.

East Bay lawmakers gathered in Oakland Tuesday to kick off a new program designed to take students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties to and from school for free or at a discounted price. 

The new AC Transit school bus pass program will provide free transportation to students who qualify for reduced-priced school lunches.  

Some 30,000 students will benefit from the free bus pass program, but even those who do not qualify for a free pass are getting a break. 

In addition to the free pass program, AC Transit has nearly halved its price for a daily youth pass, from $27 to $15. A yearly bus pass will also be available at $150. 

It is the revenue generated by these discount price passes that will pay for the free passes. The program is currently structured as a two-year pilot program, but officials say they hope that enough money is generated to make the bus passes a permanent fixture. 

The passes – a sticker that must be affixed to a school-issued ID card – can be used at all times, but are primarily designed so students can take the bus to and from school. 

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said that many low-income students in his district have trouble coming up with enough money for bus fare, especially at the end of the month when money is traditionally tighter. 

“Parents were making difficult choices toward the end of the month – whether to buy food or buy bus fare,” Gioia said. “That's not fair, that's not the right thing to do.” 

He noted that the West County Unified School District was losing $900,000 a year in average daily attendance money because students who couldn't afford bus fare at the end of the month were staying home.

SACRAMENTO — The state Senate approved a bill Tuesday to require Bay Area drivers to participate in the more costly Smog Check II program, which supporters said would cut pollution that migrates to the Central Valley. 

The bill was among dozens the Legislature tackled Tuesday, including a measure expanding state wiretap laws to include suspected terrorists and a bill to require that 20 percent of the state’s energy needs be met with renewable energy such as solar and wind. 

The Assembly and the Senate each have hundreds of bills on which to vote before the legislative session ends Saturday. 

Written by Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, the Smog Check II bill aims to crack down on millions of Bay Area motorists blamed for the wind-blown smog that travels to the Central Valley. 

The more costly tests could curb Central Valley air pollution by up to 10 percent, cutting down on Bay Area smog that blows through the Carquinez Straits and Altamont Pass, supporters said. 

During the brief time it complied with federal air quality standards, the Bay Area received an exemption from the tougher smog test. 

The bill will give both regions “an opportunity to address our mutual air challenges,” said Sen. Dick Monteith, R-Modesto. Monteith and Cardoza are facing each other in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres. 

Critics argued it will cost Bay Area business owners more for new equipment and cost drivers there millions of dollars for the more expensive test. The newer test costs about $10 extra and puts some cars on a treadmill to check for nitrogen dioxide, a key element of ozone formation. 

The bill also exempts more cars statewide from the tougher smog test. Presently, cars less than four years old are exempt. The new law extends that exemption to cars less than six years old. 

The Senate voted 26-3 to approve the bill, sending it back to the Assembly for approval of Senate amendments. 

A bill to expand the use of wiretaps to include possible terrorism acts also passed the Senate Tuesday. By a 26-1 vote, the Senate sent the bill by Assemblyman Carl Washington, D-Paramount, back to the Assembly. If approved there, it will go to Gov. Gray Davis. 

Under current law, wiretaps can be applied to kidnapping, murder and bombing suspects. Washington’s bill would extend the use to include those suspected of building weapons of mass destruction and restrictive biological agents. 

The Assembly approved a bill requiring that 20 percent of the state’s energy be from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. The bill, by Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, gives utilities until 2017 to meet the requirement. 

Most of the state’s energy supply comes from natural gas, and supporters of Sher’s bill say spreading the state’s energy supply among other sources will increase reliability and price stability. 

The Assembly voted 49-13 to send the bill back to the Senate for concurrence in Assembly amendments. 

Also, the Assembly passed a bill requiring business executives to reveal corporate fraud or face possible fines of up to $100,000. 

The measure would fill some holes left in federal anti-fraud legislation passed in response to the collapse of Enron Corp. and related business scandals, supporters said. 

But opponents said the bill by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, could create unfair pitfalls for corporate executives and discourage businesses from locating in California. 

The bill would authorize fines of up to $100,000 for corporate officers and directors and members of limited liability companies who fail to notify the attorney general within 15 days when they know about improper business activities that would harm investors. 

The company itself could be fined up to $1 million, and company managers responsible for financial transactions could be fined up to $50,000 for failing to make the required disclosures. 

Also, the bill requires the attorney general to set up a telephone hot line that employees could use to report possible violations of state or federal business laws or regulations or violations of fiduciary responsibility by corporations or limited liability companies. 

The 43-20 vote returned the bill to the Senate for a vote on Assembly amendments. Approval there would send the bill to the governor.

SAN JOSE — In the first financial results since closing its merger with Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. said third-quarter sales fell short of expectations though the integration of the companies remains on track. 

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company blamed the lower revenue on weak demand for technology by businesses and consumers, not problems in its corporate marriage. 

The merger with Houston-based Compaq closed on May 3 after a ferocious proxy battle. HP earned $420 million, or 14 cents per share — compared to $320 million, or 11 cents per share, by the companies a year ago. 

Revenue was $16.5 billion, down about 11 percent from $18.6 billion reported by the companies a year ago. 

Analysts were expecting a profit of 14 cents per share on sales of $16.7 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call. 

Even under the best economic conditions, large corporate mergers are never easy. In HP’s case, executives face not only the challenge of integrating products, accounting systems and employees but also weak demand for the computers, software and services the company sells to businesses and consumers. 

When the merger was announced almost a year ago, the companies said they would cut 15,000 positions, or 10 percent of the combined work force of 150,000. In June, executives predicted merger-related savings of $2.5 billion in 2003 and $3 billion by 2004. 

On Tuesday, the company said it has so far completed nearly 4,740 job cuts and is on track to trim 10,000 by the end of fiscal 2002.

THREE RIVERS — Authorities confiscated more than 20,000 plants from several marijuana gardens growing in Tulare County and Sequoia National Park. 

No arrests were made, the National Park Service said. 

Officers confiscated firearms, sleeping bags, tools and irrigation equipment from gardens growing in the East Fork drainage area of the Kaweah River. The plants had an estimated street value of $72 million. 

Pot growers used poisons, pesticides and cut into steep slopes to create the gardens and camps, the park service said. The growers were also poaching for food. 

Authorities are continuing to search the Sierra Nevada foothills for pot gardens by flying over mountain areas and conducting surveillance during the pot growing season that ends next month, said Lt. Donna Perry of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department.

Six hundred striking clerical workers could not keep hoards of UC Berkeley students from attending their first day of class Monday. 

The union chant, “UC Berkeley is a crime, please don’t cross the picket line,” fell on deaf ears as most students poured into campus to find nearly every class in session and professors ready and willing to teach. 

“They say don’t go to class, but I have to, otherwise, I’ll be unenrolled pretty fast,” said John Adams, a transfer student. 

Despite a fairly normal day of classes, the Coalition of University Employees, which represents the 2,300 striking telephone operators, secretaries, library assistants and clerical workers at UC Berkeley and the Office of the President in Oakland, pointed to effects of the strike. 

Child care services, medical services, deliveries and construction projects were all either halted or scaled back, said Michael-David Sasson, president of Local 3 of CUE.  

The clerical workers have been without a contract since January 2001. They are asking for a 15 percent raise over two years, but university officials say state budget cuts allow only 3.5 percent. 

“The numbers are driven by state funding, university spokesperson Paul Schwartz said. “If we got more funding we’d offer more.” 

But union officials charge that the university hasn’t tapped a $2.3 billion fund that could pay for raises. They also say that the university has negotiated in bad faith, citing a “take it or leave it offer” given to the union earlier this month.  

“We’re tired of the corporate mentality that has taken over UC,” Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, a CUE spokesperson said. 

University officials, though, said their offers were fair. “We take the matter seriously and our proposals reflect that,” said Schwartz. 

On Wednesday, lecturers, who university officials say account for 22 percent of instructors, will strike alongside clericals, potentially forcing the cancellation of 300 classes. 

The lecturers have been without a contract for two years. They want better pay and more job security. “It’s unconscionable for a premier university to pay teachers with Ph.D.s less than elementary school teachers,” said Michael Eisencher of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents lecturers. 

Although a small, undetermined number of professors canceled classes Monday in deference to the strike, most who wanted to show support moved classes to off-campus sites. 

“We’ve scheduled 18 classes here today,” said Charlene Van Ness of the YWCA at 2600 Bancroft St., adding that the organization offered professors reduced rates for rooms as a measure to show solidarity with the strikers. 

Myrto Miliou, a graduate student teacher, taught architectural drawing class on a grass field outside the Berkeley Museum Pacific Film Archive. 

“We [some department teachers] talked about the strike and decided not to have classes on campus,” said Miliou. 

Students forced off-campus did not seem bothered by the move. 

“As long as I am supporting them it doesn’t matter,” said Aaron Choi, while waiting for his class to begin at the YWCA. 

Although most classes met as scheduled, the absence of clericals strained student services. 

Justin Portillo, an undergraduate student, said he was on the wait list for one class, but cannot find out if he is enrolled because of the strike. 

In addition, several departments, including mathematics and anthropology, did not answer telephone calls Monday. 

University spokesperson Carol Hyman, however, said the university was running fine. “Some offices have a lot of people out, but services have been covered.” 

Off the main campus, CUE found allies in other unions. 

The nurses union voted to stage a sympathy strike Monday, effectively shutting down the university medical center except for in emergency cases. 

The university has initiated legal action against the nurses, Hyman said. The university says the sympathy strike is illegal due to a “no strike” clause in their contract.  

Several unionized truck drivers also joined the effort by refusing to deliver to the medical center or to other university locations. 

Construction at the Underhill Parking Garage at Channing and Bowditch streets was among eight projects halted when picketers told unionized construction workers about the strike. Construction workers said they would not return to their jobs until Thursday.  

The three-day strike is slated to end Wednesday. Lectures are scheduled to resume negotiations with university officials and a state-appointed mediator during the first week of September. CUE is tentatively scheduled to return to the bargaining table Sept. 11-13. 

To the Editor: 

Community members have good reason to distrust the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in regard to the hauling of Bevatron debris through Berkeley streets to Richmond and Livermore landfills or the Nevada Test Site. 

If dangerous radioisotopes were not used, as lab officials say, why did the lab install 20-foot-thick concrete shields in the Bevatron to protect lab employees? What kind of radioactivity were induced in these concrete shields and their metal reinforcements? If the lab is so sure the debris is nonradioactive why do landfill operators have to sign that they will not recycle Bevatron metals? An environmental impact review is called for to reveal this information. 

Is it a coincidence that tritium (low-level radiation) was found at the Amito Reservoir, 1.5 miles from the lab’s tritium facility, above the Claremont Hotel in census tract 4001 (includes top of Panoramic Hill) and that the number of breast cancer cases in that census tract from 1988 to 1990 was 18 cases, more than twice the expected rate in the Bay Area? Yet the lab and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tell us those at the Lawrence Hall of Science only 360 feet (110 meters) away from the tritium stack, not to be concerned. 

The community needs comprehensive data on the Bevatron debris so an informed decision can be made regarding the advisability of hauling the waste on our streets and highways.  

Gene Bernardi  

Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste 

Tuesday, August 27

A House of Straw: a Natural Building Odyssey Slideshow 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo 

Carolyn Roberts presents slides and talks about her experiences building her straw bale house. 

548-2220 Ext. 233 

Free 

Wednesday, August 28

Salvation Army Volunteers Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Salvation Army, 1535 University Ave. 

549-3400, del_zeiger@usw.salvationarmy.org 

Saturday, August 31

Berkeley Youth Orchestra Auditions (Wind, Brass, Percussion) 

All day 

Laney College Music Dept., Fallon St., Oakland 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will audition musicians aged 10-15 for the 2002-2003 season. 

For an application or more information call Penny Boys at 540-0812 or e-mail her at philiph@seismo.kerkeley.edu 

Book Reading: “21st Century Manzanar” 

4 p.m. 

Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 

Perry Minyake reads his debut novel, “21st Century Manzanar,” a dark portrait of an America gone wrong. 

548-2350 

Free 

Sunday, September 1

Women's Magic Circle  

3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.  

Each participant leads the circle through a short magic exercise, ancient or homemade. All traditions are welcome.  

595-5541 or wrpclub@aol.com for more information  

$20 for 6 month membership  

Monday, September 2

Labor Day Potluck Picnic  

and Poetry Reading 

Hosted by Bay Area Poets Coalition 

Noon to 4 p.m. 

Live Oak Park, Walnut and Rose St. 

527-9905, poetalk@aol.com 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter  

6:30 PM.  

Mama Bears Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 6536 Telegraph Ave. 

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

the prestigious Valitutti Award for non-fiction.  

549-2970 

Free 

Tuesday, September 3

Opening of Classes,  

Berkeley City Ballet 

1800 Dwight Way  

First day of classes at BCB. Classes Monday through Friday for children 5 and up. Student performers are invited to audition annual Nutcracker performance.  

(415) 905-4005 

Thursday, September 5

Nutrition Career Open House 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Institute of Educational Therapy, 706 Gilman St. 

Learn how to become a nutrition educator or consultant. 

558-1711 

Free 

Discussion: “Why We Call  

Ourselves Butch?” 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave. 

This group is for self-identified butch women. New members are welcome. 

559-9184 

Free 

Friday, September 6

'The Winona LaDuke Reader' 

Lecture and Reception 

Presented by the American Indian Graduate Program 

5 p.m. Reception, 7 p.m. Lecture 

Native American environmental and Indigenous Rights activist and author of several books and articles, Winona LaDuke, will discuss the topics of her new book 'The Winona LaDuke Reader' as well as other current work. 

atalay@sscl.berkeleyl.edu 

Free 

Saturday, September 7

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to noon 

University of California Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 

UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant.  

Travel Careers Seminar 

8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

Vista Community College, 2020 Milvia St., Room 306 

The day’s program will include travel industry speakers covering a variety of career possibilities: Cruise specialists, tour leaders, tour operators, adventure operators, home-based travel agents and more.  

981-2931 

$5.50 for California residents 

Sunday, September 8

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

9 a.m. to noon 

West Berkeley 

Individual and team participation. Event includes a health fair, food, prizes, live music and free insurance eligibility screening. 

704-6010 

28th Annual Solano Avenue Stroll 

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Solano Avenue 

A mile-long block part featuring “Journey of a Thousand Cranes’ Parade” at 11 a.m.  

527-5358 or www.solanostroll.org 

Free 

Watershed Environmental  

Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Prostate Cancer Lecture 

2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way 

Understand the risk of prostate cancer and how to detect early symptoms from a survivor. 

869-6737 

Free 

Thursday, September 12

The 14th Small Business  

Development Trade Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The Pauley Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, near Telegraph Ave. and Bancroft Way, UC Berkeley 

The event will introduce small businesses to the UC Berkeley community and give campus departments a glimpse of the services and products small businesses have to offer.  

Caterina Rando discusses her new book Learn to Power Think: A Practical Guide to Positive and Effective Decision Making 

Boadecia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave. 

559-9184, www.bookpride.com 

Saturday, September 14

Basic Personal Preparedness 

9 to 11 a.m. 

Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St. 

Learn five critical steps to take care of yourself, your family and your home. Classes open to those 18 or older who live or work in Berkeley. 

981-5605, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Heritage Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

International BBQ and beer festival 

Free 

Spin for the Stars Fund-raiser 

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Spieker Aquatics Complex, Recreational Sports Facility on UC Berkeley campus 

Noncompetitive swimming and stationary cycling event. Proceeds will help Cal STAR enhance its facilities and programs for the disabled. 

$20 registration fee, $35 for biathlon challenge  

West Berkeley Open Air Market 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

University Avenue between 3rd and 4th St. 

West Berkeley celebrates Neighborhood Heritage Day with crafts, food, live music, art and family entertainment. 

841-8562 or sfbayshellmounds@yahoo.com 

Free 

Sukkot Holiday Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Join Dawn Kepler, director of Building Jewish Bridges, for hands-on crafts, food projects, creative sukkah decorations and tips for making your own sukkah (hut). 

848-0237 Ext. 127 

$10 BRJCC members/$12 public 

NEW YORK— Just four days before baseball players were scheduled to strike, the sides weighed their next moves Monday in the drawn-out negotiations for a new labor contract. 

Owners made small steps to the union in their latest offer Sunday, and it appeared the next move was up to the players’ association, which didn’t immediately respond to the new proposal. 

The sides met once Monday afternoon, and it was possible they would meet again at night, spokesmen for players and owners said. With the sides bickering over how to divide billions of dollars in the next four seasons, baseball remained faced with its ninth work stoppage since 1972 

“My sentiment hasn’t changed — I’m an optimist by nature,” New York Yankees player representative Mike Stanton said. “There are proposals from both sides and concessions from both sides. Albeit small, a concession is a concession.” 

Negotiators for players and owners were not available for comment after the day’s first session. 

Owners want vastly increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax to slow the spending of high-payroll teams. Players have agreed to revenue sharing increases, but proposed a lower level than management and asked to phase in the changes, which management opposes. 

On the luxury tax, owners want higher tax rates and lower thresholds than players. Owners regard the union’s proposal as ineffective and players think management’s plan would act like a salary cap. 

Owners increased the tax threshold Sunday from $102 million to $107 million in the first three years of the new contract and to $111 million in 2006. The portions of payrolls above that figure would be taxed, using the average annual value of 40-man rosters plus about $7.7 million per team in benefits. 

Players have proposed thresholds of $125 million next year, $135 million in 2004, $145 million in 2005 and no tax in the final season of the deal — another big point of contention. 

Owners gave proposed tax rates of 35-50 percent, depending on the number of times a team exceed the threshold, while players have proposed rates of 15-40 percent. 

As for revenue sharing, owners proposed that teams share 36 percent of their locally generated revenue, up from 20 percent this year. The teams’ previous plan was 37 percent, and the union moved up to 33.3 percent in its Saturday proposal. 

The owners’ plan would transfer $263 million annually from baseball’s richest teams to its poorest, using 2001 revenue figures for analysis. Because the union’s proposal phases in changes, the players’ proposal would transfer $172.3 million in 2003, $195.6 million in 2004, $219 million in 2005 and $242.3 million in 2006. 

On Monday 34-year-old Joe Spears stood among a group of UC Berkeley clerical workers protesting the school’s handling of labor negotiations. 

An employee in Memorial Stadium’s equipment room and a lifelong Golden Bears fan, Spears has worked for the university since his graduation from Berkeley High School in 1990. 

Despite the demonstration, he smiled warmly as he recounted signing on with the university’s staff with the hope of fulfilling a promise he made to his late father: “To be somebody.” But Spears said things have not worked out the way he had planned. 

“I feel like a guy from the slave days,” he said. 

UC Berkeley’s 1,800 clerical workers include telephone operators, secretaries and child care workers, who are pushing for a 15 percent pay raise. The university, strapped for cash amid state budget shortfalls, says it can only offer a 3.5 percent raise. The gap prompted a three-day workers strike which began Monday. 

Union officials with the Coalition of University Employees, representing clerical workers, said that none of the school’s clerical workers makes more than $50,000 a year. 

Spears makes less than half that. His monthly paycheck barely covers his financial obligations, let alone extras he would like to give his 7-year-old son. Spears lives with his mother. 

“We just want to live and have some dignity and not struggle. I’m struggling,” he said. 

Like Spears, other striking workers say their wages plus the high cost of living in the Bay Area have made financial security a nearly unattainable goal. 

Joan Gatten is a 62-year-old office manager in the university’s Doe Library who has worked at the school for 15 years. Though she raised her children in Berkeley, rising rents forced her to move to Pt. Richmond in 1982 where she found more affordable housing. The drawback, she said, is living with a housemate from time to time. 

“You really cannot live your own life, and as adults we should have the right to live alone,” she said. 

Gatten said that her entire paycheck goes toward rent, food and other necessities – leaving little or nothing to set aside as retirement savings. She dreams of splitting her retirement between her Pt. Richmond apartment and the Sierra Nevada foothills. But that scenario is unlikely. 

Catalina Estrada, who works in the university’s environmental resources department, also joined the picket lines Monday. 

“Most [costs in the Bay Area] are going up, and we are still getting paid the same,” said Estrada. “I can’t imagine how anybody could afford it if they have children. I am single and I can barely make it.” 

Besides working at the university, Estrada studies physical anthropology at Vista College. She said that making rent payments, paying for the BART ride between her shared El Cerrito apartment and to work in Berkeley and paying for college have made seeing and even talking to her family in southern California increasingly difficult. 

