Employees of Berkeley Bowl—still without a union contract to celebrate this Labor Day—rallied in front of the store Sunday as part of their four-month-long organizing drive. 

More than 150 people came out to support the workers during the rally which was held in honor of the holiday and to give greater public exposure to the drive, increasing community involvement and sending a message to management that the employees are ready to unionize. 

“The time to begin negotiating is now,” said Kevin Meyer, one of the workers who spoke at the rally. 

Meyer said that even though Berkeley Bowl has agreed to legally recognize an election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), workers want the company to recognize the union right away through a card check agreement. 

A card check agreement would officially validate the union after a neutral third party was brought in to verify that a majority of the workers had signed union authorization cards—which the union says an overwhelming majority has already done. 

Store management contends that an election is more democratic and more accurately reflects the interests of workers. Organizers and workers disagree, declaring that there are a number of ways that an election can be delayed in ways that favor the company. 

The rally drew strong community support, including speeches by Berkeley City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Donna Spring, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, former 14th District Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, and Rebecca Kaplan, a member of the AC Transit Board of Directors. 

“As a community institution we are asking you to share your wealth. It’s not just the workers but the community who wants fairness,” said Supervisor Carson.  

Several of the other elected officials said that while they regularly shop at Berkeley Bowl, they have been discouraged by the company’s unwillingness to negotiate. 

“I love the food but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth knowing that they don’t have a union,” said Worthington from the City Council. 

During the rally, a delegation of workers and a union representative approached the Berkeley Bowl management to deliver a statement proposing terms for how to move toward officially recognizing a card check agreement. Store Manager Larry Evans received the delegation but refused to touch the statement, citing legal reasons. He declined to comment about the statement or the rally. 

“I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t accept it,” said Lilian Flores, one of the main organizers with the Oakland-based United Food and Commerical Workers Butchers’ Union Local 120.  

Flores and David Rosenfeld, UFCW Local 120’s lawyer, both explained that the management was avoiding the statement as a way to avoid negotiations. 

Several shoppers sported pro-union buttons and balloons as they shopped and many of the community supporters who showed up were long-time shoppers at the Bowl. One of the supporters, Leonore Veltfort, 84, has shopped at the store for years because it’s the only place she can walk to. 

“I always shop there, but I feel guilty shopping at a non-union shop,” said Veltfort. “It’s ridiculous to not let them have a union.” 

Also coming out in support of the Berkeley Bowl workers were members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 2850. Judy Goff, the Executive Secretary Treasurer for Central Labor Council in Alameda County attended, expressing her and the council’s support for the union drive. 

“I represent 135 unions and 125,600 working families in Alameda County and we stand with you. We will not rest until you get a contract that gives you the respect and dignity you deserve,” said Goff. 

Workers involved in the campaign were encouraged by the support and say that they will pursue the drive until they receive a contract.  

“It helps keep us going when you see people come out and support you, it gives us a boost,” said Matthew Beavers, one of the workers participating in the drive. 

Flores was also encouraged especially by the community support. “It was great. What better place to organize than Berkeley?”

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke Seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672 for information or check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/~teachme99/tildenwalkers.html or email teachme99@comcast.net 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727  

College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Morris Dancing Workshop Learn the basics of an English ritual dance form that predates Shakespeare. Free and open to all. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Oxford. www.talamasca.com/berkmorris 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 

“Of Civil Rights and Wrongs: The Fred Korematsu Story,”  

a documentary, with Fred Korematsu in person, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 2060 of the Valley Life Sciences Building on the UC Campus. Admission is free. Sponsored by the Berkeley Chapter of the ACLU. For information contact ayah@berkeleyaclu.com 

MeetUp for Howard Dean at 7 p.m. at two locations: Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St, and Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. at Milvia. Free Wheelchair accessible. 843-8724. 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, organizing meeting at 7 p.m. at 210 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. For information call 928-1503 or email info@berkeleystopthewar.org  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, 

corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 872-0768. 

South Berkeley Mural Project Community members in South Berkeley are coming together to create a neighborhood mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204. 

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-5143. 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop  

in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

Community Dances, traditional English and American dances, 8 p.m. every Wednesday, $9. 7 p.m. first Sunday, $10. Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 233-5065. www.bacds.org 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM holds public meetings for all interested people first and third Thursdays, 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190.  

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 

Twilite Basketball All-Star Weekend, with games starting at 7 p.m. on Fri., and 3 p.m. on Sat. Come support Berkeley youth at the Martin Luther King Youth Services Center, 1730 Oregon St. There is no cost. 981-6678.  

International Literacy Day from 1 to 2 p.m. at the West Branch Library. Learn about programs for lifelong learning. Sponsored by the Berkeley Adult Literacy Coalition. For information call 981-6270. TDD 548-1240. www.berkeley-public.org 

Chairs That Care Twelve, one-of-a-kind celebrity decorated child-size upholstered chairs will be auctioned to benefit Habitot’s Family Outreach Program. At 7 p.m. at Casa de la Vista, Treasure Island. Cost is $100. 647-1111. www.habitot.org/oldsite_chairs1 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 

No on Recall/No on Prop 54 precinct walk, sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club meets at 10 a.m. at the Washington School basketball court, MLK, Jr., Way and Bancroft.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Basic Personal Preparedness for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 to 11 a.m. at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th Sts. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes or by calling 981-5506. 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, hosted by Robert Hass, US Poet Laureate 1995-97. Poetry, music, environmental speakers, and hands-on arts & environmental activities. Co-sponsored by Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers' Market, Poetry Flash, and Ecocity Builders. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333.  

Water Education for Teachers, a workshop on aquatic ecosystems, water conservation, groundwater, water pollution prevention, and wastewater treatment. Includes an Activity and Curriculm Guide. Held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $45 resident, $51 non-resident. For information and registration call 636-1684. 

Solar Electricity for Your Home Now you can produce your own electricity and “sell” the excess back to PG&E, running your meter backwards! Plus you can receive thousands of rebate dollars from the State at the same time. Learn how to size, specify and design your own solar electrical generator. A short field trip to a functioning house/system in Berkeley and current catalog of available equipment are also included. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610.  

Carpentry Basics for Women A two-day introduction to basic carpentry tools and skills for women with little or no previous hands-on experience. After a morning lecture and demonstration, you will build your own bookshelf unit. Students are asked to bring their own hand tools. From 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $195, and includes materials. 525-7610. www.bldgeductr.org 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 

Native Bees and Pollination Ecology An introduction to the basics of pollination, different bees and their life cycles and to simple things you can do to encourage these essential beings to visit your garden. At 11 a.m. at the South Berkeley Community Garden, MLK Jr. Way and Russell. 913-8097.  

Beekeeping for the Intrepid Come hear an introduction to honey bees and low-cost beekeeping. Please wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants and closed shoes (the idea is to cover as much of your skin as possible). Bees associate dark colors with bear intruders, so wear light colors if you can. Also, if you have them, bring a pair of leather work gloves that cover your wrists and a mosquito net hat. From 1 to 3 p.m. at the South Berkeley Community Garden, MLK Jr. Way and Russell. 843-6683.  

Berkeley Rep School of Theatre open house from 1 to 4 p.m. with free workshops, including Hip Hop, Improv and Audition Techniques. This event is free; no reservations are necessary. For more information call 647-2972. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Accessible Tools for the Internet, at 2 p.m. and Accessible Tools for Email at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd Floor Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6121. TDD: 548-1240. www.infopeople.org/bpl 

Hands-on Bicycle Repair Clinic from 11 a.m. to noon, at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Tibetan Buddhism, Jack Petranker on “Preserving Ancient Wisdom: Buddhist Texts for World Peace,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Eckhart Tolle Talks on Video Free gathering at 7:30 p.m. to hear the words of the author of “The Power of Now” at the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. 547-2024. EdShorelin@aol.com 

Rabbi Michael Melchoir, former Deputy Foreign Minister and member of the Israeli Knesset speaks at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, Arch and Vine Sts. $10 donation suggested. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel-Berkeley, providing a pro-Isreal voice in the East Bay. www.bridgestoisrael-berkeley.org 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8  

Walking in the Twenty-First Century: Health, Equity and Environment panel workshop, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Main Public Library, Third Floor, Shattuck and Kittredge. For information call 883-9725. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call Emily at 601-4040, ext. 109. emily@wcrc.org 

ONGOING  

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Free Smoke Detectors UC Berkeley and First Alert, Inc. have donated smoke detectors to be made available to City residents and UC Berkeley students who live off-campus. Applications for smoke detectors are available from the Environment, Health & Safety office of UC Berkeley, at any Berkeley Fire Station, or at the Fire Administration Office located at 2100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 981-5585.  

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households pay their gas and electric bills. For applications contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy 

Ceramics Class begins Sept. 2. learn handbuilding techniques, the use of molds and decorating techniques. Class is free, there is a materials and firing charge. Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave., enter on Garber St. just east of College Ave. This class is offered by the Berkeley Adult School Older Adults Program. For information contact Diana Bohn, teacher, at 525-5497. 

Writers’ Room First training session begins Sept. 3. Help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Become a Writers’ Room Coach at Berkeley HS, King, Longfellow, or Willard. For information about Sept. 3rd and other fall training sessions, please email Volunteer Coordinator with your contact information: name, address, phone, email at Writersroom@ 

comcast.net 527-7486.  

Café Literario will begin again on Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. This free, bilingual reading and discussion series focuses on Latin American and Latino literature, and consists of five meetings moderated by Alvaro Sanabria. The first book will be “El jardín de Neruda: una antología de odas.” For more information call 981-6270 or 981-6140.  

Prose Writers Workshop We're a serious but lively bunch whose focus is on issues of craft. Drop in to see if we can work together. Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Community sponsored - no fee. Wednesdays, 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For more information call 524-3034. 

Lifexpressions Workshops, Free Your Innate Creativity Through Visual Journaling with facilitator Elizabeth Forrest. Thursdays, 7 to 9 p.m. beginning Sept. 11. Cost is $150, includes materials. For reservations and location, call 526-0148.  

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will hold auditions during the first week in September. To schedule an audition appointment or to request an application form please call Marion Atherton to 525-8484 or email manager@byoweb.org 

Soli Deo Gloria, a 40-voice concert choir which regularly performs throughout the Bay Area, will hold auditions on Sept. 6, or by appointment. The choir rehearses weekly in Alameda. Call 650-424-1242 or visit www.sdgloria.org 

Folk Dancing, a new eight week class begins Sept. 9 and meets every Tues., 7:45 - 9:45 p.m. in Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Cost is $20. For information call 525-1980. www.berkeleyfolkdancers.org 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors, offered by Stagebridge. Wednesdays and Fridays, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., beginning Sept. 10, and may be joined anytime. Held at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., close to BART and AC Transit. For information, call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 11- 13, at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland.Take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of paint, stain, varnish, thinner and adhesives; auto products such as old fuel, motor oil, oil filters and batteries; household batteries, cleaners and sprays; garden products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Please do NOT bring asbestos, explosives, railroad ties, radioactive materials, medical waste, most compressed gasses, computer monitors, CRTs and TVs, computers & electronic equipment. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle. For information on what to do with other items, call 800-606-6606, email HHW@co.alameda.ca.us or visit http://householdhazwaste.org/oakland 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues., Sept. 2, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

School Board meets Wed. Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

City Council meets Tues., Sept. 9, at at 7 p.m. in City Council hambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Sept. 3. at 7:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Sept. 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., Sept. 8, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/youth

THINGS UNCHANGED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I smiled in recognition as I read Susan Parker’s account of registration at San Francisco State: long lines, bureaucratic foul-ups, lack of information. Ah, yes, totally familiar, I recalled from my own experience. But!—that experience was in 1950 (BA)—when the old Market Street “campus” had a total of about 3000 students—and 1964 (MA)—when the new campus held perhaps triple that number. Very little of this current problem, I said to myself, could be due to budget cuts. It was ever thus. 

One of the things you tell yourself as you age is “things change: deal with it.” It's harder to deal with the fact that some things—inexcusably—don’t. 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

DROP THE STRIKE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a bus rider and transit advocate, I think the proposed one day strike by bus drivers is a very poor idea. 

ATU President Zook is right to be concerned about the bus service cuts. It’s not just jobs; we need good bus service if we ever expect to do anything about congestion and pollution from cars. Berkeley still has not implemented the recommendations of the Traffic Demand Management (TDM) study. 

I don’t agree with Zook’s claim that AC Transit has targeted poor neighborhoods for the cuts. She’s right that Berkeley has not been hit too hard, perhaps thanks to local transportation activists. Actually, AC Transit planning has done a pretty good job reallocating service, as on the 9 and 65 lines. 

The ATU strike will only anger people. It will make life hard for those of us who regularly ride buses, including Cal students. It will discourage those who might be considering shifting to bus riding from driving. 

The strike won’t change anything at AC Transit. They must balance their budget. If ATU wants to help, they could go to Sacramento and lobby for more State funds, as they did in the 90s. 

Withholding bus service is no way to make the point that bus service shouldn’t be cut. I hope ATU will drop the idea of the strike. 

Steve Geller 

• 

THE DAILY LULLABY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have noticed that your news paper has become another Leftist rag. What a shame. Your lead story about a grim Labor Day is a perfect example. Instead of a balanced and insightful look at a problem you take the “KPFA” approach and treat every lazy bum or criminal (especially if they are “of color”) as some righteous individual who, through no fault of their own become victims of a cruel and unjust society. 

Mario Flores used his extended unemployment benefits for a two year vacation and now he becomes desperate and wants help and pity. No able- bodied man should be out of work for two years. Every hard working man reading this knows the truth.  

There are reasons, however, that some “locals” may have a tough time finding high tech jobs. In Oakland, less than half of the students beginning the 9th grade this year will graduate. The reason that the state postponed the high school exit exam, which is written at a 9th grade level, is that 80 percent of those who did make it to the 12th grade were expected to fail the simple test. Quite a workforce the Leftist-dominated school system is producing. It is the Leftist-Socialist mentality which has bankrupted our state and destroyed our educational system and ruined many of our neighborhoods. The American Civil Liberties Union and liberal judges whose ideology makes it hard to control disruptive students in school or to keep violent criminals behind bars. A handful of hoodlums can prevent a whole class from learning and a handful of criminals can make a neighborhood a hell to live in. The Left is famous for saying that all problems are so complicated. Just inject a little truth and common sense and things will become much clearer and simpler. The rest of the country is waking up to reality. Berkeley, of course, is in a deep sleep and you are writing lullabies. 

Michael Larrick 

• 

VOTING PRINCIPLES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read Sidney Steinberg’s “Republicans are stupid” rant with great curiosity. It’s pretty obvious that Steinberg did no actual research into the opinion, of course, as evidenced by the statement “Schwarzenegger would win if the other Republicans quit and endorsed him, but they are all too damned stupid.” The assumption Steinberg makes is that Republicans really, really want a person with an R next to his name in office. 

The requisite research to dispel this false assumption would include merely asking any Republican who won’t quit and endorse Arnie “Why not?” (One could ask any McClintock supporter, for example) She'd be happy to tell you that Arnie simply fails to stand for the ideals that Republicans support. For the same reason Greens frequently won’t vote Democrat, Republicans with ideals won’t vote for a RINO (Republican In Name Only). This willingness to stand by principle is called “stupid” by Steinberg, of course. 

More telling, besides Steinberg’s “People who disagree with me are stupid” comment, is the statement that block voters would “vote for Satan rather than any Republican.” That is to say, the Democratic party is supported by people who actually are willing to toss aside their ideals just to see someone with a D in office. Which makes the Democrats basically “smart people without principles.” Much like all those corporate leaders many of us hate. Are these the people we want in charge of our money and our lives? 

Justin Azadivar 

• 

NO NON-PROLIFERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While fighting the Cold War with a policy called Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), we developed and introduced to the world a comparably mad philosophy of non-proliferation. Nations (USSR, PRC) with nuclear weapons could keep them for defense purposes but other nations would not be allowed to develop or acquire them. Treaties were signed, the U.N. passed resolutions and over the years non-proliferation became gospel.  

But it is not holy writ. There are nine nuclear nations today and with the recent news from Iran and North Korea it is time to get real.  

The Roman Emperors tried to stop Christianity from proliferating but failed. The question of proliferation never came up when gunpowder made its appearance. It’s time to admit that this “it’s-alright-for-me-but-not-for-you” attitude is infantile; it hasn’t worked and it won’t. Don’t forget that the first nation that found a way (Alamagordo, July 16, 1945) was the first to show the way (Hiroshima, August 6, 1945). 

The possibility that nuclear war could blow the entire earth back into the cosmic dust from which it came leaves only two alternatives one of which is very unlikely and the other very scary. Either no nation has nuclear weapons or all nations have them. 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

• 

BERSERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Golly jump-ups! I’m so glad we have Barbara Hillman (“It’s Berkeley, Not Berserkeley, Says Tourism Boss,” Daily Planet, Aug. 26-28) to clean up our “dirty image” of dissent in this city. (Clean white socks, anyone?) 

Sarcasm aside, I appreciate Barbara’s hard work on Berkeley’s behalf and Ms. Bronstein’s very thorough article about the Visitors’ Bureau, but the fact is, when we are no longer called “Berserkeley” by the sleeping majority of Americans (the snoozers), we will be as dead to political machinations as they are.  

Pat Russell 

• 

LETTER CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To all Berkeley residents: We can still make the city and school district listen to our concerns regarding the Berkeley Adult School move to the Franklin site. This move will affect all of Berkeley because of the traffic issues on San Pablo Avenue.  

We can have a loud and clear voice about several things that would lessen the impact of this move. We all have a right to safe streets as well as parking availability. 

The main pedestrian entrance to the new BAS is to be located at the corner of Virginia and Kains and the only entrance to the parking area is to be on Virginia at the foot of Kains. There needs to be an entrance/exit on San Pablo Avenue. 

The City of Berkeley has to grant permission for a curb cut on Virginia. This is not safe. There is no traffic light at Virginia and San Pablo. This is not only dangerous but turns Kains into a main route to the parking lot. An exit on Francisco does not provide a safe left turn onto San Pablo Avenue. There is no traffic light at Francisco and San Pablo either. 

The main pedestrian entrance to the BAS should be facing San Pablo Avenue, in the middle, away from all the residential streets. 

Up until now a small group of people in the neighborhood have been working very hard to fight for the safety and integrity of our streets. It is now time for all of Berkeley to do something to have our voices heard. I am asking that you take the time to write one letter, make six copies and send them to City Manager Weldon Rucker, Mayor Tom Bates, Linda Maio, Superintendent of Schools Michele Lawrence, the Office of Transportation, and the School Board. State your concerns and make your return address loud and clear. Traffic and congestion can be avoided with proper planning and consideration. This is a way we can all take part to make sure this is done correctly. If it helps one neighborhood today it will help another tomorrow.  

Thank you all in advance. 

Joyce Barison 

Burning Man is the countercultural artfest held the week before Labor Day every summer on the floor of the Black Rock desert, about 120 miles north of Reno, NV. Launched in 1986 at San Francisco’s Baker Beach, the event and culminates in the burning of a wooden sculpture—which the SFPD banned four years later. Burning Man then moved to its present Black Rock desert location near the town of Gerlach, NV. Now, roughly 25,000 people attend from all over the world. Advance tickets for Burning Man are $225. If you just show up, it’s $300. Outside of portable toilets, not much is provided. You are expected to bring plenty of water, food, your own shelter (either camping equipment or an RV) and whatever else you think you might need for a week in the desert. Attendees are strongly urged to go as participants, i.e. to be part of a musical, dance, theater or art presentation. Showing up as simply a passive bystander is frowned upon. For one reason or another, this is the fourth consecutive year that Daily Planet correspondent Paul Kilduff has managed not to attend after first going in 1998.  

I didn’t make it to Burning Man this year for a variety of reasons. 

First off, my handmade papier mache mask of a mythical tribal warlord didn’t dry in time; it’s still dripping all over the garage floor, but should be ready for Halloween. 

