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Reports that the `San Jose Mercury News' has sued the city of Oakland and Alameda County for the release of financial documents on the projected impact of a $225 million deal. Prevention of public scrutiny of documents.

Reports on a court's ruling that a California law allowing private citizens to get quick dismissal of frivolous libel suits also protects newspapers. Law's purpose to counter the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation; Dismissal of a libel suit against several reporters from the `San Francisco Chronicle' and the Chronicle Publishing Company.

Reports on the entry of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California in Berkeley into a three-year teaching agreement with Japan's `Yomiuri Shimbun' newspaper. Introduction of a new course at Berkeley called Reporting on Japan; Opportunity for Berkeley students to report each summer for the newspaper.

Reports that employees of the `Bay Times' gay and lesbian newspaper, have joined the Northern California Newspaper Guild Local 52.

Reports on Frank Tateosian of San Mateo, California's winning of a TRO which prohibits the Independent Newspaper Group (ING) from delivering free `San Mateo Weekly' to his home. Comments of publisher, Leonard Sbrocco.

Reports on the 1994 newspaper in education (NIE) program by Copley Los Angeles Newspapers called `Tackle Geography' that has enabled 50,000 American elementary and high school students to improve their geographical knowledge. Strategies used to help the students in learning; Topics covered by the program.

Reports that a district judge has permitted the release of secret Police Commission transcripts of its 1993 probe into allegations that Police Chief Tony Ribera repeatedly harassed Police Officer Joan Welsh. Lawsuit filed by Welsh against Ribera; San Francisco newspapers' support on the lawsuit; Opposition of Mayor Frank Jordan and the Police Commission on the opening of the transcripts.

Reports on the steps taken by California newspapers in preparation for a court battle regarding subpoenas they received for unpublished material from jail house interviews with an alleged kidnapper. Participation of the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA); Background on the case involved.

Reports that a management official at California State University in Long Beach is demanding that the laboratory newspaper `Daily Forty-Niner' pay for the cost of picking up advertising inserts strewn around the campus. Journalism professor Wayne Kelly's contention that the newspaper cannot be held responsible for students who drop inserts on the ground; Claim that the issue is an intrusion on a free press.

Reports that a Sacramento Superior Court judge has ruled that the Medical Board of California must provide the newspapers `Los Angeles Times,' `Sacramento Bee' and `San Jose Mercury News' with requested lists of licensed doctors stored in government computers. Includes such facts as whether the physicians have lost malpractice suits or have been convicted of felonies.

Reports on the `Daily Bruin' newspaper's article on the release of documents of four sexual harassment claims that were paid out between 1989 and 1993 by the University of California in Los Angeles. Revelations in the records; Terms of settlement between victims and harassers.

Reports on a photograph in the `San Francisco Chronicle' which made San Mateo County Municipal Judge Craig Parsons jail illegal driver Adalberto Lazo. Photo of Lazo driving off minutes after Parsons had told him not to drive without a license; Illegal drivers in California.

Reports on the formation of a network by the `Los Angeles Times,' Riverside `Press-Enterprise' and `an Bernardino `Sun' that will enable advertisers to reach 32.8% of all adults weekdays and 47.7% Sundays in the Los Angeles Area of Dominant Influence (ADI). Los Angeles ADI Newspaper Network; Test-marketing of network with Kelley-Clarke Inc.

Discusses the performance of various Los Angeles, California newspapers during the January 17, 1994 earthquake. Continued service to the public; Production facilities shared between newspapers; Presence of a spirit of camaraderie among newsmen.

Reports on the passage of a legislation in California in 1991 that subjects newspapers into sales tax. Increase in sales taxes; Effect of the sales tax on circulation; Other U.S. states with circulation sales tax.

Reports on the absence of advanced computer technology in the Los Angeles, California police department, as presented in the July 14, 1994 issue of the `Los Angeles Times.' Manual completion of paperwork; Absence of network linking the 18 divisions of the department; Lack of money to modernize the department.

Reports on the dropping of the California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans) proposed escrowing of bid documents of highway contractors. Inability to assure absolute confidentiality of the bid documents; Compromise proposal with Associated General Contractors of California; Reasons for Caltrans to deny construction claims on contractors.

