Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

Ukiah Daily Br ournal High School wrestling Ukiah, Willits dominate 4 1993, Donrey Media Group Monday, December 13, 1993 12 pages Volume 133 Number 205 25 cents tax included MENDOCINO COUNTY'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER DAILY SPOTLIGHT Days Until Christmas Ambulance volunteer honored in Boonville Longtime Boonville resident Larry Gaffney was recently honored for 20 years of work for the Anderson Valley Ambulance Service. Gaffney worked to organize the service in 1973, At that time he and two other volunteers used a Pontiac station wagon to transport people in need. Carl Kin ion and Dave Perkins were the other two volunteers in the early days. Gaffney got his initial ambulance training in the merchant marines in the late 1920s. Today he is still involved in disaster planning for the Anderson Valley region-and spends his time urging local groups to get involved, although he noted few people are interested because there has never been a disaster.

BRIEFLY The Daily Journal is now taking letters to Santa Glaus. Children (and adults) wishing to mail their letters to Santa can do so between 8 a.m. snd 6 p.m. at the Daily Journal office on 590 S. School St.

Air Force Airman Chad E. Reindahl has graduated from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Chad is the son of Ken and Carrie Reindahl of Ukiah. DAILY 3: 4, 1. CORRECTION The Ukiah Dally Journal this apace to correct or make clarifications to Significant In oWluarleo or birth will result In reprinting of the entire Hem.

may be reported to the editorial department, 468-3500. JOURNAL PHONES Main Numbers 468-3500, 468-0123 Circulation Number 468-3533 Classified Numbers 468-3535, 468-3536 WEATHER Outlook: Rain Temperatures Yesterday's high 51 Overnight low 35 Last year's high 53 Last year's low 31 Rainfall As of 8 a.m. today .00 Season to 6.03 Last year to 12.80 The Dally Journal Is made from at least 40 percent recycled newsprint, Rub-free Ink Is also used to keep the Ink on the paper Instead of your hands. Complete the loop and recycle your paper. Vichy Springs residents to switch fire services By K.C.

MEADOWS Journal staff writer The city of Ukiah has given a three-year notice to residents in the Vichy Springs area that they will be switched to the Ukiah Valley Fire District for fire services. In letters to the developers of Vichy Springs, the homeowners association, and the Vichy Springs Resort, Mayor Fred Schneiter explains that the city agreed to contract to provide fire services to the developing area back in 1987 because the UVFD did not extend to that area at the time. "However, since 1991, this (Vichy Springs) area has been annexed to the Ukiah Valley Fire District rather than the city of Ukiah," Schneiter wrote. The city now provides the same fire service to the Vichy Springs area that it does to city residents under the 1987 contract. However, the city is concerned that as the Vichy Springs area continues to grow, the city's fire department could find itself committed to a fire outside the city limits when they are needed at a fire in the city.

"Responses to locations farther away from the central core of the city require more time to reach and redeployment of resources to other incidents is not as easy to accomplish," the letter states. "This raises the chance that some day fire department resources could be committed to an incident outside the city when there is also an emergency need inside the city." See DISTRICTS, Back Page Asset forfeiture gutted High Court requires hearing before property can be seized Decision not expected to affect local cases By Journal staff and the Associated Press WASHINGTON The Supreme Court today limited a major weapon in the war on drugs, ruling that people must be given a hearing before their real property may be seized as linked to illegal drug sales. The 5-4 ruling marked the second time in recent months that the high court has reined in the government's power to take over property it contends was involved in a drug crime. "At stake in this and many other forfeiture cases are the security and privacy of the home and those who take shelter within it," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court.

"Unless exigent circumstances are present, the due process clause requires the government to afford notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before seizing real property subject to civil forfeiture," Kennedy said. The high court's ruling will have no effect on drug cases in Mcndoci- no County, according to Deputy District Attorney Kevin Maloney. Maloney handles asscst forfeiture cases for the Mendocino County DA's office. Maloney said the court's ruling was Mendocino County's position on real property. "Even without this decision, we would not seize real estate without having a hearing prior to seizure," Maloney said.

"It just falls in line with the way we've been doing business." Last June, the court ruled that seizures of drug-related property Yeltsin RUSSIAN ELECTIONS Extremists pull ahead of Yeltsin supporters By BARRY RENFREW The Associated Press MOSCOW Extreme nationalists and other opponents of President Boris Yeltsin led in early parliamentary election results today, riding a wave of public anger over the stinging cost of economic reforms. With 25 of Russia's 89 districts reporting, the openly racist Liberal Democrats of Vladimir Zhiri- novsky led with 23 percent of the vote. The main pro-Yeltsin group, Russia's Choice, was second with 12 percent, while two other Yeltsin foes, the Communists and the Women of Russia bloc, followed with 9 percent each. Pro-Yeltsin groups hoped to pull ahead in Moscow and other big cities, where the counting of paper ballots from Sunday's election was slow. But the reformers' chances were fading.

