UC PresidentMark Yudofhas opposed

increasingpensions forthe system’s

highest-paidemployees.

executives are threatening tosue unless UC agrees to spendtens of millions of dollars todramatically increase retire-ment benefits for employees

By Nanette AsimovCHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

Three dozen of the Universi-ty of California’s highest-paid

earning more than $245,000.“We believe it is the Universi-

ty’s legal, moral and ethicalobligation” to increase the ben-efits, the executives wrote the

Board of Regents in a Dec. 9letter and position paper ob-tained by The Chronicle.

“Failure to do so will likelyresult in a costly and unsuc-cessful legal confrontation,”they wrote, using capital letters

UC execs demand millionsSuit threatened unless retirement benefits are raised

Benefits continues on A12

Sporting Green1 49ers Q&A: Jed York sayshe’ll let the new GM makethe football decisions. B1

1Cardinal turnaround:How Stanford went from 1-11to 11-1 and a BCS bowl. B1

TOP OF THE NEWS

World/Nation Bay Area

Business Report

Datebook1Ancient teeth: An archaeol-ogist says 400,000-year-oldteeth in Israel could upsettheories of human origins. A2

1Two men hanged: Iranexecutes an accused spy and amember of militant group. A3

1Deadly fire: Homelesssquatters die in New Orleansas flames sweep through anabandoned warehouse. A5

1 Ski lift fails: Eight peopleare hospitalized after a liftderails and tosses them intothe snow at a Maine resort. A6

1 Season of Sharing: A Val-lejo woman and her threedaughters get the help theyneed to move to a safer neigh-borhood. C1

1Turf war: A new statestudy may ease the concerns ofcritics of the artificial turfbeing installed in S.F. C1

1War of words: Locked ina lawsuit in Ecuador, Chev-ron releases documents writ-ten by the other side’s law-yers. D1

1Court fight: Mark Hurdintervenes in HP suit. D1

1How-to resolu-tions: A do-it-your-selfer offers ways tobecome more self-reliant in 2011, liketaking a bike repairworkshop, left. E1

1Dog days again:The saga of Comocontinues as the dogwith a distaste formen — including hisowner — is forced toshare a room withhis master. E1

SFGate.com | Wednesday, December 29, 2010 | Printed on recycled paper

California’s Best Large Newspaperas named by the California Newspaper Publishers Association | $1.00Gxxxxx•

Weather

Morning showers,

then partly cloudy.

Highs: 47-52.

Lows: 31-41. B8

Index

Auto Dealers . . . B4

Bridge, Chess . . . E7

Comics . . . . . . E6-E7

Crosswords. E6-E7

Editorials . . . . . . . A11

Horoscope . . . . . . E6

Lottery. . . . . . . . . . . A2

Market Report . D4

Movies . . . . . . E3-E4

Obituaries . . . . . . C6

Television . . . . . . . E3

Theater . . . . . . . . . . E2

By Peter FimriteCHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

The Sierra Nevada is look-ing pretty after weeks of heavysnowfall, and skiers and snow-boarders aren’t the only onesadmiring the view.

California’s water managerswere optimistic after Tuesday’strek into the powdery wilder-ness to survey the state’s fro-zen water supply.

The water content of thesnow in the Sierra is nearly200 percent of average for lateDecember, according to mea-surements taken manually andelectronically throughout thestate.

“It’s good,” said FrankGehrke, the chief snow survey-or for the California Depart-ment of Water Resources, afterfinishing the measurement at

Off to a good, snowy start

WATER SUPPLY

89

89

28

SouthLake Tahoe

Stateline

50

50

0 5

M I L E S Tahoe

City

Meyers

FallenLeafLake

EmeraldBay

Lake

Tahoe

Phillips Station

NEV.CALIF.

