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Briefs Cloning Cat-astrophe? Frequent Bohemian readers may recall last year's cover story on Marin County-based Genetic Savings and Clone, the company that for $32,000 or so will clone your deceased pet ("PerPetUal Life," May 19, 2004). Now Californians Against Pet Cloning (CAPC) has introduced legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, to ban the sale of cloned and genetically engineered pets in the state. Such legislation is long overdue, says Richard Hayes, executive director of Oakland's Center for Genetics and Society. If you want to open a pet shop or veterinary clinic, Hayes notes, there are numerous state and federal licensing requirements. “But if you want to create cloned kittens, dousing cats with hormones and surgically implanting cloned embryos--over 90 percent of which die--and marketing them at $32,000 each to those grieving over the loss of beloved pet, there's nothing to stop you.” For more info on the downside of pet cloning, go to www.nopetcloning.org. E-Voting Veracity Now that Florida-based technology company Smartmatic has purchased Sequoia Voting Systems (which previously supplied all of the e-voting devices used in Napa County), let's hope the county's registrar of voters quickly upgrades the machines now in service to the type used in Venezuela's referendum election last August. Reactionaries seeking to defeat popular, left-leaning president Hugo Chavez claimed that electronic voting machines had thrown the referendum in Chavez's favor--even after Jimmy Carter gave the election his stamp of approval. Fortunately for the people of Venezuela, the Smartmatic Automated Election System used in the referendum created--imagine this--a paper trail of every vote cast, and the results confirmed that Chavez had indeed won. Talking Zero Trash Sonoma's Central Landfill, which is nearing capacity, has undergone severe challenges recently since its liner leaked. As the county weighs its options, New College of Santa Rosa is sponsoring a free symposium, "Taking Aim at Zero Waste." Panelists include Portia Sinnott of Zero Waste Sonoma County; Paul Palmer, author of the book Getting to Zero Waste; and Linda Christopher and other members of the Sonoma County Local Task Force for Solid Waste. Thursday, April 7, 7to 9pm. New College of Santa Rosa, 99 Sixth St. 7 to 9pm. For more info, call 707.824.4790. [ North Bay | Metroactive Central | Archives ]