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A brown pelican coated in heavy oil tries to take flight, June 4, 2010, on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident is coming ashore in large volumes across southern Louisiana coastal areas.

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UC Berkeley students Ismael Armendariz (left) and Nestor Espinoza pass the time playing chess as they join 22 other hunger strikers camped out in front of California Hall on the UC Berkeley campus Thursday, demanding that UC President Mark Yudof and UC chancellors denounce the Arizona legislation which gives law enforcement broad powers to detain people they suspect of being in the country illegally.

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(05-13) 13:23 PDT BERKELEY — With the blessings of ceremonial dancers, a group of UC Berkeley students ended a 10-day hunger strike Wednesday while negotiators met with the chancellor over the status of illegal immigrants and student demonstrators.

Soon afterward, students and Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced some modest agreements on undocumented university employees and student discipline.

About 20 hunger strikers, mostly students, had camped out in front of the school’s administration building since May 3. Their initial protest target was Arizona’s new immigration law, which requires police to stop and question anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Birgeneau quickly complied with the protesters’ first demand – to denounce the law. But he balked at their proposals to declare the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, rehire laid-off janitors and drop disciplinary charges against students who occupied or vandalized buildings last fall to protest rising fees.

Campus officials had met with strikers four times, without results. Birgeneau agreed to an in-person meeting Wednesday if the students would call off the strike. They agreed out of concern for their health, said Horacio Corona, a senior and organizer.

The demonstration ended in a display of Berkeley multiculturalism.

One protester blessed his cohorts’ corn cobs, for their connection to Mother Earth. Four dancers dressed as cornstalks, including one of the strikers, twirled and gestured ceremonially to a percussion beat.

Fifteen strikers then munched on the corn, to the cheers of about 150 supporters. A 16th student, Alejandro Lara-Briseсo, who was too weak to stand but told the crowd he would continue fasting until he visits a sister in Arizona next Thursday and gets her approval.

Shortly afterward, negotiators, including another striker, emerged from a two-hour meeting with Birgeneau and his aides and said the chancellor had addressed most of their demands.

“We emerged with a much broader understanding of their concerns and a strong commitment to work together,” said Claire Holmes, a university spokeswoman.

Specifically, she said Birgeneau agreed that a task force previously established to review concerns of students in the United States illegally would broaden its scope to include campus employees.

While the school could not legally promise not to cooperate with federal immigration officials, Holmes said, the chancellor emphasized that looking into the immigration status of students and workers is “not a priority for our Police Department.”

Birgeneau also promised to review UC Berkeley’s code of conduct, the basis for disciplinary charges against dozens of students in last year’s protests, and to consider resolving the charges by requiring community service rather than suspensions or other punishments.

A community service agreement is “what we were aiming for,” said Marco Amaral, a spokesman for the protesters.

Meanwhile, final exams loom, irrespective of protests and even hunger strikes. A third-year history major, who declined to give his name, said he felt light-headed from lack of food but would turn in a 15-page paper today while studying for finals.

“We’re still students,” he said. “We can multitask.”

This story has been changed since it appeared in print.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C – 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Elysa Yanowitz says she was happy to have the one-time radiation treatment at UCSF as part of the study. Researchers say more time is needed to measure the effectiveness of the approach.

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Women undergoing breast cancer treatment get just as much benefit from a one-time hit of radiation directed into the tumor site as they would from an extended, daily regimen of radiation over the entire breast, according to research released today.

The international study, which involved more than 2,200 patients worldwide and 93 women at UCSF, showed that four years after treatment, the chance of having a recurrence of cancer was about the same for both radiation methods. The study looked at women with early breast cancer who were treated with surgery to remove a tumor.

The benefit of a one-time, direct-hit radiation treatment is primarily convenience – women would be treated while under sedation, immediately after having a tumor removed, and they probably would avoid a lengthy regimen of daily radiation treatment.

“This is the next step in opening up a broader range of options for women,” said Dr. Michael Alvarado, a surgical oncologist at UCSF and one of the study authors. “We’ve been doing radical radiation for 20 years, and it’s time to realize not all women fit the same paradigm.”

The major drawback of the study, said doctors and breast cancer research advocates, is that it was able to follow women for only four years after their cancer was diagnosed. It’s not unusual for cancers to reoccur after eight or more years, and it’s possible that further study will show small but significant differences in recurrence rates between the two radiation treatment options, oncologists said.