Then the tattoo of a serpent entwined in barbed wire that I was having put on my lower back got only partially done when the tattoo parlor suffered a power outage mid-way through the process. It’s still half-finished and, besides, I couldn’t decide on the right piercing to go with it. 

The documentary film crew from Copenhagen that was going to follow me and my “team” around canceled at the last minute in order to cover the aftermath of the MTV video music awards. 

A few weeks ago I found out all the really good RVs—the one’s with satellite dishes, master bathrooms, king-size beds, convection ovens and pull-out sun canopies—were rented. In addition, the rooms at the nearby motel/bar/casino/café/laundry mat/carwash/gas station were booked.  

The art car I was going to take—a 1976 CHP Dodge Diplomat now painted day-glow orange and painstakingly covered bumper-to-bumper with aluminum beer cans, bottle caps and other symbols of reckless commercialism—got towed. Equipped with a full bar where the dash used to be and recently turned into a convertible, I was going to hitch it to the RV and drive it around Burning Man as a floating bar barge. I don’t know about the Dodge, but I’m still set for Albertson’s tequila and Hamm’s Lite. 

All seven members of my rock band, “Musical Bicycle,” were recently laid off and are too busy applying to various massage therapy schools. In another setback, the gas-powered electric generator our band normally uses for outdoor gigs was stolen and we didn’t feel we were ready to perform “unplugged.” 

I stripped a gear on my unicycle and the motorized barstool I was going to take instead landed in the shop. Thankfully, my gas-powered Margarita blender was not on the fritz so I lent it to a group of troubled teens who planned on tunneling into the event. 

An internship I thought I had lined up with one of the event’s alternative newspapers, “Piss Clear”—a not so subtle reference to the importance of drinking plenty of water at the event held on the desert floor—fell through. Apparently, they were looking for someone with a vegan background and found out about my passion for heirloom pork chops.  

My Burning Man outfit was another problem—usually I wear what’s left of my locks in a bun, complemented by a floral print sun dress and stilettos along with plenty of purple face paint, but that’s so 80s. 

Lastly, I didn’t get approved for a Burning Man MasterCard—something I needed dearly in order to slam roughly a grand or so in charges for travel, water, food, booze and admission. I was looking forward to using the Burning Man provided Porta-Potties though—one of the few amenities provided with your entrance fee. 

Not going this year didn’t mean I missed out on any of the action. Thanks to the Burning Man festival’s webcam, all the unrehearsed, unbridled enthusiasm that permeates the event is just a mouse click away. 

And click I did. Between watching naked people cavorting in the desert and the hijinks of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, there really wasn’t any reason to leave the house on the last weekend of summer.  

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 

FILM 

Luis Buñel: “L’Age d’or” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Norma Barzman reads from “The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jacob Needleman discusses his new book, “The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Berkeley Summer Poetry, with Bucky Sinister, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, short fiction, amateur and advanced artists welcome. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Edesssa performs folk dance music of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece at 8:30 p.m., with a Balkan dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

The East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus is auditioning for new members from 7 to 9:30 p.m., and also on Spet. 8. Auditions both nights will be held at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison Street, at 27th St. Please call 800-706-2389 or email info@oebgmc.org to schedule an audition. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “The Merchant of Four Seasons” at 7 p.m. and “Ali: Fear Eats Soul” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, with Larry Cohen in person. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Angus Wright tells the story of Brazil’s poor in “To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joyce Thompson reads from her memoir “Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu: A Woman’s Adventurous Search for Family, Spirit and Love” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson, featuring DJ Tek Neek, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert Works by Brahms, Bolcom, Barber and Ravel, Chevron Auditorium at International House, at the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

The Mammals, a trad rad trio, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Lost Bayou Ramblers, Cajun band, performs at 8:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jules Broussard, Bing Nathan and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Stiletta, Already Dead, Dot. Commies, and Live Ammo perform Punk Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Triad with Dave Rocha at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 

FILM 

“Viva Chile M...! A Tribute to the Life and Work of Fernando Alegría,” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Genetic Screenings: “Island of Lost Souls,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808.  

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Milly Mogulof introduces her biography of the German Jewish athlete, “Foiled: Hitler’s Jewish Olympian - The Helene Mayer Story,” at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0327 ext. 112. www.brjcc.org 

Curator’s Talk in conjunction with Anna Von Mertens “Suggested North Points” by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 1, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. tctorres@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 5:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lunch Poems at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Haas will introduce campus figures, from a variety of departments, who will read their favorite poems. Admission is free. 642-0137.  

Victoria Schlesinger introduces “Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya: A Guide” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

Maria Sinskey introduces “The Vineyard Kitchen: Recipes Inspired by the Seasons,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Judi Hollis discusses “Fat is a Family Affair” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Center for Buddhist Stu- 

dies in Massachusetts, will discuss “Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience,” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38-$64 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

The People’s Quintet at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $7-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Animal Liberation Orchestra and Gnappy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

Shaman Trance Dance with Ouida Joi at 9 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6-$10 sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rebecca Riots, fresh radical folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight- 

andsalvage.org 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 

ACCI Gallery, “Space, Time, and Temperature” Opening Reception on Fri., Sept. 5th from 6 to 8 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

CHILDREN 

Teddy Bear Picnic at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “The Marriage of Maria Braun” at 7 p.m. and “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gray Brechin on “At Work: The Art of California Labor,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Race Relations in America: A Candid Evening of Music and Poetry, with comics Andy Bumatai, Monica Palacios and singer Lalo Guerrero, at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for Arts. Cost is $8 adults, $5 children, available from 925-798-1300. 

Mark Morris Dance Group “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed itlModerato” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38-$64 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Allman Brothers at 7 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212.  

Lost Weekend at 9 p.m., with a Western swing dance lesson with David Yearsley at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

South Austin Jug Band, The Boy’ Oh’ Boys at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Cutumba, members of Santiago de Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba in their first West Coast tour at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $16 in advance, $18 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stung, Meat Plow at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Rebecca Riots, fresh radical folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Gail Dobson at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Chantdown Sounds at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

Phenomenauts, La Plebé, third Grade Teacher, Them Apples, Here Kitty Kitty at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 

A New Leaf Gallery/Sculpture 

site Opening Reception for “Focus on the Figure,” an exhibition of sculpture interpretations of the human form, from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1286 Gilman St. 525-7621. www.sculpturesite.com 

CHILDREN 

Labor of Love, Family Sing-Along with Hali Hammer and Pat Wynne at 10:30 a.m. in the Community Meeting Room, Third Floor, Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6121. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Love is Colder Than Death” at 5 and 9 p.m. and “Katzelmacher” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Antero Ali: “Hysteria” and “Under a Shipwrecked Moon” Vertical Pool Productions presents this double feature with the filmmaker, voted "Best Cult Filmmaker, 2002", SF Weekly, in person, at 7:30 p.m. at the Jazzhouse. Cost is $7-$12 sliding scale, per screening. 415-846-9432. www.verticalpool.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Watershed Poetry Festival from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park. There will be a pre-festival walk along Strawberry Creek with featured poets and restoration advocates beginning at 10 a.m. at Oxford and Center Sts. 526-9105. www.poetryflash.org 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading, 3 to 5 p.m., West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. Free. For information, call 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

Improvised Comedy, at 8 p.m. at Cafe Eclectica 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Cost is $5. 964-0571. www.eastbayimprov.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concerts, with Diane Grubbe, flute, Rhonda C. Smith, clarinet, and Daniel Reiter, ‘cello at 8 p.m. at Trininy Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Admission by donation, $12 general, $8 students, senoirs, disabled. No one turned away. 549-3864. 

Mark Morris Dance Group “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38-$64 available from 642-9988.  

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

African Drum Workshop with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 10 to 11:30 a.m., experienced from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advance registration is encouraged. 533-5111. 

Jahi and The Life, Organic Flavor at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. The documentary “Redefinitions: The Roots and Future of Hip Hop” will be premiered. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lalo Guerrero, legendary godfather of Chicano at 2 p.m. and Téada, from Ireland, at 5 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. www.downhomemusic.com 

Blaktroniks at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $11. 848-8277. 

Yellow Wall Dub Squad, featuring Mabrak and Iworld, performs reggae, at 9:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Po’Girl and Christina Kiefer at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Ned Boynton and Friends at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

House Jacks, a cappella quintet at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The People and Awesome Cool Dude at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Benumb, Blown to Bits, All Shall Perish, Doppelganger, Brutal Death, A Sleeping Irony at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 

CHILDREN 

Café Rumba, Afro-Cuban folkloric drums at 3:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568.  

www.lapena.org 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Katzelmacher” at 5:30 p.m. and “Gods of the Plague” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gallery Talk: Japanese Figure Style with Lynne Kimura, Aca- 

demic Liaison, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, on the creative explosion of figure styles in Edo painting, at 3 p.m. in Gallery C, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494.  

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 2 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Michael Castleman reads from his new novel, “The Lost Gold of San Francisco,” at 2 p.m. at Dark Carnival, 3086 Claremenot Ave. 654-7323. 

Poetry at Cody’s with Martha Ronk and Jean Day at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Lawrence R. Smith reads from his new novel, “Annie’s Soup Kitchen” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38-$64 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Shashamani Sound System and Jah Light Music at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Duvo Band, athentic Hungarian folk music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Crooked Jades at 4 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $11. 848-8277. 

EarRotator CD release party at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

www.lapena.org 

Music from Scotland, England and Beyond with Allan Taylor at 7:30 p.m.. Donation of $12 in advance, $15 at the door. For reservations and location email sally@greenberg.org 

The Cannons at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The Last Word poetry reading, featuring Jesse Beagle and Lenore Weiss, author of “Public and Other Places,” at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Wendy Knight talks about “Making Connections: Mother-Daughter Travel Adventures” a new anthology, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave, at Rose. 843-3533. 

Chuck Palahniuk continues to reinvent the horror genre in “Choke” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Gabriel Spera, whose “The Standing Wave,” won the National Poetry Series, reads at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express, open mic featuring Allison Seevak, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com

The newest snag in the running battle over the relocation of the Berkeley Adult School comes from the state, which had turned thumbs down on school district plans to keep traffic out of residential streets surrounding the old Franklin School. 

The Berkeley Unified School District Plans had called for creating a new parking lot with an entrance on San Pablo Avenue, which would have kept traffic away from nearby streets. 

The only problem with the idea—which would keep the majority of traffic out of the immediate neighborhood—is that the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) has already shot it down. 

Because San Pablo is technically a state highway, CalTrans must approve any new parking lot that would access it. Despite the initial thumbs down from the state agency, Berkeley Adult School principal Margaret Kirkpatrick remains hopeful that a compromise will be worked out to permit it. 

Kirkpatrick says CalTrans’ refusal is only a preliminary letter stating that will not grant permission. “We hadn’t made an official request so I think that status is a little up in the air,” says Kirkpatrick.  

Under the district’s plan, a grass field would be removed to make way for the parking lot. To obscure neighbors’ views of the lot, tall trees and landscaping would be added along the site’s edges where currently there is an ivy-covered fence. A sound wall would also be added to protect residents in a housing development along the school’s south side from noise. A play structure may also be spared so that neighborhood children could use it. 

The lot, on the west side of the building, would accommodate 170 to 180 cars. The district would build another lot in the back of the building along Curtis Street that would fit another 20 to 30 cars. The school’s current University Avenue site has about 200 spaces.  

According to Kirkpatrick, alternative plans that CalTrans doesn’t have to approve call for an entrance into the west lot from Virginia Street to the north of campus and an exit onto Francisco to the south. Because Francisco is a narrow street, a third plan calls for an entrance and exit only onto Virginia. 

Neighbors who vehemently opposed the move and are still considering a lawsuit to stop it prefer that access to the lot be from San Pablo. “An entrance and exit on San Pablo would be better than not having one,” says Phyllis Orrick, who lives in the neighborhood and has lobbied the school board against the adult school’s move. 

But Dietmar Lorenz, an architect who works with DSA Architects across the street from the school on Virginia, says the district’s proposal was flawed from the start. 

“When we saw the plan alarm bells went off,” said Lorenz who has worked with neighborhood activists on alternative plans for the site. Lorenz says the district blew it by calling for only a San Pablo entrance and exit without the Francisco or Virginia street access points. Because 50 percent of the traffic would flow through the San Pablo opening, Lorenz feels that CalTrans had no choice but to say no because it would put too much traffic onto San Pablo.  

Whether the San Pablo entrance is realized or not, Kirkpatrick hopes to make the west side of the campus facing the busy thoroughfare the building’s main entrance. 

“We want the students to want to park in this lot,” says Kirkpatrick. “It will be easier for students to park in the lot and go into the rooms than it would be to park and walk a block.” 

The main entrance to the building is currently on the Virginia Street side of the building, and Kirkpatrick says the district wants to make it an exit from the building by fixing the doors so they only open from the inside out.  

The Franklin site, a former elementary school that’s been vacant for a year, will also have an elevator installed near the stairwell to provide access for disabled students—a requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act  

To address concerns of neighbors about increased traffic at the site, Kirkpatrick surveyed the commute habits of 764 of her students. She found that 40 percent took their own personal car, 22 percent took the bus, 14 percent walked, seven percent took BART, seven percent biked and four percent car-pooled or were dropped off by other drivers. One percent were unaccounted for. 

Kirkpatrick estimates 700 to 900 students attend the school. A district report indicates 1200 vehicular trips a day will be made to the Franklin site once it opens in time for the 2004-2005 school year.  

Kirkpatrick notes that even though weeknight classes run till 9:30 p.m. “our students don’t hang around. Within ten minutes of class the building is closed and all of the lots are empty,” says Kirkpatrick. “It’s not like there’s an ongoing night problem.”  

Still, Kirkpatrick acknowledges neighbors concerns about the new adult school campus are legitimate.  

“Change is difficult. The unknown is difficult,” says Kirkpatrick.

According to Berkeley labor contracts: 

“Salary reductions may be made as a result of an employee’s diminished service value or as part of a general plan to reduce salaries and wages as an economy measure or as part of a general curtailment program.” 

The City of Berkeley is facing a severe budget imbalance for the foreseeable future, with the all-budget deficit projected to rise from about $12 million in 2004-2005 to well over $25 million in 2008. Most of the projected deficits, perhaps 80 percent, are directly attributable to the city’s personnel costs. City residents, especially but not only real property owners, are already taxed far more than their neighbors in surrounding jurisdictions and far more that other Californians. Figures provided by the City Manager’s office indicate that the real property tax and fee burden for Berkeleyans is already more than 10 percent higher than Oakland, more than 36 percent higher than Hayward, and more than 41 percent higher than Emeryville. 

City of Berkeley employees, while they may not get rich on the job, enjoy most of the “cradle-to-grave” benefits that have been the hallmark of the Western European welfare states and, in the United States, that are mostly limited to public employees and tenured professors. This comprehensive employment package includes almost total job security, generous defined-benefit pension plans, regular CPI adjustments, employer-paid family health insurance that extends beyond retirement, liberal disability and workplace injury policies, liberal leave policies, and many other job-related benefits. Meanwhile, huge numbers of Americans, including not a few Berkeley residents, are coping with unemployment, job insecurity, loss of retirement assets, increasing health care costs, and all of the stress and ill effects of economic uncertainty and insecurity. 

There are about 1700 City of Berkeley employees, most of whom, in my opinion, do a reasonably good job. I, along with most other Berkeley residents, am particularly impressed by our policemen and firemen. However, I do feel compelled to note in the context of this article that most of our city employees, even among the highly paid, choose to live elsewhere than in our city.  

There are seven recently-negotiated city labor contracts plus a labor manual for unrepresented city employees, most of these agreements running through 2008. These contracts are extremely generous, so much so that they must have been negotiated in ignorance of the then-impending economic crisis. For one example, in a time of recession and possibly even deflation, there is no rational basis for large CPI upward adjustments. So, despite the fact that I and other residents value our city employees and the services they provide, we believe that these contracts must be changed. We also believe that it is fairest and in everyone’s best interest to have an across-the-board salary increase deferral and/or across-the-board de minimus work furlough rather than terminate any employees, limit employee benefits, further cut city services, or raise taxes to an ever-higher level. 

There has been a lot of loose talk about the city’s labor contracts and the respective powers of the city and the unions to change course at this point in time. I have been told that the city’s hands are tied unless the several city unions voluntarily renegotiate their contracts. I have been told that Berkeley’s well-being would be jeopardized if a harder line were taken with these unions, since the affected employees would either “slow down” or leave. I have been told that the only way to change things is to threaten layoffs. I have, however, seen that the most of our leaders are simply afraid to be viewed as anti-union and to alienate the so-called labor union power base (even though these union members are mostly not Berkeley residents and voters). Instead, our leaders are further jeopardizing the local economy. They are hoping that Berkeley taxpayers, already relatively overtaxed, will disappear the problem and continue to vote for more taxes and suffer more service cuts to pay for these unjustified and unjustifiable labor contracts. 

Based on my review of the plain language of the various labor contracts, I believe that the City Manager has substantial power to implement an across-the-board wage freeze, a general reduction in hours, and similar measures right now. I am not saying that it would be politically easy to do so, only that it is possible and necessary. Other jurisdictions, such as San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda County, and all around the country appear to have accomplished this without too much serious ill effect. I do not believe that our employees will or can pick up and leave, because by doing so they will lose several vesting benefits and there are, in fact, far fewer other employment choices available now that our neighboring jurisdictions have cut back on wages, hours, employees, etc. If some of our workers nevertheless find a better deal and choose to leave city employment, then so be it, we will have to manage. 

Let us take a good hard look at the real world: Japan has never recovered from its economic downturn, the welfare states of Western Europe are steadily crumbling, and the State of California is in a political and fiscal mess. It is truly possible that we are in a very serious long term economic crisis and that things will get worse for the foreseeable future. Given all the other employee benefits enjoyed by our city workers, an across-the-board wage increase deferral or minimal work furlough seems like a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. It is time for responsible Berkeley leaders to look at the big picture and say “I’m sorry” to a small special-interest group.  

I have obtained copies of the several city labor contracts and, as a template, have extensively reviewed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Berkeley Police. While it was quite enlightening to look at all of the terms and conditions of the MOU, I was particularly interested in those relating to the role and responsibility of the City Manager and the provisions for salary reductions, furloughs, and layoffs. These provisions are mirrored in all of the labor contracts. In the plain language of the MOUs, the City Manager has extensive power to modify the contracts in a time of emergency. In particular, and despite the loose assertions to the contrary that I have heard, the City Manager appears to have the power not only to implement layoffs but also to implement salary reductions or to curtail salary increases. 

Article 1, Section 1.2.2 of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Berkeley Police Association states: 

“Responsibility for management of the city and direction of its work force is vested in city officials and the city Manager whose powers and duties are specified by law. In order to fulfill this responsibility, it is the exclusive right of city management…to exercise control and discretion over the city’s organization and operations. It is also the exclusive right of the city Manager to…implement a layoff pursuant to Section 57 of this Understanding, determine the method, means and personnel by which the city’s operations are to be conducted and to take all necessary actions to maintain uninterrupted service to the community…provided, however, the Association shall be notified of any proposed changes affecting wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment…” 

Article 2, Section 2.11.4 states: 

“Salary reductions may be made as a result of an employee’s diminished service value or as part of a general plan to reduce salaries and wages as an economy measure or as part of a general curtailment program.” 

Article 9, Section 9.57 states: 

“The city Council, city Manager, and the Chief of Police make every reasonable effort to manage and budget the city’s resources effectively and to plan for the delivery of city services in a manner which will avoid the necessity to layoff  

career city employees.” Then, a procedure is set up in the event “…a reduction in the work force for more than thirty (30) calendar days is necessitated by, but not limited to, a material change in duties and organization, adverse working conditions, return of employees from leaves of absence, or shortage of work or funds…” 

Barbara Gilbert, a longtime Berkeley resident and former mayoral aide, is a frequent Daily Planet contributor.