Note: Charts show readings taken either in late December of the year shown or in early January of the following year.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

’10’08’06’040

10

20

30

40

50

60

’10’08’06’04

55.9 inches

19 inches

Snow depth Water content

Source: California Department of Water Resources

Measurements taken at the 6,800-foot-elevation

Phillips Station (scales in inches):

Todd Trumbull / The Chronicle

Phillips Station snow level

Right: ThomasSgarlato-Campi,13, of Los Gatos

enjoys Adven-ture Mountain

Snow Park.

Survey findssouthern Sierrais the wettest

Snow continues on A8

Top: FrankGehrke

conducts thefirst snow

survey of theseason at

Phillips Station.

Photos by Michael Macor / The Chronicle

By Kelly ZitoCHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

More than 80 years after thelast wild wolf in Californiawas captured in Lassen Coun-ty, a conservation group wantsthe federal government toreinstate the species in theGolden State and other areaswhere they ranged historically.

The gray wolf is alreadymaking a comeback in theSouthwest, the Great Lakesregion and the northern RockyMountains, where the federalgovernment manages theirrecovery in three separateprograms.

But the Center for BiologicalDiversity says the Departmentof the Interior’s plans coveronly a small fraction of thecanine’s former range, and itwants the government to draw

WILDLIFE

Group wantswolves backin California

Wolf continues on A12

By Jill TuckerCHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

Kitty Lam thinks it’s more likely the explo-sion that sank the battleship Maine in Cuba’sHavana harbor in 1898 was an accident ratherthan an act of sabotage by Spain.

While the cause is still a historical mystery,Lam says that documents she has read, in-cluding contemporary “Remember the Maine”news reports that looked to use the deadlyblast to promote war against Spain, promptedher to look deeper into the incident.

Lam, however, isn’t a historian. She’s a high

EDUCATION

How S.F. studentsare getting lessonsfrom Stanford

Lessons continues on A8

Only in The Chronicle

1 Stories with this logo can be foundonly in The Chronicle’s print and e-editionsat this time. They will be available atsfgate.com beginning Friday. E-editionscan be purchased at sfgate.com/ZKFB.

Gray wolfDescription:

Some have

grizzled coats,

others are

black, light

brown, gray or

white.

Habitat: All in

the Northern

Hemisphere

except tropical

forests.

Diet: They are

carnivores,

preying on elk,

caribou, deer,

beavers, hares.

Source: SmithsonianNational ZoologicalPark

1 East Coast blizzard: Confusion and frustration mount in

New York City as snow continues to snarl travel. A6

1 Bay Area rain: An intense storm packing a wet punch

will be short-lived, forecasters say. C1

The Chronicle

SEASON OFSHARINGA donation coupon is on Page C8

Laura Morton / Special to The Chronicle

EVERY FLOOR In-Stock is on Saleon Sale

Must be picked up or delivered by Friday, December 31st!

Every store has been authorized to make deals on in-stock flooring

1501 Adrian Road

Burlingame, CA 94010

(650) 204-4663

2997 Teagarden St

San Leandro, CA 94577

(510) 524-7800

1061 Eastshore Hwy

Albany, CA 94710

(510) 292-4052

1575 Terminal Ave

San Jose, CA 95112

(408) 463-6300

110 2nd Ave S, Unit A-1

Pacheco, CA 94553

(925) 231-1059

First come, first served. Product prices and availability

are subject to change without notice. New orders only.

A8 | Wednesday, December 29, 2010 | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com GXXXXX

Don’t miss your chance to own complete copies of The Chronicle’scoverage of the 2010 Giants World Series victory.» Limited numbers of the championship and commemorative newspapers are available,

along with a small supply of front-page t-shirts.

Please allow four to six weeks for delivery. No international orders accepted. Shipping to United Statesaddresses only. Different orders must be placed for different shipping addresses.

Last chance to own a piece of history –

San Francisco Chronicle’s World Series Collectors Editions

» Get yours before they’re gone! Visit SFGate.com/championsFor more information, call 1-800-310-2455

Starting At$700While SuppliesLast

FROM THE COVER

school junior.But the 16-year-old is learn-

ing U.S. history like a historianat San Francisco’s Lincoln HighSchool, with a curriculumdesigned at Stanford Universi-ty to increase critical thinking,literacy skills and a love ofreading.

