The burning question in certain political circles is whether former state Assemblyman Tom Bates will run for Berkeley mayor this November. 

A campaign by the 20-year Sacramento veteran would prompt progressive favorite Councilmember Kriss Worthington to step aside in the race and, according to many insiders, would present the greatest likelihood of unseating eight-year incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean. 

“I have no comment [about my candidacy],”said a curt Bates yesterday afternoon. 

This Saturday, the November Coalition for a New Mayor – a group of Berkeley residents which includes a handful of Progressive councilmembers – is scheduled to endorse a candidate to run against centrist Dean in November. 

Sources close to Bates say a win at Saturday’s nominating convention is just what Bates needs to commit to running. 

“He has indicated to me that if he is drafted by the gathering on Saturday that he will heed to the call,” said friend Max Anderson, chairperson of Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board. 

Leading members of the November Coalition, including Worthington, said they have been urging Bates to accept the group’s nomination for months. 

“It would be wonderful of him to put his decades of elected service to work for the people of Berkeley,” Worthington said. He confirmed that he would drop his consideration of running for mayor if Bates decides to run. 

Worthington also made clear yesterday that his own candidacy for the office is still speculative, despite reports in another newspaper of his declared intention to run. 

While the November Coalition has been considering five possible nominees for Saturday’s endorsement, steering committee member Howard Chong said only one candidate is currently expressing genuine interest — Worthington. 

Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn, Peace and Justice Committee Member Elliot Cohen and Barbara Lubin, director of the nonprofit Middle East Children’s Alliance are other considerations, as is Bates, according to steering committee members. 

Chong left open the possibility that the November Coalition might support one candidate initially and later change the endorsement, foreseeing a case in which Bates announces his candidacy after Saturday’s convention.  

The filing deadline for mayoral candidacy is August. 

“The most important thing for us to do [as progressives] is to keep control of the City Council,” Chong said, noting that if Worthington runs for mayor, he can not run for another term on council.  

Without Worthington’s widely recognized name on the ballot, the progressives are at greater risk of losing a council seat to a more moderate candidate, she explained. 

Currently, there are five progressive seats and four moderate votes in council. 

A mayoral bid by former Assemblyman Bates would not only allow Worthington to run for reelection and likely retain his council seat but it would result in more votes for a progressive mayoral candidate and elevate the chance for victory, claimed progressive Councilmember Dona Spring. 

“Tom Bates really spans the political spectrum and has broad appeal,” she added. 

A close friend of Bates, Mal Burnstein said Saturday’s convention would play into Bates’ decision to run — though he stopped short of saying it would single-handedly make his decision. 

“We’re very interested in the results of the convention. We won’t run without the support,” Burnstein said. 

He confirmed that Bates was in the process of assessing his support within the community. 

Dean declined to comment on who her challenger might be in the November race, but said her long list of accomplishments over the past four years would fare her well in the running, no matter who the opponent. 

“I always run hard no matter who the challenger is,” she said, referring to back-to back mayoral victories in 1994 and 1998. 

Contact reporter: 

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Today is Thursday, May 2, the 122nd day of 2002. There are 243 days left in the year. 

Highlight 

On May 2, 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later. 

On this date: 

In 1519, artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France. 

In 1670, the Hudson Bay Co. was chartered by England’s King Charles II. 

In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized. 

In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show made its debut on the NBC Blue Network. 

In 1936, “Peter and the Wolf,” a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow. 

In 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. 

In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. 

In 1960, convicted sex offender and best-selling author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California. 

In 1965, the “Early Bird” satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic. 

In 1972, after serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77. 

Ten years ago:  

Los Angeles began to recover from rioting that had erupted in the wake of the Rodney King-taped beating acquittals; about 2,800 National Guard troops patrolled the city while 3,200 others stood by. Former House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur D. Mills died in Searcy, Ark., at age 82. 

Five years ago:  

President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years. A new national memorial honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington, D.C. Tony Blair, whose new Labor Party crushed John Major’s long-reigning Conservatives in a national election, became at age 44 Britain’s youngest prime minister in 185 years. 

One year ago:  

President Bush and Republican congressional leaders clinched a budget deal embracing most of the president’s tax and spending goals. Germany inaugurated its new Chancellery in Berlin amid concerns the building was too grandiose. A landslide destroyed a nine-story apartment building in China, killing at least 79 people. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actor Theodore Bikel is 78. Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is 77. Rock musician Link Wray is 67. Bianca Jagger is 57. Country singer R.C. Bannon is 57. Singer Lesley Gore is 56. Singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin is 54. Rock singer Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is 52. Actress Christine Baranski is 50. Actress Elizabeth Berridge is 40. Country singer Ty Herndon is 40. Actress Jenna Von Oy is 25. 

– The Associated Press

To the Editor: 

The current proposal to ban non-organic coffee in Berkeley (as reported on Wednesday) may be well-intended, but organic or not, importing food from far-away places undermines the natural order of the universe and threatens the health and well-being of all people on this planet. 

Foods grown in tropical places, whether they be mangoes, bananas or coffee are not normally consumed, on a regular basis, in our temperate climate. They create an unbalanced condition quite quickly. As human beings, it has always been our history (until most recently) to consume foods that are grown locally; and for good reason. Our personal health depends on us understanding and establishing a close relationship to the land we are a part of.  

Additionally, the lands used to grow these foods for export would be better used to grow grains and vegetables to feed the struggling people who inhabit those lands. 

Trade, free or not, has more to do with concern for profit, not concern for people. Why else would indigenous people give up so much of their native land to grow so much exported food? If we in Berkeley are serious about doing what is right in restoring the natural order, we would boycott all imported foods, including coffee. 

The fact that we are addicted is no excuse. 

– Michael Bauce 

Berkeley

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the past, Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214. 

“Open: Objects” through May 4: An exhibition featuring sculptural objects by Los Angeles artist Karen Kimmel. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214. 

“Urban Re-Visions” Through May. 4: A two-person exhibition featuring the colorful anthropomorphic sculptures of Tim Burns and the figurative/narrative paintings of Dan Way Harper. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224. 

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831. 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org. 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black and white photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540. 

“Being There” Through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“East Bay Open Studios” Apr. 24 through Jun. 9: An exhibition of local artists’ work in connection with East Bay Open Studios. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland, 763-9425, www.proartsgallery 

“Solos: The Contemporary Monoprint” Apr. 26 through Jun. 15: An exhibition of two modern masters, Nathan Oliveira and Matt Phillips, as well as monoprints from other artists. Call for times. Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, kala@kala.org. 

“Komar and Melamid’s Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project” Through May 26: An exhibition of paintings by elephants under the tutelage of Russian-born conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Thursday, May 2 

A Taste of Oakland 

5- 7 p.m. 

A celebration of Oakland’s diversity and culture through its ethnic cuisine 

RSVP by April 19, call 839-9000 

The Amigos Chicano Latino Employees Association of the City of Oakland 

Live Music, DJ and a Mexican American singing duo 

11:30 - 1:15 p.m. 

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Oakland 

Free 

A Century of Collecting 

Drawing from 3.8 million objects collected over a century, A Century of Collecting examines artifact collecting as a form of cultural representation. At the same time, the display explains how anthropology museums go 

about their work of preserving and interpreting the world’s diverse cultures.  

In conjunction with the exhibit  

A Century of Collecting- Panel Discussion:  

Collecting the World 

A discussion about how three anthropologists  

made their collections for the Hearst Museum. 

A reception will follow the program. 

6:30 PM-8:30 PM 

160 Kroeber Hall 

Thursday, May 2 

Jai Uttal with Stephen Kent and Jim Santi Owen 

Ayurveda International Symposium 

University of California at Berkeley 

Berkeley, CA 

Ticket prices vary 

For registration and questions: 800-292-4882 

www.ayurveda-caam.org 

or email to: mamtal@aol.com 

Event runs May 2 - 5. 

Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4 

Volunteer Opportunity 

“Through the Looking Glass”, a community based non-profit serving families with disabilities - babies, children, parents, grandparents - is holding it’s 2nd annual International Conference on Parents with Disabilities. Volunteers are needed to assist in registering conference participants. Work alongside staff, meet conference participants, learn about important social issues affecting families.  

Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland 

For further information or to volunteer call 848-1112, ext. 110 

Saturday, May 4 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Entertainers of all kinds come together for this free show featuring “Press 62” starring Johanna Mangahas, You-Fong Benedicte Chang, Anthony Scott and Jason Zahorchak 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Shelter Operations: Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

to register: 510-981-5605 

Saucy Sounds Community Event 

Oakland Youth Chorus Preview Concert  

2 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

27th & Harrison 

Oakland 510-287-9700 

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Tom & Jerry, The Movie (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

The Oakland Symphony Chorus 

8:45 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. 

6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland. 

STYLES SAMPLER Workshop. Three music workshops presented on Spirituals with Trente Morant, Barbershop with Dr. Robert Campell and Feasts and Seasons, Music of Spain and America with Juan Pedro Gaffney. 

Morning snacks and lunch will be provided. $30. $25 in advance. 465-4199. 

Berkeley Rep/UC Berkeley Joint Symposium, 

featuring discussions and workshops inspeired by HOMEBODY/KABUL 

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St., Berkeley 

Free & open to the public, call 510-647-2966 for reservations (not required)  

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

Meet the Candidates Convention 

For a new Berkeley Mayor 

Chris Worthington, Rob Wrenn, Elliot Cohen, Barbara Lubin and Tom Bates have been invited & asked to share their vision for Berkeley’s future. 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK) 

Berkeley 

510-540-8543 

Free 

Saturday, May 4-5 

The 9th Annual Benicia Artists Open Studios 

10 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

Benicia Chamber of Commerce 

601 First Street 

Over sixty local artists will display their work from many different art forms including drawing, painting, photograph, collage, jewelry, glass works, digital art and video. Free. 

For more information contact Marie Muscolino at 707-747-0131 or artsbenicia@aol.com 

Saturday, May 4th-June 9th 

“What Cats Know” by Lisa Dilman 

Directed by Rebecca J. Ennals. Four thirty-somethings play a game of gotcha with unexpected consequences.  

Thursdays- Saturdays 8 p.m. $20, 

Sundays 7 p.m.- Pay what you can 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

510-883-0305 

www.transparenttheater.org 

Native Californian Cultures 

A major focus of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum 

of Anthropology has been the Native peoples of California. Today, with 260,000 catalogue entries, the museum preserves the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection devoted to the region. In this gallery, we present an overview of Native Californian cultures demonstrating the great diversity of the Californian peoples. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

#00020000062D00001DBE627,Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

children 16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

Sunday, May 5 

27th Annual House Tour: “The Making of a Streetcar Suburb” 

1-5 p.m. 

Meets at the entrance to the Clark Kerr Campus 

The corner of Warring and Parker Streets 

Hosted by The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association,tour includes the interiors and gardens of ten classic houses from the early 20th century. $30. $25 for members. 

For more information call 510-841-7421 

20+ Person Yard Sale benefit for “We The People” 

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

We The People Auditorium 

200 Harrison (at 2nd) 

Oakland 

510-836-3273 

Children’s Movies 

Tom & Jerry, The Movie (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Thursday, May 9 

FBI & Local police: partners in Repression 

Forum, Speakout & Music 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Bonita 

Berkeley 

For Info: Copwatch, 510-548-0425 

$5-$15  

Saturday, May 11 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Entertainers of all kinds come together for this free show featuring readers Rita Flores Bogaert and Ann Hunkins 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament 

Fun for everyone, whether competing or watching. At the New Gym at Albany High in Albany California. Hosted by and benefiting Athletics at Albany High School. Players sign up today to play in one of four divisions. 64 teams compete for $500 First Prize & $250 Second Prize in each division with final game to be played Sunday, May 12 

#0002000007DF000023E57D9, 510-525-2716 

Children’s Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Events: 

Paper Flower Making 

Get ready for Mother’s Day with the Klutz “Tissue Paper Flower” kit and learn to make tissue paper flowers. Age 8 and up.  

LHS Film- Happy Birthday, Mr. Feynman 

Film Plays Continuously from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

To celebrate the birthday of Nobel laureate, maverick physicist, author, and teacher extraordinaire Richard Feynman, 

LHS presents the film, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. This fifty-minute film presents Feynman telling fascinating 

stories from his life and research. Produced by Christopher Sykes. 

LHS- The Idea Lab 

Opens May 11 

See what LHS is developing as new hands-on exhibits. Test out exhibit prototypes of activities and give your opinion of them. Testing and experimenting is the idea behind the Idea Lab. This new permanent exhibit begins with explorations of magnetism.  

10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

LHS is on Centennial Drive- 

above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle. 

Saturday, May 11-12 

33rd Annual California Wildflower Show 

Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

Exibit with 150 species of freshly gathered native flowers 

$6 general admission, $4 senior and students with ID, free fo five and under. 1-888-OAK-MUSE.  

Saturday, May 11 

Valley Christian Schools Discovery Center will present  

an English Song Recital featuring Kirk Eichelberger, bass, with Christopher  

Luthi, piano  

7:00 p.m.  

Valley Christian High School, 100 Skyway Drive, San Jose.  

Tickets are available for a $100 tax-deductible donation.  

All proceeds benefit the Discovery Center’s educational therapy program. 

#00020000046F00002BBE469, 

Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions 

Live Science Demonstrations 

In this directed activity, children “audition” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming dinosaur movie. They learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. These demonstrations explore recent discoveries, fossils, and how scientists know what they know about dinosaurs 

Monday-Friday at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 

Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m. 

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle. 

Sunday, May 12 

Children’s Movies 

Beauty & the Beast (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Monday, May 13 

Jai Uttal with Bhima-Karma 

A Celebration of Devotion: An Evening of Chanting and Dialogue 

7:00 p.m. 

California Institute of Integral Studies 

#0002000005300000302752A,1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 

$20.00 

For questions and tickets: 415-575-6150 

www.ciis.edu 

or e-mail info@ciis.edu 

Saturday, May 18 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

All kinds of entertainers come together for this free show. Featuring readers Dancing Bear and C. J. Sage 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Children’s Movies 

Fern Gully (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Writer as Publisher: Independent Publishing Seminar 

Learn how at this all day seminar. 

9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Asian Cultural Center 

Pacific Renaissance Plaza 

388 Ninth Street 

Oakland 

510-839-1248 or www.writeraspublisher.com 

The Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus third annual spring concert, “Turn the World Around,” which celebrates spring and welcomes summer with love songs and traditional favorites. 

May 18, 8 p.m., Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland; 

May 19, 7 p.m., Crowden School, 1475 Rose St.  

Suggested donation is $15 at the door; $12 in advance. (510) 239-2239, ext. 2576, www.oebgmc.org.  

Saturday, May 18-19 

3rd Annual Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar 

The Berkeley Buddhist Temple 

Featuring Bay Area and National Taiko drumming ensembles and Kenny Endo from Hawaii 

#00020000063F00003551639, 

Sunday, May 19 

Jazz On 4th 

6th Annual jazz on Forth, a benefit for Berkeley High School Performing Arts. Balloons, Raffle, Face Painting. 

Free Live Performances by The Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble & Combo, Big Belly Blues Band, Jenna Mammina Quartet, Jesus Diaz with Sabor A Cuba. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. 

Forth Street Between Hearst and Virginia 

For more information 510-526-6294 

Children’s Movies 

Fern Gully (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Saturday, May 25 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Gand, Oakland 

All kinds of entertainers come together for this free show. Featuring Kera Abraham and Ruth Levitan 

Children’s Movies 

Pinnochio (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Saturday & Sunday, May 25 & 26 

19th Annual Himalayan Fair 

Outdoor celebration of the great Mountain Cultures! Authentic Himalayan Art, craft, Music & Dance, exotic food & stage entertainment. Benefits Himalayan Grassroots projects. 

Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-5:30 

Live Oak Park 

Shattuck & Berryman 

$5 Donation 

Children’s Movies 

Pinnochio (in Spanish) 

Shows at 1 & 3 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

Friday, May 31 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, 1958 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

Saturday, June 1 

50th anniversary of the Little Train at Tilden Regional Park 

Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas in Berkeley 

#00020000033C00003B8A336,For more information, call 544-2200 

Sand Castle and Sand Sculpture Contest 

9 a.m. for participants registration 

9- 12 p.m. (Judging starts at noon) 

Crown Beach, Otis and Shore Line Drives 

Alameda 

For more information, call 521-6887 or 748-4565 

Free 

Anthropology Museum Opening  

Native Californian Cultures - Family Day 

Sunday, June 2, 1:30 PM-3:30 PM  

Hearst Museum Courtyard 

Storytelling, children’s games and basketry 

with Julia and Lucy Parker. Julia Parker, a cultural  

interpreter, supervises the Indian Cultural Program  

in Yosemite. Lucy Parker is a traditional artist who 

crafts jewlery and baskets as well as games. 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall at the corner of Bancroft Way and College 

The phone number is (510) 643-7648. 

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for  

#0002000004ED00003EC04E7,children 16 and under- Free to the public on Thursdays. 

Sunday, June 9 

Concert of Traditional Persian Music 

Hossein Alizadeh and Madjid Khaladj 

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley 

7:30 PM 

$22 

925-798-1300, www.theatrebayarea.org. 

JUNE 9-12 

The 2nd Annual California Bluegrass Association MUSIC CAMP 

Nevada County Fairgrounds, GRASS VALLEY, CA  

INSTRUCTORS: 

Banjo—Pete Wernick and Avram Siegel, Fiddle—Laurie Lewis and Jack Tuttle, Mandolin—John Reischman and Tom Rozum, Guitar—Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce, Dobro—Sally van Meter Bass—Trisha Gagnon, Oldtime fiddle—Bruce Molsky, Oldtime, guitar—Tom Sauber, Oldtime banjo—Evie Ladin, Autoharp-Ray Frank 

Beginner and intermediate instrumental classes; jam classes; electives including vocal harmonies, music theory, band rhythm, critical listening, clogging, and more! 

http://www.cbamusiccamp.org 

Monday, June 17th 

Lesbian, Gay, Bi Sexual, Transgender National Day of Honor Planned to honor LGBT loved ones lost on 9/11  

The LGBT National Day of Honor, about creating a Day when all Lesbian,  

Gay, Bi Sexual, Transgendered, & questioning people and our supporters,  

can come together to help further our fight against continued second class  

citizen treatment in the United States.  

#0002000004E1000043A74DB,For more information, call 802.859.9604 

Friday, June 21 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The Mummy, with Boris Karloff, 1932 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

Friday, June 28 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

Saturday, June 29 

Stanford Jazz Festival, June 29-August 10 

Early Bird jazz for kids and families with Jim Nadel & Friends 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m. kids 8-12 

Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford Campus  

Free 

July 6 

Stanford Jazz Festival 

Hirahara/Sickafoose/Amendola Trio 

8 p.m. 

Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford Campus  

With Art Hirahara on Piano, Todd Sickafoose on Acoustic Bass and Scott Amendola on drums, this Bay-Area based Trio draws on the eclectic influences and masterful playing of its members to re-interpret jazz standards and bring fresh, new compositions to the bandstand. 

$20 General, $18 Students/Seniors/PAJA members

Sean Souders threw a two-hitter and DeAndre Miller had a pair of clutch singles as the Berkeley Yellowjackets beat Pinole Valley, 4-0, on Wednesday at San Pablo Park. 

Berkeley (15-4 overall, 8-1 ACCAL) handed Pinole Valley ace Kurt Koehler his first loss in more than two years, using six singles and excellent situational hitting to get all four runs off of the fireballing senior. Miller struck the first blow in the third inning, slicing a single to left to score Lee Franklin from second base. Miller also had the big hit in the ’Jackets’ three-run fifth, a two-run single through a drawn-in infield. Franklin had just blooped an RBI single of his own over the Pinole Valley (6-3 ACCAL) infield. 

Miller, who plays summer ball with Koehler and considers him a good friend, said he finally found an approach that works against the right-hander’s impressive arsenal. 

“I remember the exact pitch sequence when he struck me out last year. He got me on a changeup, and that’s how he got me in my first at-bat today,” Miller said. “I know how he pitches now, and I went up there with an idea. I waited for a fastball and just put it through the hole.” 

The four runs were more than enough for Berkeley starter Sean Souders. The junior had been looking forward to his matchup with Koehler all season, and he responded with a sterling outing. After giving up a single to Adrian Smith to start the second inning, Souders retired 16 of the next 17 Spartan hitters, the only hiccup an error by shortstop Jason Moore. 

“I felt great today. I hardly ever missed,” Souders said. “I can’t really think of any time when I couldn’t hit my spots.” 

Souders struck out nine and walked only two, both with two outs in the seventh inning. The final inning was the toughest for Souders, as he loaded the bases on another Smith single and the two walks, but he struck out the side, including Anthony Jones for the final out after a talk with head coach Tim Moellering. 

Wednesday was Souders’ second win over the Spartans this season, the first being a 16-2 beating on March 29 with Koehler playing shortstop instead of pitching. Although this was their second look at the Berkeley ace, the Pinole Valley hitters often looked helpless, flailing at balls in the dirt and swinging through fastballs. 

“As long as I can get the ball over the plate, I should be able to beat anyone,” Souders said. “If I hit my spots, it shouldn’t matter if I face a team once or 10 times.” 

The win was sweet revenge for the ’Jackets, as Koehler shut them out last season at Evans Diamond on the Cal campus. That loss sent Berkeley spiraling down to finish the season with four straight losses, which doomed the team to a low seed and quick exit from the North Coast Section playoffs.  

With a senior-laden team this season, the ’Jackets are hoping to win the ACCAL, get a high NCS seed and go deep into the postseason. Wednesday’s win kept Berkeley in first place in the league, with El Cerrito and Encinal each a game back. The ’Jackets still have to face both of the second place teams again, but both must take on Pinole Valley as well as each other before the season ends. 

“If we can handle our business on Friday (against Alameda), we’ll definitely be in the driver’s seat,” Franklin said. “As long as we keep playing hard, we can let the other teams beat each other up a little.” 

Moellering hopes beating Koehler will have an inverse effect on his players from last season’s late-season nosedive. 

“Last year when Kurt shut us out, our kids lost confidence rather than giving the pitcher the credit he deserved,” Moellering said. “This was the same team and the same pitcher and we won this time. Hopefully that will give us a bunch more confidence as we go down the stretch.”

Staff reductions, budget cuts and reserve spending — these are increasingly familiar words, piercing the ears of corporations and communities nationwide, will not escape the city of Berkeley. 

City leaders learned this week they must prune the city’s financial ledger or they will end up $2.86 million in the hole next year. 

“On one hand, we’re probably better off than other municipalities in the county and in the state,” said City Manager Weldon Rucker, at a special budget session on Tuesday. But by the same token, there’s a problem to deal with, he said. 

City councilmembers who must decide how to address the budget problem, hearing the numbers for the first time his week, were slow to offer solutions. But employee cutbacks seem to top the list of thankless options. 

City finance officials are recommending cutting the city’s payroll by about 14 employees. Seven positions are already vacant, which means not filling them, and seven others would be selected for deletion. 

“We hope to place them [laid-off staff] in a position that is vacant and find them another job within the city,” said Paul Navazio, the city’s budget manager. 

Mayor Shirley Dean noted that the city’s staffing-reduction recommendation also left open the possibility of reclassifying other city employees at a lower pay rate. 

Prior to this week’s budget report, the city manager had asked department heads to come up with ways to reduce their budgets by five to 10 percent, in anticipation of the city’s shortfalls. 

But according to Dean, the deficits they learned about this week are greater than what was anticipated. “This was far more serious than I think we knew,” she said. 

In addition to next year’s shortfall of nearly $3 million in the city’s $105 million General Fund budget, the city is on pace to rack up a cumulative shortfall of $8.4 million by 2007. 

“Everyone’s waiting for the economy to turn around and it hasn’t happened,” noted Assistant City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

With department-specific cuts still being studied, another budget-trimming recommendation offered by city finance officials is tapping the city’s $5 million reserve fund, of which $2 million is in loans. 

The action, which Kamlarz called a “last resort” but viable, received some criticism at Tuesday’s budget session. 

“I’m really not very comfortable with that,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong. “What if we have a major earthquake and need extra money?” 

But while it appeared easy to say what didn’t need cutting at the meeting, it wasn’t easy to say what did. 

“We can’t say we’re not going to take any cuts and that they’re not going to be painful,” said Mayor Dean. 

City finance officials and councilmembers will meet several times to discuss where the cuts will be made before June 25, when next year’s budget must be balanced. The next budget meeting is May 14. 

City leaders attribute the budget problem to a mix of revenue losses and spending increases over the past year. 

On the revenue side, tax income on utilities and tax revenue from hotels have fallen, according to the recent budget report. 

Bogging down expenditures, among other things, is the increasing cost of labor. Workers compensation costs, medical costs, and retirement costs have all made it more expensive to employ a staff member. 

Contact reporter: 

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Letter to the Editor: 

We, the members of the Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation (BEST) Coalition, are writing in support of the Affordable Housing Associates’ "Outback Senior Homes." 

Outback is a mixed-use, low-income senior housing project located on the corner of Blake and Sacramento streets. This project is not only appropriate in light of our current housing shortage, but it is also well located at a transit convergence and mixed-use node with sidewalk retail. Transit service in this neighborhood is both local and regional, including the intersecting AC 88 and 65 lines, which connect to BART, and Transbay route H. 

In addition, the neighborhood can easily accommodate improved transit and non-automobile mobility, making it a logical neighborhood for increased mass transit, pedestrian, and bicycle density. The scale of the project is comparable to the newly completed, four-story "Over Sixty" Health Center at Sacramento and Alcatraz streets. 

The city of Berkeley has pledged to significantly increase its housing stock, as indicated in the Housing Element of the General Plan Revision. The Outback Senior Home Project complies with this pledge in a way that is both beneficial to the neighborhood and in harmony with Smart Growth principles. The BEST Coalition works to enhance community health, safety, livability, and equity by advocating for and encouraging comprehensive and collaborative transportation, land use, and design strategies that move away from automobile dependency and towards healthier patterns of habitation and mobility. We believe that the Outback Senior Homes development project meets these criteria. 

We urge Council to honor the lengthy process of review and redesign that has already taken place. The Affordable Housing Associates are offering the community a project that will provide quality living for some of our aging residents who need immediate access to transit lines and shopping facilities. Outback Senior Homes is a good example of a sound project meeting the needs of the community and demonstrating smarter coordination between land use and transportation. This project should be approved. 

- The Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation Coalition

Any reforms to current campaign finance law will not be enacted in time to affect the elections in November, due to the City Council’s voting through of a substitute measure when it readjourned Monday evening. The passing of any substitute measure kills the initial measure, which in this case would have referred several proposals to the city manager’s office. 

The initial measure sponsored by Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring would have required the city manager’s office to come up with a viable matching funds plan. This plan would then have to go back to council for approval or be placed on the November ballot for a citywide vote.  

To make the ballot, the measure would have to be handled like a top priority, and it would require the immediate attention of the city manager and city attorney. 

The time-sensitive measure has already been tabled twice by council.  

A substitute measure suggested by Councilmembers Polly Armstrong and Miriam Hawley would refer the entire issue of reform, particularly the possible range of costs, to the budget process. This effectively kills reform’s chances of affecting the November election — Council votes on the budget on June 25 and the process of allocating funds to takes a minimum of several months. 

But questions over whether implementing a matching funds program is financially feasible during a time of budget cuts, and whether election reform is necessary in a city that already has strict limits on campaign contributions, have emerged.  

Council learned on Tuesday of a budget deficit totaling $2.86 million, and now face the task of cutting programs and staff to try to reach a balance. They may not have been aware of the specific numbers involved, but they knew on Monday there was a budgetary shortfall. 

“The biggest reason for the measure’s failure at present is because there isn’t any money,” Mayor Dean said. “But there was also no discussion in the community, in council, or with the [Fair Campaign Practices] commission previous to this. I think there was a lack of groundwork by Worthington and Spring. While I’m by no means opposed to campaign finance reform, I do want to know what the details are.”  

Armstrong questioned the necessity of finance reform in Berkeley.  

“The fact is that years ago we took a lot of steps to be sure that big money didn’t have a role in our elections. No corporation or organization can donate, and the maximum amount for an individual is $250,” Armstrong said. 

“I think the BERA (Berkeley Election Reform Act) is fair, and I believe no one in the government’s vote is going to be determined by a $250 check,” she added. 

Currently, under the Berkeley Election Reform Act, campaign contributions are limited to $250, and they can only come from individuals. Corporations, unions and organizations such as nonprofits are not allowed to contribute.  

Finance reform proposals submitted under the initial measure were drafted by the Berkeley Party and by the UCB chapter of Common Cause. Common Cause is a grass roots lobbying group with the mission statement of promoting honesty, accountability and integrity in government. Jody Schnell of Common Cause says they will continue to seek public financing for future elections — the common thread of both proposals — and are open to input from all sectors of the community.  

“We think that public financing gives the utmost amount of people the chance to run, so we really want to continue talking about these issues,” she says. She also says that from their perspective, the intent isn’t to fix an existing problem in Berkeley, but to be proactive in creating the fairest and most encouraging election system in a nonpartisan matter.  

With the continuing effort by such groups, local campaign finance reform is bound to reappear.  

Until then, it is Armstrong’s opinion that the current campaign finance law is sufficient and fair.  

“I’ve been active in Berkeley for 16 years, and no matter how angry I got or how hard I looked, I’ve never seen a sign or shred of anyone making a decision based on money, and that’s’ politicians as well as employees,” she said. “Instead of tying ourselves in knots, we should be patting ourselves on the back.” 

Councilmembers Worthington and Spring were unavailable by press time. 

Contact reporter: jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

I attended the City Council meeting last Tuesday night, April 23, and sat inside the chambers during the council discussion of and vote on the contentious Peace and Justice Commission resolution concerning Israel and Palestine. I applaud your stand on the issue, but this letter is not about that resolution. Rather, it concerns something that I view as more fundamental – the obligation and duties of both citizens and their representatives engaged in civic discourse. 

I could not help but notice the shouting and cat-calling coming from the audience inside the council chambers. Several of these people interrupted the councilmembers as they spoke. The discussion was not a public hearing (the public comment period had occurred earlier in the meeting) but a discussion on the resolution between councilmembers with the public as observers only. Your offer to permit applause or “boo’s” only after a councilmember had spoken was magnanimous, but your comment, “Well, this is Berkeley,” when the audience constantly interrupted council members with whom they 

disagreed was downright wrong. 

In my view, people who interrupt speakers with whom they disagree (or for any other reason, for that matter) are impeding democracy, free speech and civic discourse, the foundations of our nation. As you said to the public present in the chambers, everyone is entitled to present their own opinion. But it must be done in a civil manner. 

I feel that it is incumbent upon you, as the highest elected official in Berkeley, to set and enforce a high standard for the citizens of our city to follow. It is your duty to have all attendees of City Council 

meetings adhere to the highest standards of public discourse. If a person speaks out and interrupts a councilmember that person should be warned and then, if the action reoccurs, should be removed 

from the council chambers. It is only by enforcing the highest standards in your own house, the council chambers, that you will be able to encourage others to emulate you outside of the chambers in other public venues and in the city as well. 

Yelling or shouting are not conducive to communication. They are confrontational and inflame emotions, preventing the other side from hearing or responding to the content of the point of view presented. 

Please set a standard for for civil discourse that the city of Berkeley and the world can follow. Berkeley is always under the microscope of world opinion and, in a way, we can use this reputation as an “oddball” place to our advantage by showing how democracy can be effective. 

Please be loud and firm when it comes demanding that our citizens act responsibly. Do not allow the citizens of our city or anyone else who wishes to enter into our public discourse to pervert the freedom that we all hold so dear. 

Allen F. King 

- Berkeley

Leaders of Common Ground and Communications/Arts/Sciences, two schools-within-a-school at Berkeley High, said they are seriously considering a break from the high school and formation of a charter school in fall 2003.  

“Berkeley needs qualitative, serious alternatives to Berkeley High School,” said Dana Richards, co-founder of Common Ground. “We want to provide one small alternative.” 

Richards and other small schools leaders have complained for months about a lack of support from district headquarters and the high school administration. 

They said the last straw was Superintendent Michele Lawrence’s recent decision to reject a series of requests they made in January for greater autonomy. CAS and Common Ground called for their own separate administration and greater control over curriculum and staffing decisions, among other things.  

“She came in really ‘rah-rah,’” said Common Ground co-director Tammy Harkins, discussing Lawrence’s initial response to the proposals. “What followed was dilution and then nothing.” 

“In terms of autonomy over curriculum, it seems they’ve had that for some time,” said Lawrence. 

Lawrence added that the current fiscal crisis and a vacancy in the high school principal’s office made the request for a separate, small schools administration impossible. 

“We have unions we have to deal with, and we’re in the middle of layoffs and we have no principal,” she said, explaining her decision. 

“I support the superintendent,” said Board of Education member John Selawsky. “I think some of that stuff was premature.” 

Selawsky said once the district gets its finances and business systems in order, it should be able to lend more support to the existing small schools.  

But small schools leaders said they are tired of waiting. 

“The only thing we can look at is actions and not words,” said Rick Ayers, who heads CAS. “And our small schools have not been given the support they need to stay viable.” 

Planning 

Richards said Common Ground will lead the effort to establish a charter school, initiating a year of planning and dialogue this fall. Ayers said he might join several other CAS teachers in moving to the charter school if it gets off the ground. 

The fate of the five year-old CAS program would be “a question mark” at that point, Ayers said. 

“We could just declare that we’ve had a great run and we’re done,” he said. 

Ayers added that CAS’s future is in doubt even if small schools leaders do not form a charter school. A lack of administrative support and the inherent scheduling difficulties of operating a school-within-a-school have become significant burdens, he said. 

The Model 

Richards, Ayers and Harkins discussed a range of possible models for the school, which would serve about 250 students, according to Richards.  

The school could focus on Common Ground’s theme of environmental justice, or mix that theme with CAS’s emphasis on social justice and the humanities, Ayers said. 

Harkins raised the possibility of functioning within the district and sharing programs like athletics with BHS. 

The process 

Charter school proponents can apply to their local school board, county school board or the state board for approval. California law favors the formation of charter schools, and school boards are only supposed to reject a charter bid if it lacks an adequate number of signatures, a viable academic plan or other basic requirements. 

“I’m very open to people exercising their rights,” said Berkeley school board president Shirley Issel, indicating that she would not stand in the way of the charter school movement. “(But) I would hope we could make these two schools comfortable within Berkeley High School.” 

“I can understand their frustration,” added school board member Terry Doran. “But I don’t want them to form a charter school.” 

Doran was the only member of the board who endorsed a push, earlier this year, to convert BHS into wall-to-wall small schools. The board majority tabled the proposal in December, arguing that it needed further study and the district, which faces a $5.4 million deficit next year, needed to face its fiscal crisis. 

“I want to believe our position on small schools will prevail,” said Doran, encouraging the schools-within-a-school to hold tight. But, he said he would strongly consider the charter request if it was clear that the board was not going to move on wall-to-wall small schools. 

“If that’s what people decide to do, that’s their priority,” said Selawsky, referring to the charter school push. “But I’m not going to go out of my way to support it.” 

Selawsky raised concerns about the charter school diverting state funding from the high school. Per pupil funding would go to the charter school if it siphoned off BHS students. 

But Issel said the district should be willing to absorb the cost if the move served the best interests of the students. 

Eileen Cubanski, who manages the charter school office for the California Department of Education, said the two biggest hurdles most charter schools face are securing a building and learning the administrative ropes. 

“I think it’s biting off more than they realize,” said Berkeley’s Associate Superintendent for Instruction Chris Lim. 

Richards acknowledged the difficulty, and said he does not yet have any solid leads on a building. But he said he was confident of success. 

“My hope is that we look back in 10 years when we have an extraordinary charter school...and we say, we sure are glad we persevered through those hurdles,” Richards said.  