Follow-up needed

“This is a major, landmark study,” said Dr. Robert Carlson, an oncologist with the Stanford Cancer Center. “But it probably needs follow-up of eight to 10 years.”

The study, results of which were published today in the Lancet, started in 2000 and included women from nine countries. Participants were randomly assigned to get either the new one-time, targeted radiation therapy or the standard weeks-long therapy. About 15 percent of the women who got the targeted therapy ended up also getting the extended therapy because of hospital protocols.

With the targeted therapy, a rod was inserted into the area of the breast where a tumor was removed, which is the most likely spot for a recurrence of cancer. Radiation was applied through the tip of the rod for 20 to 35 minutes. With extended therapy, radiation was applied to the entire breast for about 15 to 20 minutes. Extended therapy lasted five days a week for three to seven weeks.

There were six recurrences of cancer in the targeted therapy group and five recurrences in the extended therapy group, which is not a statistically significant difference. Both groups also reported about the same number of complications from radiation, including infections; breakdown of the skin or delayed healing in the area that was treated; and pain in the breast or nearby areas. Such complications are rare.

Breast cancer research advocates said they are encouraged by the results, but they noted that the targeted treatment is years away from becoming standard practice and is not available to most women.

“The first thing I would point out is caution: This is not ready for prime time yet,” said Barbara Brenner, executive director of Breast Cancer Action, a San Francisco advocacy group. “I’d like to see 10-year data on this therapy, and I’m sure the scientists would too.

“But I think this is hopeful. A lot of people will jump at this treatment if it’s available. Many women would choose to get it over with, if they were confident that they would not be sacrificing anything in terms of outcome.”

Happy to participate

Elysa Yanowitz, for one, was thrilled to be included in the study at UCSF. She was diagnosed with breast cancer two months ago, at the same time that her mother was becoming increasingly ill with ALS. Yanowitz said she was distraught at the idea of visiting her mother in the hospital every day on top of getting her own radiation.

She was randomly selected to get the one-time radiation therapy. Yanowitz had the tumor removed and got the radiation last Friday, and now she feels relieved to have the treatment behind her.

“I didn’t physically or psychologically have the strength to deal with daily radiation,” said Yanowitz, 63. “I broke down and cried when they told me I might be able to get it done in one day.”

E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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(05-17) 06:51 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) –

Pitching President Barack Obama’s health care law to skeptical business owners, the IRS on Monday will announce ground rules for small firms wishing to claim a new federal tax credit for health insurance.

Created under the health overhaul law, the tax credit covers up to 35 percent of the premiums that certain small businesses pay on behalf of their workers. The IRS notice addresses unanswered questions about the benefit, which is available starting this year.

The agency’s action comes days after the nation’s largest small business lobbying group announced it was joining a lawsuit challenging the health care law. The National Federation of Independent Business argues that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by imposing a requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance either through an employer, a government program or buying it directly.

The IRS notice clarifies that employers can apply the credit toward dental and vision benefits, not just medical coverage. A fact sheet released by the Treasury Department also says that employers can claim the federal benefit even if they receive state tax credits for their insurance premiums.

The White House estimates up to 4 million small businesses may qualify for the tax credit, but it’s not clear how many will be eligible. To begin with, they have to provide health insurance — and many small employers don’t. To qualify, companies must pay at least 50 percent of their workers’ premiums.

Eligibility is also limited by company size and wages. A firm has to have fewer than 25 full-time workers averaging less than $50,000 a year in pay.

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(06-04) 14:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police say they have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run rampage Wednesday night in which four bicyclists were injured.

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Police Chief George Gascуn called a news conference for 4:30 p.m. Police declined to give out information ahead of time.

Investigators have said the Nissan Rogue crossover sport utility vehicle driven by the suspect in Wednesday’s attacks in the Mission District and Potrero Hill was registered to an address in Berkeley.

Three of the victims from the attacks are still hospitalized but are expected to recover. The fourth was treated at the scene and released.

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A group of San Francisco parents is hoping to take the fight over the school assignment system to the ballot box this fall, starting a petition drive that would require the district to let students attend the school closest to home.

How San Francisco Unified assigns students to schools has long been a battleground among parents and politicians.

The school board recently adopted a new system that would consider proximity to a school, but not as the top priority. The new assignment policy would give first pick (after siblings and those attending public preschool at the select school) to students living in census tracts where test scores are low. Yep, it’s complicated, but meant to ultimately help reduce segregation.

