Ben Tom, the cool, confident, 54-year-old incumbent on the San Francisco Board of Education who raised $27,000 four years ago to win election to the $100-a-month post, admits that contributions have been harder to come by in his reelection campaign because of the abundance of candidates. He also allows that a coalition of disgruntled teachers and parents are seeking to oust all the incumbents in the race. But despite these setbacks which he regards as minor, Tom talks and acts like a man assured ofvictory on November4. And for good reason: even his severest critics claim that Ben Tom is the most decent and capable board member up for reelection. "When people scream at you as if you're the devil himself, it makes you wonder," sighed Tom, during alate afternoon interview at a coffeeshop where he munched a sandwich between questions. "There are those who blame the board for some of the fiscal problems of the schools. For example, we're notal- allowed to have a deficit budget under

Secretary of State March Fong Eu announced that for the first time since 1952, a referendum has qualified for a statewide election ballot. Because there is alarge Asian population in California, this referendum directly effects the Asian American communities.The referendum measure is to repeal the Peripheral Canal Bill and was filed with the Attorney General's office in July this year by a non-profit, non-partisan organization called Californias for Responsible Government.The Peripheral Canal Bill (SB 200) was passed to authorize construction of the canal and other dams and waterfacilities. The canalis a43 mile long, 400 foot wide diversion of the Sacramento River. Over70 percent of the flow from the Sacramento River would be channeled from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the present aqueduct that carries water from northern California to southern California. The water would be used to irrigate farmland in Kern County and provide residential water for southern California. Secretary of State March Fong Eu reported she has received reports from39 of the state's 58 counties and no further checking will be required for the remaining counties because "the total of projected valid signatures on the Peripheral Canal Referendum, legally titled the Water Facilities Referendum Statute, is 497,666, well over the 346,119 required to place the measure before the voters."Ms. Eu explained that the effect of the qualification of the measure is to suspend enactment of SB 200 until the voters have an opportunity to express their wishes. That chance would come in June of 1982 unless the Governor calls a special election prior to that date.If voters vote "yes" they will be asking that SB 200 be enacted as passed by the Legislature, and if they vote "no," they will be voting against construction of new facilities of the Central Valley Project, including a Peripheral Canal unit.Those in favor of the Canal claim that it is necessary to mainiain adequate water supplies to the population centers of southern California and that it is the only way to ensure that the taps will'not run dry. Proponents of SB 200 say that there is a serious water shortage in southern California and the only way to solve the problem is to divert more northern California water. They say this diversion will not seriously harm people in the northern part of the state.Those against the Canal claim that a close examination of the facts will show that the multi-billion dollar public water venture threatens not only North Coast rivers but the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay aswell. Then there is the obvious strain on the Californian's pocketbook.The Delta is known as one of the most important wildlife areason the West coast. Commercially, that area supplies bass, salmon, and trout. Rerouting water around the Delta involves the risk of saltwater intrusion into farmlands and endangers the natural flushing action that keeps the San Francisco Bay from being a serious pollution area.An estimated$8 billion tax dollars will have to pay for the completion of the canal and its associated facilities. Proponents claim costs will eventually be recovered by user fees.Another aspect of the Canal that voters are urged to consider is the energy cost. The State Water Project uses about four billion kilowatt hours of electricity and is California's largest single consumer. When the Canalis completed, the same State Water Project will have touse use10 billion kilowatt hours per year. This could lead to a big increase in energy costs which would result in higher utility rates and energy scarcity.Those who wish to obtain more information regarding the referendum may contact two people Ms. Eu has included in her report:Attorney David Miller of San Francisco, tel. 362-8254 and Lorrell Long of Sacramento, tel. (916) 442-5352.

Fuji Television, the Japanese weekend program dropped from Channel20 when the station was sold to Jim Gab-bert last month, reappeared on local airwaves October26 when it began anew Sunday schedule on KTSF-TV Channel 26. Each Sunday, Fuji Television is now broadcast from9 am to1 pm. Fuji-TV president Christopher Hirose has signed a one-year contract with the station.A civil lawsuit filed by Fuji-TV to block the cancellation of its program on Channel 20 is now in Superior Court in San Francisco.Judge Ira Brown denied Hirose a preliminary injunction on October 13. Fuji-TV issuing Channel 20, its new owner, and its former ownder for breach of contract. There were nine months remaining on the old contract when Jim Gabbert cancelled Fuji-TV along with all other foreign-language programs on October 1.Christopher Akira Hirose, President of Fuji Telecast& Production Co.Channel 26, located in the heart of San, Francisco Chinatown, also carries Tokyo Television programming on Sundays from3 to4 pm and from6 to7 pm. Several months ago the station raised an outcry from Chinese-speaking viewers by m. ing its Overseas Chinese TV (OCTV) pr grams from prime time to the afternoon. OCTV responded by switching to Cable 26, a station available only through the Viacom Company, which controls cable television access in the city.The number of subscribers to Viacom' in Chinatown is very small, partly because Chinatown's landlords don't like to have their buildings drilled and wired for cable. In the city as a whole, cable TV is about to make new inroads as the result of anew plan by which the Viacom Company has agreed to extend its services to residential neighborhoods in exchange for a 20-year extension of its franchise. Via-com presently has about 53,000 subscribers in San Francisco.Elsewhere in California, the pay-tele-vision industry is fighting a legal battle to stop the sale of "black boxes" which decode scrambled signals sent over the air to pay-TV subscribers. Dozens of engineers in California have built their own black boxes, thus eliminating the monthly charges. The "air pirates" have sofar won cases in Los Angeles and Detroit, under the argument that airwaves belong to the general public, and anyone is allowed to tune in to them with their own equipment.

Due to legal technicalities, the public hearing for downtown Oakland's embattled Hong Kong/USA development project has been postponed from October16 to Friday October 31. It will begin at10 am at the City Council chambers at Oakland City Hall, 14th Street at Washington. Members of the public who fill out a speakers' card are invited to address the gathering.If approval for the new plan is granted at the public hearing, construction could startup again during the month of November. Work at the site at 11th Street and Broadway was halted on May 9when funds from the previous contractor, Y.T. Chou of HongKong, ran outas a result of a lawsuit charging him with defrauding two banks for $65 million.