Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, the first Asian-American to head a major U.S. university, died Tuesday night at the age of 67. 

Tien, who served as chancellor from 1990 to 1997, died at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Redwood City, two years after suffering a brain tumor and debilitating stroke, according to a UC Berkeley statement. 

Tien made his reputation as an award-winning scientist who worked on insulation tiles for the space shuttle, a prodigious fundraiser who guided UC Berkeley through tough economic times and a tireless fighter for affirmative action, even in the face of opposition from the UC Board of Regents. 

Locals remember a warm leader who made a strong effort to reach out to the city. 

“He was a wonderful, personal friend,” said Mayor Shirley Dean, on the verge of tears, describing a great intellect who still took time to lecture before students at Berkeley High School. 

“He would take his personal time and actually be there,” she said. “It wasn’t just lip service.” 

Tien was born on July 24, 1935 in Wuhan, China. In 1949, his family fled China’s communist regime for Taiwan. After completing his undergraduate education at National Taiwan University, Tien emigrated to the United States in 1956 to study at the University of Louisville and later Princeton University, receiving two masters degrees and a PhD in mechanical engineering. 

During his time in the South, Tien learned about racism firsthand. A Louisville professor repeatedly referred to him as a “Chinaman,” Tien recalled, and the black-white divide was plainly evident. 

“One day I got on a bus and saw that all the black people were in back, the white people in front. I didn’t know where I belonged, so for a long time I stood near the driver,” Tien once said. “Finally, he told me to sit down in front, and I did. I didn’t take another bus ride for a whole year. I would walk an hour to avoid that.” 

In 1959, Tien joined the UC Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and in 1962, at the age of 26, he became the youngest professor to win UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award. 

An expert in thermal science and engineering, Tien helped the governments of Hong Kong and the United States work through several problems, including the nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island. 

“He was a visionary,” said Richard O. Buckius, a former Tien student who heads the department of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “He marked out new high-impact areas, and then he lead everybody to the next area.” 

In 1988, Tien briefly left UC Berkeley to serve as executive vice chancellor at UC Irvine. But in 1990, he returned to take the reins as UC Berkeley chancellor. 

Tien faced a series of crises shortly after taking office – a fraternity house fire that killed three students, a hostage-taking at a hotel bar near campus in which a gunman killed a student before being shot dead by police, and an assassination attempt by a machete-wielding local activist with a history of mental illness. 

“People say that I must have been really shaken over the fact that someone tried to assassinate me,” Tien told Asian Week newspaper in 1997. “But I don’t feel that way.” 

Tien said the hostage situation and fire were more difficult. 

“When I first heard about the fraternity fire that killed two students, I was not really prepared to handle that,” he told Asian Week. “I have children. I went to see the parents at midnight and talked to them – that was hard, the human suffering.” 

Tien also faced a fiscal crisis when he took office. With the California economy lagging, state funding for UC Berkeley dropped by $70 million or 18 percent within four years, according to a university statement. 

In response, Tien launched an ambitious fund-raising drive in 1996 that collected $1.44 billion by the time it was complete. At an April 2001 gala to celebrate the end of the campaign, current UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl announced the creation of the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies. 

Tien also gained notoriety for his outspoken support of affirmative action, which the UC Board of Regents banned in 1995. In 1996, Tien took his case to the editorial page of the New York Times. 

“It would be a tragedy if our nation’s colleges and universities slipped backward now, denying access to talented but disadvantaged youth and eroding the diversity that helps to prepare leaders,” he wrote. 

The UC Berkeley campus mourned its own leader, forged in the fires of American diversity, Wednesday. 

“Chang-Lin was an exceptional leader during one of UC Berkeley’s most challenging periods,” said Chancellor Berdahl, in a statement. “His energy and optimism, his willingness to fight for the principles he cherished, and his loyalty and love for this campus made it stronger and better.” 

Tien is survived by his wife Di-Hwa, of Berkeley; a son, Norman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Davis; and daughters Phyllis, a physician at UC San Francisco, and Christine, the deputy city manager of Stockton. Tien also leaves four grandchildren. 

A campus memorial service will be held Nov. 14 from 3 to 4 p.m. at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. 

Contact reporter at  

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

We are blessed to live on an obscure, quiet little block that is not a battleground in the 2002 mayoral campaign. We watch baseball and eat dinner, uninterrupted by politicians or their earnest canvassers. Since we screen our calls, they're not going to get us that way, either.  

So to us, the mayoral campaign has been a battle of the brochure. Judging it on that basis, it's not been a very inspiring campaign, but it has run true to the personalities of the two candidates and to that dreary battle between liberal and left. 

Tom Bates sent us a big brochure of happy yellows and blues that included a list of all the problems he would solve and then added a card we could mail in, in case he had forgotten to mention anything. It was a very progressive “process,” catchall approach that rendered the thing almost meaningless. Recently we received an equally unforgettable flyer from him about, we think, education.  

He comes across as a moderate lefty, experienced and goodhearted. But it's all a little rote, and you wonder if maybe he lacks a real fire in the belly for this particular race and perhaps for the job itself.  

A recent mailing from incumbent Shirley Dean goes for the throat and doesn't let go. There are a couple of nice pictures of nice people who are supporting her. But they're lost in the spooky, blood-red lettering, the grey-patina pictures of dilapidated housing, and the dire warnings that Bates will return the city to the clutches of wild-eyed radicals, some of whose more flamboyant moments are mentioned – no matter how ancient or of dubious relevance.  

It's fear-mongering, something Dean has never been able to resist. And, once again, it overshadows her good works and her commendable urge to, at some point, just get things done. It also foolishly cedes the high ground to her opposition, some of whom can be just as nasty. 

James Day 

Berkeley

Alfonso Maya is living proof that music is a universal language. This new singing talent from Mexico City is receiving high praise and respect for his native contemporary music during his first U.S. tour, which commenced early September. From Chicago to Milwaukee to California, he has touched the hearts of many who might not understand his words but are drawn to the passion of his performances. 

“[My audience] understands the emotion. They get in contact with the emotion. Even when I sing sad songs, at the end of the concert, people always thank me. It’s like an event of nourishing the soul,” Maya said. 

The Trova musician, whose hits include “Tu Fantasma,” “Giros Y Giros,” and “La Niña de Las Flores,” will be performing at La Peña Cultural Center this Sunday with a multicultural group of musicians and performers. Joining him are Arubah, a world fusion band, and Caminante, featuring Francisco Herrera, a Bay Area activist who is a vocal advocate of human rights. Silvia Parra will also be performing spoken word in English and Spanish.  

“[Alfonso] will be performing a piece with Francisco Herrera, in which they sing ‘who says that everything is lost, I come here to give you my heart.’ It is very poetic,” described Parra. 

Maya’s music is an assortment of bittersweet love ballads and satirical observations of social norms that can be heard on his debut album “Giros y Giros,” which came out last year. He casually, yet dexterously, strums his guitar through songs that speak of the farewell of romance. The delicate, longing tunes are juxtaposed with other humorous melodies, one in which he cleverly sings, “Mindless tunes, get airtime, don’t say anything, nasty little tune gets in your system.” 

La Niña de Las Flores, track five on his album, has made the largest impact on U.S, audiences. He speaks of a real-life girl who has resorted to a life of labor at a young age. 

“He sings so tenderly to this little girl [who is ] selling flowers in the middle of the night. It reminds me that a child is doing this work. And there are a lot of children in Mexico doing this kind of labor,” said Parra.  

In the last piece, a humorous commentary, Maya croons, “People are so addicted to the night of drinking.” And Maya would know about these people, having performed in bars all over the world. He has also graced international audiences in a wide array of venues, from universities to churches and performance halls.  

Maya fondly remembered an experience after his friends’ wedding in France, “I found very interesting that the French people were so moved by my song, that they would stand up in ovation at a wedding ceremony. Later at the party, some of the people told me, through translators, that they could not understand a word that I was saying, but they could feel a lot of emotion in their heart, and they were very touched.” 

The Trova music that Maya performs is an old style of music that has transformed into what is known as contemporary music in Mexico. It is a Spanish ballad style of music that is more than a century old and has evolved over the years. During the 60s’, it developed quite a bit, generating astonishing songs from brilliant artists.  

Art and performance was always a part of Maya’s family, some being circus performers and musicians. In fact Maya’s homeland Cuernavaca, meaning “Place of Eternal Spring,” is known as the capital of language studies and arts, housing many foreign exchange students who want to take a breath of Mexico’s arts and literature.  

Maya began singing at the age of 14 when he was drawn to the music coming from his Uncle’s guitar playing. In high school he took guitar and music lessons and continued his musical studies through college. In college he also received a chemistry and theater degree. 

“I took on theater because I like to be on stage and to personalize somebody at some point,” said the adored Mexican Troubadour. “When I am up on stage, I am recreating myself. And that’s the way I relive the song again.”

Thursday, Oct. 31 

“Once in a Boo Moon” 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Chabot Museum, 10000 Skyline Blvd. 

This Halloween party includes a haunted house, hair raising science experiments, creepy creatures, and tricky treats. Costumes encouraged, children must be accompanied by an adult  

Tickets available at www.ticketweb.com or 336-7373 

$10/ $8 for Chabot members 

Halloween Carnival 

4 to 9 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Sponsored by the City of Berkeley Young Adult Project, this “Dead of the Dead” celebration includes a haunted house, carnival, parade, costume contest, food, and games. Contact Phil Harper-Cotton of the Young Adult Project with questions  

981-6670 

“Trick-Or-Treat For Unicef” 

Eat out at Chez-Panisse and other local restaurants and help Gourmet Magazine raise funds for children’s programs overseas. For a complete listing of participating restaurants and program details call (800) 252-KIDS or visit www.unicefusa.org 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Census 2000: Growing Together or Apart? 

8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Wurster Hall Auditorium (Rm. 112), UC Berkeley 

During this one-day conference, scholars will analyze the geographic impact of changes to the population 

For more info: 

http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/census2000.htm 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to noon 

UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant  

643-2755 

Free 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Sacred Breath” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 

Robin Caton gives this talk on Tibetan Buddhism, and the classic Buddhist practice known as Tong-len. 

843-6812  

Free 

Monday, Nov. 4 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home Owners Support Group 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 

Resources for low and middle-income home owners, and home maintenance 

548-9696 

“Pathways to Collaboration” 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Kroeber Hall, Rm. 160, UC Berkeley 

A lecture by Dana Plautz, director of research communications for Intel Corporation, followed by live music 

Free 

Wednesday, Nov. 6 

“The Chinese and Religion in the Context of Globalization” 

Reception 5:30 p.m. / Lecture 7 p.m. 

Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

A noted scholar and author, Professor Zhuo Xinping speaks 

649-2440 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

Book Sale and Auction 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The Center for AIDS Services, 5720 Shattuck Ave., Oakland 

This “big” sale will benefit the AIDS center 

655-3435 

Sunday, Nov. 10 

World RunDay - national charity benefit 

All day 

Various cities across the nation - contact www.runday.com 

(516) 859-3000 for more info 

Tuesday, Nov. 12 

Holiday Craft Baazar 

10 a.m. to noon 

Handmade items, sweet treats, and knick knacks will be for sale. Everyone is invited 

St. John’s Presbyterian Curch, 2727 College Ave. 

845-6830 

Wednesday, Nov. 13 

Public Lecture by the Rev. Canon Naim Ateek 

7:30 p.m. 

Founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and native of East Jerusalem, Rev. Ateek will lead a discussion sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Berkeley (UCC) and the Pacific School of Religion 

UCC, on Dana St. between Durant St. and Channing 

848-3696 

$10/ suggested donation  

League of Women Voters Meeting 

Noon 

LWVBAE office, 1414 University Ave. 

Discussion will focus on regional issues 

849-2154 

Thursday, Oct. 31 

Halloween Party with the Venusians 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

The Venusians are a shamanic trance-dance septet known for their costume-laden, colorful performances 

525-5054 

$10 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Festa Da Bunda 

8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

This Brazilian “love fest and Penta party” features a Batucada jam with Gary Muzynski of One World Music and others. The night includes a Brazilian soccer team look-alike contest 

525-5054 

$12 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

The Librarians with The Skyflakes and Plain White Ts 

9 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair 

2475 Bancroft Way 

$5 / 21 and over 

Vince Black with Root Awakening 

9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Socially conscious reggae classics and original songs 

525-5054 

$11 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

Workshop and Performance by Akira Tana 

1 to 3 p.m. workshop 

4:30 p.m. concert 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Drummer Akira Tana teaches and performs 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$30-$35 workshop 

$10-$15 performance 

CalArts Night of Jazz 

8 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

The first of many collaborations between Jazzschool and CalArts 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Flamenco Open Stage 

7:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Dancers, guitarists and singers, with a costume exhibit and a sale of flamenco items 

525-5054 

$8 

Miriam Abramowitsch and George Barth 

4 p.m. 

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 

The renowned singer and pianist will perform classical vocal favorites featuring the music of Brahams, Dvorak and Bartok 

559-6910 

$10 / 18 and under free 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

An Evening of Cultural Harmony 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The Barbard Ensemble, the San Francisco Klezmer Experience and Lichi Fuentes & Jackeline Rago will treat listeners to music from Iran, Eastern Europe, and Latin America 

704-7480 x755 

$25 general admission 

Sunday, Nov. 10 

The Sheldon Brown Group 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist 

528-9038 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

“A Lashing of Malice, a Slice of Humor” 

Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave, near Derby 

Roald Dahl’s adult stories come to life onstage 

Tickets available at the door and at: 

925-798-1300 

$25 opening night Gala 

$10-$15 otherwise 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

Jan Tissot 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Pegasus Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 

Jan Tissot will be signing his new novel, “Keiki” 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano Ave. 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Focus” 

2 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St.  

William H. Macy stars in this early 1940’s period piece 

848-0237 

$2 donation 

Thursday, Nov. 7 

“Desert Hearts” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

A 1950’s lesbian romance featuring Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau 

Friday, Nov. 8 

“El Che” 

7 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 

Film screening followed by salsa dancing to support Berkeley’s Cuban Sister-City Palma Soriano 

548-6941 

$10 / Sliding scale 

“Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times” 

7:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way 

The Middle East Children’s Alliance will premiere a new film by Academy award-nominated documentary filmmaker John Junkerman 

548-0542 

$15

He’s a fan: Cal head coach Jeff Tedford will spend his Saturday just like millions of others across the country: watching college football on television. 

Tedford will be paying special attention to the Arizona State-Washington State game on Saturday, as the Sun Devils are slated as the Golden Bears’ next opponent. With the luxury of a bye week, Tedford will watch his first football game of the season that isn’t on tape. 

“I’m really going to enjoy sitting back and watching someone else sweat it out for once,” Tedford said Tuesday. “I’ll be scouting, but I’ll be a fan too.” 

Injury report: Tedford’s team’s health should benefit from the weekend off. All three starting wide receivers are nursing injuries, as well as three offensive line starters, three defensive line starters and tight end Tom Swoboda. The injury report Tedford received on Monday was two pages long for the first time this season. Tedford said his backups will see extensive practice time this week, and the team will be in full pads only one day. Here’s a list of injuries to Cal starters: WR Jonathon Makonnen (shoulder), WR LaShaun Ward (shoulder, thumb), WR Geoff McArthur (hamstring), OT Chris Murphy (ankle), C Ryan Jones (wrist), G Jon Geisel (knee), FB Pana Faumuina (shoulder), TE Tom Swoboda (shoulder, ankle), DT Josh Beckham (ankle), DE Jamaal Cherry (foot), DE Tom Canada (thigh). 

Running woes: Tedford said the next two weeks will be largely dedicated to the running game, which is averaging just 94 yards per game, including games of 40 and 16 yards against UCLA and Oregon State, respectively. Tedford emphasizes balance on offense, and he hasn’t been getting enough production from the run game, which ranks eighth in the Pac-10. 

“Our running game has been non-existent lately,” Tedford said. “It’s something we’re going to have to address right now.” 

Tedford pointed to several factors that may have contributed to the weak efforts lately, including injuries on the offensive line, tough opponents and poor communication. 

“It might be my fault by having too many plays to remember,” he said. “The players might not be comfortable with having so many plays to remember. We have to get back to basics and be able to play at full speed.” 

Echemaandu update: Junior tailback Adimchinobe Echemaandu is likely to play at some point this season, perhaps as soon as the Bears’ penultimate game against Arizona. Echemaandu (formerly Joe Echema) tore the ACL and lateral miniscus in his right knee during spring drills. He started running a few weeks ago and has been practicing lightly for two weeks, running without a brace on the injured knee during sprints on Monday. 

“[Echemaandu] will get quite a bit of action this week,” Tedford said. “We’ll have him hitting a little bit and see how he responds.” 

Echemaandu came out of spring drills as the Bears’ top tailback but hurt his knee on April 24. He set a goal to play in the UCLA game but didn’t make it back in time. Tedford said he wants Echemaandu to play this season as the player used his redshirt a year ago due to academic issues. 

Telegraph Avenue merchants demanded justice Wednesday, one day after about 30 teenagers looted more than $2,000 in merchandise from a sporting good store. 

But police said arrests in the case were unlikely. “We are taking the matter very seriously,” said Officer Mary Kusmiss. But Kusmiss noted that without good descriptions of the kids, the looters would probably not be found. 

According to police, a group of teenagers left an AC Transit bus slightly before 11:30 a.m. at Durant and Telegraph avenues. Several of the kids ran into the Gap on the 2300 block of Telegraph, where they reportedly threw clothes on the floor and tried to steal merchandise. After being stopped by Gap security, they barged into the Foot Locker across the street and ran off with jerseys and other clothing. It is not known which high school the teenagers attend. 

Merchants connected the looting to a nearby protest held by the pro-affirmative action group Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). They noted that BAMN held a similar rally March 8, 2001 in which an estimated 75 high school students scheduled to attend the protest instead stole about $12,000 in footwear from The Athlete’s Foot on the same block of Telegraph as the Foot Locker. No arrests were made in that case. 

“The big question is who is By Any Means Necessary and what is the message being delivered to the schools,” said Kathy Berger, president of the Telegraph Area Association. 

Police, however, say that unlike last year there is no evidence tying Tuesday’s looting to the rally. According to police, the protesters were attending a pre-rally event at the First Congregational Church at 2345 Channing Way when the looting was taking place. 

BAMN organizer Yvette Felarca said Wednesday that she was not aware of any violence and refused to discuss which high schools participated in the rally and what level of supervision was provided by the schools. 

Local high school officials were also hesitant to address the subject. 

An assistant principal at Oakland Technical School, the only school confirmed to have sent students to Wednesday’s rally, insisted that they were chaperoned by school staff. The assistant principal declined to give his name. 

Berkeley High School security officer Craig White said students in Berkeley were not authorized to attend the rally and that he did not see any large exodus of students heading by bus to Telegraph Avenue. 

No other officials from local high schools returned telephone calls. 

According to UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore, BAMN failed to alert university officials that they planned to bus in high school kids for the rally. Nevertheless, she said, in light of last year’s violence, UC Berkeley staff telephoned local schools to anticipate attendance. 

Merchants vented most of their anger at the police department. 

“What’s disturbing here is that the police knew this was taking place and they knew what happened last year, but they didn’t inform the merchants and they didn’t put police on Telegraph,” said Ed Munger who owns the property leased to Foot Locker. 

Kusmiss said that UC Berkeley police advised Berkeley officers that the rally was expected to be peaceful. Acting on that information, Berkeley police dispatched six bicycle officers to the church rally, about two blocks from the site of the looting. 

According to Kusmiss, at 11:27 a.m. while the protesters were still at the church, police received a non-emergency call from the Gap about teenagers ransacking the store. The bike officers were sent from the church to the Gap, but when they arrived at 11:31 a.m., the kids had left the store. Then at 11:33 a.m. police received a 911 call from Foot Locker, directly across the street from the Gap. Berkeley police dispatched 25 officers to the scene, but none of the officers, including the officers at the Gap, were able to catch the kids. 

Munger insisted that the response was inadequate and indicative of the city’s lack of will to protect Telegraph merchants. “We’re trying to make this an attractive place, but those stumblebums in City Hall don’t seem to really care,” he said. 

Contact reporter at matt@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

My house is zoned R-3 and I am applying for permits to increase the standing room in my attic. With the existing height limit of 35 feet I can make this change. Under Measure P, the height initiative, I could not continue this project. R-3 would be the only residential district absolutely and unconditionally limited to 28 feet. This is much more brutal treatment than proposed for any other residential zoning district. The lower density residential districts R-1, R-1A, R-2 and R-2A would be limited to 35 feet with Zoning Adjustments Board approval. The higher density R-4 and R-5 would be limited to 35 feet and 40 feet. 

Measure P prohibits variances, which preserve the rights of people who live near business districts, on corner lots or steep hills, and those with large trees in their yards. I cannot fit 3 floors into 28 feet without tearing down my 1906 brown shingle and building a flat-roofed box. 

My next door neighbor's house is essentially identical to mine but is zoned R-2. Even though he is in a lower density zoning, he could ask for zoning board approval to improve his attic but I could not. This unequal treatment seems ludicrous and badly unfair to me. 

Measure P does not just affect transit corridors. Walk by my house at 2670 Parker Street and compare it with the house next door and the other buildings on my block before you make up your mind on this issue. We will live with Measure P for 10 years and it will single out some homeowners for disproportionately bad treatment with no appeal process. 

Russ Tilleman 

Berkeley 

Staff Report 

The Berkeley High water polo teams split their games at the Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League championship tournament on Wednesday, with the girls advancing into the championship bracket and the boys dropping into the consolation bracket. 

The Lady Jackets, the third seed in the tournament, beat St. Vincent High, 12-3, and will play Bishop O’Dowd High today at 2:30 p.m., with the winner moving on to the championship game on Saturday. All games are being played at Contra Costa College. 

The sixth-seeded boys fell to St. Patrick, 12-8, and face Encinal at 4:30 p.m. today. The winner will play in the fifth-place game on Friday.

The most gentlemanly campaign In Berkeley this election season is being run by the two women vying for Berkeley’s 1st District City Council seat. 

“I think we are setting a record for the most polite campaign ever run,” said Rhiannon, who uses only one name and is mounting a longshot effort to unseat 10-year incumbent Linda Maio. 

Maio, for her part is used to mellow campaigns. Since winning her council seat, which serves northwest Berkeley, in a 1992 run-off election, she has coasted through four easy re-elections. 

Maio, who is a member of the council’s progressive majority, is viewed as one of council’s strongest advocates on education and small business development. Her accomplishments include school programs on conservation and a ban on fast food restaurants along San Pablo Avenue. 

Rhiannon is not expected to upset Maio’s five-term winning streak. A full-time student, who lives in city-subsidized housing with her daughter, she has been active in district politics for many years, serving as secretary of the Oceanview Neighborhood Association and as a member of the West Berkeley Project Area Committee. 

She is rallying her campaign around a proposal to give residents advance notification of council items, by publishing agendas two weeks before meetings, instead of the current five-day warning. Rhiannon argues that extra time will give residents a chance to fully grasp the issues. Maio calls the suggestion unrealistic, noting that often items are too urgent to wait several weeks before debate. 

Despite a background that suggests progressive leanings, Rhiannon is playing the moderate in this race. Although she has not sought, nor received, the backing of moderates on City Council, Rhiannon is opposing Maio and her progressive council faction on several ballot initiatives. 

Maio, who is considered one of council’s strongest advocates for affordable housing and was a founder of non-profit homebuilder Resources for Community Development, supports a ballot measure to increase the tax on home sales from 1.5 to 2 percent. 

She argues that the tax hike on people who sell their homes for more than $350,000 can effectively build more affordable housing and reduce homelessness.  

Rhiannon sees the issue differently. She contends that the extra $5,000 added to the cost of an average home purchase would eliminate potential home owners from the Berkeley market. Although the measure would leave it up to the buyer and seller to determine which party pays the tax, she assumes the buyer will be made to cover the cost. “It seems like the tax is taking from the little guy and giving to the big non-profit developers,” she said. 

The candidates also differ on the most controversial ballot measure – a limit on the heights of new Berkeley developments. Rhiannon supports the initiative, arguing that it is needed to reign in developers who have exploited the city’s loose zoning regulations and unfairly built high-rise buildings near residential neighborhoods.  

“People should be able to be in a neighborhood and not warehoused in tall buildings,” she said. 

Maio, however, counters that the ballot measure would actually force more incursion into neighborhoods. Whereas current Berkeley zoning law calls for spaces between a new development and a neighboring property, Maio said the height initiative would force the developer to put the building right up against the edge of the property line in order to qualify for an extra floor of housing units. 

Traffic circles divide the candidates as well. Maio, who called commuter traffic racing through streets the district’s number one problem, supports a measure that will generate $10 million from property tax hikes to fund traffic calming measures such as traffic circles and pedestrian-activated traffic lights. Parents are scared to have their kids play outside because commuters are rushing through streets on their way to downtown, Maio said.  

Rhiannon, though, said the measure sounded like just another general tax. “Property owners are taxed enough and as a renter I know that gets passed on to tenants,” she said. As an alternative, she proposes that the city better time traffic lights to keep cars from building speed through district streets. 

Rhiannon has been most forceful criticizing Maio’s record on local environmental concerns. The district is home to the Berkeley Transfer Center as well as sections of Interstate 80 and the railroad, all of which add to local pollution. Rhiannon claims that Maio has blocked attempts to get air quality studies done and that she has ignored air pollution stemming from passing trains that kick up dust. 

Maio, however said she initiated the first west Berkeley air study in 2000. Additionally she said she has supported switching the city’s sanitation fleet from diesel to environmentally-friendly fuels and has passed measures providing environmental education in public schools. 

Contact reporter at matt@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Mayor Dean recently sent out a campaign flier alleging that if Tom Bates were elected mayor, we would return to trash and graffiti in downtown Berkeley. This is pure political garbage. The Clean City Program was initiated by Tom Bate's wife, former Mayor Loni Hancock, and cosponsored by Councilmember Maio and myself. We also advocated to have homeless people given jobs to do these tasks.  

There was a time before the mayoral election in 1994, when the funding for the program ran low and cleanup slowed, with obvious results. After her election as mayor, Dean joined me in urging the public works director to find some additional funding for the program. Additional funding was taken from the refuse fund, which is comprised of fees that residents pay for garbage pickup. 

In 1998, when Mayor Dean was again running for mayor, the staff told the council that there was not enough money to continue the additional service of trash and graffiti cleanup on the commercial corridors without a fee increase. Mayor Dean voted against the fee increase. It was the progressive majority who saved the day by having the political courage to raise the fees (even though it was close to the election) so that the Clean City Program could continue to be adequately funded. We also added San Pablo Avenue to the commercial streets getting the program.  

It is irksome to have Ms. Dean continually trying to take credit exclusively when it was under the progressive majority leadership that the cleanup and blossoming of the downtown happened. Without the progressive majority votes, there wouldn’t have been funding for the Clean City Program or for subsidizing the arts district. Without progressive council members voting, there would not have been a $4 million subsidy to the Berkeley Repertory and financial assistance to the Aurora Theater and Freight and Salvage folk music club.  

Dona Spring  

8th District City Councilmember 

Girls Volleyball - Berkeley 3, Encinal 0 

The Yellowjackets clinch their third straight Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League championship with a win over the Jets (13-6 overall, 8-2 ACCAL), 15-7, 15-2, 15-8. Vanessa Williams leads the way with 14 kills and 17 digs, while fellow senior Amalia Jarvis has 12 kills. Berkeley (15-8, 10-0) is headed for a third straight undefeated ACCAL season with just three games left. 

Girls Tennis - Berkeley 4, El Cerrito 3 

Berkeley wins all four singles matches against the Gauchos to tie Alameda High for the ACCAL championship. Megan Sweeney, Gail Nipnorasete, Clara Mattei and Alison Headley win their individual matches for the Yellowjackets. Berkeley and Alameda will face off in a playoff match for the league’s automatic berth to the North Coast Section playoffs. 

Girls Volleyball - St. Mary’s 3, St. Joseph 0 

The Panthers beat St. Joseph (16-15 overall, 6-5 BSAL) to solidify a spot in the Bay Shore Athletic League playoffs. Jazmin Pratt has 11 kills and 11 aces for the Panthers (9-3, 7-3) in the win. Martha Ryan pitches in with eight kills, while Brittany Murphy has four kills and four aces for St. Mary’s.

University of California lecturers announced Wednesday that they have rejected UC’s latest contract offer, which is likely to trigger state intervention in the 2 1/2-year-old labor dispute rooted in salary, job security and contract arbitration issues. 

“We’re not going to accept their offer,” said Fred Glass, spokesperson for the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents 4,000 lecturers across the nine-campus UC system, according to a union count, and 2,500 according to UC. 

University spokesperson Paul Schwartz said Wednesday that the university had not yet reviewed a formal union response to UC’s latest contract offer, which was issued Oct. 23. As a result, Schwartz said, he could not definitively reply to the union’s apparent rejection of the contract. 

But Schwartz indicated that, if the union is unwilling to compromise, the university may tell the state that an “impasse” exists in negotiations. If the state confirms that there is a deadlock, it would begin an official “fact-finding” process and propose contract terms of its own. If the university and union turn down the state’s proposal, the university would have the power to impose a final contract. 

“If we continue to be far apart on the issues, we could be headed toward fact-finding,” Schwartz said. 

By all indications the lecturers, who took part in a UC Berkeley strike in August and walked off the job at five other UC campuses earlier this month, are unwilling to cave in on several key contract matters. 

In its Oct. 23 proposal, the university offered to raise the minimum annual salary for lecturers, which currently stands at $28,968, to $35,868 for those with less than six years experience and $40,200 for those with more than six years. 

The lecturers, who teach 25 to 30 percent of UC classes, have maintained that the raise is insufficient and will only affect a relatively small number of instructors who currently make less than the proposed $35,868 minimum. University officials have countered that the $7,000 increase is a significant one. 

Glass said Wednesday that the union still considers the salary offer inadequate. He added that job security language and professional development money included in the latest UC offer is insufficient. Glass also clung to long-standing union insistence on independent arbitration of contract disputes. The university currently serves as the final authority in any dispute. 

“We’re absolutely committed to neutral dispute resolution,” Glass said, arguing that the rest of the contract won’t mean a “darn thing” without it. 

Glass said a move toward “impasse” and state mediation would be a university decision, not a union move. 

“That’s not what we’re going for,” he said. “We believe there’s more room for negotiation.” 

Union officials said last week that the university sprung a comprehensive, take-it-or-leave-it contract proposal on them Oct. 23 in the midst of contract negotiations, and criticized the university for cutting off talks.  

University officials countered that 2 1/2 years of negotiations was “more than sufficient time to discuss the issues” and said the union must be willing to compromise to get a final contract. 

The university hires lecturers to focus on teaching courses, while tenure-track professors are expected to conduct research as well. Lecturers work on one-year contracts until they have six years of experience, at which point they receive three-year deals, contingent on solid job performance reviews. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

For the past six years, I’ve been going to school with struggling kids at King Middle School and Berkeley High School, tutoring them and otherwise helping them out whenever they needed it. I’ve seen creative, motivated people develop projects which start out with lots of enthusiasm, but wither for lack of support or funding or who knows what. Berkeley has no shortage of good ideas and willingness to experiment on our school kids. We could use more discipline in sticking with projects and ironing out their wrinkles, instead of abandoning them in favor of jumping on the next bright idea. 

Tom Bates’s proposal of an “educational summit” sounds like an election campaign invitation for more experimentation. Tom Bates may want a conference to catch himself up on what’s going on in education today, but if he had been involved in Berkeley’s public schools in the six years since he retired from the Assembly, he wouldn’t need an educational summit. There is so much going on that could have used his and other citizens’ support. For example, Check and Connect, a project that proved effective in other cities, monitored attendance of high school students and connected floundering youth with mentors. It floundered itself for lack of mentors. If Tom Bates’ call for an emergency reunion of his friends in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. is a sincere effort to help Berkeley’s public schools, why didn’t he offer this help during the past six years? 

Cynthia Hecker 

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s broad-based coalition collapsed Wednesday when Cabinet ministers from the moderate Labor Party resigned in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements, threatening to push Israel into a bitter election. 

The crisis ended an uneasy 20-month “unity government” formed as a common front against the Palestinian uprising, and could sabotage U.S. efforts to win support for a peace plan. 

Sharon told parliament he would continue to lead the country, suggesting he would try to govern with a narrow coalition of far-right and religious parties rather than call early elections. 

The crisis was precipitated by Sharon’s rejection of Labor Party leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s demands to cut $145 million in funds for Jewish settlements in the $57 billion 2003 state budget. Compromise proposals failed and Ben-Eliezer resigned from his post as defense minister, followed by the rest of Labor’s Cabinet ministers. 

Under Israeli law, the six resignations only take effect within 48 hours, leaving room for last-ditch maneuvers — but politicians from both sides predicted Sharon’s broad-based coalition was at an end. 

“We must fight terror, but this is the day when we have to present a diplomatic horizon,” Ben-Eliezer said, referring to peace talks with the Palestinians. “The prime minister is unable to present a diplomatic horizon.” 

Critics accused Ben-Eliezer of partisan politics, noting that in polls ahead of Labor’s Nov. 19 leadership primary he trails two more dovish challengers, and leaving the government over a settlement dispute could boost his standing. 

“It’s the height of irresponsibility,” said Education Minister Limor Livnat of Sharon’s Likud Party. 

The budget was put to parliament after the Labor ministers resigned, and it passed with the support of parties outside the coalition — as expected — by a 67-45 vote; it must pass two more readings in coming weeks before it is final. 

Several officials involved in the last-minute talks said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who led Labor for much of the past two decades and has been a key supporter of the unity government, tried to persuade Ben-Eliezer to back down. Peres then resigned along with Ben-Eliezer and four other Labor Party ministers.

Editor’s Note: Today is the first of a three-part series outlining the Berkeley ballot and provides a capsule of the ballot measures. Friday’s paper will profile candidates running for City Council and the Berkeley Unified School District board. Saturday’s paper will profile the mayoral candidates and their positions on various issues. 

Measure I; Animal Shelter - New Facility,  

General Obligation Bond 

Measure I authorizes the city to issue a $7.2 million bond to build a new animal shelter. A property tax increase would fund construction and would cost the average homeowner about $12 a year for the next 30 years. Proponents say that the current animal shelter, built in the 1940s, is too small and structurally unsound to provide humane treatment to animals. Opponents say the measure is an unnecessary new tax. A two-thirds majority is needed to pass. 

Supporters include Mayor Shirley Dean; former state Assemblyman Tom Bates; councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring. 

No official opposition. 

Measure J; Old City Hall - Retrofit for Seismic Safety and Accessibility, General Obligation Bond  

Measure J authorizes the city to issue a $21.5 million bond to renovate and seismically retrofit Old City Hall, which currently houses the Berkeley Unified School District headquarters and the City Council chambers. A property tax increase would fund the project, with the average homeowner paying about $20 per year for 30 years. Proponents argue that a retrofit is necessary to ensure the safety of the historic building’s occupants. Opponents say the bond is too expensive in the midst of an economic downturn and argue that the renovation plan includes an inadequate City Council chambers. A two-thirds vote is required to pass. 

Supporters include Mayor Shirley Dean; City councilmembers Linda Maio, Miriam Hawley, and Margaret Breland; member and past Chair of Landmarks Preservation Commission and Design Review Committee Burton Peek Edwards; Commission on Disability member Norman Rabkin. 

Opponents include councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington; Disability Commisioner Karen Rose; Disabled Healthcare Advocate Jonathan Gold. 

Measure K; School Board Directors Compensation,  

Charter Amendment 

Measure K would raise school board members’ salaries from $875 to $1,500 per month. Proponents say the raise is long overdue and argue that it could be diverted to pay for staff, which board members currently do not have. Opponents say a raise is inappropriate when the school district faces a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. A majority vote is required to pass. 

Supporters include Berkeley Board of Education member John Selawsky. 

Opponents include Board of Education candidate Lance Montauk. 

Measure L; Pedestrian Safety Improvement Tax 

Measure L would raise roughly $10 million for pedestrian safety improvements like traffic circles and lighted crosswalks. The average homeowner would pay $24.70 more in property taxes each year for 10 years to fund the initiative. Proponents say the measure would boost a meager city budget for safety improvements and save lives. Opponents say pedestrian injuries in Berkeley are declining and call the measure unnecessary and expensive. A two-thirds vote is required for approval. 

Supporters include Mayor Shirley Dean; former state Assemblyman Tom Bates. 

Opponents include former chair of Citizens Budget Commission Art Goldberg. 

Measure M; Affordable Housing, Real Property Transfer Tax  

Measure M adds an additional 0.5 percent to the tax on the sale of property. The increase would add an average of $5,000 to new home sales, but would not apply to sales of less than $350,000 or on homes sold for a loss. Money raised from the tax would fund affordable housing, seismic retrofitting of at risk apartments and homelessness prevention. Proponents argue that the tax will only affect residents who are selling their home for a large profit and will increase the city’s affordable housing stock. Opponents say that the tax unfairly puts the entire onus of funding new affordable housing on people who sell their homes. A two-thirds majority is needed to pass. 

Supporters include Supervisor Keith Carson; State Assemblymember Dion Aroner; Center for Independent Living Executive Director Jacqueline Garrett; League of Women Voters of Berkeley Nancy Bickel. 

Opponents include Berkeley Association of Realtors President Miriam Ng. 

Measure N; Waterfront Development - Change the Amount and Type of Development on Private Property 

Measure N would empower City Council to revise development guidelines for a 45-acre parcel of waterfront property west of Gilman Street. The property’s owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., has planned to put two hotels and retail space on the property. Proponents of the measure say that council should be able to rezone the property because Magna’s plans would not compliment the proposed Eastshore State Park that will be adjacent to the development. Magna opposes the measure, but has not released a statement explaining their stance. A majority is needed to pass. 

Supporters include Mayor Shirley Dean; former state Assemblyman Tom Bates; Sierra Club representative Helen Burke. 

No official opposition. 

Measure O; Coffee - Restrict Sale of Brewed Coffee to Organic, Fair-Trade or Shade-Grown Certified, 

Citizen Initiative 

Measure O would restrict the sale of brewed coffee to only those that are organic, shade grown or fair-trade certified. Proponents say that corporate coffee growers have unfairly denied a fair price to local growers and have undermined their way of life. They say the approved coffees would allow coffee growers to make a fair living and would not lead to higher prices or less selection for Berkeley consumers. Opponents say that such strict restrictions will actually hurt local growers who do not have the money to become certified and will lead to more expensive coffee and less selection for Berkeley consumers. A majority is needed to pass. 

Supporters include former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport; Organic Consumers Association representative Simon Harris; Global Exchange Founding Director Medea Benjamin. 

Opponents include Berkeley Chamber of Commerce; Councilmember Polly Armstrong; Jeremiah’s Pick Coffee owner Jeremiah Pick. 

Measure P; Height of Buildings - Amend Zoning Ordinance to Regulate Heights, Citizen Initiative 

Measure P would lower existing height limits for new Berkeley developments. Not all neighborhoods would be affected, but the measure reduces building heights by two stories on San Pablo Avenue and one story on parts of University and College avenues. Proponents say that new high rise developments have jeopardized the health of Berkeley neighborhoods and that current zoning regulations are so vague that developers are allowed to build projects taller than what should be permitted. Opponents counter that the measure would make new developments unfeasible for developers, reducing the city’s affordable housing stock and making it more difficult for middle class people to live in Berkeley. A majority vote is needed for the measure to pass. 

Supporters include Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance co-author Martha Nicoloff; Council of Neighborhood Associations President Marie Bowman. 

Opponents include Mayor Shirley Dean; County Supervisor Keith Carson; State Assemblymember Dion Aroner.

SACRAMENTO — Republican candidate for governor Bill Simon repeated his frequent attacks Wednesday on Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’ handling of the state’s finances, saying Davis “spent California into a budget crisis.” 

Throughout the campaign for governor, which entered its final week Wednesday, Simon has said he expects Davis to raise taxes to address an anticipated multibillion-dollar shortfall next year. In recent days he’s predicted the tax increase will be $10 billion or more. 

But Simon, who appeared with Republican legislators at his Sacramento campaign headquarters, gave no details of where he would cut the budget to avoid raising taxes, which he has pledged not to increase if elected. 

Simon’s stepped up attacks on Davis’ handling of the budget, energy crisis and California’s schools come as part of a last-minute effort to win support in the final five days before Election Day. 

Davis dismissed Simon’s tax claims as “more fantasy and fiction from my opponent” and criticized Simon for not proposing his own plan to close the state’s $23.6 billion shortfall this year. 

“I stepped up to the plate, proposed a responsible budget and signed a responsible budget without any taxes,” Davis said. “Obviously our goal is to do the same in the future.” 

Davis spoke after appearing Wednesday at the groundbreaking of a renovation of the historic Griffith Observatory near downtown Los Angeles, where he announced the allocation of $6 million from voter-approved Proposition 40 for the project. 

Although it was an official state event, the ceremony had the air of a campaign stop as Davis collected praise from Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and the city councilman for the area. 

Davis also criticized new attack ads launched by Simon. 

“It’s really pathetic in the closing days of the campaign that Mr. Simon has no vision, no plans for the state, all he wants to do is attack me,” said Davis, whose campaign has spent tens of millions of dollars running aggressive television advertisements criticizing either Simon or former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, one of Simon’s opponents in the March Republican primary. 

Simon, meanwhile, said his campaign had no role in airing a 60-second Spanish-language radio ad paid for by the Glenn County Republican Party that accuses Democrats of promoting gay behavior and urges a vote for Simon. 

“Democrats are supporting abortion and they are teaching our children in the schools that the homosexual practice is OK,” says the ad, airing on a local station in the far Northern California county. 

The ad also says Democrats don’t want to give drivers’ licenses to “our countrymen” — a reference to a bill Davis vetoed that would have allowed some illegal immigrants to obtain licenses. The ad does not mention that Simon has also said he would have vetoed the bill.

OAKLAND — A spokesman for the Oakland Police Department says four men are in custody this Wednesday afternoon after leading officers on a brief vehicle chase from the scene of a bank robbery they allegedly committed. 