“Unfortunately, there are times I can’t go visit my family in LA because I don’t have the money. I have other expenses I really needed to take care of.”  

CUE representatives are scheduled to continue contract negotiations with university officials next month.

To the Editor: 

I couldn’t agree more with Diane Joy’s response in the Aug. 22 Daily Planet to Linda Maio’s proposal (Aug. 17) to neuter our raccoon population.  

We can’t even learn to live with each other, so we focus on our backyard neighbors who can’t read papers or attend meetings or speak for themselves. Raccoons, like possums and skunks, deer and coyotes, not to mention squirrels and birds, have miraculously learned to adapt to the domineering, often cruel, two-legged creatures who have taken over most of their natural turf. And we humans don’t seem willing to learn how to coexist with creatures we can’t own and control like “our” dogs and cats. (Feral cats and dogs, it should be noted, are not truly wild, but are the offspring of animals once “owned” by humans who failed to take responsibility for their domestic pets (read: property).  

That’s what it’s about, folks: coexistence – something we talk about righteously and work for tirelessly for in the arena of peace, human rights and social justice. Truth is, we are human–centric. It’s time we gave the same respect to the other creatures in our midst that pay the price every day for our predatory behavior (the automobile being No. 1 killer of animals) and unwillingness to coexist with all life on earth. 

Marianne Robinson, 

Berkeley

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cory Lidle managed to regroup in time after his scoreless inning streak was snapped after 32 innings because of an unearned run. 

David Justice’s error helped end Lidle’s streak, but the Oakland Athletics still managed to win their 13th straight game, beating the Kansas City Royals 6-3 Monday night. 

“I lost my composure a little bit and I started overthrowing,” Lidle said. “I didn’t handle it very well.” 

Ramon Hernandez had three hits and drove in three runs as the A’s extended the longest streak in the majors this season. The winning streak is their longest since they set an Oakland record with a 14-game string in 1988. 

Hernandez had a two-run single in the Oakland’s four-run sixth. Jermaine Dye, who played with the Royals from 1997-2001 before being dealt to Oakland last July, and Ray Durham each added RBI singles. Dye, who had three hits, doubled home Miguel Tejada in the ninth for the final run. 

The second inning unearned run off Lidle (8-9) was the first he had allowed since the sixth inning on July 31 at Cleveland. 

“You never know how it is going to effect a pitcher when he has a streak going and it ends,” A’s manager Art Howe said. “I was a little concerned. It was important to get out of that inning with just one run scoring.” 

Michael Tucker opened the Kansas City second with a fly to left that glanced off Justice’s glove for a two-base error. Tucker advanced to third on Brent Mayne’s groundout, but was out in a rundown when he tried to score on Neifi Perez’s grounder to first baseman Scott Hatteberg. 

Perez went to second during the rundown and scored on Luis Ordaz’s single. Lidle’s scoreless inning streak is the second longest for a starter in Oakland history, surpassed only by Mike Torrez’s 37 shutout innings in 1976. 

“Ordaz hit a curveball,” Lidle said. “We didn’t have any information on him. We didn’t have any film.” 

Lidle, who has thrown a pair of one-hitters this season, limited the Royals to three singles over seven innings. He did not allow a hit after Raul Ibanez’s one-out single in the third. Lidle is 5-0 in August and has not allowed an earned run in 38 innings. 

“This is one of the best starting pitching groups we’re going to see the whole year,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “They know how to pitch. Lidle threw the ball well. Tomorrow we face (Mark) Mulder and the next day (Barry) Zito.”

A two-alarm fire early Monday has left at least 60 residents, many of them seniors and disabled, without homes. 

The blaze broke out just after midnight at UA Homes, a 75-unit residential hotel at 1040 University Ave., near 10th Street. Firefighters suspect that a pile of clothes was accidentally lit on fire.  

The building’s old sprinkler system failed to contain the fire, they said, allowing flames to crawl into the walls and spread through the four-story structure. 

Three residents and one firefighter were injured during the four-hour fire fight, and were taken to Alta Bates Medical Center, according to the Berkeley Fire Department. The firefighter, who was being treated for smoke inhalation and a lacerated arm, remained hospitalized Monday evening. The firefighter’s name was not released. 

American Red Cross officials took displaced residents to an emergency shelter set up just blocks away, at Berkeley’s James Kenney Recreation Center on Eighth Street. 

Red Cross officials say that because of fire and water damage residents cannot return home for at least a month. 

“It’s a tragic day for these residents,” said Jaye Winkler, a Red Cross volunteer. “And most of these people are elderly, have severe disabilities, have ambulatory problems. It’s a a fairly fragile and vulnerable population.” 

On Monday afternoon, more than 40 residents who lost their homes gathered in the gym at James Kenney, where some caught naps on several dozen cots set up beneath basketball nets. Red Cross officials gave out food and clothing. 

“It looks like I’ll be starting all over,” said Mark Shimada. Shimada said his apartment was one of the hardest hit by the fire and that he is relying on the Red Cross to find him a place to stay until he can return to UA Homes. 

The fire department estimated that the damage exceeded $500,000, but that the building will be inhabitable again. 

In the meantime, Red Cross officials say the emergency shelter will remain open for three to five days. After that, other housing options such as the Red Cross service center in Oakland will be made available to those who can’t find new living quarters on their own. 

“Red Cross will assist these people as long as they need,” assured Winkler. “How we will be providing that assistance may change.” 

Caseworkers are scheduled to meet with displaced residents today to discuss temporary living arrangements. 

Firefighters believe the blaze was accidental. On Monday its cause was still being investigated. 

To the Editor: 

You never really miss something until it is gone. Just recently, I found this out the hard way. The complicated loss of peace and quiet. Change is sometimes a good thing, but going from having solitude to uncertainty in such a short time period is anything but. You see, I live in a nice home that is located directly on Ohlone Park. This means my backyard is lush green grass with the occasional napper under the trees. Just recently, I am coming face to face with the idea that my tranquil surroundings are being redesigned and fitted with noticeable play structures that will bring attention from children and cause much unneeded noise. It will be a new center of commotion, as if the park down the street does not supply enough entertainment for the young thrill seekers. I don’t think anyone wants me to explain the alternatives aside from my backyard, so I won’t but I will just say this. There has been limited things wrong with the park the way it is. More eye-catching structures are not necessary, they are virtually everywhere. I think the park is appreciated by anyone who has ever had a nice, relaxing visit there... and should remain so. Some people call me anti-kids, but really, I am one, so how does that fit? I just want a little peace- doesn’t everyone? 

Maxine Ziprin,  

Berkeley

Collins to have knee surgery 

ALAMEDA — Oakland Raiders starting right guard Mo Collins will undergo surgery this week to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. 

The surgery is scheduled for Wednesday in South Carolina, coach Bill Callahan said. Collins is from Charlotte, N.C., and his regular doctor will perform the surgery. 

The Raiders are hopeful Collins will return for a home game against Tennessee on Sept. 29. That would be the Raiders’ third game of the season and it follows their bye week. 

The 6-foot-4, 325-pound Collins, 25, played in Oakland’s 24-14 exhibition loss at Tennessee on Aug. 15, then missed practice all last week with what the team initially called a bruised knee. 

Collins was a first-round pick by the Raiders in 1998. He had a stress fracture in a leg last year and missed most of the season. 

Also, backup tight end Jeremy Brigham will miss Thursday’s exhibition finale against the Arizona Cardinals because of a strained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. 

Niners waive five more players 

SANTA CLARA — The San Francisco 49ers waived five players on Monday, including former XFL running back Saladin McCullough. 

It was the second straight failed trip to San Francisco’s training camp for McCullough, who couldn’t beat out Paul Smith or NFL Europe rushing champion Jamal Robertson for a backup job. 

The 49ers also cut receiver Jeremy McDaniel, claimed off waivers from Buffalo five days earlier. McDaniel caught 43 passes for 697 yards for the Bills in 2000. 

Offensive tackles Austin Lee and John Feugill and safety Brian Smith also were waived. 

A bullet for a wedgie 

LOWER SOUTHAMPTON, Pa. — A man accused of trying to kill a friend who gave him a “wedgie” will stand trial on an attempted murder charge, a judge ruled. 

Daniel Strouss, 19, was attending a Phish concert last year when Eric Kassoway sneaked up behind him and yanked up his underwear, according to testimony at a hearing Thursday. 

Strouss, of Richboro, held a grudge for months before shooting Kassoway on June 12, authorities said. 

On the night of the shooting, Strouss drove to Kassoway’s home and waited until Kassoway came home, then shot him in the arm and leg, authorities said. Kassoway nearly died from loss of blood. 

Strouss’ attorney, Al Cepparulo, said he did not dispute the prosecution’s version of events. 

“This is a tragedy for the victim. All I can say is my client is going through therapy,” he said last week. 

$1 for a police cruiser 

SPRINGFIELD, Fla. — This Florida Panhandle town is getting new police cars for only $1 each, but there’s a catch. The cars will be festooned with corporate sponsorship logos similar to those on race cars. 

City commissioners voted 4-0 Thursday to accept the deal with Charlotte, N.C.-based Government Acquisitions. The company hopes to provide a new squad car for each of Springfield’s 15 officers within the next three years. 

Government Acquisitions partner Ken Allison said advertising on cruisers destined for the Panama City suburb would be toned down. 

Police Chief Sam Slay said the city could save about $500,000 over the three-year span. 

“You are talking about $500,000 that can be spent other places in the city, and that’s what this program is for,” said Mayor Robert Walker. 

Slay wants the savings used to hire two more officers, but Commissioner Carl Curti said other departments may need the money. Slay said his department should get to use the money instead of being punished for saving it. 

Curti also was apprehensive about using the police car budget for other purposes. 

“These free cars may not always be free cars,” Curti said. 

Your age is Enronian 

HOUSTON — A company has created a birthday card inspired by Enron Corp. and its accounting scandals. 

The card by Tomato Cards, a line put out by Chicago-based Recycled Paper Greetings, features a smirking accountant sitting over an adding machine. 

“For your birthday, we hired Enron’s accountants to figure out just how old you are,” the card reads. 

“It’s very unusual to find a business being made fun of on a card,” said Marianne McDermott, executive vice president of the Greeting Card Association, a Washington, D.C.-based organization representing greeting card manufacturers.

To the Editor: 

I applaud the Park and Recreation and Waterfront commissions’ recommendations to council and East Bay Regional Park District (Aug. 23) to officially designate EastShore State Park as “park” and not “recreation area.”  

The “park” designation will protect the area from overdevelopment and will preserve habitat not only for ourselves but for future generations.  

Alas, the Bay Area is overpopulated. We no longer have the land to satisfy every recreational want, with other species paying the price for them. A higher priority must be preserving as much habitat as we can. 

I urge City Council to adopt the recommendations of its commissions and put aside political grandstanding.  

Maris Arnold, 

Berkeley  

Players poised and fans hushed, the jersey-clad teams from across the globe waited, motionless, for the signal to begin.  

Then, robots built by university engineering students from seven countries pushed, shoveled and rolled hockey pucks and rubber balls around the playing field.  

“If we hadn't won, it would have been totally worth it anyway, because it was really a lot of fun,” said “Mellow Yellow” member and Berkeley resident Martin Jonikis. 

But when the clock started, robots, not humans, roared across the Massachusetts Institute of Technology field, propelled by motors made for windshield wipers and electric screwdrivers, and built from piano hinges and PVC, wooden beams and steels rods, rubber bands and magnets. 

In the end, the “Mellow Yellow” team from the United States held gold aloft at this month’s 13th annual International Design Contest, also known as RoboCon. The contest is as much an exercise in teamwork as an engineering contest, said MIT professor Alexander Slocum, who has organized the event for the last eight years.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Aug. 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa blew up; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra. 

On this date: 

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes. 

In 1945, American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II. 

In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner II space probe, which flew past Venus the following December. 

In 1967, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London flat from an overdose of sleeping pills. 

In 1975, Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia’s 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa at age 83 almost a year after being overthrown. 

Ten years ago: President George H.W. Bush ordered federal troops to Florida for emergency relief after Hurricane Andrew struck. 

Five years ago: Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was charged with seeking and accepting more than $35,000 in trips, sports tickets and favors from companies that did business with his agency.  

One year ago: Israeli helicopters fired a pair of rockets through office windows and killed senior PLO leader Mustafa Zibri. Peru’s Congress voted to lift the constitutional immunity of former President Alberto Fujimori, so that prosecutors could charge him with crimes against humanity. 

Today’s Birthdays: Cajun-country singer Jimmy C. Newman is 75. Actor Tommy Sands is 65. Actor Paul Reubens is 50. For release Tuesday, Aug. 27 

Lawyers to present Stayner as
insane to avoid death penalty 

SAN JOSE — Yosemite killer Cary Stayner was convicted Monday of murdering three park tourists in a crime that spread terror through Central California and shattered the serene image of one of America’s most treasured places. 

The 41-year-old former motel handyman faces the death penalty because the murders were committed during other felonies such as burglary and attempted rape. He was convicted of three counts of first degree murder and a charge of kidnapping. 

Defense lawyers conceded that Stayner killed Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, of Eureka, and Silvina Pelosso, 16, of Argentina in February 1999, but they said he was crazy and asked jurors to convict him of second-degree murder, a verdict that would have spared him a possible death sentence. 

Stayner confessed to killing the trio who were staying at the rustic motel where he worked as a handyman outside Yosemite National Park.  

The crime was unsolved for nearly six months until Stayner struck again, snatching Yosemite nature guide Joie Armstrong and beheading her near her cabin in the park in July 1999. He’s serving life in prison without chance of parole after pleading guilty in federal court to first-degree murder in Armstrong’s death. 

The sightseer case is being held in state court because the Sunds and Pelosso were slain outside the park. 

Stayner’s lawyers plan to present an insanity defense to try to spare his life. In the sanity phase, to begin Thursday, the defense will build on that foundation to try and prove that Stayner didn’t know that he was killing or didn’t know it was wrong. If that strategy fails, a third phase of the trial will be held to determine if he is sent to death row. 

As the verdict was read, Stayner did not appear to show any emotion. Outside of court, defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey said the sanity phase was a “different ball game.” 

Stayner told FBI interrogators that he had fantasized for months about sexually assaulting young girls and then killing them. On the night of Feb. 15, 1999, he said he saw “easy prey” through the open blinds of Room 509 at Cedar Lodge. 

He went to the room where he lived in the lodge, grabbed his killing “kit” that included duct tape, rope, a knife and a gun. He used a ruse to get in the room, pretending to check for a leak, and then pulled his gun, telling the three he was desperate and needed their car. 

Stayner strangled Carole Sund while the girls were bound and gagged in the bathroom. He dumped her body in their rental car trunk. 

He attempted to sexually assault both girls and have them perform sex acts on each other, but became frustrated when Pelosso wouldn’t comply. 

He strangled her while Juli was in the bathroom and put her body in the car trunk. He repeatedly tried to rape Juli, but was hindered by impotence. 

Early the next morning, Stayner drove Juli to Lake Don Pedro, a reservoir in the Sierra foothills, sexually assaulted her again, said he loved her and then slashed her throat. He covered her naked body with brush on a hillside and left.

SF leaders unveil new
anti-hate poster campaign 

SAN FRANCISCO – A coalition of San Francisco leaders unveiled a new anti-hate poster campaign Monday on the steps of the city's Hall of Justice. 

“With war heating up in the Middle East,” said District Attorney Terence Hallinan, “we're launching a pre-emptive strike against any backlash against Arab Americans, Muslims and people of color.” 

He noted that after the Sept. 11 attacks, reports of such hate crimes in a city that is generally known for diversity and tolerance shot up dramatically – to 28 in the following month and then gradually subsiding to two in January and none last month.  

“The one thing San Francisco will not tolerate is intolerance,” Hallinan said. 

The new posters, created with the help of Muslim and South Asian representatives, are set to go up in bus shelters and inside buses around the city. They show an array of American faces including a turbaned Sikh man and a young Muslim woman with a traditional head covering that are surrounded by the message, “We are not the enemy... We are your community.” 

Workers spread germs at Napa Taco Bell 

NAPA — Taco Bell workers spread germs that caused a rash of food poisonings among customers in May, according to a recently completed investigation. 

All workers must now wear gloves and use utensils to handle food. A manager also must watch when employees change gloves and wash their hands. 

The county Department of Environmental Management required the measures as part of its investigation into 94 food-poisoning complaints about Taco Bell’s Jefferson Street restaurant. 

The final investigative report confirmed that workers spread a virus that causes stomach flu-like symptoms through food handling. 

Ruben Oropeza, head code enforcer for environmental management, said Taco Bell made all of the recommended changes and more. 

“My inspector said, ‘This is the cleanest place in town,’ and even ate there after a follow-up inspection,” Oropeza said. 

Brisbane woman collects
$30.5 million from Super Lotto 

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO – The Brisbane woman who bought one of the four winning tickets in Saturday's $122 million Super Lotto Plus drawing came forward Monday to claim her share of the jackpot. 

Cindy Blair says she'll use the money to “travel, travel, travel,” according to lottery spokesman Louis Rios. 

“She wants to go to Europe,” Rios said, “but she hasn't made up her mind where in Europe she wants to go.” 

Rios said Blair is a young grandmother in her 40s, and she plans to buy a new house for her daughter, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga in Southern California. She is the sole holder of the winning ticket that she bought at Julie's Brisbane Liquors & Delicatessen at 45 Visitacion Ave. in Brisbane. 

Blair, who has lived in Brisbane for about two years, bought $20 worth of lottery tickets leading up to Saturday's jackpot, Rios said. 

Blair's split of the winnings works out to $30.5 million, which she will receive in 26 annual payments, the first of which will show up in two to three weeks. Her first check will be written out in the amount of $763,000 and the installments will increase every year until the last check arrives in the amount of $1.55 million. 

Saturday's Super Lotto Plus jackpot was the third largest ever, behind the $193 million paid out in February of this year and the $141 paid out in June 2001. 

Blair is unmarried, but she does have a boyfriend who was at her side when she arrived at the state lottery's San Francisco district office in South San Francisco. 

Blair works as the manager of a printing facility. She said she plans to quit her job.

SAN MATEO – Paul Wayne King, found guilty in March of a hate killing for sending a black man crumpling to the sidewalk with a blow to the head outside a Redwood City bar, was sentenced Monday to spend the rest of his life in prison. 

Judge Thomas Smith handed King, 39, a term of 46 years to life for an involuntary manslaughter conviction that was intensified under three-strikes sentencing guidelines. 

King, whose knuckles are tattooed with the letters “SWP,” which prosecutors said stands for “Supreme White Pride,” appeared calm at Monday's hearing, sharing only a grimace of resignation with his defense attorney Connie O'Brien when the judge issued his sentence. At the reading of his guilty verdict March 14, King wept lightly. 

On the night of Dec. 11, 1999, King, who had been released from jail just 18 hours before, lured his victim, Brad Davis, 52, outside the bar Shooters and then “sucker punched” him, the prosecution said, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the pavement. Davis was found unconscious with his hands still in his pockets. 

He died six days later without regaining consciousness. 

Earlier that evening King was overheard complaining that Davis, a black man, was drinking with two white women in the bar. 

Just prior to the sentencing, prosecutor James Wade argued that King, who has been locked up for much of his adulthood, was exactly who the three-strikes law was intended for. 

“This is a violent man. This is a career criminal. This is a man that deserves the maximum,” Wade said. 

O'Brien presented two character witnesses before sentence was imposed. Steven Humrich, a construction contractor who employed King for a year as a laborer and later as a carpenter's helper, said he thought King was trustworthy and he would hire him again. 

“He came to work, he worked hard, he did his job and he went home,” he said. 

Humrich said he and his family had once brought King with them on a camping vacation. 

Judge Smith commended O'Brien on the defense she mounted for her client, and said he believed that King felt remorse. 

Outside the courtroom, Wade said he was pleased that King has been relegated to a lifetime of incarceration. 

“What he did was deplorable,” Wade said. 

Calif. must reduce its use
of water from Colo. River 

TWENTYNINE PALMS — The Mojave Desert might not leap to mind as a source of water in California, but until recently a project to pump water from beneath this cracked earth was considered a key to safeguarding the state against future droughts. 