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net.

PASADENA, Calif. — A lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to void the $43 billion in long-term energy contracts that California signed to end last year’s power crisis. 

The suit contends that contracts reached last year with 30 energy providers are improper because one of the state’s consultants had a conflict of interest. 

Vikram Budhraja of Pasadena was on a $100,000 retainer for the parent of Southern California Edison while advising the state on deals designed to rescue the utility from bankruptcy, according to the suit. 

Decisions should not be “tainted by the kind of financial entanglements as are abundant with these energy contracts,” state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, one of eight GOP legislators who filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. 

The suit names Budhraja, the energy providers and the state Department of Water Resources, which was involved in the power contracts. 

McClintock, who is running for state controller and has long opposed the energy policies of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, contends that the contracts overcharged California by as much as $14 billion. 

Budhraja disclosed the retainer in conflict of interest forms, and stayed out of deals that specifically would have benefited Edison, said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. 

He noted that the state attorney general’s office and the federal Fair Political Practices Commission began investigating the potential conflicts of interest last year. 

“There’s nothing new here. It’s a recycled item,” Hidalgo said. “It strikes as a political ploy to keep this issue somehow alive and in the news during an election year.” 

“We’re confident that this lawsuit will be laughed out of court,” said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for the governor. 

California signed 56 long-term power deals last year at the height of the power crisis. The Department of Water Resources began buying electricity in January 2001, after high wholesale costs sent Edison and two other utilities deep into debt and left them unable to purchase power for their customers. 

Davis has credited the long-term deals, which range up to 20 years, with taming the market and providing reliable supplies. At the time, the contract prices for the state’s power sales were 75 percent lower than spot market rates, Maviglio said. 

Since they were signed, however, wholesale electricity prices have dropped to less than half the $69 per megawatt hour average of the long-term deals, leading critics to say the state was rolled by the power companies and stuck consumers with a decade of high prices. 

The administration recently renegotiated eight contracts, saving about $3.5 billion, but McClintock contends that the state still was drastically overcharged. 

The lawsuit plaintiffs also include the United States Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group that describes itself as “your conservative voice in the courts”; state Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine; Republican Assembly leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks and five other GOP Assembly members. 

McClintock and the foundation also sued to void the contracts in November. That suit against Davis and the water resources department claimed the contracts were invalid because they were negotiated in secret and allegedly violated antitrust laws. A hearing in that suit is scheduled for May 17.

LOS ANGELES — With the help of ad campaigns urging residents to vacation in their home state, tourism is on the rebound in California after being severely hurt by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. 

Many travel officials predicted in January that overall summer travel this year would be down 9 percent from last year. But those projections have now been adjusted to reflect an anticipated 5 percent drop. 

That still means California will collect about $4 billion less in visitor spending, which in 2001 reached $76 billion. 

With travel fears gripping the nation after Sept. 11, California tourism officials quickly doled out more than $12 million on a print, radio and television advertising campaign encouraging residents to rediscover their home state. 

The “California, Find Yourself Here” campaign debuted with scenic portraits of the state and music designed to inspire family togetherness. The phase 2 “We’re Californians” strategy showcased famous residents Clint Eastwood golfing at Pebble Beach and Jack Nicholson attending a Lakers game. 

“We knew we had to do something different, and we had to do it quickly,” said Caroline Beteta, executive director of California Tourism, the state’s tourism agency. “So we went straight for Californians and tried to convince them to vacation in their own backyard.” 

By January, requests for travel packets from the state’s tourism Web site jumped 100 percent from the same month last year, and marketing surveys showed that Californians’ awareness about traveling within the state quadrupled, officials said. 

Encouraged by the ad campaign results, state officials now plan a third and final advertising phase this month. But this time they will target four key markets just outside California — Portland, Las Vegas, Seattle and Phoenix. 

“Some destinations simply never realize how valuable the near-in market can be,” said James Cammisa Jr., an analyst at Travel Industry Indicators in Miami. “Targeting the drive market is the only way to pick up the slack from the loss of foreign travelers. 

“The strategy is sound because it recognizes where the consumer’s head is — shorter trips, closer to home.” 

SACRAMENTO — A bill that would suspend rules requiring SBC Pacific Bell and Verizon to share part of their profits with their customers was approved by a legislative committee Wednesday. 

The bill, by Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, was approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee and now goes in front of the full Assembly. 

The bill would freeze until 2007 a regulatory framework that’s currently in place for Verizon and Pac Bell, the companies that provide phone service for most Californians. 

It would turn into law a 1998 Public Utilities Commission decision to suspend the profit-sharing rule for one time. 

But the PUC and other opponents say the bill would suspend a key consumer safeguard — a rule that required the companies to share excess profits with ratepayers. 

“This is one of the worst bills for consumers we’ve seen in a long time,” said Lenny Goldberg, a consumer advocate for The Utility Reform Network. 

The PUC and its Office of Ratepayers Advocates warn that it could let the telecommunication giants pocket hundreds of millions more in excess profits. 

Wright said the PUC would still be able to audit companies and set rates. Suspending the rule will encourage companies to invest in new technology and in upgrading their infrastructure in California, he said.

NEW YORK — Shares of Oracle Corp. fell as much as 10 percent Wednesday, to its lowest levels since 1999, following negative analyst commentary and the departure of another senior executive. 

Oracle, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software company, closed Wednesday afternoon at $9.45, down 59 cents, or nearly 6 percent. Earlier in the day, the stock was as low as $8.88. Oracle stock has fallen 34 percent this year, costing shareholders nearly $26 billion. 

Neil Herman, analyst at Lehman Brothers, lowered his forecasts for the database giant’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ends May 31, and next fiscal year. In a research note to clients, Herman wrote “the chances of Oracle hitting consensus estimates for its May quarter are low.” 

The current consensus calls for earnings of 13 cents a share and revenue of $2.76 billion, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Oracle has fallen shy of estimates in each of the last two quarters as corporations have pared spending on technology. 

Herman, who kept his buy rating on Oracle, now projects fourth-quarter license revenue will drop 39 percent from 2001 levels, rather than drop 28 percent. He predicts earnings of 11 cents on total revenue of $2.57 billion. He previously estimated earnings of 13 cents on revenue of $2.75 billion.

SACRAMENTO — California’s hydroelectricity plants should produce about 85 percent of their normal power this summer, the California Energy Commission projected Thursday. 

Nearly 13 percent of the state’s power will be generated by in-state dams and powerhouses, the commission predicted. That’s up from less than 10 percent last summer, when short hydroelectricity supplies across the Pacific Northwest helped contribute to a series of rolling blackouts. 

By contrast, Washington state had near record precipitation this winter, the commission said. 

While Southern California has received just 30 percent of its normal winter precipitation, most of the state’s hydro production occurs in Northern California, which had near-normal rain and snow. 

Runoff into the 13 rivers that produce most of the state’s hydroelectricity is estimated at 84 percent of normal. 

Most protesters arraigned on lesser charges 

The 79 pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall on April 9 were arraigned on charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace at the Berkeley branch of the Alameda County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon. 

Seven of the defendants also face charges of resisting arrest, and 23-year-old student Roberto Hernandez faces assault and battery charges for allegedly biting one UC Berkeley police officer and attempting to bite another. 

Students, activists and lawyers for the defendants attacked UC Berkeley for filing charges and the District Attorney for pursuing them. They also chided the university for suspending Students for Justice in Palestine, the group that led the April 9 takeover, pending an investigation of the incident.  

“These acts are chilling symbols of state attempts to silence activism,” said Heba Nimr of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, arguing that authorities are singling out SJP for its views. 

The student group has called for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and a divestment from Israel by the UC system. 

Alameda County Assistant District Attorney John Adams said the activists’ charges are “specious.”  

PROTEST/From Page 1 

“I would categorically state that they’re not being targeted,” added UC Berkeley Assistant Chancellor John Cummins. 

Cummins said the university suspended SJP, not because of its views, but because it disrupted classrooms during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

Hoang Phan, an SJP leader arrested on April 9, said the university has never suspended a student group for peaceful civil disobedience and argued that the move sets a dangerous precedent. 

Cummins replied that SJP is a special case because the university warned the student group well in advance that a disruption of student life would not be tolerated. 

Under the terms of the suspension, SJP is not allowed to reserve rooms or outdoor spaces for meetings and protests and is forbidden from setting up an informational table on Sproul Plaza at the heart of the campus. 

Still, the group set up a table on Monday and received a letter from the Student Judicial Affairs Office warning that the group will face additional charges if it continues to do so. 

In addition, the organization plans a “free speech, free Palestine” protest on Thursday. Activists reserved Sproul Plaza for the event under the name of Mediawatch, a different student group. 

University spokesperson Janet Gilmore said SJP activists will be allowed to protest and leaflet. They simply cannot reserve Sproul Plaza as SJP, she said. 

Osha Neumann, an attorney representing the defendants, called on UC Berkeley to pressure the District Attorney to drop the criminal charges. 

“Once it moves to the DA’s office and the (UC Berkeley) police transfer the case, it is completely up to the District Attorney,” said Cummins, indicating that the university will not attempt to influence the District Attorney’s prosecution of the case. 

Adams said he fully intends to pursue the case, but is open to a potential plea bargain. 

“There’s always room for negotiation,” he said. 

Lawyers on both sides will meet with Judge Carol Brosnahan on Friday. If no agreement is reached, pre-trial hearings for all 79 defendants are set for Monday and Tuesday, and Brosnahan will set court dates at the Oakland branch of the Superior Court.  

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

Berkeley progressives are having trouble finding a grownup to lead them (and what grownup would want to), thus probably conceding the mayor’s race to Shirley Dean, who swears she’s not chortling with glee. 

This means that the rest of us can enjoy yet another round of local government: an uninspiring, sometimes thuggish progressive council majority pitted against the ruthless and regal Dean, with everyone indulging in their political hatreds and puny ambitions at our expense. 

A dreary past repeats itself. What is to be done? 

Well, doing nothing is a sane choice. You could argue that there is so little money to be spent and so little land to be fiddled with that the mayor and Council don’t have that much effect on our lives anyway and that it’s certainly not worth all the wasted energy and general ugliness. A non-political life can be awfully sweet. But of course there are always some issues that truly do matter – from a neighborhood’s zoning to the height of buildings downtown to the intractable racial tensions that are constantly lurking. Positions take shape, and the debate and the politics begin. 

So, as a second possible answer to the quandary and for those who find Dean’s liberalism stodgy if not pretty threadbare, the establishment left is holding a convention to nominate a candidate for mayor from its second string. 

There will be some serious and caring people who will talk until hoarse about a million different important things. Unfortunately, in the end, there will probably be little new to ignite the imaginations of many voters outside the hall.  

The tent of the establishment left is always too small and airless. Is there just no hope for a progressivism without the mind-numbing rhetoric? Is it really in the nature of progress that the vanguard be so humorless and hectoring? It’s not always the press’s fault that the left seems goofy or elitist. 

History doesn’t bode well for the third choice, either. Now and then, an independent-minded person has leapt into the breech hoping to form governing coalitions for the good of the city, etc. 

These innocents are usually ground down between both sides. Sooner or later they quit and after a medicated rest get a hobby and try to live as quietly as possible.  

Still, an independent candidate (or even better, a loosely aligned, almost serendipitous slate of such candidates) is the only real hope, slim as it is. 

What may have been missing in the past and what might work now is a sharper political strategy with candidates who have the following qualities: 

First, a truly progressive outlook. Anything less and this might as well be Piedmont, as Dean sometimes seems to wish – but who reach out beyond the usual base, choose and manage their issues wisely and don’t divide the city with crude grandstanding. 

An example: Barbara Lee did not divide us with her vote against the war resolution. She had the respect of even those who disagreed with her. But the Council majority’s bumbling and arrogance as they pushed their own resolution divided us unnecessarily. 

They must run respectfully (sort of) but forcefully against the establishments of both of the city’s political factions, making their political clubs targets of the campaign, labeling them as outdated impediments to progress. 

A viable candidate should pay attention to the pothole issues. Dean will. Street repair, efficiency in government, a non-confrontational approach to business (while still making sure they toe the line and pay the piper) – paying attention to such things gains you respect and votes and does not dilute your progressive credentials no matter what the fanatics say. 

An excellent candidate will act as a conciliator between the factions, a la Clinton’s new paradigm/triangulation without his smarmy abandonment of basic principles. 

The candidate should rely greatly on a long door-to-door campaign (itself well-advertised for maximum media coverage), and aggressive, inventive and grassroots fundraising.  

This candidate need not automatically come from the city’s boards and commissions, which too frequently are the scenes of war by proxy. (Berkeley is an odd place: the most coveted political payoffs are not city contracts but appointments to obscure commissions, with one or two exceptions who always want the money.) 

All of this is very tricky, but still possible. Paradigms and the status quo are meant to be shattered. That’s what first attracted many of us who moved here from other, dimmer places. It’s just time to face our own status quo, not that of whence we came. 

The question is, where are we going? 

- James Day 

Berkeley 

Oakland Museum of California “33rd Annual California Wildflower Show” An exhibition featuring native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free children age 5 and under. May 11: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., May 12: 12 - 5 p.m. 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214. 

“Open: Objects” through May 4: An exhibition featuring sculptural objects by Los Angeles artist Karen Kimmel. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214, 

“Urban Re-Visions” Through May. 4: A two-person exhibition featuring the colorful anthropomorphic sculptures of Tim Burns and the figurative/narrative paintings of Dan Way Harper. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com, 

“Quilted Paintings” Through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224. 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org, 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black and white photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way,  

642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“East Bay Open Studios” Apr. 24 through Jun. 9: An exhibition of local artists’ work in connection with East Bay Open Studios. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland, 763-9425, www.proartsgallery.

NEW YORK — ABC will set aside its normal programming for a full day and evening on Sept. 11 to commemorate the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

The coverage will begin with “Good Morning America” at 7 a.m., break for local news in the evening, then continue through “Nightline.” 

“This is the major news event of our lives,” ABC News President David Westin said. “This is a real opportunity go to back and comprehensively and systematically put together the facts as we now know them, and put them into some perspective.” 

NBC and CBS executives are also discussing their Sept. 11 plans, but have made no announcements. 

The 39 million people who watched CBS’ ”9-11” documentary on March 10 indicates there’s interest in looking back at the tragedy, or at least at the insider camera view that special offered. CBS has the contractual right to show ”9-11” once more, and it’s widely assumed it will be in September. 

ABC News’ tackling of major projects with extended programming has become something of a signature. The network drew high ratings for its marathon coverage for New Year’s 2000. 

The network will broadcast memorials on Sept. 11, and will present a prime-time minute-by-minute reconstruction of what happened a year earlier. Peter Jennings is also scheduled to moderate a discussion with children, similar to what he did last September. 

Westin said ABC would use restraint in broadcasting disturbing images from that day, and will warn viewers if some are used. He wouldn’t predict how popular the daylong special would be. 

“The better way of looking at it is how important is it, and how much do we have to say about it, and the people will decide for themselves,” he said. 

In naming Jennings as the day’s host, ABC is also being a little presumptuous: The anchor’s contract expires this summer and he’s currently in discussions about a new one.

NEW YORK — ABC will set aside its normal programming for a full day and evening on Sept. 11 to commemorate the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

The coverage will begin with “Good Morning America” at 7 a.m., break for local news in the evening, then continue through “Nightline.” 

“This is the major news event of our lives,” ABC News President David Westin said. “This is a real opportunity go to back and comprehensively and systematically put together the facts as we now know them, and put them into some perspective.” 

NBC and CBS executives are also discussing their Sept. 11 plans, but have made no announcements. 

The 39 million people who watched CBS’ ”9-11” documentary on March 10 indicates there’s interest in looking back at the tragedy, or at least at the insider camera view that special offered. CBS has the contractual right to show ”9-11” once more, and it’s widely assumed it will be in September. 

ABC News’ tackling of major projects with extended programming has become something of a signature. The network drew high ratings for its marathon coverage for New Year’s 2000. 

The network will broadcast memorials on Sept. 11, and will present a prime-time minute-by-minute reconstruction of what happened a year earlier. Peter Jennings is also scheduled to moderate a discussion with children, similar to what he did last September. 

Westin said ABC would use restraint in broadcasting disturbing images from that day, and will warn viewers if some are used. He wouldn’t predict how popular the daylong special would be. 

“The better way of looking at it is how important is it, and how much do we have to say about it, and the people will decide for themselves,” he said. 

In naming Jennings as the day’s host, ABC is also being a little presumptuous: The anchor’s contract expires this summer and he’s currently in discussions about a new one.

Thursday, May 2

A Taste of Oakland 

5- 7 p.m. 

A celebration of Oakland’s diversity and culture through its ethnic cuisine 

RSVP by April 19, call 839-9000 

The Amigos Chicano Latino Employees Association of the City of Oakland 

Live Music, DJ and a Mexican American singing duo 

11:30 - 1:15 p.m. 

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Oakland 

Free 

A Century of Collecting 

Drawing from 3.8 million objects collected over a century, A Century of Collecting examines artifact collecting as a form of cultural representation. At the same time, the display explains how anthropology museums go 

about their work of preserving and interpreting the world’s diverse cultures.  

In conjunction with the exhibit  

A Century of Collecting- Panel Discussion:  

Collecting the World 

A discussion about how three anthropologists  

made their collections for the Hearst Museum. 

A reception will follow the program. 

6:30 PM-8:30 PM 

160 Kroeber Hall 

Thursday, May 2

Jai Uttal with Stephen Kent and Jim Santi Owen 

Ayurveda International Symposium 

University of California at Berkeley 

Berkeley, CA 

Ticket prices vary 

For registration and questions: 800-292-4882 

www.ayurveda-caam.org 

or email to: mamtal@aol.com 

Event runs May 2 - 5. 

Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4

Volunteer Opportunity 

“Through the Looking Glass”, a community-based non-profit serving families with disabilities - babies, children, parents, grandparents - is holding it’s 2nd annual International Conference on Parents with Disabilities. Volunteers are needed to assist in registering conference participants. Work alongside staff, meet conference participants, learn about important social issues affecting families.  

Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland 

For further information or to volunteer call 848-1112, ext. 110 

Banged-up Bears take rare underdog role against rival Stanford 

The Cal and Stanford track & field teams will face off this Saturday at the 108th Big Meet, and both coaches expect very close finishes on both the men’s and women’s competitions. 

The meet will be held in Edwards Stadium on the Cal campus, which bodes well for the Golden Bears. The Cardinal haven’t pulled out a road win in Berkeley since 1966. 

Cal head coach Erv Hunt, however, considers his teams to be underdogs against the improving program from down south, especially since several key performers will likely watch from the stands due to injury. 

“This is going to be like no other Big Meet since I’ve been here, because Stanford should be favored on both sides,” Hunt said Tuesday. “It’s going to take a big effort by us just to keep this thing close and be competitive. I’m not saying we can’t win the meet, but they just have better people available right now.” 

Hunt has been with Cal since 1971, the year before the Bears started a 25-year men’s winning streak over Stanford. But the Cardinal has made huge strides in the past few seasons, mostly in the distance events, and nipped the Bears last year, 82-81. Hunt estimated that the nine events that could have gone either way all went to Stanford, but the Cardinal’s long-distance dominance clearly gives them an edge right off the bat no matter whom they face. Stanford is home to the Pac-10’s top four runners in the 5,000-meter and two of the top three in the 10,000. 

The women’s side, which began in 1980, has been much more evenly contested, with Stanford leading the series 12-10. The Cardinal women blew away the Bears last season, 101.5-60.5. But the Bears come into this year’s event ranked higher in the Trackwire poll, No. 20, than Stanford, which is 25th. 

“Our women just didn’t compete well last year, and they got beat up pretty good,” Hunt said. “I don’t expect anything like that to happen again.” 

Athletes from both sides agreed that the Big Meet is the most unifying event of the season, a rare occasion when individuals will sacrifice their personal needs for the good of the team. 

“The Big Meet is a great opportunity for everyone from both schools. It gives us something to really care about as a team,” Cal pole vaulter Bubba McLean said. “I really enjoy competing against people I’m supposed to hate, but I end up respecting them. It’s the embodiment of the whole college athletic experience.” 

For the well-traveled Stanford team, Saturday will be a chance for the team to share the same stadium. Last weekend, the Cardinal had athletes competing at three different meets. 

“It’s amazing. It’s intense. You’ve got teammates all over the stadium, and you’ve got teammates watching you compete,” said Stanford’s Robyn Woolfolk. “You do events you’re not used to to get the team extra points, and everyone puts aside their worries about qualifying standards and just competes.” 

The meet will kick off on Friday with the hammer throw. Cal’s Jennifer Joyce, who has the second longest throw in the NCAA this season, said she’s looking forward to setting the tone for the entire meet. 

“It’s become a tradition for us to start the meet on Friday, and it’s really fun,” Joyce said. “I know if I do well, it will get everyone pumped up and have a positive effect on the team.”

Some Berkeley residents are hurriedly scouring the commercial districts and neighborhoods and gathering signatures in an attempt to get two separate but perhaps equally controversial initiatives placed on the upcoming November ballot. 

A push by Martha Nicoloff, former president of the North Berkeley Neighborhood Council seeks to preserve Berkeley as a city of “neighborhoods without huge, out-of-scale building projects sticking out of their midst like bulky boulders.” 

The initiative, which has been two years in the making, would essentially outlaw developments larger than four stories within city limits. And Nicoloff says she’s prepared to face those who oppose it. 

“We expect incredible opposition, and we are ready for it,” Nicoloff said. “However, maybe after people have a look at it they will see that we’ve helped out the City Council. We have helped them update their zoning ordinance to be a better match with the general plan they’ve just passed.”  

According to Nicoloff the initiative is designed to stop developers from using undue influence and loopholes to get large projects developed. 

“City Council has neglected to updated the Zoning Regulations needed to plug the loopholes,” Nicoloff said. “The City Council has not acted on these important issues, so it is our right as citizens to petition the voters and get the voters opinion.”  

“Developers are using their influence to go beyond four stories out in the commercial areas and we think it is detrimental to the community — if they go beyond four stories,” she added. 

Though she expects there to be opposition, Nicoloff says the initiative has made its way to the table of the planning commission, and she is hoping the initiative will receive fair analysis. 

“But what is most important to us is to find out what people in the community think first,” she added. 

The second petition drive is likely to cause even more controversy. 

COFFEE/From Page 3 

Berkeley attorney Rick Young wants to restrict the sale of brewed coffee from business vendors in the city to those brewed from coffee beans which are certified as “organic,” “fair trade” or “shade-grown.” 

Organic coffee is defined by beans that are produced under an approach that views the farm as an ecosystem and promotes long-term protection of the farm with an emphasis on recycling, composting, soil health and biological activity, according to Young. 

“Fair trade certified coffee” meets the standards of the TransFair USA, a nonprofit monitoring organization that certifies that participating traders are following fair trade guidelines.  

“Shade grown coffee” is planted in a shaded, forest-like setting created by a canopy of trees. 

According to Young this initiative would cause a reduction in the use of chemicals applied during coffee cultivation. Young also asserts that consumers need to take more responsibility for how their purchases are affecting the environment. 

But at least one councilmember says he does not think this will be a very popular initiative, if it indeed does make it to the November ballot. 

“Coffee in Berkeley is a bit like a religion,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “Taking people’s coffee away is far more controversial than us deciding to bomb Afghanistan. I don’t know how many people in Berkeley would support that. 

Another possible obstacle facing the city would be the legality of such legislation, and the cost factor of enforcing it, not to mention backlash from existing coffee vendors. 

In the short-term, requiring coffee vendors to sell specific types of coffee would limit the variety of beans that consumers could purchase. 

But Worthington said he thinks that legally there are some things the city could do to encourage and discourage the sale of certain coffee products. 

“The city already buys fair trade coffee. It’s not clear to me that we couldn’t take some steps to discourage the sale of non-fair trade coffee,” he said. 

Worthington pointed to the city outlawing the use of Styrofoam cups as a possible precedent to such legislation. 

Both petition drives will require 2,000 signatures by June to make it onto the November ballot. 

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor, 

The Planet’s article on height limits (April 14) states that Berkeley is the third most congested city in Northern California, but supports the claim by referring to its ranking in population density. They are not the same. 

Congestion refers to the impediment of flow, especially vehicular flow. Interestingly, the Council of Neighborhood Associations Newsletter notes that "Berkeley is 25 percent denser than the traffic congestion capital, Los Angeles..." Berkeley has less traffic than L.A. because vehicular flow depends upon the pattern of density in a whole region, not just the particular city within a region. 

In the Bay Area, as well as several other areas for which I have examined the data, vehicular ownership and use on a per-household basis is sharply lower in the denser zones. Population growth in the hills or Contra Costa will result in far more vehicles, and more vehicular use, than growth in San Francisco, Daly City or Berkeley. It may sound paradoxical, but population growth in Berkeley should result in less congestion than growth in open areas. 

Neighborhoods are legitimately concerned about the local impacts of growth, but it is disturbing to see so little discussion of the impacts of displacing the growth elsewhere. Kudos to the League of Women Voters for raising the issue. Black marks to the Sierra Club for failing to speak up for its supposed constituency, the flora and fauna that would be displaced by growth outside of already densely built-up areas. This is not a developer versus neighborhood issue; the developers will make money wherever they build. 

The real height limit issue is about office buildings, not housing. The financial district in S.F. has 40- to 50- story buildings on 60- to 70-foot wide streets. The equivalent on Shattuck Avenue would be 80 to 150 stories tall at its widest. Nobody is suggesting such nonsense here. The current height limits are, if anything, conservative in terms of our capabilities to make livable, functional, and even desirable living space. 

- Robert Clear 

Berkeley 

LOS ANGELES — Steve Bornstein, president of the ABC television network, resigned Tuesday. 

The announcement was made by Robert Iger, president of The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC. 

Bornstein is leaving the network “to pursue other interests,” according to a statement that Disney released. 

“I have had the good fortune of having some very challenging and rewarding positions with ESPN, ABC and The Walt Disney Company,” Bornstein said in the statement. “There are other interests I wish to pursue and now is an appropriate time to do this.” 

ABC has been struggling in the ratings race and trails rivals CBS and NBC.

The Berkeley Federation of Teachers is preparing to go to court to challenge layoff notices for as many as 40 “temporary” teachers, but district officials are confident they will prevail. 

BFT President Barry Fike said the union has collected about 20 “power of representation” forms already, authorizing BFT to advocate for the teachers in Superior Court. He expects more to sign in the near future. 

Fike said many of the teachers will argue that the district has misclassified them. They will contend that they are in fact “probationary” or “permanent” teachers, higher up on the seniority chain, and that the district improperly laid them off. 

But David Gomez, associate superintendent for administrative services, said the district has checked its records and is confident that it has properly classified all the temporary teachers. 

The district issued layoff notices, effective next year, to 173 teachers as part of an effort to cut $5.4 million and balance the budget. According to district figures, 82 of those teachers are probationary, generally first- or second-year teachers with a preliminary or full credential, and 91 are temporary, generally new instructors who are often on an emergency credential. 

Thirty-four probationary teachers participated in layoff hearings April 18-19, challenging district records on their credentials and status. The administrative law judge who presided over the hearing rescinded a few layoff notices at the hearing and is scheduled to issue a judgment on the rest of them Monday. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Today is Wednesday, May 1, the 121st day of 2002. There are 244 days left in the year. 

Highlight 

On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. 

On this date: 

In 1786, Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” premiered in Vienna. 

In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland. 

In 1898, Commodore George Dewey gave the command, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley,” as an American naval force destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. 

In 1931, New York’s 102-story Empire State Building was dedicated. 

In 1931, singer Kate Smith began her long-running radio program on CBS. 

In 1941, the Orson Welles motion picture “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York. 

In 1948, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed. 

In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. (They divorced in 1973.) 

In 1971, Amtrak — which combined and streamlined the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads — went into service. 

In 1987, during a visit to West Germany, Pope John Paul II beatified Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. 

Ten years ago:  

On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, a visibly shaken Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, asking, “Can we all get along?” President Bush delivered a nationally broadcast address in which he vowed to “use whatever force is necessary” to restore order. 

Five years ago:  

Britons went to the polls in a national election that gave the Labor Party a resounding victory over the ruling Conservatives. John and Patsy Ramsey, the parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, publicly declared their innocence in the case, and asked for the public’s help in finding the killer of their 6-year-old daughter. 

One year ago:  

President Bush committed the United States to building a shield against ballistic missile attack. FBI Director Louis Freeh announced his retirement. Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four black girls. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actor Glenn Ford is 86. TV personality Jack Paar is 84. Former astronaut Scott Carpenter is 77. Jazz singer Shirley Horn is 68. Singer Judy Collins is 63. Singer Rita Coolidge is 57. Singer-songwriter Ray Parker Jr. is 48. Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen is 42. Rock musician Johnny Colt is 36. Country singer Tim McGraw is 35. Rock musician D’Arcy is 34. 

East Bay law enforcement officials are searching for a gray 2001 Honda coupe that belongs to a man who was found Sunday afternoon in Tilden Park suffering from multiple stab wounds, and a woman he apparently picked up before being stabbed. 

East Bay Regional Park Police spokesman Jon King said their officers and Berkeley police officers responded at about 2 p.m. to Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Spruce Street where they found the victim. The victim had been stabbed with a knife multiple times in the chest and neck, King said, and as of yesterday was undergoing surgery at Highland Hospital. 

“We're looking for the vehicle and the other person,” King said. 

The victim told officers that he picked up the woman and drove into Tilden Park where the stabbing occurred while they were parked at the end of Brook Road near Lake Anza. 

“We don't know exactly what happened,” King said. 

Investigators are not sure whether the victim and the woman knew each other, where the victim picked her up or why he picked her up, King said. Those questions will have to wait until after the victim is out of surgery, he said. 

King said they are searching the area for the woman and the car, which the victim said has a roof rack. The suspect is described as being a medium built white woman, about 19 years old, with a blond ponytail. She was last seen wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans.

SAN FRANCISCO — Thirty years after the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, former White House counsel John Dean intends to publish an electronic book revealing who he believes is “Deep Throat,” the anonymous informant who helped unseat President Richard Nixon. 

San Francisco-based online magazine Salon.com will offer the e-book June 17, managing editor Scott Rosenberg said Tuesday. Dean previously has written political commentary and book reviews for Salon. 

“Obviously, he has strong personal interest in the subject,” Rosenberg said. “After a lot of careful research that he details in the book, he’s pretty certain he knows who it was.” 

It won’t be the first time Dean has postulated on the identity of Deep Throat. 

In 1975, Dean said in a speech in Natchitoches, La., that it was Earl J. Silbert, one of the original Watergate prosecutors. Silbert laughed at the idea. 

In a 1982 book, “Lost Honor,” Dean said Deep Throat had to be Alexander M. Haig, who was the No. 2 aide to Henry Kissinger at the National Security Council and later Nixon’s chief of staff. Haig denied it.

SACRAMENTO — Consumer groups and state regulators are opposing a bill that would shelve rules requiring SBC Pacific Bell and Verizon to share part of their profits with ratepayers. 

The bill, by Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, would freeze until 2007 a regulatory framework that’s currently in place for Verizon and Pac Bell, the companies that provide phone service for most Californians. Pac Bell officials called the bill a “status quo measure.” 

Wright’s bill would turn into law a 1998 Public Utilities Commission decision to suspend the profit-sharing rule for one time. He said Tuesday that decision has stabilized telephone rates and encouraged companies to invest in California. 

“Business people want stability in their rates,” Wright said. “You want to know what your bill is going to be next year.” 

But the PUC and other opponents say the bill would suspend a key consumer safeguard — a rule that required the companies to share excess profits with ratepayers. 

The PUC and its Office of Ratepayers Advocates warn that it could let the telecommunication giants pocket hundreds of millions more in excess profits. 

“The bottom line is, we didn’t feel it protected consumers,” said Regina Birdsell, director of ORA, the independent arm of the PUC that represents consumers. “It lifted oversight from the PUC and that’s the only protection that we think consumers have at this point.” 

The PUC would still be able to audit companies and set rates, Wright said. 

“We’re not tying their hands,” he said. “If the PUC thinks the profits are too high, lower their rates.” 

The ORA has pushed to reinstate the profit-sharing rule, which hasn’t been used in three years, because its audits found Pac Bell and Verizon failed to report billions in profits between 1997 and 1999. 

When it suspended profit-sharing for Verizon and Pac Bell in 1998, the PUC said the rule “distorts incentives” for companies to be efficient and invest in new technology in the state, said Mark Weideman, a Pac Bell attorney. 

“They were right on,” he said, adding that sharing limits “how much a company can earn.” 

When the PUC suspended the rule in 1998, deputy counsel Helen Mickiewicz said, it anticipated more competitive in telephone service, which would reduce rates. That hasn’t happened. 

So regulators need the option of using the profit-sharing rule and the audits to keep the companies from exploiting their “captive audience,” Mickiewicz said. 

The rule is part of streamlined regulatory framework developed in the 1980s to allow Pac Bell and Verizon to react to a changing telecommunication market. 

Californians have benefited, Weideman said, because the system allowed Pac Bell to invest billions to upgrade its infrastructure and offer DSL and other technology to its customers. 

Every three years, the PUC audits the companies and makes changes to the framework. In its latest triennial audit of Pac Bell, the PUC found that the company had understated their 1997-1999 earnings by nearly $2 billion and should refund $350 million to its customers. Had the sharing rule been implemented, another $457 million would have been due to customers, the audit found. 

Pac Bell disputed the audit’s findings. Wright also questioned the accuracy of the audit. 

Then, in a budget subcommittee hearing last week, Wright asked to have the ORA’s telecommunication branch cut from the budget in two years. 

“Right now, we have a $22 billion hole in the budget,” he said. “The people at ORA came in front of my committee twice recently and were just wrong.” 

If the ORA can justify their existence to the Legislature in the next two years, lawmakers can restore their budget, Wright said. 

For a legislator to attempt to “wipe out a whole office of regulators” sends the wrong message to SBC’s headquarters in San Antonio, said Regina Costa, telecommunications director for The Utility Reform Network. 

“These guys are supposed to be working for Californians and not Texas corporations,” Costa said. “You’d think that they’d learned their lesson with Enron.” 

The bill is to be heard today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Delaware judge Tuesday cleared Hewlett-Packard Co. of allegations it acted improperly in the vicious proxy fight over the Compaq Computer Corp. acquisition, likely paving the way for completion of the high-tech industry’s biggest merger. 

After a three-day trial last week in Wilmington, Del., Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler ruled that former HP director Walter Hewlett failed to support his charges that HP bullied a big investor into supporting the Compaq deal and lied to investors about the progress of the merger plans. 

“The evidence demonstrates that HP’s statements concerning the merger were true, complete and made in good faith,” Chandler wrote. 

Hewlett can challenge the ruling in the Delaware Supreme Court. The HP heir said in a statement he was disappointed with the decision but planned to review it closely before deciding on his next step. 

Palo Alto-based HP and Houston-based Compaq plan to begin working together May 7. 

“Clearly we’re gratified,” HP spokeswoman Rebeca Robboy said. “We look forward to moving on.” 

Chandler’s ruling concluded another contentious chapter in Hewlett’s fight to stop the $18.4 billion acquisition. 

After HP narrowly won its shareholder vote on the Compaq acquisition, Hewlett tried to block the deal by suing the computing giant, which his father, William Hewlett, co-founded in 1939. He sued in Delaware because HP is incorporated there, as are many Fortune 500 companies. 

That step so angered HP management and its other directors that Hewlett was not renominated for another term on the board, leaving the Silicon Valley institution without a Hewlett or Packard in its boardroom for the first time. 

Hewlett’s statement said he would maintain his involvement with the company and monitor it “to ensure that it acts in the best interests of all stockholders.” 