Focuses on masters in photography, mentioning a book, lecture, and exhibition. William Henry Fox Talbot, who devised a process for making multiple positive paper prints; The quality of Lewis Hine's "Doffer Boys" (1909); The creativity of Alfred Stieglitz; Edward Weston's "Nude, Santa Monica" (1936); The emotional depth of Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" (1936), showing migrant agricultural worker Florence Owens during the Great Depression; Voyeurism in Usher Fellig's "Palace Theatre"; "Photographers of Genius at the Getty," showing at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Santa Monica, California until July 25.

The article focuses on the yearlong energy crisis experienced by the state of California. During the crisis, reporters faced especially daunting challenges in moving information across this moat. A slowly evolving system of monopoly utility regulation, with carefully documented costs and profits, had been replaced by a complex network of markets in which electricity and risk were traded like pork bellies. When utilities operated as government-sanctioned monopolies, being a vigilant reporter mainly required looking over the shoulder of regulators whose job it was to make sure that utilities kept the lights on and costs dozen. The challenge was to extract readable stories from the regulators' quasi-judicial proceedings, in which agendas read like invoices from auto parts dealers and policy choices were buried inside of alternate rulings. Many newspapers, including the Contra Costa Times, normally give only limited coverage to the electricity industry. When the energy crisis hit, the newspaper's team responded by assigning three reporters-- one from the environment bureau, one from the state government bureau and one from the business section. In 1998, California launched its aggressive move to competition. At first, things went smoothly. Then, in the late spring of 2000, a sudden jump in wholesale power costs jolted electricity customers in the San Diego area. By the fall of 2000, the power shortages that hit San Diego were spreading throughout the state. As the state's electricity system crumbled, it was easy for reporters to find victims and tell their stories. The story was portrayed as a modern-day war between states. Soon this story line was strengthened when it surfaced that owners were shutting down power plants to create shortages and trading was raising prices. Covering these dimensions of the story taxed the resources and abilities of daily papers' newsroom staff, just at a time when economic slowdowns were driving down newspaper revenue.

Features environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill in Humboldt County, California. Background on the 2-year residence of Hill atop a redwood tree in an effort to save the forest in the county; Terms given by Hill to HarperSanFrancisco for the publication of her memoir "Legacy of Luna"; Information on the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit organization formed by Hill with other authors to promote the printing of books on recycled paper.

The article discusses the influence of California's electorate on presidential elections with reference to the paper "Why California Doesn't Matter," by Fred Barnes published in the July 31, 2000 issue of the journal "The Weekly Standard." Barnes argues that the state no longer has significant influence on American politics. The reason for this is the state's changing ethnic composition. The state has imported largely unskilled Mexican immigrants and mainly high-skilled Asian immigrants. These immigrants have transformed the state's political identity.

Profiles William Seymour, the pastor of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, California, and catalyst of the worldwide Pentecostal movement. Family and career background; Early church affiliations; Publication of his paper titled `The Apostolic Faith'; Azusa pilgrims; Spiritual heirs of Seymour. INSETS: Timeline;You Are There.

The weak force is one of the fundamental forces of nature, but unlike electromagnetism it exerts its effects over such a short range that they are usually only felt inside subatomic particles. The force is involved in radioactive decay, for example. Now, to get a direct measurement of weak charge, physicists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California have fired bunches of a hundred billion electrons into a target of liquid hydrogen. The team reports in a paper to be published in "Physical Review Letters," that electrons are more likely to be deflected if they are spinning clockwise along their direction of motion, rather than anticlockwise.

Two teams of biologists are collaborating in a bid to unravel the 1 billion bases that make up the turkey's 40 chromosomes. One team, led by biologist Dave Harry of Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms in Sonoma, California, has already published the first set of 100 or so "signpost" genes— markers around which a map of the entire genome can be assembled. Another second team, led by Dave Burt, head of bird genomics at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, will publish a similar paper identifying another 100 or so markers.

Reports on the launching of the Voting Technology Project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology. Flaws of other voting systems; Reliance of paper ballots and optical scanners; Security of voting in machines.