The spokesman said a Bank of America located at 1959 Mountain Blvd. was robbed at 9:45 a.m. 

Responding officers gave chase and arrested the foursome in the 7600 block of Bancroft Avenue. 

The names of the suspects have not been released.

Cancer awareness ads criticism 

SAN RAFAEL — Two new cancer awareness television ads showing people ignoring a dead body on a hiking trail and reaching over a corpse in a grocery store were criticized by Marin County officials. 

The creators said Tuesday they designed the ads to raise awareness about the high incidence of breast and prostate cancer in the county. 

“It’s not about (public officials) not doing their jobs,” said Judi Shils of Ross, director of the Marin Cancer Project, who commissioned the ads for a Nov. 9 canvassing effort. “It’s about the community not doing its job, collectively — all of us need to wake up.” 

The 30-second spots started airing this week. At least one major television station refused to air them, according to Jeff Goodby of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco ad agency that created the ads. 

Pacifica woman held for alleged bridge bomb threats 

REDWOOD CITY — A Pacifica woman accused of calling in phony bomb threats to the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco federal building has been held to answer following a preliminary hearing in a San Mateo County courtroom. 

Authorities say Anita Hanson, 44, was “very drunk” when she called 911 late at night Oct. 10 and in the early morning Oct. 11 claiming that bombs had been placed at the two locations. 

In Hanson's hearing Tuesday, defense motions to gain her release and reduce her bail, which is set at $50,000, were both denied. She was held to answer on two counts of falsely reporting a bomb and three counts of making terrorist threats. 

After Hanson allegedly made the bogus 911 calls, several law enforcement agencies responded to both locations to investigate and discovered the threats were unfounded. The California Highway Patrol said  

officers traced the calls to Hanson's cell phone and sent Pacifica police to arrest her. 

Hanson has pleaded innocent to all charges against her. 

She will be arraigned in San Mateo County Superior Court Nov. 14. 

Activists dies from bus accident 

SAN FRANCISCO — A Marin County man died in San Francisco General Hospital Wednesday morning from head injuries he received while standing through the skylight of a double-decker bus passing through a tunnel en route to a peace rally in the city Saturday. 

Hospital spokeswoman Gloria Rodriguez said Tony Hernandez died at 11:43 a.m. in the intensive care unit of the hospital where he was on life support. 

Dianne Canning, of Sebastopol, also was injured when she, like Hernandez, was struck on the head by a building overhang at the end of the Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco. She remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit.  

Hernandez and Canning were among about 25 people riding in a school bus.

Animal lovers try to halt poison drop 

SANTA BARBARA — Animal protectionists asked for emergency federal action to halt the second phase of a poison drop designed to kill off the destructive black rats on Anacapa Island. 

Tuesday’s request seeks protections for the native deer mice that will also die in the eradication program. The Fund for Animals and the Channel Islands Animal Protection Association demanded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service list the Anacapa deer mouse for protection under the Endangered Species Act. 

Fund for Animals spokesman Michael Makarian said the rat eradication plan would be an ecological disaster for the island. The mice inhabit only the three Anacapa islets.

SAN FRANCISCO — Seeking to win back bargain-minded shoppers, slumping jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. on Wednesday unveiled a discount clothing line that will be sold by Wal-Mart Stores next year. 

Levi’s new Signature brand represents the San Francisco-based company’s long-awaited attempt to appeal to a fast-growing consumer segment with frugal fashion tastes. 

Shoppers buy nearly one-third of their clothes at Wal-Mart, Target and other discounters, a trend that forced Levi’s to expand beyond the department store business that has generated most of its sales. Levi’s hopes to sell the Signature clothes in other discounters besides Wal-Mart. 

“We want to sell our clothes in places where people want to shop,” said Phil Marineau, Levi’s chief executive officer. 

Levi’s previous refusal to sell its jeans in discount chains contributed to the company’s steadily declining sales since 1996. Levi’s sales this year will total about $4 billion, down from a peak of $7.1 billion six years ago. 

“If they didn’t make this move, Levi’s would be dead in three years,” said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard’s Retail Trend Report in Upper Montclair, N.J. “This could be their salvation.” 

The new Signature jeans, which will be available in Wal-Mart in July 2003, probably will sell for $23 to $26, Marineau said Wednesday. 

That’s about 15 percent to 35 percent less than the typical $30 to $35 price for Levi’s most popular basic jeans. 

For Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, Levi’s Signature line will be a premium brand. Most Wal-Mart jeans sell for under $20, with some prices falling below $10, said San Francisco fashion industry consultant Harry Bernard. 

Levi’s also plans to sell discount corduroy pants, shirts and jackets under the Signature brand — the company’s first new clothing line since the 1996 launch of Slates slacks. Slates has since been folded into the company’s Dockers brand. 

Counting on Wal-Mart to handle all the promotion, Levi’s isn’t budgeting money to advertise the Signature brand. 

While Levi’s says the new brand will be as durable as its other clothes, Signature jeans will have a bare-bones look. For instance, there won’t be any stitching on the back pocket and the label will be distinguished by a black Levi Strauss signature instead of the traditional red label. 

Fashion consultant Bernard questioned whether Levi’s will be able to deliver the high volumes of low-cost clothes needed to stock Wal-Mart’s 3,000 stores. During its slump, Levi’s has been plagued by high manufacturing costs and delivery problems. 

“The cards are stacked against them,” Bernard said. “They are taking their weaknesses into an arena where they need them to be strengths.”

BRISBANE — The tree home on San Bruno Mountain that attracted national attention when two squatters refused to leave a pair of meager huts after 12 years there, is now just a tree again. 

Besh Serdahely, 58, cleared out of the tree house Tuesday and park officials dismantled the dwelling, two months after San Mateo County officials stapled a notice to the 300-year-old oak in August saying Serdahely and his wife, Thelma Caballero, no longer were welcome. 

“I spoke to him Sunday, and he was acknowledging that this chapter was ending,” said Bill Johnston, a lawyer and family friend who has been counseling Serdahely since the ordeal began. 

Caballero left the tree earlier this month and is now living at a board and care facility.

Hydrogen, the most abundant substance in the universe, will soon power some AC Transit buses, eliminating noisy, polluting diesel vehicles.  

And today, the bus agency is scheduled to open a hydrogen fueling station in Richmond that will power the environmentally-friendly buses when they arrive in 2004.  

In the meantime, the new fueling station, which is being plugged as the first in the Bay Area, will serve the handful of private and public hydrogen vehicles that are currently in operation. Stuart Energy and the California Fuel Cell Partnership are partners in the new station. 

The three hydrogen buses that AC Transit plans to put in operation are being bought from a Belgian company and are powered by fuel cells designed by ISE Research-ThunderVolt, Inc. of San Diego and UTC Fuel Cells, based in Connecticut.  

The buses come as part of a $14.9 million study that will compare the performance of hydrogen vehicles with diesel buses. More than $10 million for the study will come from the state. 

The hydrogen buses, each worth about $3 million, will operate in a variety of settings including hilly areas, urban lines that carry more than 20,000 daily riders through densely populated neighborhoods, and the Transbay Express service to San Francisco, where speeds can reach 65 mph. Performance in all operating conditions will be evaluated. 

Fuel cells are “revolutionary and evolutionary,” said Jaimie Levin, AC Transit’s director of marketing. 

The cells combine hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the atmosphere to produce electricity, heat and water. Since the tailpipes of fuel cell buses emit only steam, they don’t pollute the air. And because fuel cells contain no moving parts, they operate silently. 

“The fuel cell has clearly grounded potential in replacing the internal combustion engine,” said Levin. But, he said, “there are still many unknowns about durability and cost.” Among those unknowns are the long-term costs of hydrogen fuel as well as the cost of maintaining and repairing a fuel cell bus over its lifetime. 

One of the challenges facing the introduction of the new technology, said project manager Doug Byrne, is overcoming the public’s concern about hydrogen as a fuel.  

“The first thing people associate with hydrogen are bombs or the Hindenberg,.. There’s a widespread belief that hydrogen is dangerous.” Byrne said. “But with fuel cells there is no burning or ignition of hydrogen.” 

A more technical challenge for fuel cell buses is matching the standards of diesel buses. “In terms of cost and performance, fuel cell technology initially will not meet that of diesel but we expect it to get there eventually,” Byrne said.  

If AC Transit demonstrates that fuel cell buses are more reliable, easier and cheaper to maintain than their diesel counterparts, then large-scale production will become possible, Byrne said. With increased production, the price of the fuel cells will drop, he added. 

Other important comparisons between hydrogen fuel and diesel buses include safety, maintenance, parts availability, general reliability and equipment down time, said Byrne. 

If all goes well, within the next decade 15 percent or more of AC Transit buses will run on hydrogen fuel cells. 

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE — Animal lovers are howling over a skydiving dog. 

The parachuting Dachshund — known as Brutus the Skydiving Dog — is scheduled to perform at this weekend’s Air and Space Show at Vandenberg Air Force Base. 

“What we feel is this is cruelty to animals,” said Shirley Cram, shelter director and treasurer.

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Berkeley City Council Forum 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Hillel Foundation 

2736 Bancroft Way between Piedmont and College Avenues 

Candidates Gordon Wozniak, Andy Katz, Micki Weinberg, Kriss Worthington and others speak in this forum. 

839-2900 

“An Agenda for the Next Papacy: Two Views” 

7 p.m. 

Chapel at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

Robert Blair Kaiser and John L. Allen Jr., both journalists, will share information. 

549-5017 

Monster Bash 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

A singles celebration of an ancient Celtic end-of-summer observance, with a lavish feast of foods from the fall harvest. 

Register: 601-7247  

$25 / includes meal and cooking lesson 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Census 2000: Growing Together or Apart? 

8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Wurster Hall Auditorium (Rm. 112), UC Berkeley 

During this one-day conference, scholars will analyze the geographic impact of changes to the population. 

For more info: 

http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/census2000.htm 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to noon 

UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643-2755 

Free 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Sacred Breath” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place 

Robin Caton gives this talk on Tibetan Buddhism, and the classic Buddhist practice known as Tong-len. 

843-6812, Free 

Monday, Nov. 4 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home Owners Support Group 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 

Resources for low and middle-income home owners, and home maintenance. 

548-9696 

“Pathways to Collaboration” 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Kroeber Hall, Rm. 160, UC Berkeley 

A lecture by Dana Plautz, director of research communications for Intel Corporation, followed by live music. 

Free 

Wednesday, Nov. 6 

“The Chinese and Religion in the Context of Globalization” 

Reception 5:30 p.m. / Lecture 7 p.m. 

Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

A noted scholar and author, Professor Zhuo Xinping speaks. 

649-2440 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

Book Sale and Auction 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The Center for AIDS Services, 5720 Shattuck Ave., Oakland 

This “big” sale will benefit the AIDS center. 

655-3435 

Sunday, Nov. 10 

World RunDay - national charity benefit. 

All day. 

Various cities across the naton - contact www.runday.com 

(516) 859-3000 for more info 

Tuesday, Nov. 12 

Holiday Craft Baazar 

10 a.m. to noon 

Handmade items, sweet treats, and knick knacks will be for sale. Everyone is invited. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Curch, 2727 College Ave. 

845-6830 

Wednesday, Nov. 13 

Public Lecture by the Rev. Canon Naim Ateek 

7:30 p.m. 

Founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and native of East Jerusalem, Rev. Ateek will lead a discussion sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Berkeley (UCC) and the Pacific School of Religion. 

UCC, on Dana St. between Durant and Channing. 

848-3696 

$10/ suggested donation.  

League of Women Voters Meeting 

Noon 

Discussion will focus on regional issues 

LWVBAE office, 1414 University Ave. 

849-2154 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Courtableau 

Cajun dance lesson 8 p.m. 

Show 8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene perform classic Cajun dance hall music. 

525-5054 

$8 

Thursday, Oct. 31 

Halloween Party with the Venusians 

8 p.m. 

The Venusians are a shamanic trance-dance septet known for their costume-laden, colorful performances. 

525-5054 

$10 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Festa Da Bunda 

8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

This Brazilian “love fest and Penta party” features a Batucada jam with Gary Muzynski of One World Music and others. The night includes a Brazilian soccer team look-alike contest. 

525-5054 

$12 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

The Librarians with The Skyflakes and Plain White Ts 

9 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair 

2475 Bancroft Way 

$5 / 21 and over 

Vince Black with Root Awakening 

9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Socially conscious reggae classics and original songs. 

525-5054 

$11 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

Workshop and Performance by Akira Tana 

1 to 3 p.m. workshop 

4:30 p.m. concert 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Drummer Akira Tana teaches and performs. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$30-$35 workshop 

$10-$15 performance 

CalArts Night of Jazz 

8 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

The first of many collaborations between Jazzschool and CalArts. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Flamenco Open Stage 

7:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Dancers, guitarists and singers, with a costume exhibit and a sale of flamenco items. 

525-5054 

$8 

Miriam Abramowitsch and George Barth 

4 p.m. 

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 

The renowned singer and pianist will perform classical vocal favorites featuring the music of Brahams, Dvorak and Bartok. 

559-6910 

$10 / 18 and under free 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

An Evening of Cultural Harmony 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The Barbard Ensemble, the San Francisco Klezmer Experience and Lichi Fuentes & Jackeline Rago will treat listeners to music from Iran, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. 

704-7480 x755 

$25 general admission 

Sunday, Nov. 10 

The Sheldon Brown Group 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Focus” 

2 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St.  

William H. Macy stars in this early 1940’s period piece. 

848-0237 

$2 donation 

Thursday, Nov. 7 

“Desert Hearts” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

A 1950’s lesbian romance featuring Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau.

To the Editor: 

This is the time to speak up for peace. As American citizens, we must decide: Do we want to be responsible for the deaths of our young people and for those of many more innocent Iraqis? Do we want to do this in spite of overwhelming evidence that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction? Do we want to do this in spite of the fact that nearly every country on the planet opposes a U.S. strike against Iraq? It is time for Americans to think about what is motivating the handful of politicians in Washington D.C. who want war? Finally, it is time to dream about what might happen in our communities if all that money being designated for war could instead go to schools and healthcare? 

We can stop this war, if we all speak up for peace. 

Lucy Jane Bledsoe 

Berkeley

Jazmin Pratt is the key to St. Mary’s girls volleyball rebirth. 

Pratt, a senior outside hitter, has powered the Panthers to an 8-3 record (6-3 in the Bay Shore Athletic League) through Oct. 22. As a junior last year, Pratt saw St. Mary’s win just twice all season. But the 5-foot-6 dynamo with a wicked shot averages 9.1 kills per match to lead her team in what has been the most successful season in the program’s history. 

Cherise Revell was the St. Mary’s freshmen coach last year and saw from a distance what Pratt could do. Now as varsity coach, Revell benefits from Pratt’s play as a senior. 

Pratt has improved every area of her game, Revell says, from her defensive skills to her hitting. The 17-year-old has arguably the hardest spike in the BSAL. 

“Jazmin definitely has one of the hardest hits around, as in hard, down and intimidating,” Revell said. 

Perhaps the most noticeable improvement has been in Pratt’s leadership skills. The outspoken player is a co-captain for the second straight season and enjoys building the team community. 

“She seems much more team motivated,” Revell said. “I’ve told her, ‘I’m relying on you to get the girls together, to get them motivated.’ She’s had the girls do meditation to get ready for the games. I’ve really let her take on a leadership role that I don’t know was there last year. She’s really risen to the expectation.” 

The chatty Pratt isn’t shy when talking about her play – “I average three or four kills, and that’s per game,” she says – but won’t take sole credit for the Panthers’ turnaround. She points to some talented freshman, including 5-foot-10 middle blocker Natalie Bogan and setter Aleesha Woodruff, and having Revell around for inspiring the team. 

“[Revell] focuses on team unity, on and off the court,” Pratt said. “We’ve had team dinners, team slumber parties. We worked together as a team at the Cal games to raise money. Being friends with people on and off the court makes a big difference. When you seen them on campus, you have a whole new respect for them.  

“When you’re on the court, it’s just that much easier. You know they have your back. If they miss something, if they get a kill or if they hit the ball in the net, you know they still like you. That team support makes a huge difference. We really didn’t have that team unity last year.” 

Just having Pratt around full-time this year has been a major difference. Last season, she missed half the season with a pulled muscle in her back. That was a death knell for the Panthers, who struggled all year. 

She hasn’t missed a match in 2002, including the battle with Salesian High on Oct. 10. Pratt had a bad cold and a fever but was not going to miss taking on the Panthers’ rival as she did last season. Pratt starred in the match, hammering 13 kills to go with 16 digs. Her season high in kills came in a five-set win over St. Elizabeth on Oct. 1, when she had 18 kills, 10 digs and three aces. 

Revell says Pratt’s talent will translate to the college game, though Pratt just hopes to get there. She’s talking with Miami and Morgan State. Most universities would push her to the back row because, even though she has a good vertical leap, she’s too short to be an outside hitter at the Division 1 level. 

“I’d be a defensive specialist if I went anywhere, because of my height,” she said. “I’m vertically challenged.” 

Wherever she goes, she’ll remember fondly the legacy she built at St. Mary’s. 

“Look out for St. Mary’s to maybe be a powerhouse,” she said. “Albany, look out. Piedmont, look out, because St. Mary’s is coming up.”

There’s only so much a mayor can do about education, given that the Berkeley Unified School District has jurisdiction over the city’s 15 schools. But that hasn’t stopped the two chief mayoral candidates, incumbent Shirley Dean and challenger Tom Bates, from laying out competing visions on an issue that tops poll after poll. 

Bates, Berkeley’s former state Assemblyman, has called for an “education summit” within 100 days of taking office. The summit, he said, would pull together national, state and local players to discuss youth programs provided by both the city and the school district and develop plans for improved, coordinated services. 

But Dean said the summit would simply amount to “talk, not action” and argued that the cash-strapped city should focus on seeking state funding to strengthen existing programs. Dean said, for instance, that Berkeley should pursue state grant money to place city-run health centers, like the one at Berkeley High School, at the district’s three middle schools. 

Dean said the high school health center has provided effective peer education programs on HIV/AIDS and identified cases of tuberculosis and other diseases among students. 

“This is a real point where we can reach these students,” she said. 

“It’s a good idea,” Bates said. “I would just wonder how to pay for it.” 

Bates said a projected state budget shortfall of more than $10 billion next year would prevent the city from winning significant new state funding in the short-term. 

The challenger said he hoped to develop low-cost youth programs through the educational summit – recruiting parents, for instance, to patrol Berkeley High and boost student safety. 

Bates also said the summit, which would draw on national political leaders like Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez) and state figures like state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego), would provide a perspective on what other communities are doing to serve children. 

But Dean criticized the idea of a forum featuring political figures from outside Berkeley. 

“They don’t know our district,” she said. “They don’t know our problems.” 

Dean said Berkeley should focus its efforts on a Nov. 18 community meeting, organized by Berkeley Unified’s Superintendent Michele Lawrence, which is designed to weigh community priorities for the school district in the midst of budget-cutting. 

But Board of Education member Ted Schultz, who has endorsed Bates, said the Lawrence and Bates meetings could complement each other. While community meetings called by a superintendent tend to center mainly on the school district, he said, a broader summit could focus on the city- and state-funded health and housing services that help children and schools succeed. 

“I personally think the summit’s a great idea and I’m going to be a part of it,” added board member Terry Doran, who has also endorsed Bates. Doran said that, because most of the district’s funding comes from the state, it makes sense to meet with state leaders. 

Board president Shirley Issel, who is supporting Dean, declined to comment on the summit, but said she was disappointed that the schools have been dragged into the mayoral race. 

“It’s divisive,” she said. 

In addition to seeking new health centers, Dean wants to boost a state-funded program of pre- and post-natal visits by Berkeley’s public health nurse to at-risk families. She also wants to build affordable housing for teachers above a parking lot adjacent to the Ashby BART stop in south Berkeley. Dean said the housing would help to offset low salaries. 

Bates dismissed the idea as a “pipe dream.” 

“Dealing with BART is like dealing with the Soviet Union,” he said, arguing that it would be more realistic to build housing on existing, school-owned property, like the former site of City of Franklin elementary school on Virginia Street, closed at the end of the last school year as a result of budget cuts. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington talks a lot about “fighting” in his campaign literature: for students, for progressive values, for neighborhoods. He is fighting all right, but not for students, values or neighborhoods. He's sent his companions out to trash the mayor for endorsing his opponent Micki Weinberg, while dozens of Micki's public campaign signs have been torn down from lamp posts (I'll let folks draw their own conclusions as to who might have done that and why). As someone who has spent a lot of time on local issues, I know there are times when you have to fight – fairly and ethically – for what you believe in. But usually, I have found that to get something done, you have to bring people together, motivate them and make sure you are really listening to their concerns. 

Many of my neighbors share my concern that the issues really affecting us have not been effectively addressed over the past six years of Mr. Worthington's tenure and I was delighted to hear Micki Weinberg talk about many of them during his campaign: safety and crime (especially around Telegraph Avenue), traffic and transit policy, and housing. I was interested to see that a lot of Micki's agenda – a student agenda – matched mine.  

What I am particularly impressed with is Weinberg's willingness to work with the various constituents to solve problems. It is a refreshing change from Mr. Worthington's pattern of pitting groups against each other – the us vs. them syndrome. Worthington's style of attacking opponents with insinuation, innuendo and implication is what makes him such a controversial politician, not necessarily his votes on the issues. As much as Worthington wants to turn the mayor's race into a referendum on Shirley's Dean's leadership and personal style, so too is this race a referendum on Worthington's. 

Micki has heard the rhetoric for what it really is – self-serving politics designed to keep Worthington in power. He believes we need to stop “fighting” each other and start working together to tackle the real problems we all face, students and neighbors alike, and that's why I am enthusiastically supporting him for City Council. 

Gregory S. Murphy 

Berkeley 

Cal sophomore defender Troy Roberts and UCLA junior goalkeeper Zach Wells have been named the Pac-10 Men’s Soccer Co-Players of the Week for Oct. 22-28, Commissioner Tom Hansen announced Tuesday.  

Roberts scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 win over No. 8-ranked Stanford on Saturday. The goal was his first on the year, his second collegiate goal, and came on his only shot of the day. Roberts’ goal was the first scored by Cal against the Cardinal since 1997, and marked the Bears’ first win over Stanford in six years.  

Wells helped the Bruins shut out both Oregon State (3-0) and Washington (1-0) on the road, keeping their perfect Pac-10 record intact. Wells tied the school record with 11 saves on 25 shots against the Beavers, including eight in the second half. Wells also added his first career assist on the Bruins’ third goal of the game. He recorded four saves at Washington to give UCLA its first road win over the Huskies in 22 years.  

Cal is 11-3-1, 4-1-0 in Pac-10 competition. The Bears travel to take on Stanford this week. Cal is No. 11 in the NSCAA/adidas poll, and ranked 8th by Soccer America. 

This is the third weekly honor for Wells and the 13th all-time Player of the Week honor for UCLA. For Roberts, it is his first weekly honor and the 4th all-time for California.  

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Edwin R. Bayley, the first dean of the graduate school of journalism at UC Berkeley, died Sunday at a local hospital. He was 84 and suffered from several chronic health problems that became acute in recent months, a family friend said. 

Bayley arrived at UC Berkeley in 1969, and guided the graduate journalism program for more than 16 years. He not only administered the school, but also taught and founded the Summer Program for Minority Journalists. 

During World War II, he was on active duty as an armed guard officer in the central Pacific. 

After the war, he became the Milwaukee Journal’s chief political reporter. He also worked as correspondent for the paper in London. 

In 1961, he became the first public information officer for the Peace Corps. Later that year, he was appointed special assistant representing President Kennedy on interdepartmental committees involving information and the hiring of minorities. 

His book, “Joe McCarthy and the Press,” was a finalist in the competition for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. 

The book concludes that newspapers could have hastened McCarthy’s downfall if they had better appreciated their influence and found the courage to speak out against him. 

After his retirement in 1985, Bayley and his wife, Monica Worsley, divided their time among homes in London, Door County, Wis., and Carmel, Calif.

To the Editor: 

The recent Daily Planet article “New project would oust parking” (Oct. 26-27) highlights the need for measure P, the height initiative. Berkeley's parking lots are under attack by greedy developers who want big buildings and more people. Yes on Measure P is a must for people who value parking and a moderate population density in Berkeley.  

Other ballot items are not so simple. Does anyone know all those judges? I do know Lisa Pearlman would be a superb Superior Court Judge. For the 1st District City Council seat, Rhiannon gets my vote. Maio, although she is kind and has her heart in the right place, has almost never seen a tax she does not like – she is too much a profligate spender and also a pawn of developers. Shirley Dean gets the nod for Mayor.  

No, no, and hell no to all the bonds and taxes. Every separate bond measure and tax for a seemingly noble cause is more taxpayer money available for those wasteful things that voters would never approve, for example, replacing perfectly good trees in the park across from city hall. Make them reduce spending. 

Walter Wood 

Berkeley 

The Cal women’s basketball family grew by one Tuesday.  

Head coach Caren Horstmeyer and her husband, Bill, became proud parents of a healthy baby girl at 8 a.m., at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae. The baby, whose name is still to be determined, was born a healthy eight pounds, five ounces, and 21 inches tall.  

The couple also have a two-year-old son, Arend.  

Horstmeyer is expected to take a brief maternity leave and return to the team on Nov. 6. Cal assistant coach Barb Smith will serve as the acting head coach at Friday’s exhibition game against Team Concept at Haas Pavilion. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.  

A group of roughly 30 high school-aged students ransacked Telegraph Avenue shops slightly before noon Tuesday. The teenagers made off with about $2,000 in merchandise form one sporting good store and prompted neighboring shops to close their doors for part of the afternoon, according to the Berkeley Police Department. 

Officer Mary Kusmiss noted that the incident coincided with a nearby protest in support of affirmative action, and though a connection could not be verified, police and residents remarked that a similar protest last year invoked nearly identical disturbances on Telegraph. 

“We have to find out how this happened again because it is outrageous,” said Telegraph Avenue Association President Kathy Berger, who speculated that local high schools once again allowed students to attend the UC Berkeley protest (See Page 3) without supervision. 

“It all happened so fast,” explained Thomas Ma, a manager at the Telegraph Avenue Foot Locker where merchandise was stolen Tuesday. Ma refused to comment further on the incident, but Jose Garcia an employee at nearby Greg’s Pizza described what he saw. 

“About 35 kids, mostly guys, a few girls, all black, grabbed shirts and caps,” he said. “Everyone was laughing and guys were passing shirts back and forth to each other. A few of them came into [Greg’s Pizza], but then others said ‘hey where are you going,’ and they all ran away.” 

None of the teenagers involved were caught, police said. 

According to police, the teenagers got off an AC Transit bus near Durant and Telegraph avenues. Some immediately went into the Foot Locker, but then left and went into the Gap across the street. Police said that about 8 to 10 kids were reported inside the Gap, throwing clothing on the ground, but were stopped by store security when they tried to walk out with merchandise. 

The kids then left the Gap and returned to Foot Locker with another dozen youth, police said. They broke a display and shoved one employee while he tried to close the door to prevent them from entering. The kids then grabbed sports jerseys and other merchandise and proceeded to run south on Telegraph. The force from pushing on the front door caused the glass to break at the bottom of the door, police said. 

Foot Locker and several other area shops lowered their security gates immediately after the incident, but re-opened later that afternoon. 

On March 8, 2001, several shops on Telegraph were similarly stormed by high school students. An Athlete’s Foot store, just a few shops down from Foot Locker, was the hardest hit. 

A rally in support of affirmative action was also taking place when the 2001 robberies occurred. The group Fight For Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) was the organizer of both rallies which took place at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. 

BAMN members and UC Berkeley officials could not be reached before press time. 

Contact reporter at matt@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

Measure P, the Berkeley height initiative, is the measure which stops out-of-scale development in the neighborhoods while promoting responsible development. I am appalled to learn that 90 percent of the funding from the opposition on Measure P comes from developmental interest and 50 percent of this funding is from outside of Berkeley. After living 54 years in this city, I cannot imagine the intelligent Berkeley citizens voting along with developers. 

Martha Jones 

Berkeley 

MORAGA - Fifth-seeded Cal senior Balazs Veress defeated No. 4-seed Scott Lipinsky of Stanford 7-6, 6-3, in a quarterfinal match of the 2002 Omni Hotels ITA Northwest Regional to advance to the semifinals of the main draw. Veress will face No. 2 Alex Vlaski of Washington in the semifinals.  

All in all, three Bears advanced to the quarterfinals, more than any other school in the tournament. Within the quarterfinal draw, only three schools were represented, Cal, Stanford and Washington - all belonging to the Pac-10. Besides Veress, No. 6-seed Conor Niland defeated No. 9-16-seed Sam Warburg of Stanford in the Round of 16 before losing to No. 3 Matt Hanlin of Washington, 7-6(5), 6-1 in the quarters. The third Bear, No. 9-seed Wayne Wong upset No. 8-seed Peter Malacek of Portland before running into the top-seeded David Martin of Stanford 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinal bracket. 

In earlier singles action, No. 9-16-seed Robert Kowalczyk fell in the Round of 16.  

In the back draw, seniors Jeff King and Kevin Patrick both advanced to the fourth round with third round wins over Cal Poly and Nevada-Reno, respectively.

MIAMI — More than 200 illegal Haitian immigrants jumped overboard, waded ashore and rushed onto a major highway Tuesday after their 50-foot wooden freighter ran aground off Miami. 

There were no known fatalities and no injuries other than dehydration, Detective Delrish Moss said. Miami police counted 206 immigrants, the youngest about 18 months old. 

The migrants departed from Port-au-Prince and picked up three Cubans on a raft along the way, said North Miami Mayor Joe Celestin, a Haitian-American who went to the scene and spoke to some of the migrants. Moss said they had been at sea for eight days. 

The Coast Guard spotted the vessel about 2 p.m. and followed it for about two hours, said Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz. The boat ran aground and the immigrants began coming ashore near Hobie Beach on Virginia Key, just southeast of Miami’s downtown. 

“They were all over the front of the boat, the top of the boat, the back of the boat. They were all over it,” said windsurfer Ovidio DeLeon, who witnessed the scene. “Then they started jumping.” 

Some of the Haitians jumped from the deck; others were lowered into the water. They ran into the streets, causing the six-lane Rickenbacker Causeway to be shut down. 

Coast Guard personnel were seen pulling people from the water and throwing them life preservers; children were being transferred from the boat to people in the water. 

Seven helicopters and five Coast Guard boats searched for people who may still be in the water. A Miami Fire Rescue spokesman dispatcher said emergency crews were treating several Haitians and giving them water. 

Hours after they arrived, the immigrants’ empty boat was towed away and the migrants were loaded onto five buses. Police escorted the buses to Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County for processing. 

Border Patrol agents had begun interviewing the migrants, said spokesman Carlos Roches. 

“If they claim political asylum, we will process them accordingly,” Roches said. 

Unlike Cubans who reach dry land, Haitian immigrants usually are denied asylum in the United States and sent back to their homeland, which is in an economic and political crisis. 

“It’s very sad to see the way human beings who are fleeing their country for a better way of life are treated,” Celestin said. “The Cubans that were on the same boat will be released. The Haitians will probably be deported. It’s a double standard.” 

The Bush administration changed its detention policy on Haitian refugees in December to discourage a feared mass exodus from the Caribbean nation. Immigration attorneys sued the government in March, saying the new policy of detention was racially biased. 

Human rights advocates said the policy treats Haitians differently than asylum seekers from other countries, who are generally freed until their asylum requests are granted or denied. 

“It is plainly and simply a racist policy that singles out black Haitians and denies them the treatment we give other groups seeking asylum,” U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, said in a statement. 

“They imprison Haitians indefinitely; they don’t release Haitians into the care of the Haitian community; they don’t let Haitians get the help they need to prepare their asylum cases; and then they deport them,” Meek said. 

Gov. Jeb Bush said he spoke to White House officials about the migrants’ status. 

“I have been assured that these individuals will receive fair and decent treatment by federal authorities,” Bush said. 

Thousands of Haitians each year risk dangerous voyages aboard rickety, crowded boats in search of economic opportunities. 

Some end up in the Turks and Caicos Islands, others in the Bahamas, and some make it to Florida. Many are sent back home. 

Many are driven to risk their lives because of crushing poverty in their homeland, the hemisphere’s poorest country where two-thirds of the population is unemployed or underemployed and most people survive on less than $1 a day. 

Haiti’s chronically depressed economy has further

To the Editor: 

Pedestrian safety improvements are long overdue in Berkeley, a city that again had one of California's highest pedestrian-vehicle accident rates in 2001. Although its population hovers just above 100,000 residents, more than 100 Berkeley pedestrians have been injured by automobiles in each of the past 10 years, and the city has averaged more than one pedestrian fatality annually during this span. With numbers like these, it is safe to say Berkeley has a significant public health problem on its hands. 

Efforts the city has taken in recent decades to improve pedestrian safety – including the installation of traffic calming devices in some neighborhoods and streetscape improvements on University Avenue – have made Berkeley a safer place for walking than many other cities.  

But the high overall number of injuries and fatalities makes it clear that more work needs to be done to improve pedestrian safety in Berkeley. Just 12 cities in California experienced more pedestrian incidents than Berkeley last year, and these cities all have populations substantially larger than Berkeley's. That's why we urge voters to approve Measure L, a Nov. 5 ballot item that would raise Berkeley property taxes to pay for pedestrian safety improvements. Expected to raise about $10 million over the next decade, Measure L would provide the money the city needs to upgrade existing pedestrian infrastructure and to install additional pedestrian safety and traffic calming devices, such as sidewalk extensions, traffic circles, pedestrian-activated traffic signals and median protectors.  

Kristi Kimball  

Surface Transportation Policy Project 

San Francisco

OAKLAND — Police are reporting that a gunshot victim who barricaded himself in an east Oakland home is currently in critical condition at Alameda County Hospital. 

After suffering at least one gunshot wound on High Street shortly before midnight Monday, police say the victim fled to a nearby residence and hid inside. 

Oakland police speculate that the man was trying to protect himself from further gunshot wounds. 

The residents of the home on the 4000 block of Suter Street then called the police to report, incorrectly, that they were being burglarized. 

Police say the victim did not know, and has not yet been able to provide any useful information about his attacker.

OAKLAND — A hotel security guard described in Alameda County Superior Court Tuesday how he watched in horror as a sheriff's deputy was hurled backward by a hail of bullets at an Outback Steakhouse in Dublin four years ago. 

Sheriff's Deputy John Paul Monego, 33, was shot and killed as he entered the front doors of the restaurant on Regional Street just before midnight on Dec. 11, 1998. 

Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, of Modesto, and Turlock residents Miguel Galindo Sifuentes and Hai Minh Le, both 23, are charged with Monego's murder. Prosecutors allege that the men were robbing the restaurant at the time of the killing. 

If convicted as charged, the men could face the death penalty. 

Jeffrey DeRespini, 42, took the stand Tuesday morning in the Oakland courtroom of Judge Alfred A Delucchi. He was working near the restaurant, as a security guard at the Monarch Hotel, the night of the shooting. 

He testified for about an hour under direct examination today, explaining how he was smoking a cigarette in front of the hotel when he saw Deputy Angela Schwab arrive on the scene first and enter the restaurant. Law enforcement officers had been dispatched to the business because of a 911 hang-up call that had been placed there.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court ruled for the first time Tuesday that the government cannot revoke the prescription drug licenses of doctors who recommend marijuana to sick patients. 

The court also ruled that the Justice Department may not investigate doctors merely for recommending marijuana, since this would interfere with the free-speech rights of doctors and patients. 

“An integral component of the practice of medicine is the communication between doctor and a patient. Physicians must be able to speak frankly and openly to patients,” Chief Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder said. 

The unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a 2-year-old court order that prohibited such federal action before any doctors’ licenses were revoked. 

Federal prosecutors argued that doctors who recommend marijuana use are interfering with the drug war and circumventing the government’s judgment that the illegal drug has no medical benefit. 

But the San Francisco-based court, noting that doctors are not allowed to dispense marijuana themselves, said physicians had a constitutional right to speek candidly with their patients about marijuana without fear of government sanctions. 

Doctors who recommend marijuana in the eight states that have medical marijuana laws “will make it easier to obtain marijuana in violation of federal law,” government attorney Michael Stern had said. 

States allowing medical marijuana are Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. All but Maine fall under the 9th Circuit jurisdiction. 

Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said the decision was “currently under review” and declined to say whether the government would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider. 

Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said the ruling preserves state medical marijuana laws by preventing the federal government from silencing doctors. 

“If a doctor can’t recommend it, then no patient can use it,” he said. “This was the federal government’s first line strategy, to shut down doctor recommendations.” 

In a concurring opinion, Judge Alex Kozinski wrote that there was a wealth of evidence that may support marijuana use for sick patients, and said the government attacked doctors as a means to paralyze California’s medical marijuana laws. 

“The federal government’s policy deliberately undermines the state by incapacitating the mechanism the state has chosen for separating what is legal from what is illegal under state law,” Kozinski wrote. 

The case was brought by patients’ rights groups and doctors who said they have been fearful of recommending marijuana, even if it’s in a patient’s best interest. 

U.S. District Judge William Alsup blocked the Justice Department from revoking doctors’ Drug Enforcement Administration licenses to dispense medication “merely because the doctor recommends medical marijuana to a patient based on a sincere medical judgment.” Alsup’s order also prevented federal agents “from initiating any investigation solely on that ground.” 

The case was an outgrowth of Proposition 215, which California voters approved in 1996. It allows patients to lawfully use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. The other seven states also allow the sick to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. 

The Clinton administration said doctors who recommended marijuana would lose their federal licenses to prescribe medicine, could be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid programs, and could face criminal charges. The Bush administration continued Clinton’s fight. 

The government argued that doctors were aiding and abetting criminal activity for recommending marijuana because it’s an illegal drug under federal narcotics laws. 

But the appellate court said doctors could be liable only if they actually assisted patients in acquiring marijuana. Merely recommending the drug “does not translate into aiding and abetting, or conspiracy,” Schroeder wrote. 

Neil Flynn, a plaintiff in the case and a University of California at Davis doctor specializing in AIDS treatment, said he has recommended marijuana for about three dozen of his 1,500 patients. He said he feared government retribution for discussing what he said were the beneficial aspects of marijuana to reduce pain, nausea and to stimulate eating. 

“I now feel comfortable in discussing it with my patients and recording it in my chart,” Flynn said. 

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court said clubs that sell marijuana to the sick with a doctor’s recommendation are breaking federal drug laws.

STANFORD — One of the nation’s wealthiest universities has frozen hiring for some nonfaculty positions and may be forced to lay off workers as early as next spring. 

Many public universities, which rely heavily on state revenues, including the University of California and California State University systems, put limited hiring freezes in place last year. 

But education experts said Stanford’s announcement, one of the first in the nation from a top private institution, may signal a decline in funding for private colleges and universities, which rely heavily on endowments. 

Dartmouth College in New Hampshire announced layoffs Thursday, the same day Stanford made its plans public. And Duke University earlier this month raised the possibility of cutting as many as 50 faculty positions. 

Stanford officials say they hope the hiring freeze and other moves will avoid layoffs. 

“We are going to be asking people to do more, and we are going to have to look at where we can cut back on programs, where we can cut services that will not impact academics,” said Randall Livingston, Stanford’s chief financial officer and vice president for business affairs. 

Stanford said the cutbacks are due to increasing costs plus a decline in the university’s endowment, donations and federal research funding. University officials have projected an 8 percent drop in Stanford’s $507 million general fund next year. The general fund is about one-quarter of the university’s $2.1 billion consolidated budget.

SACRAMENTO — Bad road conditions and driver inexperience contributed to an accident that killed three firefighters this summer, a U.S. Forest Service investigation has concluded. 

Firefighters Steven Oustad, 51, of Westwood; Heather DePolo, 29, of Redding, and John Self, 19, of Susanville were killed July 28 when their fire engine rolled 800 feet down a mountainside. 

The engine crew was based on the Lassen National Forest in Susanville.

ANAHEIM — Tens of thousands of red-dressed, flag-waving fans turned Disneyland’s Main Street into a highway to heaven salute Tuesday for the Anaheim Angels. 

With Jackie Autry riding alongside Mickey Mouse, fans cheered the team’s first World Series championship at the Disneyland parade and later at a huge rally at Edison Field. 

“For all the Angels fans who have been here from the beginning, and all the Angels we had above, this championship is for you,” team manager Mike Scioscia said at the rally. 

Two hours earlier, Scioscia held the World Series trophy aloft at Disneyland, which was awash in Angels red, with shirts, hats and faces painted with halos. Fans there had paid as much as $45 for a ticket to the park, where the parade was held along Main Street. 

Fan Carl Romano shouted congratulations to Jackie Autry, the widow of Gene Autry, who formed the expansion team in 1961. 

“She’s waited a long time for this,” Romano said. 

The Walt Disney Co. bought the Angels after Gene Autry died in 1998. 

The hard-luck team had never won a playoff series before beating the New York Yankees earlier this month in an American League division series. They followed that up by beating the Minnesota Twins to win the American League pennant and then defeating the Giants in seven games. 

A second parade began at Arrowhead Pond, home of the Mighty Ducks hockey team, and ended with a rally at Edison Field, home of the Angels. 

“I waited 10 years for something like this,” veteran Angels slugger Tim Salmon told the screaming crowd. “But I know you guys have been waiting a lot longer. This is yours.” 

Added Angels relief pitcher Troy Percival: “We want to do this every year.” 

Anaheim police had no estimate of the crowd but said as many as 300,000 people were expected for the rally. 

Mike Goetz, 44, arrived at Edison Field at 5:30 a.m. armed with signs that read, “Thanks for the dream, Walt and Gene” and “And after the seventh game, we party.” One young girl who apparently skipped school carried a banner reading, “Sorry teacher! Angels forever!” 

Goetz said the Angels had suffered from lack of respect over the years. 

“Nobody took them seriously,” he said. “Now everybody has to.” 

The parade and rally at Edison Field were free. However, fans had to pay an admission charge at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure park. Disney has come under fire for charging fans who wanted to attend the events. 

John McClintock, a spokesman for the Disneyland Resort, said there could have been severe overcrowding and other logistical problems if the parks had been opened free.