The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors in New York also have been looking into how HP acted in the proxy fight. 

“This has been an astonishing sequence of events,” said Gartner Inc. analyst Martin Reynolds. Because of all the scrutiny on the deal since it was announced Sept. 3, “I really believe this is one of the best planned mergers we’ve ever seen,” Reynolds added. 

A preliminary tally released two weeks ago found that HP won its shareholder vote 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent. That amounted to a lead of 45 million shares — likely enough even if the judge had disqualified the 17 million to 24 million shares voted by Deutsche Bank, the investor Hewlett claims was coerced. 

The tally is not yet official because both sides are challenging individual ballots, a process known as “the snake pit.” 

The Delaware trial featured 10 hours of testimony from HP’s top two executives, CEO Carly Fiorina and chief financial officer Robert Wayman. 

Hewlett alleged that HP threatened to withhold future investment banking business from Deutsche Bank unless the investment firm canceled its vote against the deal and voted for it at the last minute. 

In a voice mail for Wayman two nights before the March 19 shareholder vote, Fiorina suggested they do something “extraordinary” for Deutsche Bank. Then in a conference call with Deutsche money managers about an hour before the shareholder vote began, Fiorina said their decision was “of great importance to our ongoing relationship.” Hewlett attorneys also said HP’s proxy solicitor had noted on a planning chart that HP had a “carrot of future business” to use in lobbying Deutsche Bank.

With SAT-9 testing set to begin in Berkeley elementary schools this week, a small group of parents, activists and students gathered outside Rosa Parks School to protest the exam and spread the word about a provision in state law allowing parents to opt their children out of the test. 

“What if they gave an unfair, discriminating test and nobody came?,” asked Aaron Reaven, an organizer for the California Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, which opposes “high stakes” standardized testing. 

Under state law, teachers and districts can inform parents of their right to opt out, but cannot encourage parents to do so. 

Deb Palmer, an English Language Learners resource teacher at Rosa Parks who spoke at the protest, said this provision in the law has intimidated other teachers. 

“Many of my fellow teachers would like to be here, but they’re afraid to be,” she said. 

Palmer was the only teacher at the protest. But over 300 teachers have signed a petition, drawn up by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, opposing the SAT-9. The teachers ran the petition as an advertisement in the Daily Planet last week. 

Palmer said the prominence of the test and the financial awards attached to it encourage instructors to “teach to the test” rather than focus on important curriculum areas. 

“We certainly don’t support that,” said Les Axelrod, an education research and evaluation consultant for the California Department of Education in Sacramento. “We think the way to prepare kids for the test is to design a good instructional program that’s aligned to the state standards. 

“In practice, I know that’s not happening,” Axelrod acknowledged. But he said it’s up to districts and individual teachers to avoid teaching to the test. 

Activists at the protest argued that the state would do better to spend education money in the classroom, rather than on testing. 

“Don’t waste ink on this,” said Maria Luisa Garcia, parent of a Rosa Parks student, speaking through an interpreter. 

Axelrod said spending on testing and awards, which approached $1 billion out of a roughly $53 billion education budget last year, was “money well-spent.” 

Shirley Issel, President of the Board of Education, said there are problems with the current testing regimen, but argued that standardized testing is a valuable tool. 

“The standards movement is the best hope we have for educational equity,” Issel said, arguing that tests hold educators accountable. 

School board members Terry Doran and Ted Schultz also argued that tests can be useful, but raised concern about the monetary awards attached to test results, arguing that they can be divisive. 

This year, according to Bill Padia, director of the policy and evaluation division for the Department of Education, the state gave $100 million to teachers and $350 million to schools with high-scoring students. The state plans to distribute another $212 million in Governor’s Performance Awards to high-scoring schools in the coming week, but the legislature is holding the money pending an examination of the troubled state budget. 

Next year, Padia said, the $100 million in teacher awards will likely be cut because of the budget deficit and the $350 million, always planned as a one-time expenditure, will not be re-allocated. 

A bill in the state Assembly, authored by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, would eliminate the awards system and scrap the SAT-9 in favor of a new test, to be developed largely by teachers. The bill narrowly passed through the Assembly Education Committee last week.

Today is Tuesday, April 30, the 120th day of 2002. There are 245 days left in the year. 

Highlight: 

On April 30, 1945, as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun. 

On this date: 

In 1789, George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the United States. 

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. 

In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union. 

In 1900, Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory. 

In 1939, the New York World’s Fair officially opened. 

In 1970, President Nixon announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest. 

In 1973, President Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean. 

In 1975, Communist forces captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. 

In 1991, an estimated 125,000 people died as a cyclone struck the South Asian country of Bangladesh. 

Ten years ago:  

As rioting in Los Angeles entered its second day, President Bush condemned the violence, and said the Justice Department would intensify its investigation of police conduct in the beating of Rodney King. 

Five years ago:  

The Senate approved the nomination of Alexis Herman to be labor secretary. ABC TV aired the “coming out” episode of the situation comedy “Ellen” in which the title character, played by Ellen DeGeneres, acknowledges her homosexuality. President Clinton reopened the newly renovated Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 

One year ago:  

California businessman Dennis Tito arrived at the international space station aboard a Russian spacecraft. Intern Chandra Levy was last seen at a health club near her apartment in Washington, D.C., before vanishing (her disappearance remains a mystery). 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Princess Juliana, the Queen Mother of the Netherlands, is 93. Actress Cloris Leachman is 76. Singer Willie Nelson is 69. Actor Burt Young is 62. Actress Jill Clayburgh is 58. Movie director Allan Arkush is 54. Movie director Jane Campion is 48. Basketball coach Isiah Thomas is 41. Rock singer J.R. Richards (Dishwalla) is 30. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees) is 29. Actress Kirsten Dunst is 20. Country singer Tyler Wilkinson (The Wilkinsons) is 18. 

To the Editor: 

News reports of a decision by UC Berkeley to temporarily suspend recognition of Students for Justice in Palestine as a registered student group following an unlawful occupation of a building where classes were being held have led to confusion over the free speech rights of this group on campus. 

It is important to clarify that suspension of the group’s status as a registered student group does not preclude it from free speech activities afforded all students. It does, however, limit the group’s use of university resources, such as reserving classrooms for meetings and the Sproul Hall steps for scheduled events.  

All registered student groups agree to abide by regulations governing the use of campus facilities. The campus may suspend a group’s privileges when its members violate the rules or when the campus has reason to believe a student group will continue to undertake activities that will disrupt the academic mission. 

Free speech is a cherished tradition at UC Berkeley. As Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said on April 8, the day before the building occupation:  

“This university has a proud history in the defense of free expression. It is our responsibility to provide a neutral forum for individuals and groups to advocate their cause. ... Most importantly, it is our responsibility to protect the rights of all members of the campus community to pursue their reason for being here - the work of teaching, learning, and research - uninterrupted by anyone.”  

- Karen D. Kenney  

Dean of Students 

UC Berkeley

Theater 

“Pericles, Prince of Tyre” Through May 4: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., William Shakespeare’s tale of lost hopes and love regained. Directed by Jon Wai-keung Lowe. $14. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, 234-6046. 

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Apr. 12 through May 11: Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Eugene O’Neill’s story of the Tyrone family. Directed by Jean-Marie Apostolides. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., 528-5620, www.actorsensembleofberkeley.com.  

“Time Out for Ginger” May 10 through Jun. 1: The Actor’s Studio presents the famous comedy that sketches the tumult in a family that includes three teenage daughters, one of whom insists on trying out for her high school football team. $12. Check theater from dates and times. The Actor’s Studio’s Little Theatre, 3521 Maybelle Ave., Oakland 

“Homebody/Kabul” Apr. 24 - June 23: Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Tony Kushner’s play about a women who disappears in Afghanistan and the husband and daughter’s attempts to find her. $38-$54. Call ahead for times, 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org.  

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

Exhibits  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

“Open: Objects” through May 4: An exhibition featuring sculptural objects by Los Angeles artist Karen Kimmel. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

“Urban Re-Visions” Through May. 4: A two-person exhibition featuring the colorful anthropomorphic sculptures of Tim Burns and the figurative/narrative paintings of Dan Way Harper. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Quilted Paintings” Through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black and white photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

Tuesday, April 30 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Farm Fresh Choice, Community Produce Stands 

Affordable, high-quality nutritious fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs and apple juice. Organic and low residue produce. Support small independent African -American, Latino and Asian Farmers continue to farm in environmentally sound ways. 

4 to 6 p.m., every Tuesday 

Three Locations:  

The Young Adult Project at Oregon and Grant, Bahia on Eighth Street at James Kenny Park and The Berkeley Youth Alternative. 

Tobacco Industry in Foreign Countries 

4:30 - 6:30 p.m. 

22 Warren Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Dr. Ewa Krolikova of the Czech Republic and Mary Assunta of the Consumers Association of Penang in Malaysia share their efforts to fight the Tobacco Industry in their countries. 

#0002000007C4000009A37BE, 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

Peder Sather Symposium 

Foreign Policy Seminar, After 9/11: American & European Perspectives on Security Globalization & Conflict Resolution 

2 - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Wheeler Hall 

Maude Fife Room 315 

415-986-0766 

Thursday, May 2 

A Taste of Oakland 

5- 7 p.m. 

A celebration of Oakland’s diversity and culture through its ethnic cuisine 

RSVP by April 19, call 839-9000 

The Amigos Chicano Latino Employees Association of the City of Oakland 

Live Music, DJ and a Mexican American singing duo 

11:30 - 1:15 p.m. 

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Oakland 

Free 

A Century of Collecting 

Drawing from 3.8 million objects collected over a century, A Century of Collecting examines artifact collecting as a form of cultural representation. At the same time, the display explains how anthropology museums go 

about their work of preserving and interpreting the world’s diverse cultures.  

In conjunction with the exhibit  

A Century of Collecting- Panel Discussion:  

Collecting the World 

A discussion about how three anthropologists  

made their collections for the Hearst Museum. 

A reception will follow the program. 

6:30 PM-8:30 PM 

160 Kroeber Hall 

Jai Uttal with Stephen Kent and Jim Santi Owen 

Ayurveda International Symposium 

University of California at Berkeley 

Berkeley, CA 

Ticket prices vary 

For registration and questions: 800-292-4882 

www.ayurveda-caam.org 

or email to: mamtal@aol.com 

Event runs May 2 - 5. 

Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4 

Volunteer Opportunity 

“Through the Looking Glass”, a community based non-profit serving families with disabilities - babies, children, parents, grandparents - is holding it’s 2nd annual International Conference on Parents with Disabilities. Volunteers are needed to assist in registering conference participants. Work alongside staff, meet conference participants, learn about important social issues affecting families.  

#0002000004B7000011614B1,Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland 

For further information or to volunteer call 848-1112, ext. 110 

Saturday, May 4 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Entertainers of all kinds come together for this free show featuring “Press 62” starring Johanna Mangahas, You-Fong Benedicte Chang, Anthony Scott and Jason Zahorchak 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Shelter Operations: Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

to register: 510-981-5605 

Saucy Sounds Community Event 

Oakland Youth Chorus Preview Concert  

2 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

27th & Harrison 

Oakland 510-287-9700 

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Tom & Jerry, The Movie (in English) 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

The Oakland Symphony Chorus 

8:45 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. 

6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland. 

STYLES SAMPLER Workshop. Three music workshops presented on Spirituals with Trente Morant, Barbershop with Dr. Robert Campell and Feasts and Seasons, Music of Spain and America with Juan Pedro Gaffney. 

#00020000045F00001612459,Morning snacks and lunch will be provided. $30. $25 in advance. 465-4199. 

Berkeley Rep/UC Berkeley Joint Symposium, 

featuring discussions and workshops inspeired by HOMEBODY/KABUL 

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St., Berkeley 

Free & open to the public, call 510-647-2966 for reservations (not required)  

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

6:30 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651 

Meet the Candidates Convention 

For a new Berkeley Mayor 

Chris Worthington, Rob Wrenn, Elliot Cohen, Barbara Lubin and Tom Bates have been invited & asked to share their vision for Berkeley’s future. 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK) 

Berkeley 

510-540-8543 

Free 

Saturday, May 4-5 

The 9th Annual Benicia Artists Open Studios 

10 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

Benicia Chamber of Commerce 

601 First Street 

Over sixty local artists will display their work from many different art forms. Free. 

For more information contact Marie Muscolino at 707-747-0131 or artsbenicia@aol.com. 

Ahh, halftime. Berkeley High midfielder Demetrius Sommers cracks open a cold one - a tall black can, highlights of red and gold. 

From a distance, it looks like he’s drinking King Cobra. But since Sommers is in the middle of a lacrosse game and he’s too young to be drinking malt liquor, that seems unlikely. Sommers pours the beverage into his Gatorade sport bottle and crushes the can, discarding it underneath the Berkeley bench. 

A glimpse of the can reveals a label reading “Double Size, Double Strength” as Sommers takes two giant swigs from the sport bottle, tosses it aside, and hustles over to a photographer to ask him if he managed to get any good shots (of Sommers) in the first half. Sommers smiles broadly. Braces, spiked blonde hair, a gleam in the eye. 

“Cool,” he says. “All right. Very cool.” And runs back onto the field. 

“RockStar Energy Drink,” the can reads. Then, the motto: “Party Like a Rock Star.” 

Berkeley lacrosse coach Jon Rubin can only smile and shake his head when asked about his most rabid defensive player. 

“He has one gear,” Rubin says. “Fifth gear – and that’s it.” 

But compared to the rest of the players on the field, it looks like sixth gear. The second half starts and immediately Sommers, a long-stick midfielder, sprints up the midline to the dead center of the field, where a single Berkeley player and a single Piedmont player are on their knees, skirmishing over the ball in lacrosse’s version of a face-off. The ball squirts out, and Sommers, still in full stride, scoops up the ball and turns upfield. 

Sommers is technically a defender – but one who always seems to be on the attack. 

Moving in a straight line (he doesn’t really need to juke – he just outruns everyone else), Sommers carries the ball directly into the Berkeley offensive zone. He snaps a pass to a Berkeley attacker, turns smartly, and exits the playing field so that an additional Berkeley attacker can join the fray. Total time on the field: 20 seconds at full bore. 

Back on the sideline, there’s just time for one swig from the Gatorade bottle. A Berkeley turnover, and immediately Sommers sprints back into the game. 

“I’m basically busting in and out of the field all the time,” Sommers says. “I figure I run like two or three miles per game out there. I usually drink [RockStar] between halves – it’s like a double-sized Red Bull – and it gives me that extra burst of energy.” 

But a minute later Sommers is out of the game again – this time nursing a sideache. 

“It’s that energy drink you’re drinking,” a teammate yells. Sommers nods, limping, and drags himself slowly to the bench. He sits for a second, dazed. Then – what else - another long pull from the sport bottle, and Sommers pops back to his feet. Seconds later he is back in the game, looking for someone to hit. 

It’s not long before he finds someone. A Piedmont attacker accepts a pass in front of the net, turns, and is flattened by a charging Sommers. The ball floats briefly in the air and Sommers, while leaping over his prone victim, snatches it out of the air. 

The sideache, apparently, has passed. 

Sommers is no lumbering defenseman – he plays much larger than he actually is. He can lie to the DMV all he wants, but standing with him after the game it’s obvious. 

“I’m about five-nine, 150 (pounds),” Sommers says. “Oh. Yeah, you’re right - that might be stretching it a bit. Maybe I’m five-eight and a half. My driver’s license says five-nine so I’ll just go with that.” 

Rubin doesn’t care how big Sommers is – the results are what matter. 

“Against bigger teams, like St. Ignatius and (Bishop) O’Dowd, he’s just been taking over the game,” Rubin says. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a defender change the course of the game like that.” 

Sommers, a 16-year-old junior, is far from leading his Yellowjackets in scoring. A defender contributes in other ways: Sommers picks up eight to ten loose balls per game, mixes in another four to six steals – and at least once per game Sommers sizes up an opponent, takes two or three steps running start and brings the pain. 

“Hitting comes natural to me,” says Sommers, a middle linebacker for the school’s football team. “It feels good to rip somebody and just put them on their butt.” 

Picture the Tasmanian Devil, amp him up on some sort of bizarre energy brew, and now hand him a very large stick – this is Demetrius Sommers on the lacrosse field. In an Ivy League sport, Sommers is all X-Games. 

“I’ve got a couple of dirtbikes,” Sommers says. “And I do downhill skateboarding, I snowboard and surf, wakeboard – oh, and BMX biking - I used to race BMX. I’ve never gone to the emergency room but my stepmom is a teacher at Berkeley High, so I assume we’re covered.” 

At the halfway point in the Shoreline Lacrosse League season, opposing teams might want to double-check their own coverage. Demetrius Sommers has been a monster thus far – and he’s looking to pop the top on a “Double Size, Double Strength” second half.

A group of eight Berkeley educators and activists left for an East Coast tour of “small schools” Monday amid controversy over the racial make-up and mission of the delegation. 

The team, composed of Superintendent Michele Lawrence, Berkeley High School co-principal Mary Ann Valles, three BHS teachers, two activists and a student, plans to visit three schools in New York City and two schools near Boston, Mass. during its five-day trip. 

The group hopes to learn more about small schools while Berkeley considers transforming BHS into a series of “small learning communities” with different themes. 

The delegation will consider a wide range of issues, from finances and administration, to staff development, to parental involvement, to concerns about maintaining racial balance among schools-within-a-school. After the trip, the group will work together to prepare a report to the superintendent. Lawrence plans to present the findings and make recommendations to the board about next steps by the end of the school year. 

The visit grew out of a strong push this fall by the Coalition for Excellence and Equity, a community group, to transform Berkeley High School into a series of small schools with different themes by the fall of 2003, in part to address the “achievement gap” separating white and Asian students from blacks and Hispanics. 

The Board of Education tabled the proposal in December, arguing that the plan needed more study and the district had to focus on its financial crisis. But Superintendent Michele Lawrence pledged to arrange for small schools visits by May. 

Vikki Davis, a member of Parents of Children of African Descent, an advocacy group that is part of the larger Coalition for Excellence and Equity, said the district invited coalition member Kalima Rose at the outset, but did not extend an invitation to an African-American parent from PCAD until activists raised concerns. 

Lawrence said there was no attempt to exclude any voices from the delegation. 

“I tried to balance the perspectives as best I could,” she said, noting that she moved to include community members, teachers and a student, and a variety of views on small schools, while keeping the delegation at a reasonable size. 

Rose said she was generally pleased with the final composition of the group, which includes PCAD member Gina Wolley. But she worried that the delegation may not have much authority, given that the report will be funneled through Lawrence’s office and the superintendent will make recommendations to the board. 

Rose said the Coalition for Excellence and Equity will likely hold a community forum of its own to share the findings of the trip. 

Lawrence said the purpose of the trip is to educate the superintendent on small schools, and the process reflects that purpose. 

But she said the public will have ample opportunity to debate the report. 

“Nobody is going to be inhibited in this community from saying whether they like or don’t like the report,” added school board member Ted Schultz. 

Chili feed 

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. – The weather can still turn chilly in southwest Wyoming in late April, but that’s not why a snowplow was needed on Interstate 80. 

The westbound lanes about 20 miles west of town were closed for about an hour Thursday after a semi truck with a trailer full of Hormel chili rear-ended another semi. 

The momentum of the wreck caused the chili cans to smash through the front of the trailer. The cans broke open and soon the pavement was slick with beans and meat, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. 

A snowplow had to be called out to clear the mess. 

Emergency crews rescued the trapped driver of the chili truck by cutting through the bottom of the cab. The driver was taken to a hospital for evaluation. 

Patrol Lt. Dave Gray said the crash happened when the first semi, which was pulling a flatbed trailer with a heavy load of cardboard, crept up a hill at about 20 miles per hour. 

The truck with the chili was going much faster and was unable to slow down in time, according to Gray. 

‘Fargo’ cabin moving east 

MINNEAPOLIS — A piece of disturbing Minnesota movie history is moving to Wisconsin. 

With just seven seconds to spare before bidding closed in an Internet auction, Lindy Martin, 26, bid $10,000 for a small cabin featured in the movie “Fargo.” 

Martin said late Saturday that she and her mother, Elsie Martin, are buying it together. They plan to move it to a lot in Barnes, Wis., about an hour east of Duluth. 

“We thought it would be a quick way to get a cabin, to buy a fully functional one and just get it done,” Lindy Martin said. 

The cabin is the setting for the climactic scene in the 1996 Coen brothers’ movie. Kidnappers hide out at the cabin and one of them meets a gruesome end in a wood chipper.

To the Editor: 

I am sympathetic to the many teachers who have argued against standardized tests. However, I should like to point out that large groups of professionals that we all need and mostly trust are the products of systems replete with standardized tests – namely physicians and nurses.  

As a physician I took a standardized test to get into Medical School (the MCAT). To get my license I took three standardized national tests at various places along my training and would not be able to get a license anywhere without having passed these . As a specialist I have taken a standardized test every ten years in my field and would not be able to practice without such a test. 

And as a teacher of medical students it is helpful to me to know that my interns and residents have all passed certain tests and have the same core of knowledge that I can count on.  

Naturally we want our doctors to be tested and certified. This tells us that we can rely on a certain amount of knowledge on their part. 

And so I ask, if it works for doctors (and of course other professionals) why does it not work for students in high school?  

- Gessica Johnston 

Berkeley

The second of two live TV forums to discuss the airing of adult material, “Viewer Discretion Advised,” aired on Berkeley’s public access cable channel last night. The show featured independent producers Svetlana Coutoure and Dr. Susan Block facing off over adult content and censorship issues in response to complaints brought to B-TV’s board of directors by Coutoure and her husband about Dr. Block’s show. 

The Coutoures’ claimed the “The Dr. Susan Block Show” featured “unpredictable” content and was on too early. 

“I take that as a compliment,” said Dr. Block, who flew in from LA to take part in the show. “It’s true that I cover human sexuality in all its many splendors, glories, dangers, fun and foolishness. I interview professors and porn stars. Professors tend to talk about an aspect of sexuality, while porn stars tend to take their clothes off. I entertain all aspects of sexuality, and you never know who will be on the show, so it’s true – the show’s unpredictable and spontaneous.” 

The gist of complaint has been that the show, which explores sexual issues and sometimes features nudity, airs early enough for children and teenagers to come across it.  

It currently airs in the time slot designated by the FCC as a ‘safe harbor’ for adult material, which begins at 10 p.m.-6 a.m. Some say that that is early enough for their children to see, particularly on a Friday night. 

Block contends that her program is educational, and though not intended for children, is not harmful. “I try to do my show in good taste, mindful that a child may be watching. I don’t put anything on the show that I think is harmful,” she said. “And I certainly think that all the murder, mayhem and violence we see on news and entertainment shows are a lot more harmful to everyone – children and adults – then a naked body.” 

The board of directors for Berkeley Community Media, which runs the public access station, initially responded to the complaint by slotting material that ‘involves two naked people having sex’ to the hours of 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., a move that never happened due to both legal implications and to the fact that none of the material reviewed actually fit into this category. 

The safe harbor rule was established by the FCC with an understanding of children’s viewing habits in mind. Block says she is content with the current 10 p.m. guideline, and that moving adult-themed shows to after 2 a.m. amounts to censorship. “That’s a no-person time zone – no man, no woman, no child,” she says. “That amounts to censorship.”  

BCM executive director Brian Scott says it’s not within BCM’s legal jurisdiction to monitor or censor programming. He says the burden of responsibility is on the parents to monitor what their children watch, yet he also offers information on what other avenues are available to parents, such as blocking out the channel or writing complaints to the FCC, the district attorney, or the local AT&T carrier.  

“We’re prohibited from censoring programs – that goes against the mission of public access and goes against the law,” said Scott. “Our main responsibility here is to get information out to the community.” Hence ‘Viewer Discretion Advised.’ 

The first installment, which aired April 22nd, basically served to inform people about the history of adult content issues, their rights’ rights and what they can do to get involved with public television. 

Last night’s program was a forum to have public discourse on the issues of decency, free speech, and censorship, and was shot live to provide the opportunity for call-ins. 

FCC rules allow for indecent material to be aired during the safe harbor time zone, but prohibit obscene material. Inherent difficulty distinguishing between the two lies in the fact that obscene material has to violate community standards and have no “serious artistic, literary, political or scientific value” – some very subjective criteria. 

Communities may append the rules by passing legislation on the local level. Seattle recently passed an ordinance that restricts adult-themed programming to after midnight. City Council could pass a similar measure or vote to pull funding from BCM, but either move is bound to face opposition both within the council and without. “I think councilmembers should be very cautious about proposing to punish people for what is said in the media, and I would hope that if something like that is put in writing that city council would not vote for such a thing,” said councilmember Kriss Worthington. In addition, over 20 people showed up in protest after BCM’s board made their initial decision to move the shows. 

The ‘adult-themed’ designation itself is entirely voluntary. Producers like Dr. Block tell the station their show is intended for adults, and the station schedules it accordingly. Scott says BCM has never had a problem with anyone abusing this system.

To the Editor, 

I was present at the Berkeley City Council meeting as a Jewish person who supports divesting from Israel. Contrary to an implied sentiment that a resolution in favor of divestment is too divisive because it would take sides against Israel, I would claim that not divesting from Israel is taking sides in favor of Israel against the Palestinians. 

Israeli Exports amount to about $23 Billion a year in revenue for Israel. In addition, about $4.5 Billion a year of our tax dollars support Israel. By not divesting from Israel and by not asking our federal government to stop U.S. aid to Israel, our money is being used to fund the continued 35 year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem although this occupation is illegal according the Geneva Conventions. By not divesting we also are saying to Israel that we support the building and maintenance of illegal settlements in the occupied territories. In addition, we are allowing our money to be used to purchase U.S. made weapons that are killing and injuring thousands of Palestinians. 

As citizens of the United States we should be sending a clear message to the federal government, the citizens of this country, and peoples of the world, that we will no longer take the side of Israel by funding their military which is the fourth largest military in the world. 

- Carla Schick 

Oakland 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Earthquakes remain the most serious threat to bridges and freeway overpasses across the nation, but highway engineers say terrorism has been added to the list of concerns. 

“Every man, woman and child in our country has the right to expect a safe and reliable transportation system,” said Gary Hamby, Western regional director of the Federal Highway Administration. 

He told engineers and planners at the third National Seismic Conference on Monday that the highway administration is working with the Office of Homeland Security and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to assess the vulnerability of bridges and overpasses during the next three to six months. 

Hamby said the national highway system must be able to adapt not only to natural disasters such as quakes, but also acts of terrorism that could disrupt transportation and seriously damage the economy. 

“It’s an extraordinary challenge,” Hamby said, “but safety is our top concern.” 

Roland Nimis, Western infrastructure chief for the highway administration, opened the conference by saying earthquakes around the world have taught bridge engineers many valuable lessons since the last conference was held in 1997. 

The 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake near Seattle on Feb. 28, 2001, gave engineers one of their best looks at how well older U.S. bridge designs withstand seismic shock. 

To the Editor, 

The current UC study linking regular churchgoing with longer lives, featured by the Planet, is both confusing and misleading. The focus of the study should have been on the comparison of life expectancies between those who choose either a spiritual or a material path. Institutionalized religion has very little to do with it; cemeteries are filled with religious people, both old and young. 

There are no magic pills for a long life; not supplements, drugs or church. The spiritual work that must be done starts with simplifying your life and diet and thus understanding the hidden connections of your life’s events.  

- Michael Bauce 

Berkeley 

SACRAMENTO — Ignoring pleas of carmakers and business groups, a key state Senate committee passed a bill Monday to curb global warming by further reducing California tailpipe emissions after 2009. 

The Senate Appropriations Commission voted 8-3 to approve the bill, AB1508, and send it to the Senate floor for a vote. 

The Assembly passed the bill Jan. 31. 

The bill, sponsored by environmental groups and carried by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, asks the California Air Resources Board to write regulations reducing carbon dioxide emissions by January 2005. Backers say approximately 23 million vehicles contribute 60 percent of California’s so-called “greenhouse gases” attributed to global warming. 

The bill would apply to new cars and light trucks and not to commercial vehicles. 

Monday’s vote followed testy exchanges between a lobbyist for car dealers who labeled the bill a “physical abomination,” and committee Democrats who called automakers “obstructionists.” 

“When I was in Congress in the seventies, I had a hearing on air bags and the industry was in there like you were going to steal their first born,” said Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco. Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, lectured carmakers to drop their lawyers and lobbyists and hire engineers to “make a better car.” 

Peter Welch, representing the California Motor Car Dealers Association, said the bill will provide “no climate benefits for California” and result only in “additional costs.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer credit scoring firm Fair, Isaac & Co. said Monday it will buy fraud detection specialist HNC Software Inc. in a $726 million deal designed to help businesses do a better job of finding and retaining customers. 

The stock swap, expected to be completed by Sept. 30, will combine two low-profile companies that play a pivotal role in bank’s lending decisions and anti-fraud efforts. 

San Rafael-based Fair, Isaac provides a widely used formula that assesses the creditworthiness of consumers based on their past records. 

Lenders rely on Fair Isaac’s calculations, known as FICO scores, to weed out deadbeats and determine the size and prices on loans. Consumers with low FICO scores often pay higher prices for credit cards, mortgage or auto loans or can’t borrow at all. 

Fair Isaac has sold more than 10 billion FICO scores since they were introduced 17 years ago, raising the hackles of some consumer activists who contend the company wields too much behind-the-scenes power. 

San Diego-based HNC sells a service that tracks customer spending patterns to help identify fraud. Besides protecting lenders from crooks, HNC analyzes its data to help helps banks, insurers and telephone companies identify prospective customers and sell other products to existing customers. 

“This combination makes incredible sense,” said Tom Grudnowski, Fair Isaac’s chief executive officer, who will continue to run the company after the merger. 

The combined company expects to shave $35 million in annual expenses by laying off workers in similar jobs and eliminating other overlapping operations. Grudnowski told analysts that slightly fewer than 10 percent of the 2,700 employees in the combined company will lose their jobs. 

Many industry analysts praised the deal, describing the marriage as an ideal match. 

“This is a deal that needed to be done. It’s going to be a pretty potent combination,” said analyst Brad Eichler of Stephens Inc. 

But the abysmal track record of past high-tech mergers should raise red flags about this combination, said analyst Robert Tholemeier of Wells Fargo Securities. 

“There are always cultural clashes and technology clashes in these mergers,” Tholemeier said. “I expect to see trouble 12 months from now.” 

Investors drove down Fair Isaac’s stock Monday while bidding up HNC’s — a mixed reaction common after a merger announcement. 

Fair Isaac’s shares fell $6.59, or 10 percent, to close at $57.50 on the New York Stock Exchange Monday while HNC’s shares rose $2.08, or nearly 12 percent, to close at $19.52 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

The decline in Fair Isaac’s stock decreased the value of the stock swap from $810 million when it was announced to $726 million at the close of Monday’s trading. 

With the addition of HNC’s business, Fair Isaac’s expects its annual revenues to climb from about $355 million this year to $690 million. Fair Isaac predicted the extra business will boost its earnings during the fiscal year ending in September 2003 to $2.85, up from the consensus estimate of $2.77 among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Through the first half of the company’s current fiscal year, Fair Isaac earned $27.7 million, a 42 percent increase from the prior year. After nearly doubling in value last year, Fair Isaac’s stock had edged up modestly this year before Monday’s backlash to the deal.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — In an effort to capture more school sales, Apple Computer Inc. on Monday introduced a line of Macintosh computers that will be sold only to educators and students. 

The “eMac” computers, featuring 17-inch cathode ray tube monitors and 700 gigahertz G4 processors, are priced at $999 and $1,199 — less than the flat-panel iMacs introduced in January. 

The new computers are expected to be available starting in May. 

Though shaped like the first iMacs unveiled in 1998, the eMacs are about a third of an inch shorter than the original iMac. They also include 16-watt stereo speakers and a CD-recordable drive. 

A DVD drive is available on the more expensive eMac. 

Apple has seen its share of new sales in the education market decline in recent years, according to the research firm IDC. 

In the fourth quarter, Apple’s share fell 20 percent to 14.7 percent. Dell Computer Corp., meanwhile, saw its share increase from 36.8 percent in the third quarter to 39 percent in the fourth. 

Also Monday, Apple unveiled a new line of Titanium PowerBook laptops, with faster processors, a new high-resolution display and built-in Gigabit networking capabilities. 

The top-of-the-line Titanium, with an 800 GHz processor, is priced at $3,199. A 667-MHz version runs $2,499.

An alliance of progressive organizations sponsored a nominating convention at a packed North Berkeley Senior Center Saturday to select five candidates for the November Rent Board election. The approximately 120 pro-rent control residents in attendance selected a diverse slate that appears poised to use the rent board to further press tenants’ rights. 

Incumbent Selma Spector, U.C. Berkeley student activist Howard Chong, Housing Authority Commissioner Pinkie Payne, Green Party activist Chris Kavanagh, and tenant rights attorney Bob Evans were ultimately nominated from a pool of 10 candidates. 

The rent board has nine members, each with four-year terms staggered every two years. Five seats open this year. 

Convention rules required multiple rounds of balloting Saturday until five candidates received 60% of the vote. Spector and Chong passed the 60% threshold in the first round, as did Payne in round two. 

Due to time constraints, the convention voted that the top two candidates in the third round would join the slate. Evans and Kavanagh, were selected to round out the ticket. 

In addressing the convention each candidate affirmed their support for rent control and their disdain for the Costa-Hawkins Act, the state law passed in 1995 that ended rent control on vacant units and single-family dwellings. The eventual nominees, however, tended to more forcefully express their willingness to use the rent board to serve the interests of tenants.  

"We need tightened monitoring (of evictions) to make sure laws are meaningful," said Spector, who is considered to be a strong pro-tenant commissioner.  

Chong, a graduating senior and an appointed member of the Solid Waste Commission, stated that his chief aims would be to better inform tenants of their rights, and to provide tenants with a free legal service to fight evictions. 

"If they know their rights then they can fight," said Payne who invoked her grass roots organizing experience to call on the board to reach out to non-English speaking communities so that all tenants can better defend themselves. 

Evans touted the advantages of electing a tenant rights attorney to the board. "The purpose of rent control is to protect residents from unfair rent increases and evictions," said Evans who advocated changing the rules of the Annual General Adjustment to limit cases in which landlords may invoke annual rent increases. 

Chris Kavanagh described himself as a "rent control campaign warrior." He urged that the best way to restore full rent control in Berkeley was to organize a statewide renters movement to "tap the political power of California’s 10 million renters." 

The five nominees benefited from the organized support of progressive organizations attending the convention. The largest contingents belonged to the Peace and Freedom Party, which one official estimated had “two dozen" supporters in attendance, the Green Party, which numbered about 15, and different U.C. Berkeley student groups, which combined for approximately 18 delegates. 

The sponsoring organizations and several elected officials provided attendees with a recommendation list. The five victorious candidates were among only six that were recommended by at least two of the three largest groupings.  

One candidate who failed to win the support of these organizations was incumbent, Larry Harris. In contrast to most of the other candidates, Harris used his allotted time to send a cautionary message regarding the proper role of the rent board and the need for it to stay within its designated confines.  

Later, Harris counseled, "Some of the most rhetorically pro-tenant commissioners can threaten the existence of the board. If the rent board looks foolish and its rulings get overturned too often it makes it easier to attack the board." 

Harris didn’t think his defeat would significantly alter the board. "Once a new person gets on that person will learn what he can and can’t do," Harris said. 

It remains unclear whether the five nominees will face opposition in November. Historically, the pro-tenant slate faced off against candidates supported by property owners, who enjoyed a majority from 1990 - 1994.  

However, the board has been unanimously pro-tenant since 1998, and according to incumbent Commissioner Paul Hogarth, in the three elections held since the passage of Costa-Hawkins, pro-landlord groups have run in only one election. "Landlords have less incentive to run, and public opinion is against them," said Hogarth, who called the rent board the tenants' "only line of defense."  