When Lorna De Sosa turned 90 last month, she did something special for herself: She published her first book, a volume of poems she’s been working on for the last four years. 

“Who Turned the Grass On?” contains 38 poems, reflecting on her experiences in pre-Castro Cuba, Paris, Manhattan, and, most recently, of her four decades in Berkeley. 

An actress, producer and director in theatrical companies and for radio networks in Ohio, Connecticut, Chicago and New York, Sosna traveled to Cuba in the 1940s, where she became a founder of that nation’s Academy of the Dramatic Arts in Havana and produced and directed national dramatic festivals for the Cuban government. 

She also taught in the drama departments of the Catholic University Santo Tomas de Villaneuva in Havana and Cal State-San Francisco. 

Her last teaching position were at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and the St. Albert’s Priory. She now lives at a retirement home in East Oakland. 

Copies of the book are available for $14 from the author at lornades@yahoo.com, P.O. Box 159, San Leandro 94557-0659.

Despite Cal football’s overwhelming defeat of SMU Saturday, several Cal fans—Janice Thomas among them—aren’t all that thrilled about the upcoming season. 

Thomas’ main concern isn’t about the team’s ability to win; instead, she and other members of the Panoramic Hill Neighborhood Association are worried about something else the upcoming season may hold in store for the community surrounding Cal’s Memorial Stadium: bright lights, and lots of them. 

A dedicated Cal football fan, Thomas is president of the neighborhood group, and has been working alongside her fellow residents to build a relationship between the community and the stadium. 

“I want Cal to be a part of the community, but it’s hard sometimes,” explains Thomas. 

Right now Thomas and the association are battling Cal over the proposed installation of lights at the stadium that Thomas says would produce high levels of light pollution. As of now, the stadium lacks any sort of permanent night lighting system and only brings lights in for afternoon and evening games. 

The issue first came up in June 1999 after the university announced it was going to install permanent television broadcast-quality lights that would allow Cal games to be aired on network television. Thomas and the Panoramic Hill Association then pressured the university to stop the installation, holding several meetings with the UC Administration and at one point filing a lawsuit. 

The university never made any definitive move but neighbors began organizing again as soon as the university announced its plans to seismically retrofit the stadium, which lies directly on top of the Hayward fault. According to the university, the installation of permanent lights could be part of the renovation. 

According to Athletic Department spokesperson Bob Rose, the university wants to install TV quality lights because several network stations air games in the afternoon and evening—which means right now Cal isn’t getting the coverage it could. 

“It produces tremendous exposure for the university and the athletes,” said Rose about television coverage. “Economically it’s also a boon.” 

For the games that do air on TV in the afternoon and evening, Cal brings in a rented lighting system. 

According to Rose, “there are not concrete plans to install permanent lights,” included in the renovation plans, “but it will definitely be discussed.” While there is no formal timeline for the renovation, the school has already started fundraising. 

Thomas is still uncomfortable because the university hasn’t given a definitive answer one way or another concerning the lights. 

“They are not saying whether they are going to install lights now, but what about in two years? People want to know before they donate money to retrofit the stadium. The issue needs to be put to rest,” said Thomas. 

Jeanne Allen and Marc Grant, who are also part of the Panoramic Hill Association, say that installing lights would make it almost impossible to live in the neighborhood. 

“You could read a newspaper [at night] in the house it’s so bright,” said Allen. 

Thomas said the lights would also affect other parts of Berkeley if they were installed. “Think about driving past Pack-Bell park. Then think about having something like that at the base of the Berkeley Hills,” said Thomas. “When the lights are on, people are going to see them throughout Berkeley.” 

Unlike other large sporting stadiums that are set away from the city, the Cal stadium sits right in the middle of town. 

Rose argues that new lighting systems now exist that keep much more of the light focused into the stadium, but Thomas, and her neighbors who live right next to the stadium argue the neighborhood would still be affected. 

“What we’re talking about is night lighting with lights that simulate daylight versus no lighting. This is going to affect the whole community,” said Thomas. 

The other concern for both sides is attendance. Game attendance has been down and network exposure would help. 

Thomas points out however, that even though the stadium is built to hold 70,000 people, the neighborhood isn’t. 

“The stadium is not on a freeway, its backed into a hill,” explains Thomas. “The only way to get out is on two-way streets through the neighborhood.” 

Cal buses in fans and many people take BART, but parking and traffic continually cause problems for neighborhood residents. 

Thomas compares her experience negotiating with the university to a David and Goliath scenario. Surrounded by UC Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill community has no choice but to work with the university. 

While both sides work out their differences, however, they have stayed cordial and for Saturday’s game the stadium officials reserved a special section for the Panoramic Hill neighborhood.  

“We’re trying to be good sports,” said Thomas. “We support Cal athletics, we love the team, but we hate extreme light.”

The assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim in Najaf on Aug. 28 is the opening volley in the coming Iraqi Civil War. The United States will reap the whirlwind.  

One of the most consistent and ominous prewar warnings to the Bush administration by Middle East experts was that removal of Saddam Hussein without the most careful political and social engineering would result in the breaking apart of Iraq into warring factions that would battle each other for decades.  

The hawks in the White House would not listen. They were so wedded to the fantasy scenario that the removal of Saddam in an act of “creative destruction” would result in the automatic emergence of democracy. They brushed aside all warnings.  

Present-day Iraq was three provinces of the Ottoman Empire before World War I. It was cobbled together by the British for their own convenience after that conflict. The British installed a king, the Saudi Arabian son of the chief religious official of Mecca (Faisal, of Lawrence of Arabia Fame) and glued the whole mess together with the resident British Army.  

The three regions were incompatible in ethnicity, religious confession and interests. The Sunni Muslim Kurds occupied the north. The Sunni Arab Bedouins occupied the center and Southwest. The Shi’a Arab and Persian population occupied the South and Southeast. Of the three groups, the Shi’a were largest, with 60 percent of the population. With oil, an outlet to the Persian Gulf and good agricultural land, they would be the natural dominant force in the state the British created. The Kurds would be important, too, because they lived in the region of the country with the largest oil reserves.  

However, the British wanted the Sunni Arabs, the smallest faction of the population, to be dominant. They wanted this both to reward Saudi Arabians for helping them fight the Ottomans, and because they had existing clients in the sheikhs who ruled the Arab states of the Gulf.  

When the British were finally expelled, and their Saudi ruling family deposed in Iraq in a 1958 nationalist coup, the new Ba’athist Iraqi nationalist rulers had a supremely unruly nation on their hand. The only way to keep power in Sunni Arab hands, and away from the Shi’ites was through ruthless dictatorship and oppression. Saddam Hussein was the supreme master of this political strategy.  

Ayatollah al-Hakim’s family was victimized by this oppression. Virtually every one of the Ayatollah’s male relatives was executed by Saddam’s regime. He fled to Iran for years of exile, returning only after Saddam was deposed by the United States. He became one of the principal leaders of the Shi’a community, and a symbol of rising Shi’a power in post-War Iraq. His triumphant return to Iraq and the holy city of Najaf was one of the most celebrated events in recent Iraqi history.  

It is still not known who set off the explosion that killed him at the shrine of Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. It could have been Sunni Arab factions who fear the rise of Shi’a dominance in Iraq, or it could have been his own Shi’a supporters, disappointed with him for cooperating with American policies in Iraq. Or it could have been someone else. What is clear is that his death will now forever be a rallying cry for the Shi’ite community against its enemies.  

It is notable that in Shi’ism virtually all significant leaders have been “martyred.” Of the 12 historical Imams of the Ithna ‘ashara branch of Shi’ism dominant in Iraq and Iran (Ithna ‘ashara means “twelve” in Arabic), ten are buried in shrines in Iraq. Their tombs are ever-present reminders of the oppression and struggle of the Shi’a. Now Ayatollah al-Hakim will join them, and with the power of a saint, will inspire generations of grimly dedicated young warriors, determined to wreak vengeance and assert the power of their community. They will be led by his own paramilitary group, the Badr brigade.  

Shi’a fury will be directed at the Sunnis to the north. It will also be directed toward United States as the occupying force who both did nothing to prevent this tragedy, and further continued the British doctrine of Sunni favoritism by insisting that the Shi’a religious leaders would never be allowed to come to power. In any case, the forces of retribution are about to be unleashed in a manner hitherto unseen in the region.  

Could the United States have done anything to have prevented this tragedy? Of course it could have. As the occupying power U.S. officials knew acutely about the danger to Ayatollah al-Hakim. Since Washington opposed the rise of Shi’a power in Iraq, charges of American indifference or even complicity in his death will soon be flying.  

The final question Washington must now face is how to stop this inevitable civil war? When the factional shooting starts, where does the U.S. army, caught in the crossfire, aim its own guns?  

William O. Beeman is the Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University and the author of the forthcoming book, “Iraq: State in Search of a Nation.”

A leading venture capital firm ended its 22-year partnership with the University of California Wednesday, a move university officials fear could snowball, costing billions to the university endowment and employee pension funds. 

Sequoia Capital—UC’s most lucrative investment partner—dumped the university one month after a judge ordered UC to disclose classified financial data from its investments with venture capital firms.  

The school had been sued by the San Jose Mercury News and the Council of University Employees (CUE), which claimed that the financial arrangements should be a matter of public record. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Richman sided with the plaintiffs in a July ruling which held that the public’s interest in obtaining the data outweighed the university’s interest in keeping them secret. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said UC was exaggerating the loss of Sequoia. 

“The University of California’s claims that they will lose valuable investment opportunities are not correct,” said Karl Olson of Levy, Ram & Olson, which represented CUE. 

At issue are internal rates of return (IRRs), statistics which are used to determine the value of investments in individual companies within a broad fund. Sequoia and UC insist these are trade secrets that competing companies could exploit if the information became public. 

In an Aug. 27 letter to UC Treasurer David Russ, Sequoia said it would stop doing business with the school because it feared that UC—a public institution that must keep its books open to scrutiny—could no longer keep trade secrets private. 

“Discretion and privacy are the handmaidens of successful venture capital firms. Our portfolio companies are hurt when sensitive information about their activities becomes available to competitors,” wrote Sequoia Managing Member Michael Moritz. 

The university invests in 11 Sequoia funds, amounting to about an eighth of the university’s total venture capital portfolio. Sequoia asked the university to immediately divest from all funds and barred UC from joining new funds. 

UC Treasurer David Russ wrote in court papers that other firms would likely follow Sequoia’s lead, excluding the university from “billions” in investment deals that fund academic programs and the university’s $35 billion retirement fund that pays benefits to more than 35,000 retirees. 

“This makes it harder for public universities to pay retirement benefits and fund programs,” said UC Spokesperson Trey Davis. “Stanford I’m sure would be more than happy to invest with Sequoia.” 

UC invests about one percent of its $53 billion portfolio in venture capital firms, which operate funds that pour money into fledgling companies hoping for big rewards if the companies prosper. That total has dropped by nearly two-thirds in the past two years as a result of the stock market collapse.  

Davis said that UC investments with Sequoia have returned about $508 million on an investment of $110 million, and that without such attractive investment options to generate income, the university would have to rethink its investment strategy and take fewer risks. 

The case hit the courts after UC denied the Mercury News’ IRR request last October. CUE, which represents university clerical workers, joined the newspaper on the grounds that without full disclosure business leaders on the UC Board of Regents could funnel public money into bad investments that benefit their partners in high finance. 

UC had argued that releasing IRRs would cost them lucrative investment opportunities and that it addressed privacy concerns by releasing performance data for the funds as a whole. To release IRRs, the university claimed, the Mercury News needed to show that they had reason to suspect that keeping the trade secrets private concealed fraud. 

Judge Richman’s July ruling held that the public’s interest in obtaining IRRs outweighed the university’s interest in keeping them secret. In his decision the judge noted Sequoia had accepted an $8 million investment from the University of Michigan even though the university had recently disclosed IRRs upon request. 

However, on the day of the decision, Sequoia alerted Michigan that it was canceling the investment due to privacy concerns. Two days later, venture capital firm Three Arch Partners broke off negotiations with UC. 

In light of these events, UC asked Judge Richman to reconsider, but on Thursday he let his decision stand. 

“The University of California’s claims that they will lose valuable investment opportunities are not correct,” said Karl Olson of Levy, Ram & Olson, which represented CUE. 

The university invests with roughly 70 venture capital firms, but Davis said that when given the choice between taking money from UC or a private investor that could guarantee privacy, top-tier funds that generate the highest returns would exclude the university. 

The judge’s ruling will not affect individual employee pensions. UC is still required to pay the same benefits, but may have to reallocate money from other programs to cover the loss. 

Davis said the university will appeal Richman’s ruling to the First District Court of Appeals, but doubted that the university would challenge Sequoia’s decision to drop UC for fear that it would antagonize other venture capital firms. 

“We’re evaluating the legal details of the (venture capital) agreement, but we want to remain an attractive partner to other funds,” he said.

One of the first things that stand out about Jinsoo Terry is her smile: It’s constantly on the verge of an impish giggle or an outburst of laughter, always seeming to hint at the secret to happiness. 

“The most important thing is to have self-confidence,” said Terry, a Berkeley resident whose success story has earned her the U.S. Department of Commerce Western Region’s Minority Business Advocate of the Year award. “The second is being able to communicate effectively, to be able to sell yourself.” 

Such advice may sound like the standard “formula-for-success” fare churned out by motivational speakers everywhere. But Terry’s sparkle is not so much in her words. It’s in an infectious attitude that seems to say striving for success in business is just a game, and that the only reason to do so is for the sheer fun of it all. 

“I have a rap song. I’m a rapper,” she said gleefully, handing me a CD with a picture of her head atop a business-suited cartoon body with arms raised and flexed. “At first, I would just have the rappers perform when I was speaking to African American teenagers, but then I realized what they were saying had nothing to do with what I was trying to get across. So I decided, why not just make my own rap song.” 

One song puts her mantra to a catchy beat: “If Jinsoo can do it, you can do it too.” In another, Terry urges women to “come to me” so that she can share with them her secret to success. “We are the ladies, we are the girls,” she proclaims. “We are tough, we are strong, we make success, we make happiness!” 

Encouraging young women is especially important to Terry, who was discouraged from pursuing a master’s degree in engineering at a prestigious university in South Korea. “I was the only woman in the class. I had to fight,” she said. “People would say, you should stay home and have a baby. But I didn’t want that. I wanted to do engineering because it was challenging, and I wanted to prove that women could do it too.” 

Even after she earned the degree, she was locked out of the highest positions, still getting paid the same as men who were less educated. Partly due having an unusually independent mother who strongly encouraged her daughter to pursue her education and career goals, and partly due to her own inborn chutzpah, Terry eventually broke through the glass ceiling. At the age of 28—months away from obtaining a Ph.D.—she was promoted to the head of Research and Development at one of the country’s largest yarn-dyeing companies. 

Soon after that promotion, Terry set out with her new husband for the United States, where another uphill battle awaited her. She first took a job at a restaurant in Alameda, then as a factory worker at a medical equipment company in San Francisco. “I thought if I worked very hard on the assembly line, then I would be promoted, but that didn’t happen,” she said. 

Terry eventually learned enough English in order to land a job as a supervisor at a leather belt company, where she often worked six and seven days a week. But after seven years she was still not satisfied with the pace of her progress. “I wanted to be production manager,” she said. “When they didn’t promote me, I quit.” 

Terry said she set out to obtain an MBA, believing it was her lack of education that was holding her back. But, Terry says, the real breakthrough came when she joined Toastmasters International, an organization that gives members a chance to practice public speaking. 

“Before I connected with the people at Toastmasters, I was depressed. I thought I wasn’t getting ahead because I was Korean, or because I was a woman. I thought white folks were discriminating against me, African-American folks were discriminating against me,” she said. “But I started to realize the real problem was me. I needed to learn the language better, how to deliver my ideas, and how to be confident. I needed to be able to communicate with people of different backgrounds.” 

Terry soon founded her own Toastmasters Club—the Rhinoceros Business Club—which she says is devoted specifically to teaching immigrants and minorities communication skills and in providing opportunities for business networking. 

Terry is now vice-president of Cut Loose Clothing, a women’s apparel company located in the Bayshore neighborhood of San Francisco. On top of that, Terry co-owns a Berkeley-based mosquito net company with her husband Sam, writes a business advice column for the Korea Times, and is a paid motivational speaker. 

Being a professional speaker is particularly satisfying for Terry. “I see the young people and the teenagers in the Bayshore neighborhood, and they have a lot of creativity and they are really serious,” she said. “But a lot of them don’t know where the resources are, like the Small Business Association, or the Women’s Entrepreneur Center. And they don’t have the confidence. “That’s why I want to encourage them, to say if I can do it, if I can come to this country speaking no English and be a success, then you can too.” 

Williard Houston, business development specialist for the United States Chamber of Commerce, said Terry “is a dynamic personality and is very committed to helping people in the community. She has tons of awards to attest to that.” 

Her latest honor, the Minority Business Advocate award, was recently presented to her at a ceremony attended by Mayor Willie Brown, who two years ago declared July 10 Jinsoo Terry Day. 

Terry said being named minority business advocate will bolster her efforts to bring more minorities into the mainstream of business culture. “Many immigrants, even if they have their own business, will stay within their own communities,” she said. “But when they do that, they miss out on a lot of benefit. We have to come together and be open to each other.”

The hearing that will determine the fate of a Berkeley psychiatrist who has prescribed medical marijuana for 7,000 in the last seven years commences in an Oakland hearing room Wednesday. 

Tod Mikuriya, M.D., who began writing prescriptions for the drug after passage of Prop 215 in 1996, has rejected an offer to settle the Medical Board of California’s unprofessional conduct case against him, leading to the hearings before Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Lew in Oakland’s State Building, 1515 Clay St. 

The hearing is expected to take about a week as the judge hears a file-by-file review of Mikuriya’s treatment of the 17 patients named by the Board in its Accusation. 

None of the patients who allegedly received sub-standard care from Mikuriya has filed or expressed a complaint against him (not counting an undercover narcotics officer from Sonoma County, whose name was added to the complaint after Mikuriya nixed the settlement offer). 

All the patients named in the Board’s accusation had been self-medicating with cannabis before consulting Mikuriya. Many have reported that Mikuriya was the first and only doctor with whom they could discuss the fact that they’d been using marijuana medicinally. 

The complaints against Dr. Mikuriya have all come from rural county district attorneys and sheriffs who, according to attorney Bill Simpich, “resented Tod’s courage in issuing approvals under Health and Safety Code section 11362.5.”  

Mikuriya is charged with violating a “standard of care” that the Medical Board has never defined with respect to doctors who approve their patients’ cannabis use. Ironically, Mikuriya has been urging the Board to adopt specific standards with respect to cannabis approvals since 1996. The Board contends that such approvals are equivalent to prescriptions for “dangerous drugs.”  

The prosecution—the Attorney General’s office, on behalf of the Medical Board—will call an expert witness employed by the Board, Tracy Duskin, M.D., who has reviewed the 17 patients’ files (which were obtained by subpoena). Duskin will explain why, in her opinion, Mikuriya failed each of them. The defense will call its own expert, Phillip Denney, M.D., a family doctor from Loomis, to explain why Mikuriya was able to make a valid medical judgment in each case.  

All documents relevant to the case except the patients’ records can be found on Mikuriya.com, including the final settlement offer from the state Medical Board that Mikuriya rejected.

Two pipe bombs exploded at Chiron Corp’s Emeryville headquarters causing minor damage at the biotech firm’s sprawling campus early last Thursday morning. No one was hurt in the two explosions that occurred an hour after one another in separate buildings a little before 3 a.m. 

An animal rights group calling itself “Revolutionary Cells” claimed responsibility in a posting on the Web site of Biteback magazine, a journal for underground animal rights groups. 

Chiron began in Berkeley, later moving to its present location in Emeryville. 

