Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 17

7 C0MICSB7 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 11, 1993 IjJ Clinton 6 siblings9 may never meet 'Half sister' apparently likes privacy In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Ritzenthaler said he had received no response from Pettijohn, whom he believes to be his half sister. "There's been none yet," he said, sounding dejected. He added that he did wish to discuss the matter further. Ritzenthaler, 55, a retired janitor who in the tiny mountain community of Paradise, said he has been inundated with news-media inquiries June, when the The Washington made public his claim of He had made the assertion in a letter to Clinton a year earlier. Ritzenthaler, who has a serious heart ailment, said he initially contacted Clinton in an attempt to get any available family medical history.

He reportedly learned of his apparent relationship to the president when his mother recognized her former husband's name in biographical stories about then-candidate Clinton. Ritzenthaler's mother was briefly married to a William Jefferson Blythe in See page B4 Henry Leon Ritzenthaler, His mother was married briefly to a William Jefferson Blythe in 1935. Lottery dismissal criticize Symington bypassed panel, members say By Art Thomason The Arizona Republic 'i The Arizona Lottery Commission's vice chairman said Tuesday that he is upset that Gov. fjife Symington bypassed the commission before firing Lottery Director J. Bruce Mayberry and hiring a replacement.

Rick Strohm, a Scottsdale lawyer who was appointed to the commission by Symington -in 1992, said the governor should have consulted with the panel before ousting Mayberry, the second lottery director fired by the governor since "I don't like the idea that By Karen McCowan The Arizona Republic They apparently share a bizarre distinction that would be unsettling under the best, most private of circumstances. Both recently learned that they likely have a half brother they've never met. A rather famous half brother: the president of the United States. Still, Sharon Pettijohn of Tucson apparently is not interested in meeting Grazing fee hike touted in Arizona By Steve Yozwiak The Arizona Republic The Clinton administration hit the trail Tuesday to lasso support in Arizona and neighboring states for the president's plans to more than double grazing fees on federal lands and to better protect Western ecosystems. Assistant Interior Secretary Bob Armstrong disputed assertions that the new fees would put most ranchers out of business.

"it just doesn't compute," he said at a news conference at Sky Harbor International Airport. The increased fees would amount to only a 2 to 5 percent hike in ranchers' total costs to market, Armstrong said. And fees already have been increased on state lands without forcing ranchers into bankruptcy, he said. "Nobody has gone out of business in those states that we can determine," said Armstrong, himself a Texas rancher for 23 years. "If they had, we wouldn't have done this.

The president was very clear to say that he wanted this to be a fair approach." Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt held news conferences in Idaho and Nevada to defend the proposal. The plan would increase monthly grazing fees over the next three years to $4.28 from $1.86 per animal unit one head of cattle, a cow and a calf, or five sheep. It would affect 260 million acres administered in the West by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Also Tuesday, members of the Arizona Cattlemen's Association began meeting in Prescott in an attempt to round up opposition to the administration's plan, which spokesman Doc Lane said would throw most of the state's nearly 2,000 ranchers out of business within five years. Lane, a spokesman for Arizona's $2.6 billion cattle industry, said Monday that ranchers support passage of a bill by Sens. Malcolm Wallop, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, which would limit grazing-fee increases to 25 percent. However, Sen. Dennis DeConcini, See CLINTON, page BS -St' we're a sitting commission appointed by the governor and that we didn't receive any information from anybody in the Governor's Office regarding this proposed change," Strohm said.

"A number of us felt that the commission, which is most familiar with the direction of the lottery, ought to have been consulted." Strohm said commission Chairman Gary Curtis, a Safford real-estate executive, also was irked about not being consulted. Curtis, who was named to the five-member E.J. MONTINI Republic Columnist Hate group finds friend in McCain You're the largest, most influential hate group to hit the state of Oregon since the boys in white sheets ran rampant in the 1920s. But you need money. You're trying your best to re-create Oregon's lost tradition of loathing, the same sense of rancor that caused Oregon to be the last West Coast state to allow African-Americans to eat at lunch counters with whites.

But, you're short on cash. You've identified the newest people to be reviled lesbians and gays. You've got the perfect prescription for infecting your state and even the nation with hatred. But, the cost of bitter pills has gone up. You need capital.

So you decide to hold a fund-raiser, a banquet for which tickets cost $30 to $50. All you require is a big-name speaker to draw a crowd, someone of considerable power, a nationally known politician so secure in his job and so unconcerned about backlash that he'd travel thousands of miles in order to raise money for bigots and hatemongers. In other words, you need U.S. Sen. John McCain.

And, if you're the Oregon Citizens Alliance, you've got him. According to McCain's office, the senator will be the keynote speaker at a banquet for an organization that has sponsored a series of state, county and local measures designed, essentially, to punish homosexuals. The high-priced affair will be held Aug. 30 in Portland. For an extra $100, McCain even will pose for a picture with you.

B.Y.O.S. (Bring your own sheet.) Legitimizing quacks If McCain goes through with this speech, he'll be the most high-powered politician to publicly support the Oregon group a big duck legitimizing some quacks. His appearance is bound to encourage those trying to form similar hate groups here and in other states. According to a story earlier this month in the Portland Oregonian, Sen. Mark Hatfield, a Republican from Oregon, tried to persuade McCain not to speak at the banquet.