Students First will start collecting signatures at 10 a.m. today at Taraval Station, 2345 24th Ave.

- Jill Tucker

A public rebuke: Supervisor David Campos on Tuesday introduced a proposed charter amendment he is co-sponsoring for the November ballot that would give the Board of Supervisors appointments to the Municipal Transportation Agency Board and blunt the mayor’s control.

Two days later, he was chastising the Muni governing board’s chairman, Tom Nolan.

Campos used as his springboard an audit released last week that found no evidence that the board discussed the issue of overtime in the past two years.

The auditor said Muni produced a report on overtime in the spring of 2009, but that there was nothing in the minutes from commission meetings to show it was discussed.

“Shouldn’t we worry about that?” Campos asked Nolan during a supervisors’ budget committee hearing. “That in overseeing a $750 million operation that essentially counts for the largest amount of overtime expended by the city, that its board of directors wouldn’t have that on its agenda and actually discuss it?”

Nolan said the commission was briefed by staff on Muni’s overtime issues, but he couldn’t remember if it was in writing or verbal, in closed session or in a public forum, or exactly when. But, he assured Campos that the commission is on top of the issue.

“If you just focus (on) that issue and look at how the governing board has addressed that issue as a test of its ability to provide meaningful independent oversight, I respectfully submit that it has failed,” Campos said.

Nolan took exception to Campos’ assessment of the transportation board’s performance.

“Nobody who has attended a board meeting over the past five months can say that we have not been focused on budget and financial matters,” Nolan said.

- Rachel Gordon

The Native Son: Our hats’ off to Chronicle colleague Carl Nolte, who will be honored by the San Francisco Forum with its “Armond DeMartini San Franciscan of the Year Award.”

The all-male organization, with 49 members (think San Francisco 49ers or the San Francisco 49-mile Scenic Drive) was established in 1975 to celebrate and promote “the great traditions of San Francisco,” said board member and past president Marcel Kapulica. Nolte, he said, fits the bill.

The honor will be awarded Thursday at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club in North Beach.

Nolte now writes the Chronicle’s Native Son column that gives readers a taste of San Francisco neighborhoods and the people who make them special. He has been with the paper since 1961. (That just happens to be 49 years.)

“I’ve done everything at The Chronicle except run it,” Nolte wrote in USF Magazine, published by his alma mater. “I’ve been an editor (low grade, specializing in grunt work), taken pictures, worked as a reporter. I’ve written about fires, baseball, murders, bank robberies, politics, shipwrecks, history, and assorted silly stuff.”

And, we add, kept readers informed, amused and wowed for nearly five decades.

- Rachel Gordon

E-mail the City Insider team at cityinsider@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Supervisor David Campos pushes for a boycott of Arizona businesses.

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took a symbolic jab at Arizona Tuesday for passing a controversial law last month that gives law enforcement authorities in the Grand Canyon State broad powers to check a person’s immigration status.

Critics fear the law will lead to racial profiling.

San Francisco supervisors, on a 10-1 vote, approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for a boycott of Arizona-based businesses. It asks for, but does not demand, that city departments refrain from entering into new contracts or extending existing ones with companies headquartered in Arizona, unless severing those ties would result in significant costs to the city or violate other laws.

“This is really about sending a very clear message that when a state passes a law that is egregious as this law is, that people of good conscience in other parts of the country have an obligation and responsibility to speak up and not remain silent,” said Supervisor David Campos, chief sponsor of the legislation.

He said San Francisco is not acting alone. Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago and El Paso, Texas, also are contemplating similar statements.

San Francisco’s resolution also calls on pro and college sports leagues to not hold any championship games or tournaments in Arizona and backs the city attorney’s decision to offer legal support to challenge the law.

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd cast the lone vote against Campos’ call for a boycott of Arizona businesses, but backed the remainder of the resolution.

Mayor Gavin Newsom already has condemned Arizona’s law but he has not decided whether to sign the board’s resolution, said his spokesman, Tony Winnicker. He will not veto the legislation. Winnicker added that the mayor already has directed city employees, except for law enforcement or public health purposes, not to travel to Arizona on official business. Newsom has also asked that a task force study a boycott of Arizona-based business.

- Rachel Gordon

Polling power: Mayor Gavin Newsom has a commanding 21 percentage point lead over Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, according to a new poll from Newsom’s campaign.