Blasting Chiron as “animal-killing scum,” the bombers said they targeted the firm because it tests cancer and infectious disease medicines on animals using Huntingdon Life Sciences. Revolutionary Cells called the New Jersey-based Huntingdon one of the “most egregious animal killers in the industry.” 

Although a Chiron spokesman said that the company had no current dealings with Huntingdon, he said the company would not rule out working with them again in the future. Revolutionary Cells said the group would continue to target the biotech giant until it announces it has severed all ties with Huntingdon. Until then “we consider them fair game,” says the group’s leader, Kevin Jonas. 

The Food and Drug Administration requires biotech firms to test their drugs on animals. 

Both the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms the are investigating the attack, but have no suspects. Domestic terrorism is being considered as a motive, but “at this point we just don’t have enough information,” said FBI Special Agent LaRae Quy. 

—Paul Kilduff  

The Berkeley YMCA is looking for volunteers to serve as both academic and social mentors to high school students who would become the first in their families to attend college, as well as volunteers to provide vocational training for students with learning disabilities. 

Students selected for the mentoring program come mainly from low-income families and from groups underrepresented at university campuses, said Mangwi Atia, program coordinator. 

Mentors must be willing to devote two hours a week to the program, which is held both at the downtown Berkeley Y and at the high school. 

To volunteer, call 665-3272 or see http://www.baymca.org/index.php.d_scholars.html.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of two articles on the history of Memorial Stadium. 

Completed in November of 1923 in time for the Big Game between Stanford and Berkeley (which Cal won 9-0), Memorial Stadium in Strawberry Canyon was built amid intense controversy. 

When initially proposed and promoted in 1921, the stadium was planned for a two-block area located east of Oxford Street between Allston and Bancroft ways just south of Strawberry Creek, where today the Sports Facility Complex now stands. 

The front page of the Oakland Tribune for Sunday, Sept. 25, 1921, announced “U.C. Stadium Details are Given Public: Structure Will Be Erected Between Allston Way and Bancroft.”  

Robert Gordon Sproul, then-Assistant Comptroller and a future University president, and then-President David Barrows were enthusiastic about the location in a promotional brochure produced to raise funds for the undertaking. 

Barrows declared that this “Stadium, with dimensions that slightly exceed the great Coliseum of Rome...will represent the physical and moral basis which our education seeks to lay for the intellectual training that is superimposed...how great a spiritual significance it assumes...” 

Sproul described the proposed stadium “as a splendid addition to the Phoebe Hearst Plan” and “an architectural monument ranking with the greatest structures of all times,” hailing the project as “a prime necessity,” “a continuing source of income,” and “a memorial, dedicated to those Californians who died in the War of Nations that civilization should not perish.” 

Then plans changed and Strawberry Canyon was chosen instead, inspiring opposition from a group of architects and one landscape architect who had worked on the initial stadium plan. 

The four architects were prominent graduates of UC Berkeley’s School of Architecture and included: William G. Corlett (class of 1910), Henry H. Gutterson (class of 1905), Walter T. Steilberg (class of 1909) and Walter H. Ratcliff (class of 1903). The landscape architect was Bruce Porter. 

The group wrote an open letter, published in the form of a pamphlet, to the “Students, Faculty, Alumni and Friends of the University of California” asking them to write the Regents to “reconsider their decision... brought upon them an undue pressure of haste...” pointing out that they had donated funds for a stadium on the Allston/Bancroft site and not in Strawberry Canyon.  

Further objections included: 

1) “The location of the stadium in Strawberry Canyon would prevent its being the central unit of a large athletic establishment.”  

2) “Considerations of Transportation and Accessibility” pointed out the obvious that it was far from a steep climb from where there were already several transportation lines. 

3) “Architectural Considerations” included the size of the canyon in relationship to the size and scale of the stadium; the axis of the canyon is east and west while the stadium would need to be north and south to keep the “west sun out of the players eyes.” 

4) The development would forever destroy the natural beauty of the canyon and “the inspiration that nature has placed there.”  

They concluded, “Every architectural problem is one of location, design and construction. We believe that in this instance a grave error is being made.”  

Susan Cerny is the author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.  

Spirits were high Monday at the fifth annual Berkeley Brunch—the city’s gay community gathering. Locals came to socialize and have a good time, but many who filled the upstairs ballroom of Hs Lordship’s Restaurant couldn’t help but reflect on a year of unprecedented legal triumphs. 

“I’m very optimistic for gay rights,” said Berkeley resident Aditya Advani. “We have the momentum, the stigma has been taken out.” 

Guests celebrated the landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that enshrined the right to sexual privacy, as well as last month’s California Supreme Court ruling upholding gay adoptions and Canada’s recent legalization of gay marriage. 

“We’re at an upbeat time. There have been some real advances,” said Johhny Symons. 

While everyone agreed the struggle for gay rights enjoyed a banner year, participants differed on how the victories would shape the community mindset. 

“I think the Texas case was a lesson to the community,” said Stan Stansbury. “People woke up and said, hey, politics can be important.” 

His partner had a different take. “I’m less political now,” Jaime Ballesteros said. “When the Texas case went down the bubble in my head of deep visceral fear of the Republican Right popped because my basic rights are now assured.” 

Not everyone at the brunch assumed future gains were inevitable. “I think we’re on the brink of a huge explosion of opposing forces,” said Tom Pyun who feared that conservatives were gearing up to block passage of domestic partnership laws. “I think in Berkeley we are so comfortable and so isolated from right wing money that we lose perspective and underestimate the power of the right.” 

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who received an award for her efforts to secure worldwide funding for AIDS treatment, pledged to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage backed by congressional Republicans and the Bush Administration.  

“We’re going to stop this thing dead in its tracks,” she told the audience. 

A poll conducted by the Associated Press last month showed 54 percent of respondents favored the amendment, 40 percent of whom identified themselves as Democrats. 

California is on the brink of passing a domestic partnership law that would put it on par with Vermont as the most extensive in the country. The law—awaiting Senate approval—would grant gay partners the same tax, property and health insurance rights as married couples. A constitutional amendment would nullify the law. 

Most people at the brunch discounted the constitutional amendment as a political ploy to rev up conservative voters, but said they didn’t need to stray far from home for evidence that their fight was far from over. 

Several people recalled the grisly murder of Edward “Gwen” Arroyo, a 17-year-old transgender student at Newark High School slain at a party last October. “As far as we have to go with gay rights, we have so much further to go with transgender issues,” said Travis Hottes, a recent UC Berkeley grad who said he fears for the safety of his friends at high schools in San Leandro and Hayward. 

Although most participants were quick to talk politics, health care was the theme for this year’s brunch. City Health Department Official William Rogers was honored for his management of a Berkeley program offering residents free HIV testing. The program tests abut 3,000 people annually and operates mobile testing vans in areas known as hot spots for public sex. 

City funding cuts imperiled the program, but Rogers said an influx of federal grants will keep the $1 million program operating at full strength this year. 

Rogers and his partner Symons, the fathers of two adopted sons, both cheered an August ruling by the California Supreme Court upholding unmarried couples’ right to adopt, effectively validating the roughly 20,000 adoptions by same-sex couples in the state. 

Symons said he looked forward to the day when he and Rogers could marry officially, and not have to rely on the courts. “After ten years with a partner, I would like to have the legal protections and social recognition,” he said. I’d like to be able to use a term like husband and have people respect that.”

Mario Flores can’t imagine Labor Day falling on a worse date. It’s the first of the month this year—the day rent is due. Mario worries this could be the month his check bounces. 

He lost his job at as a train mechanic at Union Pacific Railroad nearly two years ago and his final unemployment check came in June. 

“I’m looking everywhere, asking friends, family members,” Flores said as he waited outside a Berkeley job center Wednesday. “Next month’s rent, I don’t know how I’m going to do it.” 

Flores’ predicament is not uncommon in Berkeley. According to the State Employment Development Department, 4,530 Berkeley residents will be unemployed this labor day, approximately 300 more than last year.  

In July, Berkeley’s unemployment rate stood at 6.6 percent—third highest among cities in Alameda County behind Oakland at 11 percent and Emeryville at 6.9 percent—and nearly three times higher than in 2000. 

The numbers don’t quite add up to Delfina Geiken, employment programs administrator with Berkeley WorkSource, a job counseling and training center funded by the city and federal grants. 

“They’re missing a lot of people,” she said. “That doesn’t include the folks who are underemployed.” 

She said the job center is averaging over 1,000 visits and about 50 new customers a month, up from about 15 to 25 new customers during the tech boom. 

But what has changed the most Geiken said is not the shear volume of job seekers, but their backgrounds. “All of the job centers are inundated with IT professionals still laid off,” she said. “Three or four years ago folks were looking for entry level jobs, now we are looking at such an array—web designers, engineers.”  

Idell Weydemeyer, an analyst with the EDD, said Berkeley and Alameda County have been hit hard by lost information technology jobs centered in Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, and hi-tech manufacturing jobs mainly in Oakland and Hayward. 

Comparing Alameda County’s gaudy 7.1 percent unemployment rate to Contra Costa County’s 5.8 percent, Weydemeyer said Alameda put too many of its eggs in one basket. 

“Contra Costa still has steel mills and a refinery, plus they’re building houses like crazy...Alameda was much more into hi-tech,” she said. 

Berkeley, she added, has fared better than Oakland and Emeryville because some of its largest employers, including UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and biotech companies like Bayer, continue to grow. 

Nevertheless, for those without a job, it’s often a long road back to employment.  

According to state figures, 23 percent of unemployment claims in July stretched over 27 weeks—the highest percentage recorded. Last July, 17 percent of claims went beyond 27 weeks and in 2001 only 12 percent lasted that long. 

To get locals back into the job force, Berkeley WorkSource helps job seekers with resumes and interviews, and coordinates job training for applicants who would most benefit from a career change. 

Along with other one-stop job centers in the East Bay, Berkeley participates in programs to help train unemployed workers in growing fields such as nursing, pharmacy, child care and truck driving. 

Their pilot program, First Source, commits Berkeley businesses to hire Berkeley residents in return for relying on the job center to handle recruitment. The center placed 98 workers this past year, up from 57 the previous year. 

For those rendered homeless by the recent downturn, Berkeley non-profits, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) and Jobs Consortium offer job training to get people back in the workforce and in homes. 

Jobs Consortium is budgeted to handle about 300 cases per year, but Senior Assistant Manager Claude Everett said that due to the bad economy they served 716 applicants this year. 

The work some job training graduates find, however, is not always enough to pay for rent. 

Joe Villagomez completed a course in short order cooking with BOSS. The agency helped him land part time work making garlic fries at the Oakland Coliseum, but he said so far the job hasn’t been steady enough to get him out of the Berkeley homeless shelter on Center Street. 

Geiken is optimistic that the local economy is turning around. Weydemeyer refuses to prognosticate, by noted that recent predictions of a recovery have not panned out. 

Flores, meanwhile, is desperate for something to turn up. “Right now I’m looking for anything,” he said. “I just want enough for rent. I’ve never been evicted. I’ve never been homeless.”

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

Tibetan Yungdrun Bon Institute Healing Retreat from Fri. through Sun. at the Dzogchen Community West Center, 2748#D Adeline St. For information call 526-2343. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30 

Kids’ Summer Jam at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, with great entertainment for the whole family. Free. From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Black August International Benefit for Haiti at 6 p.m. in the Berkeley Community Theater, Allston Way and MLK, Jr. Way. Speakers and performers include Amandia Poets, Avotcja and Modupue, Dr. Hatim Bazian, Chrystos, E. W. Wainwright and the African Roots of Jazz, Wanda Sabir, Sundiate Tate, and many, many others. Please bring a package of school supplies to support Haiti’s literacy campaign. 415-391-3844. 

Backyard Graywater Treatment Wetlands The Guerrilla Graywater People present a day-long, hands on workshop on designing and building small-scale graywater treatment wetlands. These systems use recycled materials and simple tools to create small wetlands that treat the water from a sink or shower for use in your garden. You will learn basic plumbing skills, methods of wastewater treatment, what plants to use in different situations, and how to design a graywater treatment wetlands for your home. We will be constructing a small treatment wetlands at a house in North Oakland. Cost is $15-$25, no one turned away for lack of funds. Call for location and more information  

428-2354.  

Alternative Materials: Cob and Strawbale Two natural building methods are currently undergoing renewed popularity. Cob is an ancient technique using a mixture of earth, sand and straw; it requires only simple handtools and can easily be shaped into imaginative structures. Strawbales are highly insulative and create an Old World character of thick walls and deepset windows. Workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610.  

Planting for the Shade, a free workshop with Aerin Moore, at 10 a.m. An introduction to a variety of perennials and shrubs that are suitable for varying amounts of shade and those that will extend your shade-garden color through summer and fall. Held at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 520-6927, 654-2484. www.magicgardens.com  

Ernest Callenbach and the Wild Buffalo of Yellowstone. Join author Ernest Callenbach and folks from the Buffalo Field Campaign as they talk about their efforts to protect America's last wild, free-ranging buffalo located in Yellowstone National Park, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. Free. 548-2220 x233. 

Bay Trail Bike Ride Join CESP, Friends of Albany Beach, Friends of 5 Creeks and the Bay Trail in celebrating the recreational opportunities that the newly established Eastshore State Park and the Bay Trail affords. Meet at 10 a.m. at Rydin Rd. near Central Ave. west of I-580, to ride from Albany through Berkeley to Emeryville, stopping to lunch at Dorothy’s Sea Breeze Café. Bring helmets, sunblock and plenty of water. Prepare for variable weather as winds tend to pick up along the shore. For more information, contact Susan Schwartz, 848-9358, or Tina Gerhardt, 848-0800, ext. 313. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31  

Dignity Day at the Berkeley Bowl, a rally in support of workers who are seeking union recognition at 5 p.m. at 2020 Oregon St. For information call Kevin at 499-4694. 

Herb Walk Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Call for directions. Cost is $6-$25 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Sponsored by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, Abbe Blum on “The Tibetan Wheel of Life” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 

Labor Day - Berkeley City Offices Are Closed 

Rainbow Berkeley 5th Annual Brunch, celebrating Berkeley's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans- 

gender, Queer, Intersex, and Questioning (LGBTQI) community. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hs Lordships Restaurant at the Berkeley Marina. Sponsorship is available at several different levels, call 548-9235 or email RB@tksvc.com. Individual reservations for the brunch are available online at www.eastbayvoice.org/tickets and in person at Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Ave., Kensington, 559-9184. Tickets will also be available at the door. Suggested donation is $10-$20.  

Back 2 School Youth Jam  

presented by South Berkeley Community Action Team from 1 to 6 p.m. in the Malcolm X School Playground.  

Berkeley Biodiesel Cooper- 

ative Orientation at 7:30 p.m. for those interested in biodiesel. Call for location. 594-4000 ext. 777. biobauerx@hotmail.com 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke Seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672 for information or check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/~teachme99/tildenwalkers.html or email teachme99@comcast.net 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727  

College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Morris Dancing Workshop Learn the basics of an English ritual dance form that predates Shakespeare. Free and open to all. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Oxford. www.talamasca.com/berkmorris 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3 

“Of Civil Rights and Wrongs: The Fred Korematsu Story,”  

a documentary, with Fred Korematsu in person, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 2060 of the Valley Life Sciences Building on the UC Campus. Admission is free. Sponsored by the Berkeley Chapter of the ACLU. For information contact ayah@berkeleyaclu.com 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, 

corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets every 1st and 3rd Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. Join fellow human rights activists to help promote social justice one individual at a time. 872-0768. 

South Berkeley Mural Project Community members in South Berkeley are coming together to create a neighborhood mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Meetings are held every Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204. 

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-5143. 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop  

in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

Community Dances, traditional English and American dances, 8 p.m. every Wednesday, $9. 7 p.m. first Sunday, $10. Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 233-5065. www.bacds.org 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 

Organic Farmers’ Market from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Café Literario, a free bilingual reading and discussion series focusing on Latin American and Latino literature, at 7:00 pm at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave, will discuss “El jardín de Neruda: una antología de odas.” Copies of the book may be borrowed from the West Branch. For more information call 981-6270 or 981-6140. 

Lawyers in the Library at  

6 p.m. at the North Branch,  

1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM holds public meetings for all interested people first and third Thursdays, 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190.  

ONGOING  

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities.For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Free Smoke Detectors UC Berkeley and First Alert, Inc. have donated smoke detectors to be made available to City residents and UC Berkeley students who live off-campus. Applications for smoke detectors are available from the Environment, Health & Safety office of UC Berkeley, at any Berkeley Fire Station, or at the Fire Administration Office located at 2100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 981-5585.  

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households pay their gas and electric bills. For applications contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy

CAMEJO FOR GOVERNOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is only one candidate who is offering solutions to the budget crisis and it ain’t the terminator. It's the germinator, Peter Camejo, Green Party candidate for governor. 

The biggest contributing factor to the budget deficit is the current administration’s $32 billion dollar bailout of the energy companies. Instead of giving away taxpayers’ money, Peter Camejo would have used eminent domain to take over plants that were being closed, contributing to the power shortage. He would have also called for a meeting of the pension funds (who own the plants) to remove power company CEOs and replace them with law-abiding citizens. 

Camejo is the only candidate that will end energy deregulation, provide incentives to increase the solar energy output, and initiate growth-based energy conservation. 

The escalation of no-bid contracts to corporate campaign donors has also contributed heavily to the budget deficit. The Oracle debacle is a prime example. They donated $25,000 to Davis’ campaign and received a $95 million dollar software deal from the state. By accepting no other bids for software, the administration paid double the cost (according to a State Auditor Report) at taxpayers’ expense. 

Camejo is the only candidate to call for the public financing of elections to level the playing field between legitimate candidates. This is more than just a fair campaign issue. It is about removing the corrupting influence of money on state spending. 

It is time we stopped auctioning off our future to the highest bidder. Reclaim the Government! Vote Green, Vote Camejo! 

Forrest Hill, Ph.D. 

Oakland  

• 

FANNING THE FLAMES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In sub-Saharan Africa, madmen with machetes are frantically dismembering anyone they can get their hands on. In the Middle East, people (Arabs, Israelis, Americans) entertain themselves by blowing things—and people— up. Across the world, various dictators and torturers maim, mutilate and murder in places we've never even heard of. Several nuclear wars are on the horizon. The annual slaughter of women and children has reached whole new levels. And in nearby Oakland, 75 murders have been committed so far this year.  

Billions of people both at home and abroad are totally convinced that if they just kill enough people their problems will be solved. 

Our world is crying out for honest, wise and brave statesmen to come forth and pour oil on these troubled waters, to lead us away from carnage and violence, to sing to us and to tell us that there IS a better way; that the human race is teachable; that someday we will finally learn that violence always leads to more violence. 

Instead we have some idiot in the White House fanning the flames with a blanket. 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

A FEW KIND WORDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hi, 

Just wanted to say good job on the new paper. In particular, I enjoy Susan Parker’s column and the Excursions and Berkeley Outdoors pages. 

Thanks! 

A reader 

• 

BERKELEY ROUTE CUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently read your article that I believe incorrectly states that AC Transit does not plan any route cuts in Berkeley (Daily Planet, Aug. 26-28). This morning there were fliers on my bus that, although the HX line in Berkeley was not mentioned at the Aug. 21 meeting, AC Transit does in fact plan to cut the HX line from all of its schedules. The fliers were signed “Alex Byrd,” a member of the driver’s committee. I live in Berkeley near Curtis and Gilman Street, and I ride the HX line to work every single day. This is a very convenient commute, and my bus is so crowded that AC Transit changed it to a double-length bus some time ago. I urge everyone to contact AC Transit and make sure that they keep Berkeley’s bus routes, especially the transbay route HX, in service. 

Luther Miller 

• 

DRIVER CONDUCT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I guess this happens to many people on a daily basis, so I wanted to bring your attention. It is about driver conduct on AC transit buses. 

Most of the drivers are customer friendly and I really appreciate that they maintain this attitude despite the increased pressures placed on them through service cuts and potential layoffs. 