The Reading Like a Histori-an curriculum is one of 20 to 30projects linking the schooldistrict and Stanford — bring-ing some of the country’s topacademic minds into urbanclassrooms while offering re-searchers at the elite Peninsulauniversity insight and accessinto K-12 living laboratories.

It’s a “win-win” situation,district and university officialssay, one that brought history tolife for Lam and her classmates.

“As a historian, we look atdocuments to try to get a betteridea of what happened in thepast because we weren’t there,”Lam said, explaining her acci-dental explosion hypothesis.

Tested 3 years agoThe Maine and other lesson

plans included in the StanfordU.S. history curriculum weretested by university research-ers in San Francisco publichigh schools three years agoand proven effective. The les-son plans are now available toteachers across the country, atno cost to them.

“It gives Stanford the ability

to test its theories and ideas inreal-world situations,” saidPhil Halperin, president of theSilver Giving Foundation. TheSan Francisco youth issuesnonprofit pays a full-time staffperson to help coordinate theprojects between the districtand university.

At the same time, the districtis getting free expert analysisand support in evaluating pol-icy and classroom programs toensure teachers and adminis-trators are getting bang forevery precious dollar spent onits schools.

Other joint projects includesoftware to supplement learn-ing for gifted students; expertadvice and grant funding todevelop Russian and Japanese

language programs; and dataanalysis to evaluate Englishlearner programs, as well as thedistrict’s proposed redesign ofits special education programs.

Teacher and principal train-ing is also a big part of the part-nership, which is centered atStanford’s School of Education.

“This could be a nationalphenomenon; there are somany districts next to a univer-sity,” said Laura Wentworth,the partnership’s director at theSilver Giving Foundation.“They don’t capitalize on that.Now San Francisco has reallyrealized that.”

The district also works close-ly with San Francisco StateUniversity and UC Berkeley.

Stanford’s U.S. history cur-

riculum, for example, grew outof a teacher training summerprogram designed to increasestudent understanding of notonly the who, what, when orwhere of the past, but also howto evaluate differing accountsof that past.

Teachers wanted more, in-cluding help with lesson plans.A full year of U.S. history clas-ses grew out of that, said AbbyReisman, a Stanford doctoralcandidate who evaluated thecurriculum for her disserta-tion.

Five San Francisco highschools tested the curriculum,comparing student test scoresand feedback against thosefrom regular U.S. history class-rooms using the state-approved

textbooks.The Stanford lesson plans

included the study of Pocahon-tas and John Smith, includingan analysis of the accuracy inthe Disney movie version ofevents.

By every measure, the Stan-ford curriculum beat out thetraditional classes, includingon standardized test scores,reading comprehension andconfidence in reading, Reismansaid.

“That was very, very cool,”she said. Turns out, “when youput facts in a meaningful con-text, they stick.”

Critical thinkingLincoln history teacher Vale-

rie Ziegler was thrilled.Ziegler said she sees the

results in her student’s ques-tions, curiosity and criticalthinking — something corpo-rate America says it wants andneeds more of from the nextgeneration of workers.

One student recently came inand said she saw something onthe news and questionedwhether it was accurate, Zieg-ler said. It was an aha momentin which the student realizedthis was history in the making,something that needed to beanalyzed and questioned.

“I’ve always known historywas a story,” she said. “But Iwasn’t sure how to teach that.”

E-mail Jill Tucker atjtucker@sfchronicle.com.

Stanford-designed lessons go way beyond the 3 R’sLessons from page A1

Lance Iversen / The Chronicle

Lincoln HighSchool juniorKitty Lam,recorded asshe takes herhistory final,has gottenlessons incriticalthinking andliterary skillsas part oftaking theReading Likea Historianclass, whichhas itscurriculumdesigned byStanfordUniversity.

historic Phillips Station offHighway 50 south of Lake Ta-hoe. “It’s definitely drier northand progressively wetter as wego central and then south, butit’s an encouraging start.”