Now, as the federal Bureau of Land Management is poised to give approval to the project, the plan is coming under increasing political fire. 

The project would store water from the Colorado River in an aquifer near Joshua Tree during wet years then tap that supply during dry years to quench the thirst of Southern California households. 

The BLM is the last federal agency that must sign off on the project and has indicated it’s likely to do so in the next several weeks after studying an environmental impact report. 

After that, the MWD will consider giving its final OK. But MWD board member Glenn Brown said Feinstein’s letter and other considerations are raising red flags. 

“It doesn’t look good,” he said. “There just isn’t as much water as they say there is.” 

Officials with Cadiz remain optimistic that their private-public partnership with the district will go through. The aqueducts and storage facility could cost $150 million to build and generate $1 billion in water sales over the next 50 years. 

“I believe this project will happen,” said Wendy Mitchell, spokeswoman for the agricultural firm. “We have a crisis coming at the end of the year.” 

Mitchell was referring to the Dec. 31 federal deadline for California to come up with a plan to reduce its use of water from the overtaxed Colorado River. California currently uses up to 800,000 acre-feet a year more than its allotment from the river. California currently uses up to 800,000 acre-feet a year more than its allotment from the river. That’s the amount consumed each year by 1.6 million households.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis’ administration has shelved legislation designed to shape California’s future growth though financial rewards to cities that followed its vision. 

California growth analysts called it the first statewide growth management bill engineered by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in nearly two decades. 

But local governments disliked bending to state planning visions to get grants and characterized the bill as state meddling. 

OPR Director Tal Finney said the legislation might have stirred more lawsuits than planning. 

The bill proposed that OPR write model “planning practices” to promote more infill development, transit, walkable neighborhoods and a mix of housing options.

Students shrug off latest
survey by Princeton Review 

ROLLA, Mo. — R.J. Agee says the University of Missouri-Rolla is a great place, no matter what you read about it. 

Citing “dungeon dorms,” bad food and poor community relations, The Princeton Review’s latest college survey says Agee and his classmates at the university should be the unhappiest students in the country. 

But many who attend the school, where 70 percent of the students study engineering, just scoff. 

“A lot of people don’t understand it. The facts have no basis. It’s a joke,” said Agee, a senior and the student council president. 

The review, which surveyed 100,000 students nationwide, placed Missouri-Rolla last in the quality of life ranking of its “Best 345 Colleges” guide — the bottom of the heap in a section called Purgatory. 

The publication said Missouri-Rolla also suffered from inaccessible professors and political apathy. The school took more lumps for its tiny size and supposedly bad food — it ranked 20th in the food ranking, making it the best of the bad. 

Many students say they’re content: Classes are rigorous, Internet access is top notch, and there’s free cable in every dorm room. Yahoo! once ranked it one of the nation’s most wired campuses.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The thieves who stole Amy Jo Sutterluety’s identity spent $70,000 in her name. They also took her time: a month to close 15 fraudulent accounts. 

Insurance policies to cover her out-of-pocket expenses for phone calls and legal battles didn’t exist back in 1998 — when she was victimized — though she wish they had. 

“Having been through it, I would say it’s well worth the $25 rider,” said Sutterluety, an associate professor at Baldwin-Wallace College. 

Still, experts have mixed feelings about the growing number of companies that offer such coverage. 

Travelers Insurance of Hartford, Conn., first offered an identity theft policy in 1999. Cincinnati Insurance Cos. and Columbus-based Grange Insurance are among those that since have added the coverage, usually as a rider to a homeowner’s policy.

Sony’s PlayStation 2 launches
online video game service 

LOS ANGELES — Gamers on Sony’s PlayStation 2 can now battle each other online with the release Tuesday of adapters that connect faraway players over the Internet. 

Players in North America who purchase the $39.99 connector can link to Sony’s network through a number of new games, including the military shoot-’em-up “SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs” and the football simulator “Madden NFL 2003.” 

The service is designed to expand the community of PlayStation 2 gamers beyond friends playing together on the same console, said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. 

“If you know you’re good, instead of beating up your friends all the time you can go out into the network and compete with others who are just as cocky as you are,” he joked. 

Sony hopes to ship about 400,000 of the adapters by the end of the year, Hirai said. About 11 million PlayStation 2 units have been sold in North America. 

Amid fierce competition between three major console manufacturers, Sony is first to roll out its online service. 

Microsoft’s Xbox plans to launch its own version in November. Although Nintendo’s GameCube has the capability for Internet connectivity, the company has no immediate plan to connect users online. 

Recording industry reports
further decline in CD sales 

LOS ANGELES — Compact disc music sales decreased 7 percent during the first half of the year, a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry, a trade group said Monday. 

The new figures, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, follow a 5.3 percent drop in CD shipments last year and 6 percent falloff in 2000, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. 

In addition to the sales data, the RIAA released a separate survey of Internet users’ music habits, which found that most consumers between the ages of 12 and 54 bought fewer CDs as they downloaded more tracks. 

Previous studies independent of the music industry have suggested that access to free music on the Web actually encourages consumers to experiment with new acts and by more CDs. 

“We find a striking connection between people who say they are downloading more and buying less,” said Geoff Garin, the pollster for Peter D. Hart Research Associates who conducted the survey of 860 consumers for the RIAA in May. 

Report: San Diego executives worked
as FBI informants 

SAN DIEGO — Local sporting good executives reportedly worked as undercover FBI informants in an investigation of global price-fixing by makers of carbon fiber, a crucial material in the U.S. defense industry. 

Executives at Horizon Sports Technologies said that for nearly two years they wore wires and recorded phone conversations with representatives of the carbon fiber companies, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday. 

The strong, lightweight material is used in satellites, stealth aircraft and a wide range of other military equipment. It’s also used in graphite golf club shafts, bicycle frames and race cars.

State Legislature enters last week of session 

SACRAMENTO — Lawmakers started their last week of a two-year legislative session by approving bills Monday that include measures to require retailers to label genetically modified seafood and giving crime victims the right to money their assailants earn from selling the story of their crime. 

Hundreds of bills are still awaiting action before Saturday, when the session ends at midnight. Among the bills are measures to ensure family leave, strengthen financial privacy laws and approve a $99 billion state budget that’s already two months late. 

“There are more than 500 bills on file, so that means about 100 a day. That means we’re going to have to be cooking,” said Senate President Pro Tem John Burton. 

A frustrated Burton, D-San Francisco, earlier had admonished senators to “know what’s going on with your bills. It might make life easier, if we don’t want to be here at midnight.” 

There are about 700 bills still active in the Assembly, including the state’s 2002-2003 budget, which the Senate passed in June. 

Assembly OKs sales of needles
without prescriptions 

SACRAMENTO — The Assembly passed a bill on Monday allowing pharmacies to sell hypodermic needles to adults without a doctor’s prescription. 

The bill, by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, said his legislation would reduce the number of cases of HIV and other diseases caused by the sharing of needles among drug addicts. 

“California is one of only six states nationwide that requires people to have a prescription to purchase a syringe,” said Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. “SB1785 would help save lives in our state.” 

Supporters say needle sharing is linked to 19 percent of all AIDS and half of all Hepatitis C cases. 

But Assemblywoman Lynne Leach, R-Walnut Creek, argued that the measure “encourages drug use.” 

“You are saying to people that ’we can’t stop you so we are going to help you (use drugs),” Leach said. 

The measure passed in a 42-24 vote. It now goes back to the Senate because of amendments made in the Assembly. 

Assembly passes bill bringing back
traditional June primary 

SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly narrowly passed a bill Monday to bring back California’s traditional June primary for state and congressional elections. 

But the state’s new March primary for presidential elections every four years will stay. 

The bill passed 41-13, by a single vote, after passionate exchanges on the Assembly floor about growing voter apathy and long campaigns between March and November since the state experimented with a March primary for the 1996 presidential and legislative elections. 

The California primary returned to June for the 1998 gubernatorial and legislative elections, and then to March for the 2000 presidential and legislative primary and 2002’s gubernatorial and legislative races. 

“The results have been, in my judgment, and that of many commentators, abysmal,” said Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. 

Assembly defeats bill to ban insurers
from buying auto shops 

SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly defeated a bill Monday to prevent Illinois-based Allstate Insurance Co. from entering the California market with its 40-shop Sterling Auto Body Centers. 

The vote killed an earlier Senate attempt to block insurance companies from taking over auto repair shops in California. The bill, SB1648, received 24 favorable votes in the Assembly, short of 41 needed to pass. Twenty-two Assembly members voted against the bill. 

The legislation’s supporters argued that vertical integration of insurance companies and auto body shops will hurt consumers by leaving them without an advocate for quality repairs. 

Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, warned his colleagues that insurance companies want “a larger and larger stake in a vertically integrated way” and that passing the bill would “prevent it from spreading like wildfire.” 

But opponents argued the bill would stifle competition, block willing investment in California and protect an existing auto repair industry they alleged is rife with fraud.

Assembly members disagree on how
to handle $23.6 billion deficit 

SACRAMENTO — The California Assembly is poised to make a third attempt Tuesday to approve an overdue state budget, but few are holding out hope that it will end the 57-day budget impasse. 

The vote is scheduled to come with five days left in the legislative session and intensifying pressure to approve a $99.1 billion spending plan that already is two months late. 

The state Capitol hummed Monday with dueling press briefings, speculation whether a budget will be passed before midnight Saturday and private exchanges of blame. 

But above the din, lawmakers appeared Monday to be exactly where they were on June 29 when state senators quickly and surgically passed a budget and lobbed it to their counterparts in the state Assembly. 

Nowhere. 

“We want a resolution of this budget as much, if not more than, the Democrats do but we don’t see it as happening real soon,” said Republican Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine. “The long and short is that we are a long ways apart.” 

The sticking point seems simple. 

Republicans say they disagree with $3.7 billion in tax increases included in the plan originally sculpted by Gov. Gray Davis, who is faced with a $23.6 billion budget deficit in the same year he is seeking re-election against Republican Bill Simon. 

GOP members say they would prefer the Democrats cut from what they call bloated government programs. 

But that is where the simplicity ends. Democrats say their GOP colleagues have not spelled out what they would cut and insist that abandoning tax increases would mean carving dramatically into programs for the poor, elderly and children.

Gov. Bush says he will talk with
Muslim groups about threats 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Jeb Bush told Muslim leaders Monday the state will assess the safety of all Florida mosques and Islamic schools following the arrest of a doctor accused of plotting to blow up Islamic buildings. 

Officers with the state’s regional anti-terrorism task forces will visit each of the buildings by Tuesday, Bush and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore told Muslim leaders during a conference call. 

“We’re here to provide a level of security,” Bush told the leaders. “It is a duty of the state government, and local government and federal government ... to protect people’s rights and to make sure they are not targeted because of their ethnicity, their nationality or their religion. Period. I take this very seriously.” 

NASA welcomes
’N Sync singer Lance Bass 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA welcomed its first celebrity space tourist on Monday: ’N Sync singer Lance Bass, who hopes to clinch a deal with the Russians soon and fly to the international space station in two months. 

The 23-year-old boy-band member began a full week of training at Johnson Space Center in Houston along with the rest of his crew, a Russian and a Belgian. All three flew in from Moscow over the weekend after training at the cosmonaut base in Star City, Russia. 

Johnson’s public affairs office fielded numerous calls about Bass’ presence, but it was not excessive and no groupies were reported outside the center gates, said spokesman John Ira Petty. 

NASA agreed to teach Bass about the basics of space flight — and the particulars of the U.S. side of the space station — even though his trip is still up in the air because of contract issues with the Russians. 

The three men are supposed to blast off from Kazakhstan on Oct. 28 in a Russian Soyuz capsule that will remain at the space station and serve as a fresh lifeboat. But Bass has yet to come to financial terms with the Russian Space Agency despite months of wrangling, and he’s yet to be endorsed by a panel of space station representatives. 

ACT to add an optional essay
to its college entrance exam 

The maker of the nation’s second-most widely used college entrance test, the ACT, said Monday it will include an optional essay on its exam which students can take depending on the admissions requirements of the colleges where they’re applying. 

The announcement comes less than two months after owners of the ACT’s rival, the SAT, said they would add a mandatory essay to that test. 

ACT Inc., headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, said its decision was influenced by the expectation that the University of California system will later this year require a writing sample from prospective students. 

San Francisco Chronicle
to close PM Edition 

SAN FRANCISCO — Less than two years after its debut, the San Francisco Chronicle has decided to stop the presses on the newspaper’s afternoon edition. The last issue will be published Sept. 27. 

Chronicle publisher John Oppedahl made the announcement to staffers in a memo distributed last Friday and made public Monday on an Internet media news site. 

Oppedahl said the current “harsh economic reality cannot justify the continued costs” of publication. “The deep financial hole we’re in is something we must face, as we’ve been saying for some time.” 

About 8,000 copies of the afternoon edition are being sold daily, the newspaper said. The Chronicle’s morning circulation is 525,897 daily and 537,145 on Sunday, although Oppedahl told employees new circulation figures slated for release next month would reflect “significant gains.”

The gulf between rich and poor widened in California during the 1990s. 

New census data show that vast disparities persist in cities and rural California, while the economic leveling effect of sprawl helped some suburbs close the income gap. 

The numbers, which were collected at the height of the economic boom in 2000, show a state that got more golden for the wealthy while the working poor struggled to keep up. 

The income gap widened in 54 of the 58 counties, according to results released Tuesday from the census long form, which asked about one in six Californians to report their 1999 income as well as everything from their country of origin to whether their children are in preschool. 

Some regional wrinkles emerged from the data: 

n The income gap increased fastest in low-population counties in the Sierras and the state’s far north, including Alpine, Modoc and Siskiyou. Other areas of high inequality included southern San Joaquin Valley farm communities. 

n Cities remained centers of inequality. In Los Angeles, which encompasses both Pacific Palisades and Watts, the disparity between rich and poor was so extreme that it skewed the statewide average. San Francisco, Oakland and Fresno also all had a wider income gap than the state average. 

n The only four counties where the gap decreased were semi-rural, but on the cusp of a new surge in growth from the state’s population centers. The income gap was relatively low in the sprawl east of the Bay Area, north of Los Angeles and around Sacramento, where two-income families can be the norm. 

n California has the fourth highest disparity among the 25 states for which long-form data has been released this summer. 

Those conclusions are based on a statistical formula economists use to measure income disparity called the “Gini coefficient,” named after an Italian demographer. 

High immigration rates explain some of it — nearly 40 percent of California’s 33.9 million residents lives in a family headed by an immigrant, the Census Bureau has reported. 

During the 1990s, waves of low-wage workers from Mexico and Central America arrived along with highly skilled engineers and computer programmers from Asia, increasing the gap. 

During the 1990s, Reed said, the income of a family of four in the lowest quarter of wage earners fell from $28,600 to $27,200 in constant dollars, while a family of four in the highest quarter earned $90,600 as the decade began and $94,900 by its end. 

Though that gap closed slightly during the late 1990s, more recent economic woes have likely forced it wider again, Reed said. 

“This is very consistent with what we’ve seen over the last 20 years in California, which is the rising of the income gap due to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” Reed said. 

Counties with a high median income tended to be more homogenous and thus have a relatively small gap, while counties with high poverty rates had higher inequality. Immigration and education levels appear to be less of an influence on the wage gap, Reed said. 

“The poor counties have diverse populations ranging from poor through rich, while the rich areas are more exclusive,” she said. 

The state is trying to close the gap by training the often transitory low-wage work force in skills that will help them move up the career ladder incrementally, according to Michael Bernick, director of the Employment Development Department. 

A certified nurse assistant earning $9 an hour who qualifies as a senior nurse assistant — but not a fully registered nurse — might earn about $10.50 an hour, he points out. 

Beyond earning more, a career-track nurse will tend to be a better worker, Bernick said. 

“It’s a consumer issue, a quality-of-service issue,” he said, “as well as an issue of income inequality.”

RENO, Nev. — Thousands of techies, old hippies, trippers and artists from around the world are on their way to the northern Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man counterculture festival. 

While the event known for its eclectic artwork, music and games began Monday, most participants aren’t expected to show up until later this week on the Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno near Gerlach. 

Billed as a celebration of art and radical self-expression, the 17th annual gathering is expected to draw 28,000 people from at least 40 states and 20 countries. 

“There’s a certain energy out here, everybody is having a blast. It’s Mardi Gras in the desert,” said Don Lawson Jr., a participant and store owner from nearby Empire. 

Lawson and others will let their hair down at the celebration that combines wilderness camping and offbeat art and music in a surreal 5-square-mile encampment known as Black Rock City. 

The weeklong festival on the ancient lake bed climaxes Saturday night with the ceremonial torching of a 70-foot-high wooden effigy of a man for whom the event is named. 

“We want participants to be safe and have an enjoyable experience out there,” said Dave Cooper of the Bureau of Land Management’s Winnemucca field office, which must approve a permit because the event is on public land. 

But he warned participants that drug laws again would be enforced. 

Last year, BLM rangers issued more than 100 citations to participants, mostly for marijuana possession. The agency also made a handful of arrests for possession of larger amounts of drugs. 

“We will enforce drug laws just as we would in any other community,” Cooper said. “They’re like any other community in that regard.” 

Burning Man spokeswoman Marian Goodell said information on drug laws has been included in the “Survival Guide” mailed to all ticket holders. 

“We have always urged people to recognize state and federal laws, which includes drugs,” she said. 

Burning Man creator Larry Harvey started the first festival at San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986 and moved to the Nevada desert in 1990. Billed as the ultimate celebration of radical self-expression and self-reliance, Burning Man features a crazy, anything-goes atmosphere. 

Participants are encouraged to participate by operating theme camps, such as the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet where celebrants can line up dates. Other activities include body painting and dominatrix training. 

Participants wear every kind of costume imaginable — or nothing at all since clothing is optional. 

To combat dust storms that have plagued the event in recent years, organizers plan to water down streets in the tent city that even has its own air strip. 

Tickets for the event began at $130 and now cost $250.

UC students returning to class today are in for a raucous welcome. 

Clerical workers and their supporters are expected to flank the university demanding higher wages in the first day of their scheduled three-day strike. Union supporters are calling the strike the largest at the university since 1972.  

“We’ll have a presence at every entrance and driveway,” said Michael-David Sasson, president of Local 3 of the Coalition of Union Employees, which represents clerical positions including telephone operators, administrative assistants, library assistants and child care workers. 

Five hundred clericals have signed up to picket, and hundreds of members from other university and local unions are due to join them, Sasson said. 

UC students returning to class today are in for a raucous welcome. 

Clerical workers and their supporters are expected to flank the university demanding higher wages in the first day of their scheduled three-day strike. Union supporters are calling the strike the largest at the university since 1972.  

“We’ll have a presence at every entrance and driveway,” said Michael-David Sasson, president of Local 3 of the Coalition of Union Employees, which represents clerical positions including telephone operators, administrative assistants, library assistants and child care workers. 

Five hundred clericals have signed up to picket, and hundreds of members from other university and local unions are due to join them, Sasson said. 

While union officials will urge students and university employees to join them on the picket lines, strikers do not intend to block anyone from entering buildings or the campus. 

“We’ll be trying to communicate our message, not block students,” said Michael Eisencher of University Council-American Federation of Teachers. The teachers union represents 600 UC Berkeley lecturers that are planning to strike with clericals on Wednesday, the last day of the clerical work stoppage. 

The university’s 2,300 clerical workers have been without a contract since last year. They are demanding a 15 percent pay increase over two years. University officials, though, say state budget cutbacks allow them to offer a 3.5 percent raise. 

In anticipation of the strike, UC Berkeley officials have told students to expect delays when phoning the university and processing schedule changes. 

Pledges of support from other unions, though, could bring the university further hardships. 

Numerous classes are likely to be canceled Wednesday when clerical workers are joined by approximately 600 striking lectures. The lecturers, who constitute more than half of the university’s teaching faculty, have been without a contract since 2000 and are demanding higher pay and better job security. 

In addition, UC Berkeley’s Tang Medical Center will be open only to emergency patients Monday through Wednesday due to a planned sympathy strike by 50 unionized nurses. 

Graduate students, who teach some of UC’s classes, have also been asked by their union officials to honor the clericals’ picket lines, potentially resulting in more canceled classes. 