But once in a while I come across drivers that seem to pass on whatever they are frustrated about to boarding passengers. 

Just this morning, I was scolded by a driver for reminding her that there was another person behind me who wanted to get on. The driver had not noticed her and had closed the door. Apparently the driver did not like being told about this and shouted, “You get on the bus! Don’t worry about who wants to get on!” 

This is not the only incident I have experienced or seen where a driver would shout at a passenger for an innocent conduct. 

I wonder whether some frustrated drivers are in turn creating frustrated passengers for the AC Transit. Certainly, this will not help the transit in recovering its customer base. 

Takeshi Akiba 

• 

BERKELEY UNSCATHED? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the story about the upcoming walkout by AC Transit drivers, union president Christine Zook is quoted as saying that Berkeley survived the cuts in service “relatively unscathed.” Depends on where you live. Some of us were plenty scathed. 

My line, number 8, was eliminated. Line 65 was altered to cover some of the route, but it runs once an hour (the 8 ran every 20 minutes morning and evening), and takes four times as long to get from BART to my house. And it’s crowded and frequently late. Last night, for example (Aug. 27), the 5:40 bus came at 6:05 and there was scarcely room for all the passengers.  

This is a mess. We need the 8 line restored, not further cuts. The practical effect of all the cuts will be to force people to drive their cars more, and no one needs that. 

Tom Turner 

• 

RECALL FIASCO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This recall election is about faulty facts; no-bid contracting; partisan conflicts; appointing losing-cronies; jobs; dreadful savings-earnings; passing losses to consumers; stonewalling; high tuitions; weak corporation shareholder laws; deeper debt; excessive red tape; crony-size contributions; fake funding; secrecy, and self-serving deregulation. Thankfully Californians have the final say on the recall. 

This election is non-partisan. There is no party primary election. Hopefully whoever is elected will be making decisions and appointments of citizens, regardless of party affiliation. 

If you will not be a registered voter by Sept. 22, due to youth, religious beliefs, or some other reason, you can still help by assisting others to vote. 

Please include Heather Peters and and Darryl Mobley in your evaluations. Neither appear to be part of any big extremist right-wing conspiracy or other organized power grab. See qualifications and opinions at www.Peters4gov.com and www.voteformobley.com. 

John Bauer 

Martinez 

• 

KENNEDY PROJECT 

This letter was addressed to Land Use Planning Director Mark Rhoades. 

Dear Mr. Rhoades: 

I was one of the neighbors who endured oodles of meetings to create some guidelines enumerated in the University Avenue Strategic Plan, among them a prohibition against buildings which jut out over their footprint. 

The nearly completed Patrick Kennedy building at the corner of University and Acton does just this; it balloons out over the sidewalk in precisely the manner prohibited by the plan. 

Could you please tell me how this came about? 

Carol Denney 

• 

PREDICTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The California Republicans are too stupid to win any more elections in this state. 

The Democrats are too smart. 

If Davis loses, Bustamante will win. 

Schwarzenegger, McClintock and Ueberroth will tear each other to pieces and split the vote. 

The big block votes such as blacks, Hispanics, unions, gays and feminists will never vote Republican. These block Demcrats would vote for Satan rather than any Republican. They hate Republicans. 

The right wing Republicans are stupid to demand their bigotry on abortion, drugs and gay issues. 

Schwarzenegger would win if the other Republicans quit and endorsed him, but they are all too damned stupid. 

Election Day results: Bustamante, 38%; Schwarzenegger, 26%; McClintock, 13% Ueberroth, 7%; Camejo, 6%; Huffington, 3%; all others, 7%. 

Sidney Steinberg 

I am not a member of a satanic cult and I did not kill Laci Peterson.  

I’m not actually accused of killing Laci Peterson and dumping her pregnant body in the Bay as part of a satanic ritual, but close enough. Scott Peterson, her husband, has been charged with the murder. But his defense team has floated the theory that a satanic cult may have murdered Laci Peterson. Its “evidence” for this theory is the paintings of a group of artists collectively known as SNIFF, with which I have been associated for four years. 

For five years, SNIFF has worked in relative anonymity on the Albany Bulb, the tip of a wild and beautiful spit of overgrown landfill that juts out from the east shore of San Francisco Bay, just north of Berkeley. SNIFF artists began by painting on hunks of broken concrete that protrude along the shoreline. When they ran out of concrete, they began a series of paintings on plywood scavenged from the abandoned campsites of a prior generation of homeless squatters. 

Propped up on crude easels constructed of wood that washed up on the beach, the line of paintings now extends a considerable way along the waterfront—a gallery of outsider art without guards, curators or admission fees. 

According to Scott Peterson’s lawyers, the paintings of SNIFF depict “ritualistic killings and occult practices.” That’s ridiculous. Severed heads, yes. Ritual killings no. There’s a painting intended as a warning to vandals who have savaged some of our art, that depicts an executioner chopping off their heads with an ax. There’s a painting of a decapitated saint adrift in a row boat with a naked woman. His head with a halo lies at his feet. In a painting of a boxing gym, some of the boxers have had their heads literally knocked off.  

The Modesto Bee reporter who broke the story informs readers that, “Many of the paintings portray sexual activity, and several show pregnant women.” That’s true. They also show mermaids and volcanoes, carnivals, dancing bears in a circus, a hot tub, a horse race, a rodeo, a man and a woman playing scrabble, a Chinese couple with a net full of red fish, an octopus and a woman in carnal embrace, an exotic garden in which a guy with his back to the viewer is peeing, strange doings in a motel, a cathedral, a donkey cart with an old man traveling through a mountain pass, skyscrapers under construction, an upside-down Trans-America building, a muralized limousine with carousing passengers, a theater with an audience running amuck, the Big Bad Wolf in a convertible with a flame job, carnivorous flowers, a strange last supper without a Christ in which a monkey consoles a despondent guest and a white angel stares vacantly into space, a Halloween party, a pizza parlor, a tattooed lady, and, on the interior of an enormous concrete valve housing, a lascivious heaven and a teeming hell.  

When I first stumbled upon SNIFF’s remarkable paintings at the tip of the old landfill site, I had no idea who did them. I would come back, week after week, and there would always be new work, but it was months before the mystery was solved when I came upon four men, walking up the road, pulling a shopping cart loaded with their paints.  

As I got to know them, they turned out to be as nice a bunch of guys as you could hope to meet. David runs a metal shop. The two Scotts and Bruce work in construction. They and their families have hung out together for years. Their Saturday mornings out on the Bulb are usually social events. Kelli, Bruce’s wife, is a regular, always accompanied by Lola, her diminutive Chihuahua. David often carries out one of his daughters in a red wagon lined with a quilt. Scott’s 3-year-old son will comes out to play in the dirt with his Builder Bob toys. The SNIFFies banter and roughhouse, throw balls for the dogs, argue and paint. Somehow they manage to blend their quite disparate styles, improvising the design without preliminary sketches. I haven’t wanted to horn in on their act, but I helped them build an arch from large Styrofoam blocks that had washed up on the shore during a winter storm. I’ve been sculpting the remaining Styrofoam into monumental figures. I flanked the arch with 15-foot-tall statues of a man and a woman. None of my work has made it into the Scott Peterson file. But I’m definitely a candidate for co-conspirator.  

I am sure that Scott Peterson’s lawyers don’t believe that SNIFF is a satanic cult or has anything to do with Laci Peterson’s murder. If they did they would have sent investigators to meet us, or at least given us a phone call. Their job is to sow doubt in the jury pool. We’re just collateral damage.  

One of the great things about the artwork at the Bulb is the anonymity. But now our extended family has become the center of a tsunami of media attention. People magazine comes out to the Bulb and photographs Scott and Bruce standing in front of the painting of the executioner. Bruce is on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren and MSNBC. “Experts” on the Larry King show speculate on whether he’ll be indicted. A woman at CNN calls to ask me if I’m willing to be on the Wolf Blitzer show. I say yes, but Bruce thinks he should do the interview.  

When the media calls, things tend to fall apart. Some of us duck for cover, others run into the glare of the headlights. One of the artists worries that his daughters will come home asking, “Daddy, are you really a member of a satanic cult.” Bruce and I argue about who’s going to have his moment on national television. 

Why would I even want to be on the Wolf Blitzer show? To be sure I want to fight the defamation, to set the record straight. But much as I would like to think better of myself, I have to admit there is also the desire to be seen, to exist in the minds of multitudes—me and the contestants on the Jerry Springer show. Our reality is not quite real. We think it’s enough, but when the media beckons we run into the headlights.  

Soon it will be over. We will continue going out to the landfall. The fennel is turning brown. The blackberries are ripening. The sun fades SNIFF’s paintings. They paint new ones. Thumbing their nose at the scandalmongers they fill them with playful little devils. Vandals destroy my sculptures. We prop them up again. Time passes. If it has not already, the tabloid media will quickly loose interest. It has the attention span of a spoiled child.  

But the taint of its intrusion lingers, like the smell of skunk. I wonder at its power to swoop down and contaminate my world, while revealing nothing of its truth. An entirely fictional character, “The Terminator” is running for governor of California. The media’s faux reality is triumphant, more real than real. We paint, we sculpt – a rear guard action. Soon we will be abandoned again. Old news. I can’t wait.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 

CHILDREN 

Why Wemberly Worried at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” at 7 and 9:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Strictly Skills, a celebration of Hip Hop, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

2 Foot Yard, El Faye at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee Quartet and The Justin  

Morrell Group perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut at 9:30 p.m. at Down- 

town, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 

649-3810. 

Rhiannon with Bowl Full of Sound, jazz vocal and instrumental ensemble, at 8 p.m.  

at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. 

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mike Silverman, aka That 1 Guy, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck at Allston. 843-8277. 

Allegiance, The Answer, Dead in Hollywood, Physical Challenge, Lahar perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

D’Amphibians, Monkey Knife Fight at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” at 5 and 8:50 p.m. and “The Merchant of Four Seasons” at 7 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost 

is $4 members, UC students,  

$5 UC faculty, staff, seniors,  

disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 2 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concerts, with pianist Ivan Ilic playing an all-German program, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Admission by donation, $12 general, $8 students, senoirs, disabled. No one turned away. 549-3864. 

Kotoja performs Afro-Beat at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

African Drum Workshop with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 10 to 11:30 a.m., experienced from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advance registration is encouraged. 533-5111. 

Desoto Reds, Rich McCulley Band, Continuous Peasant at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Mystic Roots, Serendipity  

at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

peAktimes, improvisational performance art, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations  

suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Osvaldo Torres, Chilean singer, songwriter and storyteller, in concert at 8 p.m. at 

La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mimi Fox Quartet at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102  

Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Pitch Black, Scurvy Dogs, Deadfall, Desolation, Look Back and Laugh perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Guided Tour of “Gene(sis)” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “The Marriage of Maria Braun”at 5:30 and 7:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Deaf Electric, electronic, turn- 

tablism, experimental music and visuals, at 7 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $6-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

2-on-2 Bboy/Bgirl Battle from 2 to 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Presented by Tomorrow's Children, this fast-paced contest of 2-on-2 bboy and bgirl artists offers a $75 prize for 2-on-2 winners aged 16 years and under, and a $150 prize for 2-on-2 winners 17 years and up. Performers include Sisterz of the Underground, The Greans, MachineGun Funk, and Robot Jones. Judged by Danny-Renegades and Karma-Flexible Flav/Zulu Kings. Cost is $5 for 16 years and under/$7 for 17 years and older. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Tang, The Latrells at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Les Yeux Noirs perform high-energy dance music rooted in Roma traditions, at 7:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

AT THE THEATER 

California Shakespeare Festival runs until October 22. Performances this year will be Julius Caesar, Arms and the Man, Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing. Please call for performance dates and times. The Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org  

Impact Theatre, “Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” an evening of ultra-short comedies, directed by Joy Meads. Runs to Sept. 27, at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Josh Kornbluth’s “Love and Taxes,” a tale of falling in love while wrangling with the Kafkaesque IRS. Runs through Sept. 14. Performances Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 and 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25-$40, available from 647-2949 or 888-4BRT-TIX. www.zspace.org 

Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Hare, directed by Patrick Dooley. Runs Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. in John Hinkle Park, until Sept. 14. Show Sept. 13 is at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 704-8210.  

www.shotgunplayers.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,” adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman. From Sept. 5 to Oct. 5 Call for exact performance times. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

EXHIBITIONS  

ACCI Gallery, “Space, Time, and Temperature” ACCI Members Exhibition, with Artists Paula Powers, Susan Putnam, Vee Tuteur, Dorothy Porter, Bill Shin, Vannie Keightley, Olga Segal and Peggy Yendell. Exibition runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 27. Opening Reception on Fri., Sept. 5th from 6 to 8 p.m. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave.  

843-2527. acciart@aol.com, www.accigallery.com 

Bancroft Library, “Towards A Sustainable Earth,” exploring the preservation of the American wilderness, the use of water resources, air quality, species survival, the development of alternative energy resources in urban development, and the cumulative effects of modern life on the environment in California and the American West. Runs Aug 21. - Nov. 21, Gallery hours are Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m - 5 p.m., Sat. 1 - 5 p.m. 642-3781. 

Berkeley Art Center, 19th National Juried Exhibition: “Works on Paper,” runs to Sept. 13. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. Open Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Art Museum, Matrix 207: Anne Von Mertens “Suggested North Points,” hand-dyed and hand-stitched quilts, to Sept. 7.  

“Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Gennomics” featuring contemporary artists’ visions of a genetically modified future, August 27 through December 7.  

“Turning Corners,” an exhibition of five centuries of innovative art, through the summer of 2004. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is open Wed. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students, and free for the general public the first Thurs. of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley” A photography exhibit by the Berkeley Camera Club, Berkeley High School students and community photographers in celebration of the City’s 125th Anniversary. Runs until Sept. 13. Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Sponsored by the Berkeley  

Historical Society. 848-0181.  

Berkeley Public Library,  

“The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” photographs by Ben Ailes. Runs until Aug. 30. First Floor Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Graduate Theological Union Library, “Hand-crafted Books by Bay Area Artists,” Zea Morwitz, Mary Eubank, Nance O'Banion, Ted Purves, Susanne Cockrell, Karen Sjoholm, and Lisa Kokin. Each book is accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the work. Runs until Sept. 30. Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part II Runs until Sept. 6. Call for gallery hours. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

Lawrence Hall of Science, “Lego Ocean Adventure” The underwater world comes to life through role play and hands-on activities. Children learn how people eat, sleep, and work while living underwater as well as how scientists explore the ocean depths using unmanned rovers. Runs until Sept. 7. 

“K'NEXtech” Technology meets your imagination—without stumbling blocks. Construct models from colorful K'NEX pieces, which snap easily together, of whatever you can imagine. Or just examine the amazing K'NEX sculptures built by professional designers all made with more than half a million K'NEX pieces. Runs to Sept. 14. Lawrence Hall of Science is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Cost is $8 for adults, $6 for youth 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above the UC Campus. 643-5961.  

www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

A New Leaf Gallery/Sculpture Site, “Four Elements of Sculpture: Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” Exhibition runs to August 31. 1286 Gilman St. Call for gallery hours. 527-7621. www.sculpturesite.com 

Red Oak Realty “Mixed Media,” by Stan Whitehead. Exhibition runs through Oct. 23, Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387. 

Slater/Marinoff & Co., “All Animal Art” Forty photographers and artists have donated works to help fund the spay-neuter and food costs of the Milo Foundation’s work in finding new homes for abandoned dogs and cats. Exhibition runs until Aug. 31. Hours are Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun., 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1823 Fourth St. 548-2001. 

Sway Gallery, “Secret Summer” paintings, installations, collages, prints, drawings, and mixed media by Nana Hayashi, Greg Moore, Marc Snegg, Gab- 

rielle Wolodarski. Runs to Oct. 5. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. 2569 Telegraph Ave. 489-9054.

Berkeley Police suspect that a South Berkeley daylight shootout Tuesday and North Oakland murder the night before may be connected to a North Oakland—South Berkeley turf battle officers blame for a flurry of daylight shootings earlier this summer. 

“Oakland and Berkeley have been collaborating to share information to see if there are connections,” said BPD Spokesperson Mary Kusmiss. Police so far have found no correlation between the two crimes, she said. 

On Tuesday at 12:32 p.m., a gunman jumped from a car at the intersection of Sacramento and Julia Streets and sprayed a dozen bullets at six men standing on the corner across the street. The six took flight, and when the gunman took flight in the car, a second gunman on the other side of Sacramento Street opened fire on the car, firing six rounds. 

No one was hit during the shootout, but three bullets struck a Julia Street home. 

Police have no suspects. 

The crime came less then a day after the murder of Wayne Camper, 18, who was shot at 58th Street and Shattuck Avenue, a few blocks from his home. 

The back-to-back acts of violence have drawn comparisons to two shootings in June. On June 17, the day after a Berkeley resident was shot multiple times on the 1600 block of Alcatraz Avenue, an Oakland man was shot on the 1600 block of Russell Street. Neither man suffered life-threatening injuries. 

Berkeley police were hesitant to accept claims by Oakland police that those and other shootings in the neighborhoods stemmed from a grudge between rival South Berkeley and North Oakland street factions. 

However, the July 30 arrest of a North Oakland resident in the January murder of 19 year-old South Berkeley resident Ronald Easiley turned up new evidence that a turf battle was ongoing this year, Kusmiss said. 

Witnesses said the scene of Tuesday’s gun battle on the bustling thoroughfare resembled an urban war zone, with passerby’s ducking behind cars to stay out of the fray.  

According to witness reports, the gunman was a passenger in a small, light blue early1990s Honda or Toyota traveling southbound in the inside lane on Sacramento Street. When the car stopped at a pedestrian crosswalk, the gunman leapt out and fired a semi-automatic pistol at six men standing on the corner of Sacramento and Julia Streets. The men scattered as they fled up Julia Street.  

After the gunman emptied his round, he got back in the car when a second gunman fired rounds at the car from outside B-Town Dollar Store on the other side of Sacramento Street. 

Jeanette Johnson was with her two grandsons in the dollar store when the shooting started. “I took my kids and ran to the back of the store for cover. It went on for about two minutes,” she said.  

Berkeley Police responded to Tuesday’s shootout by assigning six additional officers to the neighborhood and stepping up surveillance work. Still some neighbors think the police are not doing enough to squelch the violence. 

“That this is happening in broad daylight shows that there is some type of brazen I-don’t-give-a-s--- attitude,” said Kent Brown, who lives on the 1600 block of Julia Street, one block down from the site of Tuesday’s battle. “If this had happened up in the Hills or in Elmwood I think the response would have been different.” 

David Washington, who has lived for 30 years in the house that was hit by the stray bullets said he wished police would be more aggressive. “I wish the kids would quit gathering. I’d like to see the cops move them along.” 

Kusmiss said that anyone has the right to hang out all day long on a street corner, and that if police didn’t work within the laws they would be vulnerable to civil and criminal liability.

As the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington approached, much was made about Martin King’s dream. The dream, which is but four minutes of a 16-minute address, neatly and conveniently overshadows not only the 12 minutes proceeding, but also the reasons for the event.  

Time has a unique way of altering our understanding of reality. The past 40 years has transformed the March on Washington into homage to Dr. King, but it was much more than that. The March on Washington was the vision of labor leader A. Phillip Randolph, it was born out of the frustration at the grassroots level of the state sanctioned Apartheid in the south, and the Neanderthal pace of the Kennedy Administration to act. 

To understand the dream is to come to terms with 1963 as a defining moment within our nation’s history. Alabama Governor George Wallace began the year with his infamous inaugural address, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Birmingham Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Conner, with his police dogs and fire hoses became an international symbol for evil.  

It was the year that NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers was gunned down, four young black girls were killed when a pipe bomb went off before Sunday services, and President Kennedy was assassinated. But somewhere in the midst of the confusion housed in 1963, 250,000 people representing a myriad of races, backgrounds, and ethnicities gathered together, galvanized by what America could be rather than what it had become. 