Robert Englund, Vice President of the Berkeley Property Owners Association was non-committal about nominating a slate. Our experience however, is that very few reasonable people are willing to subject themselves to the biased processes of the rent board," said Englund. 

To the Editor: 

There is a tendency among very young children and very wealthy middle-aged intellectuals to assume that in every war; one side is good, and one side is bad. 

Of course, it is childish to believe that in every quarrel, one side is right, and that one side is wrong; but this is Berkeley, and here in Berkeley, confused childish thinking is often mistaken for genius. 

Berkeley has few young children, but we have lots of wealthy middle-aged intellectuals, so it is therefore understandable and predictable that our City Council would assume that in the current violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians, one side must be right, and one side must be wrong. 

The Berkeley City Council is planning to condemn Israel for it's recent military actions in the West Bank and Gaza. However, they make no mention of the string of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel that triggered this military action. 

The majority on the City Council reasons that if Sharon is a bad guy, then Arafat must be a good guy. The truth is that both Sharon and Arafat are pursuing terrible policies and doing terrible things. Both of them are traveling on dead-end streets. 

We don't have to take sides. We can criticize both sides, and we can sympathize with the victims on both sides. 

-Mark Tarses 

Berkeley

Senior QB completes 10 of 11 in annual Spring Game as starters win a 42-0 romp 

Next year will be Kyle Boller’s final chance to leave his legacy as a four-year starter at quarterback. If Sunday’s final spring scrimmage was any indication, he might just impress Cal fans after all. 

Boller was 10-of-11 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns during the first half of Cal’s annual Spring Game, with his only incompletion a dropped pass by Chase Lyman on the first play of the game. Boller also ran for a touchdown and looked very comfortable in new head coach Jeff Tedford’s new offense as the first-platoon offense and defense won the game 42-0 in front of a Memorial Stadium crowd of about 1,500. 

“I wanted to see the first-team units have some success, and we got that today,” Tedford said. “They’re going to walk away from this feeling pretty good about themselves.” 

Tedford also unleashed what figures to be the first of many trick plays in the first half, a halfback pass from Terrell Williams to a diving Burl Toler good for 45 yards. Toler, a sophomore walk-on, was impressive with four catches for 100 yards. 

Williams may have liked showing off his arm, but it’s his legs that are suddenly of extreme importance to the Cal offense. Starting tailback Joe Igber has yet to take part in contact drills as he recovers from a broken clavicle suffered last season, and word came down Sunday that backup Adimchinobe Echemaandu (formerly Joe Echema) has a torn ACL and lateral meniscus and will miss the majority of next season. Igber should be ready for next season, but the running back spot is suddenly thinned to the breaking point. 

“It’s a big disappointment,” Echemaandu said of his injury, suffered in practice last Wednesday. “But the coaches and players have made me feel better about it. The important thing is that the team keeps going.” 

Echemaandu said he will be out somewhere between four and nine months, but he does have a target date for his return: Cal’s Oct. 19 game against UCLA. 

Tedford broke from the usual spring game format of the first-team offense against the first-team defense on Sunday, instead sending Boller up against the Bears’ second-string. Boller was impressive nonetheless, showing nice touch on his passes and a more compact throwing motion than last season. Tedford has completely broken down Boller’s mechanics, and the senior-to-be said he is still catching up on things. 

“It’s hard to break bad habits,” Boller said. “I work on it in practice, but when I’m in a game I’m just playing out there. I might still get a little windup going when I throw.” 

Boller completed two passes to tight end Tom Swoboda on the opening drive, including a five-yard touchdown toss. That’s as many touchdowns as Cal’s tight ends caught all last season, along with only 16 catches overall. 

“I like having a tight end going over the middle a lot,” Boller said. “It puts a lot more pressure on the safeties. It’s like an extra benefit.” 

The Blue team’s defense pitched a shutout against the combined efforts of sophomore quarterbacks Richard Schwartz and Adam Ernst, with the defensive line recording four of the team’s five sacks. Defensive ends Tom Canada and Tully Banta-Cain looked sharp rushing off the edge, and tackle Daniel Nwangwu broke into the backfield several times. Nwangwu and Canada each tallied a sack, and Tedford said Canada likely earned a starting spot for fall practice with an outstanding spring. 

Tedford was pleased with the overall effort in the game, praising his players for their quick acclimation to a new coaching staff. 

“I think the guys got a good understanding of the system, of what we expect of them and of our practice tempo,” Tedford said. “We’ve come a long way in a short time towards coming together as a team.”

Lawyers and activists discussed how the country can heal lingering wounds of slavery through reparations at a two-day symposium at the University of California’s Boalt Hall School of Law. 

Some called for direct payments while others sought improved health care and the creation of a more prominent role for heroic abolitionists in this nation’s remembered history. 

Everyone agreed the United States should acknowledge that blacks still suffer the debilitating effects of centuries of enslavement. 

“To think that we can enslave a people for centuries and after they have been freed have a century of discrimination, and then say a few years of ’sort of affirmative action’ is enough, is not rational,” said Mary Louise Frampton, director of the Center for Social Justice at Boalt, which sponsored “Reparations for Slavery and Its Legacy.” “And yet, that is what a majority of this country has concluded.” 

Constructing a principled argument to justify reparations when so many people dismiss it as a self-serving movement is key, he said. The argument isn’t simply that this nation enslaved black people. 

One panel emphasized that reparations aren’t a new idea. Many Japanese-Americans received them as compensation for internment during World War II and Austria has paid out millions to Holocaust survivors.

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Ten years ago, on April 29, 1992, deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. 

On this date: 

In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. 

In 1861, Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union. 

In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. 

In 1899, jazz legend Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. 

In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. 

In 1945, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor. 

In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals. 

In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate. 

In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago. 

In 1996, former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered. 

Ten years ago:  

Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, N.J., home by Arthur Seale, a former Exxon security official, and Seale’s wife, Irene, and held for ransom; Reso died in captivity. (Arthur Seale is serving a 95-year prison term, while his wife is serving a 20-year sentence.) 

Five years ago: 

Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. (He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and dishonorably discharged.) A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect. Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk. Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64. 

One year ago:  

The International Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actress Celeste Holm is 83. Rhythm-and-blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 74. Singer-musician Lonnie Donegan is 71. Poet Rod McKuen is 69. Actor Keith Baxter is 69. Bluesman Otis Rush is 68. Conductor Zubin Mehta is 66. Actor Lane Smith is 66. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 59. Singer Tommy James is 55. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 48. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 47. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 45. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 44. Actress Eve Plumb is 44. Rock musician Phil King is 42. Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 39. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 34. Actress Uma Thurman is 32. Tennis player Andre Agassi is 32. Rapper Master P is 32. Country singer James Bonamy is 30. Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 29. Actor Zane Carney is 17. 

To the Editor: 

I am sympathetic with the many teachers who have argued against standardized tests. However, I should like to point out that large groups of professionals that we all need and mostly trust are the products of systems replete with standardized tests– namely physicians and nurses. 

As a physician I took a standardized test to get into medical school (the MCAT). To get my license I took three standardized national tests at various places along with my training and would not be able to get a license anywhere without having passed these. As a specialist I have taken a standardized test every ten years in my field and would not be able to practice without such a test. 

And as a teacher of medical students it is helpful for me to know that my interns and residents have all passed certain tests and have the same core knowledge that I can count on.  

Naturally we want our doctors to be tested and certified. This tells us that we can rely on a certain amount of knowledge on their part. 

And so I ask, if it works for doctors (and of course, other professionals) why does it not work for students in high school?  

-Gessica Johnston  

Berkeley

Errors help Bears beat UW  

An error-filled fourth inning decided the outcome of Sunday’s game between the sixth-ranked Golden Bears and No. 8 Washington. Cal (45-16, 9-6 Pac-10) scored three runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning to defeat the Huskies (39-15, 8-7 Pac-10), which scored two runs in the top of the frame.  

Senior pitcher Jocelyn Forest dominated the game as she struck out a season-best 17 batters, just one strikeout short of matching her career-high. The 2001 All-American walked four batters and scattered four hits, but was not tabbed with the pair of runs scored by UW as a result of a Cal fielding error.  

Becky Simpson came to the plate for the Huskies in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and hit a high pop up to shallow right field. Junior Kristen Morley misplayed the ball as she saw freshman Jessica Pamanian also coming out to play the pop up. Both players failed to make a play, allowing two runs to scorer on the miscue.  

But the Bears would get those runs back, and more, as they scored three in their half of the fourth inning. Morley walked to lead off the frame. Senior Candace Harper then reached on a fielder’s choice while both runners advanced another base as a result of Husky shortstop Jaime Clark’s errant throw to second. With first base empty and slugger Veronica Nelson up to bat, UW intentionally walked the junior All-American, bringing up junior Courtney Scott. Scott hit a solid liner to center that was snagged by Rita Roach, who threw to Clark to double up Harper at second.  

With two outs and the bases loaded, again, after a walk to Pamanian, Spencer reached on an error by third baseman Fiske. The play scored Morley from third, who was running on contact. Jessica Vernaglia, pinch running for Nelson, scored when the right fielder, backing up Fiske’s throw to first, made an errant throw home. The play scored two more runs, including the eventual game-winner as Pamanian crossed the plate.  

Forest collected her conference-leading 16th double-digit strikeout performance of the year, along with her season-high strikeout total. The win also marked her fourth 20-win season - the only other Cal pitcher besides Michele Granger, to do so in the history of the program.  

With the win, the Bears regain sole possession of third place in the conference standings, while the Huskies drop back into fourth place.  

Cal prepares to travel to the Arizona schools next week with one game against No. 2 Arizona Friday at 7 p.m. and a two-game set with No. 5 Arizona State, Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.  

Bears win 11 events at Cal Open  

In its final tune-up for this week’s Big Meet, Cal won a combined 11 events at its own Cal Open Saturday at Edwards Stadium. The Bear women claimed six victories at the non-scored meet.  

The highlight of the meet for Cal was senior Bubba McLean winning the pole vault with a season-best mark of 17’7” on his final attempt. That mark moved him up on this year’s NCAA provisional qualifying list.  

Coming off her NCAA qualifying performance in the 800-meters at last week’s Mount SAC Relays, Cal senior Erin Belger won the 1500 on Saturday by over a second in 4:33.20. Also victorious for the Cal women were sophomore Jenna Johnson in the shot put (46’3.25”), junior DeCola Groce in the 100-meter dash (12.22), sophomore Stephanie Cowling in the 400 hurdles (62:29), freshman Jennifer Ladouceur in the discus (PR and Pac-10 qualifier: 158’9”) and freshman Trinety White in the triple jump (39’8”). Ladouceur’s previous best in the discus was 145-0.  

On the men’s side, Cal won three of the four throwing events - junior Joe Berro with a personal best of 213’0” in the javelin, sophomore Amin Nikfar in the shot put (54’3.75”) and sophomore Tony Miranda in the discus (162’10”). Tyler Noesen was the only Bear male to win a running event, claiming the 3000-meter steeplechase (9:40.77). 

Many Cal athletes competed in events that weren’t their specialties in an effort to be prepared for the May 4 meet with Stanford, where every point will have an impact. The hammer kicks off the Big Meet at Cal beginning at 10:30 a.m.  

Men’s golf last at Pac-10 

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The California men’s golf team placed 10th at the Pac-10 Championships held at Trysting Tree Golf Course on April 25-27. The University of Southern California won the tournament with a four-round 1441 (+1). Cal finished with a 1501 (+61).  

Individually, Cal sophomore Peter Tomasulo tied for 14th place with a 3-over par 291. Stanford’s Jim Seki used a pair of birdies over the final two holes to claim medalist honors. Seki chipped in from atop a greenside mound on No. 18 to post a final-round 74 and fend off USC’s Kevin Stadler and teammate Philip Rowe.

Some city projects may be axed at special meeting 

The Berkeley City Council has scheduled a special meeting at the Berkeley Community Theater on Tuesday to receive a budget presentation for fiscal year 2003 by city manager Weldon Rucker. The meeting, at 1930 Allston Way, will kick off at 5 p.m. with public commentary before Rucker begins a review of the current budget status for the city council. This is the first official review since the biennial budget went into effect in July of 2001. 

The presentation should be significant in that the city budget, like those of governments nationwide this year, is facing a significant shortfall. “Both parking and hotel taxes are far below budgeted projections,” said Mayor Dean. While she hasn’t yet seen the specific numbers, she believes the shortfall to be somewhere around $1.6 million. 

The city is in the middle of its two-year budget, a budgeting process it first adopted for the 2000-2001 fiscal years. It remains to be seen whether the council will make any alterations Tuesday, but it doesn’t seem likely. “Though this is to review the budget and see what types of adjustments must be made, I don’t expect anything to happen Tuesday. We will just be there to listen,” said Dean.  

Adjustments will eventually have to be made to both the revenue and expenditure side of the budget. 

As a result, it looks as if some projects added to the budget over the past year may not get funded. “The council has already agreed to take funds that were allocated, but not yet expended, and apply them to the deficit,” said the mayor. Property tax revenues held steady and adhered to projections. 

In addition to the budget presentation, the city auditor will be presenting her findings from the police staffing audit.  

Contact reporter: jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

I find it appalling that, in recent news media reports, Jews in Israel are condemned as racist. If you have ever been to Israel you would see Jews of every ethnicity and race under the sun. The Jewish People are very diverse, we are multi-racial and multi-ethnic, and our common bond is our religion. 

On the other hand, the Saudi Arabians and other Arab countries help support the slave trade in the Sudan. Is the buying and selling of Black Africans suddenly NOT considered racist? And in the meantime, the Saudis help financially support Palestinian Suicide Bombers whose mission it is to kills Jews. Isn't this a racist act? 

Since 1948 when the Jewish State of Israel was created after World War II, the Arab States have threatened and ultimately tried to wipe out all Jews.  

Their pure hatred of Jews is equal to the ultimate racism. They have attacked Israel and the Jewish people have responded by defending their country. In fact, if it were not for Arab aggression there actually would be no "occupied territories." Israelis aren't racist they are simply trying to defend their country against a group of people who are threatening to wipe them off the face of the earth. 

-Rachel M. Schorr 

Berkeley 

Tuesday 

Girls Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. St. Ignatius, 5:30 p.m. at St. Ignatius High, San Francisco 

Boys Volleyball – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 6 p.m. at Alameda High School 

Wednesday 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Pinole Valley, 3:30 p.m. at San Pablo Park 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Elizabeth, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High 

Softball – Berkeley vs. Pinole Valley, 3:30 p.m. at Old Grove Park 

Thursday 

Girls Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. University, 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 5:30 p.m. at Bishop O’Dowd High, Oakland 

Track & Field – ACCAL Trials, TBA at Hercules High 

Friday 

Diving – ACCAL Trials, 3 p.m. at Contra Costa College 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 3:30 p.m. at Evans Diamond, UC Berkeley 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Elizabeth, 3:30 p.m. at St. Elizabeth High, Oakland 

Softball – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 3:30 p.m. at Levine-Fricke Field, UC Berkeley 

Baseball – Cal vs. Stanford, 6 p.m. at Sunken Diamond, Stanford

The annual Berkeley Bay Festival entertained and educated residents from around the Bay Area on Saturday, offering boat rides, live music, environmental education workshops and even a solar cooker demonstration. 

This year’s event was organized by the city of Berkeley’s Marina Experience Program which provides education, recreation and entertainment throughout the year. 

The family-oriented event provided children and adults with a diverse array of hands-on activities like holding giant insects at the Insect Discovery Lab and racing across that bay in canoes and kayaks provided by Hui Wa’a Outrigger.  

“Today is about being alive and getting out on the bay,” said Patty Donald, naturalist and event coordinator for the Marina Experience Program. 

According to Donald, environmental education has been a theme for the festival in each of her 24 years as coordinator for the Program. The Program also made contacting local schools about the day’s educational activities a top priority. 

“We made a big push to the schools, that’s what this is all about,” said Donald. More than 50 organizations including the Cal Sailing Club, the Totally Outrageous Christian Brother’s Recycling Ministry and the Sierra Club participated in entertaining and informing the public. 

The California Coastal Commission provided information on coastal clean-up programs and provided pictures of marine life including sea otters, starfish, pelicans and sea gulls. 

“We’ve had a great response. There’s been a lot of interest in the artwork and the clean-up programs,” said Virginia Becker, public education coordinator for the Commission. 

The Commission provided a sign-up sheet for their September 21st coastal clean-up effort. 

Chilli Willy of the Totally Outrageous Christian Brother’s Recycling Ministry provided smiles for all designing animal and flower shaped balloons for children and adults alike.  

Director, ordained minister and piano player John Profit explained that the Recycling Ministry’s uses recycling, music and comedy to change people’s lives and entertain the public. According to Profit, the Ministry includes an outreach program to the homeless, providing mentor programs and teaching individuals how to repair and care for donated boats and yachts. 

“We take the church to them because a lot of the time they can’t come to us. We help to give them some hope and to turn some lives around,” says Profit. 

Chief Brooks of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in San Francisco participated in the event by informing the public about the Guard’s Sea Partners Campaign, an outreach program designed to encourage environmental protection.  

“We have a saying that education is the solution to pollution. Most of the marine pollution comes from people on land,” said Chief Brooks. 

Alice La Pierre, an energy analyst at the city of Berkeley’s Energy Office, said she was participating in the day’s event because she loves the sun and because she wanted to spread the word about energy conservation. 

La Pierre not only preached the benefits of conservation but also demonstrated energy saving methods by baking a batch of brownies as part of a solar cooker demonstration and by measuring the energy saved using new compact fluorescent light bulbs. 

“The point of conservation is that you’re not only going to save money but you’re also going to save the environment,” said La Pierre. 

According to La Pierre, citizens should continue to conserve energy by changing their driving habits and installing compact fluorescent bulbs which last five to seven years and use only a quarter of the energy used by old bulbs. La Pierre says that the city of Berkeley recently changed all traffic lights to CFLs, saving the city $63,000 in energy per year. 

Linda Mounts of El Cerrito took a break from gathering tips from a compost information table while her kids enjoyed a painting workshop. 

“We’re in the process of landscaping our backyard. I’ve been collecting things from the compost booth. This is the type of thing we do anyway as a family,” said Mounts. 

Though less political than Earth Day, Berkeley’s Bay Festival has produced a heightened environmental awareness in the Bay Area during the month of April. Many hope such awareness lasts throughout the year. 

“There shouldn’t be a single Earth Day, there should be Earth Years. People need to understand that we are not apart from the earth but that we are a part of the earth. People don’t know how to interact with nature anymore,” said Donald.  

The Bay Festival has been an annual event in the Berkeley community since 1937. According to Donald, the festival was originally called the Festival of the Sea and included a parade from City Hall down University Avenue to the Marina. 

After venturing out to sea and attending the educational workshops of the day, many parents and children headed for either the climbing wall or adventure playground for a little recreation.  

“This is the crowning event of the day,” said Miran Lieberman, a Berkeley resident, as she watched her daughter scale to the top of the climbing wall.  

“Today has been great, lots of activities, the volunteers have been really helpful,” said Betsy Hanna of Berkeley.  

“We went on the Hornblower boat ride. It was a little choppy but fun. The variety of activities has been good, the combination of education and recreation,” said Hanna. 

To the Editor: 

Is it federal malfeasance, or what? 

With the ascendancy of the midwestern "main streeters" Ashcroft & Hutchinson who believe that response and mobilizing against terrorism is to have an attack of stupidity. The ignorant, moralizing religious right authoritarians promoting the subversive doctrine of the shepherd - sheep model of government through the abuse of the Justice Department, Courts, and DEA. 

These home grown ayotollahs and Pharisees have corroded and breached the constitutional separations between church and state. Through this fifth column that operates at the highest levels of government America is doomed to accelerating decline economically and morally. The resulting cynicism, alienation, and hostility toward toxic federalism will only strengthen the resolve of local government to resist and defy this evil irrational leviathan from inside the beltway. 

When the Homeland Security or the FBI proclaim a red alert, judging from recent events, we need to prepare for federal terrorism against Californians and Oregonians. That's what I would call an attack of the incompetents who hurt not only the innocents but divide and distract from community security efforts. Or does this rise to the level of subversion? 

The local proactive structural responses will recall coping strategies from Prohibition and other contemporary federal witch hunts that will be impossible to suppress. The ironic and inadvertent consequences will be to empower the criminal market and make the US a laughing stock. Europe and the UK move forward in getting safe and affordable cannabis to patients in a developing pharmaceutical & herbal medicine market. Global competitive position of the US made impossible by the DEA and other cannabis prohibitionists. 

-Tod H. Mikuriya 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Ten years ago, on April 29, 1992, deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. 

On this date: 

In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. 

In 1861, Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union. 

In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. 

In 1899, jazz legend Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. 

In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. 

In 1945, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor. 

In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals. 

In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate. 

In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago. 

In 1996, former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered. 

Ten years ago:  

Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, N.J., home by Arthur Seale, a former Exxon security official, and Seale’s wife, Irene, and held for ransom; Reso died in captivity. (Arthur Seale is serving a 95-year prison term, while his wife is serving a 20-year sentence.) 

Five years ago: 

Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. (He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and dishonorably discharged.) A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect. Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk. Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64. 

One year ago:  

The International Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actress Celeste Holm is 83. Rhythm-and-blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 74. Singer-musician Lonnie Donegan is 71. Poet Rod McKuen is 69. Actor Keith Baxter is 69. Bluesman Otis Rush is 68. Conductor Zubin Mehta is 66. Actor Lane Smith is 66. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 59. Singer Tommy James is 55. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 48. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 47. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 45. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 44. Actress Eve Plumb is 44. Rock musician Phil King is 42. Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 39. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 34. Actress Uma Thurman is 32. Tennis player Andre Agassi is 32. Rapper Master P is 32. Country singer James Bonamy is 30. Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 29. Actor Zane Carney is 17. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A man out for an early morning swim with two friends was dragged away from the city’s Ocean Beach by a rip tide Sunday, prompting a surfer and the San Francisco Fire Department to come to his aid. 

The three men, whom authorities did not identify, had camped overnight on the beach and decided to take a dip around 7 a.m., said Joe Ford, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard. 

Two men had made it back to shore when the fire department’s surf and cliff rescue teams arrived, and a surfer had paddled into the rip current to help the third man keep his head above water, said fire department spokesman Pete Howes. The teams then helped the ailing swimmer to shore. All three were evaluated by medics at the scene, and the man caught in the rip tide was sent to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center to be evaluated for hypothermia, Howes said. 

“Those persons who are inexperienced at Ocean Beach and not equipped with a wet suit or proper training should be wary of dangerous rip currents which can carry them out,” Howes said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A California man has been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for tricking owners of lost pets to wire him money. 

William Muniz was indicted in May and sentenced Friday on charges that he duped at least two pet owners to send him money on the false promise that he would return their lost pets. 

Muniz, 40, told a Colorado woman that he found her cat while passing through Denver with his wife on a motorhome. He said he would fly the cat from San Francisco to Denver for $172. The woman wired the money but the cat never arrived because Muniz had never found it. 

The defendant was also accused of a similar scheme in Oregon, in which he duped $900 from the owner of a yellow Labrador retriever. While the owner wired the money to Muniz, Muniz did not deliver the dog. The government said the FBI investigated the case for a year. 

SAN FRANCISCO – Property manager Mark Schultz doesn’t want a rerun of San Francisco’s dog mauling tragedy, so he’s boosting liability insurance by $1 million at an apartment complex he manages. 

Schultz had hoped dog owners in his 22-unit Point Richmond building would find another place to live after Diane Whipple was mauled to death in her apartment hallway last year, but he learned canines are a contentious subject between landlords and tenants. 

“These are land sharks,” Schultz said. “These are not regular dogs.” 

Schultz talked to his tenants after the highly publicized dog-mauling trial in Los Angeles that led to the March 21 second-degree murder conviction of Marjorie Knoller. Her husband, Robert Noel, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after two Presa Canarios they were caring for killed Whipple Jan. 26, 2001. 

In addition to Noel and Knoller, Whipple’s mother and domestic partner have filed wrongful death lawsuits against Whipple’s former landlord Rudolph G. Koppl, along with Marina Green Properties, Inc. 

Although Schultz’s Cooper Apartments has a no pets policy, Schultz doesn’t want to send tenants out on the street for breaking the rules. 

“Nearly everyone inevitably gets a pet when they move in,” Schultz said. “I’d say everyone has a cat, a lizard or something. Three have dogs.” 

So his answer was to buy more general liability insurance and hope nobody gets bitten. That could mean higher rents up to $65 for tenants. 

Schultz may be unique in his quest to safeguard against dog mauling mishaps. 

“No property owners we work with have found a need to do that at this time,” said Ruth Hayles, a manager with International Realty and Investments, which manages 1,000 units in Los Angeles. 

Most insurance policies provide between $100,000 to $300,000 in coverage for dog bite claims, with property owners paying anything above that, according to the Insurance Information Network of California. 

The network said 70 percent of insurance companies would not renew a policy after one dog bite. 

San Francisco group wins Best Album, Outstanding Songwriter; No Doubt’s Stefani named Outstanding Female Vocalist 

OAKLAND – Train, the Grammy award-winning San Francisco rock band, took home several top honors Saturday at the California Music Awards, including best album for the acclaimed “Drops of Jupiter.” 

Train’s lead singer, Pat Monahan, also won the award for outstanding male vocalist and the group took home the outstanding songwriter award. 

No Doubt’s energetic frontwoman, Gwen Stefani, won for outstanding female vocalist. 

The award for outstanding group went to the award show’s perennial favorites from San Jose, Smash Mouth. East Bay punkers Green Day, which made its mark in Oakland’s warehouse district, won for artist of the year. 

Even Vallejo took home an award as Papa Roach’s Tobin Esperance won for outstanding bassist. 

“I definitely wasn’t expecting this, but I guess I should thank my band for letting me do what I want to do,” Esperance said. 

Other winners included Los Mocosos in the Latin album category for “Shades of Brown” and Paula West in the jazz album category for her release “Come What May.” 

Los Mocosos, hailing from San Francisco’s Mission District where Santana got its start, wowed the crowd with their brand of Latin jazz. 

Southern California’s Alien Ant Farm won best hard rock/heavy metal album and best debut album. 

“I can’t believe we beat Tool,” said band member Terry Corso. “What up with that?” 

One curious multiple winner at Saturday night’s event was the group Gorillaz, a winner in the outstanding single and hip-hop rap album categories. 

The members of Gorillaz don’t actually appear before the audience on stage at their concerts. Instead, the band plays behind a large backdrop while their alter ego personalities are projected as cartoon characters on large screens. 

The Spirit of Rock award went to Southern California’s No Doubt. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown won the Public Service Award.

Perks pay off at Oakland public schools 

OAKLAND — Perks given to East Bay public-school superintendents could bump their annual salaries by tens of thousands of dollars. 

Many East Bay superintendents get car and housing allowances in addition to the $90,000 to $185,000 salary. The Berkeley Unified School District pays the interest on the superintendent’s home loan in addition to the $185,000 salary and Antioch’s superintendent takes home $8,100 a year to help pay for his Cadillac. 

The high salaries and added perks have prompted angry reactions from teachers and unions stuck in bitter negotiations for higher wages. 

But recruiters and education organizations say rising salaries and extra perks are unavoidable in an increasingly tight job market. In California, applications for superintendent jobs have dropped by about 60 percent in the past decade. 

Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, said the high-stakes accountability systems means superintendents take greater risks for a job that doesn’t pay as well as private-sector positions. 

Those demands are even greater in urban school districts that pay higher salaries to attract applicants, he said. San Francisco’s superintendent makes $212,760, while Oakland pays $180,000 a year. 

Ball Parks go vegan 

OAKLAND — In addition to the traditional hot dogs and peanuts, ballpark food vendors are now stocking veggie dogs, boiled soybeans and other vegetarian fare. 

The trend is so big that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently released a list of America’s top-10 vegetarian-friendly ballparks, ranking Oakland’s Network Associates Coliseum fourth. 

“This is a trend you’re going to see increase,” said PETA spokesman Dan Shannon. “Not only is it common sense, it’s financial sense. These things sell.” 

A’s fans buy about 80 to 100 veggie dogs and burgers each game, officials said. Salads and baked potatoes are also popular chow. 

PacBell Ballpark missed the list, despite offering its own vegetarian menu that includes sushi rolls, garden burgers and boiled soybeans. Ballpark officials hope to add a veggie dog to the menu soon. 

Dry rot blamed for three fatal accidents 

SAN FRANCISCO — A series of wooden deck and rail collapses have claimed at least three lives and injured at least two dozen people since 1990. 

City inspectors blame dry rot — a fungus that thrives in wet wood eventually making it brittle and weak — and say it plagues countless decks in San Francisco. 

The city Department of Building Inspection is required to inspect the 22,000 apartment buildings in San Francisco, but say more than one-quarter of those buildings are overdue because the inspectors are so busy. City inspectors are not required to check one- and two-unit buildings. 

Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, chairman of the board’s Transportation and Commerce Committee, said he plans to hold a hearing soon on the issue. 

SAN JOSE – Hewlett-Packard Co. heir Walter Hewlett fell way short of proving his lawsuit against the company and should just admit he lost his fight to stop the Compaq Computer Corp. acquisition, HP attorneys argued in a scathing legal brief. 

The brief, filed Friday night and released by HP on Saturday, was the equivalent of a closing argument after a three-day trial that ended Thursday in Wilmington, Del. 

Hewlett delivered no proof HP lied about the chances the Compaq deal could achieve its publicly released financial goals, the attorneys said. He also offered no tangible evidence that HP threatened Deutsche Bank or coerced its investment managers into switching 17 million shares in favor of the deal, the brief said. 

“They are pitching the bribery claim as a ’circumstantial’ case with the subtlety and intrigue of an Oliver Stone screenplay,” the HP attorneys wrote. 

“Carly Fiorina’s philosophy in connection with this merger has been ’under-promise and over-deliver,”’ the brief said, referring to the HP CEO’s testimony that the Compaq deal actually should exceed its stated goals. “Plaintiffs’ performance in this lawsuit has been to ’over-promise and under-deliver.”’ 

Attorneys for Hewlett, whose 15-year tenure on the HP board ended Friday, also filed a post-trial brief with the court but had not released copies to reporters by Saturday afternoon. 

Hewlett sued HP in Chancery Court in Delaware, where HP is incorporated, in hopes of overturning the March 19 shareholder vote that HP won 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent, according to a preliminary tally yet to be made official.

SAN FRANCISCO – Once a front door to the city by the bay, the historic “Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street” soon will have a market of its own. 

When an elegant redesign is complete in September, shoppers will find fresh produce, special spices, oils, wines and cheeses from nearly 50 vendors in a European-style food market. Restaurants and a farmer’s market will round out food offerings on the 100-year-old building’s first floor. 

“We are trying to recognize the culinary world of Northern California as a high level art form,” said Hans Baldauf, one of three architects on the three-year redevelopment project. 

The landmark was one of the world’s busiest transit terminals between the 1890s and 1930s with as many as 100,000 passengers passing through each day. 

Ferry passengers used to trudge over marble floors, past newsstands, railroad offices and out onto a busy Market Street, where they encountered trolleys, trucks and a bustle of people. 

“San Francisco never had a Union Station but it did have a Ferry Building,” said project architect Jay Turnbull. 

Project organizers hope to bring back some of the look, feel and romance of those glory days when the $85 million overhaul of the Beaux Arts structure is complete. 

“We believe it is going to be one of the most compelling spaces on the West Coast of the United States,” said project manager Chris Meany, whose firm, Wilson Meany LLC, won the 1998 redevelopment bid. 

The food market is inspired by Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Harrod’s department store in London, Peck in Milan and the food markets of France. Baldauf and Meany visited some of these markets, taking measurements and snapping photos. 

“The successful ones are totally idiosyncratic,” Meany said. “They were expressions of a place. We want this public food market to express San Francisco.” 

Cutting pieces of marble mosaic and caulking bold arched window frames, nearly 200 workers are recasting the dramatic look. They tore out most of the second floor in the three story building to recreate a grand nave. 

An overhead skylight has been uncovered and rebuilt. The incoming light accents a 12-foot marble mosaic state seal that had been covered over for years. Premium office space will fill 170,000 square feet on the second and third floors. 

Baldauf says the market is merely one element in restoring vitality to the city’s developing waterfront, which had been marred by several events in the last century. 

Ferry use dropped soon after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges went up, though limited service still delivers 7,500 passengers each day. The Ferry Building was converted to drab office space. 

An unseemly double-decked Embarcadero Freeway running along the waterfront hid the three-story building and it’s cherished 245-foot clock tower from view — that is, until the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake brought down the freeway. 

That tragedy, some say, was a blessing for the waterfront, which has seen a renaissance with new apartments, tram lines, the Giants’ Pacific Bell park and a palm tree-lined roadway. 

Meany and his wife, Michele, hope the Ferry Building draws one million visitors in the first year. 

“San Francisco has longed for a place like this for a long time,” Michele said.

Survivors say they won’t settle with tire company after losing grandfather, 13-year old 

LOS ANGELES – The Meek family hoped their trip from California to Wyoming nearly two years ago would be a memorable family outing. 

Instead, it became a nightmare when a Firestone tire blew out on their Ford Explorer, causing a rollover that killed Garry Lynn Meek and his 13-year-old granddaughter. 

On Wednesday, the survivors go to court in California’s first trial relating to the nationwide recall two years ago of Bridgestone/Firestone tires and the rollover of Ford vehicles equipped with those tires. In lawsuits filed elsewhere against Ford and Firestone, the companies have settled before verdicts could be reached. 

Neither the Meeks family nor their lawyers would comment for this story, but family members previously said they wouldn’t settle with the companies. 

“Garry Lynn Meek and Amy Lynn Meek. That was their names, and I want the companies to know that,” Garry’s son, James, told The Associated Press last year. 

The California case could be the first in which there is a verdict. 

“This is every company’s worst nightmare — plaintiffs with a legally plausible case who refuse” to discuss a settlement, said professor Heidi Li Feldman, a litigation expert and legal theorist at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s also why you can expect to see a fight from Ford and Firestone.” 

Representatives of Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone said the companies maintain that a previously damaged tire caused the accident. 

“We are always concerned when any of our customers are involved in any accident. But in this case, the Meek tire had three prior punctures, three improper repairs and a slice in the side wall. The fact that it lasted 68,000 miles ... just shows it was an unfortunate accident,” Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said. 

“Everyone has to take personal responsibility for maintaining their tires. You can’t disregard your own responsibility for maintaining equipment,” she said. 

Bridgestone/Firestone spokeswoman Christine Karbowiak said the company will try to show that several factors played a role in the accident. 

“We believe once a jury is presented with all the facts, they will ... see there were a number of other reasons the tire could have failed,” she said. 

Jury selection in the wrongful death lawsuit is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Opening arguments are expected early next week. 

More than 250 people were killed and hundreds more injured in accidents involving Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. tires. Most of the accidents involved Ford Explorers and tires losing their tread. 

In August 2000, the Nashville-based tire company recalled 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires, many sold as standard equipment on Explorers. 

Last November, state attorneys general across the nation announced that Bridgestone/Firestone would pay $41.5 million in a settlement to end state lawsuits over the tires. Ford has not settled with the attorneys general. 

Hundreds of people are pursuing legal action against the companies. 

The Meek lawsuit alleges the two companies knew about the tire failures months before the recall. 

Garry and Amy Meek were killed Aug. 16, 2000, near Big Piney, Wyo., after the tread separated on the left rear tire of the Meeks’ Explorer, causing the vehicle to roll, authorities said. 

Garry Meek, a former police chief and school board president in Farmersville, near Fresno, was ejected and killed instantly. His granddaughter was pronounced dead at a hospital. 