States that Hollywood trade paper 'Variety' suspended editor Peter Bart after a Los Angeles magazine in California reported that he was selling a script. Mention of the resignation of 'The Hollywood Reporter' editor Anita Busch concerning another issue.

Summarizes the papers presented at a conference on “Fiscal and Monetary Policy” held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in California on March 4 and 5, 2005, and provides a list of those papers at http://www.frbsf.org/economics/conferences/0503/index.html.

Highlights a new weapon in publishing showdowns--the cyberstrike--and recounts how management and striking editorial staffers at San Francisco's `Chronicle' and `Examiner' took to the Internet to supplement erratically distributed print copies of their papers during the strike. Free availability of `The Gate' and `San Francisco Free Press' through the World Wide Web; Details.

A new fax compression technique that can squeeze 200 pages of text or software code onto a single piece of paper has been developed by Palo Alto, California-based InfoImaging Technologies Inc. 3D Fax compresses pages to be faxed into a single indecipherable image that can be sent via fax machine or computer to its destination, where it can then be scanned, allowing 3D fax software to separate out the various pages of text or code. Limited capability versions of the software can be found at the company's Web site.

Reports on the development of a technologically-advanced polymer that mimics litmus paper by the California-based Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory that can instantly detect microorganisms that cause disease. Features of the polymer; Customization of the polydiaccetylene film to target different microorganisms and their toxins; Testing of the polymer.

Reports that the University of California has won the right to distribute on the World Wide Web the internal documents and memos from cigarette manufacturer Brown & Williamson suggesting that the company was aware of the addictive and cancer-causing nature of cigarettes at least 30 years ago. Brown & Williamson's legal action to get the papers back, claiming that they had been stolen; Web site address.

This article presents a preview of the Design Conference in San Diego, California, for the integrated circuit and system design industry. Tracks for the technical program include: logic design and test; embedded systems; nanometer analysis and simulation; and physical circuit design. Attendees will be able to choose from hundreds of panels, papers, sessions, workshops and tutorials. A number of established vendors and startups of the EDA software will display the latest in electronic-system level tools and methodologies. INSET: A DEEP AND VARIED TECHNICAL PROGRAM.

This article focuses on the publishing paradigm of the University of California (UC). As digital technologies evolved and campus budgets constricted, UC librarians, researchers and administrators began acknowledging three challenges that could not be ignored; the economics of publishing were changing rapidly, scholarly communication needed to innovate and sustaining comprehensive collections was becoming increasingly harder to do. UC representatives began conceptualizing a plan to harness the system's resources at a time when the budget was very bad and the possibilities of technology seamed endless. The mission of the California Digital Library is to provide a centralized framework to efficiently share materials held by UC, offer greater and easier access to digital content and join with researchers in developing new tools and innovations for scholarly communication. The eScholarship Repository, a project of the eScholarship initiative project, offers faculty a central location for depositing any research or scholarly output deemed appropriate by their participating UC research unit. The repository enables the rapid creation, management and dissemination of journals, peer-reviewed series, working papers and other forms of scholarship generated by UC researchers.

Presents news briefs on composting in the United States as of August 2000. Diverting food residuals and solid paper from Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California; Information on the Industrial Materials Exchanges in King County, Washington; Trials done on a compost unit in Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Reports that the city of San Jose in California hopes to build on the success of its residential yard trimmings recycling program by composting food residuals and nonrecyclable paper. Vermicomposting project at the University of California's Bay Area Research and Extension Center; Role of Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. in the project; Permits required for the recycling program. INSETS: VERMICOMPOSTING PILOT;COMPOST PRODUCT ANALYSIS.

Studies the challenges facing Joseph Farah, who has been editor of the Sacramento Union for a year. Liberal attacks on his paper, one of the few conservative dailies in the country; Complaints from former staff that Farah attempted to color news stories to fit the owner's conservative views; Focus on the paper's nonconformism on issues of morality; Farah's response.

Deals with African-Americans' influence in making Senator John F. Kennedy the U.S. president in 1960, according to a transcript by the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Highlights of the speech delivered by King on December 30, 1960 in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Action taken by Kennedy when King was arrested on October 19, 1960; Remarks from Clayborne Carson, director of the King Papers Project on King's speech.