To understand Dr. King’s dream is to come to terms with how the victims were viewed as the perpetrators. Those who systematically had their human rights denied were the ones the Kennedy Administration feared most as they assembled on the Nation’s Capitol August 28, 1963. Is it not strange to think some 40 years later those who simply wanted America to make good on its promise of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, were also the ones the Kennedy Administration felt would be prone to destructive acts of violence on that day? 

We cannot begin to understand the dreamless we understand how Dr. King answered his four-year-old daughter when she posed the question, “Daddy, why do you have to go to jail so much?” Because the key to understanding the dream is to understand what gave rise to the dream. 

I submit that collectively we make a grave historical error in looking at the “dream” from the perspective of a 34-year-old theologian addressing 250,000 in the August humidity provided by a Washington DC afternoon. The elements that gave rise to the dream in 1963, keep it alive some 40 years later. 

The courageous efforts exemplified by those who dared to conduct sit-ins, protest, and march in peaceful, nonviolent defiance became strength to movements around the world. Because in that “dream” was the liberation path of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas, the fatigue of Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, the martyrdom of Emmet Till along with Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney. It was student rebellion in Greensboro, Montgomery and Birmingham. It became the perseverance of Nelson Mandela and the inspiration to so many gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. 

The dream of Martin King is to understand in practice the words of James Russell Lowell, “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on throne, yet the scaffold sways the future. And behind the dim unknown stands God that keeps watch over Gods’ own.” 

Denisha M. DeLane, 24 year old resident of Berkeley, is a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors, representing the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and the countries of Japan, and Korea. 

As in many things, California goes its own way in terms of labor union membership, according to a new study released jointly by UC’s Labor Center and Institute for Labor and Employment. While the rest of the country has seen a further decline in union membership and the higher salaries and health care benefits that go with it since 1997, California’s union work force has actually grown slightly in the same time period. Labor union membership peaked in the U.S. in the 50s at about 35 percent of all workers nationwide.  

According to the study, 16 percent of the country and California’s workers were union members in 1997. Today, thanks to an upswing occurring in 2001, 18 percent of the state’s worker s are unionized while only 13 percent of the country’s are. The study cites the strong political influence of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for the uptick in union membership in the state. SEIU, which represents janitors, home health care workers and other service workers, has been highly effective at organizing for new members.  

Another factor contributing to union growth in California is that industrial unions such as the United Auto Workers have not had much of a presence here, so the decline in their membership due to losses in U.S. car manufacturing hasn’t impacted the state as much as, for example, Michigan.  

While the stereotype of the union worker remains a guy in a hard hat, that image is now obsolete, says Ruth Milkman, Director of the UC Institute for Labor and Employment. The California union worker is more likely to be a college-educated woman, in part because the largest segment of union workers in California are teachers—more than 25 percent are in education. 

But, the opportunity to join a union is far more important in determining whether someone does so than their attitude about unions. “It’s not really a matter of preferences,” says Milkman. “You have to have the option.” 

Where most workers don’t have that option is in one of the economy’s growing segments, retail sales. According to UC researchers, retail workers—who are combined with finance, real estate and insurance employees for statistical purposes—make up 27 percent of all employed workers in the state but account for only 11 percent of union membership. 

Unionization has enormous consequence for workers in the private sector, where the institute says unionized employees are 78 percent more likely to have pension plans and 44 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage. 

Health benefits in both the public and private sectors are being steadily eroded by employers who want to increase the cost of premiums and co-payments. Health insurance premiums rose 13 percent in 2002 over the year before, costing California workers more than $400 million last year and precipitating recent strikes by unionized auto mechanics in Contra Costa and San Mateo counties and workers at the C&H Sugar Refinery in Crocket. 

Locally, employees at the Berkeley Bowl are currently attempting to unionize the high-end market but are being met with stiff opposition from store owners who have retained a union-busting law firm to squelch the drive. Berkeley Bowl employees will soon vote on whether to join to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has for many years represented clerks at other area supermarkets such as Andronico’s, Safeway and Albertson’s. 

At other retail stores sprinkled throughout downtown Berkeley there is no union presence, but many workers are eligible for health benefits if they work full-time. 

“I do a lot of interviews and a lot of people do need benefits and they ask us,” says Quentin Moore, manager of Berkeley Hardware on University Avenue. “The first concern is how much? Then they go to the benefits,” says Moore who says that hourly wages are determined by an employees’ experience. All full-time employees receive a Kaiser health benefits package. 

While he’s not looking for anybody at the moment, Moore says today older workers may have an advantage. “Older people want to work. They have bills to pay. Your students just want to have enough money for clothes or food for the week. You got people paying house notes and paying for their kids then you’ll see a little more effort put out.”  

However, Moore notes that having more part-time student employees helps the store’s bottom line since they don’t have to pay for their health benefits. Three years ago the store had six student employees, today there are only three. 

With workers making up half the 6.72 million people without health benefits in California—a rise of 437,000 from last year—legislative solutions are on the horizon, including SB 2. Introduced by powerful State Senate Pro-Tem John Burton, SB 2 would require employers to either offer insurance to workers or pay into a statewide pool that would make health benefits available to employees at an affordable group rate.

The upcoming California gubernatorial recall election (the first ever) has been described as a “circus,” a “farce,” “wacky” and “show business.” More reflective observations have described it as a recall qualified by Republican multimillionaires to set up other Republican multimillionaires as candidates to replace the incumbent, Gray Davis.  

Certainly, this is not the kind of direct democracy to hold incumbents accountable between elections that California Gov. Hiram Johnson had in mind in 1911 when he proudly worked to have the state’s Constitution embrace the initiative, referendum and recall processes. He saw these tools as instruments for an aroused volunteer citizenry, not as mechanisms for wealthy corporate interests or political parties that pay signature-gathering firms to get their agendas on the ballot.  

Nonetheless, the people of California, regardless of their philosophical, partisan or peevish reservations about the Oct. 7 election, can snatch several opportunities from the jaws of a potential debacle.  

First, for two months, Californians can engage in vigorous discussion with one another about the main problems and best solutions affecting their state present and future. The election is headline news! Send small talk for a holiday. It is time for some serious reading, thinking and acting about the governance of California. Result: a more engaged citizenry.  

Second, Californians can sharpen their political strategy skills, much as sports fans delve so profoundly into the strategies between teams, managers and players. For example, how will the backroom handlers of Arnold Schwarzenegger figure out how to shield their candidate’s lack of knowledge about public policies and state governance by presenting him garnished with positive imagery, photo ops, generalities, slogans and smiles? How, in response, are the Davis forces and his Republican competitors going to diminish Schwarzenegger’s front-runner status? Result: a public with a honed awareness of the strategies in play, giving voters better defenses against adept manipulations by the political consulting pros.  

Third, it is an excellent time for people and groups with grievances, successful projects and good ideas to be heard. What are the best ways to deal with energy, public revenues, housing, employment, the environment, transportation, health and other necessities of the state? California is full of wonderful success stories that need visibility. Knowledgeable scholars, civic groups and sustainable businesses need to come forward. If you demand substance — and the print and electronic media, including public airwaves, are open to such information instead of succumbing to personality politics in a circus-like atmosphere—unprecedented depth could be reached in this election.  

Fourth, this recall period offers an excellent opportunity to develop measures of performance expected of your governor. Refined and more expansive expectation levels by voters can change the tone, quality and emphasis of the candidates’ electoral campaigns or expose their vacuousness. Low expectation levels allow politicians to inflate their campaign’s emotional content and escape a fuller accountability when they are in office. Moreover, nothing feeds voter cynicism and withdrawal more than their own low expectation of themselves—that they do not count, that they do not matter. So why vote? A greater civic self-respect would result in higher voter turnout.  

Fifth, one massive obstacle remains unchallenged by the voters. That is big money in elections, corrupting everything it touches. If this recall campaign does nothing but sensitize Californians to indignant action against the commercialization of their public election campaigns (“everything is for sale”), it will be a historic contribution to the state’s future well-being.  

Davis has tried to make an issue out of the $66 million or so that the state will spend to run the election. But what should be front and center in evaluating Davis’ tenure is his notorious, relentless and specific cash-register politics since his first day in office.  

As consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield pointed out last week in a detailed statement supporting the recall of Davis, Californians have been forced to pay billions of dollars in higher electricity prices, utility company bailouts, HMO price-gouging of patients and many other impositions because Davis asked for and received torrents of dollars from these very corporate interests for his campaign war chest. Public funding of public elections is the best public investment, given the seedy alternatives.  

Californians can now turn themselves into more skilled and demanding voters for this and future elections, if they choose to make the best out of the October recall instead of burlesquing the event.  

The whole world is watching.  

Ralph Nader ran for president in 2000.  

Though Clarence Arceneaux grew up in Texas and lived much of his adult life in El Cerrito, it was Berkeley, the city where he fed the homeless every month for nearly twenty years, that grieved for him Thursday. 

A devoted member of the Church By The Side Of The Road at 2109 Russell St. in Berkeley, the man who would work for days every month preparing food for hundreds died of cancer last week. He was 74. 

Arceneaux was a trained carpenter, but it was cooking that stirred his soul. 

“That was his passion,” said Pamela Calloway who is taking over the charity meals. “Not only did he cook for the homeless but sometimes he’d cook just because. It was a way for him to show his love.” 

On June 29 Berkeley bestowed its gratitude for his service, proclaiming Clarence Arceneaux Day in the city. 

Arceneaux grew up in Baytown, Tex. where barbecues and cajun cooking were king. He served in the Korean War and was decorated with the World War II Victory Medal of Honor.  

When he relocated to El Cerrito in 1974 to get his kids into better schools and be closer to his family, Arceneaux immediately set out to serve the poor. For twelve years he packed lunches for the homeless and delivered them to local parks. 

Then while preparing for Thanksgiving dinner 18 years ago, he decided to expand his mission. 

“He wanted to make sure that when he and the rest of the congregation sat down to eat, they could feel good because everyone had a meal,” Calloway said.  

He cooked for about than 300 people inside the church that Thanksgiving. The dinner went so well, he made it a monthly event. 

Arceneaux put everything he had into the dinners. “He’d spend two days cooking day and night, said his son Victor. “He’d go into his own pocket. He made sure he bought the best of everything.” 

The dinner’s didn’t win him a lot of notoriety, but those who he helped never forgot. “I’m still talking to people who tell me they’ve gone to the feed,” Victor said. 

Arceneaux was as dedicated to his church as he was to the homeless. He fixed and tinkered with much of the building on Russell St. and when he grew too old to undertake big projects, he served as a consultant on church construction. 

Reverend Cheryl Ward, who knew Arceneaux when she was a girl, remembered a soft-spoken man who commanded respect, but wasn’t too set in his ways. 

When Ward was first asked to preach at the church, Arceneaux told her he wasn’t wild about female preachers.  

“On the first Sunday I came to preach, he sat in the back and said ‘You better preach good.’ Afterwards he hit me on the shoulder and said, ‘You done good.’’  

Soon Arceneaux lobbied for her to be named interim preacher and last month he asked her to give his eulogy. 

Church member Marian Bartlow put it best: “God took three little fishes and five loaves of bread and he fed the world. Now he has some help.” 

Arceneaux is survived by his wife of 51 years, Elise Arceneaux; five children; twelve grandchildren; three great grandchildren; as well as five sisters and five brothers.

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, the long recognized community resource founded over 28 years ago by Oakland school teachers is engaged in union busting, disrespect of workers, ignoring its own mission statement and has lost its way. 

For over one year employees have tried many ways to improve conditions at the Depot including many informal and formal attempts to utilize professional mediation to settle problems between workers and management. Issues with management include: Refusal by management to discuss personnel problems, lack of the existence of a grievance procedure, surprising disregard for issues of recycling, and lack of recycling in the store. Other problems include the lack of discussion of environmental issues including safety problems such as toxics materials handling. 

Another major concern is the sudden change from a teamwork way of working to a top down “if you don't like it there's the door” approach. Employees were ignored numerous times. EBD Board of Directors have gone along with management, ignore workers’ concerns and have as far as we know, not set in place a structure for conflict resolution. As of June, the vital and successful educational programs, Project Create and Art in the Heart no longer exist. Why? This is a great loss to our community and its thousands of school children who benefited from these programs for many years. In the last year, more than 25 program and store workers including educational program managers have lost their jobs. The stressful conditions persist.  

The employees at the Depot eventually turned to the Industrial Workers of the World in an effort to organize a union. An election took place in April 2003 and employees voted unanimously (13-0) for the union. Of those 13 only 3 remain as management continues to fire, layoff, and force workers through harassment to quit in disgust and frustration.  

Now, another new batch of workers have been hired to replace the workers who organized a union. We don't blame them for accepting jobs during a union organizing drive. We hope the workers now employed at the Depot will take the time to inform themselves concerning the union drive and also look into the concerns listed above as well as their own. 

The stated mission of the Depot “...is to divert waste materials from landfills and reduce primary source production by collecting and distributing discarded material as low cost supplies and furnishings for the arts, education and households, recreation and social services. Our educational mission is to increase the awareness of school students and the general public concerning satisfaction and environmental benefits gained from creatively reusing industrial, commercial and residential materials. The Depot is a California nonprofit benefit corporation.”  

Perhaps the Board of Directors of the Depot should modify their mission statement to something more in line with their actual practices. The abandonment of their stated mission and their withdrawal of support to the educational programs is appalling. 

We think it is imperative that the board of directors be more open and representative of the community that it serves. It must become a more inclusive and involving organization that can respond to the needs of teachers, artists and the community of the East Bay. Board meetings are closed to the public. This has to change. The East Bay Depot board of directors is mishandling their stewardship of this vital community resource and must be held accountable.  

Respectfully Submitted by Arlene Magarian, Chela Fielding, Daniella Wooton, Emma Spertus, Micah Messenheimer and Thurston Graham on behalf of 33 ex-Depot workers. 

For many school age kids doing math homework—especially without the help of a tutor or parent who knows the material—can be so frustrating that they just give up. Thanks to a new Web site that may be starting to change for Berkeley’s young math-phobes.  

Called Hotmath.com, the website is the brainchild of Chuck Grant, a former computer science professor at Cal and the co-founder of Northstar computers.  

The idea for the website was born three years ago when he found himself volunteering as a math teacher at a continuation school in Orinda.  

“Getting those kids to do homework was impossible,” says Grant. He reasoned that the problem was that his students weren’t making any headway so they just threw in the towel. 

After consulting some friends including Bob Bekes, chairman of the math department at Santa Clara University, Grant decided that what his students needed was an online tutor to help them get their homework problems done. 

Students logging onto Hotmath.com discover not only solutions to many of the math problems they face in class, but hints as well. For instance, for a word problem that asks students to identify the three consecutive odd numbers that add up to 105 the hint they click on defines the word consecutive.  

“They don’t know what consecutive means. It’s a big word. So, the first hint is consecutive means one after the other. For example, 5 and 7 are consecutive odd numbers,” says Grant, 58. “Let the kids get the answers they need that a tutor would give them, that mommy or daddy would give them if they had that available help.” 

According to Grant, a Kensington resident, it’s critical for students’ understanding to have solutions to math problems but most textbooks only give a few. 

“The way the normal math textbook presents the information to describe a concept they give three examples of how to apply it to a problem and then there’s a hundred problems that the teacher selects to assign for homework,” says Grant. 

“Some kids get the idea right away. Some kids get what it’s all about by looking at one of the examples in the book. Some get it by looking at two. Some by three. Books can’t be any bigger and heavier than they are now so the kids that take four or more examples are screwed.” 

Research bears out Grant’s point. In a study from the Texas schools presented on the Hotmath.com Web site, two groups of math students were given the same set of problems. 

One group was just assigned the problems; the other was assigned problems with solutions. Kids given the solutions outperformed the ones “who were just forced to struggle,” says Grant. 

“If a problem is hard and you don’t know how to get started, what do you learn? You learn nothing. If someone shows you how to do it, you learn something.” 

Initially launched as a free advertiser-supported website, Hotmath.com began charging for the service earlier this month in light of the soft market for Internet advertising. 

Over 300 school districts nationwide including Berkeley have signed up and pay $300 to offer it to their students for free. Students not attending a Hotmath.com school can access the Website for an entire school year for $29. By last April, the site was avewraging 150,000 hits per month from students. 

Grant launched the Web site with a combination of donated effort and cash from himself and investors totalling in “the low seven figures.”  

Berkeley schools use the service in conjunction with mathbooks from College Preparatory Mathematics, which pays for Hotmath.com access. The publishing company covers costs of site access for all schools using their textbook. The publisher provides most of the seventh grade through pre-calculus textbooks used in Berkeley. 

When Grant started the website, he and his network of 80 math professors and teacher contributors would give all the answers to problems assigned students.  

They had to rethink their strategy after teachers complained that “you’re making it too easy for them” by offering students all the answers, depriving the kids of the joy of discovery. There was also concern that the site could become a resource for cheaters. Now Hotmath.com displays only the odd numbered problems. 

Although the site grew out of Grant’s concern that underprivileged kids were not getting the math help they needed to succeed, he realizes that those very same students may not have internet access in their homes.  

“Very early on we realized we’re helping the rich kids, when we started this wanting to help the poor kids,” says Grant.  

To counteract the so called “digital divide” between families that are online and those that are not, Grant instructs all teachers to make it clear to students where they can go for free Internet access in their communities. Generally these resources include school computer labs, libraries, YMCAs and other after school programs. Of course, for students in a town as wired as Berkeley Internet access isn’t as grave a concern as it might be elsewhere. 

“I’ll bet every kid in Berkeley who doesn’t have the Internet at home has a friend who does within five houses,” says Grant.

BART trains will be running on a normal Sunday schedule on Labor Day. The Richmond/Fremont, Pittsburg/Bay Point-Millbrae and Dublin/Pleasanton-SFO lines will run at 20-minute intervals beginning at 8 a.m. The BART Administrative offices will be closed. 

BART is also offering transportation to the 138th annual Scottish Gathering and Games this Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 30 and 31, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. To get there take BART to the Dublin/Pleasanton Station and board a “Wheels” shuttle bus, in service from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with departures from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station and the fairgrounds every 30 minutes. The one-way fair is $1.25. 

For additional train and fair information please contact BART at 510-465-BART.  

—Jakob Schiller 

Oakland kicks off the Labor Day weekend with its third annual Art and Soul Festival, headlined this year by music giants Ziggy Marley and Rachelle Ferrell. 

Almost 70,000 people showed up last year and event sponsors expect an even larger turnout this year. 

Marley, the son of reggae legend Bob Marley and a respected reggae artist in his own right, has just released his first solo album Dragonfly, a departure from his traditional reggae style. 

Rachelle Ferrell, a child prodigy educated at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, was recently named the “most accomplished and emotionally devastating vocalist to have emerged thus far this decade” by Billboard magazine. With a six-octave range and a repertoire that includes contemporary, pop, gospel and jazz, both she and Marley promise to be crowd favorites. 

The festival kicks off Saturday with a “Family Day” that will include children’s activities and entertainment as a well as a children’s poetry program sponsored by the Oakland Public library. The poetry event is part of the festival’s Literature Expo that runs throughout the weekend and includes other events such as a performance by Oakland Poetry Slam team coordinator Sonia Whittle. 

Other events include a number of open mics, panels, and art exhibits. Everything except the food is free. 

Events will take place from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. every day on five large stages and on the closed-off streets around City Hall’s Frank Ogawa Plaza. For more information and a full schedule check the Web site at ArtandSoulOakland.com  

—Jakob Schiller

For a handful of Berkeley High School freshmen, the first day of school was the worst of all worlds. These were the students who, for one reason or another, had no class schedule in hand and, therefore, had no idea where they were supposed to be. There’s nothing that makes a freshman stand out so much as being lost. 