Meek’s wife, Jeanette Meek, was driving and survived. Her son, daughter-in-law and another granddaughter followed behind in another vehicle and witnessed the accident. 

“In an instant, they were gone,” Jeanette Meek told The Associated Press last year. “Then I find out these two major American companies knew about these problems and didn’t tell us. They took my husband and my granddaughter, and now I want to know why?” 

Although Ford has settled several lawsuits, the company has said the tires were defective and not the fault of the Ford Explorer design. 

Bridgestone/Firestone has said Ford’s recommended inflation rate was too low and contributed to tire failures. Last year, the two companies ended a nearly century-long relationship. 

“There’s too much at stake for Ford to make even a partial admission,” said Sean McAliden, an economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Georgetown law professor Feldman compared the case to a previous one against Dow Corning over breast implants. 

Dow settled numerous lawsuits until a California jury awarded a multi-million judgment against the company in 1991. Afterward, the company faced a flurry of lawsuits and ended up paying millions more. 

Ford and Firestone face a similar situation, Feldman said. 

“Up until the California verdict, Dow Corning had been settling cases, but there had been no judgment. Once there was, it opened up the floodgates,” she said.

With the issue of divestiture and the Middle East peace resolution on last Tuesday night’s City Council agenda, the various campaign finance proposals never made it to table. Instead, these time-sensitive measures have become one of 16 items on the Council’s agenda when it resumes the meeting this Monday, 7 p.m. at the City Council Chambers. 

Two of the three proposals come from the UC Berkeley chapter of Common Cause. Another is sponsored by Councilmember Dona Spring and was drafted and ratified by the Berkeley Party, a local political affiliation. 

REFORM/From Page 1 

If the council votes the proposals through, they will continue the process toward becoming law, possibly in time to affect November’s mayoral election.  

One of Common Cause’s proposals asks for full public financing of elections, while the other asks for public matching funds. Spring’s plan similarly asks for matching funds, but differs in its functions. 

Full public financing, which would completely prevent private campaign contributions, is pretty much dead in the water. Obstacles to full public financing include both the expense to the city and the fact that the Supreme Court has determined that full public financing violates the constitutional right to free speech. 

“Since the Supreme Court made the screwy decision that contributing money is a form of free speech, we can’t do anything with that until it’s changed,” said Spring. When asked how that argument could be contended, Spring argued that campaign contributions violate citizens’ rights to equal protection under the law, as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, because those who don’t contribute tend to be underrepresented. “Besides,” she says, “there just isn’t enough money [in the city budget] to finance that right now.” A point Mayor Shirley Dean wondered as well. 

Dean said she couldn’t speak on the specifics of recent campaign finance proposals because she has yet to see them all, but wonders where the money for any public financing, including matching funds, would come from. “Where are the funds going to come from?” she asked. “I have only seen Spring’s plan, and there is no indication [in it] of where the funds will come from. This is extraordinary because [the proposals] haven’t gone to the Fair Campaign Practices Commission, nor have they been shared yet with the council. There’s been no discussion or release so far of details – this is not the way to get a proposal passed.” 

Funds would presumably come from the city’s budget, which is facing a shortfall this year. “Until I see the details, it’s hard to talk about it, but it sounds like an administrative nightmare,” said Dean. 

Prasanna Rasiah, spokesperson for the Fair Campaign Practices, confirmed that the commission hasn’t seen anything yet. “Our mission is basically to administer the BERA. It is up to the council to decide who to refer [any reform proposal] to for review,” he said. 

The Spring plan asks candidates to voluntarily limit both their campaign spending and the maximum amount that an individual can contribute in exchange for matching funds. While those limits aren’t yet established, one example shows a maximum campaign expenditure of $150,000, with 50% coming from the city through matching funds. Individuals could only contribute $100, and a candidate would first have to raise $5,000 to establish themselves as a viable candidate. 

Under the Berkeley Election Reform Act, campaign contributions are currently limited to $250 for Berkeley elections, and can only come from individuals. Corporations, unions, and organizations such as non-profits are not allowed to contribute. 

“Our proposal is patterned after many similar ones that have passed in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach,” Spring said. “And are designed to make races more competitive at the local level.” 

The matching fund proposal offered by UC Berkeley Common Cause is even more innovative than those offered so far. It works to match funds on a sliding scale dependent on how much is contributed. The less one contributes, the more the city would contribute to equalize that contribution with a higher one, often doubling or tripling the donation.  

“Ratios of matching funds will differ according to the amount of money, and we’ve designed it so lower funds will get more money,” says UC Common Cause member Jody Schnell. She says donations of $10, for example, may be matched with $20 or $30, while a donation of $100 wouldn’t receive more than an equal match. “The point is to encourage more people to participate in the process,” she says. 

Common Cause will continue to work for campaign finance reform regardless of what happens Monday. Their proposals were written purely by students, who have been meeting with various city council members. “We don’t want our proposal to cater to any faction of the council. Our goal is to meet with as many councilmembers as possible,” Schnell said.

There are several residential streets in Berkeley which are almost pristine examples of early 20th century development. Walking down one of these quiet streets (often by-passed and hidden because of street barriers) is to experience a different era. 

Etna Street and Piedmont Avenue, south of Dwight Way to Derby Street, are two such streets, and they will be the focus of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association's spring house tour on May 5. 

This residential neighborhood is known as the Kearney Tract and the area developed shortly after the opening of the electric streetcar line along College Avenue in 1903. The majority of the homes that line the streets were built between 1904 and 1915. They represent the quintessential Berkeley home, an expression of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, often clad in unpainted shingles and containing exquisite redwood paneled interiors. 

The house tour is also a venue for conducting an historic survey of the neighborhood. The survey not only documents the dates of buildings, the builder or architect's name, but also the people who built the houses and, through directories, what they did for a living and how many members of the family were living in the house at a particular time. 

By comparing historic Sanborn Maps with current ones, other kinds of information can be gathered. A fascinating revelation gained from these maps is the large number of garden cottages tucked behind the houses.  

COTTAGES/From Page 3 

Sometimes these cottages were converted from carriage houses, art and music studios, or even garden sheds. Sometimes they were built expressly as additional living units. 

The existence of backyard cottages, particularly in neighborhoods within walking distance to the university, is one of Berkeley’s most charming qualities. These hidden treasures provide picturesque and romantic dwelling units, usually in garden settings, while the original house and streetscape is preserved. 

One unusual and compelling cottage (although now in disrepair and never used as a dwelling) was designed by University architecture professor, Christopher Alexander as an “Experimental House” in 1976. Lesley Emmington and Anthony Bruce discovered this “cottage” during their survey research. Alexander used the structure for experiments in building construction. It is located in the rear of a lush garden behind a brown shingle house believed to have been designed by Julia Morgan in 1906. Alexander inspired a number of devoted students and future architects in this idyllic setting, outside the classroom, infusing views of the future with the patterns of the past as described in his popular and influential book, “A Pattern Language: Towns/Buildings/Construction.” 

Discover this and more at the Berkeley Architectural Heritage's spring house tour on May 5. Please call 841-2242 for further information. 

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

To the Editor: 

The Judi Bari trial now under way in Oakland, contrary to popular belief, is about violation of civil liberties and not about who set the bomb. According to a 4-12-02 interview (thisweek@kqed.com) film-maker Steve Talbot revealed that a person with a prior history in bombs and who should be investigated is Mike Sweeney, former husband of Judi Bari. Everyone agrees that the author of the Lord’s Avenger letter must have been intimately involved. All aspects of this missive – from the prose style to the sequence of the DNA remaining on the envelope – should be scrutinized if we are to fix responsibility for a murderous attack on a gifted and courageous woman. One more time: our hatred for the FBI and the OPD, however justified, should not distract us from identification of the perpetrator of the crime. 

- J. B. Neilands 

Berkeley 

American playwright Tony Kushner wrote the most famous play of 1990s with his seven-hour, two-part creation “Angels in America,” which won a Pulitzer Prize and many other awards. “Angels” was commissioned by San Francisco’s Eureka Theater, then under the direction of Tony Taccone, who now heads the Berkeley Rep. 

On Wednesday this team reunited, with Taccone directing a strong West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep of Kushner’s latest work “Homebody/Kabul.” 

Written presciently before September 11 of last year, “Homebody/Kabul” is a long, complicated and fascinating play about the political history of Afghanistan, and how things got to be where they are right now. Running nearly four hours, this is not a production for the half-hearted. 

“Homebody/Kabul” opens with a lengthy monologue in which a middle-aged Englishwoman known only as the Homebody (Michelle Morain) sits in the armchair of her comfortable English living room, talking to the audience about her interest in travel and her interest in Afghanistan. 

A cultural dilettante, she reads bits of Afghan history from a travel book, mixing it with references to her present life. She jokes about her dead marriage, and about taking her husband’s anti-depressants occasionally so she can understand what he’s feeling. 

The play then shifts to the Afghan capital of Kabul, and becomes a spy story of sorts. Here a British scientist (Charles Shaw Robinson) and his angry, rebellious teenage daughter (Heidi Dippold) arrive in Kabul to investigate the sudden disappearance of his wife and her mother. 

Robinson is wonderful as the abstracted, disconnected, twitty scientist trying to come to terms with an emotional catastrophe. Julian Lopez-Morillas is effective as an Afghan physician recounting the details of a brutal torture, but one with mysteriously no corpse. 

Hector Correa exudes danger and evangelism as a supervising Taliban minister, threatening and interrogating. Bruce McKenzie supplies both intrigue and comic relief as a low-key but mysterious British aid worker, who appears to be a heroin addict, but who is able to supply travel papers and unusual access. 

Harsh Nayyar is the mysterious guide and Esperanto poet who takes British daughter Priscilla through the dark back streets of Kabul as she tries to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. Jacqueline Antaramian is a former Afghan librarian who raves against men and governments in a bizarre mix of English, Farsi, Russian, French and Greek. 

“Homebody/Kabul” creates a surreal world of conflicting dreams and conflicting realities. It’s a play about the tragedy of Kabul and the people who live there. 

KABUL/From previous page 

Once a fully functioning city, war among the superpowers has turned Kabul into an apocalyptic wasteland. By the play’s end, like a good spy story, there are question marks about what really happened. 

The production has a few false notes. In one scene where a Kabul hat salesman (Waleed Zuaiter) obsesses over a Frank Sinatra record, the moment seems contrived and out of place. Further, the opening monologue overreaches its dramatic capacities, becoming a college lecture as much as a play. 

Although the performances are generally strong, Dippold’s teenage Priscilla speaks many of her lines looking downward, or with her back to the audience. Combining that behavior with the strong emotion of her character, and her swallowed British accent, it is sometime hard to understand what she’s saying. Nor, distractingly, does this character look like her parents. 

This is a story about the destruction of our human society, told in a mysterious hall of mirrors. Underneath lie themes of political adventurism and gender persecution. 

“Homebody/Kabul” is an old-fashioned four-hour, three-act, two-intermission play, the way theater used to be in the days when it was the big event in town, before television and radio. 

You go to this play to think about the show, enjoy the intermissions, eat and drink between the acts, talk about it, and make an evening out of contemplating the story. This is not light theater for the faint-hearted. 

“Homebody/Kabul” gives the brain and the heart a workout. It’s a big treat for real theater-goers. 

“Homebody/Kabul,” presented by the Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison Street, through June 23. Call (510) 647-2949, or visit www.berkeleyrep.org. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for “American Theatre,” “Backstage West,” “Callboard,” and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@hotpop.com or fax him at 1-419-781-2516. 

Theater 

“Pericles, Prince of Tyre” Through May 4: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., William Shakespeare’s tale of lost hopes and love regained. Directed by Jon Wai-keung Lowe. $14. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, 234-6046. 

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Apr. 12 through May 11: Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Eugene O’Neill’s story of the Tyrone family. Directed by Jean-Marie Apostolides. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., 528-5620, www.actorsensembleofberkeley.com.  

“Time Out for Ginger” May 10 through Jun. 1: The Actor’s Studio presents the famous comedy that sketches the tumult in a family that includes three teenage daughters, one of whom insists on trying out for her high school football team. $12. Check theater from dates and times. The Actor’s Studio’s Little Theatre, 3521 Maybelle Ave., Oakland 

“Homebody/Kabul” Apr. 24 - June 23: Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Tony Kushner’s play about a women who disappears in Afghanistan and the husband and daughter’s attempts to find her. $38-$54. Call ahead for times, 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org.  

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

Exhibits  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Errata” through May 4: An exhibition of the photographic work by Marco Breuer, focusing on the gaps, mistakes and marginal events that occur in daily life. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Traywick Gallery, 1316 10th St., 527-1214 

“Urban Re-Visions” Through May. 4: A two-person exhibition featuring the colorful anthropomorphic sculptures of Tim Burns and the figurative/narrative paintings of Dan Way Harper. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Quilted Paintings” Through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black and white photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

The New School International Family Fair & Raffle 

Capoeira Demonstration, African Dance, Ballet Folklorico, The New School Blues Review and more 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. 

Berkeley 

510-548-9165 

Free 

City Planning and  

Architecture Job Fair 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

UCBerkeley campus, Pauley balloom in the MLK Jr. Student Center 

The leading firms in the business will host presntations about open positions and conduct informational interviews. Open to public. $5. UCBerkeley students free. 

For more information contact Kay Bock at 510-643-9440 or email kbock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

It's a “MALO” 30 Year  

Reunion!  

With Arcelio Garcia, Jr., Jorge Santana, Richard Bean, Pablo Tellez and others!  

A Benefit for Mission High School of San Francisco.  

7 to 11 p.m. 

Mission High School, located at 18th & Dolores Street. 

$15 balcony, $25 the floor 

(415) 206-0577 Latin Zone Productions 

Great Local Adventures 

REI’s Ruth Tretbar favorite local haunts 

1 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Poets, writers, comedians, singers and storytellers al come together for this free show. Featuring “Fresh Ink” 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Annual Open Mike Poetry  

Reading 

2-4 p.m. 

Arts Magnet School Poetry Garden 

Milvia and Lincold Streets, Berkeley 

All welcome to read a favorite poem or sit back and enjoy. Free. 

For information contact srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film 

2 p.m. 

Amoeba Music 

1855 Haight St. 

San Francisco  

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

7th Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Conference & Awards Program 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

James Moore Theater 

Oakland Museum 

1000 Oak St. (at 10th) 

Oakland 

510-638-7688 or e-mail tfoch2000@yahoo.com 

$45 & $12 for lunch 

Disaster First Aid Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

To register call: 510-981-5605 

Tango Lesson 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Members of BATango will present a free lecture, demonstration and lesson. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org.bpl 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

10 a.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

COPWATCH: Know Your  

Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Learn what your rights are when dealing when the police and FBI. Learn how 

to observe the police on the street and during protests. 548-0425. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Events: What's That Smell? 

National Sense of Smell Day  

Hands-on activities 

* Discovering how smell helps small animals 

* Identifying the smells of various foods and household items 

* Creating a potpourri to take home 

* Tasting jelly beans - with noses blocked and open 

* Investigating how dinosaurs used their sense of smell  

12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 

LHS- Jurassic Park: The Life  

and Death of Dinosaurs 

Through May 12 

Were they gone in a flash? Or did climate changes, disease, and/or overpopulation gradually bring the reign of dinosaurs to an end? We're still asking, theorizing, and dramatizing what happened to these creatures. 

The exhibit features models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the films; an 8' by 10' hands-on dig pit where parts of an Albertosaurus and Dromaeosaurs are buried; and more than 30 skeletons and parts, including fossils that visitors can touch. This is one of the largest collection of traveling dinosaurs ever assembled.  

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle 

The St. Mary’s High baseball team lost their second straight extra-inning game on Friday, as Andy Duncan’s sacrifice fly brought home the winning run for St. Joseph in the ninth inning of a 12-11 final at Washington Park in Alameda. 

The loss was St. Mary’s (9-12 overall, 5-3 BSAL) third in a row in BSAL play after starting the league season with five wins. Marcus Johnson pitched 4 2/3 strong innings in relief for the Panthers but took his second loss of the week. St. Joseph’s Chris Goin threw the last 3 2/3 innings for the win. 

The Panthers lost despite some heroics from second baseman Chris Alfert. With his team down to its last out in the seventh inning, trailing 11-10, Alfert hit a Chris Goin pitch into the tall screen in left field for a homerun to send the game into extra innings. The bomb was Alfert’s third round-tripper of the season. 

St. Mary’s had a chance to go ahead in the eighth inning, as Joe Storno led off with a double and advanced to third on a groundball. Jeff Marshall hit a bouncer that St. Joseph shortstop Chad Freitas dove to stop, but Storno got a late break and was nailed at the plate. The Panthers had another chance when Johnson walked to send Marshall to second, but pinch-hitter Marcus Turner struck out to end the threat. Goin put down the top of the St. Mary’s lineup in order to close the game. 

St. Mary’s head coach Andy Shimabukuro termed the two-loss, 18-inning week for his team “brutal,” noting that the Panthers’ thin pitching staff probably cost them both games. 

“That’s what happens when you don’t have someone you can rely on to close down the opposition,” Shimabukuro said. “(Johnson) did a good job, but it’s tough.” 

Freshman Scott Tully had a rocky outing, giving up six runs before being yanked in the third inning. Reliever Tyler Nation didn’t fare any better, surrendering five runs in 1 2/3 innings before Johnson came on. 

The third and fifth innings were disastrous for the Panthers, as St. Joseph (11-11, 5-4) scored five runs in each frame without a single extra-base hit. Both Tully and Nation had trouble with their control and walked several batters who later scored. 

The Panthers, on the other hand, chipped away at St. Joseph starter Pat Larsen, scoring two runs in both the first and fourth innings, then knocking him from the box with a five-run fifth to take a short-lived 9-6 lead. 

But when Nation loaded the bases, then walked in a run and was touched for an RBI single before getting an out in the bottom of the fifth, Johnson came into the game despite throwing two innings on Wednesday against Albany, it was clear the Panthers would need more runs to hold on for a win. He immediately gave up a run-scoring single to Allen SooHoo, and another run scored before the inning was over as the Pilots took an 11-9 lead. 

“When we went up 9-6 and let them come back, that was the turning point,” Shimabukuro said. “Letting them get five runs there just killed us.” 

Johnson got a run back in the sixth, hitting a grounder to score Tom Carman, and Alfert’s blast gave St. Mary’s a glimmer of hope. But Goin wiggled out of the jam in the eighth inning and got Alfert to pop out to second to end the ninth, setting up Duncan’s game-winner. 

As on Wednesday, a fielding gaffe helped the Panthers’ opposition to score the winning run. Johnson walked SooHoo to start the ninth, and Brandon Romo laid down a sacrifice bunt. Johnson fielded the ball on the run but his throw pulled Storno off the bag, putting runners at first and second with no outs. Goin hit a bouncer to Storno, who stepped on first for the easy out, and Shimabukuro chose to walk Freitas intentionally to load the bases for a force play. But Duncan foiled the plan by hitting a deep flyball to right field, and Pete McGuinness’s throw was too late to save the game. 

The loss may have knocked St. Mary’s out of contention for a top-two seed in the BSAL playoffs, which would have meant a bye in the first round. A bye is of key importance to the Panthers, since Storno is their only reliable pitcher. Winning the BSAL playoff title is also of utmost importance for St. Mary’s North Coast Section hopes, since their overall record will likely not impress the selection committee enough to earn an at-large bid.

Joy Moore, a community nutrition outreach worker for the City of Berkeley, is considering a run for the Board of Education in November. 

Moore, who also coordinates the Ecology Center’s farm fresh choice program, an organic farmer’s market at three child care centers in the city, said she will decide whether to run by the end of May. 

If she joins the race, Moore would be the fifth candidate in a growing field of contenders for three slots on the school board. Incumbents Shirley Issel and Terry Doran, and activists Nancy Riddle and Derrick Miller have already declared they will run. 

MOORE/From Page 1 

oore, who is African-American, said nutrition, health care and increasing the minority presence on the board and throughout the district would be top issues. 

“I see a need for a broader representation,” Moore said, calling for an increase in African-American, Latino and Asian-American staff members and board members. 

There are currently no African-Americans on the school board and one Latino. According to data from the California Department of Education, 11.3 percent of Berkeley teachers and 17.4 percent of administrators last year were African-American, compared to 35.7 percent of students. 

“I love Joy Moore,” said Doran, welcoming his potential rival into the race. “I’m very actively encouraging people of color, and from south and west Berkeley, to jump into the race. It is an area, for awhile, that has not had adequate representation.” 

Riddle said she does not know Moore well, but met her during the successful 2000 campaigns for Measures AA and BB, which provide the district with additional funding for construction and maintenance. 

“I find her a very outgoing person with a lot of positive energy,” she said. “It would be excellent if the board better represents the student body.” 

Vikki Davis, a member of Parents of Children of African Descent, a leading advocacy group, said she did not know Moore but would be interested in learning her views on the issues. 

Moore said she intends to speak with PCAD and other parent groups about their concerns is she decides to run. 

Davis said PCAD may put forward a candidate of its own. 

“She’s talking with her family, she’s talking with her husband,” Davis said of the potential candidate. 

Davis said PCAD is in consultation with Latino activists, and that she hopes to see a Latino on the slate as well. 

“We need to have a whole slew of candidates running,” she said, suggesting that a single African-American or Latino member of the board may not be able to focus the district’s attention on the “achievement gap” separating white and Asian-American students from African-Americans and Latinos. 

Issel said the current board has a strong commitment to closing the gap, as evidenced by its early literacy program aimed struggling elementary school students. 

PCAD is one of several groups in the larger Coalition for Excellence and Equity, which has called on the district to break up Berkeley High School into a series of small schools, in part to address the achievement gap. 

Moore said she does not have a solid position on small schools but is interested in “anything that will help people with limited resources.” 

Moore, who serves on the district’s child nutrition advisory committee, had high praise for the district’s garden programs at several schools. But she said she would push for fresher, higher quality foods in the school cafeterias if elected. 

Beebo Turman, who serves on the nutrition committee with Moore, said she has been a “very good advocate” for healthy food in the schools for years. Turman said Moore would be effective in pushing that agenda as a school board member.  

Moore said boosting attendance at the middle school and high school levels would also be a top priority. State funding formulas, she noted, are based on attendance. 

Moore said she wants to consult with her family before making a final decision on whether to run. If she does run, Moore said, she intends to stage a grassroots campaign with very little fundraising.

aTo the Editor: 

Where’s the leadership? 

In a letter concerning the STAR testing that I passed out yesterday for my third grade students to take home to their parents, BUSD Superintendent Lawrence states, “We believe that test results provide valuable information for both you and for the school.”  

I am wondering who is the We to whom Superintendent Michele Lawrence refers. It must be the administration, or perhaps the School Board or perhaps the State Board of Education. It certainly does not refer to the teachers. 

Several hundred Berkeley teachers signed the letter that the Planet published Monday that opposes the use of these tests and finds their use harmful to the educational process. If the teachers, who actually have the day to day responsibility for the education, do not find the tests useful, perhaps Supt. Lawrence and the others to whom her We refers, can explain their usefulness. 

Further, she urges parents to see to it that their students get a good night’s sleep and eat a good breakfast before the tests. She urges that parents discuss the importance of children doing their best. Why this admonishment now? How about the rest of the year? 

Next week my students will have new pencils. Next week I will have help in my classroom and particularly with disruptive students. Next week there will be snacks for students. Next week there will be extra efforts made to diminish unnecessary disruptions. While all of these are more than welcome, it only serves to illuminate the fact that we (yes even in Berkeley) are being run by the tests and that tests are what matter to the administration.  

I believe that Ms. Lawrence and virtually all administrators understand the negative impact of the tests. After all, they were once teachers. It is time for them to speak out, in public and declare that the emperor has no clothes. 

- Joseph Brulenski 

Berkeley

NEW YORK — ABC’s need to reverse years of excessive spending by its news division may be prompting the network to ask Peter Jennings to take a substantial pay cut, an industry analyst said Friday. 

ABC doesn’t want to “dismantle the news division or change the personnel as much as have it operate as it is, but at a lower cost,” said Andrew Tyndall, publisher of The Tyndall Report, a weekly newsletter that monitors television network news. 

But another observer urges caution by the network and its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co. “What ABC does is both substantive in terms of the finances, and symbolic in terms of the commitment that Disney has to ABC News,” said Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at The Poynter Institute, a journalism research center. 

Suffering from down-turns in ratings and revenue, ABC has found its motives discussed in recent weeks as it allowed correspondent Connie Chung to go to CNN and made a failed attempt to lure David Letterman from CBS to displace its late-night news program “Nightline.” 

Now ABC is taking a tough stand with its star anchorman in contract negotiations, according to various published reports. 

Jennings, who reportedly makes $10 million a year, is being asked to accept a $3 million trim as a condition for renewing his contract, which runs out this summer, Newsday reported. 

Tyndall says ABC is mounting “an overall attempt to reverse the excesses of the Roone Arledge era.” Arledge, president of ABC News through much of the 1990s, won big-name news talent from competing networks with lavish salaries. 

This has placed ABC in a jam, Steele agrees. 

“There’s no doubt they’ve got some big-ticket items in terms of their primary anchors and some other key talents,” he said. “It’s not surprising that they might be looking at those multi-million-dollar salaries as one opportunity to adjust the financial equation.” 

ABC is struggling financially, as is its corporate parent, Disney, which this week reported earnings off 51 percent from the second quarter of 2001. 

The network, however, may not want to risk losing one of its most identifiable figures, especially since its evening newscast has enjoyed the largest increase in viewership among the three shows in the past year. “World News Tonight” with Jennings generally ranks second each week to NBC. 

So far ABC News President David Westin has declined to comment other than to say: “We have every hope and expectation that Peter will be our principal anchor for many years to come.” 

Jennings said in a statement: “In more than 30 years, I have never commented on contract negotiations, nor have I negotiated publicly. I see no reason at this time to change.” 

Even if Jennings’ new deal held him at his current pay level, such an agreement would be unusual since, only last December, “Today” anchor Katie Couric signed a contract with NBC that more than doubled her salary to a reported $16 million a year. 

But viewership of morning shows has grown in recent years while viewership of the three evening newscasts has shrunk from three-quarters of the TV audience to less than half. 

Jennings’ fate is likely to be watched closely by all the networks, especially NBC, where “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw’s contract is also up for renewal this year.

LBSU upsets Cal water polo 

LOS ANGELES – The Cal women’s water polo team was upset today by Long Beach State, 8-7, at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at USC. With the loss, the Bears drop to 16-8 and are eliminated from MPSF title contention.  

No. 1 Bruins blank Bears 

No. 6 Cal (44-15, 8-5 Pac-10) was blanked by the top-ranked Bruins (42-6, 10-3 Pac-10), 3-0, Friday afternoon at Levine-Fricke Field. UCLA starting pitcher Keira Goerl tossed a no-hitter for her team-leading 23rd win of the season. The loss ended the Bears’ five-game winning streak.  

Huskies shut out Cal baseball 

Led by a complete-game shutout by senior right-hander Shawn Kohn, Washington defeated Cal, 2-0, Friday at Evans Diamond. The Bears go to 26-20 overall and 8-8 in the Pac-10, while the Huskies improve to 18-19-1, 6-4 in conference.

Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader criticized Congress for watering down energy and campaign finance legislation and railed against corporate influence on politics at a UC Berkeley appearance Friday afternoon. 

Nader said the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, which banned soft money contributions to national parties, will have little effect because corporations will simply funnel money to state and local parties. 

“That’s not much of a change,” said Nader, who called for public financing of campaigns. 

Nader, speaking before a friendly crowd, also attacked Senate Republicans for stripping the energy bill of provisions that would have required higher fuel efficiency for vehicles. The Senate passed the bill Thursday. 

NADER/From Page 1 

But the consumer advocate focused most of his speech, sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, on a more general theme. 

“Corporations are essentially taking over our government,” he said. 

Nader talked of an army of 15,000 corporate lobbyists in Washington, D.C., outspending citizen lobbies and affecting every aspect of government policy. 

Nader said the pharmaceutical industry spent $250 million lobbying politicians between 1997-2000, while his health research group fielded a staff of seven. 

Nader said heavy corporate campaign contributions are producing “a one party country,” where Democrats and Republicans alike assent to business interests. 

But one student in the audience said recent events on Capitol Hill suggest that Nader’s analysis may be flawed. 

“When push comes to shove, there have been significant differences between the parties,” the student said, asking Nader, who ran as a Green party presidential nominee in 2000, why he should cast a ballot for third party candidates and take away votes from progressive Democrats. 

Nader countered that progressive Democrats have little say in the direction of the national party. He said progressives should build a third party movement to force the larger party to respond to their concerns. 

Nader also took a swipe at reporters who asked him, during the 2000 campaign, if he was concerned about taking away votes from Democratic nominee Al Gore. 

Nader said that logic would never fly in business, asking the audience to imagine a reporter asking a small technology firm: “Aren’t you concerned you’re taking revenue away from Microsoft?” 

Nader said the federal government needs to shift its spending priorities. Instead of spending billions of dollars in Western Europe and South Asia “to defend prosperous countries against non-existent enemies,” he said, the government should fund every American student’s college education. 

Nader also called for greater civic education in the schools, more public and less commercial programming on the nation’s airways and a growth in civic associations. 

To the Editor: 

The article on April 23, regarding the hundreds of thousands of dollars that polluting energy companies have poured into politicians pockets' since the beginning of the year, sheds light on why our current energy policies lack room for clean energy solutions.  

While the article addresses this problem on a national level, it is important to realize that this occurs on a large scale in California, too. Currently, over 90 percent of California's energy comes from environmentally degrading sources that cause air and water pollution, global warming, and among other kinds of other damage.  

This is despite the fact that California has an abundance of sunshine, wind, and geothermal energy that easily could be harnessed to provide clean, renewable power.  

California has the opportunity to take a step in the right direction by having the assembly pass the California Clean Energy Bill, SB 532. This would require that power suppliers obtain at least 20 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources by 2010.  

Now that decision-makers can think about our energy future outside of crisis mode, it's time for an energy policy that is good for the environment. 

- Beth Gunston 

Berkeley 

Eugene O’Neill is one of America’s greatest playwrights. Over the course of his career he almost single-handedly lifted American playwriting from being looked at as narrow and provincial to internationally-respected and first-rate. 

So one should approach his texts, while not with reverent awe, certainly with respect; with the idea that he wrote his play “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” almost exactly as he wanted it to be seen. Because it’s one thing to go against his wishes and produce the show only three years after his death as his wife did and it’s quite another to add characters and scenes, as director Jean-Marie Apostolidès does in the Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley’s production of this classic play.  

In his program notes director Apostolidès writes that he would like to avoid “reducing” Journey into a “realistic representation of an uncharacteristic American family.” As part of this effort he has added scenes throughout the play in which Young Mary and Young James, ghosts of the family’s mother and father in their younger lives, repeat the important lines of the show in an effort to reveal the show’s “unconscious structure” and “multiple layers of signification.” 

Unfortunately, these scenes reveal nothing – they merely feel like Cliff’s Notes versions of the play. As a director Mr. Apostolidès should know that the play itself is the best communicator of its unconscious structure. That’s why O’Neill wrote it. Rather than trust the text and the actors to communicate the intent, the emotions and the subtext inherent in the play Mr. Apostolidès has instead chosen to treat the audience like lack wits and press his own agenda upon the play. 

In one bizarre sequence Mr. Apostolidès has the ghost of Young Mary engage in an act of quasi-lesbianism. This is certainly a novel approach – primarily because this idea isn’t supported anywhere in the text.  

The further sadness of this approach is that you can sense a talented and valiant cast working to overcome the staging. In the second act as the family dynamics become more twisted and sinister, Edmund’s fights with his father, brother and himself take on a true yearning and desperation. 

Edmund, well played by Noah Feinstein is torn between rage and hope and defeat. Traditionally Edmund is seen as O’Neill’s double, but Mr. Feinstein brings enough frailty to the role that the character’s future success – let alone survival – is in doubt, enhancing his plight. Charlie Anderson has wonderful presence as the miserly head of the house and Erik Kaul is delightfully twisted as the snaky older brother Jamie, both encouraging and cutting to Edmund. Mikel Clifford infuses the mother Mary with just the right amount of nervous hysteria.  

In keeping with the director’s vision the set and lighting are spare. Lighting designer David Starke does a good job conveying moods and spaces with very few instruments.  

Mr. Apostolidès has chosen to change the structure and rhythm of an American classic. He writes that he does this to help illuminate the play. Regrettably, neither he nor the play looks good in this new light.  

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by the Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley plays at the Live Oak Park Theatre, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman now through May 11th. Tickets can be purchased at the door or by calling 528-5620. 

Boys lacrosse – Berkeley 13, College Prep 2 

The Yellowjackets stay undefeated in Shoreline Lacrosse League play with an easy win over College Prep. NIck Schooler, Jesse Cohen and Tamir Elterman each score two goals as Berkeley gears up for its showdown with Bishop O’Dowd on Thursday.

Officials called for transportation to be the number one priority of the developing Southside Plan at this week's Berkeley Planning Commission meeting. 

The meeting discussed two key transportation issues for the plan including proposed rapid transit AC bus shuttles between Oakland and Downtown Berkeley and the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in South Berkeley. 

The Southside Plan was introduced in 1997 as a Memorandum of Understanding between the city of Berkeley and the University to create a cooperative relationship and long-range plan for the improvement of the neighborhood immediately south of the UC campus. 

According to Tim Stroshane, Secretary of Berkeley's Planning Commission, plans for changing one-way thoroughfares like Bancroft and Durant streets into two-way streets were also proposed at the meeting. 

PLAN//From Page 1 

"The dilemma is that Bancroft and Durant are three lanes. You can do a variety of things with those streets. You can make a super-loading zone and make them two way streets," said John Cecil, president of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association. 

According to Cecil dozens of proposals have been made for changing and re-zoning the streets of south Berkeley. Cecil emphasizes that the most important matter is the safety of pedestrians. 

"The main thing is to slow things down. Nobody wants injured pedestrians or cyclists," said Cecil.  

Peter Hillier, assistant city manager for Transportation, commented that the Planning Commission has not established a set time frame for completing the Southside Plan and taking it to the City Council.  

According to Hillier, Wednesday's discussion has, however, provided a framework from which to evaluate information and make recommendations to the Transportation Commission.  

Hillier is a part of a new office created to bring the offices of traffic engineering and transportation planning under a single and more productive office of control. 

Stroshane says that the Southside Plan also includes ancillary issues which are important to local merchants. 

"Parking is a hot issue with the Telegraph merchants, they have to deal with parking for customers and access for delivery trucks," said Stroshane. 

South Berkeley residents have also expressed concern about south Berkeley turning into a transit monstrosity, citing the transit complexes already built in Richmond and being built in Emeryville. 

"We already have BART that serves the Berkeley to Oakland line, it sounds like AC Transit would be trying to compete for the same customers," said Cecil. 

Cecil also noted that the one-way streets in Berkeley are used mostly for passing through the city, not for stopping to conduct business. 

"60 percent of the one-way traffic is just going through Berkeley. The one-way streets create a freeway mentality. The two-ways would cut down on both volume and speed of traffic," says Cecil.  

The Planning Commission expects to discuss housing and zoning issues concerning the Southside plan at its next meeting scheduled for May 8th.  

Stroshane predicts that the Southside plan will not be ready for the City Council until later this year or early next year and that several key issues, including land use and housing, are still under discussion. 

"The Planning Commission does not want to rush things unwarrantedly. There have been a few disagreements internal to the subcommittee within the planning committee," said Stroshane. 

Stroshane added that environmental impact reports must be taken and assessed before the plan can be actualized. 

According to Cecil, the resources of the UC Berkeley have not been used to their full potential. 

"If UC agreed on a preferred transportation route, that would reduce traffic," said Cecil. 

Cecil added that UC has databases that could be used to figure out a traffic plan.  

