Local Briefs

At approximately 5 p.m., the woman was grabbed and groped by a man who said he had a knife, though none was seen. She broke free and was not injured, according to a Belmont police report.

The man was said to be 20 to 30 with rough, calloused hands and short fingernails, as if they had been chewed. The woman said he spoke slowly, but with an upbeat tone, the report said. He was wearing a light colored sweatshirt and dark pants.

Anyone with any information on the case is asked to call Belmont police at 595-7400 or the anonymous tip line at 598-3000.

Holocaust remembrance refocused

The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation launched an initiative to refocus the intent of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which many Bay Area Jews observed yesterday.

The San Francisco-based group wants the day to recognize not only the suffering Jews endured but also the heroism and resistance that was so central to the holocaust.

More than 35,000 Jews fought the Nazis, sabotaging Nazi operations and staging attacks from the forests and mountains of Europe, the group reports.

The resistance fighters, known as partisans, were often young and many were women.

"If I was going to get killed I wanted to get killed as a fighter and not a Jew," Marin County resident and former partisan Sonia Orbuch said.

Bomb scare at BART

A bomb scare shut down the Embarcadero Bay Area Rapid Transit station in San Francisco yesterday, BART spokesman Jim Allison reported.

A BART ticket agent discovered a suspicious package on top of a trashcan in the north end of the station around 9:20 a.m., according to Allison. The station was closed and trains were rerouted while San Francisco and BART police responded to the situation.

A San Francisco police bomb squad unit X-rayed the package and determined it to be harmless, Allison reported. The station was reopened around 10:35 a.m.

BART service experienced about a 20-minute delay.

Joe Nation to run for Congress

State Assemblyman Joe Nation announced his plans to run for Congress next year at a news conference in Mill Valley yesterday.

Nation made the announcement with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell at his side at the Tamalpais High School softball field yesterday afternoon.

His run for Congress will put him up against fellow Democrat Lynn Woolsey, 6th District congresswoman since 1992. Woolsey earned the support of more than 70 percent of the district's voters in the 2004 election.

Nation now has about 18 months to raise money for his campaign for the congressional seat..

The primary election is slated for June 6, 2006.