Zhirinovsky, predicting his party would win, called today for a ban on foreign aid, a crackdown on crime and a halt to converting the Russian defense industry to civilian production. He tried to play down his extremist image, saying he would cooperate with Yeltsin. "I am not a fascist," he told reporters. Yeltsin, whose term lasts until 1996, won approval for a new constitution enhancing presidential power, his main objective in Russia's first multiparty elections since the 1917 revolution. VISIT FROM SANTA GLAUS Barbara Daily Journal Christmas party for youngsters Youngsters gathered around Santa Claus Friday at the Cooperative Agencies Resource for Education's Children's Christmas party.

There are 85 children, ages 6 months to 6 years, In the Youngsters told Santa what they wanted for Christmas from a puppy to a bike to a new pair of shoes. Merchants and organizations from thoughout Ukiah donated such things as stockings, coloring books, stick horses and wooden toys for the event. The Mendocino College Choir entertained by singing Christmas carols. Coast sub builders hope to ride economic wave are subject to the Constitution's 8th Amendment protection against excessive fines. Today's decision upheld a federal appeals court ruling that said James Daniel Good of Hawaii was entitled to be notified and given a hearing before his home was seized.

However, the justices unanimously reversed another portion of the ruling that questioned whether the government waited too late to seek the forfeiture, even though it was filed within a five-year time limit set by federal law. Courts cannot dismiss forfeiture actions filed within the five-year limit, the high court said. Good was arrested in 1985 after police found 89 pounds of marijuana and vials of hashish at his house in Keaau on the island of Hawaii. See COURT, Back Page 'Morphin' mania hits youngsters Action figures based on hot kid-vid program By DAVID FOSTER The Associated Press Parents eager to ensure a cool Yule for their kids are snapping up toy versions of teen-agers known for transforming into jumpsuited, karate-kicking superhumans. Say what? Say "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," the hottest new super- heroes on children's TV and, by no coincidence, the most sought-after batch of toys in America this Christmas.

Toymaker Bandai America Inc. is running factories around the clock but still can't meet demand for the 8-inch plastic figures and playtime accessories, all sold separately of course. That leaves parents prowling store aisles, hunting for a toy many had never heard of until it showed up on their kids' Christmas wish lists. "We can't keep them in stock," said Carol Fuller, spokeswoman for Toys Us. "It is one of the best sellers we have in the store." In case you haven't seen the show (most adults haven't), the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are five teen-agers who "morph," or transform, into martial arts superheroes, when they're not facing the everyday challenges of teen-age life, that is.

Aided by a kindly, interdimen- sional sage called Zprdon, the Rangers summon dinosaurs thai "morph" together into a huge battle machine called the Megazord. Then the Rangers hop in and fight monsters sent by the evil witch Rita Repulsa, who wants to rule the world. See MORPHIN, Back Page By CHRIS CALDER for The Journal In a hangar a couple of miles south of Fort Bragg, Dennis Cronin and Phil Travis are building submarines. Cronin, an urchin diver and boat owner, and Travis, a boat-repair whiz, were among those drawn to Fort Bragg in the early 1980s by the area's budding sea urchin industry. The two say now they hope to catch the area's next economic wave: developing and building undersea vehicles.

According to their business partner, that's what the pair of eight- foot fiberglass mini-subs coming together in Cronin's workshop forecasts. Thomas Taylor, owner of a Texas company that's sold about 750 one- and two-person submarines worldwide, says he's picked Fort Bragg as the place to build 52 of what he calls "sea tractors." Taylor says he has a deal to sell the sea tractors to a Mexican company interested in taking deepwater abalone off Baja California. Cronin, Travis and another partner, Nick Marcus, would manufacture the subs at a site off Boise Lane. According to Taylor, 25 army- surplus landing craft will also be refitted as sub-carriers. The work will be done at south Noyo Harbor, he said, where the Petaluma Queen paddlewheel was built in recent years.

Taylor said the first landing craft will arrive by Jan. 1. The land at both sites is already zoned for the activity, and the project will eventually employ 25-30 skilled workers. Taylor's unusual claim is backed up by 15 years in the mini- See SUBS, Back Page David The Duly' Joumil Dennis Cronin and Phil Travis work on a one-person submarine near Fort Bragg..