LOS ANGELES — In the vast, suburban expanse of the San Fernando Valley, one of the largest industries thrives quietly, hidden inside unmarked warehouses, walled estates and hidden studios. 

The region is home to most of America’s pornography industry — videos, Web-sites, phone sex businesses, adult toys and even the old-fashioned dirty magazine. 

While many parts of the nation’s economy are suffering, the past five years have been good for the adult industry, as new video and computer technology open the doors to hundreds of millions of potential customers here and around the world. 

It’s an industry estimated to be worth between $4 billion and $10 billion annually. 

“The adult industry doesn’t follow the same ups and downs that other businesses do,” said Paul Fishbein, publisher of Adult Video News, the trade paper of the adult industry. “It still grows every year in terms of sales and rental volume.” 

The valley is home to some of the biggest names in the movie business — Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. 

But the 354 square miles of tract homes, strip centers and freeways on the north side of the Hollywood Hills also hosts some less famous names in the industry — Vivid Entertainment, VCA, Wicked Pictures and dozens of other studios churning out X-rated DVDs and videos. 

Pornography is just a small part of Southern California’s entertainment industry, but its long history, growing revenues and the steady employment prospects it provides have colored the valley’s reputation. 

A longshot proposal on Los Angeles’ November ballot would make the San Fernando Valley its own city. While most polls give it little chance of passing, the initiative has given rise to debate over what a new city would be called. The “San Pornando Valley” is one popular, tongue-in cheek suggestion. 

On a set in Chatsworth recently, porn actresses named Dee and Jordan Haze, a married mother from Long Beach, killed time tossing around possible names of a separate valley city. 

“What about Pornopolis?” Haze said. “Or Babylon?” 

Dee (there are no real names in the porn industry) shook her long, black hair. 

“It has to be Pornoville,” she said. “That’s what everybody calls it already.” 

One-liners aside, the industry has come into its own in recent years and is thriving despite the economic malaise across the rest of the country. 

“Twenty years ago, you had people sneaking into those little theaters. That’s all changed with technology,” said Bill Asher, president of Vivid Entertainment. “We’ve gone from a market of hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions.” 

The film, television and Web-based products produced by Vivid alone grossed $1 billion in retail sales last year, he said. A 1998 study by Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., estimated that the industry generates $10 billion a year. 

But in a business where few companies are public and new providers blossom like wildflowers, real numbers are hard to come by. 

“It’s hard to put a dollar figure to it because we don’t see many hard revenue numbers,” said Michael Goodman, an entertainment industry analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. “But it is a very profitable business and pretty recession proof.” 

Sales and rentals of adult videos produced by American companies was a $4 billion business last year, Fishbein said, based on a survey of thousands of video stores and overall sales figures from the Video Software Dealers Association. 

That growth has produced dozens of large and small valley studios producing hundreds of new titles each year and created a star-making machinery much like the old Hollywood studios.

NEW YORK — An unexpected plunge in consumer confidence incited another wave of profit-taking on Wall Street Tuesday, but stocks recovered by late in the session, and renewed buying offset some of the losses. 

The Dow Jones industrials eked out a slim gain, while the rest of the market posted moderate declines, bouncing back from a sharp downturn. 

Analysts said the market was pressured more by the temptation to secure gains rather than increased skepticism about the economy or the market. Investors were already inclined to collect some of their winnings in recent sessions following a surprisingly strong three-week rally. 

“It is just an excuse to take some profits. There is nothing new here. We all knew consumers were worrying about the decline in the stock market and the geopolitical situation,” said Peter Cardillo, president and chief strategist of Global Partner Securities Inc. 

After falling as much as 170 points early in the session, the Dow closed up 0.90 at 8,368.94. On Monday, the Dow lost 75 points to profit taking. 

The market’s broader gauges pulled back. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.29, or 1.2 percent, to 1,300.54. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 8.08, or 0.9 percent, to 882.15. 

Investors were disappointed by a sharp decrease in consumer confidence. The Conference Board reported that confidence fell to 79.4 in October, the weakest level since 1993 and far below the reading of 90 analysts were expecting. 

Analysts were somewhat concerned that the slide in consumer confidence would prompt Federal Reserve policy makers to lower interest rates when they meet next week. While rate cuts typically cause the market to rally for a time, their effect has diminished after last year’s 11 reductions that have so far failed to restart the economy. 

“We are at a point where we’d like to see the Fed tighten (rates) to indicate that the economy has turned,” said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust. 

Consumer sentiment is closely monitored by Wall Street because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy. Likewise, some consumer cyclical stocks were among Wall Street’s losers in Tuesday’s session. 

General Motors fell $1.15 to $33.73 and appliance maker Maytag declined 42 cents to $25.06.

LAS VEGAS — Congressional inaction on Internet gambling is handcuffing the casino industry and favoring shady corners of international commerce, according to gambling industry analysts and attorneys. 

“When you force legitimate businesses to the sidelines, it opens the world to people who operate in gray or black areas,” Las Vegas lawyer and Internet casino analyst Tony Cabot told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The online gaming industry would be better off regulated than being banned.” 

Bear, Stearns Co. Inc. online gambling analyst Michael Tew said the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes American citizens who operate online gambling sites, but won’t go after foreign nationals who run illegal gambling sites. 

In an Aug. 23 letter to Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, Michael Chertoff, reaffirmed that online gambling is illegal under federal law. 

However, several gambling sites operate outside the United States, and are promoted and available online to U.S. and Nevada residents. 

Nevada regulators have been charged by state lawmakers with making sure Internet betting complies with federal law.

SACRAMENTO — Growing marijuana in California isn’t what it used to be. 

Mexican drug cartels, attracted by the state’s rich soil and remote forests, grew nearly three-quarters of the pot seized in California this fall, state officials announced Tuesday. 

That marks a dangerous shift toward large and sophisticated growing operations, said Sonya Barna, commander of the Department of Justice’s Campaign Against Marijuana Eradication, known as CAMP. 

“It used to be an industry controlled by hippies with small gardens,” Barna said. “Now, it’s not uncommon to see cartels planting anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 plants in a garden.” 

This year, local, state and federal drug agents confiscated a record 354,000 of marijuana plants worth about $1.4 billion dollars, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Tuesday. 

State officials say higher prices — as much as $4,000 a pound — makes marijuana cultivation a fast-growing industry. 

Since the CAMP program started nearly 20 years ago, more than 3 million pot plants have been seized — nearly half of which were confiscated in just the last four years. 

About 74 percent of marijuana farms raided this year had apparent ties to Mexican drug cartels, which sometimes find it is easier to grow pot in the states.

MINNEAPOLIS — A memorial service that began as a poignant farewell to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone culminated Tuesday night in a furious series of partisan speeches, with Wellstone’s family and friends exhorting supporters to help his ballot replacement to victory next week. 

The first eulogies were tender remembrances for the seven people killed along with Wellstone in a northern Minnesota plane crash Friday. So, too, were remarks for Wellstone, who had been locked in a difficult re-election battle with Republican Norm Coleman. 

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and one of Wellstone’s closest friends in the Senate, called him “the soul of the Senate.” 

“Now we see an outpouring of grief, an admiration in this arena and all across the land, every bit as authentic as he was,” Harkin said. “It’s a tribute to him. But it’s also a tribute to the yearning for a politics that truly can be the noble profession of putting principle above the latest poll results.” 

By the end of his talk, though, Harkin had shed his jacket and was imploring the crowd — some 15,000 people at a University of Minnesota sports arena — to work on Wellstone’s behalf. That likely means backing Walter Mondale, who is expected to take Wellstone’s ballot spot after a Democratic party meeting Wednesday. 

“For Paul Wellstone, will you stand up and keep fighting for social justice? Say YES!” Harkin shouted. The crowd roared. 

Rick Kahn, Wellstone’s friend and former student, whipped up the crowd before Harkin took the stage by adopting the late senator’s fiery speaking style. 

He chopped the air with his hands, as Wellstone often did, and exhorted the crowd to keep Wellstone’s dream alive. 

“A week from today, Paul Wellstone’s name will not be on the ballot,” Kahn said. “But there will be a choice just the same ... either keep his legacy alive, or bring it forever to an end!” 

As the crowd erupted in a loud “No!” Kahn continued: 

“If Paul Wellstone’s legacy in the Senate comes to an end just days after this unspeakable tragedy, our spirits will be crushed, and we will drown in a river of tears. We are begging you, do not let this happen.” 

An overflow crowd of thousands gathered outside the arena to watch on giant video screens, and multitudes more watched and listened on statewide TV and radio to the ceremony for Wellstone; his wife Sheila, 58; his daughter Marcia Wellstone Markuson, 33; and campaign staffers Mary McEvoy, 49, Tom Lapic, 49, and Will McLaughlin, 23. 

All were killed in a plane crash Friday in northern Minnesota. The plane’s two pilots, Richard Conry, 55, and Michael Guess, 30, also died. 

Republicans were quick to criticize the partisan tone of the memorial’s final hour.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island’s landmark lawsuit against lead paint makers ended in a mistrial Tuesday after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked in the potentially multimillion-dollar case. 

The state was trying to hold eight former paint manufacturers liable for lead poisoning in 35,000 Rhode Island children since 1993. 

Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse said the state is prepared to try the case again “within weeks.” 

Had the jury found the manufacturers caused a public nuisance, the case would have moved into two more phases to decide whether the industry is liable and how much it should pay in damages. 

However, the jury deadlocked 4-2 in favor of the manufacturers after four days of deliberations and seven weeks of trial. 

“I think we all agreed that lead paint was a hazard,” foreman George Mansi said. 

But Mansi said some jurors had doubts about the magnitude of the threat. He said they were swayed heavily by the state’s concession that it had no evidence of a child getting sick from lead at any school, hospital or public building in the state. 

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed since 1989 by individuals and communities against lead paint companies. All have failed. Rhode Island is the first state to sue the industry under public nuisance law. 

The case was being watched nationally. Other states, notably Connecticut and West Virginia, were poised to take legal action had Rhode Island prevailed. 

Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Ohio also were contemplating lawsuits, said Eileen Quinn, deputy director of the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. Cities such as San Francisco, Milwaukee, New York and Newark, N.J., have already filed lawsuits. 

“The paint industry is a multimillion-dollar industry and it dodged a legal bullet today,” said Bain Testa, news editor of Rhode Island Lawyers weekly. “A (favorable) judgment could’ve decimated the industry and caused paint prices to skyrocket.” 

Lead paint was banned in 1978 after studies showed flaking paint or dust can harm children who eat or breathe it. Health problems include behavioral disorders, brain damage and even death. 

Lead paint remains in about 330,000 homes and public buildings in Rhode Island — about 80 percent of the state’s housing stock, according to the state. 

The paint companies said the problem is confined to deteriorating paint found in homes managed by delinquent landlords or irresponsible homeowners. 

John Tarantino, the chief attorney for the defendants, said the mistrial shows the lead paint issue “is not a question that should be resolved through litigation but through legislation.” 

Mansi said he had sided with the state, persuaded by their argument that children continue to be sickened by lead paint. 

“I have an obligation to protect those who can’t talk for themselves, and those are the children,” said the 64-year-old retired Air Force veteran. 

The defendants were American Cyanamid Co.; Atlantic Richfield; ConAgra Grocery Products Co.; Cytec Industries Inc.; DuPont Co.; Millennium Inorganic Chemicals Inc.; NL Industries Inc.; and Sherwin-Williams Co.

FRESNO — With a grape glut statewide and raisins dying on the vine in the San Joaquin Valley, growers and politicians Tuesday asked the federal government for more help. 

U.S. Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, called a summit to find solutions before the problem crushes the industry. 

Valley growers, who provide about 60 percent of California’s wine grapes and 90 percent of the nation’s raisins, have suffered from low prices in the past few years due to overproduction. 

The USDA anticipates that wine grape growers will harvest 3.3 million tons this year for wine, an 8 percent increase from last year. 

Raisin growers are expected to harvest 400,000 tons of raisins this year, up 7.2 percent over the same period. 

The impact has been troubling for an industry rooted for generations in the arid valley that is home to the “Raisin Capital of the World.” It has also been a leader in growing table and wine grapes. 

During the summer, the raisin industry paid some farmers to prune their crop or yank their vines. Other growers let their crop die on the vine. 

Selma raisin grower Mike O’Brian had to take a second job with a crop insurance company to make ends meet. 

“It may not sustain the farm but it may sustain my monthly expenses,” O’Brian said. 

“This will be the third year in a row that we’ve lost money in every acre we farm.” 

Radanovich recommended that a panel of USDA officials and grape industry representatives work together to find ways to aid growers who do not receive subsidies. 

“Part of it is to determine what existing programs will help stabilize this industry,” said Radanovich, a vintner who owns 10 acres in Mariposa. 

O’Brian said one way to help grape farmers is make it easier to export. He said import tariffs in America are about one-tenth of what they are overseas. 

The San Joaquin Valley, which grows 40 percent of the world’s raisins, has seen competition from Australia, Chile, Greece, Iran, South Africa and Turkey, where labor costs are lower, industry officials said. 

While the summit focused on the valley, it could have an impact statewide because grapes are the leading agricultural product in the nation’s leading farm state. 

Wine grape growers have experienced the same pains of excess after a boom in the 1990s has begun to mellow. Production is growing faster than demand as vineyards planted by farmers trying to capitalize on California’s $33 billion wine industry are now maturing. 

Radanovich hopes the USDA will buy more raisins for foreign aid, school lunch programs and a federal nutrition program for mothers and their children. He also wants the USDA to pay grape farmers to pull out vineyards next year if a surplus is expected. 

Earlier this month, the USDA announced plans to buy up to $56.8 million of nuts and dried fruits, including raisins. It is also considering buying grape juice made from Thompson grapes. 

California raisin growers also want a five-year moratorium on replanting vines by growers who were paid to remove them. 

That proposal is under review by USDA.

UKIAH — The primary task of a deer hunter is not shooting, but seeing. 

That’s the first point I’d make to anyone interested in the craft. Gaining an ability to perceive much more of the forest than its trees is a rudimentary base of the hunter’s skill-set. 

So, to start becoming a hunter, you needn’t own a gun. You can simply step on that path the next time you walk in the woods. 

Try to open your awareness, and every sense, to all dimensions of a wild place. Large animals derive from a healthy landscape. Try to grasp how the woods work. Then your ability to view the creatures, and to intuit their behavior, gradually shall improve. 

Master this, and your mission of moving from ignorance to success as a deer hunter will seem less daunting. But many other lessons remain. These include skill in safe handling, shooting and cleaning of firearms, scouting and stalking and, if successful, the right way to clean and dress your game. 

In the early 20th century, most Americans lived on farms or other rustic settings. A tradition of skill transmission was unbroken. Now — lacking that — a “wannabe” must locate links to woods wisdom through friends, Department of Fish & Game personnel, hunter safety and firing range instructors. 

I became a hunter that way, in my 30s. Now, by my 50s, going on a late summer deer hunt has grown into a major ritual of my year. 

As rancher Cliff Blank (not his real name) and I ascended a wooded mountain on his Mendocino County property, I mentally reviewed the myriad ways a deer can appear. 

There’s the “Y” shape of a big-eared, thin-necked doe alertly turned toward you. The twiggy bush shape of an antlered buck peering over a log or rock while lounging in his bed behind it. The glow of deer hide lit by a beam of sunlight, even when most of the animal is concealed in shade. 

One should not search for these views, specifically. Just acknowledge possibilities and clear the mind of irrelevant, workaday thoughts. Then scan the woods both by unaided eye and with binocular, and let an “Aha!” moment of recognition erupt. 

Suddenly, a large buck leaped up from a log not 50 yards away and sprinted over a rise, into the dawn. 

I never even clicked off the safety on my Winchester. I don’t go for snap shots. Besides, shooting at an uphill trajectory meant a bullet might sail down a mile away, on someone else’s property, with unpredictable results. 

So, I just admired the view. Then we continued. 

Blank has hunted this ranch — with an old, lever-action 300 Savage his wife bought him after their wedding — for more than 50 years. He has a well worked-out rubric of push-and-stand hikes down the land’s canyons. One hunter takes up a post at an overlook, the other seeks to drive game down the canyon and past that point. Deer, of course, have their own strategies. 

“This time of year, the bucks all hang out together, while does and fawns form their own groups,” Blank said. 

It’s only in autumn, as the rut fully kicks in, that coastal bucks seek to assemble harems. Then, their IQ drops to about that of your average, 14-year-old human male — and for precisely the same reason. 

Prior to that, buck groups manifest a collective intelligence that’s formidable. Older bucks, when together, unite brains that brim with experience. 

Four of them can process signals from four noses, eight eyes and eight ears. Each acts as scout for the others. 

Blank tried to push a group just like that past me. They would have none of it. Figuring us out in an instant, they bounded off at a diagonal, into the canyon’s maw, then out the other side. All I could see was antler tips, bobbing up and down, swiftly growing smaller as they coursed away. 

By late morning, we abandoned the hunt. I spent midday helping Blank yard and section a big bay tree that had toppled into the ranch creek. This, by the way, is another tip for a would-be hunter. Public land often is overrun. Many top hunt options are on private land.

It’s almost Halloween and something spooky is happening in Berkeley. With Election Day just a week away, dozens of campaign signs for candidates across the political spectrum have disappeared. 

Who is the ghoul behind the mysterious trend? It appears to be a monster all too familiar to Berkeley residents: partisan politics.  

Board of Education candidate Lance Montauk, who estimates that 200 of his roughly 800 signs have ended up in trash bins or in tatters on the ground, had a run-in with the beast last week. 

Montauk said he was replacing a series of torn-down signs on Cedar Street Wednesday morning when a middle-aged man and his school-aged daughter pulled up in a car. 

“He yelled out, ‘no point in putting them up again, I’ll just tear them down’” and pulled away, said Montauk. 

Montauk, who has taken controversial stands on school district finances and special education, got the heckler’s license plate number but said he does not plan to file charges. 

“This must be life and this must be politics,” said the first-time candidate. “My wife is more upset than I am.” 

Board of Education President Shirley Issel, who is running for re-election, said she has faced a different kind of problem – a vandal who has scrawled the word ‘no’ on her signs. 

“We were out until two in the morning last night cleaning off signs,” she said. 

Issel joked that the graffitti might be a sign that she’s doing something right. 

“I don’t know if I should be flattered or furious,” she said. 

Bryan Schwartz, campaign manager for Mayor Shirley Dean, said he has received “dozens of reports” of lawn signs stolen from supporters’ yards. He said the mayor’s husband, Dan, has worked tirelessly to replace the posters and estimates that the campaign has more than 900 signs up in Berkeley. 

“We still feel good about our sign presence,” Schwartz said. 

Alisha Rivani, campaign manager for Dean’s chief rival Tom Bates, estimated that 50 to 100 Bates signs have been taken, but seemed unfazed. 

“I think it happens in every election,” said Rivani, adding that the campaign has put up close to 2,000 signs around the city. 

Planning commissioner Gordon Wozniak, one of four candidates in the hotly-contested race for the 8th District City Council seat, said someone systematically removed 50 to 100 of his signs from about 10 streets in southeast Berkeley Saturday night or Sunday morning. 

“In fact, they took one from my house,” he said. 

Wozniak said the 8th District race has been clean and added that he does not believe that any of his rivals were directly involved. But, he called the mass removal of posters a “bad play” and said it was designed to intimidate his supporters. 

Wozniak said his campaign is working to replace the missing signs, which cost $4 each. 

One of Wozniak’s competitors, Carlos Estrada, said that about 60 of his signs have come down. Estrada, an air conditioning mechanic and member of the Green Party, said he takes the matter seriously. 

“We have to stand up for fair campaign practices,” he said. “It’s about the democratic process.” 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg 

@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

LOS ANGELES — “Jackass” has pulled its craziest stunt yet, debuting in first place at the box office. 

Young men flocked to “Jackass: The Movie,” the big-screen version of the MTV show whose stars specialized in bizarre and risky behavior, which debuted with $22.7 million. 

Last weekend’s winner, Naomi Watts’ horror film “The Ring,” slipped to No. 2 but actually raised its gross by adding about 650 more theaters. The movie took in $18.8 million, up $3.8 million from opening weekend, pushing its 10-day total to $39.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

Another fright flick, “Ghost Ship,” opened in third place with $11.7 million. The movie stars Julianna Margulies and Gabriel Byrne as leaders of a salvage crew that finds a haunted ocean liner. 

Debuting in much narrower release was Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton’s “The Truth About Charlie,” a remake of the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn crime caper “Charade.” Directed by Jonathan Demme, “The Truth About Charlie” opened out of the top 10 with $2.3 million. 

“Truth About Charlie” played in 752 theaters, averaging $3,105 a cinema. “Jackass” averaged $9,047 in 2,509 theaters, “The Ring” did $7,137 in 2,634 theaters, and “Ghost Ship” did $4,203 in 2,787 theaters. 

The overall box office rose for the seventh straight weekend. The top 12 movies grossed $88 million, up 21 percent from same weekend last year. 

Produced for just $5 million, “Jackass” features Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and others from the now-defunct MTV show doing such hazardous or crude acts as roller-skating with bottle rockets attached or urinating on a snow cone. 

Two-thirds of the movie’s audience was male, and young men from 17 to 24 accounted for nearly half the crowds, according to distributor Paramount. 

Executives at Paramount and its MTV subsidiary had expected “Jackass” might gross $20 million at best. 

“We didn’t expect to exceed $20 million for a film called ‘Jackass.’ Especially a film with no plot, no Oscar-caliber performances and no real writing,” said Van Toffler, MTV president. “What they do in the movie sort of feels to me like what the Three Stooges would be doing if they were alive. Kind of slapstick twisted on its head in an extreme form.” 

The R-rated movie carried warnings urging viewers not to try the stunts themselves, and Paramount offered to provide guards at theaters that wanted extra security to keep those younger than 17 from sneaking in, said Wayne Lewellen, the studio’s head of distribution. 

Adam Sandler and Emily Watson’s quirky romance “Punch-Drunk Love” broke into the top 10 after two weekends in limited release. The film expanded to 481 theaters, up about 400 from last weekend, and came in at No. 7 with $3.5 million. 

The Harlem drug tale “Paid in Full,” featuring Mekhi Phifer and Wood Harris, premiered with $1.4 million in 268 theaters for a $5,224 average. 

Debuting strongly in limited release was “Frida,” starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina as Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera.The film, directed by Julie Taymor (Broadway’s “The Lion King”), took in $200,000 at five theaters. 

Also opening well was “Rodger Dodger,” starring Campbell Scott as an odious womanizer, which grossed $52,000 at four theaters.

Tuesday, Oct. 29 

Virginia Handley 

7 p.m. 

234 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley 

This longtime animal rights acivist will speak on the future of animals in California politics. 

www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~boaa 

Free 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Berkeley City Council Forum 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Hillel Foundation 

2736 Bancroft Way between Piedmont and College Avenues 

Candidates Gordon Wozniak, Andy Katz, Micki Weinberg, Kriss Worthington and others speak in this forum. 

839-2900 

“An Agenda for the Next Papacy: Two Views” 

7 p.m. 

Chapel at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

Robert Blair Kaiser and John L. Allen Jr., both journalists, will share information. 

549-5017 

Monster Bash 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

A singles celebration of an ancient Celtic end-of-summer observance, with a lavish feast of foods from the fall harvest. 

Register: 601-7247  

$25 / includes meal and cooking lesson 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Census 2000: Growing Together or Apart? 

8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Wurster Hall Auditorium (Rm. 112), UC Berkeley 

During this one-day conference, scholars will analyze the geographic impact of changes to the population. 

For more info: 

http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/census2000.htm 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to noon 

UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643-2755 

Free 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Sacred Breath” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place 

Robin Caton gives this talk on Tibetan Buddhism, and the classic Buddhist practice known as Tong-len. 

843-6812, Free 

Monday, Nov. 4 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home Owners Support Group 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 

Resources for low and middle-income home owners, and home maintenance. 

548-9696 

“Pathways to Collaboration” 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Kroeber Hall, Rm. 160, UC Berkeley 

A lecture by Dana Plautz, director of research communications for Intel Corporation, followed by live music. 

Free 

Wednesday, Nov. 6 

“The Chinese and Religion in the Context of Globalization” 

Reception 5:30 p.m. / Lecture 7 p.m. 

Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

A noted scholar and author, Professor Zhuo Xinping speaks. 

649-2440 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

Book Sale and Auction 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The Center for AIDS Services, 5720 Shattuck Ave., Oakland 

This “big” sale will benefit the AIDS center. 

655-3435 

Tuesday, Oct. 29 

Activate: DJ night 

10 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

An evening of DJs featuring drum n’ bass music. 

525-5054 

$5 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Courtableau 

Cajun dance lesson 8 p.m. 

Show 8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene perform classic Cajun dance hall music. 

525-5054 

$8 

Thursday, Oct. 31 

Halloween Party with the Venusians 

8 p.m. 

The Venusians are a shamanic trance-dance septet known for their costume-laden, colorful performances. 

525-5054 

$10 

Friday, Nov. 1 

Festa Da Bunda 

8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

This Brazilian “love fest and Penta party” features a Batucada jam with Gary Muzynski of One World Music and others. The night includes a Brazilian soccer team look-alike contest. 

525-5054 

$12 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

The Librarians with The Skyflakes and Plain White Ts 

9 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair 

2475 Bancroft Way 

$5 / 21 and over 

Vince Black with Root Awakening 

9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Socially conscious reggae classics and original songs. 

525-5054 

$11 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

Workshop and Performance by Akira Tana 

1 to 3 p.m. workshop 

4:30 p.m. concert 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Drummer Akira Tana teaches and performs. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$30-$35 workshop 

$10-$15 performance 

CalArts Night of Jazz 

8 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

The first of many collaborations between Jazzschool and CalArts. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Flamenco Open Stage 

7:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Dancers, guitarists and singers, with a costume exhibit and a sale of flamenco items. 

525-5054 

$8 

Miriam Abramowitsch and George Barth 

4 p.m. 

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 

The renowned singer and pianist will perform classical vocal favorites featuring the music of Brahams, Dvorak and Bartok. 

559-6910 

$10 / 18 and under free 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Focus” 

2 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St.  

William H. Macy stars in this early 1940’s period piece. 

848-0237 

$2 donation 

Thursday, Nov. 7 

“Desert Hearts” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

A 1950’s lesbian romance featuring Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau. 

Friday, Nov. 8 

“El Che” 

7 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 

Film screening followed by salsa dancing to support Berkeley’s Cuban Sister-City Palma Soriano. 

548-6941 

$10 / Sliding scale 

“Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times” 

7:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way 

The Middle East Children’s Alliance will premiere a new film by Academy award-nominated documentary filmmaker John Junkerman. 

548-0542 

$15 

ANAHEIM — Barry Bonds probably wanted to cry, too. 

Instead, while little Darren Baker wailed, Bonds stared blankly from the dugout as the Anaheim Angels celebrated their first World Series championship. 

“It’s disappointing,” Bonds said after Game 7 Sunday night, “but somebody has to lose.” 

While fans will recall Garret Anderson’s game-breaking hit and rookie John Lackey’s poise in the Angels’ clinching 4-1 victory, this Series is more likely to be portrayed a different way: As the one that slipped away from the San Francisco Giants. 

On Saturday night, they led by five runs in the seventh inning. Manager Dusty Baker already had given pitcher Russ Ortiz a game ball to cherish. The MVP votes were counted, and Bonds stood to be the unanimous winner. 

A few innings later, it was all gone. And by Sunday night, the Angels were holding the things that really mattered. 

Tim Salmon took the Tiffany and Co. trophy around Edison Field for a triumphant lap. 

“It was pretty heavy,” he admitted. 

Center fielder Darin Erstad, who caught Kenny Lofton’s fly for the final out, tried to give the ball to closer Troy Percival. 

“I’m not a big memorabilia guy,” Erstad said. “Percy told me, ’Keep it.”’ 

Troy Glaus won the Series MVP award. 

“It’s a great honor, obviously,” he said. “But we play for the big trophy with the pennants on it, not for these.” 

Glaus and a few other teammates also got together on the field for a quick commercial, shouting, “We’re going to Disneyland!” 

No matter that the amusement park is only a few miles from their ballpark. They’ll be there Tuesday for a victory parade. 

The Giants? They were left clinging to baseball’s saddest lament: “What if?” 

What if Baker had stuck with Ortiz a little longer? What if he’d pitched Kirk Rueter rather than ineffective Livan Hernandez in Game 7? What if he’d started Shawon Dunston instead of overmatched Pedro Feliz at DH in the last game, or chosen anyone besides Tom Goodwin to pinch-hit for Reggie Sanders in a key spot? 

“The game I’ll probably remember most is Game 6, when we had a 5-0 lead. That’s it,” Baker said. 

His 3-year-old son, bat boy Darren, couldn’t contain himself, with tears streaming down his face as his dad carried him from the dugout. 

That’s sure to be one of the enduring images from baseball’s first all wild-card Series. There were others, too: 

— J.T. Snow scooping up Darren Baker to avoid a collision at home plate. 

— Lofton’s bunt dancing down the third-base line, keying a rally that temporarily turned momentum the Giants’ way. 

— David Eckstein’s running to first base after a walk, exemplifying the Angels’ aggressive attitude. Fittingly, his spikes were headed to the Hall of Fame. 

— Sanders’ being bopped in the back by an Anaheim fan’s ThunderStix. 

— 20-year-old Francisco Rodriguez blowing away the Giants with three perfect innings in Game 2, then giving up another huge home run to Bonds in Game 6. 

— The Rally Monkey. 

Bonds put aside his past playoff failures with a monster October, capped by one of the most dominant Series performances of all time. He went 8-for-17 (.471) with four homers and a .700 on-base percentage. 

Overall, he set postseason records with eight home runs and 27 walks in 17 games. 

Yet the ring, the one that Rodriguez will get after only a month in the majors, remains beyond Bonds’ reach. At 38, Bonds has everything else — the home-run record, a batting title and four NL MVPs, with a fifth award certain to come in two weeks. 

Bonds’ bat also is going to the Hall, as is the cap worn by Rodriguez when he became the youngest pitcher to win a Series game. 

After Lofton flied out with two runners on to end it, Bonds could only sit and wonder whether he’d ever get another chance. 

“I went 1-for-3 with a walk, that’s a good day. Am I supposed to go 3-for-3 with three home runs?” Bonds said. “What do you want from me?” 

Bonds watched the Angels party for a moment, then walked down the dugout and picked up his glove. He walked back, tapped his son on the back and exited down the runway. 

“It’s not going to haunt us,” Bonds said later. “We’ll go to spring training and start again.”

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone was a man of honor who worked fearlessly to make a difference in the lives of those corporate America has sought to exploit. His death is a great loss to our country, but his life is proof that American democratic ideals are still very much alive – in spite of decades of corporate media distortions manipulating public opinion in the name of corporate profits. 

Democracy does not mean what neo-conservatives and neo-liberals would have us think. Democracy does not equate to free market capitalism and freedom only for corporate elites to make profits without limits, to establish slave markets with unemployment and capital flight practices, to avoid paying taxes, to use any means to silence opposition, to exploit working people/veterans, and to put themselves above the law. 

That's not democracy, people! That’s fascism. 

Only one man in a hundred senators had the courage and passion to genuinely speak out against the obscene abuses of corporate America and the crimes against the citizens – and really mean it – not just for CSPAN cameras! 

Wellstone knew, and we know, regardless what lies fascist right wing think tanks put together – Democracy means a government of, by and for the people, an informed, well educated, involved citizenry – leaving no child behind – and backing it up with actions, not just words. 

In honor of Sen. Wellstone, fellow American Joseph Holder suggests wearing a black armband until the elections to send a strong message to elected officials that we the people want our government to represent and protect us – to once again be, or get on track to, what it is supposed to stand for – a beacon for light, paving the way for democracy, human rights and peace! 

Thank you, Paul Wellstone! Your passion and zeal will be in our hearts, souls and memory forever! 

Tina Staik 

Berkeley

Lawyers for the University of California and 32 pro-Palestinian student activists sparred in court Monday over student efforts to block the use of UC police videos, police reports and officers’ testimony in university-run student conduct hearings that could result in student expulsion. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Richman is expected to issue a ruling on the students’ lawsuit in a matter of days. 

The 32 students were among 79 protesters who took over UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall April 9, demanding that the nine-campus University of California system divest from Israel. 

In June, the Alameda County District Attorney agreed to drop criminal charges against the activists and consented to a “factual finding of innocence” for all the accused. But the university decided to proceed separately with student conduct charges against the pupils involved in the Wheeler Hall takeover. 

The hearing for the first student, Roberto Hernandez, began Sept. 30 and continued into early-October. But the university put the Hernandez proceeding on hold and stopped scheduling other hearings when the students filed suit Oct. 7. 

The suit argues that, under the terms of the deal with the district attorney, all records of arrest, including videos, reports and even officers’ testimony are under seal and cannot be used in any setting, including a student conduct hearing. 

But UC’s lead attorney Jeffrey Blair argued Monday that the law does not require the university to omit an entire police report or video from a student conduct hearing. The law, he said, only requires the university to omit any direct references to an arrest. 

The university pursued this line of reasoning earlier this month in the Hernandez case. During the second day of hearings, UC replaced the original Hernandez police report with a report that blacked out any direct reference to his arrest. 

But the students’ chief attorney Dan Siegel ridiculed the effort in court Monday, arguing that simply removing the word “arrest” from the police report does not remove the distinct impression that Hernandez was, indeed, arrested. 

Furthermore, Siegel said that the purpose of a “factual finding of innocence” is to erase any trace of an alleged crime and argued that a police report, video and even officers’ testimony should therefore be excluded from the student conduct hearings. 

But Judge Richman, who sharply questioned both lawyers during the hearing, was skeptical of Siegel’s interpretation of the law. 

“You’re not going to persuade me that’s what it means,” he said. 

The lawsuit also charges that the university has violated several of its own rules in conducting the Hernandez hearing – failing to provide a proper hearing committee and unfairly closing the hearing to the public, among other violations. 

“All we’re asking you to do, your honor, is to order the university to follow...its own rules,” Siegel said Monday. 

But Blair argued that the university has abided by all its rules. The university closed the Hernandez hearing, he said, because it heard of student plans to disrupt the proceedings. The university’s code of conduct, he noted, allows for a closed hearing to “preserve order.”  

But Siegel argued that UC cannot shut a hearing based on rumors of disruption. The university can only take action, he said, after an actual disruption has occurred. 

Blair, pointing to a series of previous cases, also argued that Richman does not have the jurisdiction to intervene in the midst of the student conduct charges. 

Unless there is compelling evidence that proceeding with the student conduct hearings will cause “irreparable harm” to the students, Blair said, Richman must let the conduct hearings play out. If there is then evidence of wrongdoing by the university, he said, the court can hear the case. 

Richman said several times that he is reluctant to intervene in this sort of case, fueling university hopes of victory.  

But Siegel argued that it would be wasteful to proceed with 32 hearings that may be flawed, only to end up in court arguing about them once again. Richman suggested that he found Siegel’s argument compelling, stoking student hopes. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg 

@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

ANAHEIM — Dusty Baker walked out of the visitors’ clubhouse at Edison Field carrying his 3 1/2-year-old boy, both father and son uncertain of their baseball futures. 

The Giants’ 4-1 loss to Anaheim in Game 7 of the World Series on Sunday night could have been Baker’s final hurrah in a San Francisco uniform, and for some of his key players, too. And as for his son, Darren, baseball officials probably will discuss whether there should be a minimum age for bat boys because of his near accident at home plate in Game 5. 

The Giants were so close to the franchise’s first World Series championship in 48 years. On Saturday, San Francisco held a 5-0 lead in the seventh inning before the Angels launched the biggest comeback ever by a team facing elimination. 

Now that the season is over, the Giants could be different within days. 

Baker, whose contract is up, hoped to hear a lot earlier that the Giants wanted him back. 

“I don’t know right now,” he said after finishing his 10th season as Giants manager. “My gut right now, it’s just heavy.” 

The 53-year-old Baker, who took the Giants to their first World Series since 1989, said early in the playoffs that he did not intend to “break the bank” — meaning the $6 million a year Joe Torre got from the Yankees — “but I want to be near the bank.” 

Many managerial jobs have already been filled, but there still remain attractive openings with Seattle and the Chicago Cubs. 

Baker isn’t the only Giant who could be leaving. Second baseman Jeff Kent must decide whether to leave San Francisco as a free agent. 

And general manager Brian Sabean will be awaiting a call from owner Peter Magowan to work out a new deal. Magowan is leaving the managerial decision to the GM. 

If Baker leaves, it would be the end of an era that began when he arrived in San Francisco before the 1993 season. He led the Giants to 103 wins his first year — but they didn’t make the playoffs. 

The Giants won the NL West in 1997 and 2000, but didn’t win a playoff series until his team knocked off Atlanta and St. Louis to reach the World Series this year. 

The likable Baker would be missed for the way he handled personalities in the clubhouse, allowed players’ sons to run around the dugout and for his friendly interaction with fan

In your weekend, Oct. 26-27 edition I read about the “mysterious letter” that Kriss Worthington received accusing him of “siding with anti-Jewish and-anti Israel forces.” I was shocked at this denouncement of a truly decent, honorable and courageous man who authored hate crime legislation here in Berkeley. To make just one point: It is true that the Palestinian protest came on Holocaust Remembrance Day. However, what the letter omitted was that on that day Kriss participated in Hillel's 24-hour reading of the names of Holocaust victims. 

Ruth Michaels 

Berkeley 

For a woman who spends most of her working hours crunching numbers, Ann-Marie Hogan doesn’t have to spend much time handicapping her election prospects. 

With no competition, the two-term city auditor is virtually guaranteed to continue reviewing city finances after Nov. 5. 

While getting into the nitty gritty of city fiscal matters may not excite most Berkeley residents, Hogan says it’s her calling. 

“It’s really fascinating to live in a city for 34 years and then find out how the city works behind the scenes,” she said. 

Hogan, an accountant who graduated from UC Berkeley in 1982, along with a staff of 15, review city programs and departments to make sure that they run cost-effectively and that the city does not lose money it might be owed. 

Some of her findings have led to unexpected windfalls. 

Hogan estimates that her audits of city businesses and whether they’ve properly paid their dues to the city has thus far uncovered $1.9 million in previously unreported revenue for Berkeley. 

All people doing business in Berkeley are required to apply for a business license and pay a portion of revenue to the city, but between 10 and 12 percent of city contractors underreport their revenue, she said. 

“It’s surprising how much less they report to us,” she said. 

Business owners aren’t the only people Hogan has caught skimping. 

She also noted a recent audit found between 26 and 31 percent of city landlords fail to apply for a city business license even though all landlords who rent more than three units are required to do so. 

Hogan said her independence is the key to effectively getting at the core of city operations. 

Because city auditor is an elected position, Hogan is not beholden to either City Council or the city manager. She has ultimate authority over what departments and programs are audited but has decided to form a five-person commission with two council members to determine future studies. 

Hogan, though, has no power to enforce any of her findings and must ask council and the city manager to follow through on her recommendations. 

In addition to tightening up business licenses, Hogan said she has won city support to help city departments run more efficiently. 

A police staffing audit performed this year investigated ways to free up more uniformed officers to patrol city streets. 

Hogan said she researched other police departments and recommended that several police department desk jobs, including budget and technology assignments go to civilians instead of high-priced lieutenants. 

“The cost savings are enormous, when you factor in benefits and salaries for any police position that you can replace with a civilian,” she said. 

Without a competitor or a central campaign issue, Hogan is making outreach her number one goal. “I want to reach out to young people and show them that this is really interesting.” 

Contact reporter at matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

NEW YORK — Rick Fox was suspended for six games, Doug Christie was banished for two, and every member of the Sacramento Kings who left the bench during a fight with the Los Angeles Lakers got off scot-free. 

In a surprising ruling Monday by NBA vice president Stu Jackson, the Sacramento Kings were not punished as badly as they may have expected for their part in a bench-clearing brawl during the first quarter of an exhibition game at Los Angeles last Friday. 

Jackson ruled that because the players left the bench to join a fracas in a hallway underneath the stands, rather than on the court, they would not receive the customary one-game suspension for that offense. 

“This is not a new precedent at all,” Jackson said in a conference call with reporters. “In the end we felt this case was very unusual, a special case.” 

Fox and Christie will miss their season openers Tuesday, although Fox will be allowed to attend the Lakers’ ring ceremony prior to their game against San Antonio.

The Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter, Golden Gate Audubon, and the Citizens for the Eastshore State Park urge a yes vote on Measure N to protect Berkeley's waterfront from massive development. 

In 1986, Berkeley voters passed Measure Q, which limited development on the waterfront lands then owned by Santa Fe Railroad to 565,000 square feet. Santa Fe eventually sold 80 percent of its waterfront lands to the state for the new Eastshore State Park. Santa Fe has since sold Magna Entertainment Corporation the remaining 20 percent of the land. 

Because only 20 percent of the original land is now in private hands, development should be accordingly limited to 20 percent of the original total or about 115,000 square feet. Magna, however, has proposed a huge waterfront development of up 300,000 to 400,000 square feet. It is unclear how the limits of Measure Q apply to the smaller parcel. 

Measure N is designed to clarify this situation by creating a mechanism for the city to amend Measure Q to reduce the amount of development allowed, consistent with protecting the landowner's constitutional rights. Measure N will also ensure that any planning for these lands is done through a community planning process which will guarantee that Berkeley residents have a direct say in any development plans. 

Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, and the entire City Council support Measure N.  

Norman La Force 

Berkeley 

A U.S. District Court Judge indefinitely postponed a decision Monday on whether to reduce the sentence of wealthy Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was imprisoned for his role in smuggling Indian girls into the country for sex and cheap labor. 

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken was to hear arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys, both of whom are calling for her to cut two years off Reddy’s eight-year prison sentence. Instead of a hearing, however, she called on both sides to present additional written evidence, which will likely delay a final ruling until the beginning of next year. 

Defendants and prosecutors agree that Reddy’s 2001 trial was marred by a revelation they say is grounds for a lighter sentence. In October 2001, four months after Reddy was sentenced to 97 months in prison, prosecutors found that Uma Rao, the court-appointed interpreter had encouraged prosecution witnesses to embellish their stories of Reddy’s abuse. 

