Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

GRADUATION Special section June 12, 2005 SID The UKiah In Brief A-2 Class, ads. Obits A-2 Comics Sports A9 Forum A-6 TV Inside Letters Weather $1 tax included Mendocino County's local newspaper Monday: Mostly sunny and warm Tuesday: Sunny to partly cloudy Forest Service unveils firefighting simulator By STEVE GEISSINGER MediaNews Group Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO Dennis Brown thunders through blinding smoke over California in an Army Cobra-gunship attack helicopter, the first just converted to battle wildfires. Using the Cobra's high-tech gear, the U.S. Forest Service aviator sees the raging flames of blazes to come with the official statewide fire-season declaration Monday. He radios data from smoke-piercing infrared gear to tankers and helicopters, ready for drops to save homes.

It all looks real but the Cobra is parked outside. Brown's playing one of several roles in a huge, complex government video game of sorts, which was unveiled Friday. The facility at the former McClellan Air Force Base is the first aerial firefighting simulator where flight controllers and six pilots in different aircraft together attack a wildfire, like in the real world. A series of deadly crashes have prompted moves such as creation of the simulator, part of an aviation safety center under development at McClellan to help the Forest See SIMULATOR, Page A-14 6TH ANNUAL DUBBLE BUBBLE NATIONAL BUBBLE BLOWING CONTEST Big bigger biggest bubbles By LAURA CLARK The Dally Journal was shopping as usual Saturday at Wal-Mart for'those over the age of 12, who were not eligible to participate in the "6th Annual Dubble Bubble National Bubble Blowing Contes't." Younger children, however, were given the opportunity to broaden their shopping experience, if they were in the Ukiah store or any Wal-Mart across America between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., and up for some friendly competition.

The child who blew the biggest diameter bubble, measured with an official Dubble Bubble meter, would, at the local level, win a duffel bag and then come back to the Ukiah Wal-Mart on June 15 for an award ceremony, and also have a shot at going to the national bubble-blowing finals in August. Meanwhile, demonstrator Jean Hoffman, at a table piled with bubble gum on Saturday, recruited young passersby. "Do you kids blow bubbles? OK, chew this, get it soft, and when you are ready to blow bubbles let me know," Hoffman said. Shayla Hloucha, 8, of Ukiah, was up first. As she was preparing to blow her best and biggest bubble, her younger sister, Kiana, 6, was being coached by their mother, Angie Hloucha.

"Are you gonna try? You gotta kind of push your tongue into it and blow some air through it," the shy little girl's mother explained to her. Soon after Shayla's bubble was measured as a "10" on the Dubble Bubble See BUBBLES, PageA-16 Tyltr Dally Journal Ana Lopez, top right, tries to maximize her bubble before It bursts during the Dubble Bubble contest at Wal-Mart Saturday. At right, Jean Hoffman shows off the official Dubble Bubble bubble meter used In the bubble blowing contest. Robbie Scrogglns' bubble bursts before he has a chance to measure It In the Dubble Bubble bubble blowing contest at Wal-Mart Saturday, Education leaders, state officials blast budget cuts By QUINCY CROMER The Daily Journal CITY State Superintendent of Public Instruction' Jack O'Connell, State Treasurer Phii: Angelides, Controller Steve Westly and: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez recently; joined students, teachers and education leaders at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School to demand the governor keep his promise to fully fund education in California. As budget negotiations enter the final stages, last week's event marked the beginning of a renewed statewide effort by constitutional leaders fighting Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, which they say shortchanges Proposition 98 and schoolchildren by $3.1 billion more than $15,000 per classroom. "What's at stake is much more than the $3.1 billion owed our students and our schools," O'Connell said. "What's at stake is Proposition 98 itself and the guarantee of a minimum level of funding for education in See EDUCATION, PageA-16 Brown Act on chopping block? State considers cutting funding for state mandates By JAMES FAULK The Eureka Times-Standard EUREKA State funding to reimburse local government for complying with the Brown Act may get cut as part of the state's overall effort to trim costs, a move that could remove some of the sharper teeth from the public information law. Democratic state Sen. Wes Chesbro of Arcata is on the working group that is examining a bevy of state mandates and their potential costs.

"There were a group of mandates that were sent to a working group," said Chesbro spokeswoman Darby Kernan. "The working group is still working on I don't believe that the conference committee would do anything to impact the Brown Act." If passed, the changes could end the state to prepare and post meeting agendas with general descriptions of business items, and could also end the requirement See BROWN ACT, Page A-15 Big doomed? County leaders plead for rescue Just $5 each would save organization By MITCH CLOQQ For the Dally Journal Like Santa Glaus dying of starvation, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mendocino Cpunty, an organization Tropical I'ish Small Animals Keptikvs Closed that for more than 30 years has brought the gifts of good counsel and companionship -uncounted millions of dollars worth to this county's neediest kids, is fading away. Paul Tichinin, superintendent of schools for the county, rides herd on the biggest yearly budget in the county, upwards of $200 million, Of the 14,500 school children he serves, about a dozen are sent out of county, because of physical and mental disabilities, They come and go, to places as far away as Connecticut, where they get their special educational needs met. A year's worth of this can cost the Mendocino Office of Education up to $130,000 per child for training and subsistence. Other county agencies help foot the bill for these children, too, but MCOE alpne will spend about $350,000 this year for out-of- state special ed.

"Special education." one-on-one guidance in how to cope with school, family, self and others, is just what r-M-i 1 i 1 ai wieruiocino Big Brothers, Big Sisters provides, without local taxes, and that $350,000 is enough to fund the Brothers and Sisters for the whole county for a year. Or was. The federal government yanked its support from mentoring 4 i Shopping 171 So. M.iin Willits CA 454-4060 I.