"If they were really committed to transportation there would be a way to figure this out, it's like there's no effort," says Cecil.  

To the Editor: 

With gas prices continually rising and California's air dirtier than ever, it is imperative that we act now to make lasting positive changes in our state's energy policy.  

Currently less than 10 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources like wind and solar power. Senate Bill 532, currently languishing in the state Assembly, would rectify this situation by ensuring that at least 20 percent of our energy is generated by renewables.  

California has the opportunity to lead the country from our dependence on oil both foreign and domestic. The positive effects of such a move will reach far beyond the borders of our state. A clean, responsible energy future is what both we and our children need.  

-Daniel Wolfe 

Berkeley 

The audiences cuing up outside Bay Area theaters for the San Francisco International Film Festival – continuing until May 2 – are not only getting the first and sometimes only look at films from around the world, they are getting a chance to see and hear makers of those films in person. 

Star-power Hollywood figures are arriving alongside little-known film masters from foreign countries flying into the Bay Area, and local filmmakers also get in the spotlight. In the AMC Kabuki theater in S.F.’s Japantown, Kevin Spacey had audiences roaring with his crowd-pleasing vulgarities while in the adjacent theater Berkeley-based documentary filmmaker Gail Dolgin and Vincente Franco got ready to speak to a more subdued, standing-room-only theater about their film “Daughter From Danang.” 

Berkeley’s “Daughter From Danang” 

The film’s story begins in 1975 when the United States instigated Operation Baby Lift, a plan to bring Vietnamese orphans into the U.S. after the war. Many of the children were not orphans, given up by desperate parents hoping for a better life for their children. One such child was Mai Thi Hiep, arriving in American at age seven and renamed Heidi by her adoptive mother in Pulaski, Tennessee. 

The chances of Baby Lift adoptees rediscovering their birth mothers is a needle-in-a-haystack scenario, but Tran Tuong Nhu, a journalist living in Berkeley, reconnected Heidi with her mother Mai Thi Kim. While arranging a meeting of mother and daughter, she met Dolgin at a bar mitzvah and Dolgin immediately wanted to make a film about it. 

“We went expecting to film a wonderfully joyous, healing reunion,” said Dolgin. “The trip didn’t turn out that way.”  

The second half of the film – which the filmmakers have asked not be revealed in detail – follows Heidi’s struggles with her new-found family and the irreconcilable cultural differences. Her week-long stay in Vietnam becomes increasingly difficult, climaxing in an emotional breakdown. 

Dolgin said she and Franco – and Heidi – had no idea what they were going up against as they watched and recorded the corrosion of the happy reunion. “We created a film that reveals itself to the audience in much the same way,” and it’s a film that audience want to talk about at length afterwards. 

Speaking to the packed theater at the Kabuki last Wednesday, Franco said going to Vietnam put their integrity as filmmakers, and their compassion, to the test. There was a moment when Dolgin and Franco had to decide whether to keep filming or drop the camera and become emotionally available to their subject. In retrospect, they said the feel their decision to keep going was the best thing, if perhaps most difficult, to do. 

The audience had questions about Heidi’s lack of preparation for the trip to Vietnam. Tran Thuong Nhu, who acted as consultant and translator for Heidi and the filmmakers in Vietnam, explained it’s impossible to adequately prepare for such a meeting. Most Operation Baby Lift adoptees, she said, have a hard time returning to Vietnam. 

Dolgin said Heidi’s difficulty in part came from her Tennessee upbringing. As an immigrant in Pulaski, the seat of the Ku Klux Klan, Heidi was told to deny her Vietnamese roots. “She learned early on how to shut doors,” said Dolgin. 

FILMS/From previous page 

Jewish “Minute Matrimony” 

For a lighthearted take on culture clashes, Berkeley filmmaker Yoav Potash offers his “Minute Matrimony” in the SFIFF short-film program “They Came From the Bay.” The cartoonish comedy has for its premise a drive-through chapel where couples rushing to get married can order a cheap and quick marriage like they would a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake. Its till-death-do-U-part, while-U-wait joke expands to a bizarrely vibrant celebration when a nearsighted Jewish man drives up with his black fiancée clad in African prints to order a funky gospel version of Havah Nagilah. 

Potash said he got the idea for the film while walking through a supermarket on Thanksgiving and was struck by the bounty of pre-prepared food. His film is a giddy embrace of American-style, pre-packed love and a sly send-up of cultural stereotypes.  

Addressing the SFIFF audience after the screening, Potash began by announcing his own engagement. (He later joked that his wedding is probably going to cost as much as his movie.) After assuring the viewers his intention was to make people laugh, a question came up about his use of racial stereotyping.  

Potash cited a George C. Wolf play, “The Colored Museum” as an influence to create “stereotype silhouettes” of commonly perceived racial and cultural precepts, and then “sneaking in something to think about.” 

Outside of a prosaic message of acceptance as rewarding, what Potash is giving his audience to think about is the musical virtuosity of bending Havah Nagilah into a full-chorus Baptist gospel performance. He said that was a central challenge in the filmmaking, and he worked as hard getting the song right as he did on the rest of the film, meticulously arranging and recording the ensemble. It’s part of what Potash described to his audience as “a grand experiment when our stereotypes of black and Jews come together.”

Today 

Today is Saturday, April 27, the 117th day of 2002. There are 248 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

On April 27, 1805, a force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. 

On this date: 

In 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice. 

In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines. 

In 1822, the 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. 

In 1865, the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war. 

In 1932, American poet Hart Crane drowned after jumping from a steamer while en route to New York; he was 32. 

In 1937, the nation’s first Social Security checks were distributed. 

In 1973, during the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned. 

In 1978, convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months. 

In 1982, the trial of John W. Hinckley Jr., who had shot four people, including President Reagan, began in Washington. (The trial ended with Hinckley’s acquittal by reason of insanity.) 

Ten years ago:  

The new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro. Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 

Five years ago:  

President Clinton, along with former presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter, helped polish gritty city streets in Philadelphia as they launched the three-day Summit for America’s Future, a gathering on community service also attended by former President Gerald Ford and former first lady Nancy Reagan. 

One year ago:  

The U.S. Navy resumed military exercises on Vieques island in Puerto Rico, drawing protesters. A Russian court sentenced American Fulbright scholar John Tobin to three years and one month in prison after convicting him of drug possession, purchase and distribution; Tobin, who maintained his innocence, was paroled and released last August. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actor Jack Klugman is 80. Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King is 75. Actress Anouk Aimee is 70. Announcer Casey Kasem is 70. Broadcast journalist Phil Jones is 65. Actress Judy Carne is 63. Opera singer Judith Blegen is 61. Rhythm-and-blues singer Cuba Gooding is 58. Singer Ann Peebles is 55. Rock singer Kate Pierson (The B-52’s) is 54. Rhythm-and-blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics) is 53. Actor Douglas Sheehan is 53. Rock musician Ace Frehley (KISS) is 51. Pop singer Sheena Easton is 43. Actor James Le Gros is 40. Rock musician Rob Squires (Big Head Todd & the Monsters) is 37. Singer Mica Paris is 33. Rock singer-musician Travis Meeks (Days of the New) is 23. 

The Associated Press 

Scholars and legal experts gathered at UC Berkeley to debate the changing face of immigration laws in the United States at The 6th Annual Travers Ethics Conference.  

Panelists at the one-day conference, entitled “States and Migrants: New Challenges, Changing Responsibilities,” examined the topics of Immigration and Border Control, Immigration and Integration Policies and Complex Citizenship.  

According to Shannon Stimson, CO-Director of the Travers Program and UC Berkeley Political Theorist, immigration has always been a key issue in the United States for both legal citizens and immigrants. 

“This is an extremely important topic and it only became more so after September 11th. It's an issue that's come together in the American mind,” said Stimson.  

Col. Charles Travers, sponsor of UC Berkeley's Charles T. & Louise H. Travers Program in Ethics & Accounting in Government, opened the conference with welcoming remarks. 

Professor Joseph Carens from the University of Toronto presented the conference's keynote address, entitled “Who Belongs?: The Ethics of Integrating Immigrants.” 

Panelists from the third section of the conference on Complex Citizenry raised questions about the recognition of immigrant rights. UC Berkeley Professor of Political Science John Brady argued that immigrants need to be recognized as legitimate political actors.  

“I'm interested in how to get immigrants to the table of public debate. I'm more interested in opening the door,” said Brady. 

Brady argued that immigrants have important and unique insights into the political realm that must be recognized. 

Lucas Guttentag of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project provided a legal prospective on the topic of immigration in the United States.  

According to Guttentag, deportation and executive detention have gone unsupervised and unscrutinized by the government. This lack of supervision has caused the central protection of habeas corpus to be ignored. 

“Habeas corpus is the principle and ultimate safeguard. Deportation without access to the rights of habeas corpus is a violation of the constitution,” said Guttentag. 

Guttentag attacked the unilateral policies, practices and secrecy of the U.S. Justice Department in its attempt to circumvent constitutional regulations involving immigration. 

Paul Johnston of the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Citizenship Project in Salinas detailed the efforts of Mexican immigrants from rural California to organize and assert their legal rights.  

“This is the storm center of social change in California,” said Johnston.  

Johnston argued that the border between the United States and Mexico has become an overemphasized piece of geography and that society in California is not bound or static. 

“We are witnessing the emergence of overlapping societies, it is less satisfactory to think of the United States and Mexico as distinct societies,” said Johnston.  

According to Johnston, there is a split between federal and local enforcement laws which needlessly complicates the progress of immigrant movements.  

Much of the organization of Friday's event resulted from the work of conference coordinator and UC Berkeley Professor Amy Gurowitz.  

According to Gurowitz, much of the planning and research for the conference took place prior to the events of September 11th though some speakers did change the focus of their presentations after last fall's terrorist attacks. 

Both Stimson and Gurowitz said they have received positive responses from participants and attendees of the ethics conference. 

“There's been an overwhelmingly positive response. We had quite a few inquiries from the general public, a lot of e-mails,” says Gurowitz. 

Gurowitz says the Travers Program hopes to gather additional information of the topic of immigration for possible future events on the issue. 

In addition to UC Berkeley’s Department of Political Science and Institute for Governmental Studies, the conference was sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California and the World Affairs Council of Northern California. 

Past topics for the Travers Ethics conferences have included Responsibility in the Global Age, Ethics and Post-Cold War Humanitarian Intervention: Beyond Realism and Idealism, Deception and Democracy and Impeachment: Law & Politics. 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Al Joseph DeGuzman, who assembled an arsenal of guns and homemade bombs while plotting a killing spree of fellow students at De Anza College, was convicted on 108 counts Friday of possessing and planning to use those weapons. 

DeGuzman, 20, whose computer diary notes indicate he intended to copy the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, could face up to 94 years in prison. 

San Jose Superior Court Judge Robert Ahern announced his verdict Friday morning. The trial was held without a jury, because DeGuzman’s attorneys worried the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would influence jurors. 

Prosecutors said during the trial that DeGuzman was hours away from attacking students at the Cupertino community college in January 2001 when a photo lab clerk alerted police after developing snapshots of DeGuzman’s arsenal of homemade weapons. 

“I think it was the correct decision by the court, but it’s not a great surprise,” prosecutor Thomas Farris said. “We’ll never know what was averted, but we know the potential was very high he was going to hurt someone.” 

DeGuzman was convicted of 54 felony counts of possessing a destructive device and 54 felony counts of possessing a destructive device with intent to harm. Eight other counts were dismissed. 

Ahern dismissed six counts of possessing a destructive device because the counts involved Molotov cocktails that did not have wicks, meaning they did not qualify as destructive devices. One count of possessing a sawed-off shotgun and one count of possessing a sawed-off rifle were dismissed because of clerical errors. 

DeGuzman’s attorneys maintained throughout the eight-day trial, which ended Wednesday, that the killing spree was just a fantasy and that he never intended to go through with the plan. During the trial, a forensic psychologist testified that DeGuzman had no motive to carry out the massacre. 

The psychologist concluded that DeGuzman was lonely, depressed and felt misunderstood by his family and friends — and that amassing weapons relieved his stress. 

DeGuzman is scheduled to be sentenced June 25. Ahern asked both defense and prosecuting attorneys to prepare a report with sentencing recommendations. 

DeGuzman showed little emotion, looking back briefly at family members and friends as the verdicts were read. Defense attorney Craig Wormley said DeGuzman was disappointed, and immediately asked how long he’d have to spend in prison. 

“Our intention all along was (to show) that he never intended to kill anyone. We still believe that,” Wormley said. “He’s extremely remorseful that he’s putting his family through this.” 

Wormley said DeGuzman probably will appeal the decision.

LOS ANGELES — Measures to put $25.3 billion in education bond measures before California voters in two elections were signed by Gov. Gray Davis on Friday. 

The signing was held at a half-century-old elementary school that needs new classrooms to replace bungalows, new bathrooms and many other repairs, according to its principal. 

The two measures to go on ballots in the next two statewide elections represent the largest school bond package in California history. They would fund construction of classrooms and libraries and modernization of existing K-12 schools and colleges. 

“It’s time for the condition of our schoolhouses to reflect our commitment to our schools,” Davis said. “Test scores have gone up three years in a row. But you can’t build world-class schools without world-class school facilities. We need to build more classrooms, modernize existing ones, and wire them to the Internet.” 

The growth in state public school population requires building an estimated seven classrooms each day, seven days a week, for the next five years, the governor’s office said, and if the bonds are approved school projects would create an estimated 600,000 jobs. 

The measures would put a $13.05 billion bond issue up for voter approval in November, and a $12.3 billion bond issue for a statewide vote at the 2004 primary election. They would fund $21.4 billion in construction and modernization of K-12 schools, and $4 billion for state universities, colleges and community colleges. 

Legislators including the bond measures’ sponsor, Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Sherman Oaks, and education leaders including Los Angeles Schools Superintendent Roy Romer, attended the signing at the 525-student Clover Avenue Elementary School. 

The school opened in 1954. 

“A 50-year-old school has a lot of needs to bring it up to 21st century standards,” said Principal Maureen Melvold. “We have no communications safety link to our teachers and students to most classrooms, including the bungalows. We hoof it a lot.” 

Trenches now being dug on the campus are the start of a six-month project to install telephones and Internet links in the classrooms. 

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles/Culver City, said in Sacramento that the bond issues “give all of us a chance to prove that in California, we put our children first. Our kids won’t succeed in college or careers if they’re stuck in overcrowded schools with leaky roofs and broken windows or in classrooms that aren’t wired for technology.”

HOQUIAM, Wash. — In a rush to get to their arctic breeding grounds, hundreds of thousands of migrating shorebirds are making their annual pit stops along the coast of Washington. 

Every year in late April, Western sandpipers, dunlins, short-billed dowitchers, marbled godwits and about a dozen other shorebird species flock to the salt marshes and mudflats of the Grays Harbor estuary, lured by its rich supply of yummy crustaceans, mollusks and worms. 

It’s one of their favorite spots along the Pacific flyway — one that’s expected to draw several thousand bird enthusiasts to the Grays Harbor Wildlife Refuge and other sites from Long Beach to Cape Flattery during the three-week migration that wraps up in early May. 

“It’s really a spectacle,” said Bob Morse, author of A Birder’s Guide to Coastal Washington. “When you see thousands of shorebirds before you fly off together in one wave, and turn and twist and fly in another direction, all instantaneously, it’s an amazing sight.” 

Seventy to 80 bird watchers braved a steady rain Friday, staking out a spot on the boardwalk at the Grays Harbor Wildlife Refuge as high tide crept in. 

Crai Brower, a science teacher at Seattle’s Pacific Crest School, brought two dozen sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in his ornithology class. 

“They do two things here,” Brower told them. “They rest, and they eat. They eat an incredible amount so they can build up enough fat reserves to make to the Cooper River Delta in Alaska,” their last stop before settling down to breed. 

“They’re so cuuuuuuuuuute!” a cluster of girls said, looking out at a scattering of sandpipers dashing across the mudflats, pecking for food. 

Shorebirds begin their 7,000-mile migration in South and Central America, flying hundreds of miles at a time as they head up the Pacific Coast toward their breeding and nesting grounds in the Alaskan and arctic tundra. 

They fly in more tightly packed flocks as they head north than they do during their southern migration back to their wintering grounds. 

“Birds have a limited time in the spring and summer to breed and know they need to be there as soon as the snow is off the ground, so they can go through their courtship” and reproduce, said Morse, a 66-year-old retired computer salesman from Olympia who has written five books on birding. 

“They’re like sardines in a can, they’re so tightly compressed together,” Morse added. 

Normally, shorebirds are fairly drab in color — lots of white and muted browns and grays. But as they get ready to breed, their plumage turns more vibrant, making their white or black bellies stand out more starkly against reddish browns and other rich hues. 

“When they move, they look like flashes,” said Sheila McCartan, who heads up the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival, which began Friday and runs through Sunday. 

When a few take off, banking in one direction or another, hundreds follow suit within seconds. They fly inches from each other, at times just inches off the water, at times swooping right, then left, up and then back down. 

Victor Vikan, 77, of Tacoma, has been coming to Grays Harbor to see the annual shorebird migration for the past decade. 

“What is most spectacular is on a clear day, when a raptor will swoop in and flush them all out, and like a school of fish, they’ll turn simultaneously,” Vikan said. “The light display is fabulous.” 

Grouping together and dancing out of harm’s way is a survival instinct. 

“The phenomenon is that they know that there’s protection in large numbers,” McCartan said. “As soon as one bird deviates from that — boom! they’re food for predators.” 

On Friday, a peregrine falcon darted in and scared a shoreline full of birds into flight, but didn’t catch any lunch. 

Several species of shorebirds can feed on the same stretch of mudflat. Birds with shorter bills, like the Western sandpiper, nibble on tiny, soft-shelled crustaceans near the surface. Those with longer bills, like the marbled godwit, dig deeper for mollusks and worms. Those with longer legs, like the dowitchers, can feed in deeper water. 

About 80 percent of the birds viewed at the wildlife refuge so far this year have been Western sandpipers, McCartan said. 

At one point Friday, several birders spotted a rare sight: a small group of red knots, named for their rust-colored breasts. 

Although they fly here in huge numbers, shorebird populations are in decline. But because the birds are counted carefully at some points along their flyway and not at all in others, scientists say it’s not yet clear exactly how significant that decline is. 

“We monitor the populations that use the Grays Harbor area, but we always have the question: is a decrease an actual decrease, or are they just spending more time in Oregon?” said Nanette Seto, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist with the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Olympia.

As artistry and functionality creep back into modern home design, glass block re-emerges, not just as a privacy solution for bathroom windows, but as an attractive way to keep light flowing in throughout the home. 

Architects, designers and glass-block manufacturers have put no limit on the uses and styles of glass block. Decorative walls composed of glass block provide subtle dividers in an otherwise open layout, while allowing natural light to spread from room to room. Glass-block sidelights draw light into the foyer while providing privacy. Balcony railings, kitchen snack bars and islands, bathroom showers and artistic wall cutouts all benefit visually from glass block. 

Using a variety of styles, shapes, patterns and materials, you can create a glass-block treatment to fit just about any need. Glass block also solves the problem of light needs and limited views. 

For example, suppose your narrow lot provides a front-row seat to all your neighbors’ activities; glass block allows you to keep the shades open while you still enjoy a measure of privacy. Need extra light where there’s a lesser view? Don’t waste a standard window on a view you wouldn’t enjoy — use glass block.

WATSONVILLE, Calif. — At noon on Saturday, Japanese-American men, women and children in fedoras and flowered dresses will report to a government building, attach tags with government-issued numbers to their suitcases and buttonholes, and ride a bus to a place with fences and guard towers. 

The three dozen participants will be re-enacting what happened to their relatives in 1942, when 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced into 10 U.S. internment camps on orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

“It will bring back a lot of bad memories and things that we forgot,” said Chiyoko Yagi, who was 21 when she was sent to a camp in Poston, Ariz., and plans to watch on Saturday. “I want to see it to kind of remember it again.” 

But, more important, the re-enactment could help others “see what we went through,” said Yagi, 81. “It could happen to anybody. We have to make people realize that something like this could happen in a hysteria.” 

The re-enactment is a production of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American Citizens League. While internees hold reunions, and others make annual trips to internment camps, Saturday’s event may be the first re-enactment, said JACL national executive director John Tateishi. 

More than 1,000 people are expected to watch the event in Watsonville, a coastal town about 50 miles south of San Jose. 

Those taking part in the re-enactment will assemble outside a government building on a downtown street that will have such 1940s details as a Greyhound bus on loan from a museum and an antique police car. 

INTERN/From page 11 

The actors, wearing vintage clothing, will tell their stories to the crowd, and will then be put on a bus and ride to a theater down the street that will represent an internment center in the desert. There will be cyclone fences in the lobby and paintings of guard towers flanking the stage. 

The $35,000 production, called “Liberty Lost ... Lessons in Loyalty,” was supported by donors from around the country. 

The tales that will be told include those of a father who was taken by the FBI and sent to a camp apart from his family; a high school student who could not graduate; a little girl who had to leave her dog behind; and little Norman Mineta, now U.S. transportation secretary, whose baseball bat was taken by a guard before he left for camp. 

Saturday’s event will also honor Japanese-Americans who served in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service and the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. 

Some say the re-enactment is a bad idea. 

“It doesn’t solve anything,” said City Councilwoman Judy Doering-Nielsen, the sole member to vote against a resolution supporting the re-enactment. “It doesn’t do anything other than to bring back old memories and re-create something that was a very sad thing in our history.” 

In the 1940s, local politicians passed resolutions opposing the return of internees from the camps. But those who disagreed, and helped the Japanese-Americans, will be honored at Saturday’s event. 

Among them: the late Oscar and Opal Marshall, who greeted returning internees at the train station, helped them find jobs and bought food when they heard markets would not sell to Japanese-Americans. 

Watsonville artist Howard Ikemoto, who was interned at Tule Lake in Northern California when he was 3, has been telling his family’s stories through the 10-foot paintings of guard towers that will be at the event. 

“It’s the kind of incarceration that is still happening and can happen at anytime to any group. Right now it’s focused on Arabs,” Ikemoto said. “It’s not about feeling sorry for oneself. It’s about making sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

WASHINGTON — Chandra Levy has been gone for a year now and her parents see no end to the uncertainty that fuels their anguish. 

Susan and Dr. Robert Levy hope against hope their daughter, a former intern at the federal Bureau of Prisons, will come home alive. Absent that, they at least want to know what happened to her. And — they can barely bring themselves to say it — if she is dead, who killed her. 

“We’re hoping and praying that somehow we’ll get answers and someone will help us,” Mrs. Levy said in a telephone interview. “Someone out there knows something.” 

Levy, whose family lives in Modesto, was 24 when she disappeared without a trace one year ago Wednesday. The search for her drew little attention at first. From time to time, young women disappear in Washington. 

But the case quickly commanded national interest when the name of Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., surfaced in the investigation. 

“In my 10 years, I have never seen a case of a missing adult receive this much exposure,” said Kym Pasqualini, president of the Nation’s Missing Children Organization and Center for Missing Adults. 

Condit, 54 and married, at first called Levy a good friend and established a reward fund to help find her. In July, he reportedly told police he was having an affair with Levy, although publicly he never made such a disclosure, saying only they shared a “close” relationship. 

Investigators were irritated Condit was not more forthcoming soon after Levy disappeared, when they believe information might have made a difference. But they never identified Condit as a suspect. 

Condit, who declined requests for an interview, has said from the outset he had nothing to do with the disappearance. And he disputes police statements that he was less than cooperative. 

The Levys don’t buy that. They acknowledged a gnawing suspicion that Condit knows more than he’s saying. “As a mother, I can say that,” Susan Levy said. 

The Levys said Condit’s son and campaign manager, Chad, called them a few months ago to ask how the investigation was going. “It was right when the campaign was starting,” Robert Levy said. “He said he wanted to mend fences between the families.” 

There have been no conversations since. 

Condit, abandoned by all but a few Democratic allies, lost the primary in March to former protege Dennis Cardoza, a state assemblyman. The defeat ended Condit’s 30-year election winning streak. 

Police acknowledge they have no idea what happened to Levy; the investigation remains a missing persons case. 

“The Metropolitan Police continue to work the case,” Terrance W. Gainer, Washington’s deputy police chief, said. “Beyond that, we have no leads.” 

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington and the FBI also are involved. A grand jury has been reviewing Levy’s disappearance and whether Condit or his aides obstructed the investigation — an allegation Condit and his aides deny. 

The grand jury subpoenaed documents from Condit last year. Its proceedings are secret, so it’s unclear whether Condit has appeared. 

“We are trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible,” said Channing Phillips, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roscoe Howard. 

Phillips would not say whether Condit was subpoenaed to answer the grand jury’s questions. 

Billy Martin, the Washington attorney representing the Levys, said private investigators he hired continue to uncover promising leads, which have been shared with authorities. 

“We just need a break,” Martin said. “We need somebody to come forward and give us the missing piece of the puzzle.” 

More than a week went by before police searched Levy’s studio apartment near Washington’s Dupont Circle. They found her wallet, credit card, computer and cell phone. Only her keys were missing. 

Police were too late to retrieve the videotape from the security camera that recorded the comings and goings in Levy’s building. It already had been recorded over. 

But after analyzing Levy’s cell phone and her computer, after interviewing neighbors and friends, after talking to Condit four times and searching his Washington apartment, investigators found nothing that brought them any closer to solving the case, Gainer said. 

The Levys try to leave the detective work to others. They prefer to talk about what Chandra might be doing “if this hadn’t occurred,” as her father said. Had she returned to California last May as planned, she might have stayed and gotten a job in government or law enforcement, her two main interests, he said. 

“I heard the FBI is looking for 900 new recruits,” her mother said. “Maybe she’d be doing that.”

A chronology of events in the disappearance of Chandra Levy: 

2001 

— April 30: Levy is last seen at a health club near her apartment in Washington, D.C. 

— May 1: Levy spends much of the morning surfing the Internet, logging off at 1 p.m. It is the last trace of her, police say. 

— May 6: Unable to reach their daughter, Susan and Dr. Robert Levy call Washington police to report her missing. They also call their congressman, Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif. 

— May 10: Condit contributes $10,000 to a reward fund and issues statement calling Levy a “great person and good friend.” A search of Levy’s apartment finds no sign of foul play. 

— May 16: Several news organizations obtain an e-mail, written by Levy in December, in which she talks about an unnamed romantic interest with ties to Congress. Condit aides deny their boss had an affair with Levy. 

— June 21: Susan Levy and Condit, accompanied by lawyers, meet in a Washington hotel. 

— July 2: Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith alleges Condit asked her to sign a declaration denying what she described as a 10-month affair. She also says Condit encouraged her not to talk to investigators looking into Levy’s disappearance. Condit denies asking anyone not to cooperate, but does not dispute the affair. 

— July 6: Levy’s aunt, Linda Zamsky, issues a statement saying Levy told her about an affair with Condit. Later that day, Condit submits to a third police interview during which a source says he admits to a romantic relationship with Levy. 

— July 10: Police and the FBI search Condit’s Washington apartment, with his consent. 

— July 12: Federal prosecutors say they are investigating whether Condit impeded the search for Levy. Condit takes a lie detector test arranged by his lawyer, Abbe Lowell. Lowell later announces the test found Condit was honest when he said he had nothing to do with Levy’s disappearance. 

— Aug. 23: Condit interviewed on ABC, denies any involvement in Levy’s disappearance. 

— Nov. 15: Washington grand jury subpoenas Condit’s telephone message slips, calendars and other documents. 

— Dec. 7: Condit qualifies to run for re-election. 

2002 

— March 5: Condit loses Democratic congressional primary. 

— April 14: Levy’s 25th birthday. 

Berkeley - David Wood, a renowned dancer, choreographer and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who founded the campus's dance program, died on April 21 of complications from Parkinson's disease and muscular dystrophy. He was 77. 

During Wood's career, he served as a rehearsal director and soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He also danced with Alwin Nikolais, José Limón, Doris Humphrey, the Dudley-Maslow Bales Trio, Charles Weidman, and Helen Tamiris. He appeared on television as an actor/dancer, in Broadway musicals, and with the Metropolitan and New York City Opera companies. 

“He was a magnificent jumper and very light on his feet,” said his wife, Marnie Thomas, who worked with him at the Martha Graham Dance Company. “He could take off and hang in the air.” 

Thomas, also a professor of modern dance technique, choreography and dance history, said her husband brought to his field abilities to dance, sing, act and teach. He had a dramatically strong presence on stage and a driving personality as well, she said. 

Born in Fresno, Calif., in 1925, Wood graduated from UC Berkeley on his 20th birthday. On the same day, Wood was commissioned into the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Philadelphia through the end of World War II. 

With support from the GI Bill, he moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he developed a new focus on dance. In 1949, he began his professional dance career as a teacher for, and member of, Hanya Holm's company. 

Wood began his 15-year association with Martha Graham in 1953, performing and touring with her company, along with teaching in her school. Half of that time, he served as rehearsal director for her company. Of the many roles she created for him, Wood probably is best known for his portrayal of the messenger of death in Graham's epic “Clytemnestra.” 

During this period, he was part of the faculty of the High School of Performing Arts and taught each summer at the American Dance Festival in New London, Conn. 

In 1968, he established the dance program at UC Berkeley and founded the Bay Area Repertory Dance resident dance company, BARD, which continues to tour the western U.S. and Europe. 

During his career, he choreographed extensively and taught throughout the United States with major international engagements in Sweden, Mexico, Belgium, Israel and Japan. 

Among his awards, he received the Berkeley Citation and the Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Berkeley; an Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement Award with his wife, Marnie, from the Bay Area community; and two choreography grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

He choreographed in 1988-89 for the Emmy Award-winning NOVA production of “Super Conductivity.” He also authored, “On Angels and Devils and Stages Between: Contemporary Lives in Contemporary Dance,” about his experiences in teaching, dance and choreography. It was published in 1999. He also was an avid gardener and loved to transform wild spaces “into places that were formed and beautiful,” said Thomas, adding that his approach to gardening was not unlike how he felt about dance. 

Wood was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1983 and with Parkinson's disease in 1993, the same year that he retired from teaching. He nevertheless retained a positive outlook on life, Thomas said. “He didn't have a lot of sorrows or regrets; he had had his day,” she said. 

His dances are still being performed, and the University Dance Theater is scheduled to perform his “After Dusk” in matinee performances at the Zellerbach Playhouse at UC Berkeley on April 27-28. 

He is survived by his wife, Marnie Thomas; daughters, Marina Marlowe-Wood of San Mateo, Calif., Raegan Sanders of Montclair, N.J., and Ellis Wood of New York City; sisters, Phyllis Anne Tidyman and Barbara Crockett; and five grandchildren. 

The family welcomes contributions to the David Wood Endowment, c/o of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, 101 Dwinelle Annex, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-2560. Checks should be written to the UC Berkeley Foundation - Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. Memorial services will be private.  

OAKLAND, Calif. — Doris Goodday Hoffmann, an Alzheimer’s patient who put a face on the devastating disease in her daughter’s Oscar-nominated film, has died. She was 94. 

Hoffmann died Tuesday at a nursing home from complications related to Alzheimer’s. Her daughter, filmmaker Deborah Hoffmann, spent many years documenting her descent into dementia. 

“You read things like this disease would rob people of their humanity, and I was not finding that to be the case. I wanted to make something different than what was out there,” Deborah Hoffmann said of her inspiration to make the 1994 film, “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter.” 

The film won more than 30 international awards, including a Peabody and Emmy, and became an important work for doctors, patients and family members trying to understand and cope with the disease. 

Hoffmann focused on her mother’s cheerfulness and goofiness, showing millions of viewers around the world her obsessions with constantly eating bananas and hiding boxes of cookies around her apartment. 

Hoffmann was born in San Francisco and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1930 and later a master’s degree in social work at Columbia University. 

She is survived by her daughter, as well as a son, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Veritas Software Corp., one of the world’s top-selling software makers, always seemed to take a back seat to other high-tech heavyweights — until Sept. 11. 

After that fateful day, Veritas had little trouble persuading businesses of the need to protect crucial data and guard against system crashes — the work of its software storage and backup products. 

“We came through with flying colors,” Chairman Gary Bloom said. 

Veritas recovered all the data for all 112 customers affected in New York and Washington, D.C. and people have since packed the company’s disaster recovery seminars. 

The Mountain View-based company has used the seminars to sign up more business customers for consulting services — deals Bloom hopes will lead to more software sales. 

The surge in business after Sept. 11 capped another year of growth for Veritas at a time when most other large high-tech companies shrank. Veritas’ revenue rose 24 percent last year to $1.49 billion. 

Based on sales, Veritas ranks as the world’s seventh-largest software company, behind Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Computer Associates, PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems. 

All of those software giants have built more widely known brands than Veritas, a factor that helps those firms make even more sales, said industry analyst Ray Paquet of Gartner Inc. in Lowell, Mass. 

“Your name certainly doesn’t have to be on the tips of people’s tongues to make lots of money but if you have good visibility, it can help you open a lot more doors,” Paquet said. 

It’s a factor Bloom is acutely aware of — and something he intends to change beginning at Veritas’ customer conference in Dallas, which runs through Thursday. 

“We have never really done a lot of hand-waving,” Bloom said. “Now we want it be known that we are an industry powerhouse right up there with the Microsofts and Oracles of the world.” 

Bloom will be assisted by Jeremy Burton, who helped Oracle elevate its brand during the last few years. 

A senior vice president at Oracle, Burton was recently lured away by Bloom to become Veritas’ chief marketing officer. Bloom himself spent 14 years at Oracle, where he was one of CEO Larry Ellison’s right-hand men. 

Bloom, 41, learned a lot about marketing from the hyperbolic Ellison, although he says he will never be as flamboyant as his former boss. 

Nor is Bloom likely to become as rich as Ellison, one of the world’s wealthiest men. 

Bloom, though, made a substantial fortune while at Oracle. 

In his last year at the Redwood Shores-based database giant, Bloom cashed in stock options worth $20.5 million. He also collected a $1.8 million paycheck from Veritas last year and received 1 million stock options that will be worth $62.9 million in four years, if the shares appreciate by an average of 10 percent annually. 

Veritas reminds Bloom of Oracle during the days when most people didn’t realize how crucial the database company’s software had become. 

“Oracle’s software plays a role in running so many different things, but at one time it had a very underdeveloped brand. I see a similar DNA at Veritas,” said Bloom, who left Oracle to become Veritas’ chief executive nearly 18 months ago. 

Veritas is the dominant player in backup and recovery software, ending last year with a 41 percent share of a $1.6 billion market, according to Gartner. 

The company’s market share rose from 31 percent at the end of 2000. Its closest competitors are IBM at 21 percent and Legato Systems at 8 percent, Gartner said. 

With demand rising for Veritas’ products, the company added 800 workers last year and hired another 112 during the first three months of this year. 

Although Veritas’ recent growth rate has outpaced most major tech companies, its stock has been caught in the same severe downdraft that has ravaged the rest of the industry. 

Since the end of 2000, Veritas’ stock has plummeted by 69 percent to $27.31 as of April 25, wiping out $23 billion in shareholder wealth. 

The latest blow came in mid-April when Veritas reported a first-quarter operating profit of $66 million on revenue of $370 million, slightly lower than the same time last year but slightly above Wall Street’s expectations. 

Bloom unnerved investors by warning that Veritas’ second-quarter sales will be lower than the first quarter’s and declined to make any predictions for the second half because of the muddled state of corporate technology budgets. 

The conservative outlook prompted analyst Shebly Seyrafi of A.G. Edwards to back off his prediction that Veritas’ stock could soon be worth $60 per share. 

Seyrafi now thinks $45 per share is a more attainable target, although he thinks the company still has a good chance to increase sales by about 30 percent annually for at least several more years. 