In a court paper filed Sept. 18, Reddy attorney Ted Cassman and U.S. Attorney Stephen Corrigan asked Judge Wilken to “correct” the sentence by reducing the sentence to 78 months. 

Judge Wilken, however, wrote in an order filed on Oct. 17 that she was not inclined to reduce the sentence given the current evidence of the interpreter’s misdeeds. 

She gave defense attorneys until Nov. 16 to present new evidence to support a shorter sentence. She also asked prosecutors to address whether they think that, in light of the interpreter’s actions, U.S. law requires the sentence be reduced. 

This is not the first instance in the Reddy case of the judge butting heads with trial attorneys. 

During the original sentencing in June 2001 prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a plea-bargain with a six-year sentence, but U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled that the sentence was too light and added two years. Armstrong removed herself from the case last year. 

Protesters opposed to reducing Reddy’s sentence stood outside the Oakland Federal Building Monday. The said they were heartened that Wilken was requiring further evidence and instead saved their wrath for the Prosecutor Stephen Corrigan. 

“It’s as if he’s on the other side,” said Diana Russell, a member of Berkeley-based Women Against Sexual Slavery. 

Reddy’s brother and sister-in-law Jayaprakash and Annapurna Lakireddy, have pleaded guilty to visa fraud, but neither is serving prison time. Reddy’s son Vijay Lakireddy pleaded guilty to one count of visa fraud and is awaiting sentencing, while Reddy’s younger son, Prasad Lakireddy will go to trial in January on charges of illegally importing girls to the country for “immoral purposes.” 

Contact reporter at matt 

@berkeleydailyplanet.net

n the 7th District City Council race (Daily Planet, Oct. 26-27), Mayor Shirley Dean has discredited herself by endorsing an obviously unqualified 18-year-old candidate. 

Micki Weinberg has no experience or track record dealing with housing, development, traffic, crime, or other local issues. Prior to becoming a candidate, he had never attended any neighborhood meetings. 

By contrast, Kriss Worthington has an excellent record of working to improve neighborhood quality of life. To give a few examples: Kriss has worked effectively with Bateman neighbors to deal with the impacts of Alta Bates expansion. In the LeConte neighborhood, where I live, he helped us get more street lights to improve safety, traffic circles to slow down traffic, and limits on truck traffic on residential streets. He is a responsive and accessible council member. 

Kriss has supported the draft Southside Plan and its policies calling for more housing for students close to the UC campus. Micki Weinberg has not been involved in Southside planning meetings or student lobbying for more housing. Kriss supported building housing at the long-vacant Berkeley Inn site at Telegraph Avenu and Haste Street; unfortunately Mayor Dean worked to block that project.  

If Micki Weinberg is really interested in local politics, he should follow the example set by fellow student Andy Katz, who is running for council in the 8th District. Katz, a graduate student, has spent four years becoming familiar with Berkeley and learning the nuts and bolts of Berkeley politics. He has a track record of working on positive initiatives like the Class Pass transit pass, the Rental Housing Safety Program, and the 1999 ASUC Housing Summit. Katz is also a member of the Zoning Adjustments Board and has a working knowledge of zoning and development issues. Katz has the kind of experience and qualifications that Weinberg clearly lacks. 

So why is Shirley Dean supporting Micki Weinberg? Is it a cynical ploy to win student votes for herself by supporting “the student candidate”? Is it a further example of the mayor's intense partisanship and inability to get along with other council members? Or is it just bad judgement? 

Rob Wrenn 

Berkeley

TUCSON, Ariz. — A student flunking out of the University of Arizona nursing school shot three of his professors to death Monday, then killed himself as dozens of terrified students rushed to get away. 

Police said Robert Flores Jr., 41, specifically targeted the instructors, killing one in her office on the second floor and shooting the others in a fourth-floor classroom as students dove for cover. Flores told students in the room to leave and was later found dead by officers searching the school. 

Students who were in the classroom said Flores entered carrying a gun. He approached instructor Cheryl McGaffic in the front of the room and told her “he was going to give her a lesson in spirituality,” witness Laura Kelley said. 

McGaffic taught ethics at the nursing school and had studied the relationship between health and spiritually in seriously ill patients. 

Flores shot McGaffic, 44, in the chest, then shot her two more times as she lay on the ground, witnesses said. 

Flores then walked to the back of the room and shot instructor Barbara Monroe, 45, as she lay curled behind a desk. 

“He asked her if she was ready to meet her maker,” said Gena Johnson, another student. “She said ’Yes,’ and then he shot her once and then twice more.” 

Police identified the third victim as Robin E. Rogers, 50. All the victims were Flores’ instructors, Police Chief Richard Miranda said. 

Bomb squad members were called in after a backpack or package was found underneath the gunman’s body. The suspect had threatened to blow up the building, though it was unclear when the threat was made, police said. The college and nearby buildings were evacuated but no explosives were found. 

Officials said he had been carrying five handguns and at least 200 rounds of ammunition. 

“It’s too soon to say why he committed this terrible deed,” Miranda said. “We have determined that there are many issues in Mr. Flores’ life, all of which are a factor.” 

University Vice Provost Elizabeth Irvin said Flores had failed a pediatric nursing class and was struggling in a critical care class. 

Campus police also said a university staff member filed a report in April 2001 saying “Flores conveyed to staff he was depressed and may take action against the college of medicine.” Police attempted to contact Flores at the time but it wasn’t know whether they had been successful. 

Flores, a Gulf War veteran, worked until September at the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System as a licensed practical nurse, and was studying to become a registered nurse, officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO – While most Giants’ fans lamented their team’s heartbreaking loss in Sunday’s seventh and deciding game of the World Series, two others continued their legal battle yesterday over possession of a baseball hit last year by Barry Bonds.  

The ball, which sailed into the packed right field arcade for Bonds’ 73rd homerun of the season and set a Major League record, is estimated to be worth more than one million dollars. 

Alex Popov, 38, the owner of Berkeley restaurant Smart Alec’s, claims that he caught the ball, only to lose it in a violent pileup last year at Pac Bell Park on Oct. 7. Patrick Hayashi, 37, a former Silicon Valley worker, emerged from the scrum with the keepsake. Hayashi says Popov dropped it, and that he then found it lying on the ground. 

And so the battle over Bond’s ball continued yesterday in San Francisco before Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy, who will decide the ownership of what may be the world’s most valuable piece of cork wound in cowhide. 

The morning session focused on the testimony of two witnesses, Jeff Hacker, 50, of Palo Alto, and Byron Roethler, 29, from Fremont. Both men were at the game and both ended up in the pile of human bodies scrambling for the baseball. 

“I couldn’t move, and I was on top of Mr. Popov so I guess he couldn’t move either,” Hacker testified. “I recall my hands and knees being squashed. It hurt very much.” 

A key piece of evidence, a video of the incident filmed by KNTV cameraman Josh Keppel, clearly shows the ball landing in Popov’s mitt as he is engulfed by the crowd. Hacker and Roethler both testified to seeing the ball in Popov’s outstretched glove.  

At issue is whether Popov ever had control of the ball. 

In the video, the ball hits the webbing of Popov’s glove, then appears precariously perched at the tip of the glove, before Popov drops out of the camera’s view. How he lost the ball is unclear. 

At Major League baseball games, it is a long-standing tradition that fans keep any ball hit into the crowd. It is also common, the witnesses said, for the fan making first contact with the ball to lose possession and for a mad scramble for the souvenir to ensue. 

“More often than not, the first fan to touch the ball does not hold onto it,” said Roethler, who claimed to have attended hundreds of games in his life and watched thousands on television. “It usually gets away and rolls on the ground. Then the fans all go for it. But once a person gets it and shows possession, the fans back off.” 

Holding the ball in the air for others to see, Roethler said, usually establishes possession. When asked by defense attorney Michael Lee if he had ever tried to take a ball from someone after the fan had held it up, Roethler said no. “I’d consider that stealing,” he said. 

Through further questioning of the witness, Lee reiterated the defense’s argument that rather than Hayashi stealing the ball, Popov had simply dropped it. 

“Did you see any hitting going on in the pile?” Lee asked. 

“No,” said Roethler.  

“Was the crowd violent?” Lee asked. 

“No,” said Roethler. “I was actually quite surprised at how civil the crowd was, given the circumstances. There was no violence. It was very jovial. Everyone was excited about the situation.” 

Hacker also said that the crowd had not been violent. He added that when Hayashi had held up the ball, Popov congratulated him. 

“Once I was able to get on my hands and knees and look around, I saw [Hayashi] holding the ball and looking at it in a rather quizzical way,” Hacker said. “Popov saw him and appeared to say, ‘Dude, you got the ball!’ Then they high-fived. He looked happy, so I thought they had come together.” 

Popov and his lawyers, however, maintained that Popov had the ball first, and lost it only after being attacked by a “mob.” 

“You had all these people acting in accord. It was a mob mentality,” said Popov’s lawyer Martin Triano during a break outside the courtroom. “There was nothing jovial about this scene. It was a case of last man standing, but the property law in California does not say you have to survive a mugging to claim what is yours.” 

Popov added that by granting ownership of the ball to Hayashi, the judge would be setting a precedent that would make being a baseball fan a potentially dangerous endeavor. 

“This is a moral argument,” he said. “What is proper fan behavior? The games should be played at a place where friends and family can safely enjoy the experience of catching a baseball.” 

With the trial now in its second week, it is still unclear how the rules of baseball possession will be legally defined. It is certain, however, that after the Giant’s narrow World Series defeat, one of the two men will suffer a second, heartbreaking loss.  

When asked which would be a bigger disappointment – losing the ball, or losing the championship – Popov said the ball. 

“I love the Giants,” he said. “But the Giants always have another season. There’s only one ball.”  

SAN FRANCISCO — A homecoming for the San Francisco Giants players and some of their most stalwart fans Monday briefly brought Pacific Bell Park to life one last time this season. 

Fans filled the lower deck of the ballpark from dugout to dugout and cheered for several minutes as Giants players stood in street clothes near the pitcher's mound. 

Jon Miller, the play-by-play announcer for the Giants' television broadcasts, worked the crowd and introduced the World Series losers, saying, “They need some love.” 

The appreciative fans who made it to the ballpark Monday wanted to savor a few more minutes of a season that surpassed the expectations of most. 

Susan Lallo, who lives in Campbell, drove through the night to make it to Monday's rally after spending Saturday and Sunday in Anaheim for games six and seven of the series,  

“In one way I'm happy, but I'm also sad because it's all over,” she said. 

Lallo attended all three World Series games in San Francisco and was dressed in an orange Giants jersey and ball cap this afternoon. 

Like any true fan, she dismissed the Anaheim Angel's supporters and scoffed at their knowledge of the game. 

“They're just bandwagon people,” she said. 

On the field, Miller introduced Kirk Rueter, Kenny Lofton and Rich Aurlia, who stepped to the microphone and in turn told the faithful that they'll get 'em next year. 

“This is the most fun I've had in a long time,” Rueter said. “I know we came up one game short, but were going to try to get that game next year.” 

There was neither sight nor mention of Barry Bonds, the team's star who led the league in hitting this season.  

Second baseman Jeff Kent was also absent, as were several other players who Giants' officials said did not fly back to San Francisco on the team plane and did not make it to the hastily-planned consolation gathering. 

In a mark of the event's lack of polish, the difference between the winners and losers of the World Series, the marching band and color guard from Fairfield High School in Solano County were assembled on the baseball diamond, the first line of the color guard holding aloft large sparkling letters that spelled the word “Fairfield.” 

But the fans didn't seem to notice. They were there to continue to stand behind their team. 

Dana Coffin, a San Bruno man, said he was not disappointed that the Giants did not win the series. 

“This whole month has been like a Mister Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland,” he said. 

Miller, at the microphone, turned to the ancients to try to bring the Giants' run to the World Series into perspective. 

“As the philosopher said, 'Gaze upon it, remember it, for you may not see its like again.” 

After the 20-minute ceremony ended and the cluster of players filed onto waiting buses, many fans remained in the stands with nothing to see but the grounds crew tarping over the pitcher's mound and home plate. 

Some milled around the home dugout hoping to catch a last glimpse of a Giants player, some sat in the sunshine warming the seats on the third base line. 

The season was over in defeat, but the fans did not want to quit the park.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ordered the National Science Foundation and several research institutions to stop mapping the ocean floor along the Gulf of California using intense blasts of sound, saying that practice likely has harmed whales. 

U.S. District Judge James Larsen sided Monday with conservationists from the Center for Biological Diversity, ruling that high intensity sonic blasts used for seismic research have disrupted marine life in the vicinity. 

Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography estimate the airguns aboard the R/V Maurice Ewing research vessel can generate up to 263 decibels, said Brendan Cummings, counsel for the conservation center. 

Larsen noted that the U.S. Navy considers sounds above 180 decibels to be potentially harmful to marine mammals. 

Larsen ordered such aspects of a $1.6 million research project to end immediately.

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge ordered the release Monday of documents from a decade-old racketeering case in which a convicted felon implicated Gov. Gray Davis in a bribery scheme in a failed attempt to win a lighter sentence. 

Dismissed by Davis aides as tales concocted by an ex-con, the release came eight days before voters go to the polls to choose between Davis and Republican Bill Simon, who has made attacks on the governor’s fund-raising practices a centerpiece of his campaign. 

Former Coastal Commissioner Mark Nathanson named Davis, then state controller, in two letters submitted by his attorneys to prosecutors in 1993 and 1994 as part of an unsuccessful attempt to cut a more favorable deal after pleading guilty to racketeering, tax fraud and soliciting bribes. 

The charges against Nathanson stemmed from an investigation that began with an FBI undercover probe of alleged vote-buying in the Legislature and also resulted in convictions or guilty pleas from five sitting or former lawmakers. 

Nathanson was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and fined $200,000. Prosecutors said Nathanson solicited money from celebrities, developers and others in exchange for help getting projects approved by the powerful commission that regulates development along the coast. 

The Sacramento Bee had sought full release of the letters for two years. Until now they’ve been released only in censored form. But the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the release three weeks ago when the high court refused to hear an appeal. 

The letters were unsealed Monday by Sacramento-based U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton. 

In 2001, Karlton said there was “absolutely no reason to believe that the accusations ... are true,” that they “contain no newsworthy information” and that the letters would unjustly damage the reputation of the high public official — now revealed as Davis — named in them. 

Davis attended swearing-in ceremonies in Los Angeles for new Police Chief William Bratton Monday, but left without taking questions from reporters.

SACRAMENTO — Insurance companies, currently fighting lawsuits that accuse them of defrauding consumers with shoddy auto parts, were challenged by the Senate Insurance Committee Monday to comply with California’s own auto repair fraud investigation. 

The state Bureau of Automotive Repair claims a number of insurance companies, including Allstate Insurance Co., Farmers Group Inc. and State Farm Insurance Cos., have failed to cooperate with its request for documents related to cases in which auto body repair shops have been found to engage in alleged insurance fraud. 

Insurance Commissioner Harry Low reported that more than 80 percent of insurance companies have failed to comply with the requests. Many of those companies, led by State Farm, contend the agency doesn’t have the authority to request those documents. 

“It is hard for me to understand why an insurer would not want to help the state stop insurance fraud,” said Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City, the committee’s chairwoman. 

BAR, which operates under the state Department of Consumer Affairs, registers and regulates about 34,000 California auto repair shops and also licenses smog check, lamp and brake inspection stations.

SAN FRANCISCO — With losses from their high-rolling days still piling up, shellshocked venture capitalists continued to shun new risks in this year’s third quarter, dropping the industry’s investment activity to a 4 1/2-year low, according to a report to be released Tuesday. 

Venture capitalists invested $4.48 billion in startups during the period ending Sept. 30, the weakest quarter since the first three months of 1998, according to a survey compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association. 

This year’s third quarter represented a 48 percent decrease from the same time last year, when venture capitalists poured $8.68 billion into startups, the report said. 

It also marked the ninth consecutive quarter in which venture capitalists curtailed their investments from the preceding three-month period. 

The reasons for the downturn have remained largely unchanged since the Internet gold rush turned into a financial blood bath during the spring of 2000. 

As the stock market began to turn a cold shoulder to dot-coms and other high-tech businesses, venture capitalists found themselves stuck with unprofitable startups that no one else wanted. 

Meanwhile, even promising startups are finding it increasingly difficult to find customers interested in spending heavily on technology, further reducing their chances of survival and saddling venture capitalists with the worst losses in the industry’s history. 

“We all have had a very cold shower,” said Bob Grady, a venture capitalist with the Carlyle Group. 

Most venture capitalists and analysts believe the industry’s investments will dwindle even more in the next few quarters. 

“We haven’t seen the end of the decline,” said Robert “Robin” Bellas, a general partner with Morganthaler Ventures. “My gut feeling is that this won’t stop until we get down to $2.5 billion to $3 billion per quarter.” 

Venture capitalists have responded to the adversity by shoveling more money into the best startups in their existing portfolios and investing less in new opportunities. 

The number of startups that received their first infusion of venture capital during the third quarter totaled 159, the lowest number in nearly eight years, according to the report. 

Back in the heyday of dot-coms in late 1999 and early 2000, nearly 1,000 startups per quarter were getting their first dose of venture capital. 

“Caution certainly seems to be the word of the day,” said John Taylor, research director for the National Venture Capital Association. 

The wariness is causing venture capitalists to shy away from the industry’s traditional high-tech stronghold.

NEW YORK — Wall Street pulled back Monday, its second decline in three sessions, as investors succumbed to profit-taking in the absence of significant earnings news. 

The main indexes fluctuated between advances and losses for much of the day as investors gauged whether the market could build on three weeks of strong gains. Traders also were hesitant to commit to stocks while they awaited key economic reports due out later in the week. 

“The market is apparently taking a little bit of a breather here,” said Charles G. Crane, strategist for Victory SBSF Capital Management. “There were no particularly important economic statistics released today. We got through the bulk of the earnings season. 

“So I think investors came into work today thinking what might happen with the elections next week and what has happened with the market the last three weeks,” he said. 

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 75.95, or 0.9 percent, to close at 8,368.04, having gained 1.5 percent last week. Earlier in the day, the blue chips were up as much as 87 points.

LOS ANGELES — Overfishing of the world’s seas may be causing a ripple effect that can devastate the ecosystems on which future catches depend, according to a study released Monday. 

“The overwhelming weight of evidence from available fishing data points to the severe, dramatic and sometimes irreversible consequences of fishing on marine ecosystems,” said the report released at an oceans conference in Santa Barbara. 

The report calls on the United States to protect ecosystems by comprehensively zoning waters for industrial, commercial fishing or recreational uses rather than making piecemeal closures of certain fishing grounds. 

The report comes on the heels of last week’s decision by the California Fish and Game Commission to declare 130 square miles of ocean around the Channel Islands off-limits to fishing, beginning next year. The ban aims to protect individual marine species by preserving their entire ecosystem. 

In the past, state officials had attempted to do that by setting size or catch limits or enacting seasonal closures. 

The report for the Pew Oceans Commission took a comprehensive look at other studies of fishing. Worldwide, 25 percent to 30 percent of all fish stocks currently being caught are being overfished to some degree and another 40 percent is at risk of soon being overexploited, the report said, citing a 1999 study. 

A report to Congress last year from the National Marine Fisheries Service found that about one-third of the 304 U.S. fishing stocks for which the status was known were being overfished, the study. 

“Even populations that show no immediate impact from being fished may (through their loss) cause disproportionate declines in abundance of species that forage upon them,” the report said. 

Global overfishing is masked somewhat because new technology allows fishermen to go after previously unreachable fish and because, as one species declines, commercial fishers turn to other ones lower down on the food chain, the report said. 

Current fishing procedures also destroy important habitat where fish breed and grow up, such as corals, seagrasses and sponge beds, the study said. 

In addition, fishing can decimate populations of seabirds, turtles, sharks and other species that are caught inadvertently. 

“For centuries, we have viewed the oceans as an infinite resource beyond our capacity to harm. We now know that this is not true,” Leon Panetta, chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission, said in a statement. 

The study concluded that the United States needs to overhaul its fishing laws, which it called cumbersome and unenforceable, to concentrate on protecting ecosystems rather than single species.

EUREKA — Representatives of coastal fishing communities and Indian tribes on Monday laid the blame for the massive Klamath River salmon kill on low water controlled by the federal government. 

The representatives aimed their comments at the Bush administration. Representatives of the federal agencies declined invitations to take part in a hearing before a California legislative committee. 

“We couldn’t get people at the federal level to take action to resolve this issue before it became a terrible tragedy,” Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith told the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. 

The hearing was intended to gather information on what caused an estimated 33,000 salmon to die since late September in the lower 40 miles of the Klamath River. It was also meant to explore the economic and social impacts of the die-off for the North Coast and Indian tribes. 

Environmentalists, fishermen and Indian tribes along the river flowing from south central Oregon through northwest California blame low water levels for the fish kill. 

But there are others, including groups representing Klamath Basin farmers, who argue there is no proof low water contributed to the kill. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating. 

The kill has focused new attention on the Bush administration’s efforts to balance water from the Klamath Reclamation Project between farms and fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. 

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, members of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, and leaders of the Yurok, Hoopa and Karuk tribes said the federal government had failed to meet its obligations to sustain salmon runs in the Klamath Basin while creating a 10-year operations plan for the Klamath Project. 

“How many years of this 10-year plan can we sustain before the fishery is gone?” asked Thompson. “We lost 30 percent this year.” 

Strom-Martin, D-Duncan Mills, who called the Monday hearing, faulted the Bush administration for restoring full irrigation deliveries last summer to the 235,000 acres of farmland in the Klamath Project while reducing water flows for salmon in the Klamath River. 

“To really fix this problem, we need a new president,” she said. “I believe their agenda is set. The purpose of this committee is rallying together to come up with a strategic action plan to deal with this problem.” 

Sue Masten, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said, “We would not be here today if the federal government had lived up to its tribal trust obligations.” 

Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken defended the agency’s decision not to attend the Monday hearing. 

“It’s still premature to determine the outcome of this mortality and we are simply awaiting the biologists to finalize their findings before we can move forward,” he said, adding that the invitation was made informally and on short notice. “It was an administration decision.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Harry Crawford is an ironworker with a deep-fried Southern drawl and pro-union politics. It is difficult to imagine him hugging a tree. 

But Crawford, an incumbent state representative from East Anchorage, is spending much of his re-election effort trying to convince voters that he is not bent on trying to stifle development in Alaska. 

“I believe I’ve had to explain it 100 times at the door,” said the first-term Democrat, who tells voters he has lobbied hard to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. 

Crawford is one of many Democratic candidates in Alaska — including gubernatorial candidate Fran Ulmer — who have come under fire for having the support of environmentalists. 

Tom Atkinson, executive director of Alaska Conservation Voters, said he has never seen so much anti-environmentalist election talk in his 31 years in Alaska. 

Two Alaska heads of environmental groups, Deborah Williams and Jim Ayers, were even called “enemies of Alaska” in a recent advertisement that linked them to Ulmer. 

And the label “extreme environmental groups” seems to be on the lips of Republican candidates statewide. A television ad for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, uses the language. 

Republican Art Nelson, Crawford’s opponent for the East Anchorage state House seat, has also used the language in a campaign advertisement, and said it resonates with voters who are tired of groups that seem opposed to all development in Alaska.

LAS VEGAS — A poll of likely Nevada voters shows most have made up their minds on two controversial state ballot initiatives, with large margins opposing a measure to legalize marijuana and supporting a ban on gay marriage. 

Only 4 percent of 625 people responding to the statewide poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal said they had not yet made up their minds on Question 9 or Question 2 on next week’s ballot. 

The poll found 60 percent against Question 9, which would legalize possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana by adults, while 36 percent said they favored the initiative and 4 percent said they were undecided. 

Sixty percent said they support Question 2, which would make the existing statutory definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman part of the Nevada Constitution. Thirty-six percent said they were opposed and 4 percent were undecided. 

The telephone poll was conducted for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. The sampling error margin was 4 percentage points. 

The survey, taken two weeks before the election and reported by the Review-Journal on Monday, found support for the marijuana initiative continuing to erode since polls taken in July and August. 

The question of whether Nevada should decriminalize marijuana has captured national attention, and brought federal drug czar John Walters to the state twice to rally opposition. 

In August, 55 percent of likely voters said they opposed Question 9, while 40 percent said they backed the measure, and 5 percent were undecided. That poll also had a sampling error margin of 4 percentage points. 

In July, 44 percent said they favored decriminalizing pot, while 46 percent were opposed. 

“As people figured out what it was all about, support started going down,” said Brad Coker, Mason-Dixon managing director. “People don’t want legal pot.” 

The initiative would compel the state to set up a system to cultivate, sell, tax and distribute marijuana. Low-cost marijuana also would be made available for the 200 people in the state who now can grow marijuana plants for medical reasons. 

To change the state constitution, the initiative must be approved on Nov. 5 and again in 2004. 

Billy Rogers, director of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the group that collected signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, said his own surveys and other polls put the question much closer. 

“I am not saying we are ahead,” Rogers said, “but we are only slightly behind.” 

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is an offshoot of the Marijuana Policy Project of Washington, D.C., which has funneled about $1.6 million into the campaign to legalize marijuana in Nevada. 

Sandy Heverly, executive director of Stop DUI in Nevada and a leading opponent of the marijuana initiative, called the new poll good news. 

“We have been pounding the pavement,” Heverly said. “It is all very encouraging.” 

Women oppose Question 9 at a much higher rate than men, according to the survey.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two anti-war demonstrators from the North Bay remained in critical condition and on life support in San Francisco General Hospital Monday following a tragic accident in the Broadway Tunnel Saturday morning. 

Diana Canning, of Sebastopol and Tony Hernandez, of Marin County, apparently were riding in a converted, double-decker school bus with their heads protruding through a skylight when they were struck by a concrete overhang at the end of the tunnel. They were among about 25 people en route to a demonstration in San Francisco against a possible war with Iraq.  

Peter Fisk, of Camp Meeker in Sonoma County, who also was a passenger in the school bus that had a Volkswagen bus with skylights welded to the top, said hospital officials told him Monday that Canning is stable and in critical condition, and that Hernandez is in critical condition. 

Fisk said Hernandez was more seriously injured and that Canning was conscious after the accident. 

Several children, including Canning's son, remained seated while they were riding with Hernandez and Canning, and one of them asked them to sit down for safety reasons while passing through the tunnel, Fisk said. The children are received counseling Monday, Fisk said. 

The bus pulled over to a market in Chinatown for help when it exited the tunnel, Fisk said. The accident covered several other riders in blood.  

The Sonoma County Center for Peace and Justice chartered at least two buses to take demonstrators to San Francisco, and the double-decker bus was made available by its owner to transport additional passengers, according to Gary Melrose, president of the center's Board of Directors. 

“We grieve for those involved in this tragedy that took place. Our community is concerned and in pain. Our hearts go out to the family and friends affected by this,” Melrose said.

LOS ANGELES — Doctors are uncertain when twin girls born joined at the head and separated during a marathon surgery will be able to return home to Guatemala, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. 

Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Quiej Alvarez were expected to fly home with their parents this week. Instead, doctors at Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles, postponed their return. 

“Everybody was so disappointed when we got the news they weren’t able to go back but we certainly don’t want to rush them if it’s not in their best interest,” said Cris Embleton, director of Healing the Children, the group that arranged the surgery. 

Maria de Jesus underwent surgery last week to cover a quarter-sized wound with a skin graft. 

On Sunday, when doctors removed the dressing covering her scalp, they found the graft had taken over all but a sliver of the wound, said UCLA plastic surgeon Dr. Henry Kawamoto Jr. 

Doctors will continue to clean and monitor her wound for the next several days before judging whether she is ready to leave the hospital with her twin Maria Teresa and their parents. 

Initially, it was Maria Teresa who lagged in recovering from the Aug. 6, 23-hour surgery because of follow-up operations. 

The girls were born in rural Guatemala, but will live, at least initially, in Guatemala City after returning home. There, the 15-month-old girls face follow-up surgeries to gradually stretch their scalps to eliminate the skin grafts and allow them to grow full heads of hair.

Tens of thousands of protesters filled downtown San Francisco streets Saturday, demanding that President George Bush stop preparations for a war against Iraq. 

With a crowd estimated by police at 42,000 and organizers at 100,000, protesters, who began their march at Justin Herman Plaza, took more than three hours to file into Civic Center Plaza. Among the demonstrators were veterans of the Vietnam War and related protests; youth sporting Mohawks and piercings; labor, environmental and gay-lesbian-transgender activists; public officials and candidates for office; socialists, anarchists and Greens; families with kids on their backs, in strollers and riding their parents’ wheelchairs. There were Muslim women wearing traditional veils, Nation of Islam men with bow ties, Jewish men with yarmulkes and nuns in jeans and blue T-shirts. 

People came from as far as San Diego, Tucson, and Seattle and carried signs with serious messages, such as “hate makes terrorists,” and “collateral damage has a face,” referring to those innocents who will be killed in a war with Iraq, along with more subtle statements such as “regime change begins at home,” “The PATRIOT Act isn’t,” and “Drop Bush not bombs.” 

A number of Berkeley groups made their presence known, including UC Berkeley’s Stop the War Coalition. The Cheese Board Collective shut down its business in North Berkeley for the day to join the rally.  

A dozen UC Berkeley graduate students in social welfare came together. “War only creates more problems,” said Robert Vergera, who had organized the group. “Innocent people are the ones that get hurt. Water lines, and the infrastructure gets destroyed.” 

Berkeley resident Tim Melton brought his three children. “It is important for them to go,” he said. “I want them to see the democratic process in action.” 

Berkeley was also well-represented among the speakers: 91-year-old Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek called for peace and 11-year-old King Junior High School student Samora Penderhughes spoke out: “The life of children in Iraq and Palestine is just as important as the life of a child in the United States.” 

Hatem Bazian, lecturer in UC Berkeley’s Near Eastern Studies Department, reminded the crowd that the United States had sold weapons of mass destruction to Iran and Iraq. “Tell me if you don’t see hypocrisy here,” he said. “Our own UC Berkeley is responsible for weapons of mass destruction. The bomb was developed here before it was dropped in Japan.”  

Speakers and sign-bearers pointed out that the cost of war takes funding from social needs. At a rally before the march took off, San Francisco Board of Supervisor President Tom Ammiano decried what he called “a war on the homeless” and a “war on tenants.” Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Helen Caldicott called for money for healthcare and housing and not war. 

“We say healthcare/Bush says warfare,” marchers chanted. Nancy McLaughlin, of San Francisco, a member of the Presentation Sisters for Justice, was in the crowd with nuns in her order who had come from Los Gatos and San Jose. “Money should go for the homeless and the poor,” she said. 

Another theme that dominated the day was the occupation of Palestine and the U.S. role in support of Israel. “Israel can’t wage war without bullets supplied by the U.S.,” said Ramiz Rafeedie, a speaker from the Free Palestine Alliance. The Middle East needs democratic change, Rafeedie said, but it must come through the people there. “No one has the right to impose regime change on our countries,” he said. 

Former Berkeley school board member and Middle East Children’s Alliance Director Barbara Lubin, standing with her son Charlie and grandchildren on the speakers’ platform, chastised the peace movement of 20 years ago for not recognizing the importance of the movement for an independent Palestine.  

“We cannot allow it to be put in the back of the peace movement,” said Lubin. “I fear that (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon will use the cover of this war to do what he has wanted to do for more than 30 years, ‘transfer’ the Palestinians out of their homes and land once and for all.” 

While the pro-war voice was not visible at the demonstration other than of a few signs calling for the death of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, President Bush, speaking from Mexico, reasserted that the United States would lead a coalition against Iraq if the United Nations does not pass a strong resolution insisting Saddam Hussein disarm.  

“If the United Nations does not pass a resolution which holds him to account and that has consequences, we will lead the coalition to disarm him.” Bush said, according to an Associated Press report. 

Many at the rally remembered Sen. Paul Wellstone, an advocate for peace and liberal Democrat from Minnesota, who died with his wife and daughter in a plane crash Friday. Signs throughout the crowd memorialized him. One read: “Thanks Wellstone for teaching me to stand for peace.”  

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, also lauded Wellstone. Among the 23 senators who stood up to the president’s “rush to war” was “the beloved Paul Wellstone,” she said. 

Lee told the crowd that its presence, letters and e-mails were making a difference: “You’re making your voices heard. You are the American  

Bush wants another war/We say no/We remember Vietnam/We say no./We remember Desert Storm/We say no/We remember El Salvador/We say no. 

–Chanted by protesters at Saturday’s march against war and racism. 

To the Editor: 

Robert Cabrera, president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association, says (Daily Planet, Oct. 23) that landlords won’t lower rents on vacant units if it means they’ll get stuck with a tenant who actually wants to stay in the community for more than a year. He should know – he has a lot of vacant units right now. 

I have noticed that many of Cabrera’s buildings currently have “Shirley Dean for Mayor” signs in the windows. A friend of mine lives in one of his buildings, and she told me that all of the Dean signs in the building are on the windows of vacant apartments. It is a testament to landlords’ willingness to keep an apartment off the market, in the hopes that they will find a “sucker” who will pay a high rent, that we find so many Dean signs around town. Voters should be aware that not all of these signs were put up by tenants who actually live in the building. 

Paul Hogarth 

Rent Board Commissioner 

Berkeley

NEW YORK – For one week this summer, Bruce Springsteen was the biggest star on television. 

There he was in Asbury Park, N.J., where the “Today” show transplanted itself for a day to watch him perform. Ted Koppel interviewed him on “Nightline.” Two nights in a row, Springsteen and his E Street Band were featured on David Letterman’s “Late Show.” 

The appearances were timed to coincide with the release of Springsteen’s album, “The Rising,” and the exposure paid off. The disc sold 526,000 copies its first week, the strongest debut of his career. 

Springsteen’s small-screen blitz made plain a change that might surprise generations that spent hours cranking the car stereo or hooked up to a Walkman: Television — and not just MTV — has supplanted radio as the chief means of exposing new music, particularly for veteran artists. 

“You’ve just about got to do it for people to know that you have a record out,” said singer Tom Petty, who was on “Today” earlier this month. “You’ve got to spread the word however you can.” 

Springsteen and Petty’s most loyal fans aren’t likely to be reading music magazines or visiting music stores every week to see what’s new. They have jobs, kids, mortgages to worry about. 

But they probably watch TV — perhaps “Today” while gulping their morning coffee, or Letterman just before drifting off to sleep. 

At the same time, shrinking radio playlists have less room for new music. Far more radio stations are likely to play James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” for example, than take a chance on his new single. 

So Taylor spread his easygoing charm liberally before the cameras — “The View,” “Today,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” “60 Minutes II,” on CNN and tabloid entertainment shows. He sang the song, “On the 4th of July,” on NBC on a Fourth of July special. 

Taylor’s new album, “October Road,” surprised many in the music industry by debuting at No. 5, his best start ever. 

Television networks once synonymous with music — MTV and VH1 — are important for viewers under age 30. But they don’t play videos that often anymore, and are less crucial for veteran artists than they were 10 or 15 years ago. 

“The video thing has become irrelevant,” Petty said. “They really don’t play videos that much on the video channels, so it’s almost become not worth your while to make one.” 

Not every artist can command a half hour on “Today” or a handshake from Letterman. Still, TV opportunities abound, especially for good performers, said publicist Marilyn Laverty, the architect of Springsteen’s campaign. 

“It’s become possible for artists who have quality and are well known to have something of a saturation,” she said. 

David Bowie touted his new disc on A&E’s “Live By Request.” Bravo has started a musician’s version of “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Damming Hope: Plan Puebla Panama Comes to Guatemala” 

7 p.m. 

Trinity United Methodist Church 

2362 Bancroft Way 

Mayan leader Santos Choc discusses his community’s struggle in opposing the Usumacinta Dam. 

526-7177 

$8-$20 sliding scale / No one turned away 

Reviving the Lost Art of Conversation 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Learn how to break the ice, establish rapport, build trust, and develop intimacy through conversation. 

848-0237 x127 

$8 -$10 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Berkeley City Council Forum 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Hillel Foundation 

2736 Bancroft Way between Piedmont and College Avenues 

Candidates Gordon Wozniak, Andy Katz,  

Micki Weinberg, Kriss Worthington and others speak in this forum. 

839-2900 

Monster Bash 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

A singles celebration of an ancient Celtic end-of-summer observance, with a lavish feast of foods from the fall harvest. 

Register: 601-7247  

$25 / includes meal and cooking lesson 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

Sick Plant Clinic 

9 a.m. to noon 

UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. UC plant pathology and entomology experts will diagnose what ails your plant. 

643-2755 

Free 

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Jazz, Blues, and Popular Music in American Culture” 

6:30 p.m. 

A Vista College class, with instructor/R&B legend Johnny Otis. 

Registration info: 981-2800 

Tuesday, Oct. 29 

Activate: DJ night 

10 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

An evening of DJs featuring drum n’ bass music. 

525-5054 

$5 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Courtableau 

Cajun dance lesson 8 p.m. 

Show 8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene perform classic Cajun dance hall music. 

525-5054 

$8 

Thursday, Oct. 31 

Halloween Party with the Venusians 

8 p.m. 

The Venusians are a shamanic trance-dance septet known for their costume-laden, colorful performances. 

525-5054 

$10 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

The Librarians with The Skyflakes and Plain White Ts 

9 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair 

2475 Bancroft Way 

$5 / 21 and over 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

Workshop and Performance by Akira Tana 

1 to 3 p.m. workshop 

4:30 p.m. concert 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Drummer Akira Tana teaches and performs. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$30-$35 workshop 

$10-$15 performance 

“ 

CalArts Night of Jazz 

8 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

The first of many collaborations between Jazzschool and CalArts. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Miriam Abramowitsch and George Barth 

4 p.m. 

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 

The renowned singer and pianist will perform classical vocal favorites featuring the music of Brahams, Dvorak and Bartok. 

559-6910 

$10 / 18 and under free 

Saturday, Nov. 9 

An Evening of Cultural Harmony 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The Barbard Ensemble, the San Francisco Klezmer Experience and Lichi Fuentes & Jackeline Rago will treat listeners to music from Iran, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. 

704-7480 x755 

$25 general admission 

Sunday, Nov. 10 

The Sheldon Brown Group 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Reservations: 845-5373 

$10-$15 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Oct. 24 through Oct. 30 

7:30 / 8:55 p.m. 

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Double feature: Vampire film with musical score performed live on accordion by Rich Kuhns, followed by Bela Lugosi’s classic. 

848-1143 

$4-$9 

“Halloween” and “The Thing” 

Oct. 31 through Nov. 6 

7:30 / 9:20 p.m. 

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Nightly double feature. 

848-1143 

$4-$8 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Focus” 

2 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St.  

William H. Macy stars in this early 1940’s period piece. 

848-0237 

$2 donation 

Friday, Nov. 8 

“El Che” 

7 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 

Film screening followed by salsa dancing to support Berkeley’s Cuban Sister-City Palma Soriano. 

548-6941 

$10 / Sliding scale

The St. Mary’s High football team used big plays on offense and special teams to maul the Albany High Cougars, 43-17, on Saturday, leaving the Panthers as one of just two teams without a loss in Bay Shore Athletic League play. 

Sophomore quarterback Scott Tully threw touchdown passes of 73 and 64 yards in the second quarter and the Panthers blocked a punt for a touchdown in the same period to jump out to a 29-0 lead. 

Albany managed a field goal just before halftime to get on the scoreboard, but St. Mary’s answered right back with two more touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Albany converted two Panther turnovers into scores late in the game. 

“That was a complete team effort,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “We had a little problem taking care of the football late in the game, but it didn’t hurt us too much.” 

Lawson’s club started strong, forcing a three-and-out on Albany’s opening drive. After a punt, St. Mary’s (4-2-1, 2-0 BSAL) embarked on a nine-play drive that ate nearly five minutes off the clock and ended with a three-yard score by tailback Steve Murphy. 

Tully turned in an impressive performance in his second varsity start, completing 6-of-9 passes for 192 yards, although he did throw an interception just before halftime. His best throw of the game was a 64-yard bomb to wide receiver Ryan Coogler on the first play of the second quarter. Coogler went down hard in the end zone on the play and sat out the rest of the game with concussion symptoms. 

“It’s a lot easier knowing I’m going to start the game going in,” Tully said. “I can spend the time before the game getting mentally prepared for the first drive.” 

After the St. Mary’s defense forced a punt, Tully hit fullback Fred Hives on a play-action pass, with the junior turning the short pass into a 73-yard touchdown down the right sideline for a 22-0 lead. Hives also ran for a team-high 107 yards and two touchdowns, apparently over the fumble-itis that cost him the starting tailback job earlier in the season. 

The Panthers ran for 194 yards, with nine runs of more than 10 yards. Lawson credited his offensive line for the strong ground effort. 

“Our line was blowing open some huge holes,” Lawson said. “There were plays where our running backs didn’t get touched until they were five or 10 yards downfield.” 

The St. Mary’s special teams came up with the next big play, with defensive end Nick Osborne blocking an Albany punt and linebacker Matt Hurley recovering in the end zone for a touchdown. Albany’s only score of the first half was a 37-yard field goal by Garin Hecht as time expired. 

Hives would score on runs of 29 and 12 yards in the third quarter, and the Panthers cruised from there with several reserves getting extended playing time. Albany did manage to convert two St. Mary’s fumbles into scores in the fourth quarter, with Hecht throwing touchdown passes to Tommy Coble and Zeine Gamal. Hecht was pressed into service with usual starter Harold Lueders sidelined with an injury, and he struggled in the first half, missing on all 10 of his pass attempts. The only ball that didn’t hit the ground was in interception by St. Mary’s defensive back Alexander Keyes.

Despite cries by some that justice is not being served, the U.S. District Court is considering reducing the prison term of Berkeley real estate tycoon Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was imprisoned for smuggling underage girls into the country for prostitution and cheap labor. 

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken is expected to rule today on whether to shave nearly two years off Reddy’s eight-year sentence. Reddy’s attorney, Ted Cassman, argues in court papers filed Sept. 18 that new evidence casts doubt on Reddy’s prosecution and is grounds for a lighter prison term. 