8:00 a.m. Crowds of students hang in small knots in the area between the Science Building and the theater, mingling, laughing, hollering, waiting for the first bell of the new school year. Schedules in hand, they already know what they’ll be doing and where they’ll be going. For the upperclassmembers, all of this is old stuff. For the freshmen who went through last week’s orientation, they try hard to appear as if all of this is old stuff to them.  

For freshmen, with no schedules, it’s another story. 

Some fifty of them stand in a line that snakes up the stairs to the doors of the theater. They give out their names to the two women sitting behind card tables. For the lucky students, their schedules are printed out and waiting for them at the tables. For the unlucky, it’s a trip to room H105. 

“Where’s H105?” one of the students asks. 

“It’s in the ‘H’ Building,” an upperclassmember answers, pointing. 

“Where’s the ‘H’ Building?” 

“It’s the one with the ‘H’ on it.” 

“Oh.” 

8:15 a.m. About 20 students sit around the various tables in H105, the College Services Office. Counselors shuttle in and out of a smaller office off the main room, conferring, comparing things on papers. To all inquiries they answer, “Don’t worry. You’ll be all right. Just sit down and hang out for a while. We’ll get to you.” 

The students sit, wait, stare at their backpacks on the desk or roll their palms over pens or pencils. Two or three jot down notes on the first page of newly-bought yellow pads, pads that are empty now, but will soon be filled with notes and homework assignments. A few of the students chat among themselves, but most sit separately, and seem pensive and worried. They’ve spent the summer, probably, preparing for the first day at the big school. It’s like a paratrooper recruit waiting to make the first jump out of an airplane, then being told to wait while the plane circles the jump area one more time. The wait must be agonizing. Let’s just do it. 

A few upperclassmembers wander in to look for a counselor, or else, maybe, just to show off to the new kids that they, at least, know the teachers and counselors and where they’re supposed to be. Hal Thomas, the stocky, bearded Director of On-Campus Suspension, screens them at the door. He seems to have a working relationship with all of the old-timers. 

“Where are you supposed to be first period?” 

“English.” 

“Who’ve you got for English?” 

The student shrugs. 

Thomas gives an amiable smile as he edges the student back out the door. “Better whip out that schedule, then, and check it out, man.” Helping out with freshman registration “just for the day,” his strategy appears to be familiarity and gentle (but pointed) persuasion mixed with a wry humor. He apparently has a reputation among the students, as no upperclassmembers offer him a challenge, and most joke back with him as they pass on information and move on their way. 

He moves on to another student before the first one is out of the doorway. “What’s up?” he says. “Talk to me.” The student talks, explaining his problem, and Thomas gives a quick solution. In between students, he coordinates his efforts with an unseen fellow worker on a walkie-talkie. 

Freshman Counselor Susan Werd, with flowing white hair and sandals, walks in and asks, generally, how many of the students have ever had schedules. Some of the students keep talking, paying her no attention. Werd, who seems generally good-natured, is not amused. 

“When an adult talks,” she says, “you need to be quiet and listen.” 

She doesn’t say it loud, and she doesn’t say it angrily. But something in her voice–honed by years of practice, one supposes–makes the students suddenly be quiet and listen. 

She apologizes to those students who were promised schedules, but hadn’t yet gotten them. “I was here til 9:30 last night,” she says, more than once. “I tried to get them all done, but I just had to go home. We’ll have them for you as soon as we can.” Then she asks, “How many students here originally got their schedules and then lost them?” 

A few raise their hands. 

Werd narrows her eyes. “There’s a penalty for that,” she says. “20 lashes, and you have to pick up all the garbage cans today.” The students exchange nervous glances. None of them are quite sure if she’s kidding. 

While they wait, Thomas takes a seat next to a tall student whose been grumbling the most, trying to ascertain his situation.  

“I went to the theater like they told me, and they didn’t have my schedule, so they sent me here,” the student tells him, more than a little annoyed. “It’s a whole ‘nother waiting process. I ain’t about to do that.” 

Disgusted, he waits until Thomas leaves, and then gets up and exits the room himself, telling noone in particular that he’s going to the bathroom. He doesn’t come back. Another student later reports that he was seen hanging out on Shattuck Avenue. Apparently, he is the only student lost to the process during the entire morning. 

8:30 a.m. The bell on the walk clock rasps out like a car alarm. The students all jump, and some of them giggle nervously. It’s the first time, apparently, they’ve heard the bell at Berkeley High School. 

More students come in the door, taking up all of the available seats around the tables, swelling the numbers to between 35 and 40. Some of them are seniors with no first period class. Tomorrow, they won’t come to school until second period, but today they’ve got to have somewhere to go (the policy of the newly-hired principal, Jim Slemp, is that students must be either in class, on a supervised assignment, or off campus altogether; the operative phrase, apparently, is “no hanging out”). Thomas sends a few of the seniors back out to various locations, cautioning them to not “draw attention to yourself.” The halls, apparently, are swarming with monitors shooing students into classrooms or offices.  

“Why don’t you cruise up to Ms. Cook’s class and see if you’re on her roll, just for ha-ha’s,” he tells one upperclassmember who, at least, has a schedule in hand. “If not, come back here.” To the students who are staying, he tells them to “have a seat, relax, get a book, make yourself at home.” 

They find it difficult to relax. After Thomas walks away leaves, an unsure student leans over to a stray adult sitting at the table next to her and asks, “Do you think they’ll mind if I take one of these books off the shelf and look at it? I’ll put it right back,” she adds, quickly. The adult tells her he doesn’t think that’ll be a problem. 

8:50 a.m. A counselor comes in and asks for any 10th graders who are present. The freshmen look up hopefully, but nobody asks for them. A few put their heads down on the desk, like third graders taking a morning nap. The 10th graders are led out in a group, to some unidentified location. For all the freshmen know, they might be merely going to sit and wait in another office. 

But like moving from the reception area to the examination room at the doctor’s office, only to wait for another half an hour, any movement must seem a step in the right direction, a sign of progress. 

8:55 a.m. Counselors begin pulling out the ninth graders two at a time. On his way out, one of the counselors tells the students, “We’re working on your schedules, and we’ll have all of you in class in a couple of hours.” The remaining students are not quite sure if this is actually true, or if this is merely pacification (it ends up being true). At the side of the room, a senior waiting out first period says drily to another senior, “They do the same thing every year.” Pacify? Make students wait? Mess of schedules? 

Whatever the reference, the other senior nods and seems to know exactly what is meant. 

9:00 a.m. The clock bell rings. The students jump again. 

9:03 a.m. Without explanation, five students who have been sitting together at a central table suddenly stand up and file out the door, smirking at the ones left behind. Those left behind stare after them, sad-faced. 

Thomas comes in again, asking if there are any 10th or 11th graders left. One student gets up, and she’s directed outside. “No more 10th or 11th graders?” Thomas asks again. A student in the back raises his hand. “I’m a sophomore,” he says. It’s hard to read the expression on Thomas’ face. 

Amusement? Resignation? Understanding that no matter how many times you ask a question of students, you’ve always got to ask just one more time? He motions with his hand for the sophomore to follow him outside. 

9:15 a.m. Werd returns and asks if there are any students present who went to King, Willard, or Longfellow Middle Schools. 

One of the seniors raises her hand. “I went to Longfellow,” she says, then adds “Four years ago.” 

Werd looks over, recognizes the senior, and appreciates the joke. “Thank you,” she says, calling the senior’s name. It is a clear lesson to the audience of freshmen. This is not a big, impersonal factory. Among the close to 3,000 students roaming the hallways, there are adults who will take the time to learn your name and know who you are. 

9:20 a.m. Werd comes back in, and is met by a student who left the room earlier and now has returned to use the telephone. He says he’s been told—by someone in authority—that he must go home and return tomorrow at 2 p.m. All he needs is for one of the counselors to inform his parents.  

Werd asks a few questions, and determines that the student was originally issued a schedule, but misplaced it. “The 2 o’clock meeting tomorrow is for students who have never registered at Berkeley High,” she tells him. “You don’t need to go home. Just go and sit down, and we’ll get to you.” 

“But I want to go home,” the student insists, edging towards the door, and freedom. 

He interrupts Werd as she tries to explain the situation to him again, and she stops him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me,” she says. She doesn’t say it angrily, or disrespectfully. Just firm and even, like you’d want school personnel to treat your child. She patiently stares him down, until he stops fidgeting. When he insists, one last time, that he was told to go home by someone in charge, Werd tells him that she’s in charge, and she’s telling him not to go home. “But if you keep giving me attitude,” she suggests, “yes, you can go home, and you won’t have to come back for the rest of the year.” 

Getting the message, finally, the student makes his way back to his seat, a little more meekly than a few minutes before. 

9:30 a.m. The bell barks out again, calling out the change of class.  

The seniors gather their books and file out, on their way to second period. 

None of the handful of remaining freshmen have jumped this time at the sound of the bell. An hour and a half has passed, and on their first day at Berkeley High, they’ve arrived.

“I’m part of the hot water bottle generation,” announces my friend and student, Pansie. She is sitting at the table in the third seat on the right, where she always sits, every Tuesday morning during our Creative Writing class at the North Oakland Senior Center. 

Because she has difficulty walking, she takes a seat as soon as she comes through the door. She pulls a small rolling suitcase behind her, full of photographs, postcards, papers and notebooks. Pansie uses a cane to balance herself. 

When she finally settles down into her chair, she spreads her writing materials in front of her. She has on a straw hat with a pink fabric rose tucked into the brim. Her glasses hang around her neck on a beaded chain. No matter what the temperature, she always wears a crocheted white glove on the hand she writes with. I need to ask her about that sometime. 

But then, there are so many things I want to ask her.  

Today she’s got my attention with the hot water bottle comment. “You don’t even know what a hot water bottle is, do you?” 

I shrug. “I think so,” I answer, but I’m not sure. I vaguely remember a scary reddish rubber implement stuffed behind the towels under the vanity sink of my parents bathroom, but I don’t ever recall seeing it in use.  

“In my day every house had a hot water bottle,” continues Pansie. “And there were attachments so you could turn it into an enema and douche bag.”  

She laughs. “I bet you don’t know what those things are either.” 

Even though I am fifty years old, Pansie treats me as if I am a child just learning about the world. In other circles, with different friends, I feel quite ancient, but Pansie makes me feel like a know-nothing little girl and, in some ways, she’s right. 

Not only are Pansie and I distanced in age by over twenty-five years, but race and class also separate us. When I tell Pansie about my childhood, she clicks her tongue and says, “You were rich, weren’t you?” 

“Middle class,” I answer, but to Pansie that is the same as being wealthy. 

“Tell me more about the hot water-douche bag-enema thing,” I say. I am constantly surprised and delighted with Pansie’s forthrightness. Sometimes I’m unnerved.  

“Well girl,” she says drawing out the “irl” in the word girl so that it has two syllables. “Everybody had one. Everybody!” 

She looks around the table at the other seniors and they all nod in agreement. “And they hung it on a hook on the back of their bathroom door,” she continues.  

“Oh yeah,” say the others. 

“It was always there, in every house, and when you shut the bathroom door it would swing against it.” More heads nod in accord. 

“Sometimes people would cover it with their bathrobes to try to hide it, but that didn’t matter cuz you always knew it was there.” 

“Wow,” I say. “Kind of a personal thing to be hanging out in front of everyone wasn’t it?” 

“You had to hang it up!” she answers, “cuz it was full of water and you needed to let it drain. Otherwise it would rot. Back then nobody could afford to buy a new one. Now people use electric heating pads for their aches and pains and pills when they’re constipated and nobody douches anymore, though in my opinion I think they should.”  

She chuckles. “But nobody cares about that stuff. Only us old folks, the hot water bottle-plus generation.” 

Everybody laughs. “Those were the days,” someone shouts. 

“Yes,” sighs Pansie. “Those were the days. But come on now, you’re the teacher. You got somethin’ for us to learn?” 

There is a twinkle in Pansie’s eyes and I know that she knows that there is really only one person learning in this classroom. That’s me, just a relative youngster from the heating pad, pill-taking, non-douche bag generation.

After more than two years of internal debate and intense pressure from industry, the Bush administration is announcing a new rule that will allow thousands of older power plants, oil refineries, and industrial units to make extensive upgrades without having to install new anti-pollution devices. 

Industry is delighted. 

Environmentalists are furious. 

The original Clean Air Act came out of the Nixon Administration. Later, under Jimmy Carter, it was amended to require that any new power plant or factory be fitted with the latest emissions-control technology. This would cost industry a bundle, but there was a compromise. The requirement only applied to “new” power plants and factories, not ones already in existence in 1977 when the amendment was passed. Those would be exempt. Even if they did routine maintenance and minor upgrading to keep their operations going, owners wouldn’t have to install the latest pollution-control equipment. 

Here’s the problem. Let’s say you own an old power plant. You don’t want to pay for new pollution-control equipment if you can avoid it, right? So you don’t build a new plant. You just keep your old plant running as long as you can, doing routine maintenance and upgrading when needed. A brand new plant might be more efficient. It might actually conserve energy and maybe even reduce pollution. But you’re not going to build it unless it saves you more than the cost of building it and installing the latest pollution controls. 

So now comes the Bush administration and says, don’t worry. We’re going to interpret “routine maintenance” so broadly that you can make your plant practically new, and still not have to install new pollution controls. 

Is this good or bad? In this era of blackouts and dangerous dependence on Mid-East oil, we do need efficiency. So to the extent this new rule encourages owners to modernize old, inefficient power plants and factories, it’s good. On the other hand, in this era of global warming, we need cleaner air. But this new rule widens the loophole that lets owners avoid state-of-the-art pollution controls. So, to this extent, it’s bad. 

The bottom line: We get more efficient power, which may mean a bit less pollution per thermal unit. But we don’t get the cleaner skies we’d get if owners had to use the best pollution-control equipment. 

I’ve got a better idea—and it’s something both the Bush administration and environmentalists might even agree to. Enact a pollution tax, that owners would have to pay according to how much gunk their plants and factories spewed into the air. That way, they’d have an automatic incentive to build more efficient plants and also install the best available pollution-control equipment. 

But don’t hold your breath. 

Or maybe you should, because the air is likely to get a lot dirtier. 

Robert B. Reich served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor during President Clinton’s first term.

My East Coast and out-of-country friends have taken to e-mailing me these days with messages like, “Is there a cloud of odd smelling smoke hovering over your home state?” As they cover the gubernatorial recall, the national news seems to think that “crazy” is our state’s title and “circus” its last name.  

Myself, I have reluctantly but steadily come around to the conclusion that the recall is not quite as unhealthy an exercise as many of my Democratic friends believe.  

The thumbnail history of the recall, from a Democratic perspective, is that the recall is a right-wing attempt to either “hijack” or “buy” the governor’s seat, the two terms being used interchangeably and sometimes in the same sentence. Democratic operatives, high and low, loudly and publicly theorize that this is part of a Republican campaign to “steal” elections that they had already lost, in line with the attempted impeachment of Bill Clinton and the Supreme Court appointment of George Bush, the Lesser.  

But this is a cart/horse thing. Yes, the recall effort was started on the right, and only came to an actual election because Republican Congressmember Darrell Issa pumped a million dollars into the petition campaign, hence the “buying” charge. But Issa put money into the recall campaign only after he realized a peculiar fact: A large number of hard-core California Democratic voters indicated just as much disaffection with Sacramento in general and Davis in particular as did their hard-core Republican neighbors.  

This has been a long time building, the creation of a state governmental apparatus that has been growing increasingly more distant from, and less responsive to, its average citizens—and this feeling comes from both ends of the political spectrum, Oakland and Oxnard alike. There have been a number of attempts to reign this unresponsiveness in from both the left and the right, first in the mass demonstrations and street action of the 60s and 70s, later in the passage of such propositions as 13 and term limits, to no apparent avail. The freight train that is state government rumbles on, oblivious, running over all of us here on the ground, liberal and conservative both, if not equally, at least in turn. 

Gray Davis has made his own special contributions to the problem. The first is his almost round-the-clock contribution collection machine, coupled with a propensity to favor the interests of contributors over constituents (see his support for the prison guards while teacher pay falls behind, as well as his vetoes of banking privacy laws as just two of many, many examples). Gray Davis did not invent this practice, but few have done it so brazenly.  

The second was his dithering during the beginning stages of the energy crisis two years ago, coupled with his subsequent signing of the long-term power contracts. Yes, deregulation was conceived and consummated under a Republican governor (Pete Wilson), and the main gouging was done by energy companies friendly to President Bush. But the latter were out of the reach of California voters. Davis was not.  

At least, we thought he wasn’t, until he manipulated the 2002 gubernatorial election. This—not Davis’ bland personality or the state’s alleged nuttiness—is what made the recall go from theory to reality. An election—when it involves real public debate on important issues—is as much a public catharsis as it is a decision-making process, a venting of the public bile, a way of getting things out of our system. Davis aborted all of that. He used his considerable campaign treasury to knock the one candidate out of the Republican primary who might have made a decent conversation of last year’s election—Richard Riordan—and then turned the fall election into a “yeah, I’m a son-of-a-bitch, but I’m not as sorry a son-of-bitch as that bastard I maneuvered the Republicans into running against me” contest. Californians didn’t like the choices given. 

I didn’t support the recall last winter when they were gathering signatures in the shopping malls, but I must say that I am duly pleased with some of the results. It is immensely satisfying, now that he suddenly needs us, to see the haughty and distant Gray Davis have to squirm and come out of his office, discovering his constituent base. I like to be pandered to, every now and then. 

And so, like the elderly man at the AC Transit stop, the recall allows us to flail away with our cane at the passing bus of state. Crazy? Maybe. We risk getting ourselves dragged under the wheels. But these days, that seems to be the only way to get state government to slow its roll and pay us some attention, if only for a fleeting moment. Thank you for that, my Republican friends.

Talk about recall circuses. The Big Tent went up Tuesday night at UCLA and Governor Gray Davis rolled out his anti-recall campaign by reminding us at least 10 times that he’s coming out fighting—fighting for me! For you! The people! For all of California! Our future! Against the right-wing!  

And mostly to save his collapsing career.  

Davis reminded us that he is the “education governor” but none of the university’s students were allowed in. The Ackerman ballroom can hold 2,000 people, but Davis’ staff had partitioned off the front quadrant and limited the audience to only 250 handpicked guests. In the best traditions of the corrupt Mexican political party, the PRI, most of those attending were brightly T-shirted union members, herded in by their leaders to applaud the governor on cue. A cynical and sad manipulation of organized labor. 

You can’t blame Davis, though. With UC fees rising 35 percent and community college tariffs going up more than 50 percent, I doubt the Guv would have gotten much of a warm welcome from the student body. Or from the general public for that matter, considering that 60 percent or so of the electorate is leaning toward firing him.  

Cheap theatrics aside, Davis did himself no good. Portraying himself as a victim, as he did, will win little support. First you have to be popular before voters are ready to feel sorry for you. Ask Bill Clinton.  

Robotically gesturing with his hands—as he surely rehearsed it all day in front of a mirror—he branded the recall a “right-wing power grab,” part of “an ongoing national effort to steal elections that Republicans cannot win.”  

Poppycock.  

The recall, clunky as it is, tainted as its partisan origins might be, is nothing but an old-fashioned vote of confidence—one that any electorate has the right to, and one that Davis is set to lose. The only election-stealing going on is the attempt by Democratic satellite groups to have the courts postpone an election that 75 percent or more of voters say they want.  

Davis did make a few tepid attempts to explain away his glaring failures. Assuming that none of us has a memory beyond last week, he argued that he had merely inherited the deregulation scheme that put us all at the mercy of the energy providers. But Davis was the sitting lieutenant governor when deregulation was adopted in 1996 and there’s no record of as much as a contrary hiccup coming from him at the time. Indeed, two years later when consumer-backed Prop. 9 aimed at reversing much of the deregulation fiasco, Gray Davis, allied with the utility monopolies, signed the ballot statement opposing the measure.  