Hatfield supposedly told McCain, "That would be a big mistake." It didn't work. I tried yesterday to get McCain or someone from his office to discuss this. Late in the afternoon, a McCain assistant read me a statement from the senator. It said in part: "OCA members are Republicans whose fiscal conservatism, pro-life and other views John McCain shares. John McCain does not share all the views currently identified with the OCA.

McCain wants the Republican party to be a big-tent party. Tolerance and respect for others are important bedrock values to John McCain personally and values which he wants his party firmly identified with. John McCain will make that argument with the OCA." The statement ended, "Wait until you've heard what he said until you criticize him for speaking to anyone." Helping them make money Sorry. Not if he's out to help these people make money. Which he is.

Big money, the organizers hope. A pleasant woman at alliance headquarters in Portland told me that the official title of the event at which McCain will speak is "The First Annual Oregon Citizens Alliance PAC Jason Lee Banquet." Who's Jason Lee? I asked. "I'm not sure," the woman said. "I believe someone told me he was an ex-homosexual." The woman paused. There was some conversation in the background.

Then, she came back on the line and said, "An ex-transvestite. That's what Jason Lee was. An ex-transvestite." What is he now? I asked. "I honestly don't know," she said. John McCain, as you're well aware, has no shame.

On that level, his appearance in Oregon shouldn't surprise anyone. However, after getting re-elected last year, the senator's become a man with no fear, either. Not of Arizona voters, anyway. He figures he can do anything and get away with it. It makes you wonder.

You probably think it'd be tough living in a state where something like the Citizens Alliance can thrive. How about a state where a U.S. senator helps bankroll such a group? J. Bruce Mayberry Was the second lottery director1 fired by the governor since 1991. with Californian Henry Leon Ritzen-thaler.

Ritzenthaler, who publicly claimed in June that he and Bill Clinton shared the same traveling-salesman father, told the New York Daily News on Monday that he wishes to meet Pettijohn. Her family recently told The Arizona Republic that she also was fathered by William Jefferson Blythe, who died in a car crash before the president's birth. Clinton later took his stepfather's name. Field of greens It is only his first lesson, but 10-year-old Encanto 18 Golf Course, 2705 N. 15th established golfer, to show him the ropes of across the board and are going to be controversial," Johnson said.

"We're offering to be used as the bully pulpit to get that message across." An overhaul of the educational system was attempted this year by the state Legislature, which is expected to bring up education reform again in its next session. Some educators, such as Carol Grosse, superintendent of the Alhambra Elementary District, said that they believe the mayor is earnest and that they will bring hope and expectation to Thursday's discussion. "My experience is that this has been his pattern," Grosse said. "He's been actively involved in education since he was a councilman." Increasingly, the mayor and Phoenix City Council have adopted programs aimed in part at children and safety, such as curfew enforcement, restrictions on gun possession by minors and Operation Safe Streets, a summertime anti-gang sweep. Johnson has suggested in recent months that he wants to tackle education reform.

See SCHOOL, page BS not lives since Post a 1 commission in 1989, could not be reached for comment. Doug Cole, Symington's spokesman, said Tuesday that the governor is legally responsible for appointing the lottery director and is not required to consult with the commission. Strohm and Curtis have supported Mayberry, who was credited by the Symington administration with leading the lottery to record revenues since being appointed by the governor in February 1992 as its acting executive director. He was named to that job after Lottery Director Bill Henry was fired by Symington in 1991. The governor named Mayberry, 31, as director in December, raising his salary to $80,000 a year from $70,000.

"I'm not convinced that Bruce should have been fired," Strohm said, praising Mayberry as the "best" lottery director he knows. Nevertheless, the governor fired Mayberry On See LOTTERY, page 08 I -rv A Michael GingThe Arizona Republic Michael Tarango strives for a perfect putt at Ave. Michael persuaded his father, Daniel, an the game. Fugitive fatally shot by officer Phoenix mayor urges dress codes in schools to restore order, safety I 1 ife JE By Abraham Kwok The Arizona Republic As a high-school student in the 1970s, Paul Johnson dressed as he pleased, at times even sporting a "Question authority" button that was the fashion hallmark of defiance in the post-Watergate era. As Phoenix mayor, Johnson now is championing a fashion statement of another kind for youths in school: a dress code.

Citing a state survey that indicates many kids do not believe their schools are safe, Johnson said he is planning to push for a series of education reforms, including dress codes and a crackdown on truancies. The proposed changes are expected to be a central theme of a round-table discussion Johnson plans to convene Thursday with about two dozen Valley school superintendents. The mayor said he envisions the meeting as "a first step" toward overhauling the image of public schools, in which some pupils are terrified of their classmates and others defend themselves by packing guns. "I believe these changes have to happen rrWl i Tom Story The Arizona Republic Paramedics wheel an unidentified man to an ambulance Tuesday after he was shot by a police officer in south Phoenix. The 26-year-old man, wanted on drug and weapons charges, allegedly pointed a handgun at the officer.

He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Story, B2. 'i.