It’s only internal numbers, so a grain of salt is in order here. But Hahn’s camp has been lobbing grenades at Newsom recently, which political pundits point out typically happens when you’re losing and playing catch-up.

The new poll from Tulchin Research showed Newsom leading 47 percent to 26 percent for Hahn, with 27 percent undecided. The statewide telephone poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

It was released the same day Hahn’s camp announced it had submitted a public records request to Newsom’s office demanding information about when Newsom first became aware of Deborah Madden, the civilian technician suspected of skimming drugs from the San Francisco police crime lab. The lab’s narcotics section has been closed and hundreds of criminal cases dropped because of the investigation into Madden.

- John Cotй

E-mail the City Insider team at cityinsider@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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(06-04) 14:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police say they have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run rampage Wednesday night in which four bicyclists were injured.

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Police Chief George Gascуn called a news conference for 4:30 p.m. Police declined to give out information ahead of time.

Investigators have said the Nissan Rogue crossover sport utility vehicle driven by the suspect in Wednesday’s attacks in the Mission District and Potrero Hill was registered to an address in Berkeley.

Three of the victims from the attacks are still hospitalized but are expected to recover. The fourth was treated at the scene and released.

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Markus Schreiber / AP

German President Horst Koehler announces his resignation following criticism about remarks he made on German military deployments abroad at Bellevue Palce in Berlin, on Monday, May 31, 2010. In a surprise announcement, German President Horst Koehler resigned Monday after being criticized for remarks in which he appeared to link military deployments abroad with the country’s economic interests.

(05-31) 09:26 PDT BERLIN, Germany (AP) –

President Horst Koehler stunned Germans by resigning Monday after being criticized for appearing to link military deployments abroad with the country’s economic interests — creating a new headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The resignation, effective immediately, came a year into Koehler’s second term as the largely ceremonial head of state. Merkel’s center-right alliance installed the former International Monetary Fund boss as president in 2004, and his departure is a symbolic blow.

The speaker of parliament’s upper house — Bremen Mayor Jens Boehrnsen, a member of the opposition Social Democrats — temporarily takes over presidential duties, largely signing legislation into law.

A new president must be elected within 30 days. German politicians now have to figure out quickly who should replace Koehler even as they are preoccupied with trying to make budget cuts amid Europe’s government debt crisis.

“I was surprised by his phone call and I tried to talk him around, but unfortunately I didn’t succeed,” Merkel said. “I think people in Germany will be very sad about this resignation.”

She said that “with his wide international experience, he was an important counselor, particularly in the economic financial crisis — and so of course I will miss that advice in future.”

The resignation comes on top of a much-criticized start for Merkel’s second-term government, an embarrassing state election loss in May, the euro debt crisis — complete with two unpopular rescue packages — and a prominent conservative state governor’s resignation.

“It is a difficult situation for Merkel,” said Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University. “It is not clear whether she will be able to push through her own candidate.”

The president is chosen by a special assembly of lower-house lawmakers and representatives of Germany’s 16 states, in which the center-right is expected to have a majority. Merkel gave no hints on a possible successor. The post is supposed to be above the political fray, traditionally functioning as the nation’s moral voice.

Koehler, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, cited a week of criticism over a radio interview he gave following a visit to German troops in Afghanistan.

In that broadcast, he said for a country with Germany’s dependency on exports, military deployments could be “necessary … in order to defend our interests, for example free trade routes.”

That was taken by many as relating to Germany’s unpopular mission in Afghanistan, although his office later said he was referring to anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia.

Germans are often uneasy about deployments abroad, given the country’s militaristic past, and the mission in Afghanistan makes many particularly uncomfortable.

Opposition politicians had urged Koehler, 67, to take back the remarks and accused him of damaging public acceptance of German military missions abroad.

“I regret that my comments in an important and difficult question for our nation were able to lead to misunderstandings,” a strained-looking Koehler told reporters at the president’s Bellevue palace.

Koehler complained that some critics suggested he supported “missions that are not covered by the constitution.”

“This criticism lacks any basis,” Koehler said in a statement delivered alongside his wife, Eva Luise. “It also is lacking in the necessary respect for the presidential office.”

He added “it was an honor to serve Germany as federal president” then walked off without taking questions.

Koehler positioned himself as an outsider to the political elite and long enjoyed high popularity ratings. He occasionally refused to sign bills into law due to constitutional concerns and didn’t always make himself popular with the government. Last year, he described financial markets as a “monster” that hadn’t yet been tamed.