University officials, however, are claiming that sympathy strikes by graduate students and nurses are illegal because both these employees have “no-strike” clauses in their contracts. The university has threatened both unions with lawsuits and has posted a warning on its web site threatening disciplinary action against employees who strike alongside the clericals. 

Sasson said union solidarity would stifle other university activities as well. 

“There won’t be any Federal Express deliveries and we expect to turn construction workers and delivery trucks back,” he said. 

University officials downplayed the strike’s impact. They say that although students may wait in longer lines for services, they do not expect students to be inconvenienced. 

“Each department is making a contingency plan,” said Carol Hyman, university spokesperson. “We expect very little disruption.” 

According to the university’s web site, doctors will offer emergency care at the medical center and child care managers will provide scaled-back service at the university’s four child care centers. 

Extra security will be on hand during the strike and the university may postpone deliveries until Thursday to avoid problems with unionized delivery workers, Hyman said. 

A year of negotiations has failed to resolve the gaps between UC and the clericals. The core of the dispute concerns a $2.3 billion fund that the clericals say could be used to fund a 15 percent raise.  

UC negotiators say the money is needed to operate its programs and can only offer higher wages if the state provides increased funding for that purpose. 

Union officials hope the three-day strike will convince university officials to improve their contract offer. 

“We’re going to show them how much they need us,” Sasson said. 

The strike will be the first by clerical workers in 30 years, but Sasson said that if an agreement is not reached soon, more could follow. 

“Without an agreement, demonstrations and more strikes will be happening on every UC campus,” Sasson said.

To The Editor: 

Aug. 22 marks the 6th anniversary of the signing of the legislation that ended welfare as we knew it. This anniversary isn't likely to get much media attention, but it should because the recession is hurting a growing number of welfare-to-work families and because Congress must re-authorize the legislation this year. There are close to 20,000 children, up to 12 years old, in Alameda County on welfare; the majority live in Oakland. 

The House has passed a welfare re-authorization bill that includes increased work hours for families and a woefully inadequate increase in child care assistance and other supportive services. Now is the time for the Senate to pass its own version of the bill. The Senate Finance Committee has approved an increase of $5.5 billion in mandatory child care funds over five years. However this increase still leaves millions of struggling low-income working families who do not receive welfare (TANF) without help in paying for child care. 

We must urge the Senate to support amendments to the child care/welfare bill that will ensure an increase of $11.25 billion in child care funding over five years when the full Senate considers the bill. It will also bolster the quality of child care so that children can start school ready to succeed. The well-being of many of the Bay Area's low-income families is at stake, especially since our state budget crisis threatens work support programs designed to help millions of low-income families get and keep good jobs. 

The bipartisan welfare re-authorization legislation awaiting Senate action makes significant improvements to the welfare system by expanding opportunities for education and training, restoring benefits to legal immigrants, and providing help to low-wage workers and children. When they return from recess, Senators should put consideration of this legislation among its top priorities.  

Angie Garling 

Berkeley

With a new air of confidence in Strawberry Canyon, Golden Bear football fans young and old attended Saturday’s Fan Appreciation Day, meeting players and coaches on the re-energized Cal football squad. 

After a dismal 1-10 performance last season, fans and players alike say the new coaching staff, led by head coach Jeff Tedford, has instilled a much-needed confidence in the team.  

Responding to the newfound enthusiasm, many Cal fans turned out to show their support on Saturday. 

“It seems like there’s a new attitude,” said veteran Cal supporter Steve Schmidt. “I’m here to help energize the players and to energize myself. We need to let them know we’re still behind them. Selfishly, I want to get some autographs too.”  

While crowds at Memorial Stadium have thinned over the past few seasons as the team has struggled, Saturday’s event, which included performances by the Cal band and dance team, football drills and even a cheer clinic, raised spirits for many.  

“I think they’ve put a new face on the program. It’s still a developing program but there’s definitely more enthusiasm and a lot more positive vibes than last year,” said Amanda Williams, a sophomore at Cal and member of the school’s Rally Committee. 

Many Golden Bear supporters, including the Cal Dance team and band members, feel confidence on the part of the players can be infectious. 

“They really look more confident and more composed this year. When they’re working hard and they’re energized it makes us more energized. We definitely feed off of them,” said Tricia Bautista, a member of the dance team.  

Of course, many Cal fans remain realistic, having learned to grin and bear it through more than a few losing seasons. 

“As a Cal fan you learn to be upbeat and optimistic regardless of the score. You just keep smiling, that’s a big part of what we do,” said Christine Sequeira, a senior on the dance team. 

The last few seasons, however, have tested the resolve of even the most patient supporters. When former head coach Tom Holmoe stepped down last fall after five disappointing seasons, many felt a change was already long overdue. 

“It’s been hard the last few seasons. Even the die-hards have been a little dejected. There’s been some people who’ve simply been turned off,” said Doug Redinger, a Cal alum and supporter.  

Though the change in leadership is critical to many Cal fans, other, younger supporters are just beginning to experience the tradition and family that is Cal football. 

“Football is the least interesting thing for her,” said Redinger of his young daughter Jackie. “She likes the cheerleaders, the band, the pompoms. I took her to a women’s basketball game last spring and when we were about to leave the cheerleaders came out. We couldn’t leave then.” 

Introducing youngsters to the game is an important way to give back according to Aaron Merz, a second-year center on the football team.  

“Today’s a lot of fun for the kids. I always looked up to college players when I was growing up. It’s great to be a role model for the younger fans,” said Merz. 

Standing in long lines throughout the morning, scores of wide-eyed youngsters wearing blue and gold received autographs from team members and said hello to the Cal Mascot, Oski the Bear.  

“We need to show them [kids] how fun it is, how much of a family atmosphere it is. We need to show them that the bear will not quit, that he will not die,” pledged Schmidt. 

According to new head coach Tedford, fan support is appreciated but the real test of both the team and fans comes next Saturday with Cal’s first game against Baylor. 

“I appreciate all [the fans’] support,” said Tedford. “I just hope they all come out next week at the game.”

Pastor and African-American studies teacher Robert McKnight told the Daily Planet Friday that a long-planned, two-week tour of churches in the South prevented him from meeting the city’s Aug. 14 deadline to file as a candidate for the Board of Education. 

McKnight said he had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot before leaving on his trip Aug. 7, but did not have time to complete required financial and candidate statements. 

“I’m greatly disappointed,” said McKnight. “I was just trying to do too many things at one time.” 

McKnight, pastor at The Rock of Truth Baptist Church in Oakland, completed the paperwork during his tour of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and planned to get it notarized and shipped to the city clerk’s office by the Aug. 14 deadline. But election rules require a candidate to appear in person and take an oath when submitting campaign papers. 

McKnight said he has no gripe with the city clerk’s office. 

“It’s a good system and it’s fair to all candidates, so I have no complaints,” he said. 

McKnight, who would have been required to give up his district job as a teacher had he won the election, will return to the Berkeley High School classroom when classes start next week.  

The Daily Planet reported on Aug. 16 that McKnight had failed to file his papers. The erstwhile candidate could not be reached during his church tour. 

Several community members expressed disappointment, at the time, that McKnight would not run, arguing that the race had lost an experienced Berkeley educator and a solid chance to diversify the board. The current board is composed of four white members and one Latino. 

But McKnight said he is confident that the one remaining African-American candidate in the seven-member race for three spots on the board, recent Berkeley High School graduate Sean Dugar, will bring a new perspective to the district administration. 

“I’m hoping, and I’m extremely optimistic, that maybe Sean Dugar’s candidacy will be strengthened and that he can bring that kind of diversity to the table,” McKnight said. 

Dugar welcomed McKnight’s support as a “needed” boost to his campaign, arguing that the teacher’s “great reputation in the community” will be helpful. 

But Dugar played down the opportunity to emerge as the sole black candidate in the race. 

“It’s a well-known fact that the African-American community is not one of the largest communities that show up to vote,” he said, adding that he hopes people throughout the community will embrace him for his youth and ideas, not his skin color. 

Dugar is pushing, among other things, for greater community involvement in board decisions, advisory committees composed of students and a more significant board presence in Sacramento. 

McKnight’s departure may also affect the candidacy of PTA Council President Derick Miller. McKnight and Miller were planning to run as a team. They had compiled dual endorsements before the filing deadline and had even printed 5,000 glossy campaign cards, featuring a picture of both candidates and a joint slogan: “Building a collaborative community for our schools.” 

McKnight said he will actively campaign for Miller and will ask allies to throw their support behind the PTA Council president. 

“I have full confidence in Derick Miller’s ability,” said McKnight, arguing that Miller will bring his concerns about the fiscal health of the district and greater community participation to the board. 

Miller said he is “deeply disappointed” that McKnight will not run, but added that he will continue to work with the African-American studies teacher. 

“As far as I’m concerned, Robert McKnight is still a part of my candidacy,” he said. 

McKnight said he hopes his church and community supporters will come together, in the long run, to advocate for change in Berkeley schools. 

As for his own political future, McKnight said he will probably not run for office again. He said he has likely lost the confidence of supporters who signed on to his campaign, only to learn that he would not run. 

“I can’t go back and ask them to support me a second time,” said McKnight. 

But, he added that he would consider another run if there was a groundswell of community support. 

In the end, McKnight said, he has learned a valuable lesson. 

“When you start something, you should always know in advance if you’ll be able to finish,” he said. 

To the Editor: 

How species-centric and wildlife-phobic is Councilmember Linda Maio? What town does she live in? Raccoons aren’t “varmints” to be neutered into local extinction. Shame on her for even suggesting raccoon-neutering. 

Most of us in Berkeley are grateful for any vestigial reminders of our Bay Area’s fecund past. Personally, I go through $25 to $30 worth of unsalted or raw peanuts monthly (more in the late fall and winter) just to help out the tree squirrels and blue jays in my neighborhood. I love it when my little buddies perch on my balcony rail or come into my living room (very politely I might add) and allow me to supplement their diets and give them some fresh water. Humans have forever changed their environments for the worse. The oak and pine trees (and countless other bygone food sources) that used to predominate and provide sustenance for these wily and hardy survivors have been eliminated by humans. 

There aren’t more raccoons than there used to be. There are just some survivors of the original local raccoon tribe who still manage to eke out a living in our increasingly human-built “environment.” We live in their backyards... not the other way around. Their tribe was here before ours. Boo Hoo if Maio’s out-of-town friends were surprised by a couple of our local animal residents. They should count themselves lucky that local human “varmints” didn’t just steal their open unlocked car. Would a raccoon ever do that?  

Also, don’t forget humans are animals too, albeit much more environmentally destructive ones who already make nightmare neighbors for all the other plants and animals in this area. I know that raccoons can’t vote, but please keep your overly-urban, timid wildlife-hating ideas to yourself.  

Long live the Berkeley raccoons! 

David Shefik, 

Berkeley

DETROIT – The Oakland Athletics won their 12th straight game, with John Mabry hitting a go-ahead double during a five-run rally in the eighth inning for a 10-7 victory Sunday over the Detroit Tigers. 

The AL West leaders improved to 13-4 in August. The Athletics’ winning streak is their longest since they set an Oakland record with a 14-game string in 1988. 

The Tigers lost their fifth straight game. Randall Simon hit a grand slam and tied a career high with five RBIs. 

Oakland trailed 7-2 after four innings and was still down 7-3 going into the eighth. Pinch-hitter Greg Myers homered to begin the comeback, and Eric Chavez and pinch-hitter Myers delivered two-run doubles for an 8-7 lead. 

Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Athletics. 

The Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Billy Koch. But Koch struck out pinch-hitter Wendell Magee and Brandon Inge for his 33rd save in 38 chances. 

Jim Mecir (4-3), the fifth of six Oakland pitchers, worked 1 1-3 innings for the win. 

The Tigers’ bullpen spoiled a fine outing by Mike Maroth, who gave up three runs on eight hits in seven innings. 

Myers homered off Oscar Henriquez, who went on to load the bases with a walk, a single and a hit batter. 

Jamie Walker (1-1) relieved and gave up the double to Chavez that made it 7-6. Mabry drove Juan Acevedo’s first pitch into the right-field gap to put the A’s ahead. 

Simon hit his second career slam — and first of the season for the Tigers — to cap five-run burst in the fourth inning. 

Five walks doomed Oakland’s Aaron Harang, who allowed six runs and five hits in 3 2-3 innings. 

Harang unraveled after left fielder Eric Byrnes missed his try at a diving catch on George Lombard’s sinking, two-out fly ball in the fourth. 

Lombard wound up with an RBI double that broke a 2-2 tie, and Harang was gone after Damian Jackson was safe on an infield single and Bobby Higginson walked to load the bases. 

Micah Bowie relieved, and Simon pulled a drive over the right-field wall for a 7-2 lead. It was the Tigers’ first slam since he hit one last Sept. 26 at Kansas City. 

Simon also had a run-scoring single in the first. 

The A’s added a run in the seventh on an RBI single from Mark Ellis. 

Ray Durham led off the game with a double and scored one out later on a double by Miguel Tejada. Chavez added an RBI single with two outs. 

The Tigers got a run back in the home half when two walks set up Simon’s RBI single.

The Peace and Freedom Party, a socialist voice on the Berkeley political scene since 1967, is trying to crawl back into California politics one Gardenburger at a time. 

On Sunday, the party organized the first in a series of backyard barbecue fund-raisers to gain support and advocate for one of their principal causes – tenants’ rights. 

Bob Evans, a Peace and Freedom party member will run unopposed for Berkeley’s Rent Board this November on a pro-rent control platform. 

At the same time, the group is pushing for Oakland’s “just cause” ballot initiative this November. The initiative, if passed, would prohibit Oakland landlords from evicting tenants without a “just cause,” a right enjoyed by Berkeley tenants for more than 20 years. Under Oakland’s present system, a landlord can evict a tenant at his discretion. 

Peace and Freedom party officials are hoping to use their tenants’ rights platform to expand their local membership and increase their sway at the state level. 

Until 1998, candidates from the party had run for California’s highest offices for 20 years. However, they have recently failed to garner the support necessary to run in statewide elections. 

Under California election law, a party whose candidates fail to win 2 percent of the vote in a general election must provide 86,212 member signatures to remain on the ballot. 

The Peace and Freedom Party was unable to do this in the last two state elections and is now struggling with state election rules to determine how many signatures they need to return to the ballot this year. 

“We have no idea how many signatures we have,” said party member Tom Condit, who estimated the number at somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000. He said the number is unclear because state election rules disqualify signatures of party members who did not vote in the last two state elections, and some of the signatories may not have voted. 

Evans said over the past four years the state had disqualified approximately 30,000 party members for not voting. 

About 40 people attended Sunday’s fund-raiser, which party officials say raised several hundred dollars for Just Cause Oakland and the party’s membership drive. Peace and Freedom has until Oct. 15 to present state officials with enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. 

To the Editor: 

In the Aug. 22 Daily Planet, Diane Joy expresses dismay at Councilmember Maio's proposal to neuter raccoons. Instead, she says, “What about the creatures who constantly run red lights? Now there's a group to consider neutering.” 

But isn't that a rather severe way to deal with cyclists? 

Revan Trantar, 

Berkeley

SACRAMENTO – Berkeley resident Ellen Gold, 52, was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to the state Carcinogen Identification Committee last week. 

Gold, who is an epidemiology professor at UC Davis, was tapped for the unpaid post to share expertise in the evaluation of cancer-causing agents. The state committee is charged with identifying carcinogens for policy making and public safety.  

Albany resident Gail Hillebrand was also recruited by the governor. Hillebrand, an attorney with the Consumers Union of U.S. Inc., was appointed to the state Board of Accountancy. 

The board seeks to protect public welfare by ensuring that only qualified persons are licensed and that appropriate standards of competency and practice are established and enforced. 

Berkeley’s Gold has been involved with the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at UC Davis for nearly 15 years. She has also been the principal investigator for a National Institute on Aging grant Women’s Health Across the Nation since 1994. 

Gold earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA and a doctor of philosophy degree from Johns Hopkins University. 

Hillebrand, before working for the Consumers Unions, worked with a private law firm and before that, clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Justice Robert Boochever. Hillebrand earned a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego and a juris doctorate degree from Boalt Hall School of Law.

To the Editor:  

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at Will Youman's suggestion (letter to the Editor Aug. 21) that Berkeley Hillel may have been vandalized by partying frat boys. The facts remain: a brick was thrown and a trash can was defaced, shaking the Jewish community. The vandalism occurred during a tense period in the Middle East. The peak being the massacre of Israeli Jews during a Passover religious ceremony. 

Berkeley cannot become a field on which the events in the Middle East are played out. If this attack was a direct result of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, the solution is to create an open environment for discussion, where people can talk, listen, learn and debate. Calling for extreme measures that do not hold peace as the ultimate goal is pointless. 

Why is Mr. Youmans afraid to admit that the vandalism of the “Holyland” restaurant may have likely been a hate crime? According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Bay Area has the highest rate in the country of hate crimes against Jews, as the Jewish Bulletin reported on June 7. 

It is a sad day when communities anywhere are forced to absorb attacks brought on them by cowardly hooligans who find it appropriate to harm others through force, based on worldly affairs. 

Devora Liss, 

Berkeley

A young Oakland man was shot to death early Saturday outside a restaurant in west Oakland, the city's 72nd murder this year, police report. 

According to a police spokesperson, 23-year-old Markel Williams, of Oakland, was shot several times in the upper torso during a large fight outside the Clam Bucket restaurant on the 1200 block of 3rd Street. 

He was pronounced dead at roughly 4 a.m. at Highland Hospital following unsuccessful surgical efforts to save him, the hospital reported. 

Police report that two other people were shot and moderately wounded in the incident. They were self-admitted to area hospitals. 

At about 2 a.m. Saturday police responded to a fight in the Clam Bucket's parking lot and upon arrival discovered the victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The spokesman reports that the restaurant was hosting a party for about 100 people when a fight broke out. 

Police have not yet identified any suspects, the spokesperson said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Some airport screeners who are part of a team that moves from airport to airport serving as models for the federal takeover of aviation security got as little as 15 minutes of training on how to screen baggage for bombs. 

The screeners, members of the Transportation Security Administration’s Mobile Screening Force, are checking baggage in Dallas, Providence, R.I., and Norfolk, Va. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday that some of the screeners working at the Norfolk airport were given “abbreviated training.” 

The federal Aviation and Transportation Security Act requires security screeners to have 40 hours of training in the classroom and 60 hours of training on the job. 

Transportation administration spokesman Greg Warren said screeners who check passengers are required to have 100 hours of training. He acknowledged that some members of the screening force “have had abbreviated training,” but said they were operating baggage screening machines and were not screening passengers. 

He said that eventually, all the members of the screening force will complete the training. 

“The level of training that they’ve received in how to run the equipment is adequate for the (Norfolk) pilot program,” Warren said. 

The manufacturers of the bomb detection machines recommend between two and six hours of training. Screeners at the Dallas and Providence airports say they received additional instruction in using the equipment. 

Gary Burns, a spokesman for Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee said the short training could lead to cracks in the security system. 

“If the people doing the job are saying they’re not getting enough training, I think any citizen would be concerned about that,” he said. 

The newspaper reports that the Norfolk screeners have said they were never tested or certified to operate bomb-detection equipment.

SAN FRANCISCO — Juicier chops, thicker steaks and other food produced by cloned animals could be in grocery stores by next year. Atlantic salmon fattened with genes spliced from other fish, though, remain years away from the American dinner table. 

A long-awaited report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released this week made an important distinction between cloned animals and transgenic beasts — those altered with genes from other species: Cloned animals are probably safe to raise and eat while genetically engineered ones may not be. 

The distinction means that dozens of biotechnology companies attempting to create all sorts of transgenic animals are still years away from bringing their products to market. 

The report was good news, however, for the companies that simply clone animals without tinkering with their genes. 

At least two U.S. companies are now cloning prized livestock that are the healthiest, fattest and fastest growing of their herds. By cloning the animals with the best genes, the companies aim to help beef, pork and egg producers trim costs and bolster profits. 

The companies employ nuclear transfer techniques, which replaces the nucleus of an egg with that of an adult cell such as a skin cell. The resulting offspring are the exact genetic replica of the adult cell donor. Unlike transgenic animals, no foreign DNA is introduced during the process. 

One big goal of the companies is to harvest and sell the semen collected from the cloned animals, keeping prized livestock lines producing for generations. 