In October 2001, four months after Reddy’s sentencing, federal prosecutors found that court interpreter Uma Rao had encouraged four of Reddy’s six victims to embellish testimony against Reddy family members involved in the illegal immigration ring. Because of Rao, Cassman has requested the court to reduce Reddy’s sentence by one year and seven months. 

Today’s hearing comes just days after 11 Indian citizens, many victims of Reddy’ immigration scheme, filed a class action suit in Alameda County Superior Court seeking $100 million from Reddy and his family. 

“We want to obtain redress,” said attorney Michael Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs. “We have people whose fundamental right to be free from forced sex and labor has been violated.” 

Among the plaintiffs are Jarmani and Lakshmi Prattipati, the parents of 17-year-old Chanti Prattipati who died of carbon monoxide poisoning Nov. 24, 1999, in a Berkeley apartment owned by Reddy. Chanti’s younger sister, who shared the apartment with her sibling, brought the Reddy story to police, which lead to the charges against Reddy and four family members. 

Reddy’s brother and sister-in-law, Jayaprakash and Annapurna Lakireddy, have pleaded guilty to visa fraud; neither is doing prison time. Reddy’s son Vijay Lakireddy pleaded guilty to one count of visa fraud and awaits sentencing. Reddy’s younger son, Prasad Lakireddy, still awaits trial on charges of illegally importing girls to the country for “immoral purposes.” 

Reddy is currently serving the first of his eight-year sentence. 

“I’m outraged that [Judge Wilken] is considering a lighter sentence,” said Diana Russell, a women’s rights activist and professor at Mills College in Oakland. “This is a guy who was trafficking in underage girls and raping them for 15 years... And one of the girls ended up dead.” 

Reddy’s attorneys did not return phone calls. 

The request to reduce Reddy’s prison term, in light of the questionable testimony, was approved by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Wilken, though, has final say on the matter.

To the Editor: 

Those of us who are concerned about Berkeley’s affordable housing crisis have a chance to do something about it this November. Measure M would create a dedicated source of funding to support more affordable housing in our city. 

It is clear that the private housing market alone cannot meet the housing needs of the Berkeley community. Only 10 percent of Berkeley residents can afford to buy the average-priced home in the city. Rents have been rising much faster than incomes, and waiting lists for affordable housing are long. We desperately need to find ways to support the development of more affordable units by nonprofit developers and others. Berkeley relies for the most part on federal funding to support affordable housing development. But we cannot depend on Washington to solve our housing problems. 

Measure M would raise the real estate transfer tax by half a percent on properties selling for over $350,000 to fund affordable housing, as well as fund seismic retrofits and homelessness prevention. Measure M would generate at least $1 million a year for housing. This would be enough to house dozens of Berkeley residents in quality housing.  

Thanks to the overheated real estate market in Berkeley, sellers of homes and commercial properties have reaped huge windfalls. By increasing the transfer tax, sellers would share a piece of this windfall with those who don’t have the incomes to participate in this market. 

Dan Rossi 

Chair, Housing Advisory Commission 

Berkeley 

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Steven Jackson rushed for a career-high 239 yards and three touchdowns to revive a sputtering offense, helping Oregon State end a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 24-13 victory over California. 

Jackson dominated the first half, scoring all three Beavers touchdowns to go along with 168 yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Derek Anderson continued to struggle, going 8-of-24 for 80 yards with no touchdowns. 

Kyle Boller was 27-of-51 for 284 yards, moving into third place on the Golden Bears’ career passing list with 7,281 yards. Joe Igber led a punchless California running game with 33 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. The Bears (5-4, 2-3 Pac-10) netted just 16 yards rushing. 

After two lackluster three-and-out possessions to start the game, Oregon State (5-3, 1-3) started to click offensively when Anderson converted a third-and-9 from his 9 with a 15-yard pass to Kenny Farley. 

Then Jackson took over, picking 11, 11, 42 and 7 yards on consecutive plays to score the Beavers’ first touchdown. For the game, Oregon State gained 301 yards on the ground. 

Cal answered with a 10-play, 80-yard drive to retake the lead in the second quarter, capped by Igber’s 1-yard plunge and helped by a 47-yard pass to Lashaun Ward and a 20-yarder to Tom Swoboda. 

Ward led the Bears with four catches for 81 yards, plus another 112 on kickoff returns. Swoboda had seven receptions for 77 yards. 

Both teams traded drives ending in punts when the Beavers struck again, this time with a four-play, 82-yard drive in just more than a minute, highlighted by backup running back Dwight Wright’s 47-yard scamper straight up the middle and an 18 yard reverse for receiver Kenny Farley. 

On the Bears’ ensuing possession, linebacker Nick Barnett forced Boller to fumble and Noah Happe recovered for Oregon State. 

Jackson again dominated, running the ball on four consecutive plays, including a 32-yard pickup, setting up goal-to-go. 

A pass interference penalty on third down gave the Beavers another chance, and Jackson took it in from 4 yards out for his third score of the half. 

The teams traded field goals in the second half as both offenses fizzled. Oregon State managed just 92 yards in the final two quarters while the Bears picked up 94. 

Still, the Beavers had to be pleased with the first half. 

The embattled offensive line – where left guard Mike Kuykendall had to move to left tackle following injuries to the first and second stringers, and untested David Lose took over at left guard – opened gaping holes for Jackson and provided adequate protection for Anderson, who has been battered the last three games. 

Anderson was sacked once. Boller went down four times. 

The University of California’s roughly 2,500 lecturers will likely reject a comprehensive contract proposal put forward by the administration earlier this week, union officials said Friday. 

“That’s my sense of it,” said Kevin Roddy, president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which has been locked in a 2 1/2-year-old labor spat with the university over wages, job security and independent arbitration of contract disputes. 

Rejection of the university’s offer could lead to a formal “impasse” in negotiations, sparking state intervention. 

University officials, who made the contract offer Wednesday and initially called for a union response by Friday, have agreed to a union request for a few more days to mull the offer. University spokesperson Paul Schwartz declined to comment until the union officially responds next week. 

Roddy said the union will post the university’s offer on its Web site in the coming days. If rank-and-file members find it agreeable, he said, the union will accept the proposal. But Roddy argued that the contract is inadequate and predicted that lecturers will reject it. 

According to a university press release, the two-year contract proposal includes an increase in minimum salaries for lecturers in both years of the contract.  

In 2002-2003, the minimum pay would jump from the current $28,968 to $35,868 for lecturers with less than six years experience and $40,200 for those with more than two years experience.  

In 2003-2004, the salaries would increase to $37,572 for “pre-six” lecturers and $41,712 for “post-six” lecturers. 

Union officials say the increase will only affect a small number of lecturers currently making less than the proposed minimum of $35,868, but university officials say the $7,000 raise marks a significant offer. 

Lecturers currently operate on year-to-year contracts for six years before receiving three-year contract renewals, contingent upon solid job performance reviews. 

At present, the university serves as the final authority in determining whether a lecturer stays on the job at the end of a one-year or three-year contract. The union wants to put an independent, third-party arbitrator in place who could review a case and refer it back to the university if an “unreasonable” decision had been made. 

Union officials said the arbitrator should be able to review the second decision and any subsequent decisions, again referring them back to the university if “unreasonable” judgments had been made. 

Roddy conceded that the arbitrator should not be allowed to make decisions on academic matters, such as the quality of a lecturer’s scholarship. But, he said the third-party figure should be able to review the basic facts of the case determining, for instance, whether a lecturer had received positive or negative performance reviews.  

According to Roddy, Wednesday’s university proposal allows for only one referral back to the university, and only in the event of a procedural error. 

Schwartz said limiting the review to procedural matters is justified. 

“We’re okay with a review of a procedure,” he said. “But what we will not agree to is any sort of review of our academic judgment.” 

Schwartz declined to speculate on what action the university will take if the union rejects the contract offer. But one possibility would be for the university to declare an “impasse” in negotiations. 

If the state determines that a true deadlock exists, it would begin a “fact-finding” process and recommend a contract to both sides. If the university and union reject the state solution, the university would have the power to impose a final contract. 

Lecturers held strikes at UC Berkeley in August and at five other UC campuses in mid-October. Roddy said more strikes are a possibility if the university clings to its latest offer. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Frank Gebauer is to be applauded for drawing attention to the chronic traffic congestion on College Avenue. The intersection with Ashby Avenue has to be the worst in Berkeley. The solutions he proposes, however do not seem feasible. The residents on side streets are unlikely to allow their tranquility to be disrupted by through traffic. Nor would turn lanes seem possible on such a narrow street. A simpler solution would be for the traffic signals to allow northbound and southbound traffic to move alternately rather than simultaneously, allowing drivers to make turns without holding up cars behind. The same for east and west traffic which piles up for many blocks at rush hour. 

Robert Compton 

Berkeley 

Cal men’s soccer has started a new win streak. 

The fifteenth-ranked Golden Bears, who lost 2-1 at UCLA last weekend to end a school-record nine-game winning streak, upset No. 7 Stanford, 1-0, Saturday at Edwards Stadium. Defender Troy Roberts nodded a Noal Merl free kick past Stanford goalkeeper Andrew Terris in the 42nd minute for his first goal of the season. Cal goalie Josh Saunders made four saves to extend his Pac-10 Conference shutout lead to seven. 

With the win, Cal improves its record to 11-3-1 (4-1 Pac-10), while Stanford falls to 11-3-1 (2-2-1 Pac-10). The eleven wins are Cal’s most under third-year coach Kevin Grimes. 

The result also marked Cal’s first win over Stanford since 1996, when the Bears won, 2-1, in Berkeley.  

“We were confident we could pull out a victory against these guys,” Roberts said. “We’re a different team this year. We played them pretty aggressively, kept the pressure on them basically the whole game and outworked them.” 

This is the third straight game in which Stanford failed to score. Coach Bret Simon’s squad was coming off a 0-0 tie with Fresno State and a 1-0 loss to UCLA. 

Since the Pac-10 requires its teams to play each other twice a season, the Cardinal gets a shot at revenge when the two teams play each other again on Friday down on the Farm. 

Besides ending Stanford’s recent unbeaten streak in the series, this win is impressive because the Cardinal is one of the nation’s elite teams. Stanford reached the NCAA semifinals last season and has wins over nationally ranked SMU, Portland and Santa Clara so far this year. Stanford’s success helped to elevate it into the top 10 of the NSCAA coaches’ poll, which is considered the official poll of college soccer. By contrast, Cal is unranked in the coaches’ poll and is only ranked by Soccer America Magazine. 

Grimes tried to play down the hoopla of the Stanford match. 

“There’s an extra special feeling when Cal plays Stanford, but our focus this week was to treat this match like any other tough opponent, be it San Jose State, Santa Clara or Stanford,” Grimes said. “We didn’t want to make any extra big deal out of the game. In fact, [Cal officials] wanted to paint a big Cal logo in the middle of the field today, and I told them not to because I didn’t want it to be anything different than we had this year.” 

Stanford had 6-3 edge in shots in the first 45 minutes, but had just one good scoring chance, Kevin Coyne’s first-time volley in the 37th minute that Saunders saved. 

Despite the shot disparity, Cal played confidently and enjoyed a big edge in possession in the first half. 

A Stanford foul on midfielder Mike Munoz set up the goal. Munoz takes most of Cal’s free kicks, but since he was shaken up on the play, Merl took the free kick. From 35 yards out on the left flank, Merl sent a swerving ball to the far post, and Roberts rose up over the Cardinal defense to connect on the header. 

“Noah played a great ball,” Roberts said. “I just ran onto it and hit it in.” 

Stanford pushed more players into the attack in the second half, but Cal actually created more chances, forcing Terris to make four of his five saves after halftime. 

The Cardinal had a goal called back in the 60th minute, when forward Matt Janusz buried a shot into the lower right corner of Cal’s net only to be ruled offside. Stanford’s best chance came on its only shot on goal of the second half, as forward Roger Levesque fired an eight-yard header right at Saunders. Levesque, an All-America candidate, had his team’s last good chance, another shot from inside Cal’s penalty area that went wide left in the 88th minute. 

Simon was impressed with the Bears’ effort. 

“Cal has a good team this year, and their goalkeeping is excellent,” he said. “Josh Saunders is one of the better goalkeepers in the country this year.”

Berkeley firefighters staged a one-day walkout last February to protest shortcomings in their labor contract, department officials acknowledged Friday. But they maintained that fire stations were fully manned throughout the protest and that the work stoppage never posed a threat to Berkeley residents. 

“The fire department did not abandon the city,” said department spokesperson David Orth. 

On Feb. 27, 26 firefighters called in sick and failed to report to their 8 a.m. shift. According to Orth, the firefighters already on duty were aware of the impending action, and worked a double shift to compensate for their colleagues’ absence. On a standard 10-hour shift 33 firefighters usually staff the city’s seven fire houses. 

Firefighters, who have since renegotiated their contract to their liking, were angry that the city had recently inked a new contract with police officers that provided them with more lucrative benefits than those given firefighters in their four-year contract signed in 2000.  

“It was a symbolic move regarding people who thought they were being treated unfairly,” Orth said. 

City officials, however, said the move was unwarranted and caught them off guard. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who called the walkout “extreme and unnecessary,” noted that the previous night both council factions had expressed support for reopening the firefighter’s contract. 

“It was a complete surprise,” said David Hodgkins, the city’s lead labor negotiator. 

On the morning of the walkout the city manager’s office alerted Rick Guzman, president of Local 1227 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, that the city considered the walkout illegal. Staff also issued a memo to councilmembers alerting them of the situation, said Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz.  

According to City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque state law prohibits emergency workers, such as police officers and firefighters, from striking. 

Working on her advice, the city manager’s office decided not to grant sick pay to 24 of the 26 firefighters who missed their shift. Hodgkins said that a sterner response was considered but city officials decided not to escalate the confrontation. The union did not contest the city’s decision to dock the protesters a day’s pay. 

Firefighters were angry about having to give up salary to join a new pension plan for public safety workers called “3 percent at 50.” In this California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS) retirement formula, benefits for a 50-year-old firefighter or police officer would amount to a certain percentage of that worker’s highest year of earnings, determined by multiplying the number of years of service by three. 

The previous system gave public safety officers 2.5 percent at age 50. 

To get the city to agree to the new formula during their negotiations in 2000, firefighters agreed to sacrifice 7.75 percent of wages. However, the following year, police officers won the same pension plan without surrendering any wages, which angered firefighters. 

In the renegotiated contract approved by City Council Tuesday, the city gave firefighters a 7.6 percent raise. In return, firefighters agreed to extend the contract for two years, with annual raises of 5 percent in 2005 and 6 percent in 2006. The contract will cost the city $2.6 million over the next four years. 

Guzman was not available to comment on the walkout, but last week expressed satisfaction with the new contract. 

“Everyone is pretty ecstatic that this was accomplished,” he said. 

Kamlarz said the February walkout did not force the city back to the bargaining table.  

“Our concern was that we wanted to pay firefighters a fair wage so we can recruit and retain them,” he said. Under the previous contract, Berkeley firefighters earned less than the average paid by neighboring cities.  

Contact reporter at matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

As a part-time Berkeley resident and a full-time Los Angeles resident, I would like to commend you for a job very well done. Having lived in Berkeley for several years, I now bring the Daily Planet with me when traveling back and forth from the Bay Area to L.A. The well-rounded team coverage really allows me to keep up with new, important and currently ongoing news, especially within the Berkeley city limits.  

I often find myself bringing back a few recent copies when returning to the southland from a recent trip up north; only to catch up on some local reading at a coffeehouse, then leaving the Daily Planet behind for perhaps another “transplanted Baysian” here in L.A. to pick up and read for themselves. 

I’m glad to see that your departmental coverage has grown along with your circulation. Keep up the good work, it’s appreciated from afar. 

Mike Parker 

Berkeley

MOSCOW – A shocked, wary Russia counted its rising toll of dead and steeled itself for new terrorist blows Saturday in its never-ending Chechen war, after commandos striking behind clouds of disabling gas brought a sudden bloody end to a hostage nightmare. 

The special forces assault on a Moscow theater after a three-day siege left Russians with feelings of both pain and pride: More than 90 hostages were dead, but 750 others were rescued and dozens of their Chechen captors killed. 

Russia “cannot be forced to its knees,” President Vladimir Putin declared afterward on national television. 

But the Russian leader acknowledged the heavy cost to victims’ families: “We could not save everyone. Forgive us.” 

The key targets for the unidentified gas were almost 20 suicide attackers, Chechen women, who sat among the hostages wrapped in explosives, officials said. Had they detonated the charges, the toll of innocents would have been much higher, Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev said. 

Other governments praised the Russian handling of the crisis, but Moscow heard new calls, too, for a political solution to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. 

Besides 50 Chechen assailants reported killed at the theater — some with an apparent execution-style bullet to the head — officials said three other gunmen were captured, and authorities searched this nervous city for accomplices and gunmen who may have escaped. 

The precision terror operation that began Wednesday night in the Russians’ own capital had defied the Kremlin’s repeated contention that the nationalist rebels in predominantly Muslim Chechnya were on the verge of final defeat. 

A Federal Security Service official said the well-armed theater raiders had suspected foreign links and contacts with unspecified embassies in Moscow, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, raising the prospect of insurgents backed by international terrorists plotting other violence in Russia. 

“We can’t have any euphoria,” Vladimir Lukin, the deputy Parliament speaker, said after the raid. “I don’t think we have broken their will.” 

Most surviving hostages, staggering or unconscious from the gas, were being kept from family members who gathered in freezing rain outside a hospital, and their conditions were not reported. 

But the death toll rose as the day stretched on. 

Police officials said hours after the raid that 67 hostages were killed, but the Health Ministry later said the number had risen above 90. 

How they died was not immediately clarified. 

Vasilyev, the deputy interior minister, said none of the 67 initial victims died from gas poisoning. He said nine died because of heart problems, shock or lack of medicine. At the same time, doctors at City Hospital No. 13, where more than 320 freed hostages were taken, said none of those hospitalized had gunshot wounds, Moscow’s TVS television reported. 

The end came 58 hours after the gunmen stormed into the crowded theater during a performance of the popular musical “Nord-Ost,” vowing to die for Chechnya’s independence and threatening to kill their captives unless Moscow withdrew its troops from the war-ravaged region. 

The special forces’ assault began in icy rain when the gunmen began executing hostages before dawn Saturday, Vasilyev said. 

“About 5:15 a.m. there was shooting,” he told reporters at the scene, three miles southeast of the Kremlin. “There was a real threat. Therefore the operation was undertaken.” 

Olga Chernyak, an Interfax news agency reporter caught in the hostage audience, said the gunmen killed a woman and a man “before our eyes.” 

“They shot the man in the eye; there was a lot of blood,” Interfax quoted her as saying from her hospital bed. She said she lost consciousness soon after, apparently because of the gas. 

The incapacitating agent apparently seeped into the theater through the ventilation system, TVS said, and then soldiers from the Alpha anti-terrorist squad burst in. Television footage showed them kicking in glass doors and opening fire, the thunder of their assault rifles setting off car alarm shrieks in the theater parking lot. 

Soon the hostages were brought out, some in the arms of soldiers, most loaded unconscious onto city buses. 

Government film of the aftermath showed dead female hostage-takers sitting in red plush theater seats, in black robes and veils, heads thrown back or bent over, indicating they may have been shot while unconscious. Precisely placed bullet holes could be seen in their heads. One had a gas mask on her face.

The Oakland police reported that a man died after being shot multiple times outside of an Oakland liquor store. 

Officers responded to a call at 11:25 p.m. Friday and found the man with several gunshot wounds at the intersection of Martin Luther King Junior Way and 54th Street. 

They were able to find several eyewitnesses, who officers continued to interview Saturday at the police station. 

Police released few details about the crime at this point, other than to say that the shooting occurred outside and the suspect was on foot. 

Police are searching for the suspect but no arrests have been made.

SAN FRANCISCO – Work crews have started installing what Golden Gate Bridge officials are calling the most significant architectural change to the 65-year-old landmark. 

But passersby may hardly notice the new safety rail that will separate the pedestrian and bike sidewalk from car lanes. 

“Anything you put on a historic monument like that should fit in and not stand out,” said Donald MacDonald, an architect who helped design the railing.

Girls attack martial arts class 

Police arrested two juvenile girls Wednesday for attacking members of a martial arts class, including the instructor. According to police, two officers driving in a patrol car spotted two people in hand-to-hand combat at the corner of California Street and Allston Way. Upon investigation, police learned that a martial arts sword class was practicing with bamboo poles at an adjacent park, when two juvenile girls interrupted the class. One girl stole a bamboo stick, while the other, armed with a knife jumped on the back of the instructor. Both girls were arrested. 

Drug bust 

Special Enforcement Unit officers arrested Wilfred Stone of 834 Bancroft Way for possession of rock cocaine and evidence of packaging for sale at 4 p.m. Wednesday. 

Bizarre accident in San Francisco tunnel 

SAN FRANCISCO – Two anti-war demonstrators who were involved in a bizarre traffic accident in the Broadway Tunnel on Saturday were in critical and unstable condition Sunday at San Francisco General Hospital. 

According to San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Barry Wong, a man and woman were riding in a converted school bus to Saturday’s anti-war demonstration when the accident occurred around 11 a.m.. 

The full-size school bus has the body of a Volkswagen van welded to its roof, which Wong said adds about six feet to the vehicle’s overall height.  

The man and woman were riding with their heads and bodies sticking out through the van’s sunroof when it passed through the tunnel heading eastbound on Broadway. 

“It’s an extremely tall vehicle,’’ Wong said. 

The tunnel is taller at one end than it is at the other, Wong said, and as the vehicle approached the North Beach end both the man and the woman clipped the roof of the tunnel with their heads. Both victims were knocked back inside the vehicle, he said.  

“They were standing up in the tunnel and didn’t know about the change in height,’’ he said. 

The bus driver pulled over in front of a nearby fire station where firefighters extricated the victims, Wong said. Both were taken to San Francisco General Hospital where they are listed in critical condition, he said. 

Man arrested in boat incident 

SAN FRANCISCO – A man has been arrested in connection with the presumed death of a man who was thrown off a party boat in San Francisco Bay, police said. 

Witnesses told police they saw someone being thrown overboard at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Police Inspector Sergio Chin. About 275 people were aboard the ship for a Halloween party. 

Police arrested the suspect when the boat, the Royal Prince, returned to the pier, said Sgt. Neville Gittens. The unidentified man was being held Sunday on suspicion of murder, he said. 

The U.S. Coast Guard used helicopters and a cutter to search throughout the night, but hadn’t found anything by mid-afternoon Sunday, a Coast Guard spokesman said. 

Investigators boarded the boat at Pier 43 1/2 to interview witnesses. Chin said it was unclear what role alcohol may have played in the attack. The victim’s girlfriend and several friends were on the boat with him, Chin said.

HETCH HETCHY RESERVOIR – Just north of Yosemite Valley’s grassy meadows and tumbling waterfalls, another slice of paradise lies submerged beneath more than 100 billion gallons of water. 

Since 1934, the Hetch Hetchy Valley has been managed by San Francisco as the vessel that ensures a steady supply of drinking and irrigation water for millions of Californians. 

Now, the city is struggling to keep both the aging system of aqueducts, tunnels and pipelines — and its own legacy as guarantor of the region’s water supply — from disintegrating. 

The network of concrete and steel that has delivered Sierra Nevada snowmelt into the San Francisco Bay area’s kitchen sinks, laboratories and factories is crumbling. Seismologists say a major earthquake could leave 2.4 million customers in four counties without water for up to two months. 

That could add up to more than $28 billion in economic losses for the region, according to estimates by the Bay Area Economic Forum. 

“We’re all living under a cloud and anybody that chooses to ignore that has got their head in the sand,” said Assemblyman Lou Papan, a Democrat from Millbrae, one of the 29 cities, water districts and other agencies that also rely on the system’s water. 

Though Hetch Hetchy’s health is vital to the entire region, it’s up to San Francisco, which has neglected major maintenance for years, to launch a $3.6 billion effort to repair, upgrade and expand the system. 

And that makes its neighbors nervous. Already, a key reservoir that sits on the Calaveras fault is only 30 percent full because of fears of a collapse. 

City politicians have shifted $670 million of revenue from water and electricity sales over the past 20 years away from Hetch Hetchy maintenance to fund such things as health care for the poor and San Francisco’s public transit system, city records show. 

And recent audits have suburban leaders wondering whether San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission can handle the renovation, which includes more than 70 projects that could take 13 years to complete. 

San Francisco voters face the next big step on Nov. 5 — a $1.6 billion bond measure to cover the city’s share of the project. Water rates will more than triple in San Francisco to pay the bond, and double in the suburbs, where customers already pay higher rates. 

A coalition led by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has spent nearly $250,000 trying to overcome voters’ distrust and win approval for the bond. Landlord and tenant groups, typically at odds, have united in opposition. 

“Most San Franciscans and owners are civic minded and they want to do the right thing,” said Janan New, director of the San Francisco Apartment Association, which represents landlords, but “they also get mad when they see waste and mismanagement.” 

The Sierra Club, which fought the dam a century ago, also opposes the bond measure, saying the Hetch Hetchy Valley should be returned to its natural state. That’s a long shot in a thirsty, energy-hungry state. 

Other environmental and consumer groups are counting on the dam’s hydroelectric power in their campaign for Proposition D, which would give the city the authority to replace Pacific Gas and Electric Co. with a municipally owned utility. 

Gov. Gray Davis and state lawmakers are poised to intervene. Angering Brown, Davis recently signed legislation that requires the city to keep lawmakers updated on the project, and allows regional water sellers to issue their own bonds to fund the maintenance. 

“The state has made it crystal clear that if San Francisco doesn’t take care of the problem, the state will,” said Jim Chappell, president of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research organization, a citizens group that frequently weighs in on city issues. 

Brown, upset at what he considers meddling, said the city will ensure that the water system will last for another 100 years. “We have done the kind of job founders and creators of Hetch Hetchy would have wanted us to do,” he said.

LOS ANGELES – William J. Bratton was sworn in Friday as the city’s new police chief, with a mandate to reform the corruption-tinged department and a goal of eliminating graffiti and minor offenses as a way of preventing more serious crimes. 

The former New York police commissioner took his oath of office from City Clerk J. Michael Carey and then shook hands with Mayor Kenneth Hahn in a brief private ceremony in Hahn’s office. Bratton and Hahn then headed for Lake Arrowhead to attend an emergency management workshop. 

A public swearing-in ceremony will be held Monday at the Police Academy. 

Bratton, 55, will serve a five-year term. He said he will move quickly to name three assistant chiefs. 

Bratton has promised to work with the mayor on reforms, increase recruiting and implement community policing policies, something past chiefs have resisted. He also has said he wants to reduce top-down management and give more authority to the LAPD’s 18 division commanders. 

Bratton subscribes to what has been called the “broken-window” theory of policing that holds elimination of minor crimes prevents larger ones. 

The city’s 54th police chief said he believes fighting graffiti will reduce the city’s rising crime rate. 

“I hate it with a passion,” he said. 

Allowing gang members and graffiti crews to deface communities is “effectively surrendering the authority of government to them,” Bratton told the Los Angeles Times. “You cannot let them control your streets. If they’re trying to do it by marking the streets with graffiti, then get rid of it.” 

When Bratton ran the New York Police Department from 1994 to 1996 that city’s murder rate was cut in half and serious felonies dropped 33 percent.

SACRAMENTO – A state audit revealed California’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning failed to properly keep track of domestic violence grant recipient’s and evaluate the effectiveness of their programs. 

Ordered by a joint Senate committee in February and released earlier this week, the report accuses the state agency of wasting $2.1 million on evaluations that were of “uneven quality, content and usefulness,” and ignoring 700 quarterly progress reports from domestic violence shelters. 

OCJP, the primary focus of the auditor’s investigation, is a grant-making agency with responsibility for $23 million awarded to 85 domestic violence agencies throughout California. 

The agency’s interim executive director, Allan Sawyer, said Friday many of the criticisms are valid and pointed out that having shelters compete for grant money was a disastrous way to handle the funding. 

“These are institutions in their communities,” he said. “You can’t build up a domestic violence shelter and then, two years later, say, ’Someone wrote a better grant application, so your services are no longer needed.’ It’s ridiculous.” 

Sawyer said many of the audit’s other criticisms of OCJP had already been identified by his staff and remedied.

Elderly man indicted for concealed knife at LAX 

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury indicted a 71-year-old man who was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for carrying a cane containing a hidden 18-inch knife. 

Amir Farhang Motamedi, of Los Angeles, was indicted Friday on a charge of attempting to carry a concealed weapon onto an aircraft. 

Motamedi, who had reservations for a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, was arrested Oct. 2 after he passed through a metal detector at the Bradley International Terminal. 

Motamedi told authorities that he had bought the cane at a Chinatown store and hadn’t known there was a knife inside. 

It was not considered a terrorist act, U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said Saturday. 

Motamedi was free on $150,000 bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Monday. 

Babysitter arrested in toddler’s death 

LANCASTER – A 17-year-old babysitter was arrested for investigation of murder after the death of a toddler that authorities alleged was abused. 

The teen, whose name was withheld because he is a minor, was being held without bail Saturday at juvenile hall in Sylmar, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Scott Butler said. 

The boy called authorities Friday from a Lake Los Angeles home to report that the 1-year-old boy he had been watching was not breathing. The toddler was pronounced dead at a hospital, Butler said. 

The teen said he left the baby in the bathtub for a short time and when he returned the child had stopped breathing, Butler said. 

“But our investigators found external trauma to the baby’s body that was inconsistent with the suspect’s statement,” Butler said. 

San Diego State officials turn down donation 

SAN DIEGO – San Diego State University officials rejected a $2,500 donation from an alumni group that wants to bring in an Aztec warrior mascot to cheer at sporting events. 

The school turned down the offer from the Aztec Warrior Foundation Thursday because the mascot’s presence would be a distraction, SDSU athletic director Rick Bay said. 

The school has been without an official mascot since last year, when the Monty Montezuma mascot was banned after student groups complained that his loincloth attire and aggressive behavior were culturally insensitive. 

Members of the Aztec Warrior Foundation said they were disappointed about the decision, especially because the athletic department has run up a $1 million-plus deficit.

LOS ANGELES – A maddening backlog of import containers at West Coast ports has many U.S. retailers upset that toys, shoes, televisions and other goods are not moving fast enough from ships to shelves. 

“There are an awful lot of Christmas presents sitting out on those docks,” said J. Craig Shearman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation. 

While dock workers returned to the job last week after a two-week lockout, shipping line officials said longshoremen are delaying the unloading of container ships onto trucks and trains. 

Acknowledging that goods are not moving at their normal pace, the union representing 10,500 longshoremen at 29 major West Coast ports said shippers caused the slowdown, partly by closing the ports in the first place. They also are not providing the necessary equipment to unload ships, the union says. 

“For us, it doesn’t matter what the reason,” Shearman said. “The fact remains the goods aren’t coming into the stores as quickly as we need them.” 

Exporters also are being hurt. 

Many worry that if the slowdown persists and a required cooling off period ends with another lockdown or strike, customers in Pacific Rim countries will start to look elsewhere for agricultural products, machine parts and other goods. 

Orange and grapefruit growers are especially concerned their exports to Asia for the Chinese New Year, which begins Feb. 1, could be held up. Navel oranges will be ready for shipping at the end of December and early January, just as the cooling off period ends. 

“If a strike happens then, it would be very disruptive,” said Russ Hanlin, vice president of International Sales at Sunkist Growers, a marketing cooperative. 

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and port terminal operators, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been engaged in contentious contract negotiations since spring. 

The acrimony between the two sides culminated in a lockout of dock workers Sept. 29. The shipping lines accused the longshoremen of a work slowdown, but the union said it was working according to safety regulations, which slowed the pace of work. 

The 10-day lockout, estimated to cost the nation’s economy about $1 billion a day, ended Oct. 9 after a judge ordered the West Coast ports reopened. 

When the lockout ended, about 200 container ships were docked or anchored off the Pacific coast. At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the world’s third busiest, many of those ships remain stuck in the backlog. 

This week, the shipping lines filed documents with the U.S. Department of Justice accusing longshoremen of a deliberate slowdown since returning to work. 

The shipping lines said longshoremen are working 34 percent below the normal work rate in Oakland and 9 percent less at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Other slowdown rates include 29 percent in Portland, Ore., 27 percent in Seattle and 19 percent in Tacoma, Wash., the association said. 

The figures compare the number of containers longshoremen moved on and off a vessel each hour at a particular port before and after the lockout. 

The union blames the gridlock on unsafe working conditions and disorganized terminal operators. 

On Friday, union officials said they had filed documents with the Justice Department rebutting the association’s claims of a slowdown. 

“There’s no evidence backing it up. There’s no way they can be independently verified,” union spokesman Steve Stallone said. 

Anticipating the difficulty in receiving goods, many retailers, especially large chains such as Wal-Mart and large toy retailers, accelerated delivery of holiday merchandise during the summer. 

Smaller toy stores, which are dependent on a chain of wholesalers and distributors and are less able to reroute shipments to other ports, are more likely to suffer if products aren’t delivered by Thanksgiving. 

“It is iffy at the moment,” said Marcia Bernsten, shopkeeper at Saturday’s Child, an independent toy retailer in Chicago. “We’re just kind of waiting and watching and doing what we can to make substitutions of stuff coming from the East Coast.” 

Domestic toy manufacturers have reported backlogs in deliveries from West Coast ports but not enough yet to significantly affect the holiday shopping season. 

Hasbro Inc. recently said it expects to be up to date on deliveries within seven to 10 days. The company also devised a contingency plan for the first quarter of 2003 in case the dock labor situation deteriorates. 

Mattel recently said it has about $75 million to $100 million in wholesale volume worth of merchandise stuck on the water and worries that retailers may cancel orders if goods don’t arrive on time. The company has begun to selectively ship certain toys by air. 

The delay in unloading ships even affected the World Series. 

As part of a “Memorable Moments” promotion sponsored by Master Card, about 57,000 disposable cameras were supposed to have been given to fans at Game Four in San Francisco Wednesday night. 

The cameras, shipped from Hong Kong, are in a container on a ship that arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Oct. 15. Because of the backlog, the small company that ordered the cameras has been told the ship won’t be unloaded until Nov. 1.

PALO ALTO – A pilot program offering organic lunches to elementary school students isn’t as popular as organizers had hoped. 

In May, children clamored to try organic food at the Healthy School Lunch Committee’s taste test. But now that pesticide-free and hormone-free macaroni and cheese and other entrees are actually on the menu, hardly anyone’s buying them. 

“Things are pretty expensive,” said 10-year-old Christina Lee. Instead of buying an organic cheese enchilada for $2.50 last week, the Ohlone Elementary School fifth-grader picked up a complete regular lunch – a pizza pocket, a box of raisins, a bag of baby carrots, an orange and a carton of chocolate milk – for the same price. 

The pilot program was launched at all 12 Palo Alto elementary schools this fall. 

Prohibitive pricing, difficulties with distributors, confusion among parents and little interest from kids all have contributed to lackluster sales. 

“Nothing has been as we had hoped it would be,” said Jesse Cool, a local restaurateur and one of the leading forces behind Palo Alto’s organic initiative. 

The all-natural meals, free from chemicals and genetic engineering, were supposed to cost $4.50 because the entrees would come with organic applesauce and either hormone-free milk or organic apple juice. But those snacks and beverages have yet to be shipped from the warehouses to the cafeterias. 

Publicity at schools has remained minimal and many of the lunch menus don’t list the new items, leaving many parents unaware that schools were offering organic alternatives. 

No more than seven organic entrees have been purchased on any given day at Ohlone, the school where students grow vegetables on the campus farm and where parents have pushed for the organic lunch options. 

The school sold about 100 regular lunches, pizza pockets, chicken patty sandwiches, taco pockets and tuna sandwiches, on one day last week. It also sold four organic cheese enchiladas, but adults purchased three of them.

Commuters to Berkeley’s downtown might be in a tight spot if the city approves a proposed housing project on top of the 350–space Hinks parking lot, at Kittredge Street between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street.  

Library Gardens, a development containing 176 units of housing and ground-floor retail – the largest project ever proposed for downtown – is back before city planners after being scrapped last year, but now includes fewer parking spaces. Cost overruns on a planned two-level underground parking garage killed the project previously. 

Now, the plan includes the same four stories of housing and five shops, but nixes all underground parking.  

Developer John DeClercq put forth the proposal at a presentation to the Downtown Business Association (DBA) Thursday, and faced more questions about what his plan lacked than what it offered. 

“We’re very concerned about the impact of losing parking,” said DBA Executive Director Deborah Badhia. “The lot is 20 percent of the total [downtown] public parking supply.” 

The revised development calls for a 129 space ground floor lot with 105 permits sold to residents. This means a net loss of 221 public parking spaces at the site. 

The development would exacerbate downtown parking woes, city officials said. According to the Environmental Impact Report for the new Vista College campus on Center Street, when the campus is completed, downtown Berkeley will have a parking shortage of 609 spaces on weekday afternoons and 308 spaces on weeknight evenings. 

DeClercq, however, noting that zoning laws require that he supply only 105 parking spaces, said he was not required to compensate the city for the parking that his development would displace.  

“This [plan] is within the codes,” DeClercq told DBA members, adding that it was ultimately the city’s responsibility to deal with the downtown parking shortage. 

Berkeley transportation director Peter Hillier replied that “the city is not in the parking business on its own,” but added that it was too early to weigh in on the development. 

To alleviate the parking crunch, DeClercq said he would open his lot to the public on the assumption that residents would drive to work for the day, opening spaces for visitors to the downtown.  

But DBA members were skeptical that the plan would work. They argued that many of the residents would leave their cars in the lot during the day so that spaces would not be available for downtown workers or shoppers. 

Last year’s plan, which was approved unanimously by City Council and supported by the DBA, called for DeClercq to build a two-level underground garage to make up for the loss of the Hinks lot. However, because of high ground water levels at the site, construction proved too costly. 

“Every week it was another million,” DeClercq said.  

Badhia estimated that underground parking costs roughly $50,000 per parking space. The high price, she said, prompts most developers to offer only the minimum number of spaces required. 

A city rule that requires general fund transportation money to fund transit projects before parking, has also served to limit Berkeley’s parking supply, she said. 

Despite the parking issue, DeClercq believed the development could help downtown businesses. He estimated that the 176 units would house 300 residents. “That’s a lot of library cards, that’s a lot of theater tickets,” he said. 

The project still needs approval from the Zoning Adjustment Board. If passed, the development would begin in March and be completed within 18 months, DeClercq said. 

Contact reporter at matt@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor:  

What is it with Art Goldberg and underground gasses? His threatened lawsuit against the city (Daily Planet, Oct. 22) over the alleged hazard of building on a site of a former gas station at 1797 Shattuck Ave. reminds me of another suit he threatened to bring.  

At a city Waterfront Commission meeting on an off-leash dog area in Cesar Chavez Park, Goldberg’s attempt to block the now-successful off-lease area included a threat to sue to get an environment impact report. He claimed that dogs digging in the park would release hazardous amounts of methane from the underlying dump – a claim belied by the fact that the dogs were futilely digging at gopher holes inhabited by gophers who were, wouldn’t you know it, completely unaffected by this great gaseous menace.  

I do think that something smells in all this, but it’s not methane or gasoline. It’s the stink of small-minded NIMBYism.  

Peter Moore 

Berkeley

Certain buildings on Shattuck Avenue define the historic character of downtown Berkeley and have changed little over the last 50 years. Old postcards are a wonderful source of historic images and downtown was a favorite subject of postcard publishers.  

The Shattuck Hotel, which occupies an entire block, has dominated Shattuck Avenue since it was completed in 1913. Designed by Benjamin G. McDougall, the block long, five-story building is Mediterranean Revival in style and has square corner towers, plaster siding and a tile roof. 

In the late 1930s postcard, pictured above, the hotel has balconies on its fourth floor, but they have since been removed. J. F. Hink and Son, a family owned department store, occupied the south half of the building from 1915-1985. This is the area now occupied by the Shattuck Cinemas.  

At the time this postcard was published, the Shattuck Hotel was called the Hotel Whitecotten, after the man who owned the hotel at that time. It was renamed Hotel Shattuck in 1942.  

In the distance is Berkeley's first skyscraper, the Chamber of Commerce Building, now Wells Fargo Bank. It was designed by one of Berkeley's most prolific architects, Walter Ratcliff, Jr. It is 11 stories tall and was the tallest building in Berkeley until the 13-story Great Western Building was constructed in the 1969.  

Shattuck Avenue has been the center for public transportation in Berkeley since 1876, the year Francis Kittredge Shattuck brought a Central Pacific spur line into Berkeley – the reason Shattuck Avenue is so wide. 

The two “islands” in the middle of the street, between Center Street and University Avenue, and Berkeley Place and Shattuck Square were the location of the early train stations and switching yards.  

In 1991, downtown Berkeley was awarded a Main Street Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to encourage the revitalization of downtown and to enhance its historic early 20th-century character. 

Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny is the author of the book “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this column in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Lala, the main character in Sandra Cisneros’ new novel “Caramelo,” clambers through her life’s journeys, as it twists and turns, like a free-wheeling road trip. Like Lala’s storytelling, the facts in “Caramelo” are based on real people from Cisneros’ life, but the “means for the end” are Cisneros’ own creations. The long-awaited second book from the author of the highly celebrated novel “The House on Mango Street” is a tale about a young girl who adroitly retells the story of her family and illustrates what it is like to be the youngest and only female among her siblings. 

What started out as a short story and mushroomed into a full-fledged novel of truths and half-truths, “Caramelo” is Cisneros’ way of telling the universal story of an immigrant, while celebrating her father’s life. Filled with comedic labeling of her family members, such as “awful grandmother” and “aunty light-skin,” Lala takes us along the corners of her Italian Aunt Ninfa’s spotless, “movie-star” house and on the never-ending car trips to their motherland, Mexico. “Caramelo” is not a just a story of Lala’s journey to becoming a woman, but a book filled with Mexican American history. 