Veritas also figures to face more competition from hardware giants such as Sun Microsystems and EMC, which are invading the company’s turf with their own software products. 

Bloom views the challenge as further validation of Veritas’ rising importance. He remains confident that Veritas’ latest annual report will be the last to include this line: 

“Veritas Software has been called the most successful software company nobody has ever heard of.”

UC Berkeley has suspended Students for Justice in Palestine while officials investigate the group’s April 9 takeover of Wheeler Hall. 

Under the terms of the suspension the group, which has called on the university to divest from Israel, will lose certain privileges – including the ability to reserve rooms for meetings and set up a table on Sproul Plaza at the heart of the campus. 

“We think this is a specific attack on activists and free speech,” said Snehal Shingavi, an SJP leader. Shingavi said the move was particularly disturbing on a campus with a history of student activism. 

“This is Berkeley, for goodness sake,” he said. 

“In no way are we trying to silence the group or individuals,” replied Dean of Students Karen Kenney, noting that SJP members will still have the right to speak out and distribute leaflets during the suspension. 

See SUSPEND/Page 34 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest. 

SUSPEND/From Page 1 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest. 

To the Editor: 

I am becoming a citizen of this country which is really exciting because this is a time of big changes.  

More than anywhere else I know good changes happen in this country because people are active. Here I learned how democracy works and I'm honored to be a part of it.  

The problem that concerns all of us more than anything is energy. 

I think that dirty energy is the root of all environmental problems. It affects our air, water, and soil.  

What will we have left? Now we have an excellent opportunity to at least double the amount of clean energy by the year 2010.  

It's our first duty to make this happen, which means to support Senate Bill 532. Everybody should encourage their representatives to vote for this bill. That will be a responsible step of a citizen who cares about their family, the country, and the world.  

- Anastassia Shaitarova 

Berkeley 

They are three unlikely stars of American letters – their unsteady, vulnerable voices can be heard through their writing and on the radio – but David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and David Rakoff are the crowned triumvirate of humor prose. Their published memoirs wrought with witty failure and anxiety have charmed and amused the in-crowd. 

At some point in their creative and professional life, each of the three discovered the most rewarding things they could write about are themselves. Their work has appeared in a variety of print and on-line magazines catering to first-person essays, and their most significant claim to fame has been their regular appearances on the public radio program “This American Life.” On Monday, April 29 they will be reading and speaking for the already sold-out audience at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. 

That these people can write well is evident in their books; the question of whether they can speak well is another issue. Their appearance on a public radio program is anomalous, considering Sedaris’ high-pitched whine, Vowell’s low, droning delivery, and Rakoff’s brittle sarcasm make them ill suited in the public radio tradition of warm, earnest tones. But “This American Life” and it’s ringleader Ira Glass have been striving to lower pubic radio down from its own lofty petard, and the dry irony of these three writers and their unique voices are instrumental to that end. 

The star of the show is headliner David Sedaris, whose best-selling collections “Barrel Fever,” “Naked,” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day” have made him a literary celebrity. Once a professional housecleaner by trade, a North Carolina transplant in Paris via Manhattan, a one-time Santa’s helper, Sedaris’ writings create an image of a pitiable man profoundly out of synch with his surroundings. He so gracefully stitches together the ugly and idiotic antics human beings are prone to, so sparkling is his own defacement, that authenticity is called into question. While reading “Me Talk Pretty One Day” one cannot help but wonder, while chuckling, if his sister really wore padded “fat pants” home for Thanksgiving, or if his redneck brother really greets his aging  

father with a hearty slap on the back and an affectionate, "How are ya, Bitch?" 

His first book, "Barrel Fever," does include pieces of short fiction, but even if all details aren’t the gospel truth his adventures in the strange and the mundane eke out humor from bizarre habits and banal eccentricities. Bathroom adventures included. During a "This American Life" broadcast he related a story from his youth during a Greek summer camp, wherein his pre-adolescent social awkwardness did not allow him to empty his bowels for weeks. Eating in the mess hall, he said, was like "packing a musket." In "Me Talk Pretty One Day" an entire essay, "Big Boy," is about trying to discretely flush "…this long coiled specimen, as thick as a burrito." 

In the essay "A Shiner Like A Diamond," Sedaris writes that his nonplussed father says to him, "What you don’t know could fill a book," and that’s just what Sedaris seems to have done. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" chronicles his inability to teach a writing class, to learn French, to do crossword puzzles, to draw upon an interesting childhood for inspiration (the memoirist tells us "…compared to [his boyfriend] Hugh’s, my childhood was unspeakably dull"), and, amazingly, to speak. From a speech impediment in the fifth grade to his leaden-tongued French, the man who owes his popularity in some degree to his appearance on a syndicated radio program admits his voice is no great shakes, really. 

The voice of Sarah Vowell is not a dollop of honey, either. The young writer who works as a contributing editor on "This American Life," and whose cynical, colloquial prose has been published as "Take The Cannoli" has the voice of a bad hangover. Her grouchy, unenthused delivery has spread the post-hip "This American Life" sound to an array of disaffected imitators.  

Her writing is closest of the three to the spirit of the radio show’s title. Vowell’s essays are often personal struggles to come to terms with the state of American life and how it evolved. Many of the writings in "Take The Cannoli" are investigations of the state of the American timeline, with one hand clutching historical reverence and the other reaching out for cheeseburgers and radio-friendly pop songs. Dashing between glib irony and sober history lessons (see "Michigan and Wacker" – a history of American as seen from a Chicago intersection, or "What I See When I Look At The Face On The $20 Bill") Vowell strikes a note of apology when she admits to crave the pap of pop culture in the middle of her well-informed cultural observations. 

"I’m a meaning junkie," she writes. Her essays have a relentlessly seeking quality, and to read them is to witness her brain stretching to eke out significance from every experience. And while that sometimes makes for interesting writing, it makes her, by her own admission, and irritating travel companion. "I can’t go for more than a few miles without agonizing and picking apart every symbolic nuance of every fact at my disposal." 

From Oklahoma and coming up through Bozeman, Montana and later San Francisco, Vowell’s vision of American is informed by historical curiosity and the ache of a restless country girl. She sets off to stand on the places where, like oracles, the seeds of our culture have spoken: the Chelsea Hotel in New York, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra (Hoboken, NJ), the Sicily of Martin Scorcese, the genocide along the Cherokee’s Trail of Tears, and Walt Disney World. 

Vowell visited Walt Disney World with her friend and stage partner David Rakoff, and the experience comes up in both of their writings. The factory of mouse-ear skullcaps is easy prey for jaded pot shots by culturati, but both Vowell and Rakoff eventually come to a sidelong appreciation for the land that Mickey built.  

See SEDARIS/Page 22 

Like Vowell, Rakoff’s essays are often personal accounts of his travels, but unlike his friend Rakoff is an accidental tourist. The urban, gay, Jewish Manhattanite is constantly going to places where he will feel most uncomfortable and disoriented. 

Preparing to go mountain climbing on Christmas Day, an activity causing him no little consternation, he fixes his ire on his new hiking boots. "I have come to hate these Timberlands with a fervor I usually reserve for people." His cold cynicism produces streams of snide insults and dismissive eye-rolling which is carried in his droll, world-weary voice one comes to expect from an urban, gay, Jewish Manhattanite. 

The title of his collection of writing, "Fraud," is explained in the first essay when he admits the central drama of his life is being a fraud, and then immediately rescinds the remark: "Actually, the central drama in my life is being lonely and staying thin, but fraudulence gets a fair amount of play." With a taste for Xanax and kitsch – as long as it’s ironic (pillows embroidered with golfing slogans must be presented with a wink) – Rakoff is not so biting or so fraudulent as to miss the fascinating and the sublime. 

During a week-long Buddhist retreat for mostly white, mostly middle-aged New-Agers, hosted by questionably authentic Buddhist Steven Segal (star of the action films "Marked For Death" and "Exit Wounds") Rakoff takes time to admire the actual intelligence and humor of the retreat’s ego-centric master. The Christmas Day mountain climbing adventure, after much fretting with his country hosts ("I have very little patience for what is generally labeled ‘charming’"), culminates in a lengthy appreciation for the beauty of unabridged nature; a New Yorker standing on a summit: "the air is clear and cold as vodka." 

While American culture is not wanting in irony and cynicism, nor self-indulgence, these three first-person writers strive, and sometimes succeed, at uncovering their own dualities and vulnerabilities cowering underneath the snappy punch lines capping the ends of their paragraphs. That flicker of warmth in their flawed voices has contributed to their popularity. 

“Diva Ladee Chico” Apr. 27: 9:30 p.m., Thunder and Lightning. $15 - $20. Roundtree’s Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum & Restaurant, 2618 San Pablo Ave., 225-1445 

“An American Tune” May 5: 3 p.m., A work presented by Cantare Chorale, Cantare Chamber Ensemble and Cantare Samaritan Singers. $15 - $22. First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant St., 655-5117 

“Symphony Concert” May 9: 8 p.m., Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performs works by Schubert, Boulez, Wysocki, and Bruckner. $27 - $45, $10 students. Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft between Telegraph and Dana, 841-2800 

“A Tribute to Mahilia Jackson” May 12: 2 p.m., Joshua Nelson, Emmit Powell & The Gospel Elites, The Bay Area Super Choir, and Elder Eric Claybon & Reign. $20- $25. Parks Chapel A.M.E. Church, 476 34th St., Oakland, 654-8758 

“World Dance Salon” Apr. 27: 8 p.m., Chhandam School of Kathak, Fat Chance Belly Dance, and Ka Ua Tuahine Polynesian Dance Company. Free. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

“Buddha, The Path of Light” Apr. 28: Jyoti Kala Mandir presents a classical Indian dance drama in the Odissi style. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 415-974-4313, www.jyotikalamandir.org 

“Pericles, Prince of Tyre” Through May 4: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., William Shakespeare’s tale of lost hopes and love regained. Directed by Jon Wai-keung Lowe. $14. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, 234-6046. 

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Apr. 12 through May 11: Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Eugene O’Neill’s story of the Tyrone family. Directed by Jean-Marie Apostolides. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., 528-5620, www.actorsensembleofberkeley.com.  

“Homebody/Kabul” Apr. 24 - June 23: Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Tony Kushner’s play about a women who disappears in Afghanistan and the husband and daughter’s attempts to find her. $38-$54. Call ahead for times, 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“Re: Figuration” May 10 through Jun. 8: A two-person exhibition by Jody Sears and Michele Ramirez. S ears presents sculpture made from wood, and Ramirez showcases her paintings of Oakland, its streets, people and geography. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Marion Brenner: The Subtle Life of Plants and People” Through May 26: An exhibition of approximately 60 long-exposure black and white photographs of plants and people. $3 - $6. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Museums 

Oakland Museum of California “33rd Annual California Wildflower Show” An exhibition featuring native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free children age 5 and under. May 11: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., May 12: 12 - 5 p.m. 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under.

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

2315 Durant Ave.  

“Bio-Diversity” John Harte, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley. $1. 848-3533. 

Ladyfest Bay Area Presents:  

Ladies Love Trannys 

Featuring such films as “it’s a Boy!”, Life’s a Butch” along with other groundbreaking Trannyfest works centered around the theme of ladies and their multi-faceted love affairs with transgender folks. 

Doors open 7:30 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. 

Artists’ Television Access 

992 Valencia Street, San Francisco 

Tickets $7-$25 (sliding scale) 

For further information: 415-672-0518 or www.ladyfestbayarea.org 

Live Afro-Latino Hip-Hop 

9 p.m. 

Elbo Room 

647 Valencia St, San Francisco 

$8 

O Music Where Art Thou? 

A benefit for the Albany School District Music Program. The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, Laurie Lewis with Nina Gerber, Bluegrass Intentions 

7:30 p.m. (box office opens at 6:30 p.m.) 

Albany High School Gym 

603 Key Route Blvd. 

Albany 

510-559-8474, ehecht@pacbell.net 

Adults $20, 18 and under $10 

Best Road Trips in the USA 

Join author Jaimie Jensen for a slide presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

510-527-4140 

Free 

Saturday, April 27

The New School International Family Fair & Raffle 

Capoeira Demonstration, African Dance, Ballet Folklorico, The New School Blues Review and more 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

1606 Bonita St. 

Berkeley 

510-548-9165 

Free 

City Planning and  

Architecture Job Fair 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

UCBerkeley campus, Pauley balloom in the MLK Jr. Student Center 

The leading firms in the business will host presntations about open positions and conduct informational interviews. Open to public. $5. UCBerkeley students free. 

For more information contact Kay Bock at 510-643-9440 or email kbock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

It's a "MALO" 30 Year  

Reunion!  

With Arcelio Garcia, Jr., Jorge Santana, Richard Bean, Pablo Tellez and others!  

A Benefit for Mission High School of San Francisco.  

7 to 11 p.m. 

Mission High School, located at 18th & Dolores Street. 

$15 balcony, $25 the floor 

(415) 206-0577 Latin Zone Productions 

Great Local Adventures 

Ruth Tretbar favorite local haunts 

1 p.m. FREE 

REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley 

527-4140 

Free 

Word Beat Reading Series 

7-9 p.m. 

458 Perkins at Grand, Oakland 

Poets, writers, comedians, singers and storytellers al come together for this free show. Featuring “Fresh Ink” 

For more information: 510-526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat 

Annual Open Mike Poetry  

Reading 

2-4 p.m. 

Arts Magnet School Poetry Garden 

Milvia and Lincold Streets, Berkeley 

All welcome to read a favorite poem or sit back and enjoy. Free. 

For information contact srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu 

Ideas in Animation 

Nik Phelps & The Sprocket Ensemble 

Original Live Music to new Animation & Independent Film 

2 p.m. 

Amoeba Music 

1855 Haight St. 

San Francisco  

Free 

Children’s Movies 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 

Shows at noon & 2 p.m. 

The Actor’s Studio 

3521 Maybelle Ave. 

Oakland 

510-530-0551 

$3 

7th Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Conference & Awards Program 

9 a.m.- 5 p.m. 

James Moore Theater 

Oakland Museum 

1000 Oak St. (at 10th) 

Oakland 

510-638-7688 or e-mail tfoch2000@yahoo.com 

$45 & $12 for lunch 

Disaster First Aid Emergency Preparedness Class. 

Learn how to take care of yourself before the disaster. 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar Street 

Berkeley 

to register: 510-981-5605 

Tango Lesson 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, North Branch 

1170 The Alameda 

Members of BATango will present a free lecture, demonstration and lesson. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org.bpl 

Low-Cost Hatha Yoga Class 

10 a.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center 

1720 8th St. 

$6 per class. 981-6651. 

COPWATCH: Know Your  

Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office 

2022 Blake St. 

Learn what your rights are when dealing when the police and FBI. Learn how 

to observe the police on the street and during protests. 548-0425. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Events: What's That Smell? 

National Sense of Smell Day  

Hands-on activities 

* Discovering how smell helps small animals 

* Identifying the smells of various foods and household items 

* Creating a potpourri to take home 

* Tasting jelly beans - with noses blocked and open 

* Investigating how dinosaurs used their sense of smell  

12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 

LHS- Jurassic Park: The Life  

and Death of Dinosaurs 

Through May 12 

Were they gone in a flash? Or did climate changes, disease, and/or overpopulation gradually bring the reign of dinosaurs to an end? We're still asking, theorizing, and dramatizing what happened to these creatures. 

The exhibit features models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the films; an 8' by 10' hands-on dig pit where parts of an Albertosaurus and Dromaeosaurs are buried; and more than 30 skeletons and parts, including fossils that visitors can touch. This is one of the largest collection of traveling dinosaurs ever assembled.  

$8 for adults; $6 for youth 5-18, seniors, and disabled; $4 for children 3-4. 

Free for children under 3, LHS Members and full-time UC Berkeley students. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Centennial Drive-above the UC Berkeley campus 

Parking is 50¢/hour. 

LHS is accessible by AC Transit 

and the UC Berkeley Shuttle 

Hybrid Adobe building Seminar & Sculpture Workshop 

Learn how to make Hybrid Adobe at a sustainable building seminar 

11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Fort Mason 

Room C260 

San Francisco 

info and registration: 415-776-9800 or 831-648-3539 

Also hands-on workshop on Sunday in San Anselmo  

Call for fees and further info 

Yellowjacket boys, Gaucho girls win  

Berkeley High and El Cerrito High split Thursday’s ACCAL track meet down the middle, with Berkeley winning the boys’ side easily and the Gauchos squeaking out a win from the girls’. Richmond and De Anza also took part in the meet. 

The ’Jackets won every event they entered on the boys’ side. Stephon Brooks, a state finalist in the 400 last season, ran his first league races for Berkeley on Thursday, winning the 200 and 400 and running the opening leg on Berkeley’s winning 4x100-meter relay. The relay win came despite a botched handoff between Sean Young and Craig Hollis, with Hollis leaving early and Young being forced to sprawl out to get his teammate the baton. The ’Jackets won the race by a slim .4 of a second margin. Young recovered from the spill to win the 100 and finish second behind Brooks in the 200. 

Brooks, who trains with his father, didn’t show any ill effects of not competing for most of the season. Berkeley head coach Darrell Hampton said Brooks should be in the thick of things at the state meet again this season. 

“Stephon finally got his grades straight, so I’m happy to have him back,” Hampton said. “He’s a threat to go to state in a couple of different events.” 

Berkeley dominated the distance events despite their runners taking it easy. Their top runners will compete in the Top 8 Invitational at Stanford this weekend, so Alex Enscoe, Spencer Hall and Nic Riley only ran in the 800 on Thursday, finishing in that order to sweep the event. Berkeley also took the top three spots in the 1,600 and Bradley Johnson won the 3,200. 

El Cerrito’s lone victories came from Jason Tom, who was the only varsity runner in either hurdle race. The final tally was Berkeley 73, El Cerrito 44. Richmond and De Anza both scored three points. 

Berkeley’s girls were handicapped by the late arrival of Rebekah Payne. One of Northern California’s top sprinters, Payne didn’t have time to warm up and competed only in the shotput, which she won. 

Payne would have faced stiff competition from El Cerrito, however, in the form of Ashley Lodree and Monique Coleman. Lodree is one of the best high school hurdlers in the country and won both events on Thursday with no opposition. Coleman won both the 100 and 200 in fast times, so Payne was by no means assured of winning any events. But even second-place finishes in three races could have given the meet to the ’Jackets. But Hampton said he’s not taking any risks with his top female performer. 

“Rebekah got here too late to warm up, and there’s no sense in taking a chance on an injury at this point in the season,” Hampton said. 

Berkeley did get wins in the 400, 1,600 and 3,200, and Joy Broussard won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump, but El Cerrito’s dominance in the sprints and hurdles was enough to give the Gauchos a 58-50 win over Berkeley. Richmond finished third with five points, with De Anza claiming three points.

The Board of Education tangled with activists over the multi-million dollar maintenance budget and tabled a change in the hiring process for principals at its Wednesday night meeting. 

Members of the maintenance advisory committee, a citizen group that advises the board, presented a draft of their annual report and argued that the district has made little progress despite a substantial increase in maintenance expenditures this year. 

“It’s very frustrating for the employees and the faculty and staff of the schools,” said Stephanie Allan, a committee member. 

Committee figures suggest a $2 million increase in maintenance expenditures this year, but district officials said they have not verified that figure. 

See SCHOOLS/Page 34 

Committee chair Yolanda Huang said the district has failed to provide proper training and support for custodians, and is months behind schedule in hiring new skilled trades staff. She said hiring delays could threaten the district’s summer maintenance plan. 

“I think we can all agree that things aren’t moving as rapidly as we would like,” replied board member Ted Schultz. “(But) we are making progress in hiring.” 

Lew Jones, manager of facilities planning, said the process for hiring public employees is unavoidably slow but that he expects new tradesmen to be in place by June or July. 

Huang also charged that the district is underutilizing its system for processing work orders. 

“We need to make that system work a lot better,” Jones acknowledged. He said two new office staff members should be on board by June, allowing for better use of the system. 

Jones added that the district has made significant progress in several areas this year – purchasing six new vehicles, going out to bid on largescale playground repairs and launching quarterly inspections of fire alarms and sprinkler systems. 

Jones said those inspections are required by law and that the district, long out of compliance, is now up to snuff. 

Huang and the maintenance committee have long clashed with the board, and board President Shirley Issel castigated the committee for the tone of the Wednesday presentation. 

“I continue to be distressed by the kind of adversarial approach that the maintenance advisory committee is taking with the board,” she said. 

Issel, joined by board members Joaquin Rivera and John Selawsky, said the committee should have presented the board with recommendations, not just criticism. 

Huang replied that the committee has repeatedly made recommendations, only to be ignored by the board. 

Principal hiring process 

The district faces principal vacancies at Berkeley High School, Longfellow Middle School and Rosa Parks Elementary School next year. 

Associate Superintendent for Instruction Chris Lim, filling in for Superintendent Michele Lawrence, asked the board to approve a waiver on its current policy for hiring principals Wednesday night. 

Under Lawrence’s proposal, there would be three screening committees, rather than one. The first committee, composed of staff and community members, would screen resumes and referrals. The second committee, composed mostly of staff, would review candidates’ knowledge of budgeting and educational theory. The final committee, composed mostly of community members, would analyze applicants’ people skills and community involvement. 

Each committee would score the job seekers. The superintendent would interview the top candidates and make recommendations to the board. 

Board members tabled the proposal Wednesday because it lacked specifics about the number of teachers, community members and district staff on the committees. 

“As a board member, it is my responsibility that whenever I approve something I know the details,” said Rivera. 

Lawrence, in a Thursday interview, said she would “resist” naming specific numbers of community or staff members, arguing that flexibility is important to account for absences and illnesses. 

Aroner bill 

Lawrence was absent Wednesday night because she was in Sacramento lobbying for legislation authored by Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, that would forgive a $1.1 million fine the district owes the state and pour the money into consulting services for the Berkeley schools. 

The bill, which would support reform in five areas – pupil achievement, fiscal management, facilities management, personnel management, and governance – sailed through the Assembly’s education committee on a unanimous vote and will appear before the appropriations committee in two weeks. 

The Assembly must vote on the bill by May 31. The state Senate will then have June, July and August to consider and vote on the legislation.

To the Editor: 

An article you published on April 17th, 2002, told how the two oil giants, Shell Oil Co. and Lyondell Chemical Co., were aware of the hazards of the chemical MTBE (a defective product) yet continued to keep it on the market. This highlights the problems with California's current energy strategy. We can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels from the Middle East and other areas, create jobs, and secure our energy future by using our technological know-how to develop newer, cleaner sources of energy.  

Currently only 10 percent of California's energy comes from clean, renewable resources although the potential for wind, solar, and geothermal power is many times greater than that. California decision-makers should commit to doubling our use of renewables to 20 percent of all power generation by 2010. Studies have shown that such a move would boost the state's economy by the addition of 18,000 new jobs and over $7.8 billion in taxes, according to a recent report done by the California Energy Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute. Not only that but a 20 percent by 2010 standard would most likely save consumers millions of dollars on their power bills by steering us away from natural gas price spikes. 

Now that decision-makers can think about our energy future outside of crisis mode, it's time for an energy policy that builds our economy and cleans up our air simultaneously. Let's promote clean, renewable energy. 

- Lauren Perlman 

Fremont

The calamity of September 11 has unleashed a flurry of books – both old and new – that seek to explain the intricacies of the volatile region to a hungry public. Gilles Kepel, author of “Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam”, will discuss his own historical viewpoint tonight at 7:30 at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue. 

A Professor of Middle East Studies at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, and the author of six books, Kepel’s talk will be preceded by an introduction from UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor Lawrence Michalak, also the Vice-Chair for Middle Eastern Studies.  

Originally published in French in 2000 but updated after the September 11th attacks, Kepel spent five years researching the material for “Jihad.” The book is an historical examination into the cultivation of Islamic fundamentalism in the modern era, tracing its rise in the 1960s to its apparent fall in the 1990s. Writing in the introduction that “September 11 was an attempt to reverse a process in decline,” Kepel argues that the kind of radical Islamism espoused by Osama bin Laden and the Ayatollah Khomeini ultimately failed to triumph broadly in the Islamic world due to a breakdown of the interests among its various groups when political power was not gained. 

“The issue in the book is that the movement was strong over the last 30 years, when it was able to mobilize simultaneously different social groups,” Kepel said in a telephone interview before a lecture at UCLA. “On the one hand, the young urban poor, the disenfranchised who had moved from the countryside to the cities, on the other side the pious bourgeoisie people. And as a yeast to provide the ideology which would bring them together (were) the Islamist intellectuals, whether they be the clerics or radical ideologues.”  

The purpose of the book is to try to understand why for instance – Iran being the case in point - the Islamist movements managed to seize power and engineer a revolution, whereas in other cases such as Algeria, in spite of the fact that they had succeeded in their early phase to mobilize a number of people… they at the end of the day did not manage to seize power and were beaten by the military.” 

Kepel asserts that September 11th was not so much a brash assault by a rising group as it was a last ditch attempt by radical Islamists to galvanize a movement that had lost its resonance with its key constituencies. Kepel insists that those attacks failed because they failed to unite the Muslim world in a struggle against the West the way the radicals had hoped. 

See JIHAD/Page 24 

“So my contention is that when they divide - when the radicals go their way and the bourgeoisie moderates go the other - than the movement is not in a position where it is capable of seizing power. Hence, that leads the radicals into a track which is more and more violent over time,” Kepel explains. 

“The ebbing and flowing of the movement over the last three decades had lead to a splitting of that movement nowadays that it is less able to engineer political organization. That leads to the fact that they are still there but they are split and the radicals of the movement say they have leeway to be more and more radical.” 

El Cerrito volleyball completes season sweep over Berkeley 

The Berkeley High boys’ volleyball team was under-manned and overpowered on Thursday against El Cerrito, falling in straight games, 15-6, 15-4, 15-3. 

The games were actually closer than the scores would indicate, but the Gauchos’ high-powered offense kept the ’Jackets from capitalizing on numerous serving opportunities. Michael Gonzalez, last year’s ACCAL MVP, led the way with 15 kills, including seven in both the first and third games. But unlike Berkeley’s one-dimensional offense, El Cerrito has several other big hitters, preventing defenses from keying on Gonzalez. 

“You start seeing the ball coming in that fast from that many different positions, you can’t help but be intimidated,” Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway said. “We’re just not ready to play at that level. We practice at that level occasionally, but we just aren’t used to seeing the ball hit that hard.” 

The one exception to that is Berkeley junior Robin Roach. Roach had 16 kills and just two hitting errors on Thursday, a far cry from his meager output of six kills in the teams’ first meeting. Roach, who had been frustrated by his teammates’ mistakes earlier this season, was more commanding on the court than in the past, a change Caraway sees as a positive sign. 

“For a player who’s been a captain for two years, he’s not been as vocal as I would like,” Caraway said. “But he’s finally taken on that leadership responsibility that goes with being the best player.” 

Roach also had three blocks and 18 digs against the Gauchos, but his outstanding effort wasn’t even close to enough. Outside hitter Sam Fuller had three kills and no other ’Jacket had more than one, not the kind of production that will take the opposition’s focus off of Roach. The pattern was clear: Roach would slam a kill for a side out, but the Gauchos would get serve back with a kill and run off three or four points before the ’Jackets could get the ball back to Roach. 

“Our ball control is just horrendous, has been all year,” Caraway said. “The first contact is killing us every time. Teams find our weakest passer and take advantage.” 

NOTES: Berkeley’s junior varsity nearly pulled a huge upset, losing to El Cerrito 15-6, 7-15, 14-16. The ’Jackets were up 14-10 in the last game but couldn’t find a way to score the point to win the match. Caraway was pleased with the junior varsity’s progress. 

“That match will be a learning experience for those guys,” he said.

Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocay (BOAA) held a vigil last night before UC Berkeley’s Northwest Animal Facility to protest the use of animals for experimentation. Clutching signs and candles, the black-clad protesters stood in silence along Oxford St. between Hearst and Berkeley streets while campus police video-taped the scene.  

The two-hour silent vigil was intended to mourn animals used in scientific research and draw attention to live animal experimentation at UC Berkeley. 

See ANIMALS/Page 34 

“We’re trying to do something a little different then your normal protest,” said BOAA faciltator Christine Morrissey. “We’ve set the tone to be very solemn and mourn the dead animals that have come out of this school. At the same time, we want to promote alternatives to animal research,” she said. 

Demonstrators handed out flyers describing alternative methods to animal research as well as peaceful measures people could take to promote change. Research alternatives cited include in vitro research, bacterial/viral/fungus sampling, autopsy, physical models, mathematical modeling, genetic and clinical research as viable alternatives. The UC has already adopted the in vitro method for antibody production. 

The consensus in all sectors seems to be in favor of substituting new technologies in place of using lab animals, but the feasability and timeline for doing so remain unclear. “People don’t want to [frivolously] use animals for research. Researchers have pets at home and develop strong feelings toward the animals they study,” says Dr. Helen Diggs, a director at UC Berkeley’s Animal Care Facility. “People only use animals for research because they are essential to research. As the scientific community discovers legitimate alternatives to using animals, we embrace them.” 

Diggs cites the UC’s adoption of the in-vitro model of antibody production over the past five years as having spared many live mice, and says she looks forward to similar alternatives. “I think in time we’ll have more success finding alternatives,” says Diggs. “That’s where the BOAA group comes in--they have to encourage young people to get into these fields, get into the labs, and contribute. Don’t just scream at us, come help us find alternatives,” she says. 

See ANIMALS/Page 34 

In Defense of Animals, a non-profit group based in Mill Valley, Ca., has been participating in an ongoing dialogue with BOAA reps and Diggs, who is representing the UC on animal rights issues. “Essentially, we want to work with the UC rather than be adverserial, so we can really advance what’s going on in the research community,” said Erin Williams, communications director at IDA. Williams says there are many existing technologies that can be substituted for live animals, but that the UC has yet to commit funds for their adoption. “Traditionally, new research technologies are underfunded and underutilized. We are trying to work with the university to get them to commit to a gradual, quantifiable reallocation of funds from animal research to non-animal technologies,” she said.  

Though not necessarily driven by compassion, even the business sector has moved toward more humane testing. Companies that sell animals and technologies for testing have shown a significant trend toward cutting down on the percentage of live animals shipped out in favor of cheaper and more efficient non-animal testing technologies. Massachussetts-based Charles Rivers Laboratories, the biggest lab-animal provider in the nation, has seen the lab-animal portion of their business shrink from 80 percent to 40 percent over the last five years, according to a recent article in the Boston Globe. 

BOAA is also calling for the immediate ceasure of using primates for research, but Diggs says that’s not possible. “We can’t just stop the research in progress,” Diggs says. “With primate research, we just can’t suddenly stop working on studies that are having a definite impact on human medicine and having a definite biomedical impact. There’s work going on that needs to continue.” Diggs says they need to find and validate alternatives to using any species for study, and that singling out primates is not constructive. “That’s a form of speciesism,” she says.  

Both the Berkeley City Council and the ASUC (student union) have endorsed BOAA’s requests to the UC. 

In addition, two initiatives have been placed on the upcoming ASUC ballot. One asks for a 5% reduction in animal research by the university, and the second requests that the UC provide alternatives for science students who don’t want to participate in animal dissection. The university currently allows students to opt out of dissections, but has yet to provide an alternative. 

Asked what’s next for BOAA, Morrissey says that though they have had positive discussion with the University through Diggs, their goal now is to try and get a meeting with Chancellor himself, as only he can affect policy change. 

E-mail reporter Jamie Luck at jamie@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

To the Editor: 

I write in dissent from what seems to be a growing bipartisan chorus favoring high-rise redevelopment as a means to increased amounts of affordable housing, reduced traffic congestion, greater social diversity, etc. 

The April 24 letter by Steve Geller is only the most recently presented of many recent arguments along such lines. 

In theory, more density might produce the benefits so frequently touted of late, but has it worked that way in actual practice elsewhere, and if so, how readily might such experiences be replicated in Berkeley? 

I am skeptical, to say the least. 

It seems to me that if more people want to live in Berkeley than the city can accommodate, the solution should be to build more new communities like Berkeley, not to alter the one we already have.  

To even consider building new Berkeleys probably requires some long and hard thinking about many other matters including Alaskan oil, SUVs, gasoline taxes and railroad infrastructure. 

To devote more attention to broad issues which are both outside Berkeley but also relevant to Berkeley's future would probably be worthwhile, before rushing to flood our downtown with cranes and construction crews. 

- Drew Keeling 

Berkeley 

Friday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 2:30 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Joseph, 3:30 p.m. at St. Joseph High 

Softball – Berkeley vs. Richmond, 3:30 p.m. at Richmond High 

Swimming – Berkeley vs. Alameda, 3:30 p.m. at Willard Pool 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. College Prep, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Saturday 

Track & Field – Cal Open, 9:30 a.m. at Edwards Stadium 

Women’s Lacrosse – Cal vs. Stanford, 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond 

Football – Cal Spring Game, 2 p.m. at Memorial Stadium 

Softball – Cal vs. Washington, 2 p.m. at Levine-Fricke Field 

Crew – Berkeley vs. Oakland Strokes, 8 a.m. at Oakland Estuary 

Sunday 

Baseball – Cal vs. Washington, 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond

The third week of testimony in the civil suit of Earth First v. The FBI and the Oakland Police Department came to a close Thursday evening with the plaintiffs feeling exuberant over early strides made in their case. 

“We’re kicking their ass,” said Darryl Cherney of Earth First! who was riding in a car along with Judi Bari that exploded due to a time-activated bomb in 1990.  

See EARTH/Page 10 

“Or I should say they are kicking their own asses. The FBI and the Oakland Police Department have totally tangled themselves in their own lies.” 

Bari and Cherney were pursued as suspects in the bombing of Bari’s car and are now suing the FBI for their own vindication in this case, and to “clear the name of Earth First!” 

Last week’s trial included emotional testimony from Lisa Bari, Judi Bari’s 21-year-old daughter. Bari testified to years of watching her mother and the home she shared with her mother searched by FBI agents. According to Earth First! attorneys her testimony goes to show that her mother was being pursued as a viable suspect. 

The defense in this case has countered that Cherney and Bari were being viewed as both suspects as well as witnesses.  

According to Joseph Sher, Department of Justice lead counsel , when an individual is being treated as a victim as well as a suspect it may vary the FBI’s line of questioning and it necessitates a more sophisticated treatment of the crime. 

Sher would not speak to why the FBI first started to view Bari and Cherney as being suspects in their own car bombing, but both sides concede that proving that element of the argument will be essential to the outcome of this case. 

“We have to do three things to win this case,” Cherney said. “We have to prove our innocence, which we’ve done.”  

Cherney went onto say that he doubts that any member of the jury actually believes that either he or Bari intentionally blew themselves up. 

“The second thing we have to do is prove they’ve lied, which we’ve done,” he added. 

Thursday’s court proceedings included the testimony from officers and special agents who were first on scene on May 23, 1990 the day that Bari’s car was bomb. It included the testimony of a special agent from the FBI, who requested a search warrant from the Oakland Police Department and the officer who issued the paperwork to grant the search warrant. The testimony from these two officers conflict with statements that were made 10 years ago and each other. 

Carpenter nails were reportedly found in Bari’s car, and according to the Oakland Police Department the FBI instructed them that these nails were identical to those that were used in the making of the car bomb, and that fact was used as a basis for the Oakland Police Department granting a search warrant. 

However, according to Special Agent Phil Sena this is not the case. 

“I never would have told them that,” he said. 

At several points during the case the two defendants — The FBI and the Oakland Police Department — have appeared to be at odds with each other. At one point, the police department’s attorney even objected to a line of questioning between Sher and an FBI Special Agent. 

“It has been a long time,” said Sher. “And recollections change.” 

Sher would not comment on whether it was part of his argument that Oakland Police Department was more liable in the civil suit. 