“This will revolutionize the cattle industry,” proclaimed Ron Gillespie of Cyagra Inc. of Worcester, Mass., which clones cows and pigs. Cyagra is a subsidiary of Advanced Cell Technology, which announced last year that it was attempting to clone a human embryo. 

Still, cloning has met with protest from animal rights groups, who complain the new technology constitutes cruelty to animals because only a small percentage of cloning attempts lead to live births. 

Some studies have shown that cloned animals suffer more than naturally bred animals from arthritis, obesity and other health problems. Also, biologists say there’s another danger in the lack of genetic variety — certain diseases could wipe out entire herds of genetic duplicates.

SAN FRANCISCO – Discount-brokerage mogul Charles Schwab is selling his ranch, and all the duck hunting that goes with it. 

The property, called Casa de Patos or “House of Ducks,” is a 1,600-acre ranch in one of the best hunting tracts in the Sacramento Valley. 

Schwab is selling the ranch for $10.3 million because he has less time to spend there due to the growth of his brokerage. It is located more than 100 miles north of San Francisco. 

The ranch, which includes two cabins, a pool, hot tub and a caretaker’s house, has been on the market for a little over a month. It also has a rice-farming operation.

With geologists expecting a large-scale earthquake in the Bay Area by 2030, the city is offering people who live and work in Berkeley free emergency preparedness classes in September and October. 

“We know another disaster will happen,” said firefighter paramedic Sam Hoffman, one of the instructors. “Our jobs as emergency responders are to prepare everyone for the emergency.” 

The United States Geological Survey has concluded that there is a 70 percent chance of a major earthquake hitting the Bay Area by 2030 and a 32 percent chance of an earthquake along the Hayward fault line which runs through Berkeley. 

Berkeley officials also warn that a wildfire like the hills fire of 1991, landslide, toxic spill, flood or act of terrorism are additional possibilities. 

To prepare citizens, the city is offering courses in personal preparedness, first aid, search and rescue, disaster mental health, shelter operations, fire suppression and earthquake retrofitting. 

Participants will learn basic skills like setting splints, operating a fire extinguisher and “cribbing,” or using planks of wood as leverage to lift large objects off trapped victims.  

“It can be done by an 80-pound woman,” said Dory Ehrlich, community emergency response training coordinator for the city. 

Participants will also learn how to comfort the victims of disaster and strengthen their homes by installing expansion and epoxy bolts, among other items. 

Hoffman said, in the event of a major disaster, it usually takes about three days for outside agencies to descend on a city and help in relief efforts. That means citizens can be on their own for 72 hours and need to be prepared. 

The city began offering courses in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake, Ehrlich said, and the 1991 hills fire renewed interest. 

But funding dried up in the mid-1990s before a citizens’ advisory group, the Disaster Council, pushed the city to restart the program, according to Ehrlich. 

The courses are funded by the fire department and run through the department’s office of emergency services. The city will train 10 firefighters as new instructors Monday, bringing the total number of fire department instructors to 12. 

Berkeley contracts with the American Red Cross to teach the shelter operations class and with the Berkeley nonprofit Building Education Center to run the earthquake retrofitting course. 

The courses are offered several times a year. 

The classes are free and open to anyone 18 and older who lives or works in Berkeley. All classes are scheduled at the Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St., except the Earthquake Retrofitting course, which will take place at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 

For more information or to register call the Office of Emergency Services at 981-5605, or register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html.

To the Editor: 

In an Aug. 22 story, the university claims that next week's three-day strike by clerical and other employees would be “illegal.” The strike is legal because the university has repeatedly violated its legal commitments to do a number of things, such as the requirement to convert temporary workers into career employees after a certain period of time. 

As well, the university has illegally prematurely cut off negotiations, failed to give the clericals' union, the Coalition of University Employees, crucial information needed in bargaining, unilaterally changed terms and conditions of employment without bargaining with CUE, and broken a promise by denying clericals parking and transit subsidy improvements. There are many, many more of these types of violations. They have been filed with the Public Employment Relations Board, which will ultimately decide on their legality, but we in CUE know without a shred of uncertainty that the university is in gross violation of them. 

The story also repeats UC's claim that “the university is offering a 2 percent raise for 2001-2002.” The university is not “offering” any such thing. The university is already paying clerical employees 1 percent of that raise, which was negotiated in the last contract round. It is not currently on the table; it is not being bargained over and it is not an issue in the current dispute. It is, however, a wedge that the university trots out and tries to use to make CUE look somehow dishonest by giving the appearance of a disagreement over facts and figures. 

The reality is that, in the face of inflation, particularly in housing costs, clerical workers' buying power continues to decline while the university offers up to 25 percent raises to administrators making six-figure salaries. Clericals face longer commutes as they are forced to seek housing further away from the Berkeley campus, many are forced to get second jobs, and some are on food stamps. 

The university has, for the first time in my memory of 27 years as a campus employee, rescinded the promise that is made to every entering clerical employee, that with satisfactory employee evaluations, they become eligible for “step” increases until the top of the salary range for the employees' position is reached. In previous budget “crunches” these step increases have been merely delayed. Never have they been cancelled. It is particularly galling that in the last contract round a sixth step was added to the existing five, and now the university says that for two years in a row, clerical employees will not get *any* step increases. This amounts to a take-away. 

The disrespect and dishonesty being shown by UC towards its clerical workers is beyond belief. It is why clerical turnover is 54 percent annually, why clerical positions have gone unfilled, sometimes for years. And as a result of an inability to recruit and the state-mandated “Tidal Wave II” increase in Berkeley campus enrollment, clericals are suffering form a monstrous increase in workload. 

The result of all this is that we clericals have had enough. A strike is the only way to make the university notice that conditions have become unbearable for us. I urge all members of the Berkeley and campus community to remain off the campus Aug. 26-28. Instead, join our picket lines. 

Alan Collin 

UC Berkeley

First Church of Christ, Scientist is the only building in Berkeley that has been designated a National Landmark. It is the highest honor that can be given a structure or site in the United States. The church, on the northeast corner of Dwight Way and Bowditch Street, was designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1910.  

The church is considered Bernard Maybeck’s masterpiece and in the words of Kenneth Cardwell, Maybeck’s biographer, “no other building demonstrates so completely Maybeck’s imaginative architectural genius…with its masterly handling of space, structure, color and light.” Others have remarked that it is one of the Bay Area’s greatest architectural monuments, a monument of inner beauty and strength, an inspiration for unique formulations of space, light, and texture and perhaps, simply one of the great buildings of the world. Indeed, most anthologies on American architecture include this church.  

The building is a fusion of ordinary materials such as reinforced concrete, industrial sash windows glazed with translucent glass, panels of asbestos siding called transite, and redwood trellises and roof framing. The building is a highly creative combination of historic references from Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic to Japanese.  

Structure and decoration merge on the interior of the church where the color scheme has been well preserved. The natural brown of the roof trusses and the gray of the concrete pillars contrast with the gold gilt in the tracery enhanced by blue, red, black, and green in the depths of modeled ornament and flat stencil work. Natural and artificial light is used to enhance the structure and different shades of translucent glazing create the desired effect. 

The Christian Science hurch was founded in Boston in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) who claimed to have discovered the principles by which Jesus had healed the sick and by bringing the material body into harmony with the spiritual, man can achieve perfection and be healed. Most Christian Science churches are plain, often classically inspired structures, reflecting the rational principles of the religion. Maybeck created a church for the Berkeley congregation that is non-traditional, yet immensely spiritual.  

When the university began acquiring properties south of campus for redevelopment during the 1950s, members and friends of the church obtained National Landmark status for the building to discourage its destruction. The church was built in the heart of an established residential neighborhood that is now mostly gone.  

There will be an opportunity to visit the church and tour the neighborhood 6 p.m. Aug. 29. Please call the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association at 841-2242 for further information and reservations.

Berkeley is home to many aspiring musicians and provides opportunity for the amateur performer to get onstage nearly every night of the week. Here’s what the Daily Planet found in a typical week of talent-spotting. 

The open mic week begins Sunday at The Starry Plough Pub, 3101 Shattuck Ave., where expat Irishman Shay Black has hosted a seisun (the Gaelic word from which “session” is derived) for the past six years. A more traditional Irish session might feature only instrumental music, mainly fiddle tunes, but Black extends his evening to include a bit of singing.  

When the man from Kelly’s Corner, Dublin shouts ciunas (“order” in Gaelic), the bar hushes, and singers step to the center of a semicircle of chairs and belt out a tune. 

“I emphasize that it’s an Irish session and that they should sing something from that tradition, or that they’ve learned from someone,” says Black. Though the selection sometimes strays into sea chanteys and Scottish tunes, Shay generally sets the tone with a good sing-along number like “Molly Malone,” “Whiskey in the Jar” or the rebel standard “The British Army.” There’s even a brief Irish step-dancing interlude.  

The Starry Plough has a mixture of veterans and beginners, and everyone eventually learns their place in the circle of players in a process Black calls “musical socialization.” He says that it’s always best to observe a session before showing up with instrument in tow, but “I’ve tried to make it open to everyone.”  

Monday eveneing blues lovers can take guitars, harmonicas and the like to Blake’s on Telegraph Avenue for a blues jam hosted by Mz. Dee and featuring Steve Gannon’ house band. Performers are called upon starting at 10:30 p.m. You can go up with a group, or individually. Sometimes ad-hoc bands are assembled from various individuals who’ve shown up. Gannon’s house band alternates sets with jammers until 1:30 a.m.  

Tuesdays at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House the 30-year-old folk club hosts a stage of local talent. The Shay Black session is totally not amplified but the Freight has a state-of-the-art sound system and will even record your performance if you supply a cassette.  

The Freight alternates bi-weekly open mics at its Addison Street facility with the Northern California Songwriters Association. Joining NCSA requires some additional commitment, as membership costs $75. For the fee, however, songwriting contests are judged by music biz professionals, and winners are awarded with free studio time.  

The most recent NCSA event in Berkeley featured previous winners from the East Bay and Sacramento region open mics, and was a semifinal for the song-of-the-year competition. Many performers were hawking their own CDs and phrases bandying phrases like: “I’ve got a quarter-inch jack you can borrow.” All performers seem very polished, and stage and technology savvy.  

Ian Crombie has been running the NCSA events for the past 15 years. They’ve been held at the Freight for the last 20. He estimates that half the NCSA members may be on a career path (some have returned from tours to perform tonight) but that many just join for its community spirit. 

The Starry Plough walks a bit more on the wild side. Performers show up at 7:30 p.m. to sign up for a two-song set, and the most recent event had 25 performers. As hostess Joan Pez tells the audience, “If you’re after number 20 you’re having breakfast with us.” Memorable performances from last week included a fiddler playing “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” through a wah-wah pedal, and local legend Girl George (who hosts her own open mic Sunday at Oakland’s Stork Club) careening around the dance floor, encouraging audience participation in her originals, “Everybody’s Crazy (But Me)” and “Johnny Got Herpes.”  

The sound system is quality and Joan and her crew say that everybody sounds good (or, the best they can). Pez, who’s hosted for the past two years, released a “Best of Berkeley” CD in 2001 which featured 16 cuts from open mic performers. “We’re trying to foster a community where it’s as fun for the people who watch as the musicians,” says Pez. “I’m trying to do for young musicians what I wish had been done for me a long time ago.”  

Remember, early arrival ensures that you will be singing before midnight. For those into the spoken word, the Plough hosts an open mic Poetry Slam on Wednesdays.  

Wednesday ou can take your guitar, or just your own bravado, down to Beckett’s at 2271 Shattuck Ave., where Nicole McCrory, aka “The Human Jukebox” hosts an unforgettable evening. She begins with a set of her own, accompanied by saxophonist Bruce Martin, with whom she first performed on the steps of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on Haight Street. A turn of fortune got Nicole into the clubs, and she decided last September to pay back her audience by inviting them to sing along with her.  

And “human jukebox” is no misnomer—she has a spiral notebook with hundreds of songs, and if you pick it, she’ll play it for you. Nicole is adored by her audience, as much for her talent as her barrage of witty banter. Fusillades of sexual innuendo, political humor and other witticisms stream from the informal stage in front of the fireplace. Nicole has been liberated from the conservative realms of Vail, Colo., for two years now, and it shows in her joyous performances. 

“This area has so many people with the ability and desire, and they need some place to go and get it out,” she says. “It’s a healing thing.” She continues, “People that come are so beautiful in the courageousness. It takes great love to get up and perform.” 

The crowd at Becketts may listen, or they may not. And if you’re not concerned with the audience hanging on your every note, this might be a good place to start.  

Becketts also hosts its own session on Thursday evenings, led by multi-instrumentalist Brian Theriault, who co-founded the Starry Plough night with Shay Black, six years ago. This evening, like the Plough’s, features plenty of fiddling and a bit of dancing, as well as interesting bluesy harmonica and some singing.

NEW YORK – Alex Rodriguez offered to slash his record-setting salary if it would help baseball, a novel approach to solving the sport’s problems as it moved within a week of another strike. 

“I would take a cut in pay – 30 to 40 percent – if it would make the game better,” the Texas shortstop said Friday at Yankee Stadium before adding: “It’s not a very realistic proposition.” 

Rodriguez’s $252 million, 10-year contract is the richest in sports, and many owners have pointed to it as a sign of baseball’s imbalance between rich and poor. 

Seven days before the threatened Aug. 30 strike date, the sides avoided the key issues. Management said it expects a new proposal from the union Saturday on the key economic elements of a labor deal. 

Meanwhile, former commissioner Fay Vincent predicted baseball won’t be able to avoid its ninth work stoppage since 1972. 

Vincent, ousted 10 years ago by a group led by current commissioner Bud Selig, praised his successor for what owners have achieved in bargaining. Still, he thinks Selig will be unable to stand up to hardline owners who want a new economic system. 

“I think he has done a very good job in this negotiation of getting more from the union than I would have thought possible,” Vincent said. “He’s in a position to declare victory, That’s an enormous achievement. 

“If he would just admit 30 percent is a victory and not 90 percent, he would have a victory. All Selig has to say next week is that, ‘This is the best we’re going to get. It’s a victory.’ But I don’t think he will do that.” 

Selig, who determined the owners’ labor policy during strikes in 1985 and 1994-95 and a lockout in 1990, said he was hopeful there would be a deal but didn’t go into specifics. 

“Nobody on this Earth is more hopeful than I,” Selig said. “Yes, I’m optimistic. I’m always an optimist, in everything in life. You have to be, especially when you have a job like I have. And these are different from past labor negotiations. So, I’m hopeful. But time will tell.” 

The sides spent Friday discussing issues such as drug testing, the amateur draft, player discipline, scheduling, licensing, medical care, and regulations on uniforms, according to Rob Manfred, the owners’ chief labor lawyer. While they are not far apart on revenue sharing, they remain divided on the luxury tax, designed to cause high-payroll teams to spend less on players. 

“We’re at the point in time where we really need to get at the core issues and see if we can get them resolved,” Manfred said. 

“The pace on those issues needs to improve,” he said, adding, “I think all the issues that we have out there are resolvable.” 

When asked what needs to spark talks on the key issues, union head Donald Fehr responded: “Rob knows what he has to do.” 

It appears any movement is likely to take place in the day or two before the strike deadline, which starts with games of next Friday afternoon. The union still hasn’t decided whether players should travel to the next series after Thursday’s games. 

“I don’t see a lot happening until the last 48 hours, 24 hours,” Rodriguez said. 

Asked if only the imminent pressure of a walkout would cause movement, Fehr said: “Let’s hope the owners don’t make that mistake again.” 

While some owners, such as Texas’ Tom Hicks and San Diego’s John Moores, said in the past week that baseball needs revolutionary change, Manfred is confident that he can work out an agreement owners will ratify. Moores said he would prefer a yearlong shutdown to a bad deal. 

“There is no owner, forget segment of owners, that I am aware of that would prefer a work stoppage to an agreement,” Manfred said. “I have absolutely no concern with our ability to get ratified with anything in neighborhood of the proposals we have on the table.” 

Players made a new proposal on steroid testing Friday, according to Manfred, who said it moved toward owners “modestly.” The union said Aug. 7 that it would be willing to have mandatory random testing for illegal steroids. 

Players want 2003 to be a survey, and proposed that if more than 5 percent test positive, a second survey be taken in 2004. If more than 5 percent test positive that year, mandatory random testing would start the following year. 

“No matter what the circumstances are, we want to have testing for steroids throughout the agreement,” Manfred said. 

The sides are about $33 million apart on how much money to move from the rich teams to the poor. Owners are at $268 million and players at $235 million, using 2001 figures. 

Owners have proposed a luxury tax on portions of payrolls above $102 million, with rates of 37.5 to 50 percent. Players have proposed thresholds of $130 million to $150 million, with rates of 15 to 30 percent. 

Before responding to the last management proposals, the union’s executive board held a telephone conference call Friday. Many players, however, did not listen in. 

Anaheim’s Scott Schoeneweis was among the few pessimistic players. 

“The only sense I have is feeling there will be a strike,” he said. “That’s the only thing I’m sure of.” 

Atlanta’s Tom Glavine hopes for compromise. 

“The last time, it was kind of an all-or-nothing on both sides. And I think because of that, I think it was easier to have more hardline guys on their side because they were digging in and getting ready for a fight,” he said. 

“This time around, both sides I think inevitably are going to get to a position where they have to really sit down and figure out what’s left to fight for. And when that happens, you start to get more guys who are on the fence. That may reduce the number of hard-liners on their side.”

State education consultants said the Berkeley Unified School District’s transition to a new data processing system has been “very smooth,” despite a pair of high-profile payroll problems in late July. Errors are unavoidable in a transition, they said. 

“I can’t think of a single conversion that ever went flawlessly,” said Andrew Prestage, management analyst for the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, at a Board of Education meeting earlier this week. FCMA has been advising the district on budget and technical matters since last fall. 

Prestage said the system’s failure to pay 122 employees and withhold the proper taxes on July 31 – when the district ran its first payroll through Quintessential School Systems (QSS) – were “wrinkles” that have been worked out. 

“You never like to see problems with the payroll system, but it was a problem that was immediately addressed,” he said. “They’re the kind of wrinkles that, once solved, are gone forever.” 

QSS failed to pay employees with direct deposit because the system dropped the “0” at the start of 122 employees’ bank account numbers. 

FCMAT consultant Jim Hickenbottom said paycheck problems have been resolved for all but eight of the employees, and added that the system should be running smoothly by the end of September. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence was quick to add that, while the computer system may be functioning properly by then, the district still has to do significant staff training to ensure the system is handled properly.

Cal men’s basketball head coach Ben Braun confirmed that point guard Shantay Legans has asked for his release from the program in order to transfer to Fresno State. 

Braun said he spoke with Legans this week, but stopped short of confirming he would release Legans. Braun said he hopes to meet with Legans in person to discuss the matter. 

“I have requested that Shantay meet with me in person to obtain his release from his commitment to the University of California,” Braun said Friday. “To this point, Shantay has not met with me regarding his release. I have supported Shantay since his arrival at Cal and will continue to do so in the future. Obviously, I am disappointed that he has chosen not to finish his senior year at Cal, as well as with the timing of his request.” 

Legans averaged 8.1 points and 3.8 assists last season for a Cal team that made the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. But Legans was reportedly upset when former walk-on A.J. Diggs took over the starting role for a few games in the middle of the season. 

Diggs, who was awarded a scholarship this summer, will likely be the full-time starter. Freshman Richard Midgely could challenge for time as well. 

New Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes adopted Shantay Legans through the “Big Brother” program when the player was in the fifth grade. 

“Ray’s really the only father Shantay knows,” Susan Legans told the Oakland Tribune. “I think it’s always been a dream of his to play for Ray Lopes.” 

It has been a topsy-turvy summer for Braun’s program. Freshman Jamal Sampson made a surprising jump into the NBA Draft, then junior Gabriel Hughes decided to transfer before changing his mind last week. Israeli big man Yaniv Green flirted with the idea of joining the Bears before backing out, then Braun added 6-foot-9 Jordi Geli Vilardell of Spain. 

Bears work on situations: Cal’s final scrimmage turned into a situation practice on Friday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The Bears went through some regular plays, but concentrated on special situations like clock management and turnovers. 

“We needed to cover every possible situation today, and we did that,” head coach Jeff Tedford said. “We had to communicate what we need to do in certain situations.” 