The water content of thewinter snowpack is a crucialgauge for water managersaround the state. Up to 60 per-cent of the state’s water is con-tained in the Sierra snowpack.When it melts in the spring andsummer, the water is used toirrigate millions of acres offarmland and quench the thirstof California’s 36 million people.About a quarter of the state’spower comes from hydroelec-tric plants that count on heavymountain runoff.

Big numbersThe water content Tuesday

was 158 percent of normal atPhillips. That’s almost twice ashigh as last year at this time. It isnevertheless lower than theoverall average for both thenorthern and central Sierra,which measured 169 percentand 180 percent of normal,according to department statis-tics.

The wettest area is the south-ern Sierra, which is blanketedin heaping piles of ice and snow.The water content in the southis 261 percent of average, anextravagant profusion by any

measure. “It’s going to certainly be a

help to the city of Los Angelesbecause they get their watersupply out of the Owens Val-ley,” Gehrke said. “It will spillover to Kings, Kaweah and theKern rivers, which will be look-ing pretty good because they arein the southern Sierra region.It’s tremendous for places likeFresno and Bakersfield and forCentral Valley agriculture.”

Still, despite all the snow andrainfall in California, Gov. Ar-nold Schwarzenegger has notyet declared an end to thedrought.

Sandy Cooney, the spokes-man for the California NaturalResources Agency, said theemergency drought declaration— made by the governor in 2008— will remain in effect untilthere is an executive order toend it.

“Our situation when it comesto water is so precarious that weshould probably remain in adrought situation until we canfigure out how we can betterdeliver water to the entire state,”Cooney said. “We’re in such aworld of hurt that perhaps thereis logic that we always remain ina drought situation. Clearly thenext governor will have thisissue at the top of his list.”

David Rizzardo, who headsthe water department’s snowsurveys section, said one cannotadequately gauge how much

water will be available duringthe year from the first wintermeasurement.

That is especially the casethis winter, he said, becauseCalifornia is in the midst ofwhat is called a La Niña weatherpattern, which often meansearly rains and cold weatherfollowed by dry conditions inthe late winter and spring.

The opposite happened lastwinter, when El Niño was in

effect. There was less snow thannormal at this time in the Sierra,Rizzardo said, but relentlessstorms later more than made upfor it.

Plenty of water is currentlysloshing around in most of thestate’s reservoirs, includingHetch Hetchy. But Lake Oro-ville, the primary storage reser-voir for the State Water Project,is only at 59 percent of capacity.That’s because the Feather

River watershed, which sup-plies the lake, has not gotten asmuch precipitation as otherareas.

The Department of WaterResources, which supplieswater from the Sacramento-SanJoaquin River Delta to some 25million Californians and750,000 acres of agriculturalland, is also required to leave acertain amount of space behindthe dam — from 10 to 20 percentof capacity — for flood-controlpurposes and to release water tohelp the fish.

Shasta at 75% of capacityShasta Lake, which is part of

the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-tion’s Central Valley Project andis the largest reservoir in thestate, is currently at 75 percentof capacity.

The department, which isgrappling with a booming statepopulation, aging infrastruc-ture and ongoing battles overwater deliveries, expects todeliver 50 percent of the waterthat cities and agencies haverequested in 2011. Perpetuallypessimistic water managerssaid the number could rise orfall depending on the whims ofMother Nature.

“The whole Sierra has gottena great start — no ifs, ands orbuts about that — but you neverknow what the future holds,”Rizzardo said. “It’s like whenyou are a kid and you see theChristmas presents under thetree. You go over and shake yourgift and think you know what itis, but you’re never really sureuntil you actually open it.”

E-mail Peter Fimrite atpfimrite@sfchronicle.com.

Good signs forwater supplySnow from page A1

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Jade Murray and Kenny Takeshita of San Jose catch snowballsthrown by their parents at Adventure Mountain Snow Park.