Once the power shortage hit in late 2000, Davis as governor was irresponsibly slow to respond, no doubt distracted by his voracious fund-raising. He threatened to seize the power grid, but that bold position soon melted into conciliation with the energy behemoths, at one point Davis employing the same spinmeisters that that were in the pay of Edison. Remember Lehane and Fabiani?  

The result? Weighing down the state with over-priced long-term energy contracts, Davis thereby contributed maybe as much as $10 billion to the deficit black hole.  

And on what other issue dear to Democrats has the governor provided leadership? According to Davis, he’s the last thin line of defense against a Republican putsch. But the cold facts are that Davis, last year alone, vetoed more than 250 bills coming out of the Democratic legislature. Davis is the real Terminator, having nixed during his tenure:  

• A simple review of the inhuman and costly three-strikes law 

• The creation of a state office on homelessness that would cost a mere $500,000  

• Expansion of medical services for low-income Californians 

• A bill to establish a clean-needle distribution program 

• A bill to research use of industrial hemp 

• The driver’s license bill for the undocumented that he now opportunistically supports 

• A racial-tracking bill aimed at curbing discrimination in business and unions 

In criminal justice matters, Davis has actually been worse than Pete Wilson, allowing virtually no prisoner to be released on parole. The governor fought, unsuccessfully, the voter-approved Prop. 36 which substitutes treatment for jail for nonviolent offenders. He supported Prop. 21, making it easier to criminalize youthful petty offenders. And Davis has been a zealous enforcer of the death penalty.  

His pandering to the reactionary prison guards’ union surpasses that of his GOP predecessor. In the midst of the state’s collapsing finances, the almighty guards are raking in a 7% salary increase this year, unprecedented raises in pensions, and Club Med-class work rules which have generated mind-boggling amounts of paid sick time for our legion of prison screws.  

Meanwhile, the $5-billion-a-year Indian casino industry, recipient of sweetheart compacts signed by Gray, pays no gaming tax to the state. Even the Vegas casinos have to cough up 7% to Nevada.  

During his UCLA speech Davis claimed that the $3 million spent to qualify the recall was a waste “that could be better spent on something else—like education.” Yet Davis responded to an ACLU lawsuit charging him with providing dilapidated public schools to the poor by squandering $18 million in taxpayer funds on $500-an-hour white-shoe lawyers who, in turn, have used depositions to browbeat and intimidate 12-year-old witnesses.  

Then there was last week’s golden moment. After Arnold’s new economic guru Warren Buffett shockingly blurted out the unspeakable truth—that Prop. 13 resides at the foundation of California’s ills—Gray Davis streaked to the microphones to offer an unmediated defense of the 25-year-old law that has left this state a basket case. Thanks, Gray.  

And now I’m supposed to be biting my nails, freaked out that if Davis gets dumped we’ll wind up with a Republican governor? Come on. As Jim Hightower likes to say, I may have been born at night, but not last night. A Republican Governor? We’ve already got one.  

With the recording industry waging a war on downloaders who snag music and films for free off the Internet, UC Berkeley administrators warned students this week that illegal downloading could carry severe consequences. 

“We’re telling students that we know lots of people are sharing copyrighted files, we know it’s easy, but it’s against the law, and you might suffer sanctions,” said Dedra Chamberlin, the university’s manager of residential computing. 

The Recording Industry Association of America, stung by slumping sales they attribute in part to online piracy, has zeroed in on universities this year, demanding that schools, like commercial Internet service providers, comply with court-ordered subpoenas and hand over the names and addresses of students the RIAA says are the worst offenders. 

In May, four students at Princeton University, Michigan Technological University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute agreed to pay the RIAA between $12,000 and $17,500 after the RIAA sued them for running music piracy systems on their schools’ servers. 

A month later, the RIAA announced it was using subpoenas to gather data against users who offer copyrighted songs online, threatening thousands of lawsuits against individual offenders.  

The RIAA says it has no choice but to fight consumers from stealing its lifeblood. 

In 1999 Shawn Fanning, a student at Northeastern University, introduced Napster, a program that electronically connected music listeners, allowing them to swap songs. 

Since then, record sales have dropped by 26 percent as 2.6 billion copyrighted files are illegally downloaded every month, said RIAA spokesperson Amanda Collins. 

“Everyone is adversely affected by this: the artists, the songwriters, the engineers, administrative staff,” she said noting widespread layoffs at struggling recording companies. 

She plugged several Internet sites that allow fans to download music legally, paying either by a subscription fee or on a per song basis. 

Managers at several independent record stores in Berkeley agreed that sales were down, but said other factors might be to blame. 

“I’m not sure that downloading is the culprit,” said Norman Arenas of Primal Records. “We’re in a war economy, people don’t have much to spend.” 

The recording industry has fought in court to protect its copyrighted property. In 2000 the RIAA won a ruling shutting down Napster, but the trade group recently hit a legal roadblock. 

Four months ago, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that two of Napster’s biggest successors, Grokster and Morpheus, did not infringe copyright law, because unlike Napster they also provided lawful services and could not be held accountable for their customers using the programs for illegal ends. 

Unable to shut down file sharing programs, the RIAA shifted its attention to individual abusers. 

They have monitored file-sharing networks and gathered 1142 subpoenas against suspected music pirates this year, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation a legal fund that represented the parent company of Morpheus against the RIAA. 

Service providers have challenged subpoenas, but in April a federal judge rejected the claim of Verizon Internet Services that the practice infringed on their customers’ privacy rights. Verizon is appealing the decision and Pacific Bell Internet Services recently filed suit against the RIAA on similar grounds. 

EFF staff attorney Wendy Seltzer urged universities to fight the subpoenas. “Networks are about academic freedom, [the universities] should think about that, not just what the RIAA wants.”  

She recommended that universities stop logging network activity, so the record industry could not track file transfers. 

Karen Eft, UC Berkeley policy analyst, responded that logging the network was needed to analyze use and investigate possible hackers. 

“We don’t do it with the intention to track students,” she said. “If we didn’t have to do it we wouldn’t.” 

UC Berkeley has so far received one subpoena. It turned out the illegal activity was the work of a hacker who had accessed an administrative computer to capture his downloads.  

Michael Smith, campus counsel, said the university would not automatically hand over anyone’s name to the RIAA. “If we thought the subpoena was faulty, if it came from the wrong jurisdiction, we could challenge it,” he said. 

Two weeks ago Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College successfully fought off subpoenas, arguing they needed to be filed in Massachusetts instead of Washington, D.C. 

Still, under increased pressure from the recording industry as well as from students and faculty who say excessive downloading is slowing down their server, UC Berkeley is getting tougher on illegal file swapping. 

Students who receive take-down notices filed by the RIAA to remove copyrighted materials from their computers will now have one day to comply before losing their service.  

Previously it was up to the administration to confirm the violation, and evasive students could delay the process, Chamberlin said. Last year 163 students in the dorms received such notices—twice as many as the year before. 

The university is also stepping up enforcement of students who download excessively. 

Students who twice surpass downloading 50 gigabytes per week—about the equivalent of four movies, 200 songs and 1,000 e-mails— will lose their Internet connection until they complete a quiz on university bandwidth rules. 

Freshmen interviewed this week said they opted not to download music out of respect to the musicians, but that the warnings they received when signing up for Internet accounts wouldn’t make a difference. “They gave their spiel,” said Travis Johnston. “I don’t think it will hamper anyone. They’ll give you a warning. They’re not that serious about it.”

The Argentine ants that infested my kitchen for the last couple of weeks are gone—for now. But when you’re dealing with Linepithema humile, all victories are temporary. 

Since they first turned up in California around 1907, these tiny pests have become the state’s most abundant ant species. If you’ve seen an ant lately, chances are it was an Argentine. Like many exotic plants and animals, they’ve left their co-evolved predators and parasites behind—South American parasitic flies, in the ants’ case. Descendants of a handful of founders, Argentine ants in California show little genetic variation. This enables them to form “supercolonies,” sometimes with multiple queens. Ants’ lives are governed by their sense of smell, which allows them to distinguish friend (or kin, at least) from foe. To an Argentine ant from Berkeley, an Argentine from San Diego would smell like family. 

The lack of conflict between neighboring colonies frees Argentines to invest more time and energy in foraging. They’re very good at it. Stanford’s Deborah Gordon, author of “Ants at Work,” says they devote more time to the search for food than native ants, are better at locating baits, and recruit more workers to a food source. They’ve also been known to drive other ant species away from baits and kill their queens. When Argentines colonize a new area, most native ants move out. 

Argentine ants aren’t just a California annoyance: They’ve spread to every continent except Antarctica, and to oceanic islands like Hawaii. Swiss scientists have discovered a megasupercolony that stretches across northern Spain along the Mediterranean to Italy, comprising millions of nests and billions of individuals—all with the right colony smell. This may be the largest cooperative unit in nature. 

The ants in our houses are only part of the problem. Wherever they’ve gone, Argentines have thrown natural communities into disarray by displacing native ants. This has not caused much concern so far (there is as of yet no California Native Ant Society) but it should. Ant species are not interchangeable. Native ants perform valuable ecosystem services; the invaders may push them out, but they can’t take over their roles. 

Native ants are part of complex food webs. Horned lizards, those eccentric reptiles perhaps better known as “horny toads,” are specialist ant-predators. (We think of them as desert creatures, but I’ve seen one species, the coast horned lizard, in chaparral on the slopes of Mount Diablo). The lizards either refuse to eat Argentine ants or waste away on all-Argentine diets. Along with habitat destruction, the loss of their prey base has reduced horned lizard populations in California to dangerously low levels. 

A wide variety of plants, from bush poppies to trilliums, rely on native ants to disperse their seeds. The seeds are packaged with nutrient-rich food bodies called elaiosomes that attract the ants. They haul the seeds away from the parent plant, where rodents and other seed predators might find them, and back to their nests. Discarded after the elaiosome has been consumed, the seeds often germinate in the ant-tilled soil. Unlike California native species, Argentine ants are not effective seed dispersers. 

In South Africa, where many plants are ant-dependent, the Argentine takeover has threatened whole plant communities with extinction. 

Some of California’s rarest butterflies, like the Bay Area’s Mission blue, have evolved an intimate relationship called trophobiosis with the local ants. The butterflies’ larvae secrete a sugar-rich substance when the ants stroke their bodies. The ants defend the caterpillars fiercely, carry them to food plants, and shelter them in their nests. To my knowledge, no one has documented Argentine ants as caterpillar-tenders. 

So there are consequences when Argentines push out natives. Can they be stopped before ecosystems from California to New Zealand are destroyed by this miniature wave of globalization? Maybe. And, ironically, the Argentine ant’s vulnerability may lie in the pheromones that have allowed the formation of supercolonies. 

The story involves a case of ant-butterfly mutualism and its exploitation by a third party, a rare wasp called Ichneumon eumerus, known from only two sites in the French Alps and two in the Spanish Pyrenees. The wasp, like many of its relatives, lays its eggs on the bodies of living caterpillars. Eumerus’s preferred victim is the larva of a blue butterfly that inhabits the nests of ants, where it repays their hospitality by feeding on ant larvae. 

It’s impressive enough that the wasp is able to sniff out caterpillars concealed underground. But its secret weapon comes into play once it enters the nest. Eumerus has evolved a set of chemicals that mimic the smell the ants use to signal alarm. Instead of attacking the intruder, the colony defenders turn on each other. Chaos ensues, during which the wasp finds the caterpillar, lays its eggs, and leaves unharmed. When the young wasps reach adulthood, they use their chemical arsenal to make their own exits. 

Although the ants in question are native Europeans, entomologists have found that the wasp’s weapon seems to affect several other species in the same way. If the scent can be replicated, we might just have an environmentally benign way of disrupting the colonies of Argentine ants, fire ants, and other pests. One more reminder— if you want to make a pragmatic case for conserving biodiversity—that you never know what small obscure creature may turn out to be really useful.

Call John Muir School in Berkeley sometime and if you’re lucky the woman answering the phone may serenade you with your own personal scat song. No, you haven’t reached the reincarnation of Ella Fiztgerald—just the principal taking a phone call when the school secretary’s too busy. 

Nancy D. Waters, the elementary school’s principal, could just moonlight on her own as a professional musician, but she incorporates it into her very demanding day job. Walking through the halls it’s not unusual for students to get an earful of Waters’ scat singing to make mundane instructions like lining up for class fun for kids. “Ooh, I like the way you look on that line” she sings and her charges “immediately just straighten up and get in that line,” says Waters, 46. 

In order to create a more harmonious atmosphere at the Elmwood district school that has had student disciplinary problems in the past, Waters established a character-building program featuring a school song. Performed in an uptempo boogie-woogie style the song is sung by students at weekly assemblies and includes the following chorus.  

“We want to work together and co-operate, 

We’re all unique with contributions to make, 

We’re learning to accept others as they are, 

We lift each other up as we reach for the stars” 

Because John Muir is the designated deaf school for the district, all students have also learned to sign the song. Of the school’s 224 students in 12 classrooms, 20 are deaf and are broken up into two classes. 

In addition to the song, Waters also has teachers give her the names of two or three kids in their classrooms who have exhibited patience or caring. “We have that student stand to be recognized. And so then all the kids say ‘Oh, well he got recognized for that, next time I’m going to try that,’” says Waters.  

Her interest in teaching character development was inspired by taking classes in college from Stephen Covey, author of the “The Seven Habits for Highly Effective People.” Waters has also worked as a motivational speaker with her presentation “Live Your Dreams” about how she succeeded despite her circumstances by hard work and practice.  

Positive reinforcement has paid off for students at John Muir. “It has changed this place, because when I came kids were jumping over fences, there were lots of fights. There were lots of suspensions. We rarely have suspensions now. There’s a calm sense to the grounds,” says Waters. She notes that the gains are not just in the area of student discipline. “Our test scores have gone up and we believe that program is helping to do it.” 

Growing up in the piney woods of the Florida panhandle the granddaughter of sharecroppers, Waters always had “this inner music in me” and took up the baritone sax. Although her parents didn’t have money for private music lessons, they recognized Waters’ musical abilities and encouraged her to practice which she did religiously in the woods behind her home. 

Waters’ prowess at the baritone sax led to her receiving a music scholarship to Brigham Young University where she earned a music degree and became classically trained on the baritone sax and the bassoon. Waters also plays the piano and the recorder. While the idea of being a professional musician appealed to her, Waters always knew she was going to be a teacher. 

“Even though I was a great musician and got lots of compliment s on my playing and singing, my focus wasn’t to be the big star musician. It was to teach,” says Waters, who began her education career teaching music in the Florida public high schools in the early 1980s. 

While on a cruise ship during her summer vacation Waters decided to perform in the passenger talent show. She wowed them with her ability to play two recorders and hum all at the same time. Waters even played the instrument with her nose—“It might look difficult, but it’s not.” Impressed, the ship’s band members told her she needed to be working with them and soon she was taking off for weeks at time to play and cruise the Caribbean during breaks from her teaching jobs.  

Waters’ taken a couple of year-long breaks from teaching to perform on cruise ships over the years, but the call of the classroom always brings her back to school. Seven years ago she moved from Florida to the Bay Area and got a job teaching music in the San Lorenzo schools. There she was tapped to become the school’s assistant principal and encouraged to pursue a career as an administrator. She took over John Muir, her first principal position, five years ago.  

With her 14 hour days, Waters doesn’t have time to perform on cruise ships, but she still gigs in pick-up bands and plays weddings and private parties with the “Blast from the Past” big band. But when it comes time to take a solo, she puts down her sax and picks up a microphone to scat a special song for the occasion. “People love it,” says Nancy D. Waters, who likes to say her middle initial stands for “delightful and don’t you doubt it.”

Arson At Apartment Complex 

Police arrested a man who they say set fire to his apartment in a 1275 University Ave. building late Friday night. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and other tenants were unharmed.  

According to building manager D.J. Johnson a tenant found the suspected arsonist in the front lobby about 11:30 p.m. Friday standing over a recycling bin he had set ablaze. The tenant put out the fire with help from neighbors while the arsonist raced out of the building. Moments later the fire alarm rang. Police and firefighters went to the suspected arsonist’s room and finding the door hot, they opened the door to find the unit in flames. Ordered to evacuate the building, tenants huddled outside from about 11:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. while firefighters inspected the building. Police did not reply to messages seeking the identity of the arsonist. 

Video Store Armed Robbery 

Police are seeking the gunman who robbed a video store on the 2900 block of College Avenue Thursday afternoon. According to police the robber picked up a Snickers bar from the shelf, then looked around for a short time. He asked the clerk on which side of the counter he should stand, and after the clerk said he was fine where he was, the robber placed the chocolate bar on the counter, walked behind to where the clerk was standing and lifted up his shirt to show the grip of a pistol in his waistband. When he demanded money, the clerk handed him “a wad of one dollar bills and a handful of fives.” The robber took the cash and walked casually out of the store. He remains at-large. 

Hit and Runs 

An intoxicated 19-year old resident of the 3000 block of Stanton Street took his gold Toyota Camry on a hit-and-run rampage through several blocks of South Berkeley Tuesday afternoon, police said. 

The first car he hit was a 1990 Acura Integra on the 2000 block of Essex Street. Fleeing the scene, he slammed into two more cars—a maroon Datsun at the intersection of Ashby Avenue and Harper Street and a Toyota at Ashby and King Street. A pregnant woman who was sitting in the Toyota at the time of the impact was rushed to Alta Bates Memorial Hospital, where she was treated and released. 

At the intersection of Harper and Russell Street, a pedestrian reported nearly being “plowed down” by a gold Toyota. A witness got the license plate and police tracked it down to the Stanton Street address. The driver, who refused a breathalyzer test, was charged with several felony and misdemeanor drunk driving and hit and run charges. 

Armed robbery 

A gunman robbed a 68-year-old resident of the 1000 block of Overlook Drive at her house Thursday night. According to police the woman was driving home southbound on Marin Avenue and noticed a car following her. Arriving at her home, she had swung her purse over her arm when she saw a man walking toward her. He raised his left hand, brandished a dark-colored handgun and demanded her purse as he dragged her into her garage, the gun aimed at her face. Once inside the garage, he yanked the purse from her arm and proceeded to run south on Overlook. The purse contained approximately $400. Police have made no arrests in the case. 

North Oakland Murder 

A 26-year-old Oakland man was fatally shot at 3:50 a.m. Monday morning at 63rd and Baker streets in Oakland, just outside Berkeley city limits. According to police, the wounded victim drove his car two more blocks before striking a fence outside Golden Gate Elementary School at 63rd and Herzog streets. Police found James Mahoney Knox Sr. inside the car and pronounced him dead at the scene. Police have no suspects in the murder.

Sometimes controversial U.C. anthropology professor John Ozu Ogbu suffered a fatal heart attack after undergoing back surgery last week. He was 64. 

Known for his work on how race and ethnic differences impact economic and academic achievement, Ogbu first caused controversy in 1986 with the release of a study he co-authored that concluded that African-American students at a Washington, D.C. high school didn’t live up to their academic potential for fear of being accused of “acting white.” 

His most recent study, published this year, was on why black students at an affluent Shaker Heights, Ohio high school performed less well than their white counterparts. Ogbu concluded that the black students’ own cultural attitudes hindered academic achievement. 

Central to Ogbu’s work was the way he classified minorities into “voluntary” and “involuntary” groups. He identified voluntary minorities as having come to a new environment with their collective identity intact. 

Born in Nigeria, Ogbu believed that African Americans were involuntary minorities because they formed their identity under the oppression of the dominant society after arriving in America.  

The author of several books, Ogbu received the Society for Applied Anthropology’s Margaret Mead Award. In 1997 a special edition of “Anthropology and Education Quarterly” was devoted to Ogbu’s theories. 

Ogbu is survived by his wife Marcellina, four daughters and a son. He will be buried in Nigeria next month. A memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 at the First Presbyterian Church, 27th and Broadway in Oakland.  

—Paul Kilduff