The controversy over his military remarks had appeared to be petering out.

Sigmar Gabriel, the opposition Social Democrats’ leader, suggested Koehler had felt he wasn’t getting enough support from his own center-right colleagues. Koehler’s comments on the military were “unfortunate” but no reason to quit, he said.

U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy voiced “deep regret.”

Frankfurt’s DAX stock index appeared unaffected, and was up nearly 0.6 percent in afternoon trading.

One of Koehler’s predecessors, Heinrich Luebke, stepped down 10 weeks before his term ended in 1969.

___

Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

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May 21 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation that would create a consumer protection agency, strengthen oversight of derivative trading and ban proprietary trading at banks.

The Senate’s 59-39 vote yesterday sends the legislation into negotiations designed to reconcile differences with the House bill approved in December.

“When this bill becomes law, the joyride on Wall Street will come to a screeching halt,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said after the vote.

The bill contains measures that would have a profound impact on the U.S. financial industry, creating a mechanism for liquidating large failing financial firms and a council of regulators to monitor companies for threats to the economy. Among the strongest provisions is a plan to force banks to wall off their derivatives-trading operations, the subject of fierce lobbying by the industry and opposition from regulators including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

Derivatives language will be one of the matters discussed by House and Senate negotiators. Another will be the proposed consumer protection bureau, which the Senate has placed inside the Fed and would have powers to write and enforce rules banning abusive lending.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who shepherded a financial-overhaul bill through his chamber last year, said in an interview yesterday that he intends to make sure the final bill has a free-standing Consumer Financial Protection Agency, reflecting President Barack Obama’s original proposal.

$150 Billion Fund

Negotiators will have to reconcile differences over a pre- paid $150 billion fund created by the House bill to cover the government’s cost of unwinding a failing firm. The Senate bill requires the industry to repay the government only after a firm collapses. Frank said yesterday he would not push to keep the industry-financed pre-paid fund in the bill.

“The two bills are very similar, and the House is ready to go to conference to work out the remaining issues,” Frank said in a statement. “I am confident that we can have a bill ready for President Obama’s signature very soon.”

Congressional Democrats moved to overhaul governance of U.S. financial companies in response to the 2008 financial crisis that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The Senate and House measures aim to prevent a repeat of the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout that helped firms including American International Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. weather the worst recession since the 1930s.

‘Hardly Perfect’

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the bill is “hardly perfect” and will be improved in the House-Senate negotiations.

Dodd said he planned to consider strengthening language to ban proprietary trading by U.S. banks. The issue was raised in an amendment offered by Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Carl Levin of Michigan that wasn’t considered during debate of the bill on the Senate floor.

Dodd said he wants to present a revised bill to the Senate before July 4.

Republicans criticized the Senate bill, saying it failed to deal with government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized by the government in 2008. The Republicans also said the consumer financial protection bureau the bill would establish amounts to a massive new bureaucracy.

‘Section-by-Section’

“We hope that we have a conference where we all are participants and that we’re dealing with trying to reconcile the bill section-by-section and come out with a good piece of legislation, but we’ll have to see about that,” Senator Richard Shelby, the banking committee’s top Republican who voted against the bill, said about the House-Senate talks.

Senate Republicans largely stuck together in opposing the bill. Four voted with the Democrats, including Senator Charles Grassley, who became the first Republican to break ranks when he voted for the derivatives bill in committee.

“It was important and essential to engage in fundamental reform of financial institutions at this moment,” Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican who backed the bill, told reporters after the vote. “The American people have to have the confidence that we’re rectifying many of the issues that really contributed to putting our economy on the precipice.”

The Obama administration welcomed the vote.

“The House and Senate have now each passed strong bills that protect consumers, limit risk-taking by large institutions and address the problem of ‘too-big-to-fail,’” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.

Obama’s Outline

The Senate measure adopts priorities Obama outlined last June for strengthening financial rules. It allows the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take apart failing financial firms in an orderly way if their collapse could threaten the economy.

The legislation would push most of the $615 trillion in over-the-counter derivatives to be processed, or cleared, with a third party.

Derivatives are contracts whose value is derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in interest rates or the weather.

The derivatives language, offered by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, also contains one of the most contentious issues of the Senate debate — the measure that would require commercial banks to wall off their swaps-trading operations.

–With assistance from James Rowley in Washington. Editors: Gregory Mott, Lawrence Roberts