“I didn't think I was going to be writing a history book,” explained Cisneros, “but in telling my father's story, I had to go back and look at how he became who he was. So I had to invent my grandmother's story and how she became who she was, so next thing I knew, there was a lot of tributaries from my main story, and footnotes, chronologies and things like that, that I didn't anticipate when I began.” 

The inquisitive Lala begins her tale as the forgotten element in a family photograph. Throughout the story, she is our invisible bird’s-eye view, providing us with vivid details of her family, her ancestors and their hilarious anecdotes. Often, Cisneros takes us off course as she paints the picture of Lala’s past, but we are eventually dragged back to the same themes of growth, family and identity. 

When her father reveals some shocking family truths, Lala is forced to understand what drives certain members of her family to be the people they are. We follow Lala as she tries to “fit in” amongst her American friends and when she falls in love with a young boy, Ernesto. Through all the trying times, Lala manages to climb out on top, with the help of the most unexpected person, her grandmother. 

“Caramelo” is made up of Cisneros’ trademark poetic flavor, with vignettes and poems spread throughout the book. Every scenario is described with sarcastic detail. We are instantly transported into the raw truth of Lala’s world. “Caramelo” is like a joke with a fabulously clever punch line. Cisneros skillfully incorporates Spanish words throughout the entire novel, so the read is not limited to merely Spanish readers and even, enhances the book, enabling readers of all nationalities to relate to its journeys. Cisneros’ writing has an immense impact on bringing the perspective of Chicana woman to the mainstream arena. 

“ I don’t think about it at all,” said Cisneros, “I just think that I’ve got to go to work everyday. I read the news every day, and I respond to the sad events that I see. I think about communities who don’t know each other. I want to build the bridge between my community and the other ones.” 

Although this will only be her second novel, the award-winning writer has composed a myriad of poetry and short story compilations, including acclaimed “Woman Hollering Creek.” She frequently dissects long-debated topics, such as feminism, gender roles and religion, within her writing. Her own influences include many journalists, activists and novelists such as Studs Turkel and Dorothy Allison.  

In the past Cisneros taught underprivileged high school students, and now she independently conducts writing classes for writers, teachers and librarians. When asked what she will be involved in in the future, she retorted, “Clean my house. For nine years, I have put everything into [”Caramelo”]; my house and offices are a mess. I have scraps of paper filled with ideas for short stories lying around everywhere.” 

“Every year I cross the border, it’s the same – my mind forgets, but my body always remembers.” Like Lala’s feelings about her family’s annual trips to Mexico, it is hard to forget the journey that Cisneros takes us down in “Caramelo.”

Saturday, Oct. 26 

Math Made Fun - math games. 

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

1 Centennial Dr. - Lawrence Hall of Science  

Free with museum admission 

Pumpkin Carving  

and Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Free 

Emeryville Taiko’s Halloween Extravaganza 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

1601A 63rd St. (near Hollis St.), in Emeryville 

Fun and games for kids with a Taiko drumming performance at 8:30. 

655-6392 

Kids $5 / adults $10 

Alzheimer’s Disease and the African American Community 

9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 

Join the Alzheimer’s Association for this informative morning. Continental breakfast included. 

Preregister: (650) 962-9644 

Free 

MSRI’s 20th Anniversary Celebration 

3 to 5:30 p.m. 

Valley Life Science Building, Chan Shun Auditorium, second floor, Rm 205O, UC Berkeley 

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute celebrates its birthday with keynote speaker Sir Michael Atiyah. 

601-8700 

Halloween Spook Hunt 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Thousand Oaks School, 840 Colusa Ave. 

Costumes are encouraged at this treasure hunt. Best costume participates free. Meet at 1 p.m. at the park next to Thousand Oaks. 524-2166 

$7.50-$15 / Families $35 

Lawrence Hall of Science Family Halloween Party 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

A Halloween bash with magicians, mad scientists, wizards, and a demonstration of how to make an elephant mask. 

Reserve tickets in advance: 642-5134 

$8-$12 

The New School Halloween Bazaar 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. at Cedar 

Face painting, mask-making, children’s games, apple bobbing, and more. 

548-9165 

Free 

Strides to Provide 

8 a..m. to noon 

Oakland’s Lake Merritt 

Alta Bates Summit kicks off its first annual community walk, incorporating fundraising, health education, health screenings, and entertainment. 

Radio station KMEL will provide music. 

204-1167 

Gardening With East Bay Native Plants  

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

Hands-on workshop touching on many aspects of “restoration gardening”. 

Reservations required: 548-2220 x233 

$15 Ecology Center members, $25 others. No one turned away for lack of funds. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Spirit Day 

11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

Construct altars in a day of reflection. 

Free 

West Berkeley Arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

University Ave. between 3rd and 4th Streets 

Fun for the whole family, with local and international arts and crafts, the Berkeley Youth Chess league, Technomania Circus, live music and more. 

845-4106 

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Damming Hope: Plan Puebla Panama Comes to Guatemala” 

7 p.m. 

Trinity United Methodist Church 

2362 Bancroft Way 

Mayan leader Santos Choc discusses his community’s struggle in opposing the Usumacinta Dam. 

526-7177 

$8-$20 sliding scale / No one turned away 

Reviving the Lost Art of Conversation 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Learn how to break the ice, establish rapport, build trust, and develop intimacy through conversation. 

848-0237 x127, $8 -$10 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Berkeley City Council Forum 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Hillel Foundation 

2736 Bancroft Way between Piedmont and College Avenues 

Candidates Gordon Wozniak, Andy Katz, 

Micki Weinberg, Kriss Worthington and others speak in this forum. 

839-2900 

Monster Bash 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

A singles celebration of an ancient Celtic end-of-summer observance, with a lavish feast of foods from the fall harvest. 

Register: 601-7247  

$25 / includes meal and cooking lesson 

Saturday, Oct. 26 

Lisa B. 

7 p.m. / Open mic sign-up 6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Presented by Rhythm & Muse. 

Free / donations accepted 

Kotoja 

Dance lesson 9 p.m. 

Show 9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Known in the Bay Area’s World Beat and Afro-beat scene, Kotoja features bandmembers from West Africa and America. 

525-5054 

$12 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Larry Schneider 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Internationally performing saxophonist. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

Turning Point: Sacred Music Before and After the Second Vatican Council 

4 p.m. 

United Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte Ave. 

Sacred choral music, sponsored by the Graduate Theological Union. 

(415) 431-4234 

Free 

Kazuhisa Uchihashi 

8:15 p.m. 

TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series presents this Japanese experimental electric guitarist. 

649-8744 

$0-$20 Sliding scale 

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Jazz, Blues, and Popular Music in American Culture” 

6:30 p.m. 

A Vista College class, with instructor/R&B legend Johnny Otis. 

Registration info: 981-2800 

Tuesday, Oct. 29 

Activate: DJ night 

10 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

An evening of DJs featuring drum n’ bass music. 

525-5054 

$5 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Courtableau 

Cajun dance lesson 8 p.m. 

Show 8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene perform classic Cajun dance hall music. 

525-5054 

$8 

Thursday, Oct. 31 

Halloween Party with the Venusians 

8 p.m. 

The Venusians are a shamanic trance-dance septet known for their costume-laden, colorful performances. 

525-5054, $10 

Saturday, Nov. 2 

The Librarians with The Skyflakes and Plain White Ts, 9 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair 

2475 Bancroft Way, $5 / 21 and over 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621, Free 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663,  

Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

“The Undead and the Living Dead” and Bela Lugosi’s “White Zombie” 

Oct. 24 through Oct. 30 

7:30 / 8:55 p.m. 

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Double feature: Vampire film with musical score performed live on accordion by Rich Kuhns, followed by Bela Lugosi’s classic. 

848-1143 

$4-$9 

“Halloween” and “The Thing” 

Oct. 31 through Nov. 6 

7:30 / 9:20 p.m. 

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Nightly double feature. 

848-1143 

$4-$8 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

“Last Chance for Eden” 

1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Directed by Lee Mun Wah, the award-winning director of “The Color of Fear”, “Last Chance for Eden” explores personal pain and anguish caused by racism. 

848-0237 x0, $10-$15 

Benefit screening for “Bums’ Paradise”  

8 p.m. screening followed by party with live music from Marc Black / Funky Sex Gods 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Film explores the story of the homeless men and women who turned the former Albany Landfill into a community. 

525-5054 

Sliding scale / All welcome 

“Behind the Bandbox” 

2 to 4 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way 

This raw, controversial film, directed by Claire Bunch, spans ten years in the lives of three Berkeley street survivors. 

849-0153, Free 

Sunday, Nov. 3 

“Focus”, 2 to 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St.  

William H. Macy stars in this early 1940’s period piece. 

848-0237 

$2 donation

Tell Pinole Valley we’re coming for them!” 

Berkeley High’s war cry for the 2002 season has finally come to fruition after the Yellowjackets stomped Richmond High, 61-0, on Friday night to set up a meeting of Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League undefeateds. 

Berkeley (7-0 overall, 4-0 ACCAL) gained 409 yards to the Oilers’ 58 and didn’t allow Richmond past midfield in their most dominating win of the season. Five different Yellowjackets scored touchdowns, including three each from senior Sean Young and sophomore Antoine Cokes, while quarterback Dessalines Gant threw three touchdowns in the rout. 

There’s little question the Berkeley players were looking past Richmond toward the matchup with Pinole Valley High, and it’s tough to blame them. The Oilers came into Friday’s game winless at 0-6 and without their starting quarterback and running back, leaving them with even less firepower than usual. The result was predictable: lots of runs up the middle and punts and very little resistance on defense.  

Berkeley scored on its third and seventh plays from scrimmage and averaged more than 10 yards per rush. The lightning-fast Young scored the first two times he touched the ball, while Cokes found the end zone on his first three runs. Berkeley led 42-0 at halftime and only a running clock in the second half kept the score from getting even more out of hand. 

“We expected to dominate them because they’re Richmond,” said Cokes, who finished with a game-high 81 rushing yards on just four carries. “We knew they weren’t very good.” 

The most encouraging sign for Berkeley was the play of Gant, who threw five interceptions in last week’s overtime win over Hercules High. The senior put up his most impressive performance yet against Richmond, completing 7-of-12 passes for 149 yards and no interceptions, numbers that could have been better if not for three drops by his receivers. For a player without much game experience (Gant has started just four games for Berkeley), a good outing just before a showdown for the league title was crucial. 

“Dez played very well tonight,” Berkeley offensive coordinator Clarence Johnson said. “He played under control, but he was aggressive and not afraid to make mistakes. The best thing we have is our speed, and he used it tonight.” 

Gant was cautious after the game, aware that he hasn’t faced a defense like Pinole Valley’s. 

“We’ll see how I do next week,” he said. “That will be what decides whether I’m good enough. But if I can play like I did tonight, we’ll do well.” 

While the Yellowjackets were understandably jubilant after their domination of Richmond, their next game was all anyone wanted to talk about. Berkeley hasn’t beaten Pinole Valley in six years, and the Spartans won last year’s game and the ACCAL title with a second-half comeback. 

“Pinole Valley is a really good team, and it’s a big matchup,” head coach Matt Bissell said. “We’ve been looking forward to it since they knocked us out of the playoffs last year.” 

“We’re ready for Pinole Valley, physically and mentally,” said Robert Hunter-Ford, who caught Berkeley’s second touchdown and recorded a sack. “I guarantee we’ll stop them this year.” 

Berkeley defensive coordinator Ron Moore, an emotional coach who has been repeating the Jackets’ mantra of “Tell Pinole Valley we’re coming for them!” all season long, expects a defensive battle, and he thinks his players are ready for just such an occasion. 

“I feel confidence in my defense against anybody,” Moore said. “As long as I have my core players, we can face anybody.” 

The Berkeley-Pinole Valley game will be at Pinole Valley High School at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Berkeley’s not insulated from the nationwide surge in hate crimes reported since Sept. 11, 2001. And so, the city sponsored a Thursday-evening forum “A Community Dialogue to Prevent Hate Crimes.” 

While light attendance was probably due to a simultaneous mayoral forum and the World Series, about 35 residents and 15 city employees, including a number of police officers, were on hand. 

Calling hate crimes “ugly” and “brutal,” City Manager Weldon Rucker said police have documented 38 hate crimes this year and 51 since Sept. 11. The rising numbers – just 14 such crimes were documented in 1994 and 10 in 2000 – are a combination of growing sensitivity to the notion of hate crimes and an actual increase in these crimes, Rucker said. 

“The community needs to report hate crimes to police,” Rucker said. This point was underscored several times during the evening. 

Formal speakers included Chris Lim, associate superintendent with the Berkeley schools. Lim emphasized the importance of “a safe learning environment,” and said the district is targeting not only hate crimes, but also “the increase in bullying-type behavior.” 

A number of residents described their experiences.  

Marisa Saunders, an African American woman, talked about receiving hate mail, after helping to conduct a workshop on racism. “They didn’t know me,” Saunders said, asserting that the expression of hate was the letter-writers’ “own fear.” 

A Muslim woman wearing a traditional veil talked about a hateful incident that happened to her when she was driving on a relatively isolated road in the Oakland hills. A teen-ager pulled up beside her and yelled out, “What makes you think you can bomb buildings?” 

“It was very frightening,” she said, noting the irony in the fact that she was born in Chicago, that her father’s ancestors “came over on the Mayflower,” and that her mother’s family has been in the United States for three generations. “The idea of bombing a building has never occurred to me,” she said. 

It’s not always easy to define a hate crime, said Aftim Saba, a Palestinian-American. Saba talked about the confusion in some people’s minds between political speech and hate crimes. “Some people are trying to attack political discourse” as anti-Semitic, he said. 

When some people say that U.S. taxes are supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestine and contributing to the death of Palestinian children, they are condemned as if they have spoken out against Jewish people; in fact, they are opposing actions of the state of Israel, he said. “If I condemn the actions of the Chinese government in Tibet, it doesn’t mean that I’m anti-Chinese.”  

Others underscored that racism can be black against white, as well as white against black. 

While Frank Gorucharri had a story of homophobia to share, he also lauded the community and police department response to the crime. Gorucharri is the director of the Pacific Center for Human Growth, an agency that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and those who are questioning their sexuality. 

He told the gathering that when he got to work on Oct. 7, he found that someone had used a black marker to write “fags” on a flier posted outside the center. He said it was the first such incident he’d experienced in the six years since he’d been the agency’s director. 

He then reported the crime: “I called the police department and it makes me so appreciative of being in this city,” he said. The beat officer showed up very quickly, then a supervisor, then a police photographer to document the evidence, he said. “It was a nice, professional human experience.” 

The next day the Daily Planet ran a story about the incident, he said, and as a result, he got calls from public officials on the local and state level and supportive responses from the community.  

Saba then pointed to the recent 17-year-old Newark murder victim, born as a male and living life as a female and called attention to the critical importance of finding solutions to hate crimes. “We really need to look at the hate that divides us and hurts us,” he said. 

To get a copy of the minutes of the meeting and for information on follow-up meetings, call Arrietta Chakos in the city manager’s office at 981-7000.

To the Editor: 

I’d like to set the record straight for those concerned about the city of Berkeley’s space weapons resolution, which bans space weapons above city limits, as being “embarrassing.” (Forum, Sept. 21-22) 

Personally, I’d rather “cede the space above my head” to the harmless little old city of Berkeley, whose statement is obviously only a symbolic gesture meant to call attention to the intentions of weapons corporations like Lockleed Martin, who actually have the right to, and plan to, put nuclear weapons in the space above our heads. 

Vivian Warkentin 

Berkeley 

DETROIT — No need to worry. 

All of the ingredients that made “American Idol” this summer’s television sensation appear to be in place for next year’s second installment. 

Acid-tongued British record producer Simon Cowell is back as a judge, as are singer-dancer Paula Abdul and industry veteran Randy Jackson. Los Angeles-based radio disc jockey Ryan Seacrest will return as host. 

However, a few tweaks became known Friday as the three judges and Seacrest took time out from judging talent in Detroit. Auditions started Monday. Detroit was the first of seven cities where auditions are being held.

SEATTLE – Junior Melissa Bennett assisted on both Washington goals Friday, including Jaime Carstensen’s 75th-minute tally that lifted the 25th-ranked Huskies to a 2-1 upset of No. 7 Cal.  

Washington (8-4-3) remained undefeated in Pac-10 play with a 3-0-1 conference record. Cal (9-5-1) dropped to 2-3 in conference action.  

The Golden Bears opened the scoring four minutes into the game on freshman Dania Cabello’s first goal of the season. Laura Schott dribbled down the right wing and tapped a pass to Cabello, who veered to the center of the box and fired a shot into the lower left corner from 15 yards out.  

Sophomore Nicole Martinez netted the equalizer for the Huskies, scoring on a seven-yard boot during a scramble in front of the goal mouth. Bennett served a corner kick into the box to set up the goal in the 24th minute.  

The teams battled through 50 scoreless minutes before Washington converted another corner kick opportunity for the game winner. Bennett crossed a ball to the far post where Carstensen headed it in from eight yards away. Carstensen is tied for third among UW scorers with five goals.  

Bennett continued her prolific playmaking, increasing to 16 her school-record assist total. The Seattle Christian High School product ranks third nationally and has 10 more assists this season than any other Pac-10 player.  

“You can’t get assists if your teammates aren’t scoring,” Bennett remarked. “I’ve been fortunate that my teammates are finishing real well when I pass to them.”  

Senior goalkeeper Hope Solo, the 2001 Pac-10 Player of the Year, registered two saves for Washington. Sani Post had six saves for Cal which was outshot by an 11-6 margin.

It seems like a simple story line: upstart UC Berkeley student Micki Weinberg takes on progressive powerhouse Kriss Worthington in a long-shot bid for the District 7 City Council seat. 

But the race, in the southeast Berkeley district, has become a fiery contest over affordable housing, the moderate-progressive divide in city politics and a controversial fundraising letter that claims Worthington “has a history of siding with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel forces.” (See sidebar.) 

Worthington, elected to City Council in 1996, is a staunch progressive who battles with Mayor Shirley Dean and the moderate minority on the City Council on a weekly basis. 

Weinberg, like several challengers in this campaign season, has been critical of the “petty factionalism” on the council and lays much of the blame with Worthington. 

“I could be a more unifying character,” said Weinberg, an 18 year-old sophomore. 

But some pro-Palestinian students, who have clashed with Weinberg on campus over the conflict in the Middle East, paint a different picture. 

“I don’t think he’s a unifying student leader,” said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine. “He would be at the front (of demonstrations) yelling at students merely for holding ‘peace in the Middle East’ signs.” 

Weinberg counters that he has worked well with other members of Students for Justice in Palestine and said he is currently helping put together a film festival that will showcase both Israeli and Arab films. 

Worthington, for his part, said Weinberg’s criticisms over City Council factionalism are misguided. He acknowledges the obvious – the bitter quality of his feud with Dean – but says that issues are at the root of the battle. 

“Although there’s an unnecessary level of personal acrimony and activism, primarily there are serious policy differences between us,” he said. 

Only by doing battle with the moderates, Worthington argues, has he been able to win transit passes for city employees and an annual deposit of $1 million in city funds, reduced to $600,000 in the midst of the recent recession, to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. 

But, despite Worthington’s work on the trust fund, Weinberg argues that the incumbent has not done enough on affordable housing, citing a list of housing projects including low-income units that Worthington voted down. 

Worthington calls Weinberg’s charges absurd, arguing that he voted against only a handful of projects because they did not include proper environmental review or misused public funds. The incumbent said he has voted for many projects that provide affordable units. 

Weinberg insists that he would remain outside the moderate-progressive divide on City Council if elected, but he has received the backing of Dean and council moderates Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley. 

Dean said Weinberg will not march in “lockstep” with the moderates if elected and said she expects to disagree with Weinberg on several issues. But, she said she is backing the student because “he’s a bright young man” and, if elected, could create a council that works better than the current panel. 

But Councilmember Dona Spring, a progressive and Worthington ally, said the election is a “no-brainer.” 

“Kriss Worthington is by far the most qualified person to serve,” Spring said, arguing that Worthington is a tireless worker who has become one of the most-respected progressive leaders in the East Bay. 

“Micki Weinberg is wet behind the ears,” she said. “He has been barely involved in Berkeley politics.” 

But Weinberg said he would bring a valuable, missing perspective to the council – that of a student. 

Weinberg said students make up 30 percent of Berkeley’s population but have zero representatives on City Council. 

“I want to put an end to that statistic,” he said. 

Worthington, though, counts dozens of student appointments to city commissions among his primary accomplishments and said he has helped to register thousands of student voters. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor:  

I read the article regarding the Rent Stabilization Board (Daily Planet, Oct. 18). The article makes reference to a recently passed “rule that any roommate added within 30 days after the signing of a lease must be placed on the lease.” This is not the case. 

When the landlord initially rents a rental unit to a tenant and authorizes more than one tenant to occupy the unit, but fails to place the name of more than one tenant on the lease, all tenants who occupy the unit within one month, with permission of the landlord, express or implied, shall be considered to be original occupants. I am concerned that the interpretation of the article might mislead tenants into thinking that their landlord must add them to the lease and, thus, create other problems as far as tenant/landlord relations.  

Darcy Jojola 

Rent Stabilization Board 

Berkeley 

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood has long stereotyped Hispanic women as spitfires, bombshells and maids. 

It responded no differently to Salma Hayek, who packed two suitcases and moved to Los Angeles from Mexico City on a whim in 1991, leaving behind a budding career as a soap-opera star. The struggling actress got one of her first breaks as a scantily clad vampire who tackles an enormous python in Quentin Tarantino’s “From Dusk Till Dawn,” in 1996. 

“I am not the kind of person that wants to sit down and whine about something,” Hayek said of her determination to find strong roles for Hispanic actors. “Instead, I want to get up and make an effort and do it myself.” 

She took inspiration from one of her heroes, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who defied convention throughout her life. For eight years, Hayek nurtured a movie project based on Kahlo’s life. 

“Frida,” which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, is one of the most high-profile Hispanic-themed movies in years. 

Hayek stars as Kahlo — the most challenging role of her career — and is one of the film’s producers. She said she hopes it will help create more visibility for Hispanics in Hollywood.

When Cal has the ball 

The ground game 

The Bears’ two-headed tailback may finally be a reality this week. With starter Joe Igber running well and backup Terrell Williams finally healthy, Cal has two backs capable of breaking big gains and pounding on a defense. Oregon State will answer with one of the best linebacking corps in the nation. Cal head coach Jeff Tedford calls middle linebacker Richard Seigler one of the Pac-10’s two best defensive players, but outside backer Nick Barnett is leading the conference in tackles with nearly 10 per game. Good lead blocking from fullbacks Chris Mandarino and Panu Faumuina will be key to keeping the Oregon State duo off of Igber and Williams. 

In the trenches 

The Beavers’ big gun up front is tackle Eric Manning, who both Tedford and Kyle Boller compared to Warren Sapp. Manning will likely see double-teams by guard Jon Geisel and center Ryan Jones, which could open blitzing lanes for the Beavers. Sophomore end Bill Swancutt has 4 1/2 sacks for Oregon State but will face off against Cal left tackle Mark Wilson, who has been consistently excellent this season. 

Taking to the air 

Oregon State’s cornerbacks play press coverage nearly every down, so the Cal receivers’ ability to get off the line and into the pass pattern will be the key to offensive success. Look for Boller to avoid throwing at Dennis Weathersby, who is perhaps the best defensive back in the conference. The Beavers’ aggression could mean some big plays if Boller has time to throw. Tight end Tom Swoboda is having an outstanding season and will be key; if he can make some catches early and force the Oregon State linebackers to lay back in coverage, it will open up the field. 

When Oregon State has the ball 

The ground game 

Oregon State’s offensive line’s disarray has clearly affected the running game, as the Beavers haven’t rushed for more than 93 yards since left tackle Brian Kilkenny went down three games ago. Tailback Steven Jackson is a talented, shifty runner, evidenced by his 227-yard day against Fresno State. He’s the Pac-10’s second-leading rusher, almost solely based on his first four games. If the Beavers can get their line sorted out, Jackson is capable of big gains.  

In the trenches 

Kilkenny’s absence has forced left guard Mike Kuykendall to shift over to tackle, weakening two positions. Cal pass-rush specialist Tully Banta-Cain will be licking his chops in anticipation playing against an inexperienced left side, and the Bears’ depth on the defensive line should wear down the Beavers late in the game. Look for a big push in the middle from the Cal defensive tackles, which should stunt the Oregon State running game. Sophomore Lorenzo Alexander will probably see plenty of action with Josh Beckham hampered by a sore ankle, and Alexander has been coming on lately. 

Taking to the air 

OSU quarterback Derek Anderson started the season on fire, throwing 15 touchdowns and just one interception in his first four games as the starter. But Pac-10 play has proven more difficult, as Anderson has thrown five picks in his last two games and the Beavers have struggled. Those growing pains will likely continue against the Bears, who have excelled at pressuring the passer this season. Anderson does have some talented wideouts, led by James Newson, and the Beavers’ spread formation can create chaos. Given time to throw, Anderson could have success against the depleted Cal secondary. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, up for re-election in November, is denouncing a mysterious letter that accuses him of “siding with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel forces” and calls on Berkeley residents to donate to the campaign of his opponent, UC Berkeley student Micki Weinberg. 

Weinberg said he had nothing to do with the letter and argued that Worthington is using it to distract from the critical issues in the campaign – safety and affordable housing. 

The letter, dated Oct. 7 and distributed via e-mail, purports to come from four prominent community members, Noah Alper of Noah’s Bagels, attorney Paul “Buddy” Warner, Lois Marcus and UC Berkeley Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature Robert Alter. 

Alter, reached by the Daily Planet Friday, said he had never agreed to sign the letter and does not know who affixed his name to it. 

“The only letter I signed was about a month ago – a more general letter of support of Micki Weinberg that didn’t include his opponent,” he said. “I don’t know who wrote the letter.” 

Alter said the use of his Hebrew name, Uri, in the letter is evidence that he did not sign it because he does not use his Hebrew name in public pronouncements. 

Calls to Warner and Marcus Friday were not returned by press time. The Daily Planet could not find contact information for Alper. 

The letter opens by discussing the recent vandalism of Berkeley Hillel, a center of Jewish cultural life on the UC Berkeley campus and attacks on Jewish community members. 

The letter does not tie Worthington to the vandalism, but says he has a “history of siding with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel forces.”  

The letter cites a resolution that Worthington brought to City Council calling on authorities to drop criminal and university discipline charges against pro-Palestinian students who took over UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall in April. It also discusses a vote against an environmental report for the new Beth El synagogue. 

“This November will be a decisive election that will determine the future policy of Berkeley towards Israel and expressions of anti-Semitism,” the letter concludes, asking for donations to Weinberg’s campaign. 

Worthington said the letter distorts his record. He said the letter implies that he has done nothing in the face of anti-Semitism in Berkeley when, in fact, he authored hate crimes legislation and took part in a campus demonstration supporting a Jewish student who was an alleged victim of a hate crime. 

Worthington said he wrote the resolution supporting the pro-Palestinian students because he felt they were being treated differently than previous protesters. His vote against the Beth El environmental report was rooted not in opposition to the synagogue, he said, but in a concern that the temple’s parking lot plans would prevent an underground creek from ever being surfaced. 

Alan Kay, a Jewish neighbor who raised concerns about the Beth El plans, attacked the fund-raising letter and defended Worthington in a statement read during a Thursday night campaign event on the issue. 

“We reject entirely the implication that taking a position on a local land use issue involving a synagogue constitutes anti-Semitism, whether one is a Jew or a non-Jew,” he said. “And we condemn, in the strongest possible terms, those who would lend their names to this despicable attempt at demagogery and hate campaigning.” 

Other Jewish and African-American community leaders condemned the letter and defended Worthington at the Wednesday event. 

But Weinberg attacked Worthington for supporting the pro-Palestinian protesters who took over Wheeler Hall, arguing that the occupation was deeply disrespectful because it came on Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Having recently had the good fortune to vacation in Italy, I feel compelled to weigh in on Measure P, the height initiative. In Italy, I was amazed by how beautiful the cities and towns were. The buildings formed stunning outdoor rooms and corridors where people were out walking, sitting and interacting with one another. The architecture was interesting and the spaces were well laid out. Markets and cafes at the street level were bustling with people, and the food was fresh and delicious. And guess what folks – the buildings were five to seven stories tall, even in the small towns. Sometimes the walkways between buildings were only eight feet wide. Despite the height, these places were gorgeous! 

These cities and towns were not full of wind tunnels and tragically cold shadow zones, as the Measure P proponents would have you believe is the inevitable result of taller buildings. Was there an occasional breeze or shady side of the street? Of course there was. The sun moves across the sky, the wind blows – this is planet Earth after all.  

I would never presume that, if Measure P is defeated, Berkeley would suddenly turn into an Italian hill town. However, I can hope that someday, with the help of talented city staff members, tireless commissioners, board members, council members, skilled designers, concerned citizens and creative developers, Berkeley can take on the characteristics of the Italian towns I visited. 

Berkeley residents want and deserve a city that is oriented toward pedestrians, filled with beautiful buildings, capable of housing its working people, and served by efficient public transportation. Development of these features will require a great deal of cooperation, flexibility, creativity and patience.  

In contrast, Measure P’s divisive, reactionary, and restrictive height limits will effectively freeze Berkeley in two-story limbo, never letting us out of our plywood and stucco boxes to shape a city with the elements that make Italian cities beautiful and livable. 

Aran Kaufer 

Berkeley 

MERCED — On a remote foothills site marked by seven years of determination and controversy, Gov. Gray Davis inaugurated a 10th University of California campus Friday. 

The University of California, Merced, campus is the state’s first since the University of California, Santa Cruz opened in 1967, and will serve the San Joaquin Valley. 

“You had a dream. You would not surrender the dream. ... You were not going to take no for an answer,” said Davis, who committed more than $230 million to the UC Merced campus over three years, despite its potential threats to endangered species and doubts inside the UC system about funding a new campus. 

“My administration has worked with you like a laser beam to make sure this campus got underway,” Davis said. 

University officials now promise UC Merced will host major research on the Sierra Nevada and world cultures in one of the state’s fastest-growing regions. The San Joaquin Valley is home to 3.5 million residents between Stockton and Bakersfield. 

More than 1,000 people attended the inaugural event on a former golf course three miles northeast of Merced, launching an eventual 900-acre campus expected to open with its first 1,000 students in 2004 and grow to 25,000 by 2030. University of California regents picked the site near the city of 60,000 people in 1995 over competing proposals from Fresno and Madera County. 

Friday’s ceremony was held in a tent within sight of a field of grazing cattle. 

“Our new campus, UC Merced, will help keep the promise California made to its citizens in 1868,” said Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, founding chancellor of the fledgling campus. “We will transform the lives of the next generation.” 

Tomlinson-Keasey thanked the donors of $30 million in private contributions to the campus and $4.5 million in scholarships. 

The event, originally scheduled for May and delayed because of environmental lawsuits, followed a pair of recent legal victories in Merced County Superior Court and the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno allowing construction to begin on the campus’ first 100 acres. That first phase includes classrooms, an office building, library and student housing. 

Further construction depends on a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency is considering whether to allow the campus onto wetlands where vernal pools are home to endangered fairy shrimp and serve as feeding grounds for migratory birds. 

Officials from Merced County and the 134-year-old university system expressed confidence Friday that they’ll receive the permit. 

The state has already committed $30 million to preserve more than 20,000 acres of vernal pool habit to offset the campus’ environmental effects. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation contributed another $11 million last year, alongside $2 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to preserve another 5,000 acres next to the campus. 

The university, opening several miles beyond city limits, is expected to spur housing and commercial development for another 30,000 people in addition to those housed on campus. 

Friday’s ceremony followed a Wednesday blessing on the site by American Indians from several area tribes asking Mother Earth for permission to build the campus. 

The UC system graduates about 40,000 students a year.

Bill Beasley has had guns drawn on him twice: once by the Los Angeles Police Department and once by the Ku Klux Klan. But in four decades of civil rights activism, antiwar protests and gay pride celebrations, Beasley has never backed down in his fight for justice and basic human rights. 

To honor this commitment, his friends and colleagues are honoring the 64-year-old African American with a birthday celebration at his south Berkeley home on Sunday.  

Beasley was born in Atlanta in 1938 and came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, spearheaded by Atlanta's own Martin Luther King, Jr. Beasley was acquainted with the late leader, but was even more familiar with King's brother A.D., for whom he worked as a driver.  

It was with A.D. King that Beasley first faced an intimation of mortality. During a lunch counter sit-in, the black diners were refused service. “They told us we had to leave or else we were going to get shot,” said Beasley. King told the thugs that they'd better make it fast and quick, to which Beasley responded, “speak for yourself!” 

“We were faced with a great deal of danger in the Civil Rights movement and the Gay Rights movement,” explained Beasley. “I knew there was the possibility of getting shot and dying, and at one time I just resigned myself to being a martyr.” 

Beasley witnessed such martyrdom firsthand in both the Civil Rights Movement and his involvement with the Black Panthers. He supported the Panthers, but now is saddened by some of the means they used. “There's still a lot of work to be done in society, but tactics have to change. People have to understand that a lot of tactics the Panthers used led to the killing of so many beautiful young people. If they were here today, they'd be leaders,” he said.  

Beasley laments the loss of Huey Newton, a Panther who is no longer around. “He had a very intelligent mind about struggle, “said Beasley. “He was a very impressive man.” 

After moving from Atlanta to St. Louis and then Los Angeles, Beasley came to Berkeley in 1965, and has lived here since. He has also concentrated his efforts in the gay community, serving for many years on the board of San Francisco's Pride Committee until a stroke sidelined him last year.  

“I was a gay man who always believed in people being who they are,” he said. He worked in establishing Gay Pride parades in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has made a definite impact on the next generation.  

“He's played a key role in shaping my adult life in terms of getting involved in the queer community,” said Berkeley resident Joshua Smith, who is now also a board member of the San Francisco Pride Committee. “This celebration is a chance to recognize him, because he played a key role in who I am today.”  

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who met Beasley more than a decade ago, spoke of his mentoring role. “He's somebody who has put a lot of his time into quietly nurturing young people in the coming-out process,” said Worthington. “He's been a role model in how to address homophobia and racism and how to fight both with dignity.”  

Beasley has also lent a piece of his property to the Berkeley-based Strong Roots organization, a community gardening project that encourages youth to put their energy into nurturing the soil. And he sees hope in the current generation and the new wave of antiwar rallies. “This generation is doing what needs to be done, keeping issues in the limelight,” he said. “They're right on key.”

Pedestrian safety sting 

Police issued 29 citations for failing to yield to a pedestrian during a pedestrian right-of-way enforcement operation at the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Virginia Street Thursday morning. Since July, police have performed nine operations resulting in 265 pedestrian safety citations. 

Sorority house attacked 

The sisters of a sorority on the 2300 block of Piedmont Avenue were the victims of multi-pronged attack early Thursday morning. According to police, suspects inserted a long cardboard tube into the house through which they transferred mice, cockroaches and a snake into the kitchen area, scaring the housekeeper and the cook. Later the house was struck with eggs and dog food. Police have no suspects. 

OAKLAND — A spokesman for the Oakland Police Department Friday identified a man police say was shot Thursday night as he sat in his car, bringing the city's homicide tally to 92 victims this year. 

Police found Joseph Mabrey, 36, of Hayward, suffering from gunshot wounds in his blue BMW at 11:50 p.m. in the 3200 block of Storer Avenue, said Sgt. Arturo Bautista. 

Highland Hospital pronounced Mabrey dead at 12:25 a.m. Friday. 

Bautista reports that police have no motive or suspects.

Bad news for grape growers 

SANTA ROSA — Most of the Napa and Sonoma winegrapes have been sold, but Mendocino and Lake Counties still have about 5,000 tons of grapes left on the vines. 

A slowdown in wine sales and a grape glut resulted in low prices for grapes, and resulted in some not selling at all. Wineries bought grapes from Napa and Sonoma for prices as much as 50 percent to 75 percent below what they paid in 2001. 

While this year’s surplus was bad news for grape growers, consumers are expected to benefit from good quality grapes at low prices. 

“With this harvest, there’s a huge inventory of high-quality wine,” said Charles Barra, a Mendocino County grower and owner of Redwood Valley Cellars. “It will be a benefit for consumers because it means great wine at lower prices.” 

The grape surplus comes as a result of 20,000 acres of new vineyards planted in the 1990s coming into production at a time when wine sales are slowing because of the depressed economy. 

Ice cream shop robbery 

VACAVILLE — The Vacaville Police Department is investigating the robbery of an ice cream shop that occurred at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. 

The suspect entered the Baskin Robbins at 812 Alamo Drive and demanded the cash in the register, but did not display any weapon, police say. 

After the cashier complied with the demand, the suspect took the cash and ran north on El Camino Drive. No vehicle was seen near the ice cream shop, police say. 

Police describe the suspect as a white male, approximately 30 years old, 6 feet 2 inches, 200 pounds, who was last seen wearing a puffy black jacket and a black camouflage baseball cap. 

Any citizen with information regarding this crime is encouraged to call the Vacaville Police Department at (707) 449-5200. 

Sunnyvale man pleads guilty  

to avoid life sentence 

SAN JOSE — To avoid life in prison, a Sunnyvale man pleaded guilty to molesting three young girls, including a high school freshman who shot herself after leaving a suicide note incriminating him. 

Richard Stone, 65, agreed to a 14-year prison term Thursday, just weeks after authorities discovered a page-long love letter to Sarah Van Cleemput, 14, of Sunnyvale. 

“I had promised you and myself that I would never touch you again,” Stone wrote to the girl in November 1999. “Sarah, my beautiful darling, I know that I made that promise. But I cannot trust myself to keep it. If another opportunity like that happens again, I will kiss you passionately.” 

Stone was arrested in May, but before finding the letter prosecutors had been worried about proving the case since the victim was dead. Stone also molested two other girls, including a 12-year-old who had said she felt nervous about testifying.

Suit filed against state 

UKIAH — A group hoping to end logging in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest has sued the state, saying the environmental impact report for the forest was inadequate. 

The Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest and the Forests Forever Foundation filed the suit against the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Thursday in Mendocino County Superior Court. 

The suit claims the environmental impact report for the forest and the management plan that was based on it do not comply. 

Mailing company and manager plead guilty 

SANTA ANA — An Orange County mailing company and one of its managers pleaded guilty to federal charges in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the U.S. Postal Service. 

Master-Sort Inc. and production manager Jayprakash Dhanak, 51, of Anaheim Hills, entered the pleas to mail fraud on Thursday during a hearing before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter. 

Master-Sort, which presorted mail for other companies and earned refunds based on the amount of metered and permit mail it handled, agreed to repay the $3 million.

SAN FRANCISCO — An environmental group has filed papers in a federal court here to intervene in the California Farm Bureau Federation’s most recent suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to extend the exemption of farms from air quality regulations. 

The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund filed documents in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, saying the agriculture industry needs to be regulated to help cut down pollution in Central California, which has one of the dirtiest air basins in the nation. 

The 95,000-member Farm Bureau has been fighting air regulators since May after the EPA settled a lawsuit with environmental groups to hold farms accountable for pollution from diesel water pumps and animal waste. Farms have had an exemption from air pollution regulations for 26 years. 

The Farm Bureau wants the exemption continued another three years so more scientific studies can determine how much pollution farms create. 

Much of the state’s agriculture would be unaffected by the new regulations, the EPA said. Large farming operations, such as dairies with thousands of cows or farms with many large diesel water pumps, would have to file for a federal air permit. 

Two weeks ago, a federal judge dismissed the Farm Bureau’s lawsuit challenging the EPA’s final decision on the settlement with environmental groups, saying the agency’s ruling had not been officially published yet. 

The Farm Bureau filed a new suit last week, challenging the EPA’s final decision published in the Federal Register.

NEWARK — To family members, Eddie “Gwen” Araujo was a struggling but beloved teenager whose killing, allegedly committed in a fit of homophobic rage, is a private sorrow. 

To transgender activists, Araujo represents the 25th victim since last November, by their count, of violence against people who don’t fit traditional gender molds. 

Both groups mourned Araujo at funeral services Friday. 

“Angels don’t have a gender and he’s my angel now. I know that he’s safe somewhere where no one can hurt him,” said Araujo’s mother, Sylvia Guerrero, speaking to hundreds of mourners at St. Edward’s Church. 

Araujo, 17, was beaten and strangled at a house party on Oct. 3. Police say three men attacked him after discovering the beautiful blonde they knew as Lida was biologically male. 

Two weeks later, one of the men led officers to Araujo’s body in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills about 150 miles east of San Francisco. One defendant has pleaded innocent while the other two have not yet entered pleas. All three face charges of murder as a hate crime.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned laws in San Francisco and Santa Monica that ban certain ATM fees charged by banks. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding an earlier judge’s ruling, said only the federal government, not local voters or city councils, may create such regulations. 

The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that federal banking regulations adopted by Congress allow banks to charge fees for ATM usage. That being the case, the City Council of Santa Monica and San Francisco voters had no authority to approve identical laws in 1999 banning a bank from charging an ATM fee to a customer not a member of that bank. 

“We find that the ordinances are pre-empted by federal law and regulations and thus invalid,” Judge Joseph T. Sneed wrote in his ruling. 

Leland Chan, a lawyer for the California Bankers Association that challenged the rules, said the court made the right decision. He called the rules contrary to free-market capitalism. 

“Can you imagine voters telling Intel how much to charge for its chips?” he asked. 

The 3-0 decision upholds U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the San Francisco federal judge who blocked the ordinances from being enforced at the request of Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank and others. 

The cities said they are mulling over whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or whether to ask the court to reconsider its decision. 

Adam Radinsky, Santa Monica deputy city attorney, said federal banking regulations do allow local governments or city voters to adopt such rules. He said Arkansas, Mississippi and Wyoming have rules limiting the amount of ATM fees banks may levee. 

The cities also argued that California consumer protection laws allow such laws. 

“The ATM surcharge is an outrageous and duplicative fee that is unfair to consumers,” Radinsky said. 

The law doesn’t challenge fees a bank charges its own customers to use a different bank’s ATM. Those fees range around $2. 

The law thrown out Friday challenged the rights of banks in the two cities to charge customers who do not bank with them an additional surcharge to use their ATM — roughly $1.50 per transaction. 