Senior quarterback Kyle Boller looked solid, completing 9-of-15 passes, including several nicely timed slant patterns and two screen passes to tailback Joe Igber. Training camp sensation Vincent Strang continued to impress at wideout, catching five balls in the first half, including a 25-yard touchdown toss from Boller. 

New turf broken in: Friday was the first time the Bears have played on the new Memorial Stadium turf, which was reseeded this summer. Tedford said the new turf met his expectations and held up well during the practice. 

Injury update: Offensive left tackle Mark Wilson was held out of Friday’s practice due to a sore foot. Tedford said Wilson will be ready to practice Monday... Freshman wideout David Gray also didn’t practice Saturday with a sore shoulder, but should be ready for the Baylor game next weekend... Receiver Chase Lyman has resumed limited practice, but may not be ready for Baylor. Likewise, junior college transfer Junior Brignac is questionable with an ankle injury... Linebacker Ryan Estes has a foot fracture and will miss several weeks. Tedford said a redshirt year is a possibility. 

Decisions this weekend: Tedford said he will make decisions on redshirting freshmen and awarding scholarships to walk-ons this weekend. Although he doesn’t have to make official decisions on redshirts until the Bears’ first road game on Sept. 14 at Michigan State, he’d like to have them sorted out by the opener. 

“You’d like to know ahead of time who you’re going to want to use,” he said. “If we have a game in hand and want to get guys reps, we want to get guys we’re going to use on the field.” 

Tailback battle: Michael Porter has edged ahead of freshman Marcus O’Keith for the third tailback spot, which means O’Keith will likely redshirt this year unless an injury occurs. 

WR competition: With all the nagging injuries among the wide receiver corps, it’s been hard to get a read on who will contribute early in the season. Tedford said junior college transfer Jonathon Makonnen has established himself as the No. 1 receiver, but the picture gets cloudy from there. Lyman was the top wideout coming out of spring practice, but finger and hamstring injuries have limited him in the fall. Sophomore Geoff McArthur is listed as the other starter after missing most of last season with an arm injury. The X-factor is senior LaShaun Ward. After moving over from cornerback last season, he showed a talent for getting behind the defense.

Gov. Gray Davis announced approval of more than $20 million by the California Transportation Commission to upgrade service on BART. 

“My administration is committed to improving public transportation in the Bay Area,” Davis said. “These investments will ensure a safe and speedy commute.” 

The funding is part of the governor's $5.3 billion Traffic Congestion Relief Program. 

A total of $19.5 million was approved to continue environmental and design activities to seismically strengthen the BART system in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. According to Davis, the funding will be used to lay out a strategy for strengthening BART bridges and the Transbay Tube so that they can withstand a major earthquake. 

In addition, $1.1 million was approved for BART to continue to study ways to improve the connectivity between various modes of transportation in the Interstate Highway 580 corridor between Pleasanton and Livermore.

It seems the first little pig, looking for an affordable yet solid home, may not have been too far off base in choosing straw as his primary construction material. 

The Shorebird Nature Center in the Berkeley Marina, with a handful of local volunteers, raised the straw bale walls of a new 860-square-foot facility earlier this month. The new facility, which will adjoin with the current building where visitors are taught about birds and the bay, includes a 450 square-foot outdoor classroom, office space, a visitor’s center and additional teaching space. 

The addition is said to be the Bay Area’s first public building made of straw bales. 

Although straw bale construction has emerged as a trend only recently, the concept has been around for nearly a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, homesteaders in the Nebraska “Sandhills” turned to bale hay construction due to a shortage of trees for lumber. The oldest existing bale building was built in 1903 in northwestern Nebraska. It still withstands Nebraska’s wild temperature swings and blizzard-force winds. 

In Berkeley, the primary building material for the Shorebird Nature Center is straw bales made of rice. The bales are also commonly made from wheat, oats, barley, rye and flax. 

Following this month’s construction of the walls, the bottom straw bales will be enclosed in a water-resistant sheath and steel rods will be pounded through the bales for added stabilization. Wire mesh and stucco will also be used to further secure the structure. Completion of the structure is expected late this fall. 

The benefits of using straw bales – which unlike wood are renewable annually – in the construction of homes and commercial buildings are numerous.  

“There are a myriad of environmental reasons [for using straw bale construction],” said Greg Van Mechelen, a contractor at the nature center with Van Mechelen Architects in Berkeley. 

Straw bale buildings make use of material that would otherwise go unused – the stalks remaining after the harvest of grain. Normally that refuse is burned, creating pollution. 

One million tons of straw were burned each year in the mid-1990s in California, according to Dietmar Lorenz, an architect for Dan Smith Associates of Berkeley who is also helping with the Shorebird Nature Center project. While that refuse could have been used to create nearly 100,000 new homes, instead it generated more carbon dioxide emissions than all of California’s power plants combined, Smith said. 

“If you go up to Sacramento in October, you will see a haze from the burning of that straw,” Van Mechelen added. 

Straw bale buildings have another long-term benefit. The straw is more solid as an insulator than traditional types, so it saves money in utilities. Straw insulation is more earthquake resistant and acoustically sound. And, the building will hold up better during a fire. 

“Six years ago people had no idea [about straw bale homes],” he said. “Now, people have an idea and are requesting more environmental-friendly buildings.” 

Lorenz, whose firm has completed more than 40 straw bale projects, has seen an upswing in people requesting “green” homes. 

“It’s really gaining momentum very quickly,” Lorenz said. “Every year there is increased interest.” 

Although using straw bales can increase building costs 10 percent to 15 percent, Lorenz and Van Mechelen agreed that consumers quickly make up the expense through other benefits. 

“In the end you get a much more substantial house in terms of quality, longevity and operating costs,” Lorenz said. 

Straw bale buildings are also more conducive to the “do-it-yourselfer.” “If you do some of the construction yourself, you can save money,” Van Mechelen said. 

The center is being constructed with grants from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Department of Energy, West Berkeley Foundation, The Strong Foundation, Builder’s Bookstore, the city of Berkeley and individual contributions. In addition, the California Integrated Waste Management Board and the Alameda County Waste Management and Recycling Board are also major funders of the project.  

Other environmental features of the new building include passive solar design, integrated photovoltaics, hot water solar panels for radiant heating system, natural linoleum floors, recycled and sustainability harvested wood framing, cabinetry from wheat straw particleboard and countertops made from recycled glass. 

Construction of the Shorebird Nature Center addition is due to be completed in November. It will be open to the public six days a week for presentations, workshops and open houses. 

SACRAMENTO — California’s budget impasse is on course to break records as it heads into the ninth week and the Legislature prepares for the final marathon week of its 2002 session. 

The latest recorded budget in the state was signed Sept. 2, in 1992, and as that date approaches there are few signs of a break in the standoff between Assembly Republicans and Democrats over $3.7 billion in tax increases. 

Friday is officially the last day of the 2002 legislative session in California. But the Assembly has yet to approve a budget plan and, as of late last week, neither side appeared prepared to budget on the issues. 

Meanwhile, state vendors, college students and some programs for the poor and disabled are feeling the sting of the state operating without a budget for nearly two months. 

“It certainly is serious,” said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project. “It means that people who are used to having care and services provided to them won’t have that available.” 

State agencies continued to operate and 250,000 non-legislative state workers continued to be paid last week. 

However, the budget impasse has prevented California college students from receiving grants to pay for books and housing, it has held up lawmakers’ and staffers’ paychecks for two months, and it has halted payments to vendors who sell supplies to the state’s prisons and hospitals. 

It also has stalled payments of nearly 384,000 claims to elderly, blind and disabled Californians who participate in a program of assistance for homeowners or renters. State Controller Kathleen Connell also has withheld paychecks for members of the Legislature and statewide officeholders, including Gov. Gray Davis and herself.

LOS ANGELES — Low interest rates, strong demand and tight supply kept California’s real estate market red hot in July, with home prices soaring 16.5 percent over the same period last year. 

The median home price, the point at which half the homes sell for more and half for less, increased to a record $271,000, according to a report released Thursday by DataQuick Information Systems. 

Sales activity also surged 7.5 percent from a year ago, despite concerns raised by some experts that California’s market is ready for a correction. 

“The danger signals that would indicate that we are in a bubble are just not there,” said John Karevoll, a DataQuick analyst and author of the report. “What’s astonishing to us is the breadth of the growth across the board.” 

Put in perspective, the price gains mean a homeowner with a median-valued home has been making about $3,200 every month for the last year through the appreciation of their property. 

Many homeowners have cashed in some of those gains by refinancing their mortgages, providing an injection of cash into the economy that has held off a more serious recession. 

Several factors suggest the market will remain healthy for some time to come, Karevoll said. 

The median size of down payments relative to loans remains stable at about 15 percent, and there’s a good balance of supply and demand in all categories of the market, from entry level to luxury, he said. 

In addition, consumers are opting for a balanced mix of mortgages, from 30-year fixed rates to riskier adjustable rate mortgages that are easier to obtain. At the peak of the last boom in the late 1980s, about 60 percent of buyers chose adjustable rates. Today that figure is only 27 percent, Karevoll said. 

The market is likely to thrive for at least another year, said Christopher Cagen, director of research and analytics at First American Real Estate Solutions, a real estate information firm. 

“We are deep in a bull market, and I don’t see any reason — barring a war or other catastrophe — that the market is about to turn,” Cagen said. 

Some mortgage brokers and lenders serving buyers in high-end markets, however, warn that a downturn in their segment could be on the horizon.

SAN FRANCISCO — A former business executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison Friday for insider trading. 

Chan Desaigoudar, 64, of Watsonville, was the former chief executive officer of California Micro Devices. He was charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and insider trading. 

According to a plea agreement, Desaigoudar admitted that in 1994, he was aware of “widespread” accounting fraud at the Milpitas-based electronics company. He said the company booked revenue for products never shipped. He admitted illegally profiting $572,000 in stock sales from the faulty bookkeeping. 

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ordered restitution in that amount and also handed him three years post-prison supervision.

Computer hackers used the Berkeley Unified School District’s network to transmit pornographic images last year, according state and district officials. 

The district does not know who broke into the school system last December, but officials said evidence suggests that it was done by outsiders from a remote location. A state technology consultant has since put in place security measures to prevent external use of the district network.  

In a separate development, the state consultant, Director of Technology Philip Scrivano of the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, learned in December that unlike most state schools, no filters existed in Berkeley to block students and staff from viewing on-line pornography. Filters have been put in place since the revelation. 

School board President Shirley Issel said she was pleased that the district implemented filtering technology, but does not believe students were making heavy use of pornographic web sites before the installation of filters. 

“I just don’t see kids working on computers unsupervised,” said Issel. “[But] since you can’t watch all screens at all the times, I think getting some filters on is a safeguard that I’m glad is in place.” 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said she was pleased that FCMAT, which has been advising the troubled district on budget and technical issues for almost a year, was able to remedy the district’s hacking and filter problems.  

The problems surfaced Wednesday night, during a Board of Education meeting, when Scrivano made a presentation about his eight-month effort to improve security, increase bandwidth and cut costs for the district’s computer network. 

FCMAT Deputy Executive Officer Joel Montero said the network upgrade began in December after his agency discovered that the system was running unusually slow. 

An investigation into the matter revealed two basic problems. First the district’s system was disjointed and needed a significant overhaul.  

Second, FCMAT discovered a “Code Red” virus, implanted by hackers, that allowed them to use district systems for the transmission of pornographic images. 

FCMAT moved immediately to cut off the hackers and improve system security by replacing a porous “firewall” that had allowed hackers to get into the network. 

“We had to lock down right away,” said Montero. 

FCMAT proceeded to replace an inefficient and costly computer network that used 18 separate T1 data lines, replacing it with a single “seamless” fiber optic network that is scheduled to go into full swing this weekend. 

Montero said each of the 18 T1 lines in the old system cost the district $300 per month. The single DS3 line that has replaced the 18 old cables costs less than one T1. 

The network clean-up has cost the district somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 according to district and FCMAT estimates. But both district and state officials are predicting significant short- and long-term savings with the system upgrade. 

Scott Sexsmith, president of the California Educational Data Processing Association, said Berkeley’s addition of filters to protect children from pornographic web sites puts the district in line with nearly every other school system in the state. 

Sexsmith said districts moved toward filtering after federal legislation, called the Child Internet Protection Act, passed in 2000. The law requires schools to use filtering software to receive federal funds for computers or Internet access. 

With the filters in place, Berkeley Unified has obtained funding for the DS3 line through the federal government’s e-Rate program, which provides deep discounts on infrastructure.

To the Editor: 

I take serious issue with the Aug. 15 letter from Charlie Betcher, founder of the Bus Riders Union, who calls for reducing wages of bus drivers in order to meet AC Transit’s financial problem. Charlie Betcher does not speak for me; nor does he speak for the majority of seniors, Gray Panthers or Bus Riders Union members. The great majority of us are workers. We fought for decent wages and conditions for ourselves and all working people. We supported and continue to support the trade union movement in its constant struggle for job security and we are against efforts to destroy unity and create a wedge between bus drivers and bus riders. 

Charlie’s letter is a shameful response to the transportation crisis. Bus drivers have one of the most difficult of all jobs. They deal with awful traffic situations, work long hours without adequate rest periods, constantly give directions, deal with sometimes cantankerous passengers and have difficult schedules. That they deal so well with the stress of the job is something I believe most riders are aware of and grateful for.  

We need a governmental subsidized transportation system, and in order to have it, our government must cut the military budget. Tell that to that man in the White House; tell it to your congresspeople; tell it to your City Council. 

Vivian Raineri 

Berkeley

Here’s a conundrum for you. When watching local theater productions, do you look past the rough parts that plague most plays and give the company a break? Or do you hope for a higher level of performance that can be found in other small theater productions?  

If you opt for the first choice, you may want to check out Theater Absurd’s inaugural production of “Death,” by Woody Allen. However, if you’re hoping for a diamond-in-the-rough of a play from a new theater group, you’d better keep looking – at least for now.  

“Death” is chock full of themes reminiscent throughout all of Allen’s work: love, alienation, a quest for spiritual understanding, what the universe is all about (according to a hooker), and of course, what happens after we die. And though the title may put you off, it is actually a Woody Allen comedy. (And for those of you put off by Woody Allen, it is only a one-act play.) It’s filled with some great one-liners and situations that are pure Allen. 

You have to give the cast of “Death” credit for trying to pull off a long, forgotten play by Allen, though you may have seen a variation on this play in Allen’s movie “Shadows and Fog.” The production, which runs through this weekend, has some great comic moments. But it is somewhat fraught with rushed performances and parts that don’t quite make sense. 

The piece centers around the main character, named Kleinman, played by Geoff Roelants, and his attempts to grasp a bizarre reality that one, a homicidal maniac is trolling his neighborhood, and two, some of his friends think that he may be the killer. Played with high energy, Roelants is a decent Allen-type, replete with the nebbish whining, tics and perplexed rants that help push the play through its quick 45-minute run.  

Kleinman is a salesman of some kind—we’re never told of what, but just that it’s “the height of the season.” One morning he is awoken at 2:30 a.m. by three of his friends who are dressed like the musical group The Village People – a construction worker, a sailor and a cowboy. These costumes are never really explained, though Kleinman makes a joke when he mimics the YMCA dance while asking if they’re all going to go out dancing. This must be one of the “absurd” parts of Theater Absurd. 

Kleinman is pulled and pushed by his friends to get up and join a vigilante group they’re forming to find the killer. While never told why he is needed or what the “plan” is, Kleinman nevertheless follows his friends’ lead out into the night. One by one, most of his friends and others he encounters on the street – a doctor, a hooker and a police officer – are either killed or are in on the plan to find the killer.  

The problem for Kleinman is that no one describes the plan to him. When he asks, he can’t get a straight answer. This dilemma slowly eats away at the small string Kleinman holds on reality.  

The characters surrounding Kleinman, who could resemble the characters on an episode of Bob Newhart, are perfect at causing mass confusion in the life of Kleinman. During a few moments they even think that Klein 

man is the killer.  

Two notable characters who shed a little light on the whole scene are a hooker and Abe – an orthodox Jew or Rabbi, you’re not sure which. (What would a Woody Allen play be without a hooker and a orthodox Jew?)

Friday, August 23 

Irate, For the Crown, Beneath the Ashes & Pain of Sleep 

8 p.m. 

924 Gillman St. 

525-9926 

$5 

Deke Dickerson and the ecco-fonics & Calamity and Main 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-1424 

$7 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit 

9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

8 p.m. dance lesson 

525-5024 or www.ashkenaz.com 

$12 door/ Free for 12 and under 

Peppino D’Agostino 

8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com 

$15.50 in advance, $16.50 at door 

The Damnations & Loretta Lynch  

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-1424 

$7 

Saturday, August 24 

Anthony Brown Ensemble  

Doors open 7:30 p.m. Show 8 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck 

Free Jazz Concert explores inspiration of Ralph Ellison. 

981-6100 

Free 

California Brazil All-star Band 

Brazil Camp Benefit 

9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

525-5024 or www.ashkenaz.com 

$10 door/ Free for 12 and under 

John McCormick 

8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St. 

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com 

$15.50 in advance, $16.50 at door 

New Millennium Strings, conducted by Laurien Jones 

8 p.m. 

A concert featuring The Hebrides, Op. 26 (Fingal’s Cave) by Mendelssohn; Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Op. 64, E minor, Loretta Taylor, soloist; Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun; and Children’s Corner Suite by Debussy. 

526-3331 

$10 General admission, $7 students and seniors, under 12 free 

Phantom Limbs, Dead and Gone & Pitch Black 

8 p.m. 

924 Gillman St. 

525-9926 

$5 

Sunday, August 25 

Dan & Dale Zola Present The Great Night of Rumi 

8 p.m. 

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St. 

Celebrating Persian poet Jelaluddin Rumi with spoken word, music and dance. 

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com 

$15.50 in advance, $16.50 at door 

Benefit for the Neibyl Proctor Library 

Featuring Red Dust 

3 to 5 p.m. 

6501 Telegraph Ave. 

Benefit for a progressive research center for teachers, students and activists. 

595-7417 

$5 to $10, sliding scale 

BACA National Juried Exhibition 

Through Sept. 21, Wed.-Sun. Noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park 

40 artists from across the U.S. including 28 Bay Area artists. 

644-6893 

Free 

"Before and After"  

Reception 4 to 6 p.m.  

Through Sept. 19  

Albany Community Center and Library Galley 1249 Marin Ave. 

Jim Hair's photographs of the San Diego Hells Angels motorcycle chapter from the 1970s.  

524-9283  

Freedom! Now! 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery & Headquarters 2055 Center St. 

Reception 6 to 8 p.m. 

Through Aug. 25, Tues. - Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Commemorates the work of those who struggled for justice and freedom from government/state repression. 

841-2793 

The Creation of People’s Park 

Through Aug. 31, Mon. - Thurs., 9 a.m. 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, with curator Harold Adler. 

hjadler@yahoo.com 

Free 

"New Work: Part 2, The 2001 Kala Fellowship Exhibition"  

Through Sept. 7, Tues.-Fri. Noon to 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

Featuring 8 Kala Fellowship winners, printmaking 

549-2977  

“If These Walls Could Talk” 

Through Sept. 8 

Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California Campus (just below Grizzly Peak Blvd.) 

See how various civilizations built all kinds of structures from mud huts to giant skyscrapers at this building exhibit. 

642-5132 

Admission: $8 for adults; $6 for ages 5-18, seniors and disabled; $4 for children 3-4; Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time Berkeley students. 

In a preview of what should be an explosive offense, the Cal women’s soccer team got goals from four different players to win 4-0 against USF in an exhibition game on Thursday. 

Junior Kassie Doubrava, sophomore Kacy Hornor and freshmen Dania Cabello and Tracy Hamm all scored for the Bears, and goalkeepers Sani Post and Lee Ann Morton combined to shut out the Dons, who tied Cal 3-3 last season. 

None of the Bears’ goal came from senior forward Laura Schott, who should become the leading goal- and point-scorer in school history sometime this season. Schott has 49 goals and 110 points, six goals and 23 points short of Joy Fawcett’s school records. 

“Laura looks great. This could be her best season,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “She’s preparing for a professional career, so she’s very driven to improve.” 

Schott isn’t the only player on pace to take down one of Fawcett’s records. Senior midfielder Brittany Kirk needs seven assists to overtake the former U.S. National Team star in the record book. 