Cherney, however, said he thought that both defedants were attempting to “blame the other guy” in order to exonerate themselves. 

Earth First! attoreny Denniss Cunningham said it was their position that the Oakland Police Department were less responsible of the two parties but not innocent. 

“It is our position that they allowed themselves to be lied to. They were willing dupes in this and that does not mean they are innocent,” Cunningham said. 

This week also included the testimony from the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office who were allegedly called in to help spy on Earth First! 

“The third thing we have to do to win this case is prove there was no basis for the FBI to think that we made that bomb, which will be the hardest part of the case. We have to prove that even though we were hard core and sometime out there activist that we were not violent people,” Cherney said. 

Next week the plaintiff’s will begin this, the last phase of their civil case and the jury will hear testimony from Cherney as well as videotaped testimony from Bari herself that was recorded only five weeks before her death to breast cancer in 1997. 

“The FBI kept trying to delay her deposition. They were basically waiting to depose her after she died. But she finally gave her deposition five weeks before her death.” 

Next week will be the first time that the jury will have heard from the victim’s themselves and will likely be very important emotional elements of the case seeing that a large part of this case is directly related to witness credibility. 

The first phase of the defendant’s case is expected to include the testimony of Gary Philip of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department. Philip, in his deposition, has stated that Earth First! has various factions and that some of the individuals in the environmental organization are very capable of violent acts of terrorism. 

The defense will also try to lay the groundwork to prove to the jury that members of Earth First! were responsible for the bombing of power lines in Northern California. This will go to prove that the Earth First! membership had the ability to make explosives and had done so. 

Week four’s witness list will also include Special Agents John Conway, Steward Daley and Stockton Buck of the FBI as well as Kevin Griswold, of the Oakland Police Department.  

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

In light of the U.S. Senate's disappointing energy bill, the responsibility for securing a clean energy future falls on us. 

With year-round sun, wind, and reservoirs of heat below the earth's surface, California has tremendous potential for clean, stable energy – and it’s time we took advantage of that. SB 532, the California Clean Energy Bill, would require power suppliers to get 20 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources by 2010. The State Assembly will decide whether to approve SB532 within weeks. Let us hope that they do. 

- Cat Hare  

Alameda, CA 

Track & Field – St. Mary’s def. Piedmont and St. Patrick 

The Panthers dominate their BSAL competition once again, losing just two events in the meet. Multiple-event winners include Solomon Welch, Jason Bolden-Anderson, Chris Dunbar, Rudy Vazquez, Leon Drummer, Tiffany Johnson, Danielle Stokes, Kamaiya Warren, Gaby Rios-Sotelo and Willa Porter.

Today is Friday, April 26, the 116th day of 2002. There are 249 days left in the year. 

Highlight: 

On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire killed at least 31 people and sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. 

On this date: 

In 1607, an expedition of English colonists, including Capt. John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. 

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed. 

In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. 

In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. 

In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. 

In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.” 

In 1970, the Broadway musical “Company” opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York. 

In 1980, following an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to rescue the U.S. Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced the captives were being scattered to thwart any future rescue effort. 

Ten years ago:  

Finance officials from the Group of Seven nations, meeting in Washington, endorsed the broad outlines of an economic assistance package for the former Soviet Union. Worshippers celebrated the first Russian Orthodox Easter in Moscow in 74 years. 

Five years ago:  

In his Saturday radio address, President Clinton prepared for the opening of a community service summit by asking Congress to pay for a drive to ensure that every third-grader can read. 

One year ago:  

Ukraine’s communist-dominated parliament dismissed reform-oriented Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and his government, plunging the nation into political chaos.

To the Editor, 

I beg to differ with Josh May’s remarkable contention that “It is not possible to differentiate between a hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews.” 

That is the same sort of specious reasoning used by John Ashcroft; i.e., any criticism of the present administration is tantamount to hatred of the U.S. and its citizens. Hence, that administration is entitled to flout both international and Constitutional law as its leaders serve a higher law to which they are privy. 

Both Israel and the U.S. under their present administrations have become rogue states on the world stage. Ariel Sharon, however, was actually elected. 

- Gray Brechin 

Pt. Reyes Station

SAN FRANCISCO — While Gov. Gray Davis’ efforts to keep Patrick Ghilotti behind bars went all the way to the California Supreme Court, few noticed when at least 16 other sexually violent predators were allowed to disappear quietly into their communities. 

Davis and others maintain that four years of treatment at Atascadero State Hospital haven’t been enough to make Ghilotti, a serial rapist, safe to re-enter society. 

But only four of the 16 other child molesters and violent rapists who left Atascadero’s program received treatment while in custody, according to Nora Romero, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health. 

When Alan Charmatz, who prosecuted Ghilotti’s case, was told that 16 sex predators already have been released from Atascadero, he marveled at the disparity between the attention paid those cases and Ghilotti’s. 

“They’ve let these other people slide away,” he said. “If they really cared about people they’d be keeping track of these other guys and they’d be working with law enforcement to know where they are to help ensure public safety.” 

Only the state’s most dangerous repeat sex offenders are designated as sexually violent predators by the Department of Mental Health and sent to Atascadero after serving their prison sentences. Two independent mental health experts, a district attorney and ultimately a judge or jury must agree the offender remains a threat to society before he is committed to Atascadero for two years. After that, an offender can be released only if two evaluators agree his mental disorder has changed and the patient is not likely to commit acts of predatory sexual violence. The high court ruled Thursday that political officials can’t arbitrarily overrule the evaluators’ findings. 

Ghilotti, the only sex predator to have completed Atascadero’s treatment program, remains in custody pending the fresh look at his evaluations by a trial judge that the high court ordered. 

The 16 were released by judges’ orders or jury decisions. Like Ghilotti, each was determined to no longer be a threat to society. 

“This just goes to show how political this law is,” said Jean Matulis, a lawyer who has defended several sex predators. “The only constitutional justification for holding these guys in the first place is for treatment. But when a person completes the treatment and they still don’t want to release them, I have to ask myself whether it’s really for treatment or to keep them off the streets.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Gray Davis cannot arbitrarily overrule a state law that sets guidelines for freeing rapists and child molesters after they have served their sentences. 

But the justices held up the release of serial rapist Patrick Ghilotti. The 46-year-old Marin County man is the first person to successfully complete the state’s sex predator treatment program, and three mental health evaluators say he no longer poses a danger to society. 

The sexually violent predator law, which went into effect in 1996, enables the state to keep sex offenders locked up indefinitely as long as two evaluators say they’re still a threat and a judge or jury agrees. 

Ghilotti’s case was sent back to a Marin County judge for review. The justices said lower courts can review the mental health evaluations to make sure they comply with state law. 

They also clarified the standards under which an offender can be recommitted. 

The law says a person can be kept locked up if “he or she is likely to engage in acts of sexual violence without appropriate treatment and custody.” The high court defined “likely” as presenting a “substantial danger — that is, a serious and well-founded risk” unless the person is confined. 

But Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, in her dissenting opinion, worried the revised definition will, in fact, lower the bar for commitment to Atascadero State Hospital. 

“A person who has been convicted of multiple violent sex crimes and who continues to suffer from the mental disorder that led to those crimes, would, it seems, always present a ’substantial,’ ’serious’ or ’well-founded’ risk of reoffending,” she wrote. 

The justices also said evaluators can consider whether an offender might seek post-release treatment on his own, but said treatment isn’t required as a condition of release. 

The governor applauded the decision, saying he was “never convinced” Ghilotti was “rehabilitated enough to return to society.” 

But Ghilotti’s lawyer, Ed Farrell, believes the ruling will work in his client’s favor. 

“We’re glad about the part of the opinion that says you can look at whether a person’s going to receive treatment out in the community,” he said, adding that his client continues to take testosterone-reducing drugs. “We don’t think Mr. Ghilotti fits the criteria for recommitment.” 

Ghilotti first was scheduled for release last October after undergoing four years of therapy at Atascadero. But he turned down a court-ordered outpatient treatment program, saying it was too restrictive. 

He came within hours of release again in December when his latest two-year commitment expired. The three independent mental health professionals who evaluated Ghilotti determined he was no longer dangerous, but state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at the governor’s urging, filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to block his release. 

The justices said, in the future, when the Mental Health Department’s director disagrees with the conclusions of its evaluators and believes they conducted them improperly, he can ask prosecutors to seek recommitment. But the ultimate decision remains with a judge. 

“I don’t think the Legislature intended me to just be a rubber stamp,” said Mental Health Department Director Stephen Mayberg. “That seems to be the court’s opinion. Not that I can overrule or ignore the evaluations, but I can raise the question of whether they are legally sufficient or not.” 

The ruling Thursday was 5-2, with two calling for release.

LIVERMORE — A year ago, President Bush asked the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to find out how long it would take to restart nuclear test explosions. 

The Bush administration has said it has no interest in ending the nine-year moratorium, but won’t rule it out if more bomb tests are needed to maintain the reliability and safety of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, particularly as it is reduced to about 2,000 weapons. 

C. Bruce Tarter, who is stepping down this week, figured out that it would take 1-3 years, but he said he also doesn’t expect Bush to resume the tests. 

Tarter told The Associated Press that the only reasons he sees for more nuclear explosions would be either a dramatic change in leadership in Russia, China or other nuclear powers, or a technical surprise in the current stockpile. 

“At this point, my own judgment is that we are unlikely to resume nuclear testing,” he said this week. “There are no technical circumstances yet that would require us to do so.” 

The final report about the logistics of resuming tests is not expected to be ready for a few more months, said Tarter, whose replacement as lab leader is expected to be named Friday. 

On Thursday, Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, said Tarter’s assessment is reasonable. 

“Nothing has changed. We have no indication that the White House is ready to move toward testing,” she said. 

Interviewed on the roof of his highly secure office overlooking the Livermore campus and the browning East Bay hills, Tarter said he’s enjoyed his tenure at the head of the lab. But he said Livermore is at a turning point now, and at 62, he said he simply lacks the energy to put in another four or five years to carry it into its new era. 

Tarter’s energy has been legendary at the lab. Not only does he work long days, but each year he challenges — and beats — his senior managers in a road race. 

“I think it’s healthy to do something new every five or six years,” said Tarter, who has been at the lab since 1967. 

During his past seven years as director, Tarter led the lab’s transition from Cold War-era nuclear weapons development to a wide range of research, both for military uses and such non-defense technologies as the world’s most accurate lathe, built to form large, irregularly shaped mirrors for experimental lasers, and a mechanical truck stopping device designed to stop a stolen or hijacked truck. 

Tarter’s critics, including many anti-nuclear weapons activists, say he still guided the lab toward too much weapons research and development. 

“The weapons program is simply not needed anymore at Livermore,” said Christopher Paine of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s just a waste of taxpayer dollars.” 

During his tenure, Tarter took his biggest hits for time and cost overruns in the construction of a huge laser that will be used to help monitor and maintain nuclear weapons without actual bomb tests. 

That $3.48 billion project has suffered delays and spiraling costs since the Department of Energy first set its budget at $1.1 billion nearly five years ago. The project, which Tarter said is “back on track,” is now scheduled to be fully operational by 2008. 

“Bruce has been an excellent leader during a tumultuous time,” said John McTague, University of California Vice President for Laboratory Management. “The range of complex issues he has encountered and dealt with effectively is truly remarkable.” 

Tarter said he hopes to remain at the lab after stepping down, both to assist the new director and take on several smaller projects, including preparing for the lab’s 50th anniversary this fall. 

But he laughed when asked if he had another three decades left to go, like his colleague down the hall, renowned physicist Edward Teller, or “E.T.” as they call him, who a t 95 is still coming in to the office two days a week. 

“He’s an amazing man,” said Tarter. “I’ll just be glad to be around.” 

The FBI announced Thursday that four Oakland International Airport employees have been arrested on suspicion of failing to disclose prior felony convictions when applying for airport badges that gave them access to secure areas of the airport. 

Thomas Burgess, 36, and Ulysses Walker, 46, both of Oakland, and Donald Coleman, 33, of Berkeley, were arrested Monday and Mario DeAngelo Lloyd, 27, of Berkeley, was arrested Wednesday, authorities said. 

In addition, a federal complaint was filed and a summons issued  

Thursday for Charles Mathis, 33, of Pittsburg. 

All of the suspects are U.S. citizens, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Bruce J. Gebhardt of the San Francisco office. The men were arrested on federal charges of making false statements. The arrests were made at Oakland airport and at the residences of those charged. 

The arrests followed a three-month joint investigation by the FBI, Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration called Operation Tarmac. The operation focused on the falsification of airport badge applications, authorities said. 

The alleged falsification occurred when the suspects failed to disclose prior felony convictions within the past 10 years. The allegedly falsified applications were relied upon by the FAA for issuance of SIDA, or security identification display area, badges. These badges allow the employee unrestricted access to secure areas of the airport, the FBI said. 

SACRAMENTO — A Sierra Nevada conservation group sued the state Thursday over its approval of logging plans by the state’s largest timber company. 

Sierra Pacific Industries dropped plans last year to clear-cut three areas on its El Dorado County properties after Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch previously challenged them in court. 

But the Anderson-based company refiled the plans proposing to use a new practice it termed “visual retention,” which leaves several trees on each acre to soften the visual impact. 

The environmental group sued the California Department of Forestry in El Dorado County Superior Court over its approval of those revised plans. 

“The impact to water and wildlife will be just exactly the same as if they were doing straight clear-cutting,” said Warren Alford, a Sierra Club organizer and member of the forest watch organization. “The cumulative effect will be to have a million acres of tree plantations.” 

He cited the state’s largest landowner’s proposals to ultimately convert 70 percent of its 1.5 million acres to same-age trees. More than 200,000 acres have been cut since 1994, Alford said. 

Forestry Department spokesman Louis Blumberg and company spokesman Ed Bond each said they couldn’t respond to a lawsuit they hadn’t seen. 

But Bond said the company began its visual retention program to leave its cuttings more aesthetically pleasing, and noted it recently sold two pieces of property it determined were better suited for purposes other than logging. 

“I think we’ve been responsive to neighbors’ concerns,” Bond said. The Calaveras County-based conservation group organized two years ago to fight Sierra Pacific’s logging plans near Calaveras Big Tree State Park. 

FOLSOM — California grid officials approved a blueprint for a new wholesale electricity market Thursday, one they hope will withstand the price spikes that sent the state spiraling into rolling blackouts and billions in debt. 

The state is facing a deadline to rebuild the market by September, when federal price caps expire. 

The Independent System Operator also approved a price cap for the California market that mimics the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order. 

Last summer, FERC set the caps after more than a year of exorbitant wholesale energy prices crippled three utilities and led to rolling blackouts on six days in 2001. The state eventually stepped in to buy billions of dollars worth of power when wholesalers refused to sell energy to the near-bankrupt utilities. 

The ISO, manager of the state’s power grid, will submit the plan for the revised market to FERC by May 1. If approved, part of the plan will take effect Oct. 1. 

If FERC doesn’t extend the price caps, the ISO’s short-term plan includes a damage-control cap. 

The FERC price caps and its “must offer” obligation are for the Western region, while similar rules the ISO is considering would require generators to offer any electricity they have available only in California. 

“We are still insisting that priority No. 1 is that FERC extend the market mitigation they put in place last year,” said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle. “If FERC doesn’t extend it, if it truly expires Sept. 30, then the must-offer requirement and the damage control bid cap will go into effect.” 

State lawmakers have also asked FERC to extend the price caps. In a letter to FERC commissioners, 43 Assembly Democrats said California was working to build more power plants and stabilize its market, but it “is still not healthy.” 

The ISO board approved a recommendation by a task force of six state agencies that capped prices at $108 per megawatt hour, the same amount as the current FERC cap. Spot market prices are now averaging $30 per megawatt hour. 

This restructuring of the electricity market differs from the state’s 1996 deregulation market because that first attempt “resulted from a political process,” said ISO Vice President Elena Schmid. 

The new plan was based on “reality, economy and hard experience we all earned in the last four years,” she said. 

ISO Board of Governors Chairman Michael Kahn said its goal is to narrow the market it controls, then scrutinize those transactions to make sure no one is manipulating the market. 

But the California market is still too unstable and undefined to craft a complete restructuring plan, Kahn said. 

Kahn insisted the board’s resolution for the long-term proposal reflected the market as a “hypothetical” design, since the state’s energy market is still evolving. 

The more comprehensive changes to the wholesale market will begin to be implemented in April 2003 and will take about six months to complete, McCorkle said. 

One of those long-term changes would be to require utilities to arrange sufficient power for their customers, plus a reserve. 

Previously, no entity had explicit responsibility to ensure there was adequate power to meet demand, and during the energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 “that responsibility inappropriately defaulted to the ISO,” grid managers said in a memo outlining the plan. 

Kahn said that provision, which wouldn’t take effect until 2004, should be reviewed again before being implemented. 

At the end of this year, the state’s authority to buy power expires, and the utilities will be expected to re-enter the market. 

The state’s two largest utilities are trying to regain financial health by the end of the year, but Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is still in bankruptcy and Southern California Edison is trying to work out details of a settlement with the state. 

With so many changes at the end of this year, Kahn said there is a question about to whom the proposed requirement would apply. 

Study finds that keeping the body hydrated reduces risk of heart disease 

LOMA LINDA — Drinking five glasses of water a day can lower the risk of deadly heart disease, according to a study released Thursday. 

Researchers at Loma Linda University said people who drank five eight-ounce glasses of water daily were about half as likely to die of coronary heart disease as those who drank two glasses or less. 

The benefit was greater than that conferred from drinking a moderate amount of alcohol or taking aspirin, the study said. 

In fact, drinking water appears to confer as much a benefit to heart health “as stopping smoking or lowering cholesterol,” said Dr. Jacqueline Chan, the study’s lead author. 

“This is a really simple method” of preventing coronary heart disease, she said. 

Coffee, soda, milk and caffeinated sodas did not show any statistically significant heart benefits. 

Chan said more research is needed to confirm the findings, but researchers already adjusted the figures to account for other potential factors in heart disease fatalities such as smoking, calorie intake, exercise, blood pressure, and socio-economic status. 

The study, which was to be published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, did not specifically explain how increased water-drinking might lower the risk of heart disease. But it noted that dehydration can elevate risk factors such as blood viscosity. 

The study also suggested that those who drank more water might be more health-conscious. 

However, Chan said drinking more water now couldn’t hurt. 

“There’s no downside to increasing fluid intake,” Chan said. 

The study was based on a 1970s survey of Californians living in Seventh Day Adventist households and on follow-ups. The water study analyzed data from 12,017 women and 8,280 men, ages 38 or older, who had no physician-diagnosed heart disease, stroke or diabetes in 1976. 

It found that in the six years following the original survey, 246 died of coronary disease, and those people were significantly more likely to be water sippers than water gulpers. 

Men who drank five glasses of water or more per day were only 46 percent as likely to die of coronary disease as men who drank two or less. For women, heavy water drinkers were 59 percent as likely to die of heart problems. But unlike men, they saw about the same benefits if they drank only three or four glasses per day, the study concluded. 

Q. I have a humming noise in my water lines, caused by a vibration that results when the tank float valve in my toilet nears shut-off. Is there a way to fix it other than by replacing the float and shut-off valve assembly? 

A. You don’t have to replace the entire valve. You need to replace the gasket within it. It’s an inexpensive repair. Turn off the water to the toilet and flush it. That will empty the tank. Next, remove the shut-off valve cover. How you do this will depend on the brand, however, most have four screws on top. Carefully remove the screw and then the top. Locate and remove the gasket and use the disassembly as a guide for replacement and reassembly. It is almost always easier to replace the entire unit. The humming is the ballcock assembly telling you it has a gasket that is almost completely worn out. 

Q. Jennifer asks: I think my house is haunted. I know I saw it in a Three Stooges movie once. My husband and I recently bought a 100-year-old home. In the process of painting the plaster-walled library we’re running into some bizarre paint problems. The walls were triple painted in a brush pattern — we think within the last 10 years. We bought flat paint and proceeded to apply two coats. After letting them dry we noticed dark stripes down the walls and the whole surface is crackling in 1/8th-inch sizes. We went to the hardware store where we bought the paint and explained our problem. We bought a new primer and primed the entire room. Now the primer is doing the same thing as the other coats — as is a small spot we test-painted over the primer. What can we do now? 

A. We assume the three-color painting detail to which you refer is sponge or splatter paint. We make this assumption because the glaze that is used with sponge or splatter paint — once painted — will render the crackling effect you are experiencing. Now that you know the cause of the problem you need to eliminate it — the cause, that is. The problem will then go away. There are several ways to do this: You can sand, but that’s messy. You can use paint remover — even messier. Or, you can try to encapsulate the problem by painting it with a material that will not be affected by the existing glaze. This we think would be the easiest way to go. Try using a coat of oil-base primer. Do a 2-square-foot area. Water-base will not work. Once it’s sealed with the oil-base primer, any kind of finish coat can be used. If the oil-base primer doesnt work, you would probably be best off covering the walls with a quarter-inch-thick layer of gyp board.

LOS ANGELES — The cost of home ownership in California broke another barrier in March, with the median home price topping $300,000 for the first time, according to industry figures released Thursday. 

Market activity continued to surge during March as sales of preowned homes increased 13.1 percent and the median home price rose 18.8 percent compared with a year ago, the California Association of Realtors said. 

The median home price in the state hit $305,940 in March, up from $289,550 in February. The median price increased 18.8 percent from $257,550 in March 2001. 

The real estate market performed strongly across almost all regions of the state and in all price brackets, with the upper end market showing renewed vigor for the first time in months, said CAR president Robert Bailey. 

“It’s a very opportune time to buy. There’s nothing out there to indicate that this is a bubble or an anomaly,” said Bailey, who owns three independent real estate offices in Santa Cruz. 

Ongoing low interest rates played a key role in driving the market, with buyers wanting to make their move before any increase. Adjustable mortgage interest rates averaged just 5.09 percent in March compared to 6.28 percent a year earlier, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. 

Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates have increased slightly year over year, averaging 7.07 percent in March, compared with 6.95 percent in March 2001. 

Sales of detached California homes totaled 586,230 in March on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, CAR reported. 

That figure compares with 518,410 a year earlier and represents what the total number of home sales would be during the year if sales maintained their March pace throughout the year. 

It would take only 2.3 months to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, compared with 3.5 months last year, according to CAR. 

The torrid pace of the market is good news for home owners, but it raises affordability concerns for others in a state where less than one-third of households have enough money to own a home — the lowest share in the country after New York and Hawaii. 

Experts warn that without affordable housing, it will become difficult for the economy to keep growing. 

“Affordable housing is still one of our biggest challenges,” said Paul Saldana, a board member of the California Association for Local Economic Development and chief executive of the Tulare County Economic Development Corp. “But there is still a lot of affordability in various job centers in the state,” he said, including Riverside and San Bernardino.

NEW YORK — Shares of InVision Technologies Inc., which makes airport luggage scanners, fell Thursday after the Transportation Department reduced the number of such machines it plans to deploy at airports this year. 

Shares also fell, but then rebounded for OSI Systems of Hawthorne, Calif., which makes parts for InVision’s machines. 

Late Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the government now plans to deploy up to 1,100 machines this year in airports. Earlier government estimates called for the installation of more than 2,000 of the machines. 

InVision, based in Newark, Calif., is one of only two Federal Aviation Administration-certified suppliers of the explosive-detection machines. L3 Communications Holdings Inc. is the other. 

On Thursday, Merrill Lynch & Co. cut its near-term investment rating on InVision to neutral from buy. 

InVision shares closed at $23.95, down $3.49, or 13 percent, on Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Volume Thursday was 7.1 million shares, compared to average daily volume of 2 million shares.

SAN FRANCISCO — At the Davis administration’s urging, the California Supreme Court said Wednesday it would review whether the governor has absolute power to overturn the Board of Prison Terms’ decision to parole convicted murderers. 

The high court, at its weekly private meeting here, agreed to consider the cases involving two convicted murderers whose parole from prison has been ensnared in a legal limbo that has kept them behind bars. 

The dispute is over Davis’ vetoes of the prison board’s release of Los Angeles County killers Robert Rosenkrantz and Mark Smith. Lower courts overturned Davis’ veto and ordered them freed earlier this year. 

The Supreme Court, however, halted their release. The court now will decide the outcome of a constitutional struggle between the parole powers the electorate granted California’s chief executive office in 1988 and the judiciary’s ability to undo those powers. 

The cases — dealing with politically charged questions of when killers have paid their debt to society and should be freed — have attracted widespread attention among the law enforcement community. 

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, the California Sheriff’s Association and the California Police Chiefs Association urged the justices to side with Davis’ veto powers. 

Davis himself said he was pleased the court would review the issue. 

“By hearing it, the court will examine important constitutional issues regarding the governor’s ability to protect the people of California from murderers who would otherwise be released on parole,” Davis said. 

Defense attorneys and at least one lower court have said Davis has an illegal blanket policy against paroling convicted murderers. Of the 83 homicide cases the parole board recommended for release, Davis vetoed 81 of them. 

The two cases the chief executive did not override were women Davis believed may have suffered from battered women syndrome. 

“It’s not that surprising the Supreme Court would want to decide whether the judiciary can review the governor’s parole decisions because there are two branches of government that are in conflict here,” said Rosenkrantz’s attorney, Donald Specter. 

In January, a state appeals court ruled that Davis does not hold absolute authority to overturn a Board of Prison Terms’ parole decision. That ruling was viewed as a constitutional check on Proposition 89, which voters approved in 1988 granting the governor veto powers over the board’s decisions. 

The Davis administration claimed the governor had the absolute ability to reverse the board as he saw fit under Proposition 89. 

But in a 2-1 decision, the appellate panel had ruled the governor was wrong to assume that position in denying Rosenkrantz parole. 

“The flaw in the governor’s argument ... is the assumption that, in adopting Proposition 89, the voters elevated the governor’s authority to review parole decisions to an absolute and unreviewable height,” Justice Miriam A. Vogel wrote. “There is no support for the governor’s assumption.” 

Rosenkrantz, 33, is serving 17 years to life for the 1985 slaying of his boyhood friend, Steven Redman. The 17-year-old boy was shot 10 times after revealing Rosenkrantz’ homosexuality. Last year, after lengthy litigation, the Board of Prison Terms said Rosenkrantz was suitable for release. 

Davis vetoed the move, reasoning that Rosenkrantz “brutally murdered the victim” and that the crime “demonstrates his dangerous potential for violence.” 

But the appeals court said Davis’ reasoning was “unsupported by any evidence.” 

In the Smith case the Supreme Court agreed to review Wednesday, Smith was sentenced to 16 years to life for the 1985 murder of Rick Diamonon, who was shot and drowned in a creek near Topanga Canyon. The prison board found Smith — who has AIDS — suitable for release. 

Davis vetoed and a judge in March ordered him freed. 

The court did not indicate when it would hear the case. 

The cases are In re Robert Rosenkrantz, S104701 and Davis v. Smith, S105520.

Transportation officials admit poor public communication linesZ 

Admitted blunders by city traffic officials sent the Berkeley City Council spinning Monday night, driving councilmembers to rethink the fate of a traffic project on Telegraph Avenue. 

Under heavy fire from South Berkeley neighbors, City Council voted, after nearly an hour of debate, to give itself the option of altering how two long-planned traffic signals on Telegraph will be utilized, if at all. 

Neighbors say they have only recently been informed of the year-old traffic project and, even this late in the process, deserve to play a role in how the increasing numbers of vehicles in the area will be navigated by their homes. 

“There has been very poor public consultation,” conceded Peter Hillier, assistant city manager for transportation, who took the lead on the project, only after he started working for the city just three months ago. “People would have had to have shown initiative to know this was going on.” 

“It’s incredible that this has been going on for more than a year and we just heard about it,” echoed neighbor Wim-Kees vanHout. 

The traffic signals, which are already under construction on corners at Stuart Street and Russell Street, come as part of a half-million-dollar grant, aimed at reducing traffic, from the California Department of Transportation. The signals have long been scheduled to be activated in September.  

As a result of Monday’s Council action, though, the project on Telegraph must be reconsidered by Council late summer before the traffic lights can be turned on. In the meantime, public hearings are slated to continue between neighbors and city traffic engineers. 

Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring expressed concern about bringing the issue back to council and not letting it proceed as planned. The worry, they say, is breaching terms of the Caltrans grant. 

“My problem with this is that we may lose the money,” said Spring. “I assume that Caltrans will come after us for the money (if we don’t complete the project and turn the traffic signals on).” 

At a cost of more than $200,000 per light, Spring worries that the city, after further public hearings, may decide that traffic signals are not the best way to address the area’s traffic problems, yet still be obliged to pay a hefty sum. 

TRAFFIC/From Page 3 

“Let’s not jeopardize this,” she said. 

But even with the city leaving open the possibility of not turning on the lights, Councilmember Worthington said this would never happen. 

“They’re going to turn on the lights,” he said of his fellow councilmembers. He called the move of bringing the issue back to council a “political game” and said his colleagues were merely placating opponents by holding additional hearings. Council has no intention but to turn on the lights, he said. 

Neighbors began questioning the project in March when construction began on the traffic lights and new transportation manager Hillier sent out an information letter. Many neighbors said this was the first they had heard about the work. 

Hillier said with his arrival to Berkeley on Jan. 23 and the simultaneous creation of a new city department – Berkeley Office of Transportation – that communication with the public was bound to improve. 

“We’ve gone through a lot of staff people during this process,” noted Worthington. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Monday gave new life to a patent dispute between the world’s two largest biotechnology companies, reinstating Genentech Inc.’s lawsuit against Amgen Inc. 

The two companies are fighting over technology vital to Thousand Oaks-based Amgen’s infection-fighting drug Neupogen, which had $1.3 billion in sales last year. 

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup had earlier thrown out Genentech’s claims that Amgen had infringed on three of its patents covering the genetic engineering of bacteria to produce human proteins, which is how Neupogen is manufactured. 

On Monday, the appeals court ordered Alsup to reconsider Genentech’s infringement claim. 

It’s still possible that Alsup could once again rule in Amgen’s favor. Nonetheless, Genentech hailed the appeals court ruling as a victory. 

“We are very pleased with this decision,” said South San Francisco-based Genentech spokeswoman Sabrina Johnson. “It allows us to move forward with our infringement case against Amgen.” 

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen spokesman Jeff Richardson said the company had “just received the decision” and would have no immediate comment. 

With a market capitalization of about $54 billion, Amgen is the world’s largest biotechnology company. Genentech is second with a market capitalization of nearly $19 billion. 

Amgen’s shares fell $1.96, or 3.6 percent, to close at $51.88 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Monday. Genentech’s share price lost 25 cents to close at $35.50 on the New York Stock Exchange. Both share prices were unchanged in after hours trading.

High times for pilot 

WHITING FIELD, Fla. – A pilot instructor who has flown more hours in T-34C trainers than any other active-duty naval aviator has retired with a record that probably never will be broken. 

Lt. Cmdr. Bradley Mason made his final flight Wednesday in the same Turbo Mentor that he used as a student pilot in 1983 at this base on the Florida panhandle. 

That gave the 41-year-old Miami native 4,438.8 hours in T-34Cs during his 20-year Navy career. 

His record is safe because the Navy is phasing out the aging Turbo Mentors and replacing them with a new plane, the T6-A Texan II. Both are single-engine turbo props used for primary flight training. 

Mason said his final flight was routine but difficult. 

“Actually, it wasn’t until I came around and saw the runway when I said ’Oh my God, this is the last time I’m doing this,”’ he said. “And I must say I nailed that landing.” 

Mason will retire in nearby Pensacola with is wife, Becky, and their three children. He plans to look for work as a commercial pilot. 

Rare bird discovered  

ST. LOUIS – A one-of-a-kind bird is now making its home at the World Bird Sanctuary in suburban St. Louis. 

Executive director Walter Crawford said Thursday that an albino Black Vulture — the only one known to exist and just the second ever seen — arrived about five weeks ago. The white bird with pink eyes was found in Michigan. 

Wildlife officials feared the vulture could not survive in the wild. The World Bird Sanctuary, which houses about 300 birds, is recognized worldwide for its educational and rehabilitation efforts. 

Crawford said the bird is now healthy and living next to another rare bird — an albino Great Horned Owl. 

Experts believe the vulture is about a year old. After DNA testing determines the vulture’s sex — birds don’t have external sex organs — officials will decide whether to try to breed it, Crawford said. 

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful bird,” Crawford said. “That and the owl are probably two of the prettiest ones I’ve ever seen.” 

The albino appearance is the result of lack of pigment in the skin and feathers.

Flowers pilfered 

LINCOLN, Neb. — A robbery by any other name would smell as stinky. 

Someone swiped the entire stock of roses at Country Floral and Gifts early Thursday. And the thieves didn’t stop with the 400 roses — they also took more than 100 stuffed animals and ripped apart candy bouquets to take the chocolate. 

“It was a clean sweep,” said owner Lynda Worm. “They stole our vacuum cleaner.” 

Most upsetting to her, however, was the loss of a three foot, bright pink, stuffed bunny that had been in the family for 15 years. 

“It’s a sentimental thing,” she said. “We just want it back.” 

Very bad hair day  

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A man who was upset over a haircut allegedly threatened to ram a salon with his pickup truck. 

Paul Peyton III, 29, was upset with the grooming he received at a Fantastic Sam’s salon, Kootenai County prosecutors argued this week during Peyton’s trial. 

Peyton drove his truck onto the sidewalk in front of a salon in Post Falls on Dec. 12. Peyton denied trying to hit the salon, telling police he had put the truck in the wrong gear and accidentally lurched forward. 

Peyton is charged with felony aggravated assault. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. 

Peyton had gotten a haircut a week earlier at a different Fantastic Sam’s in Coeur d’Alene. Unsatisfied with the job, he later returned and was offered a second cut — after which he demanded his money back. 

Peyton was told he would have to talk to the owner, Carol Holloway, at the Post Falls shop, reports said. He later went to the shop. 

“He just looked angry and distraught,” Vali Moore, receptionist at the store, testified. Peyton complained to a waiting customer that he had a “butchered haircut,” Moore said. 

Peyton got into his truck, backed it up and then accelerated over the curb and onto the sidewalk in front of the store, witnesses said. Peyton then sped away. 

The plans to establish Eastshore State Park, the swath of coastal greenbelt that stretches from the foot of the Bay Bridge to Marina Bay in Richmond, is taking a somewhat cohesive form. Entitled the “preferred park plan,” it is ready for the next stage after a Tuesday presentation in Berkeley. The city will be receiving it with a special meeting composed of the City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and the Waterfront Commission this Tuesday, April 30, 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way.  

The Eastshore Park Planning Team will be updating the community of local governing boards and citizens on planning efforts to date. This is the last stop in a series of five local briefings this month presented by the commission, which has already briefed Emeryville, Richmond, Albany and Oakland. The plan incorporates input from all the communities gathered during previous meetings, and was last open to Berkelian’s input at the March 21 regional workshop. 

“A brief overview will again be given covering the whole of the park,” said senior planner Deborah Chernin. “And then we’ll focus more on the details of the [Berkeley] area. Each city has their own specific issues, and this will be the last workshop before we draft the general plan,” she says. Local issues that have come to the forefront include access points, questions over sports fields, parking lots, traffic circulation and the impact on creeks. 

After the draft plan is hammered out, with the last adjustments from the Berkeley community in place, it will enter the environmental review stage. “The next step from here is for the EIR [environmental impact report] to be conducted, and then it will go to the state parks commission,” says Chernin. The EIR, and indeed the whole process of development and implementation of the park, are sponsored by a partnership of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the East Bay Regional Park District, and the California State Coastal Conservancy. 

In addition, a special meeting of the city council will be held earlier, at 5 p.m., at the same location to recieve a presentation of the city’s next biennial budget from city manager Weldon Rucker.