It became clear during oral arguments in January that the court ultimately would rule as it did Friday. At the time, the judges appeared unmoved by city lawyers defending the ordinances.

WASHINGTON — Government investigators said Friday they want to find out whether a former Enron Corp. executive improperly hid the company’s stake in three California wind power farms. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which launched the investigation, said it also will hold hearings on whether the three small power producers should lose their licenses to sell wholesale electricity to U.S. utilities. 

“If these allegations are true, they conflict in material respects with the representations made by the small power producers,” FERC said in its order. 

The three Enron-affiliated California wind power farms — Sky River, Victory Garden and Zond Windsystems — were recertified by FERC in June 1997 as qualified to sell wholesale electricity to U.S. utilities, several months after Enron acquired Portland General Electric utility. 

As part of that recertification, officials at each farm told FERC that Enron would transfer ownership interests to partnerships not affiliated with Enron. A 1978 federal law requires electric utilities to buy renewable energy from FERC-approved facilities owned by independent power producers. 

Under that law, intended to lessen dependence on foreign oil by cutting demand for traditional fossil fuels, FERC designates which facilities qualify and oversees the rates that the producers charge buyers. 

In an eight-page order issued Thursday, FERC said that it was following up on “serious allegations” by the Justice Department earlier this month in its criminal case against former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.

LOS ANGELES — William J. Bratton was sworn in Friday as the city’s new police chief, with a mandate to reform the corruption-tinged department and a goal of eliminating graffiti and minor offenses as a way of preventing more serious crimes. 

The former New York police commissioner took his oath of office from City Clerk J. Michael Carey and then shook hands with Mayor Kenneth Hahn in a brief private ceremony in Hahn’s office. Bratton and Hahn then headed for Lake Arrowhead to attend an emergency management workshop. 

A public swearing-in ceremony will be held Monday at the Police Academy. 

Bratton, 55, will serve a five-year term. He said he will move quickly to name three assistant chiefs. 

Bratton has promised to work with the mayor on reforms, increase recruiting and implement community policing policies, something past chiefs have resisted. He also has said he wants to reduce top-down management and give more authority to the LAPD’s 18 division commanders. 

Bratton subscribes to what has been called the “broken-window” theory of policing that holds elimination of minor crimes prevents larger ones. 

The city’s 54th police chief said he believes fighting graffiti will reduce the city’s rising crime rate. 

“I hate it with a passion,” he said. 

Allowing gang members and graffiti crews to deface communities is “effectively surrendering the authority of government to them,” Bratton told the Los Angeles Times. “You cannot let them control your streets. If they’re trying to do it by marking the streets with graffiti, then get rid of it.” 

When Bratton ran the New York Police Department from 1994 to 1996 that city’s murder rate was cut in half and serious felonies dropped 33 percent. 

After touring the city recently, Bratton said the graffiti is the worst he has seen.

OAKLAND — An Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered Friday that a man charged with murdering his wife, former San Jose Mercury News photographer Lucille Houston, be held without bail. 

Raymond F. Houston, 40, was already in custody in lieu of $1 million bail and appeared in an Oakland courtroom Friday in yellow jail garb. 

Judge Jon Rolefson Friday denied a motion by defense attorney Walter Cannady that sought to have Houston's bail reduced by $100,000 or $200,000. Instead, the judge granted a motion by the prosecution to increase bail. 

“I find that it does appear that the defendant presents a danger to the community and to this witness in particular,” Rolefson said. “I am very concerned about the apparent risk that is presented by Mr. Houston if he is released.’ 

The judge was referring to an assertion by the prosecutor that Houston had allegedly asked a fellow jail inmate to help him silence a witness.

UC Berkeley students, joined by Mayor Shirley Dean, called for a significant investment in “clean energy” and “green building” techniques throughout the nine-campus University of California system Thursday. 

Students from all nine campuses plan to press their case at the UC Board of Regents, meeting in mid-November, arguing that any new or renovated university buildings should make use of 50 percent clean energy, like solar power, and should be constructed in an environmentally-friendly manner, meaning consuming less power. 

UC spokesperson Chuck McFadden said the university system has a commitment to green construction, citing a newly-built, nationally-recognized green building on the UC Santa Barbara campus – the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. But, McFadden said he was not aware of any university purchases of clean energy. 

McFadden added that the Regents do not typically dictate specific building techniques to staff. “I don’t think the Regents would want to put themselves in the position of laying down a dictum like that,” he said. 

Mayor Dean said she has written a letter to Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California system, supporting the student movement.  

She also said she will recommend at the Nov. 12 City Council meeting that the city of Berkeley adopt standards laid out by the students for its own buildings. 

Her chief mayoral opponent, Tom Bates, said he also supports solar energy for the university and city. 

Students, working with the environmental organization Greenpeace, say half of the clean energy in any new university building should come from on-site solar panels. The other half, they say, should be purchased from vendors of environmentally-friendly power, like wind-, water- and sun-driven facilities. 

The students also want all new and renovated buildings to be constructed using green building guidelines developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of builders, architects, environmentalists and other groups. 

Kristen Casper, a Greenpeace campaigner working on the issue, said she presented the proposal to a Regents sub-committee on buildings and grounds a few weeks ago and got “no clear indication” of the level of Regents’ support. 

But she remained confident that a strong student movement can convince the university to move toward clean energy and building practices, noting that the Los Angeles Community College District has already moved in that direction. 

Dean raised the possibility of working jointly with the university to fund solar power in Berkeley. A large-scale enterprise, she said, might require a solar power bond approved by voters. 

San Francisco voters passed a $100 million solar and wind power bond last year, which will help fund clean energy production at civic buildings. 

Contact reporter at  

scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net  

To the Editor: 

I am a long-time resident of Berkeley and a grandmother with a grandson at Berkeley High School (BHS). Newspapers around the country, including the New York Times, have been saying that Berkeley kids don’t like to eat healthy food. This is not true. One of my favorite BHS teens loves broccoli. 

What I hear from my grandson and other teens I know is that the healthy food was only there for a very short while. The prices were high, the portions were small, the lines were long and slow and the place was difficult to find. The food at BHS is served in an unappetizing hallway. There’s no place to sit. The students have to walk to Civic Center Park, or around the Building C to sit at concrete tables on a broiling asphalt strip. Why wouldn’t students depart en mass for Shattuck Avenue? 

At one time Berkeley High School was a source of pride in Berkeley. I would love it if someone would point out the excellence and the accountability of our schools being touted by our school board president now running for re-election. And it seems that serving decent, tasty, healthy food should be one of the easier tasks to do well. 

S. Corcos 

Berkeley

Children all over the world yearn for Disneyland. What if you could visit and play there forever? 

That’s what San Francisco playwright-actor Trevor Allen had in mind as a teenager when he decided to pursue his dream job – working as an actor performing cartoon characters at Disneyland. 

Allen retells this story in his one-man play “Working for the Mouse!” which opened last weekend at LaVal’s Subterranean in Berkeley, presented by Impact Theater. 

Allen’s 75-minute backstage story is based largely on the playwright’s own experience, though he says in the playbill that he has condensed the experience of others into his account. 

Allen began working on this play in 1996 in Charlie Varon’s famed Bay Area solo performance class. Later that year it found life as an award-winning short piece at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. 

The current, more elaborate, Berkeley production was developed with the help of, and directed by Kent Nicholson, former Associate Artistic Director of the San Francisco’s Magic Theater, and currently director of new play development at TheatreWorks. 

“Working for the Mouse!” contains about six chapters, which jump back and forth in time. In the opener, Allen the performer tells the audience about growing up “in the shadow of the Matterhorn – the Matternhorn at Disneyland, that is, as a local child coming of age in Anaheim and loving the theme park. 

In an early teenage job assignment, Allen eventually finds himself playing Pluto the dog, wandering Disneyland’s Main Street, available for photos and autographs with tourists. 

As this character, however, he is not allowed to speak back to children who speak to him, since Pluto does not have “voice clearance.” Later Allen gets not just voice clearance, but face clearance (playing a character with no mask) as the Mad Hatter, after successfully imitating the voice of Ed Wynn at an audition. 

`Allen’s story jumps around. He yearns to play Peter Pan. He lusts after the actress playing Alice in Wonderland. An accident at a park waterfall gets him reprimanded.  

After hosting a blowout party with co-workers, his roommates throw him out. In the end, Allen is fired from his job, leaving Disneyland resentfully and taking his imaginary ball with him, as he puts it. 

“Working for the Mouse!” seems like a potentially interesting story, but that potential hasn’t been realized in its current form. 

The piece, as it stands, is more a series of anecdotes than a play. There’s no meaningful arc to the story. After half an hour, the bits feel interchangeable. 

Allen’s solo character, despite all his time spent with the audience, reveals very little about who he is. Nor, by play’s end, has he learned much from all his effort and experience at Disneyland. 

Under Nicholson’s busy direction, Allen turns in an enthusiastic effort as a performer. But he’s not a natural. 

Nervous on Saturday night, he groped for lines at times, and hurried quickly through his emotional moments, making it hard for the audience to share his experience, or to even care about it. 

Nor is Allen a strong enough parodist to make the shtick imitations of colorful backstage characters funny. The gruff, cynical actors backstage at Disneyland all tend to sound the same. 

There’s a play here somewhere, but it hasn’t emerged yet. Allen’s dream as a boy was to grow up and play all day at Disneyland. As an adult, he still doesn’t seem to have a handle on that experience and what it meant to him. 

When he gets there, he’ll be on the road to having his play. 

John Angell Grant has written for “American Theatre,” “Backstage West,” “Callboard,” and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@hotpop.com, or fax him at 1 (419) 781-2516.

Friday, Oct. 25 

“The Library: A Community Legacy” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Anna Rabkin will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Benefit Fundraiser for Berkeley Liberation Radio 

7 to 10 p.m.. 

379 40th St., Oakland (between Telegraph and Broadway) 

An evening of political activism, music, dancing, poetry and food. 

$10-$15 / No one turned away 

Saturday, Oct. 26 

Math Made Fun - math games. 

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

1 Centennial Dr. - Lawrence Hall of Science  

Free with museum admission 

Pumpkin Carving  

and Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Free 

Emeryville Taiko’s Halloween Extravaganza 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

1601A 63rd St. (near Hollis St.), in Emeryville 

Fun and games for kids with a Taiko drumming performance at 8:30. 

655-6392 

Kids $5 / adults $10 

Alzheimer’s Disease and the African American Community 

9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 

Join the Alzheimer’s Association for this informative morning. Continental breakfast included. 

Preregister: (650) 962-9644 

Free 

MSRI’s 20th Anniversary Celebration 

3 to 5:30 p.m. 

Valley Life Science Building, Chan Shun Auditorium, second floor, Rm 205O, UC Berkeley 

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute celebrates its birthday with keynote speaker Sir Michael Atiyah. 

601-8700 

Halloween Spook Hunt 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Thousand Oaks School, 840 Colusa Ave. 

Costumes are encouraged at this treasure hunt. Best costume participates free. Meet at 1 p.m. at the park next to Thousand Oaks. 

524-2166 

$7.50-$15 / Families $35 

Lawrence Hall of Science Family Halloween Party 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

A Halloween bash with magicians, mad scientists, wizards, and a demonstration of how to make an elephant mask. 

Reserve tickets in advance: 642-5134 

$8-$12 

The New School Halloween Bazaar 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. at Cedar 

Face painting, mask-making, children’s games, apple bobbing, and more. 

548-9165 

Free 

Strides to Provide 

8 a..m. to noon 

Oakland’s Lake Merritt 

Alta Bates Summit kicks off its first annual community walk, incorporating fundraising, health education, health screenings, and entertainment. 

Radio station KMEL will provide music. 

204-1167 

Gardening With East Bay Native Plants  

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

Hands-on workshop touching on many aspects of “restoration gardening”. 

Reservations required: 548-2220 x233 

$15 Ecology Center members,  

$25 others, 

No one turned away for lack of funds. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Spirit Day 

11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

Construct altars in a day of reflection. 

Free 

West Berkeley Arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

University Ave. between 3rd and 4th Streets 

Fun for the whole family, with local and international arts and crafts, the Berkeley Youth Chess league, Technomania Circus, live music and more. 

845-4106 

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Damming Hope: Plan Puebla Panama Comes to Guatemala” 

7 p.m. 

Trinity United Methodist Church 

2362 Bancroft Way 

Mayan leader Santos Choc discusses his community’s struggle in opposing the Usumacinta Dam. 

526-7177 

$8-$20 sliding scale / No one turned away 

Reviving the Lost Art of Conversation 

7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Learn how to break the ice, establish rapport, build trust, and develop intimacy through conversation. 

848-0237 x127 

$8 -$10 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Monster Bash 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Register: 601-7247  

$25 / includes meal and cooking lesson 

Friday, Oct. 25 

UC Choral Ensembles Halloween Show 

6 and 8 p.m. (Two shows) 

155 Dwinelle, UC Berkeley 

Featuring nine UC choral ensembles, including the Women’s Chorale, the Men’s Chorale, and the Men’s Octet. 

642-3880 

$7 general / $5 students 

Afro-Muzika 

9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

The nine members of this group sing, play and dance the infectious soukous party music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

525-5054 

$12 

Saturday, Oct. 26 

Lisa B. 

7 p.m. / Open mic sign-up 6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Presented by Rhythm & Muse. 

Free / donations accepted 

Kotoja 

Dance lesson 9 p.m. 

Show 9:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Known in the Bay Area’s World Beat and Afro-beat scene, Kotoja features bandmembers from West Africa and America. 

525-5054 

$12 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Larry Schneider 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Internationally performing saxophonist. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

Turning Point: Sacred Music Before and After the Second Vatican Council 

4 p.m. 

United Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte Ave. 

Sacred choral music, sponsored by the Graduate Theological Union. 

(415) 431-4234 

Free 

Kazuhisa Uchihashi 

8:15 p.m. 

TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series presents this Japanese experimental electric guitarist. 

649-8744 

$0-$20 Sliding scale 

Monday, Oct. 28 

“Jazz, Blues, and Popular Music in American Culture” 

6:30 p.m. 

A Vista College class, with instructor/R&B legend Johnny Otis. 

Registration info: 981-2800 

Tuesday, Oct. 29 

Activate: DJ night 

10 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

An evening of DJs featuring drum n’ bass music. 

525-5054 

$5 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Courtableau 

Cajun dance lesson 8 p.m. 

Show 8:30 p.m. 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. at Gilman 

Veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene perform classic Cajun dance hall music. 

525-5054 

$8 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

$2 donation 

Saturday Nov. 9 

Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Saturday Nov. 16 

Alice Walker and Brenda Boykin 

appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Working for the Mouse 

Fantasy about playing at Disneyland. 

8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. 

La Val’s Subterranean Theater  

1834 Euclid 

464-4468 

$12 general, $7 students. 

Saturday, Oct. 19 

Magic School Bus Video Festival 

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

1 Centennial Dr. - Lawrence Hall of Science Auditorium 

643-5961 

$8 adults, $6 youth 5-18 & seniors, $4 children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

“The Undead and the Living Dead” and Bela Lugosi’s “White Zombie” 

Oct. 24 through Oct. 30 

7:30 / 8:55 p.m. 

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Double feature: Film with musical score performed on accordion by Rich Kuhns. 

848-1143 

$4-$9 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

“Last Chance for Eden” 

1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

“Last Chance for Eden” explores personal pain and anguish caused by racism. 

848-0237 x0 

$10-$15

The Berkeley High girls volleyball team continued their dominance of league competition on Thursday, giving up just six points while beating De Anza High, 15-1, 15-3, 15-2. 

The Lady Jackets took a 14-0 lead in the first game and never looked back despite some uninspired play in the second and third games of the match. 

“Really, [De Anza] should have only scored two points in the whole match,” Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway said. “We were just kind of going through the motions after the first game.” 

Middle blocker Vanessa Williams led the Jackets with 10 kills and six digs, while outside hitter Amalia Jarvis had six kills. The overwhelmed De Anza players were happy to escape the match without injury, as the Berkeley hitters bounced several hard spikes off of their opponents’ heads and chests. 

“Our offense did an outstanding job today,” Caraway said. “Our hitters were really on their games.” 

The win extended Berkeley’s Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League winning streak to 23 since the Jackets entered the league in 2000.  

Caraway doesn’t expect his team to lose another game, much less a match, before hosting their tournament after the regular season is over. Encinal High is the league’s second-best team, but the Jets recently lost their best player to a sprained ankle, which means the Jackets will likely roll right over them when the teams meet on Tuesday. 

Berkeley hasn’t played a competitive match in nearly a month, but with San Ramon Valley, Piedmont and Redwood coming to the tournament Caraway’s team will get a stiff test before North Coast Section playoffs begin. Berkeley won the NCS crown last season. 

“We’ll get to see where we are when we play those teams,” Caraway said. “We have some pretty big questions going into NCS.” 

Notes: The Yellowjackets tied a California high school record with 27 aces against Richmond on Tuesday.

The music and recording industries sent out letters this month asking 2,300 colleges and universities around the country, including UC Berkeley, to clamp down on students sharing copyright-protected songs and movies over the Internet. 

UC Berkeley’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Systems Jack McCredie acknowledges that the practice is widespread on campus, but says there is little he can do to prevent it. 

“I believe the letter they sent, that a lot of this is going on,” McCredie said. “What I have a problem with is understanding what we can do.” 

While the university has several regulations on the books prohibiting piracy of copyright-protected works, McCredie said, students’ and employees’ right to privacy prevents the university from closely monitoring individuals’ on-line activity and hunting down violators. 

“Obviously, now, we have a tension,” he said. 

Still, UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said the university was able to identify 73 students who illegally downloaded files last year. She said the university issued warnings and the offenders stopped the practice. 

Alex Branigan, a cognitive 

sciences major at UC Berkeley, logs on to the Morpheus Website to download music. The music and film industries are pressuring universities to stop the practice. 

But students say that music and video file-sharing, through popular web services like KaZaa and Morpheus, is rampant and likely to continue. 

“People want their music and episodes of South Park,” said third-year UC Berkeley student Augustine Chun. 

Oliver Gettell, also a third-year, said the high-speed networks in the dorms only make the process easier and more inviting. 

Film and video industry representatives, who estimate that at least 2.6 billion files are illegally downloaded from the Internet every month, said it is the high speed networks that make college campuses particularly worrisome. 

“The wonderful things they put on campus are being misused,” said Richard Taylor, vice president of public affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America, one of four organizations that signed the letter to universities this month. 

The Recording Industry of Association of America, which has launched a national advertising campaign on the file-sharing issue featuring music stars like Britney Spears, also signed the October letter to 2,300 universities. The National Music Publishers’ Association and the Songwriters Guild of America added their names as well. 

Taylor said the film industry has not compiled an estimate of the amount of money it loses annually from illegal file-sharing. But he said Hollywood loses $3 to $4 billion per year from traditional piracy. 

Digital theft could become a far worse problem than traditional piracy, he argued. The digital process is more attractive because it does not involve an illicit tape or street transaction, he noted, and unlike a third- or fourth-generation videotape, a digital copy involves no loss of quality. 

Taylor said that while movie stars may not feel the effects of piracy, gaffers, lighting technicians and other members of film crews will ultimately suffer. 

“It is the rank-and-file folks who will bear the brunt of this,” he said. “It’s not a victimless activity.” 

The university letter calls on schools to take four steps on the file-sharing issue: inform students of their “moral and legal responsibilities,” outline which practices are forbidden on campus, “monitor compliance” and “impose effective remedies against violators.” 

Taylor declined to suggest specific methods for monitoring compliance or imposing remedies, but the letter mentioned a recent move by the U.S. Senate to block access to file-sharing services for its network users. 

UC Berkeley’s McCredie said he is not considering a block on KaZaa or other services. 

“I don’t really think you can,” he said. “There are legal uses of KaZaa...There are many bands out there giving away their stuff.” 

But McCredie said the university is working to beef up campus education on the issue, focusing on the issue during freshman orientation sessions and drafting a campus-wide letter it plans to send out in the near future. 

In addition to education, he said, UC Berkeley complies with the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The law protects universities from liability if illegally-downloaded files are found on their networks, but requires schools to take action against students or employees who repeatedly break the law. 

A university is not required to monitor student activity under the Digital Millennium Act, but must take action if a copyright owner informs it of an illegal download by someone on its network. 

McCredie said copyright owners only sporadically inform UC Berkeley of a violation. He said the university, after a speedy investigation, quickly cuts off network access to any alleged violator and then provides the student or staffer with due process.  

Most students and staff, he said, plead ignorance, acknowledge their errors and pledge not to illegally download again. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

The city's sloppy installation of controversial, and in at least one case unneeded, traffic signals on Telegraph Avenue (Daily Planet, Oct. 17) without consulting neighbors shows why Berkeley residents who really care about pedestrian safety should reject Measure L. While the bond measure contains some worthy features, it threatens to extend the city's unfortunate trend of ignoring our most dangerous intersections, while throwing money at essentially safe locations in response to small pressure groups. Often, those individuals lack even their neighbors' support. 

To really save lives, we should withhold our votes and challenge the city to present a better-written “pedestrian safety” bond – one that focuses staff resources on real traffic hazards and real solutions. On Telegraph, the city spent $450,000 installing signals at two adjacent cross-streets with relatively low traffic volumes and low collision histories. Throwing state grant money at these inappropriate locations, without local consultation, wasted rare funding and opportunity. Worse, this was no isolated incident. 

To its credit, Measure L anticipates funding “innovative safety devices” such as audible signals for vision-impaired people and lighted pedestrian crosswalks. Unfortunately, it would also fund feel-good planning fads that provide little or no benefit to pedestrian safety, but introduce new problems. It offers taxpayers no expenditure breakdown by device, no prioritization of hazardous locations and no evaluation mechanism. 

With state grants available since 1999, you'd think the city would be upgrading signals at University and Shattuck avenues (our most "high-collision" intersection according to a 2000 report) and University and Milvia Street (tied for fifth-worst, and located just two blocks from Berkeley High's 3,000 students).  

Such intersections cry out for phased signals to separate pedestrians from turning vehicles. Unfortunately, the city's grant applications haven't overlapped with its list of known hazardous intersections. 

Tom Brown 

Berkeley 

NEW YORK — Kurt Cobain regretted using heroin to ease the pain of a stomach ailment but could not bring himself to stop, and talked of shooting himself, according to excerpts from the late Nirvana star’s diaries. 

The writings, printed in Newsweek this week, are from the upcoming book “Journals,” which contains letters and diary entries from the 1980s until 1994, when Cobain shot himself to death at age 27 in his Seattle home. 

While some of the entries are rambling or humorous, they reveal a man tortured by drug addiction and illness. 

“ ... I decided to use heroine (sic) on a daily basis because of an ongoing stomach ailment that I had been suffering from for the past five years and had literally taken me to the point of wanting to kill myself,” Cobain wrote in a diary entry while in a rehabilitation clinic. 

“I bought a gun but chose drugs instead,” he wrote later. 

Although Nirvana helped put the Seattle grunge sound on the musical map, Cobain didn’t like being grouped with the other bands. He apparently had particular disdain for fellow Seattle band Pearl Jam, sometimes criticized for having a similar sound as Nirvana. 

“There are a lot of bands who claim to be alternative and theyre nothing but stripped down, ex sunset strip hair farming bands of a few years ago. I would love to be erased from our association with Pearl Jam or the Nymphs and other first time offenders.” 

The Newsweek excerpts include many references to drug use. 

In one letter to a friend that was never sent, Cobain writes: “As you may have guessed by now Ive been taking to a lot of drugs lately It might be time for the Betty Ford clinic or the Richard Nixon library to save me from abusing my enemic, rodent-like body any longer.” 

In another unsent letter, written to fans while he was in rehab, he derides reports that he is suicidal and drug-addicted. 

“I am not a junkie ... Ive had a rather unconclusive and uncomfortable stomach condition for the past three years ... I decided to relieve my pain with small doses of heroine for a walloping 3 whole weeks,” he writes. 

“It was a stupid thing to do and Ill never do it again and I feel real sorry for anyone who thinks they can use heroine as a medicine because um, duh, it don’t work.” 

But Cobain could not stop using heroin. A few months before he died, he wrote: “I remember someone saying if you try heroine once you’ll become hooked. Of course I laughed and scoffed at the idea but I know believe this to be very true.”

Berkeley High offensive coordinator Clarence Johnson will get a different perspective on tonight’s game against Richmond High, as he will move up into the press box for the first time in two years. 

Johnson, who has called the offensive plays for the Yellowjackets since last season, was previously stationed on the sideline, where he would personally deliver the play to his quarterback. But with the Berkeley sideline packed much of the time with both players and coaches yelling and moving around, things were often chaotic. 

“I think [moving into the press box] will enable me to see the field better, and there will be less distractions,” Johnson said. 

Johnson will relay the play-call to assistant coach Jordan Seiden via headset, with Seiden conferring with the quarterback. Although Johnson often used the time to give his signal-caller tips, he doesn’t think the offense will suffer with the move. 

“I really feel this will be the best way to do things,” Johnson said. “Jordan is good at working with the guys. He’ll be able to give them extra tidbits of information just like I do.” 

Starting quarterback Dessalines Gant said he’s not worried about the switch despite it being just his third game as the starter. 

“I have confidence in whatever [Johnson] tells me to do,” Gant said. “That won’t change no matter where he is.” 

Gant will be the starter this week despite throwing five interceptions against Hercules High last week, with the Jackets pulling out the game in overtime after blowing a 16-point fourth-quarter lead. Head coach Matt Bissell said while Gant did indeed play poorly, not all the interceptions were the quarterback’s fault. 

“Dez got the poor stats, but a lot of other things went into some of those picks,” Bissell said. 

Gant said he hasn’t lost any confidence in his ability to run the team. A game against winless Richmond should be just the thing to right the offensive ship in time for a showdown with rival Pinole Valley the following week. 

“I just have to keep my head up and get out there,” Gant said. “Hey, I can’t play any worse, right?”

In 1971, Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg risked his career, his reputation and his freedom to make public what has become known as the Pentagon Papers – 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining America’s untold and often nefarious involvement in the Vietnam War. 

On Wednesday night, Ellsberg, who spends three quarters of the year living in Berkeley and the rest in Washington, D.C., thrilled a capacity crowd of nearly 1,500 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall with his insider account of government conspiracy. 

“Truth telling can be risky but is justified because it can save a lot of lives,” he said. 

Drawing from experiences outlined in his new book, “Secrets : A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon” Ellsberg described Wednesday his transformation from U.S. Marine to tight-lipped Pentagon official to anti-war whistleblower.  

Having begun work in the Pentagon in 1964, Ellsberg explained how high-level officials in Washington, D.C. withheld information and lied outright to Americans from the start of the Vietnam War. 

Having stolen concealed documents in 1969 that were published by the New York Times in June 1971, he faced 12 federal felony charges which could have landed him in prison for 115 years. However, the charges were later dropped because of an illegal government investigation into his conduct. 

Now, as the country again stands poised for war, this time with Iraq, the message of Ellsberg’s speech echoed louder than even the home-crowd applause that greeted him Wednesday night.  

He urged today’s intelligence officials to follow in his footsteps: “If you know now that the president is lying us into a new war, I urge you to consider doing what I wish I had done in 1964.” 

And while Ellsberg said that some government secrecy, both past and present, “is justified to keep information from foreign enemies during times of war,” he estimated that the number of secrets actually kept in the name of domestic security adds up to only 1 to 5 percent of Washington’s total silence. 

The rest of the secrets and silence, he said, are those that politicians keep from rivals for power, from members of Congress, and from Washington budget-makers. Secrets are kept, he said, “to prevent accountability; in short, to prevent democracy.” 

Ellsberg drew applause from the crowd when he thanked Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Senator Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, for voting against the bill Congress passed earlier this month authorizing President Bush to declare war on Iraq. 

He then told Senator Diane Feinstein, D-Los Angeles, and the other lawmakers who voted for the bill, “if you can’t get right on this issue, at least shut up. Don’t give speeches that echo the president’s lies.” 

After Ellsberg’s speech, a group of staunchly anti-war scholars and writers from across the nation, participated in a panel discussion on US foreign policy and the escalating situation in Iraq.  

Stanford history professor Barton Bernstein amused the crowd when he questioned the Bush administration’s seemingly ironic position that only those who have used a nuclear bomb have the right to possess them now. He also challenged the administration to stop riding the wave of post-Sept. 11 fear and to make their case for war “through evidence, not through assertion.” 

The Oakland-based Independent Institute , the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the UC Berkeley School of Public Policy sponsored the Wednesday’s event. 

To the Editor: 

In her lengthy letter (Forum, Oct. 21) opposing Measure P, the height initiative, Councilmember Miriam Hawley does a disservice to the goal of reasoned debate by linking P supporters to the “myth” that big developers “run” the city. It is a cheap shot, designed to discredit opponents of high density development in Berkeley, without addressing the issues raised by them. They include the loss of access to sunlight for the non-occupants of high rise structures, increased vehicle ownership and traffic congestion, increased levels of air and noise pollution with their attendant health risks, exacerbation of parking difficulties, the further deterioration of our already fragile infrastructure, and other deleterious environmental impacts that will arise from packing thousands of additional inhabitants into our small city.  

Councilmember Hawley complains bitterly about the delays encountered in the project approval process but in reality, approval is often put on the fast track by city staff. She seems to take personal umbrage at the time and money losses suffered by developers as a result of staff assessments and public hearings. She evinces no such sympathy, however, for residents adversely affected by proposed developments, who typically spend countless hours in frequently futile attempts to bring about modifications to new projects and who can only look on in frustration as the kangaroo courts the Zoning Adjustments Board and City Council. 

Harold Boyer 

Berkeley  

NEW YORK — The Whitney Museum has unveiled its new $200 million collection of works from Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and other American masters of postwar modernism at pivotal moments in their careers. 

The 87 works from 23 artists represent a stunning panorama of abstract expressionism, pop art and other avant-garde styles associated with the New York art scene since the late 1940s. They go on public display Thursday for three months at the Madison Avenue museum. 

“We believe it is the largest and most significant gift of postwar art ever made to any museum,” Whitney director Maxwell Anderson said of the paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints. “The works are estimated to be worth $200 million.” 

Leonard Lauder, chairman of the museum trustees, said the pieces were largely selected from the artists’ collections to show milestones in their development. 

“The artists knew what we were doing and joined in enthusiastically,” he said at a press preview Wednesday at the modernistic gallery. “Each of the artists parted with some of their most precious works.” 

Titled “An American Legacy, A Gift to New York,” the collection was acquired over three years by 15 members of the board of trustees and donated to the museum for public display. 

The works significantly enhance the Whitney’s holdings of works by each of the artists, most of whom have been the subjects of monographs and included in the museum’s group shows since the 1950s. 

“Spanning a half-century of American art, this selection does not constitute a strictly historical or definitive overview,” said curator Marla Prather. Rather, it provides an opportunity “to examine this crucial period in American art ... with works of superlative quality.” 

Among the groundbreaking works are Claes Oldenburg’s “Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich)” from 1963, one of his first soft vinyl sculptures. His life-sized “Bedroom Ensemble 3/3,” 1963/1995, set up separately from the other works, is reminiscent of a stage set with its stark, geometric lines and black, blue and white tones. 

The 32 works by Johns include “Double White Map” from 1965, a two-panel collage of the United States on canvas, and “0 through 9,” vividly colored, superimposed numbers in oils on canvas, from 1961. 

Pollock is represented with “Number 18, 1951,” one of his black enamel paintings that marked a shift from his “drip” creations of 1947-50. The figurative elements in the painting after his outpouring of highly abstract work caused a stir at the time. 

“Bathroom, 1961,” showing a toilet, bathtub and sink in line drawings, is one of Lichtenstein’s earliest pop art creations using Benday dots, mimicking a mode of commercial printing. 

Warhol’s “Nine Jackies,” a silkscreen painting from 1964 showing his fascination with celebrity and disaster, depicts newspaper photographs of Jackie Kennedy around the time of her husband’s assassination. 

“Blue Eagle,” from 1961, shows Rauschenberg’s pioneer style of “combine painting” using scavenged materials for sculptural elements.

SAN FRANCISCO – Teased and taunted for tiptoeing around Barry Bonds, the Anaheim Angels decided to challenge him. 

Whack! 

Bonds lined an RBI double that sent the San Francisco Giants zooming to a big lead that not even these pesky Angels could overcome, winning 16-4 in Game 5 Thursday night to take a 3-2 lead in the World Series. 

Jeff Kent sealed it with a pair of two-run homers, starting the party in full force at Pac Bell Park and putting the Giants on the brink of their first World Series title since 1954. 

Rich Aurilia’s three-run homer in the eighth gave the Giants the most runs by a team in a Series game since the New York Yankees walloped Pittsburgh 16-3 in 1960. It was the 17th homer overall by the Angels and San Francisco, tying a Series record. 

Once again, it took only one big swing by Bonds — Mays’ godson — to swing the momentum in this Series. But, really, the Angels were caught in a lose-lose squeeze from the start. 

They pitched to Bonds in the first inning, and the Giants got three runs. They intentionally walked him in the second, and San Francisco scored three more. 

Halloween was still a week away, but the big guy in orange and black had plenty of tricks and few treats for Anaheim. 

Now, Russ Ortiz will try to clinch San Francisco’s first crown when he starts Game 6 Saturday night at Edison Field against Kevin Appier. 

A sellout crowd of 42,713, tense when the Angels climbed back from a 6-0 deficit and brought the tying run to the plate in the middle innings, erupted when Kent connected in the sixth and again in the seventh. 

Bonds added another double and a single and Kenny Lofton sprinkled in a two-run triple as the Giants pulled away to delirious chants of “Beat L.A! Beat L.A.!” The fans’ geography may have been a bit off, but their math was right on. 

All in all, it was a dramatic turnaround in the Series. Just a few days ago, with Anaheim’s hitters going wild, some thought they would run away with the title. But by the time this one ended, it was the Giants who had the Angels on the run. 

Chad Zerbe got the win, relieving when Jason Schmidt was pulled in the fifth, one out short of qualifying for his second win of the Series.

The city will likely suspend its program to help the poor avoid homelessness if voters reject a November ballot initiative increasing the tax on real estate transactions, city officials said. 

Measure M would raise about $2 million annually from a 0.5 percent tax increase on the sale of property. The current transfer tax is 1.5 percent. 

Property sold for less than $350,000 or at a loss would be exempt from the 2 percent tax, which would be the highest transfer tax in the state. 

Twenty percent of the tax revenue, or roughly $400,000, will go to the city’s financially strapped Homelessness Prevention Program. 

Provided with an annual allotment of $110,000 in city funds, the program is now teetering on the brink of insolvency. 

“It’s going to run out of money sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Berkeley Housing Director Stephen Barton. 

The program, operated by the non-profit Echo Housing, provides temporary assistance for residents who are at risk of losing their home and helps others pay initial move-in costs so they can get subsidized housing. 

“If it wasn’t for this program, a lot more people would be homeless right now,” said Marjorie Rocha, executive director of Echo Housing. 

Barton recalled a recent case in which a disabled person, whose mother paid his rent, was almost evicted after his mother died. The fund paid his rent during the three months that it took him to win in a federal disability housing subsidy. 

“In terms of human value and preventing real tragedies, this is one of the best programs the city has,” Barton said.  

But the program’s success could mean it’s downfall. 

Rocha said that in the last four months the program spent $51,000 helping 41 families, and could have helped far more if the funds were available.  

With city support restricted by a $2.1 million budget deficit, the program’s future depends on the transfer tax increase. 

If the ballot measure, which requires two-thirds approval of city voters fails, Barton said the housing department will likely have to shelve the program until the next round of city funding in July. 

Rocha warned that the cost of scrapping the program would be higher than funding it. 

“Programs for the homeless are much more expensive than to help people keep their homes,” she said. 

In addition to the homelessness prevention program, the ballot measure also earmarks about $1 million for the construction of affordable housing and $600,000 for seismic upgrades of the roughly 4,000 apartment units that might not withstand a major earthquake. 

Barton said $1 million dollars would mean about 47 new housing units for the approximately 4,700 people on Berkeley’s affordable housing wait list. He added that increased affordable housing reserves would qualify the city for state matching dollars. 

According to Barton, the city doesn’t have a program for retrofitting apartments. “It would make a big impact,” Barton said, noting that many property owners don’t know if their building is earthquake prone. 

He noted that the money raised could be used to help pay for engineering studies so the city and owners could have an accurate sense on the extent of the danger. 

Opponents of the tax say they do not oppose the programs, but in the manner the city is choosing to fund them. 

“There are 600 [home] transactions in Berkeley. It’s not fair to put the entire burden of affordable housing on 600 people,” said Miriam Ng, president of the Berkeley Association of Realtors. 

She added that the tax will likely be an unreliable source of income. “Just cause the market is good, they think they will get a lot of money, but when the market turns and there are no transactions, then where will they get the money.” 

Ng said that if the ballot passes, she will file suit arguing that the tax violates California law prohibiting real estate taxes for special projects. 

Contact reporter at  

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Measure P, the height initiative, will reduce the potential for building more affordable housing, will not increase transit use, and is the antithesis of smart growth. Limiting height lessens density but greater density, even with higher construction cost, will build more units and lower unit the cost, of which many would be affordable. Higher density also places more people on the street and increases street safety.  

Just providing frequent transit to attract riders, without density, will not increase ridership in keeping with its added cost, hence it requires greater public subsidies. Density and transit use compliment each other. Density is key for reducing cost of increasing transit service. In San Francisco, Muni’s Geary bus line is a good example. Muni is considering upgrading with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) elements as AC Transit is proposing to do along San Pablo Avenue Transit that has good access with dense corridors increases riders that generate greater fare recovery and lessens the public subsidy. Restricting development with height limits will do the opposite.  

Smart growth? The well-respected Urban Land Institute details smart growth in its report “Putting the Pieces Together” and recommends dense mixed-use development along with transit. Density will be along major transit lines and not in R-1 single family zones. People will congregate to viable activities and create congestion but for livability, the primary access should be transit. The San Francisco Giant’s Pac Bell Park did not suffer due to limited auto access because they have transit alternatives.  

With the educational, cultural and institutional activities that Berkeley has and maintains, we need to develop alternatives to auto use since Berkeley is getting more congested. 

Roy Nakadegawa 

BART Director, District 3 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES — The makers of the CBS drama “CSI: Miami” are producing a show in which crime fighters track down a sniper, but the network may postpone the episode because of the real-life shooting attacks around Washington. 

The episode currently in production features a forensics team studying crime scenes from an attacker who kills people from atop a building. 

“This is one of those bizarre cases where art collides with real life,” CBS spokesman Chris Ender said Wednesday. 

The story was conceived in August and a script was delivered last month, weeks before the real attacks began around the nation’s capital. 

Since Oct. 2, the sniper has killed 10 people and critically wounded three others in Maryland, Virginia and Washington.

Friday 

Football - Berkeley vs. Richmond, 7 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Saturday 

Football - St. Mary’s vs. Albany, 1:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s High 

Men’s Soccer - Cal vs. Stanford, 2 p.m. at Edwards Stadium

WACO, Texas — President Bush credited law enforcement Thursday night with lifting “a shadow of fear for many families” by capturing two suspects in the sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington area for three weeks. 

“The hunt for a merciless killer has been difficult — and America greatly appreciates all the good men and women who fight crime and uphold justice across this great country,” Bush said in a written statement that also praised citizen tipsters. 

“We will keep the victims and their families and friends in our prayers,” Bush said. The White House released the statement shortly after he arrived here for a meeting Friday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. 

The president, who made political stops in three Southern states en route to Texas, was briefed three times by telephone as the investigation wound down. The last call came from FBI Director Robert Mueller, who told Bush aboard Air Force One that ballistics tests on the weapon found in the suspect’s car allegedly showed it had been used in the killing spree. 

John Allen Muhammad, 41 — arrested with 17-year-old John Lee Malvo — appeared in court, and was ordered held without bail. 

After talking to Mueller, Bush watched Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose’s news conference from the Air Force One’s conference room. A few minutes later, upon landing in Texas, the president boarded Marine One and telephoned Moose during the brief flight to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. 

“You have lifted a shadow of fear for many families. God bless you and may God bless the victims,” Fleischer quoted Bush as telling Moose. 

Later, the White House released the statement from Bush in which he commended police for working with “great urgency” and with “such little rest” to crack the case. 

Fleischer said Bush, under advice from the FBI, had tried to limit his public comments about the attacks during the ordeal. 

“One of the messages that he heard from law enforcement was one of the last things you do is give a killer a sense of empowerment in thinking that if he kills more people, he’ll be able to start communicating with the president of the United States,” Fleischer said. 

“So the president was guided by a desire to listen to law enforcement efforts to be circumspect so the killer could be caught,” Fleischer said. 

The spokesman said no evidence has been brought to his attention of a connection between the suspects and any international terrorist group. He would not comment on a potential motive for the crimes or any other evidence against the men. 

But he said Bush was relieved to see the crisis end.

The University of California at Berkeley Public Affairs Office is reporting that Thursday's single-alarm fire in a student housing building near the UC Berkeley campus at around 2:28 a.m. displaced four students. 

The fire at Cloyne Court, a private housing cooperative situated in the 2600 block of Ridge Road, one block off the north side of campus, was sparked by a burning cigarette, a spokesman said Thursday. 

According to the spokesman, the fire was extinguished by the building's sprinkler system. The water damage was extensive enough to temporarily displace two students residing in the room in question as well as two more living directly below. 

No one was injured during the fire.

DAVIS — Farmers and consumers with questions about the national organic food standards adopted on Monday can find answers through a University of California program. 

The program, known as Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, is based at the University of California, Davis and its Website can be found at www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/organic/index.htm.  

The site provides links to the national rules for organic farming, allowed inputs, and pesticide alternatives that cannot be used by organic growers. 

“We know growers and consumers are looking for answers,” said Sean Swezy, the program's director. “Our program's Web site with its research and information databases can point them to specific resources.” 

A $100,000 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, part of the “Buy California” Initiative, will allow the program to expand its Web site.  

The funding will also help develop organic production manuals for strawberries, olives, wine grapes, vegetables, artichokes and small-scale organic farming. 