Boyd thinks this could be a breakout year for his team, which has lost in the first round of the NCAA playoffs the last two seasons. With Schott leading the attack up front and Kirk and junior Kim Yokers, who joined Schott on the Under-21 National Team this summer, manning the midfield, the Bears have a solid core up the middle. 

“We’re really well-rounded this year,” Boyd said Thursday. “We have good players at every position, and our depth is good. Even our most established starters are being pushed by the younger and newer players.” 

Boyd will be breaking in a new goalkeeper for the second year in a row. Mallory Moser, who started as a freshman last year, quit the team, leaving transfers Post and Ashley Sulprizio to battle it out between the posts. Post, a junior, came to Cal from Notre Dame last year but sat out with an injury. Sulprizio redshirted last year at Nebraska and has all four years of eligibility remaining, but is currently recovering from a concussion. Morton, a senior, was a midfielder for the last three seasons but shin problems forced her to quit playing the field. Her athleticism somewhat makes up for her lack of experience at the position, as she showed by recovering well to tip a chip shot wide on Thursday, but she will likely be the third keeper. 

Boyd hopes one of his goalies takes ahold of the starting job, as Maite Zabala did for three years and Moser did last season. 

“Nobody has clearly differentiated themself from the group,” Boyd said. “It’d be nice to have that one person you stick in there every game.” 

Another important position change is that of Ashley Valenzuela, who moves to the backline after starting for two seasons in the midfield. Valenzuela is a physical player who should solidify the central defense along with junior Lucy Brining. Senior Kim Stocklmeir has a solid hold on the third fullback spot, and should Boyd employ a four-back set, junior Amy Willison is the leading candidate for the last spot. 

The battle to be Schott’s main strike partner will likely go on all season, as at least four candidates look to replace departed Kyla Sabo. The 5-foot-10 Hornor showed flashes as a freshman last season, scoring four goals, but needs to learn to use her size advantage better. Senior Krysti Whalen has scored six goals in her Cal career but isn’t a very dynamic player, and freshmen Cabello and Liz Eisenberg will have to get used to the speed of the college game in order to contribute. 

Speed is something that’s Boyd’s teams have lacked in the past, but that shouldn’t be a problem in years to come. He estimates that four of his freshmen are among the six fastest players on the team. Hamm could be an instant force on the wing, as showed against USF, using her pace to set up Hornor’s goal then blowing past a defender for her own score. Cabello and Eisenberg also have elite speed, which could be a nice complement to Schott’s skills and hustle. 

The Bears open their season with the Cal Invitational next Friday. Ohio State, Purdue and St. Mary’s will be in the tournament.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl said the state’s fiscal crisis will prevent the university from boosting its wage offer to clerical workers, who are set to strike Monday,  

“I understand their frustration and the concerns that they have,” said Berdahl at his annual back-to-school press conference Thursday. “There really isn’t the kind of leeway that I wish we had.” 

Berdahl acknowledged that “many staff have salaries that make it difficult for them to support families,” but said the university’s hopes for a cash infusion to boost salaries this year “disappeared very quickly as the budget situation went south.” 

Clericals, though, say there is much more the university can do. 

“The University of California’s own figures show that only 36 percent of [the clericals’] salaries come from state monies,” said Michael-David Sasson, president of the Berkeley chapter of the Coalition of University Employees, which represents 18,000 clericals systemwide.  

“The current crisis in the state budget is not determinant of salaries.” 

The union maintains that the university has an unrestricted $2.3 billion reserve it could tap for salary increases. But university officials say they need the money to support other programs.  

CUE is asking for a 15 percent raise over two years for clericals throughout the system. The university says it is offering a 3.5 percent pay hike over the course of two years, with an additional 3 percent in deferred pay that would appear in employees’ retirement plans.  

Union officials say the university’s two-year offer, excluding the deferred pay, actually amounts to 2.5 percent, not 3.5 percent. 

In June, the Berkeley branch of CUE, which represents 2,300 secretaries, library assistants and childcare workers at UC Berkeley and the Oakland-based offices of the system-wide president, authorized a strike. The union officially announced the three-day work stoppage at a campus rally on Sproul Plaza Wednesday. 

Fifty nurses from the university’s health care center and 600 lecturers will join in “sympathy strikes” with the clericals.  

Berdahl warned, at the press conference, that state funding woes might eventually extend to the students. If the economic slump continues and the state is unable to increase funding for the UC system, he said, student tuition for California residents, which has remained stable for eight years, may increase in the future. 

The chancellor said there was good news around student housing, an ongoing concern for the university. For the first time in his tenure, Berdahl said, there is no waiting list for student housing. 

The chancellor attributed the improvement, in part, to the construction of the university-owned, 120-bed College-Durant apartment complex, which opened this weekend and played host to the press conference Thursday. 

By 2005, the university plans to have 1,100 new beds in place on the south side of campus, getting closer to its goal of guaranteed housing for first-year students, half of second-year students and all transfer students. 

Berdahl, in the free-ranging press conference, also suggested that he opposes a push by some students and faculty to divest from Israel, and said UC Regent Ward Connerly’s Racial Privacy Initiative, which will appear on the state ballot in November, is “a bad idea.” 

The Racial Privacy Initiative would ban state agencies from collecting data on citizens’ race. Berdahl said he is concerned, in particular, that important social science databases might be effected. He said carefully-worded exemptions must be included in the measure. 

Contact reporter at  

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net. 

To the Editor: 

It would be easy to get rid of Saddam Hussein in only10 days. President George W. Bush has this power. All George W. has to do is endorse Saddam Hussein and tell America and the world that Saddam is a nice guy.  

This would immediately trigger the greatest hate movement the world has ever seen. We all know that anything that George W. says or does is wrong and he will destroy world peace as well as trigger global warming, cheat stockholders, kill salmon, pollute our air and water and destroy the environment. 

If George W. says Saddam is great, the United Nations will hate Saddam; the Democrats will hate Saddam, the Russians will hate Saddam; the Euro-intelligentsia will hate Saddam; the NAACP will hate Saddam; the Eco-Freaks will hate Saddam; the Sierra Club will hate Saddam; the NOW members will hate Saddam; the Iraqi citizens will hate Saddam. Even Saddam’s mother will hate him. 

There is no way that Saddam can endure all this hate. I guarantee that if our president acts today Saddam will kill himself within 10 days. 

Sidney Steinberg 

Berkeley

OAKLAND – BART officials adopted a fare schedule Thursday in preparation of January’s opening of the five-station extension to the San Francisco International Airport. 

Riders from downtown Berkeley will pay $5.15 for a one-way BART trip to the airport.  

The price does not include the 5 percent rate increase approved by BART’s board of directors earlier this year, slated to take effect in January. The price also does not include a likely $1.50 surcharge, to help pay off construction loans that will be assessed to riders who go to the airport. 

The highest price that BART riders will pay for a one-way trip to the airport is $6.90, which is the cost from the Pittsburg/Bay Point station. The average fare to the airport from the 42 BART stations will be roughly $5.24. 

According to Joel Keller, BART’s board president, the cost of getting to the airport will be significantly less than other options. 

“That $6.90 trip will probably be about $7.25,” Keller said. “It's still a bargain for a one-way trip.” 

To the Editor: 

Section 8 refers to a portion of federal legislation administered by the U. S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. It has been providing rent subsidies for low-income people. Tenants generally pay one-third of their income in rent, with the balance subsidized by HUD. The Berkeley Housing Authority works with HUD to administer a tenant-based Section 8 program as well as a public housing program. Of the two types of provisions of low-income housing – tenant-based Section 8 and public housing rentals – the Section 8 provision represents considerably more units for Berkeley low-income citizens and business for the authority. 

Ultimate responsibility for the Berkeley Housing Authority is vested in a BHA board consisting of the mayor, the council members and two tenant representatives. In the past, the two tenant board members have been representative of Section 8, the elderly and public housing tenants. Recently the BHA board changed the wording of its definition and make-up to the extent that “Section 8” is not mentioned, and more importantly, neither tenant representative is stipulated as representing Section 8. The revised city web site BHA description:  

“The Housing Authority is responsible for carrying out the Housing Assistance Voucher and Public Housing Programs for low income Berkeley families. The authority is composed of the elected City Council and two tenant members of the Housing Authority. Tenant members are appointed to the authority by the council for two-year terms. One tenant member must be 62 years of age or older.”   

It seems likewise notable that the minutes and agendas of the Section 8 Resident Advisory Board – but not the Public Housing Resident Advisory Board –  are “missing.” 

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

Berkeley 

What’s in a name? A heck of a lot, according to members of Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, who have worked since 1985 for the preservation of a stretch of coast from the Bay Bridge to Richmond. 

With park planners just months away from seeking final approval for the park, CEST members have been told that their hard earned park will be designated “a state recreation area.” 

The name change reflects the additional, and in some cases unexpected, recreational opportunities at the expense of preserving natural habitat. 

CEST members aren’t happy. 

“We have not worked all these years for a state recreation area,” said Sylvia McLaughlin of CEST during a joint meeting of the Waterfront Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission Wednesday. 

Ron Schaefer of the California Department of Parks and Recreation tried to allay the fears of McLaughlin and others. He said the designation would not affect the park plan and that either designation would protect wildlife.  

But Robert Cheasty, CEST president, said the issue is more than just semantics. 

“A ‘park’ designation will protect the rarest and most precious qualities of our shoreline.” 

“A ‘recreation’ designation allows for greater development. In an urban setting you can always add more development but can almost never reverse it,” he said. 

The Waterfront and Parks and Recreation Commissions sided with CEST. They both voted to recommend to City Council that the coastal stretch be designated a state park. 

State parks, however, still has final say on classification and it is leaning against the CEST position. “As [the plan] sits now it looks like a recreation area,” said Schaefer. 

A name change would be a bitter pill for CEST members who are already facing a plan that runs counter to several of their initial goals. When CEST started their campaign for a coastal state park 17 years ago, the aim was to preserve one of the few vestiges of undeveloped shoreline for native plants and animals. 

But when planning for the new park got under way early last year, CEST members found themselves in competition with new interest groups that had conflicting visions for the coast. 

Playing field advocates, off-leash dog walkers, windsurfers and boaters, many who already used lands included in the park plan, clamored for their stake in the 8.4 mile park. 

“We had a vision of a natural park with some recreational aspects, but not all the parking, visitor facilities, concrete promenades and baseball fields,” said Norman La Force of CEST and the Sierra Club. 

The current plan, he says, sacrifices preservation for too much recreation and development, specifically in the Berkeley Brickyard and North Basin and Albany Plateau. 

Planners have proposed making the Brickyard, the swath of land just south of the marina, into the park’s centerpiece. The plan calls for a built-up brickyard to house a parking lot, boat launch, cafe, headquarters, kayak and bike rentals, and a shoreline promenade with a viewing platform. 

The North Basin Strip, just west of Gilman Street is also slated for heavy development. A boat launch, boat house, interpretive center, food vendors and a hostel are all planned on the site. 

CEST would like to see the buildings consolidated. “We envisioned some recreational facilities, but why should there be duplicative concrete,” Cheasty said. He proposed combining the proposed interpretive center and visitor center, limiting the number of parking spaces, and forgoing the hostel, some of the food stations and concrete promenades. 

Ballfields slated for the Albany Plateau appear to be a more contentious issue. Cheasty says the fields would be too expensive to build, destroy valuable habitat and violate state park law. He wants park officials to consider buying land owned by the parent company of the nearby Golden Gate Fields racetrack and put fields there. 

Playing field advocates counter that the planned three to five fields are desperately needed and that the only land available is at the Plateau. 

CEST members have hinted at going to court to stop the fields, but Cheasty hopes a compromise can be reached. 

After nearly two decades of work for a state park, Cheasty said he is willing to meet opponents halfway. 

“We would have liked to have seen them a little earlier, but they are all potential friends,” he said. “We can be flexible.” 

So long as they don’t call it a recreation area, he said. 

Contact reporter at matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

The Oakland Police Department says that homicide detectives are investigating the shooting death of a man on Wednesday night in the city's 71st killing of the year. 

Authorities say that the victim, in his 30s, was shot to death just prior to 6 p.m. in the area of 27th Avenue and East 21st Street. 

No suspect is currently in custody.

The Federal Highway Administration will investigate allegations by two Bay Area construction firms that Caltrans violated federal regulations by not meeting goals for minority-owned business participation during the bidding process of the Bay Bridge's east span replacement project. 

In June, the owners of Port-O-Walls Systems of Sonoma and Oakland-based Bay Line Concrete Cutting and Coring filed a complaint with the civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration seeking to block funding from the long-delayed billion-dollar project. 

The companies allege that the prime contractor, Kiewit/FCI/Mason, which was awarded the lucrative contract in January, did not engage in a bona fide effort to recruit so-called DBEs, or Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, even though they told Caltrans that they would do so. 

The construction firms accuse the contractor of manipulating the subcontracting process, calling the invitations for minority participation "window dressing,'' and claiming that the contractor had no intention of hiring them. 

The highway administration's civil rights office will investigate the matter to determine whether Caltrans and Kiewit made a good faith effort to involve disadvantaged businesses in the process. 

Willie Harris, director of civil rights with the Western Resources Center of the Federal Highway Administration, said that the call for an investigation has nothing to do with the merits of the allegation. 

He said the highway administration's civil rights office investigates all complaints that are filed within 180 days and fall under the agency's jurisdiction. 

Harris said that an investigator would be assigned to the case to conduct the probe, which will draft a recommendation to the Associate Administrator for Civil Rights to determine if there's probable cause to the allegations. 

Harris added there is no time restriction for the investigation and added that there's no way of knowing how long the probe into the east span project will last. 

Caltrans representatives locally and in Sacramento did not return calls for comment.

SAN FRANCISCO — Creditors of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have teamed with California power regulators to promote a plan to settle PG&E’s debts that could require millions of customers to keep paying among the nation’s highest electricity rates for an unknown number of years. 

The Public Utilities Commission and creditors committee will work with investment banking firm UBS Warburg to design a financial plan that would leave PG&E with enough cash to pay its debts, become creditworthy and resume buying electricity for its customers, attorneys for the state Public Utilities Commission said Thursday at a news conference. 

Now, the state buys power for customers of PG&E and two other electric utilities, the result of a freeze on electric rates that kept them from collecting enough money to pay bills as energy costs skyrocketed in 2000 and 2001. California officials say the price surge was caused by market manipulation by energy firms such as now-bankrupt Enron Corp. Separately on Thursday, the PUC voted to allow utilities to begin buying long-term power contracts through the state to help keep energy prices stable. 

State officials have said PG&E customers must help pull the company from Chapter 11 or the state could lose its oversight over much of the company’s dealings to federal energy regulators whom the state has blamed for moving too slowly to rein in out-of-control prices. Those include the utility’s use of its Sierra lands and the prices it charges for power generated at its power plants and hydroelectric dams. 

Thursday’s agreement would enable U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to require that PG&E’s rates be high enough to meet the utility’s financial obligations. PUC general counsel Gary Cohen said it’s necessary to let Montali shape rates to reassure creditors and investors they will get paid. 

Rates could even drop, Cohen said, although he acknowledged the state’s ratepayers still are on the hook for billions spent keeping the lights on. 

The agreement angered consumer advocates, who said they’re going to court to kill it. The new plan resembles one state officials crafted in to help fellow utility Southern California Edison pay its debts. 

That plan requires Edison customers to continue paying record electric rate hikes for the next several years to help the beleaguered utility pay an estimated $3 billion debt incurred during the state’s energy crisis. 

“We’re not going to let five unelected (Gov. Gray) Davis appointees impose $20 billion in bailout charges on the ratepayers to cover the deregulation debacle,” said Harvey Rosenfield, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based consumer advocacy group. 

Four of five commissioners at the PUC were appointed by Davis, a Democrat up for re-election this November. The state Supreme Court recently dismissed a case brought against the PUC by consumer groups that claimed the state was wrong to make such agreements without allowing public comment and participation. 

Davis’ spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said Thursday the governor was not aware of the agreement and did not have comment. PG&E said the tardiness of the state’s announcement in the bankruptcy process only enhanced its view that the state’s plan is flawed. 

“Since many of the important details of the CPUC’s arrangement have not been made public, PG&E will need to obtain and thoroughly review additional information in order to provide a detailed analysis,” the company said in a statement. 

Thousands of creditors recently finished voting on a pair of plans for PG&E’s future to help Montali determine how the debts will be paid. 

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

The revised plan the state and creditors committee hope to put before creditors calls for the utility’s 4.6 million ratepayers to pay billions, for PG&E to sell preferred stock and its parent — PG&E Corp. — to forgo a huge chunk of profits. 

Montali is scheduled to decide on one or a combination of the scenarios Nov. 12, although Cohen said the revised plan’s future relies on the judge extending the voting period to give creditors a chance to examine the changes and perhaps switch their votes. 

Both PG&E and the state say the other’s plan is fatally flawed. 

PG&E’s creditors committee came full circle with Thursday’s announcement of allegiance with the state. The committee initially backed PG&E but fears its ambitious plan will be appealed for months with creditors left unpaid in the meantime. 

“PG&E’s plan is a viable plan, in many senses it’s a very good plan,” said Paul Aronzon, the committee’s spokesman. “The problem is it’s going to be argued many times up to the United States Supreme Court.” 

SACRAMENTO — For the second time this year, the Assembly advanced legislation Wednesday that would make California the only state to ban smoking by anyone under age 21. 

The backup bill is needed because similar legislation previously approved by the Assembly appears stalled in the Senate, said Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside. 

He amended a Senate bill with the ban previously sought by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood. The measure was sent back to committees for review after the amendments were added on a 42-10 roll call. 

Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, called it “a smoke screen” and “a cynical ploy” to divert attention from Assembly Republicans’ opposition to a proposed $2.13 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes as part of Democrats’ plan to bridge the state’s $23.6 billion budget gap. 

But the move drew support from Koretz and other Democrats, who said the combination of a tax increase and age limit increase would help reduce smoking particularly by young people. 

And it drew opposition from Republicans who argued the state shouldn’t impose such a ban on legal adults, including those who serve in the military.

SACRAMENTO — Gone are the good old days of distracted driving, when motorists merely juggled coffee, shaved, read a map, drove with a pet dog in the lap and lit cigarettes for the miles still ahead. 

Today, millions of American drivers are taking traditional driver absent-mindedness to new heights. 

Behind the wheel, they’re talking on cellular phones, sending and receiving pages, checking sports scores on personal digital assistants and even sneaking a glance or two at television. 

Though the much-maligned cell phone gets the headlines for stealing drivers’ “glance time” and causing abrupt lane weaving, experts say it’s the mere tip of the iceberg. 

In California, a state that has long defined American car culture, more commute-weary residents are loading up their interiors with VCR and DVD players, fax machines and dashboard video screens for satellite navigation systems. 

Experts attribute the trend to the state’s legendary and worsening traffic, which traps people in their cars for longer stretches and further blurs lines between the office and front seat. 

And that is raising new fears among an array of authorities from lawmakers to insurance companies of a spate of new road crashes as more people are literally driven to distraction. 

Nationally, officials believe up to 30 percent of crashes are caused by driver distractions that include mobile communications devices. 

A March report by the National Conference of State Legislatures suggests device-related distractions that killed an estimated 600 to 1,000 motorists in 2001 could kill 2,000 a year by 2004. 

The report also cites “great potential” for even more dramatic increases in fatalities by the decade’s end. 

To those who spend most of their lives on the roads, the handwriting is on the asphalt. 

“We see it all the time,” says Leo Williams, a North Carolina trucker who watches passengers and drivers play video games, hold phones to their ears and work laptop computers. 

At an I-80 truck stop east of San Francisco, New Mexico trucker Gene Smith adds: “Computers. They’re going down the road with a computer on in the front seat. I see more of that.” 

“You can now buy aftermarket TVs and plug them into the dash and actually watch DVD movies,” says Lt. Joel Broumas, who heads the traffic division at the Modesto Police Department in the Central Valley. “We stopped a kid who was driving a nice Blazer. He had one hooked up in the dash, about an eight- or nine-inch deal.” 

Academics have coined the word “carcooning” to describe how people increasingly outfit their cars for comfort, entertainment and productivity. Phone systems are built in. New stereos pull in satellite radio broadcasts and play MP3 files downloaded from the Internet. 

“We’re seeing a lot of requests for mobile video,” says Doug Kalpakoff, salesman at Wireless World in Morgan Hill, Calif. “Fewer people are flying and more are driving. The most popular is the drop-down screen from the roof. We see that in larger SUVs.” 

Some stores, he says, now install video screens on front-seat passenger visors. 

That’s already alarmed some California legislators, who proposed bills this year and last to follow the lead of New York state and ban California drivers from using hand-held cell phones. 

Both measures died after vigorous opposition by major wireless companies, who argued that the number of wireless phone users has jumped from 10 million in 1988 to 120 million in 2002 without a huge corresponding increase in car crashes.

If you’re like most folks, your home is the single biggest investment that you will make in a lifetime. Therefore, it makes good sense to do everything that you can to take good care of it. 

People who get the best return on their investment — when it comes time to sell — don’t wait for the roof to leak or paint to peel. They perform regular home-maintenance tasks that preserve the structural integrity of their home. Regular maintenance also keeps a home looking spiffy, which also has a lot to do with value. 

Painting is a maintenance task that offers one of the best returns for the dollar — inside or out. Also, a fresh coat of paint can transform a “plain Jane” home into an eye-catcher. This can be particularly true of a stucco home since stucco has special problems, such as cracking, fading and efflorescence. 

Besides enhancing appearance, a fresh coat of paint can help protect the home from the elements (sun, rain and snow) and the inevitable deterioration that occurs from prolonged exposure to them. 

How often should you paint the exterior of your home? The answer depends on several factors: exterior siding material, climate, sun exposure and the quality and type of paint used. With proper preparation and top-quality paint, a home typically will require painting every five to seven years. Darker shades — as with trim colors — might need repainting every couple of years to retain their original brilliance. 

Choose paint quality and color carefully. Use colors that will enhance the architectural appearance of your home. The one- or two-color schemes used in the past are just that — a thing of the past. A well-thought-out color pallet — using several colors or shades — can be visually pleasing by accentuating various architectural elements. For example, the barge, fascia and general trim can be painted one color, the overhang or soffit another, the body another and shutters, if they exist, yet another. And you can set it all off by using a punch color for the entry door. A reputable paint dealer and-or a professional color consultant can be of help when choosing colors. 

Think of paint as an investment and not a cost. If you enjoy painting and want to paint your home often, buy inexpensive generic brands. We guarantee that you’ll be busy painting every year of so. If, on the other hand, you like to paint, but would rather not enjoy the experience more often than every five to seven years, we suggest that you buy the best paint available. 

Good paint isn’t inexpensive, but when you consider lasting quality and the protection that it offers your home, it’s a bargain. Shop for a major name brand and plan to spend about $25 a gallon for a high-quality 100-percent acrylic latex exterior house paint. 

Preparation and paint application technique are no less important than the quality of the paint. This is especially true with stucco because of the concerns mentioned earlier. 

It doesn’t make any difference how good the paint is; it simply won’t stick unless the surface is clean. With stucco, we suggest a thorough power washing to clean the surface and remove chipped and peeling paint. Dirty areas such as the lowest section close to the ground should be scrubbed with a coarse nylon brush and powder laundry detergent. Use 1/3 cup to 1 gallon of hot water. Add 1 quart of bleach to this concoction if mildew is present. 

Efflorescence — a white powdery substance that is common with stucco and masonry finishes — should be removed using a wire brush. 

The most challenging aspect of prepping a stucco house for painting is crack repair. You can turn your home into an interstate road map of obvious crack repair, if you aren’t cautious. When it comes to stucco crack repair, less is more. Don’t attempt to patch every crack. Hairline cracks and those that you can’t get your fingernail into should not be patched. High-quality paint should be used to fill those cracks. 

Wider cracks should be filled with a high-quality exterior grade acrylic latex caulk. Have a damp sponge handy to wipe away excess caulking. There are two trade secrets for caulking stucco. First, when using a damp sponge to wipe off excess caulking, wipe in all directions to remove caulking that might be lodged in a textured finish. Second, while the caulking is still wet, place fine texturing sand into the palm of your hand and, holding your hand in front of the caulking, blow across the sand to scatter it onto the surface of the damp caulk. This will help make the patch less obvious and prevent the “road-map” effect by helping the caulk blend into the surrounding finish. 

Stucco can be painted using a roller or with an airless sprayer. A brush is not recommended. A roller works well for small jobs, but can be overwhelming on larger projects. For big jobs, consider using an airless sprayer. Don’t put your roller away when using a paint sprayer. Spraying will get the paint onto the surface. Use a deep-nap roller (3/4 inch to 1 inch) to work the paint into the surface and to achieve a uniform finish. 

Although one coat might do the trick, stucco usually will require two, due to its high level of absorption and to conceal cracks and other repairs. 

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. — Elizabeth Tashjian has spent most of her 89 years trying to prove that nuts are at the very core of human existence. 

For her stand, some have called her nutty. But her work is being taken very seriously by some in the arts community. 

In the Nut Museum she created in her home in Old Lyme, she displays paintings, sculptures and masks based on the shelled snack. She sees art in walnuts, in peanuts, in coconuts. She believes there are souls under the shells of Brazilian nuts and pecans. And she’s likely to belt out a song over pine nuts, chestnuts and hazelnuts. 

“I use the nut form to inspire my artwork and thinking philosophy,” Tashjian said in an interview at the nursing home where she now lives. “I don’t want my museum to be taken as a joke.” 

It’s not. Connecticut College recently took over her collection, which it plans to develop into a traveling exhibit and a book about her art. 

The collection includes metal sculptures, a 35-pound coco de mer, nut masks, paintings and nuts themselves. There are also video clips from her four appearances on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, and many newspaper clippings telling stories about the offbeat museum. 

The college inquired about the collection when Christopher Steiner, director of college’s Department of Museum Studies, saw that Tashjian’s house was up for sale. 

Tashjian fell ill in late May, and police found her unconscious in her home. She awoke from a coma 28 days later and was transferred to a nursing home. The court appointed emergency conservators to handle her personal affairs, because she has no surviving family. They say Tashjian is too ill to care for herself, or her home. 

It’s a decision she contested. Tashjian appeared at a recent court hearing, and to everyone’s surprise, defended her sanity and declared she wanted to go home. 

“I’m as sane as anyone in this room,” she said. “I negate everything that’s been done here because it was based on the assumption I did not have my sanity. My sanity is intact.” 

The Gothic, tree-shrouded house was put up for sale to pay off her medical bills, said John Watts, her conservator. Tashjian never worked, has no social security and owes $330,000 on a mortgage. The house is listed at $695,000. 

Assessors found no monetary value in the nut collection. 

Steiner, however, saw a different kind of value — and was compelled to save it. 

“It’s almost a philosophy that she was trying to develop using the nut as a starting point,” said Steiner, who for years has used the museum as an example in his course Introduction to Museum Studies. “She was trying to say even the smallest everyday object can be beautiful if looked at correctly.” 

Jeff Andersen, director of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, wrote a letter to the Probate Court in support of Steiner’s request for the collection. Florence Griswold’s documents and personal items were auctioned off when the house was sold years ago, and the museum has spent decades trying to reclaim them. 

He didn’t want to see Tashjian’s collection suffer the same fate. 

“It’s kind of a quandary about just how you value something like this,” Andersen said. “I would say there are other values — cultural value, artistic value.” 

In his quest to put together an exhibit, Steiner has been piecing together Tashjian’s life, leafing through diaries, fan mail and her art. Her parents divorced when she was seven, and she and her mother came to Old Lyme in 1950. Her mother died in 1959, and left the house to her. 

Tashjian opened her Nut Museum in 1972. 

She claims she didn’t realize the word “nut” could also mean crazy until a man visiting the museum didn’t have the required admission — $3 and a nut — so he offered his wife instead. 

“I was so surprised. I was astonished. I was shocked,” Tashjian said. “I almost closed the museum.” 

Instead, she says, she became a champion of nuts — a crusader aimed to rid the word nut of its double meaning. She would educate visitors on different kinds of nuts. Then she would try on masks that represented each nut, and quiz visitors on what they learned. 

“She was doing this 20 years ago, and museums weren’t doing that kind of interactive education,” Steiner said. “She was really ahead of her time in that sense.” 

Steiner said it will take two to three years to get the contents of the museum organized and arranged for an exhibit. In the meantime, Tashjian, steadily recovering from her medical bout, has another plan. 

“I want to build a nut theme park,” she says, smiling. “One that will put Disneyland to shame.” 

CLEVELAND – Sitting on the dugout steps before the game, Oakland manager Art Howe glanced at the threatening clouds above Jacobs Field and worried about a postponement. 

The rain never came. 

“Not a drop,” Howe said. 

Nope, the sun is still shining on the Athletics. 

Mark Mulder completed Oakland’s first four-game sweep of Cleveland and the A’s won their season-high ninth straight game Thursday night, 9-3 over the Indians. 

“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves,” Howe said. “We’re getting contributions from everyone in the lineup. That’s nice.” 

Mulder (15-7) followed a brilliant performance by Cory Lidle — a one-hitter Wednesday night — with a pretty good one of his own, allowing three runs and five hits in 7 2-3 innings. 

Mulder threatened to give Oakland consecutive one-hitters as he entered the seventh. He had only allowed a leadoff single in the third and retired 11 straight before Omar Vizquel singled with one out. 

Ellis Burks followed with his 27th homer, bringing the Indians to 3-2 and snapping an 18-inning scoreless streak for Cleveland. Jim Thome then singled, but Mulder got Travis Fryman to hit into an inning-ending double play. 

Mulder walked none, struck out two and got 16 outs on grounders as the A’s moved into a tie for first place in the AL West with Seattle, one game ahead of Anaheim. 

“I just think we got a lot of confidence right now,” said Mulder, who is 13-3 in his last 17 starts. “Everybody is picking each other up and we’re just playing solid ball.” 

Mulder also gave Oakland’s outfield the night off, as none of the A’s caught a fly in left, center or right. 

Chad Bradford pitched 1 1-3 innings for his second save. 

Karim Garcia also homered for the Indians, who have lost five in a row. 

Following the game, interim manager Joel Skinner held a brief meeting with his players. 

“I just talked to the guys to make sure we are all OK,” Skinner said. “It wasn’t a holler session and I didn’t chew anyone out.” 

Oakland, which had an 11-game winning streak last season, swept a four-game series from Cleveland for the first time since the A’s moved to California from Kansas City in 1968. 

The A’s did it with their usual great pitching — and some clutch hitting. 

Of Oakland’s final 21 runs over the last three games of the series, 18 came with two outs. The A’s outscored the Indians 29-7 in the four-game sweep and never trailed. 

“Anytime you can extend an inning with a two-out base hit, that’s winning baseball,” Skinner said. “That’s what beat us the last four nights.” 

Miguel Tejada put Oakland ahead 3-0 in the fifth with a two-out, two-run single off Jason Phillips (1-2). 

“That gave us some momentum and gave Mike a margin to work with, and he made it stand up,” Howe said. 

Tejada has 104 RBIs — second in the AL to Texas’ Alex Rodriguez, who entered Thursday with 110. 

Oakland opened a 5-2 lead in the eighth on a fielder’s choice grounder by Terrence Long and Ramon Hernandez’s RBI single. 

The A’s, who spent the past four nights stepping all over the Indians, took a 1-0 lead in the second and spiked catcher Einar Diaz in the process. 

David Justice drew a two-out walk, and Mark Ellis followed with a single. Long followed by grounding a single through the right side, and Justice was waved around. 

Right fielder Karim Garcia made a strong throw home that handcuffed Diaz, who spun and reached back across the plate as Justice stepped on his right hand while scoring. 

Diaz, who suffered a bruised hand and triceps muscle, was replaced by Eddie Perez. 

Skinner said Diaz has three spike marks on his hand and will have X-rays on his arm taken Friday.

NEW YORK – With a week to go, negotiators for players and owners expressed optimism that they have enough time to reach a deal and avoid another baseball strike. 

The sides had three bargaining sessions Thursday, completing an agreement on debt regulation that eased the union’s concerns the rules would restrict spending on players. The union didn’t respond to the owners’ latest revenue-sharing proposal but said it will soon. The players’ executive board was to discuss the talks during a telephone conference call Friday. 

“The issues have been narrowed sufficiently that it would not take very much time to conclude an agreement,” said union lawyer Steve Fehr, the brother of union head Donald Fehr. 

While the sides are still apart on their revenue-sharing proposals and disagree on the levels of a proposed luxury tax on the payrolls of baseball’s biggest spenders, they agree on much of the framework. 

Sometime next week, the sides must decide whether they want to compromise on their numbers or try to outlast each other during a strike. If players walk out on the Aug. 30 strike date, it would be baseball’s ninth work stoppage since 1972. 

“We have plenty of time to resolve all of the issues that are outstanding between the parties,” said Rob Manfred, the owners’ top labor lawyer. “It’s just a difference of numbers. ... Seven days is plenty of time to resolve those numerical differences.” 

Much of Thursday, according to Manfred, was devoted to scheduling, interleague play and the assignment of player contracts. 

The debt regulation agreement resolved a potential problem with the owners’ 60-40 rule, according to a management official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

The 60-40 rule, established in the mid-1970s but enforced only periodically, requires each team to have at least 60 percent of its value in assets and no more than 40 percent in debt.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Aug. 29, 1944, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital celebrated its liberation from the Nazis. 

On this date: 

In 1943, responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval ships. 

In 1957, South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond (then a Democrat) ended a filibuster against a civil rights bill after talking for more than 24 hours. 

In 1965, Gemini Five, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles (“Pete”) Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space. 

In 1966, the Beatles concluded their fourth American tour with their last public concert. It was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. 

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council agreed to send 3,000 more relief troops to Somalia to guard food shipments. About 13,000 people staged an anti-extremist rally in Rostock, Germany, even as right-wingers continued attacks on foreigners. 

Five years ago: Hooded men killed more than 300 people in an Algerian farm village in the worst carnage since an Islamic insurgency began.  

One year ago: George Rivas, the ringleader of the biggest prison breakout in Texas history, was sentenced to death for killing an Irving policeman, Aubrey Hawkins, while on the run. 

Today’s Birthdays: TV personality Robin Leach is 61. Singer Michael Jackson is 44. Actress Rebecca DeMornay is 40.

The foreign-born population in the nine Bay Area counties rose significantly in the 1990s, from about 20 percent in 1990 to almost 27.5 percent in 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released today. 

Meanwhile, the overall population of the region – encompassing Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties – climbed to almost 6.8 million in 2000, from just over 6 million during the last decennial census. 

On the statewide level, the foreign-born population stood at 26.2 percent, according to the latest census, up from 21 percent in 1990. The population of the state was about 34 million. 

Most of the foreign-born residents of the Bay Area and the state as a whole were from Latin and Asian countries. 

In San Francisco, with a population of almost 777,000, the number of residents born outside the United States stood at 36.8 percent in the latest census figures, with 61 percent of those coming from Asian countries and 21 percent hailing from Latin counties. In addition, about 46 percent of the city's residents reported speaking a language other than English at home. 

In Santa Clara County, 34 percent of Santa Clara County's 1.7 million residents were foreign-born, with more than half coming from Asian counties and about a third from Latin countries. 

Furthermore, 45 percent of the county's residents reported speaking a language other than English in the home, up from 32 percent recorded during the last census. 

About 27 percent of Alameda County's 1.4 million residents were foreign-born, according to the new data, and about 37 percent reported speaking a foreign language in the home. 

In California, 39.5 percent of the population reports speaking a language other than English at home. 

The data released today were culled from responses to the 52-item census long-form questionnaire delivered to a 1-in-6 sample of 19 million households. 

The 484 population tables cover such subjects as marital status, grandparents as caregivers, language and ability to speak English, ancestry, place of birth, place of work, school enrollment, veteran status, occupation and poverty status.

OAKLAND – Homicide investigators said today that they have little to go on as they try to solve the city's 73rd homicide, which occurred at an apartment complex in the western side of the city Sunday night. 

Police spokesman George Phillips says residents at 680 24th St. called police at 11:57 p.m. Sunday and reported shots fired. When officers arrived they found that 58-year-old Brenda Williams, a resident of the apartment complex, had been shot and killed in the courtyard. She was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Police have no suspects in custody and do not know what led to the death. 

The killing is the 73rd in Oakland this year. There were 66 homicides in Oakland at this time last year.

SAN MATEO – A Florida salvage company hopes to complete by the end of September the removal of thousands of gallons of fuel oil from the S.S. Jacob Luckenbach that lies in 175 feet of water 17 miles southeast of San Francisco. 

The ship sunk when it struck another ship in 1953. It was bound for Korea to deliver supplies for the Korean War. Oil leaking from the Luckenbach has killed more than 1,800 sea birds since November. 

The U.S. Coast Guard, Titan Maritime Industries LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and the state Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response are partners to the recovery of the oil that remains on the 468-foot-long vessel that lies in three pieces in 45 degree water at the bottom of an inbound shipping lane. 

Robert Hughes, spokesman for the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, said 25,000 gallons has been extracted from tanks that didn't rupture on the ship, which was carrying as many as 100,000 gallons of fuel oil. 

The ship started leaking fuel oil when it sank, but each year around November since 1992 the oil has washed ashore and coated sea birds, Hughes said. 

The removal of the remaining oil, which in the chilly water has the consistency of refrigerated peanut butter until it is heated to 150 degrees and mixed with water in pump lines, could cost as much as $17 million, Hughes said. 

Titan Maritime Industries salvage crews are working on a 100-foot-wide, 400-foot-long barge and are manufacturing equipment to aid their extraction efforts even as the operation progresses. 

Hughes said the weather has been good after severe weather in May when salvage crews first arrived and were greeted by 25-30-foot seas.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis unveiled a new statewide advertising campaign Thursday to encourage consumers to purchase California-grown produce to help boost the state’s largest industry. 

“The purpose is to put one thought in people’s mind: Food grown in California is the very best in the world,” Davis said, announcing the launch of the program at the California State Fair in Sacramento. 

Contributions from the agriculture industry, as well as state and federal grants, pay for the “California Grown” program. 

The ads poke fun at some of Calollowed by a man declaring, “I’ve never called anybody dude.” A man then says “I’m, just a Californian” who buys California produce. 

The two 30-second spots will air for 30 weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno, Monterey-Salinas, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield. 

The ad campaign is part of a $75 million “Buy California” campaign launched by Davis last year to help California farmers — most of which run family farms or partnerships.

Seven minor injuries in  

Amtrak derailment in Hayward 

HAYWARD — An Amtrak train bound for Seattle derailed here after hitting an unknown object, slightly injuring seven people, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. 

There were 287 passengers and 23 crew members about the Coast Starlight, which runs daily from Los Angeles to Seattle, when the accident occurred about 10:10 p.m. Wednesday, said Amtrak spokeswoman Veernae Graham. 

The locomotive hit an unidentified object on the tracks, which are owned by Union Pacific and leased by Amtrak, causing its derailment. Six cars went off the tracks, but all of them were standing upright, Graham said. 

Four passengers were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released. Three others also were taken to area hospitals for minor injuries, Graham said. 

The train was traveling about 60 mph at a junction that allows for speeds up to 70 mph, Graham said. The train’s next scheduled stop was Oakland. 

Passengers were being bused Thursday to destinations beyond the accident site. A majority of them will board another Amtrak train in Sacramento to Seattle, Graham said. That train is expected to arrive in Seattle at 8:25 p.m. Thursday. 

Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Mike Furtney said another set of tracks runs through Hayward, about 25 miles east of San Francisco. The derailment was not expected to cause a “severe impact” on the Capitol Corridor commuter train that runs daily between San Jose and Sacramento, he said. 

Bay water on tap? 

SAN RAFAEL — Who would drink treated San Francisco Bay water? 

The Marin Municipal Water District wants to know, and agreed Wednesday to ask county residents. The move is part of the district’s attempt to increase its water supply. 

One way would be to increase use of Russian River water by building a pipeline from Petaluma to Ignacio. Another option is to remove salt and contaminants from bay water. 

Opponents of the pipeline plan say it will hurt endangered salmon and trout in the river. Those against the bay plan say a desalination plant would cost too much. 

The district will hire a company to establish public focus groups at a cost of about $45,000. 

Those will help the board “have a better handle on the public’s feeling with the supply option,” said president Jared Huffman.