The UC program funds organic research, coordinates county-level extension programs and collects information on organic farming inputs. The program has spent $2 million on organic farming research and another $4 million on other projects that support organic farming.

OAKLAND — The Alameda County Coroner's Office has identified a 22-year-old man killed in East Oakland late Wednesday evening. 

A coroner's spokesman said police discovered Oakland resident Omari Abeeku Locke's body in the 3300 block of Deering Street at Coolridge Avenue at around 8:50 p.m. 

At press time details surrounding the incident were vague, however an Oakland police spokesman says Locke's body appeared to have multiple gun shot wounds.

Commercial burglary 

Robbers smashed the glass door of a pizza restaurant on the 2200 block of Shattuck Avenue early Tuesday morning. Once inside, the robbers made off with the cash register, which contained approximately $100. 

Vandalism 

A resident on the 1700 block of Oregon Street reported that while he was standing in his kitchen, a suspect threw a glass bottle of gin through his front window shattering it. He did not see the suspect. 

– Matthew Artz

FREMONT — One of three men charged in the slaying of a 17-year-old Newark boy who sometimes passed as a girl pleaded innocent in Alameda County Superior Court in Fremont this Thursday morning. 

Attorney Robert J. Beles entered the plea in the courtroom of Judge Dennis J. McLaughlin as he stood beside his client, Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, of Newark, who was dressed in red jail garb. 

“The plea is not guilty to the charge of murder and adamantly denying the hate clause,” Beles said. 

The other two defendants, Michael William Magidson, 22, of Fremont, and Jose Antonio Merel, 22, of Newark, were also in court Thursday but did not enter pleas. 

All are being held without bail and are scheduled to return to court on Nov. 8. 

On Friday, the three men were charged with one count each of murder, along with a special hate-crime enhancement, in connection with the killing of Eddie Araujo. 

The alleged murder occurred at a party in Newark on Oct. 3 when it was learned that Araujo, who was dressed as a girl and went by the name “Lida,” was actually a boy. 

Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo's mother, reported her son missing on Oct. 5. Law enforcement agents unearthed the boy's body from a shallow grave in the El Dorado County wilderness east of Placerville on Oct. 16. According to court records, Nabors led investigators to the gravesite. 

Outside of the courthouse Thursday, Guerrero, flanked by family members, cried and held her hand to her chest as she read from a brief statement in front of a bank of microphones. 

“I loved my child beyond words,” she said. “I gave my child life and I simply cannot understand how anyone else thought they had the right to take the life which I gave him.” 

Attorney Gloria Allred of Los Angeles, who is representing Guerrero, said hate crimes should be of particular concern to the community because they represent an attack against someone based on factors over which a person has no control. 

“Eddie Araujo felt that he was a female trapped in a man's body,” Allred said. “In appearing as a female he was being honest about who he felt he was.” 

Beles, Nabors' attorney, said after the three-minute court appearance that he has seen no evidence so far that indicates that his client in any way participated in any physical attack on Araujo. 

“It's a tragic case,” he said in the hallway outside the courtroom. “When all the facts are in ... it's not going to be a pretty picture.” 

He reiterated, though, that his client is innocent of the charges against him. 

“There's not a shred of homophobia in my client's background or in his nature,” he said. “My client has no biases in that regard.” 

A funeral service for Araujo is scheduled for today at 2 p.m. at St. Edward's Catholic Church in Newark.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has raised and distributed tens of thousands of additional dollars to congressional candidates using a practice that campaign finance experts say could skirt federal limits. 

Pelosi, the Democratic whip and a leading advocate of campaign finance reform, raised and spent the money through two political action committees, known as leadership PACs. The PACs are called PAC to the Future and Team Majority. 

Several campaign finance experts said the second PAC would effectively allow Pelosi to get around limits in federal law. They said they are unaware of a politician using two leadership PACs and treating them as if they were unrelated to each other. 

PACs are considered affiliated — meaning they must adhere to limits as if they were one — when they are under the control of the same person. Federal law limits PAC contributions to candidates to $5,000 per election. Donors to PACs can give $5,000 annually. 

“Everybody’s saying they’re her leadership PACs,” said former Federal Election Commission general counsel Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “If that means she controls them, then they’re affiliated. I’m not sure what else that could mean.” 

Pelosi’s PAC to the Future gave the maximum contribution to 26 Democratic candidates for Congress, including Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza in the San Joaquin Valley, according to FEC records. Her Team Majority then gave those candidates a total of $127,500 more, mainly in $5,000 increments. 

Sixteen donors, including San Francisco financier William Hambrecht, wrote $5,000 checks to PAC to the Future and gave an additional $5,000 to Team Majority. Five contributors gave to both PACs on the same day. 

But Pelosi’s political organization is proceeding as if the PACs are unaffiliated, noting that they have different addresses and different custodians, said former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, the treasurer for both PACs. 

“I think we’re in compliance with FEC regulations. We made a good faith effort to make sure we went about this in the correct way,” McCarthy said. 

Pelosi’s office referred all inquiries about the PACs to McCarthy. 

McCarthy said an FEC analyst told him there was no impediment to setting up a second leadership PAC of which he would be treasurer. He said he did not ask for a formal opinion from the commission when he established Team Pelosi in the spring. 

He changed the name to Team Majority after the FEC told him leadership PACs cannot have candidates’ names in their titles. 

The existence of the second PAC was first reported by Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper. “The main reason for the creation of the second PAC, frankly, was to give twice as much hard dollars,” McCarthy told Roll Call in its Wednesday edition. 

Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, McCarthy said the second PAC was designed “to stimulate contributions separately” from PAC to the Future. 

The key issue, said former FEC lawyer Ken Gross, is whether the PACs are affiliated. “The FEC’s anti-proliferation rules are specifically designed to prevent the proliferation of PACs to get around the limits.”

Stanford psychologist 

sentenced to 90 days 

PALO ALTO — A former Stanford University psychologist was sentenced to 90 days in jail Thursday and ordered to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to having sex with two of his female patients. 

Ian Edward Wickram, 63, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of felony sexual exploitation of a patient. He admitted to having sex with two of his patients between April 2000 and February 2002. 

“Dr. Wickram seized on their vulnerabilities and exploited them for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutor Jeff Rosen said. “He did tremendous damage to these two women.” 

One of Wickram's victims spoke in court today. Her voice broke several times as she asked Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Douglas Southard to give Wickram the maximum possible sentence for the physical and emotional damage he had caused her. 

Wickram's 90-day jail sentence came as a result of a plea bargain. After hearing the victim's testimony and testimony from the victim's boyfriend about the impact of Wickram's actions he voiced concerns about the possible leniency of the plea bargain. 

First S.F. black woman sworn in 

as Superior Court judge 

SAN FRANCISCO — Former prosecutor Teri Jackson is expected to be sworn in as a judge of San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday. 

Jackson is the first black woman ever appointed to the bench of the city’s Superior Court. 

She grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and served as a prosecutor for 17 years, first in San Mateo and later in San Francisco, before joining the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. 

At the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, she led the misdemeanor, domestic violence, and homicide unit. While there, she also established the First Offender Prostitution Program. 

Jackson joined the law firm in 1997, and shifted the focus of her practice to civil litigation in the areas of employment, trade secrets, bankruptcy, the environment and real estate. She served as the lead trial counsel and handled all litigation matters in an environmental defense case involving California’s Proposition 65. 

Halloween display target  

of city ordinance 

MONTE SERENO — A huge Halloween display in the front yard of a house here is the target of a possible city ordinance that could limit the size and noise of holiday displays. 

Neighbors of Alan and Bonnie Aerts complain their neighborhood is disrupted by the many visitors who come to see the $15,000 Halloween decorations and the Christmas display that can add up to $120,000. 

This year the decorations include a dry ice display, flashing strobe nights and a giant floating spider. 

Alan Aerts was shocked to learn that the city would even consider placing restrictions on the ornaments.

Settlement reached with parents and fraternity 

PALO ALTO — A settlement has been reached between a Chico State University fraternity and the parents of a Palo Alto teen-ager who died in an alleged hazing incident in February 2001. 

Adrian Heideman was found dead two years ago in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house in Chico. Police said the death was the result of an alcohol overdose.  

Toxicology tests found that Heideman's blood alcohol was nearly five times the .08 legal limit for driving in California. 

Fraternity members at the time denied that Heideman had gone through any sort of hazing, saying he was never forced to drink alcohol, but officials and Heideman's parents disagreed, which led them to file the suit. 

The Chico State Pi Kappa Phi chapter has since disbanded. 

Three fraternity brothers pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor in connection with the teen's death in February 2001. They were sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined more than $600 each. 

In addition, eight members of the fraternity agreed to pay Heideman's family $500,000 in December 2001. 

Details of this latest settlement are being kept confidential. 

Flynt gets tax break 

GARDENA — Hustler Casino owner Larry Flynt asked the city for another tax break on his gambling hall and officials gave it to him. 

The City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to increase the tax rebate Flynt is eligible for — raising the maximum amount Flynt can get from $250,000 to $500,000. The deal allows Flynt a rebate by “borrowing” taxes he pays the city. 

“Based on a review of the club’s financial reports, the need is there,” Councilman Paul Tanaka said. In early negotiations, Flynt wanted much more money so the $250,000 limit was set and subject to a raise based on quarterly reviews, the councilman said. 

Under the plan, Flynt may ask for as much as 4 percent of the tax money he pays Gardena each month on the clubs monthly revenue. The no-interest loan was not to exceed $250,000 and had to be spent on advertising and promotion. The new limit is $500,000. 

The deal expires when Flynt’s revenue exceeds $2.7 million each month and must be repaid at 1 percent per month based on the new gross amount. The loan will be excused if club profits do not exceed $2.7 million over five years. 

Flynt purchased the Eldorado Club in 1998 from a bankruptcy court, demolished the former structure at Vermont Avenue and Redondo Beach Boulevard and opened the Hustler Casino doors in 2000. It lost $2.5 million in its first year and Flynt asked for the tax break in December 2001. 

“In the long run, this benefits us because if his revenue goes up and remains there, it’s more money for the city,” said Chris Hach, Gardenas assistant city manager.

SACRAMENTO — Democratic Gov. Gray Davis had $12 million on hand as of Oct. 19 for the closing days of his re-election bid — 10 times as much as Republican challenger Bill Simon, according to campaign reports submitted Thursday. 

Davis has raised a record-breaking $67 million for his effort to win a second term. And new reports show he has spent $51 million this year, largely on a sustained statewide television campaign attacking Simon and defending his record in the face of low popularity marks. 

Simon, meanwhile, lent his campaign $1.25 million from his personal pocketbook Wednesday, bringing to $10.25 million the amount he has provided in loans for his election bid, records show. Originally, campaign officials said Simon would contribute around $2 million, but Wednesday they hinted the amount could be lower. 

His campaign has suffered several high-profile stumbles and he has been unable to draw the donations needed to match Davis’ mammoth campaign treasury. Simon reported having $1.2 million in cash available on Oct. 19, about enough for a weeklong statewide television advertising buy. 

According to the reports filed Thursday, covering fund-raising activity between Oct. 1 and Oct. 19, Davis spent $12.2 million during the two-week period compared to $5.4 million by Simon. Simon raised $2.5 million during that period, compared to Davis’ $3.5 million. 

Simon’s campaign aides early on said they expected to spend $60 million on his challenge, but current records show he has spent half that. And some major donations that the Simon camp hoped to receive have failed to materialize. 

For instance, reports show the Republican National Committee gave Simon $900,000. RNC officials had said they would provide between $1 million and $2 million. 

Meanwhile, Simon kept up his budget attack on Davis during a Southern California campaign swing Thursday, warning business leaders to “prepare for higher taxes if Mr. Davis is re-elected.” 

“Do not prepare for higher taxes if I’m elected,” Simon told about 300 people at a luncheon speech organized by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. He repeated a warning he first sounded in a speech Tuesday that Davis would raise taxes by more than $10 billion if re-elected. 

“I’m purely making a statement based upon my belief based upon Gov. Davis’ actions in the past,” he said, referring to a Davis budget proposal in May that included $3.7 billion in tax increases and other one-time adjustments to make up a $23.6 billion deficit. 

The Legislature never approved the Davis-proposed tax increase package, but instead used a complicated mix of borrowing, cutting, shifting funds and delaying spending and some tax breaks to balance the budget. 

Analysts have said lawmakers exhausted the easiest solutions and one-time cuts and likely will have to raise taxes or carve deeply into critical programs to make up an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion deficit next year. 

Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar called Simon’s criticism “rash statements” and said Davis has provided $4 billion in tax relief during his first term in office. “The governor has always said that his preference is to avoid tax increases.” 

Simon’s campaign day Thursday hit a snag when his natural fuel campaign bus broke down on the way from Long Beach to Los Angeles for a tour and news briefing at the Museum of Tolerance. 

Simon continued on to the museum in a sports utility vehicle that was traveling with his bus, a converted public transit vehicle from Ohio that reads “Bill Simon” on the side and “Fire Davis” on the back.

SACRAMENTO — A new television ad for Bruce McPherson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, seems to concede that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis will be re-elected. 

The ad, which began running Thursday, complains that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, hasn’t been critical enough of Davis and suggests that voters should support McPherson “for balance.” 

The ad depicts Bustamante, the first California lieutenant governor to serve with a governor of his own party in 20 years, as a “slow, weak and timid” bobblehead doll on the dashboard of a car supposedly driven by Davis that ends up going over a cliff. 

“When Governor Davis took us down the wrong road, Bustamante went along for the ride,” an announcer says. “The man never said a word, not even when the governor was very wrong.” 

Then McPherson, a state senator from Santa Cruz, appears on the screen and says, “I won’t stay silent. I’ll speak up for California.” 

Ironically, one of the Bustamante’s most heavily publicized acts as lieutenant governor was to criticize Davis’ handling of an appeal of a court decision striking down most of Proposition 187, a 1994 anti-illegal immigrant initiative. 

A McPherson spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, says the ad isn’t intended to imply that Davis will defeat GOP candidate Bill Simon. 

“The message of this ad is that Gray Davis consistently made bad decisions and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante sat quietly nodding his head all along,” Mendelsohn said. “Because the lieutenant governor is independently elected he has the responsibility to speak up when the governor makes mistakes like the energy crisis.”

SAN DIEGO — The last of three California condor chicks found dead this month died of unknown causes, officials said Thursday. 

Results of a necropsy performed on the chick at the San Diego Zoo were inconclusive, said Bruce Palmer, California condor recovery program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The chick was found dead Tuesday in the Los Padres National Forest, just weeks after the remains of the other two birds were retrieved. The three were the first condors to be laid and hatched in the wild since 1984. 

Biologists are uncertain how the first chick died. The second died after it ingested a dozen bottle caps and multiple shards of plastic and glass it likely found in its nest. 

During the necropsy, a few pieces of either plastic or rubber were found in the gizzard of the third chick, but are not thought to have killed the bird, Palmer said. The birds probably mistook the objects for bone fragments, which they eat to provide much needed calcium, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO — One year ago, attorneys emerged from a California judge’s chambers and announced a historic, pro-consumer settlement of a lawsuit accusing Ford of producing millions of defective vehicles prone to stalling. 

But not one consumer has benefited from the accord, which at the time of its Oct. 25, 2001 signing was thought to have ended seven years of combative litigation between the Dearborn, Mich., automaker and lawyers hellbent on suing Ford and protecting the public. 

Instead of reimbursing its customers who paid or will pay about $200 to replace thick film ignition or TFI modules that fail, as the agreement requires, Ford and plaintiffs’ attorneys are defending their settlement before a state appellate court here. 

Attacking the settlement, which could cost Ford more than $2 billion, are attorneys who did not participate in the case but are nevertheless objecting to the deal on the grounds it jeopardizes public safety and should be redrafted. 

Among other complaints, the objectors say the deal allows some 12 million Ford vehicles — that could stall at any time — to remain on the nation’s roads. 

Yet Ford and the attorneys suing the company aren’t budging on their deal. 

They say the deal was the best result given that Ford has repeatedly denied it sold defective vehicles, and was willing to challenge in the courts any findings that its vehicles were defective. 

A California judge ordered that 12 million Ford vehicles be recalled after concluding they were defective. 

Last year’s settlement, which nullified the recall, came two months after it was reported that at least 11 deaths and 31 injuries were blamed on stalling Ford vehicles and the disclosure of internal Ford memos showing the automaker had evidence its ignition design could make hot engines suddenly fail. 

The lawsuit challenged Ford’s placement of the TFI module, which regulates electric current to the spark plugs. 

From 1983 to 1995, in 29 models, including the popular Taurus, Mustang, Escort and Ranger, the ignition module was mounted on the distributor near the engine block, where it was exposed to high temperatures. According to internal documents, Ford had designed it this way to save up to $2 per vehicle and increase fuel economy. 

Without the agreement, Ford would have appealed the unprecedented recall order, and each side was not willing to wait years for a final decision that would make or break their case, lawyers connected to the case say. 

Jeff Fazio, the lead attorney here who sued Ford and agreed to settle, has defended the deal since it was signed as a compromise a year ago. 

He said the real motivation behind the objecting lawyers is they want a piece of the $22 million in attorneys fees the deal awards to Fazio and the other lawyers who sued Ford. 

“It’s shakedown time,” he said. He is urging the 1st District Court of Appeal to promptly dismiss their objections, and he has refused to settle with the objectors out of court. 

No hearing has been set. 

Berkeley attorney Lawrence Schonbrun asserts the deal leaves intact the same safety hazard that Fazio and other attorneys were fighting to get rid of — 12 million alleged faulty vehicles on the roadways. 

Fazio at one time fought to have the vehicles recalled and Judge Michael Ballachey obliged. Ballachey declared Ford was living in an “Alice in Wonderland” dreamland for denying the hazards its vehicles posed. 

In the end, both sides capitulated on fears that Ballachey’s unprecedented recall order might be overturned by the courts or take years to be affirmed by them. 

The backroom deal, in which Ballachey labeled a “reasonable compromise,” requires Ford to reimburse current or former Ford owners who paid or will pay for a new TFI ignition device if the car stalls and was under 100,000 miles. 

Schonbrun said it’s only time before somebody else is killed or maimed by a stalling Ford. 

“It makes no sense to me to leave these cars on the road in light of all that class counsel has said about them without having these modules replaced,” Schonbrun said. 

Ford said it isn’t willing to revisit the settlement. Richard Warmer, Ford’s attorney, said the objectors ignore that Ford denies the TFI modules are defective and, therefore, would never agree to recall them. 

“Their arguments derive from an imaginary world in which plaintiffs’ allegations are not in dispute,” Warmer said. 

If the appellate court nullifies the settlement, protracted litigation may begin anew. 

To avoid that uncertainty, public safety groups have signed off on the accord. 

“Would we have liked to get a recall? Sure,” said Clarence Ditlow, who heads the Center for Automotive Safety in Washington, D.C. “It’s not a perfect world.”

SAN FRANCISCO — California regulators fined phone giant Qwest Communications International Inc. and a subsidiary $20.3 million Thursday for switching thousands of Californians’ long-distance service without their permission. 

On a 5-0 vote, the Public Utilities Commission ruled the marketing activities of Qwest and LCI International Communications violated the state’s public utilities code. 

“This company fixed the system only after regulators started investigating,” PUC President Loretta Lynch said. 

The PUC found that Denver-based Qwest “slammed” thousands of Californians by failing to adequately supervise sales agents.

NEW YORK — Profit-takers rushed back to Wall Street Thursday as disappointing news from International Paper and Duke Energy stirred fears that stocks won’t hold gains from their two-week surge. The Dow Jones industrials slid more than 170 points. 

Investors shrugged off an encouraging jobless claims report and gave back gains from earlier in the session. Analysts said doubt lingers about the market’s long-term recovery. 

“There are a few negative earnings things coming out,” said Ed Peters, chief investment officer at PanAgora Asset Management Inc. “But a lot of it I think is profit-taking. The market has come a long way in a short time period, and we can’t be certain that’s justified.” 

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 176.93, or 2.1 percent, to close at 8,317.34, after gaining 44 points Wednesday for its fourth advance in five sessions. Earlier in the day, the blue chips rose as much as 64 points. 

The broader market also finished lower. The Nasdaq composite index declined 21.52, or 1.6 percent, to 1,298.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 13.64, or 1.5 percent, to 882.50. 

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for jobless benefits fell last week by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 to 389,000, the lowest point since Oct. 5. That came after a gain in claims in the previous week, and offered investors some hope of an improving job market. 

Dow components General Electric, which dropped 90 cents to $26, and International Paper, which fell 90 cents to $36.84, on a brokerage downgrade from Prudential.

Postal carrier caught dumping mail 

BOSTON — A former postal carrier pleaded guilty Wednesday to dumping more than 1,000 pieces of mail into a Framingham pond. 

Patrick T. Doyle, 21, of Framingham, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of destruction of mail by a postal employee. 

Doyle delivered about half of the mail on his route April 3, and wrapped the remaining trays with tape and tossed them in Macomber Pond, prosecutors said. 

The part-time letter carrier was fired in April after postal officials investigated residents’ reports of seeing mail floating in the man-made pond. 

More than 50 people did not receive their mail on April 3 as a result of Doyle’s actions. 

Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 16. Doyle faces a maximum of five years in prison, followed by three years of probation and a $300,000 fine. 

Fall colors get a late start 

BURLINGTON, Vt. — It’s getting toward the end of October and Vermont’s trademark fall foliage, usually on the ground by now, is still brilliant in many parts of the state. 

The fall colors had a late start this year. The leaves are making up for the delay by staying on the trees a lot longer than normal. 

The late color is a boon to late-season tourists. 

“There are still tourists around,” said Diane Konrady of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. “We’ve been trying to put out the word that it’s lasting a bit longer this year.” 

State tourism and forestry officials report good color in the Champlain Valley and lower foothills across the state, from Bennington to Burlington and on the east and west. 

Although the colors are fading, Konrady said, she expects some to hang on through this weekend and possibly until Halloween, barring heavy rain and wind. 

This is one of the latest foliage seasons Konrady can recall, she said. 

State officials have been working to promote the state’s late-season color, Konrady said. 

Two regional associations reported strong tourist business this past weekend, even though the Columbus Day holiday typically is the pinnacle of foliage season.

OAKLAND — Chris Baty doesn’t want you to write the Great American Novel. He’s not even asking for the Halfway Good American Novel. Go ahead, write a book so bad it’s criminal. Just make it at least 50,000 words long, and in language of your choice. 

Oh, one other thing. Get it done in 30 days or less. 

Baty is founder of National Novel Writing Month, an Internet writing endeavor now in its fourth year that is expected to send thousands of would-be prose pros into creative hyperdrive on Nov. 1. 

The premise: Everyone really does have at least one book in her or him. The precept: No plot? No problem! 

“Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together,” Baty invites participants in his disarming Web site come-on. 

The idea, he explains, is that pumping out prose at high speed overrides the deadly second-guessing that keeps many a would-be writer, and even some successful ones, from typing word one. 

“Once you pry that delete key off the computer it really enables you to tap into your creativity,” he says. 

A free-lance writer living in Oakland, Baty came up with the nimble novel concept in 1999, when he was abuzz with the caffeinated high of just finishing a big magazine project. Like so many others, he had wanted to write a novel, but was intimidated by the effort. On the Web site, this is known as the one-day novel. As in, “One day I’ll write a novel.” 

Baty started wondering about what would happen if novel writing were turned into a social activity that would only last a month and “then we could be novelists and talk about our work at parties.” 

Twenty-one people signed up the first year, 140 the second. Then, last year, it was near-disaster as newspapers and bloggers (Web loggers, or writers of Web diaries) discovered the contest. 

Suddenly, thousands of people showed up at Baty’s not very sophisticated Web site, forcing him to press friends and relatives into the wrist-bending process of manually entering participant data. Ice packs were needed. 

Adding insult to carpal tunnel injury, a programming slip-up allowed hackers to get in and put up a photo of a scantily clad young lady and a rude message. “That was sort of my welcome to the big time,” says Baty. 

This year http://www.nanowrimo.org has a nifty new design and an automated sign-up system that Baty expects will be able to handle the anticipated 6,000 or 7,000 participants. 

NaNoWriMo has brought Baty a measure of fame, but not too much cash. So, this year he’s suggesting a $10 donation per entry. 

To “win,” you write 50,000 words or more, which are to be counted by an automated program — Baty has a purple prose protection policy, promising that no human will actually read the submitted works. 

Friends do let friends read NaNoWriMo novels, and Baty has found “some surprisingly passable, some impressively adequate, none ready for publication.” 

Frequently asked questions: 

—Has anyone managed to get a NaNoWriMo novel published? Some have self-published or posted their work on the Internet and at least one, Jon Merz, has a NaNo novel, “The Destructor” coming out from Pinnacle Books next March. 

—Has anyone famous participated? It appears not, although Baty is not averse to the idea of starting a rumor to that effect. After all, who, really, is evilwizard29? 

—Can NaNoWriMo help you get your finished novel published? No. “Our connections to the publishing world end at Kinkos.” 

Among those who signed up last year was Lauren Ayer, a San Francisco Bay area writer. Ayer, who has a day job writing copy for Internet sites, was struggling with an idea for a novel and looking for a way “to just blast through the story.” 

The first week went well. The second week didn’t. “All of a sudden all the words dry up. You’ve lost your train of thought. You have no idea. The plot’s not working. The characters don’t do what you want to do.” Then, at the end of the second week, the fog cleared and by Nov. 25 she had a 48,000-word novel. A true pro, she padded to get to 50,851. 

She put the novel away for a month. Then she took it back out and immediately began rewriting. “It was appallingly bad, especially at the beginning.” A year later, Ayer is close to finishing her book, “Wake,” the story of what happens to a group of friends after one of them dies. She hopes to shop the book to an agent. 

Ayer, who is game for another go-round this November, was making a lightheartedly serious attempt at fiction. Other participants go for the seriously lightweight. As one poster to a NaNoWriMo forum recently put it: “Is smut a genre?” 

Among last year’s entries: “Sing Paramecia Sing” and “So I Married a Ninja.” 

Adair Lara, who writes the old-fashioned way, took four years to live through, and four more years to write, a memoir of her daughter’s adolescence, “Hold Me Close, Let Me Go.” But Lara, who teaches writing classes and writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, doesn’t scoff at the verbosity-over-virtuosity approach. 

“Anything that can get a person to write 50,000 words in a month is fabulous,” she says. “The words will have to be completely rewritten, but so will 50,000 words written over a year.” Writing fast and focused “overcomes the paralysis of writer’s block and the need to clean your apartment.” 

So this November, let others brine turkeys, make pilgrim place cards and stir up the toxic concoction of family and togetherness. 

Baty and his followers will be lugging laptops to coffee shops and locking themselves into rooms with no view save the pale glow of a computer screen, tapping with reckless rapture. 

You can make book on it.

LOS ANGELES — It was one of the most important decisions for the California Fish and Game Commission in 10 years. Yet President Mike Flores and Commissioner James Kellog weren’t there. 

The governor-appointed commission ended four years of debate Wednesday when it declared more than 100 square miles of ocean around the Channel Islands off-limits to fishing. The move creates one of the largest marine reserves in the country. 

But the reserves won with support from only two of the five members, leading some angry fishermen to question the process. 

Neither Flores nor Kellog could be reached for comment despite repeated attempts made by The Associated Press. 

The Fish and Game Commission post is a six-year, part-time assignment, with commissioners earning a maximum of $500 a month and meeting about 25 times each year. The commissioners, who all also work full-time, set the state’s fish and game policy. 

Commissioners Bob Hattoy and Sam Schuchat voted in favor of the reserve. Both were appointed by Gov. Gray Davis, as were the two absent commissioners. Mike Chrisman, who was appointed by former governor Pete Wilson, voted against the proposal. 

Flores, who is Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Davis, was sick Wednesday, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for the governor. 

“He’s back at work here today,” said Maviglio on Thursday. “It’s ridiculous for the governor to comment on a member of an individual commission who was sick.” 

Flores did not attend a hearing Thursday in Crescent Mills in Northern California. 

Kellog is a top union representative for the United Association of Journeyman and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.

NEWPORT BEACH — The son of Britain’s top judicial officer was sentenced Thursday to 16 months in state prison after pleading guilty to stalking the boyfriend of a woman he met in a tanning salon. 

In a negotiated plea, Alastair Irvine, 25, pleaded guilty to one felony count each of stalking, burglary and vandalism, two felony counts of making criminal threats and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed weapon. 

Irvine is the son of Lord Chancellor Alexander “Derry” Irvine, head of Britain’s judiciary and a senior member of the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. 

Authorities said Alastair Irvine became infatuated with the 19-year-old woman, telephoning and showing up at the salon, even though she repeatedly told him she wasn’t interested and had a boyfriend. Irvine threatened the boyfriend and threw acid on his truck in June, causing $5,700 in damage, prosecutors said. 

In England, where the case has received widespread publicity, the lord chancellor’s office has confirmed media reports that the younger Irvine underwent treatment in the United States for drug addiction.

LONG BEACH — Nurses who staged a one-day strike at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center were barred from the hospital Thursday and replaced for five days by contract workers. 

Dozens of registered nurses were turned away by security. 

They will be allowed back to work Monday morning, said Dr. Gainer Pillsbury, hospital medical director. 

“We think it is horrible that the hospital made the decision to prevent ... nurses from caring for their patients,” said Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association, which represents the nurses. 

The hospital had about 500 patients, who were receiving “excellent care” from replacements, he said. 

About 480 replacement nurses were hired from a nursing service to cover during Wednesday’s strike, but their contract requires they work for five days, Pillsbury said. He put the cost at up to $2 million. 

About 1,000 of the hospital’s 1,300 nurses struck. They want a guaranteed pension plan protected from stock market fluctuations. 

Pillsbury said the hospital wants more information on the details of the plan before committing to it.

Voters in Alameda County will cast votes on an array of ballot measures Tuesday, with voters in Castro Valley poised to decide whether to become an incorporated city and Fremont and Berkeley voters considering raises for local officeholders. 

Measure Q would create the new city of Castro Valley. If approved by voters, the city would exist as of July 1 and be governed by a five-member city council. Proponents say that incorporation would make Castro Valley more responsive to residents, while critics worry that the city would not be able to support itself financially. State law requires that that voters of a proposed city approve an incorporation by a simple majority vote. 

In Berkeley, Measure K proposes a boost in salaries of school board members, from $875 a month to $1,500 a month. Meanwhile, Fremont City Council members and the mayor would see their salaries increased if voters there pass Measure S. Under the measure, the monthly salary of each member of the City Council would increase to $2,083 from $1,407 and the salary of the mayor would increase to $2,916 from $2,211 per month. 

Measure W, if approved, would allow the Tracy Joint Unified High School District to issue $103 million in bonds to fund school construction and improvements. As a school bond issue, the measure requires 55 percent approval for passage. 

Voters in the city of Fremont will vote on Measure R, a $51 million bond measure that would replace three small fire stations and seismically upgrade seven others. A two-thirds vote is required for passage. 

Measure A would allow the Alameda County to adopt a hotel and lodging tax of 10 percent of the rental charge that would apply to unincorporated areas of the county. With the exception of Piedmont, all cities in the county currently impose a hotel and lodging tax of 8 to 12 percent. 

Measure B would enable the county to continue imposing a business license tax in unincorporated areas. 

If passed, Measure AA would permit the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District to levy a $24 annual parcel tax over the next five years, to protect bus services for children and seniors, help ensure passenger security and help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. 

Measure BB would allow BART to issue up to $1.05 billion in bonds to perform seismic upgrades on  

BART facilities in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties. 

Measures AA and BB require a two-thirds majority for passage.

State officials said Tuesday that a UC Berkeley student group seeking to boost minority enrollment is spreading false information about admissions procedures at California’s public universities. 

But members of the student group, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, insist that admissions language crafted by a state legislative committee is unclear and could lead to a reduction in enrollment for high-achieving minorities and other high-achieving students. 

At issue is the California Master Plan for Education, a sprawling document that lays out a broad vision for California’s public schools from kindergarten through higher education. 

The legislature developed the first master plan in 1960 in an attempt to divide up the educational turf for California’s public universities. The plan, among other things, stated that the University of California should choose its students from among the top one-eighth of graduating high school students in the state, while California State University should select from among the top one-third. The legislature has revised the 1960 document about every ten years since.  

In its 1989 revision, the legislature went a step further on UC and CSU admissions. Instead of simply mandating that CSU choose students from “among” the top third and UC from “among” the top eighth, the legislature actually guaranteed admission for the top third at the 23-campus CSU system and the top eighth at the nine-campus UC system. 

Last month, the legislature’s Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan released the latest revision of the plan. 

BAMN charged at a Tuesday rally that the new master plan is vaguely-worded and threatens the 1989 guarantee. Eliminating the guarantee, coalition leaders said, would remove one way for high-achieving minorities and other high-achieving students,to gain automatic access to higher education. 

But state officials said the new plan clearly retains the guarantee. 

The document reads: “The California State University and University of California systems should continue to adhere to the policy of guaranteeing that all students who apply for freshman admission and who are eligible to attend (students within the top one-third, in the case of the California State University applicants, and the top one-eighth, in the case of University of California applicants) are offered admission to the system(s) for which they are eligible and have applied.” 

Students argue that the phrase “within the top one-third...and the top eighth” could be interpreted to mean that a subgroup “within” the top third or eighth, rather than the entire group, would be admitted. 

But Charles Ratliff, a senior consultant with the state Legislature’s Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan, said the students are “misrepresenting what the committee has adopted.” He said the guarantee remains in full effect. 

The debate between BAMN and the joint committee stretches back to the first draft of the master plan, which omitted the word “guarantee.”  

The first draft reverted to the language of the original 1960 master plan, which stated that CSU and UC would choose their students from “among” the top third and eighth, but did not guarantee admission for all of those students. 

Ratliff said the joint committee reverted to the 1960 language, in part, because it feared that the Legislature, faced with a growing student population and, as a result, an expanded guarantee, might not be willing to fund the growth. 

After lobbying by UC and BAMN, Ratliff said, the joint committee re-inserted the “guarantee” language. 

Members of BAMN said Tuesday that, after the initial spat over the word “guarantee,” they do not trust the committee and want them to put forth “crystal clear” language, citing the 1989 revision as a model. 

“We don’t trust them,” said Caroline Wong, national outreach coordinator for BAMN. 

But UC spokesperson Hanan Eisenman said the university has no doubts about the final draft of the master plan. 

“The guarantee does remain,” he said. “We’re going to continue to grant admission to the top 12.5 percent.” 

The top 12.5 percent is equivalent to the top eighth. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net 

OAKLAND — The rate of nearly every violent crime, including murder, rape and robbery, rose nationwide since 2001, with crime in most parts of the Bay Area either following suit or holding steady, according to Federal Bureau of Investigations figures released Monday. 

Across the country in 2001, homicides were up 2.5 percent, robberies increased 3.7 percent and rapes rose 0.3 percent from the year before. Property theft also went up, with 5.7 percent more car thefts, 2.9 percent more burglaries and 1.5 percent more larcenies and thefts. 

Aggravated assault was the only category that decreased across the country, with 0.5 percent fewer incidents in 2001 than in 2000. 

Metropolitan regions in the Bay Area showed mixed results, with some areas reporting an elevated crime rate from 2000 to 2001 and other areas holding steady over the same period. 

Oakland saw 84 homicides in 2001 as opposed to 80 in 2000. As of tonight, 94 people have been slain in Oakland in 2002 with two months left in the year. However, rapes decreased from 2000 to 2001, from 320 to 295 reported incidents. Robberies rose from 1,929 to 2,125. 

In the entire East Bay, including all of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, murders decreased from 166 in 2000 to 157 the year following. During the same period the rate of reported rapes fell significantly, from 799 to 697. 

In the North Bay the crime rate barely changed. Sonoma County saw 11 murders in 2000 and 12 in 2001. Seventy-one rapes were reported in 2000, 72 the year after. And robberies decreased slightly, from 129 to 123 incidents. 

Crime in the South Bay also held steady, with Santa Clara County seeing 33 homicides in 2000 and 34 the year following. Reported rapes dropped slightly from 337 to 329, and robberies went from 677 to 712 occurrences. Mimicking the national trend, aggravated assaults rose from 3,895 to 4,501.

Two Bay Area legislators received high marks from an environmental watchdog group that handed out report cards last week. 

The California League of Conservation Voters gave Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, a 100 percent score for her voting record on environmental issues in 2002, according to a release from the advocacy group. 

U.S. Rep. Anna Eschoo, D-Palo Alto, also received a perfect voting score from the conservation league, according to the congresswoman’s office. 

The conservation league cited three legislative priorities in its report card handed out Monday. 

Assembly Bill 1493, which adopts air standards to curb exhaust emissions from cars and trucks, and Senate Bill 1078, which requires energy suppliers to increase their use of renewable resources, both passed the Legislature and were signed by Gov. Gray Davis. 

The league’s other priority, Senate Bill 1994/Assembly Bill 2682, which sought to reduce diesel emissions, increase the use of alternative-fuel school buses, and impose a tax on petroleum that would go to fund cleanup operations, died in committee.

EVELETH, Minn. — Sen. Paul Wellstone, the passionately liberal Democrat whose re-election campaign was vital to control of the Senate, was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota on Friday along with his wife, daughter and five others. 

The crash came just 11 days before the election. Stunned party officials said it was too early to discuss replacing Wellstone on the ballot. 

The twin-engine private plane went down about 10 a.m. in freezing rain and light snow near the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, about 175 miles north of Minneapolis. A pilot in the area said the plane seemed to have veered away from the usual approach to the airport. 

“It’s just terrible. Say a prayer,” said Lisa Pattni, an aide at the crash site. 

The wreckage was still smoldering several hours after the crash in a wooded, swampy area two miles from the airport and several hundred yards from the closest paved road. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a nine-member team to determine the cause of the accident. 

Wellstone, a 58-year-old former college professor and one of the foremost liberals on Capitol Hill, was on his way to a funeral. 

The death brought an outpouring of grief from supporters and opponents alike. In St. Paul, thousands of mourners stood in a cold rain to pay tribute at the Capitol and outside the senator’s headquarters. Many wept. 

“It doesn’t seem real,” said Tom Collins, who had done volunteer work for the Wellstone campaign. “It’s a nightmare.” 

All eight people aboard the 11-seat King Air A-100 were killed, said Greg Martin, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Campaign officials confirmed the victims included Wellstone’s wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia; three campaign staff members; and two pilots. 

The last senator to die in office was Sen. Paul Coverdell, a 61-year-old Georgia Republican who died of a stroke two years ago. 

“Today the state of Minnesota has suffered a deep and penetrating loss,” Gov. Jesse Ventura said. “With all of us suffering from the numbing experiences of our nation’s recent tragedies, this loss seems especially cruel.” 

Wellstone’s death threw the battle for the Senate into uncharted territory. Before Friday, Democrats held control by a single seat. 

Minnesota law allows the governor to fill a vacant Senate seat, but it also allows a political party to pick a replacement if a nominee dies. In this case, the name must be offered by next Thursday. 

Ventura wouldn’t say what he would do, saying only that he would not appoint himself to serve the rest of Wellstone’s term in the lame-duck session of Congress between Election Day and the arrival of new members. 

Shaken Democratic officials wouldn’t comment on possible replacements. Rebecca Yanisch, the state trade commissioner who ran for Senate in 2000, indicated she might be interested, while former Sen. Walter Mondale didn’t take questions at an appearance and didn’t return a call seeking comment. 

Two years ago, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, his son and an aide were killed in a crash three weeks before Election Day as he campaigned for the Senate. His name remained on the ballot and he beat Republican Sen. John Ashcroft. Carnahan’s widow, Jean, was appointed to serve in his place and is now seeking a full term against Republican Jim Talent. 

Mrs. Carnahan canceled campaign appearances Friday and called Wellstone’s death “heartbreaking news.” 

Wellstone was up against Republican Norm Coleman, a former mayor of St. Paul and President Bush’s choice to challenge the two-term incumbent. 

Coleman, who was scheduled to debate Wellstone on Friday night, immediately suspended campaign activities. He said he, his wife and father were flying to a campaign stop in the same part of Minnesota when they learned his opponent had been killed. 

“We prayed on the plane. We hugged, the staff cried,” Coleman said. “The people of Minnesota have experienced a terrible, unimaginable tragedy.” 

Wellstone had leased the Beech King Air turboprop for the flight to the town of Virginia for the funeral of state Rep. Tom Rukavina’s father. 

The pilots called the Eveleth-Virginia airport to get clearance for landing when they were about seven miles out and they reported no problems, said Gary Ulman, who was on duty at the airport at the time. 

When the plane didn’t land, Ulman said, he took off in a plane to search for it. He soon saw smoke.

PINOLE — The former sister-in-law of one of the suspects arrested in connection with the sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C. area expressed sympathy for the victims and their families. 

Charlene Jackson, of Pinole, would not comment extensively Thursday on the arrest of John Allen Muhammad, 41, who is suspected of terrorizing the Washington area for the past three weeks. Thirteen people were gunned down, 10 of whom died. 

Muhammad, who previously went by the name John Allen Williams, reportedly lived in Jackson’s one-story home in Pinole 10 years ago. He was arrested early Thursday while sleeping in a car at a roadside rest stop near Frederick, Md., with John Lee Malvo, 17, a citizen of Jamaica. 

“We are very sympathetic,” Jackson said. “We just can’t imagine what’s going on, because how can you relate to something like this?” 

Jackson and her family stayed inside while reporters and neighbors congregated in front of the house in the middle-class neighborhood in the suburbs east of San Francisco. 

But some visitors did enter the home, including family members and law enforcement. FBI officials would not say whether they had visited the home and declined to comment on Muhammad’s time in Pinole. 

“It’s shocked me, it was that close,” said neighbor Walter Hughes, who did not know Muhammed. 

Muhammad also lived farther south, at the Army’s Fort Ord in Monterey County. He enlisted in the Army in November 1985 and was posted to Fort Lewis in Washington state before transferring to Germany in 1990. He was sent to Fort Ord in 1992, then back to Fort Lewis the following year. 

He was trained mainly as a combat engineer — his specialty in the 1991 Gulf War — and also as a metal worker and a water transport specialist.