Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 17

Republic REPUBLIC MAIL etrr Councilman still running a year after winning seat "People like to judge off of one vote. At least for myself, I try to vote for quality developments 7 and to protect neighborhoods." By DEE MICHAELIS The Arizona Republic One thing you've got to say about Paul Johnson is that he's enthusiastic. At least that's what those who know him backers and detractors alike say about the Phoenix City Council's youngest member. Johnson, at 27, is half the age of some of his colleagues and has what many would describe as a baby face. The lanky, 6-foot-7 councilman could almost be mistaken for a high school basketball player an appearance that quickly evaporates under the intense concentration Johnson can muster when he is interested in a topic.

After a year and three months on the council, Johnson has begun to show the effects of that enthusiasm. He sometimes appears tired, even exhausted, and his eyes often are ringed with circles. "I just don't know how he can keep it up," said Lora Nye, a neighborhood activist in Johnson's north-central District 3. "He'll have himself burned out real young." On his first day on the job in January 1986, Johnson told a reporter, "I am almost obsessed with the job already." That obsession has continued, as Johnson regularly works six-day weeks. "I work extremely hard," he said.

"I have to work harder than other folks to overcome the age issue. But some of his critics contend that Johnson, the half-owner of a small construction firm, should work harder in one area understanding the concerns of neighborhoods, especially those outside his district. South Phoenix activist Michael Goodman describes Johnson as part of the "Gang of Five" council majority that tends to approve controversial rezonings in that heavily minority part of the city. He identified the other "gang" members as Vice Mayor John Nelson and council members Howard Adams, Bill Parks and Duane Pell. Goodman cites Johnson's vote with a 5-4 Go-go, BIO Paul Johnson faf 'V'-' THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Sunday, April 19, 1987 Omaha at the crossroads A major employer has moved to Houston, another is threatening to leave, a senator has died, a mayor has been recalled, and now the new mayor of Omaha, has inoperable cancer, B13.

B16 B17 Legislature Obituaries fear for life as DEA busts coridb "I did not know who these men were. I definitely felt my life was in danger. I was in shock." I 1 1 i I Ic 4v3 If i 4 4 wrong By JOHN WINTERS The Arizona Republic A young woman was in her bedroom reading herself to sleep about midnight Friday. Her roommate was sitting on the floor of the dining area, her back against the breakfast bar, preparing to use the telephone. Neither Stephanie Swengel, 24, nor Patty Guttry, 23, were prepared for the nightmare that began moments later at their two-bedroom condominium at 3031 N.

Civic Center Place in Scottsdale. A series of thuds on the door brought Swengel from her bed to the living room. There was a crash, the front door flew open, a piece of molding spun across the living room and four men in street clothes rushed in, guns drawn. "One of them put a gun right in my roommate's face," Swengel said. "He grabbed the phone out of her hand and hung up the phone.

"They said, 'You're under They did not identify themselves. "One of them came over and grabbed me by the arm. I was dressed in a very flimsy nightshirt. I had nothing on under it. They wouldn't let me do anything about it." The two women were herded to a chair in the living room and kept there while their condo was searched.

"We said, 'Who are but they said to shut up," Swengel said. "I said, 'We'd like to know what O0eam)aQir ifiglhf grows Key issue is value of daylight-saving as pollution curb By DEBORAH SKANAHAN The Arizona Republic A storm is brewing in the state Legislature over the issue of winter daylight-saving time. The Senate has embraced the concept as its top anti-pollution proposal, but many House members have rejected it as an idea promising iffy results. Clean-air advocates are disheartened by the focus on the time-change strategy, saying it indicates that many lawmakers are looking for an easy way out. The proposal is to move Arizona clocks forward one hour to coincide with Central Standard Time between Oct.

1 and April 1, when other states are returning from daylight to standard time. The theory is that poisonous carbon monoxide emitted by evening rush-hour traffic would disperse before the nightly temperature inversion, when a layer of air traps pollutants close to the ground. The House Transportation Committee on Tuesday eliminated the time-change proposal and revamped the air-quality bill already approved by the Senate. That prompted complaints from the Senate. "I think they all wanted to say, 'We're for clean then they go and take out the biggest provision (daylight-saving time)," complained Senate Transportation Commit tee Chairman Pete Corpstein, R-Paradise Valley.

He said the House committee has "added heavier and heavier baggage" that would cost the state money, making it more difficult to collect the necessary votes from the Legislature or Gov. Evan Mecham's signature. Senate Majority Leader Bob Usdane, R-Scottsdale, charged that the House seems "less than willing to do something that will have a significant impact." House committee members bristled at that. "A lot of these things (in the Senate proposal) sound good, but there's really no teeth in them," said Rep. John Kromko, D-Tucson.

The House committee's version, he said, is "historic" because it recognizes the need for mass transit. "Is the bill great? No," Kromko said. "But it's a change in direction. What this bill does is it makes people think 'transit' a little more, and that's significant." Rep. Chris Herstam, a north Phoenix Republican, said that the state's approach to air pollution reminds him of its approach to freeways 15 or 20 years ago.

"We all throw our hands up and say it's too expensive," he said in defending the House version. "Until we see a major change in the engine itself, our best hope is to get people out of their cars." Both Usdane and House Majority Leader Jim Ratliff, R-Sun City, predicted that the two versions will be merged into one, strong bill in a we're being arrested One of the men said, "Oh like you don't know!" she said. Both Swengel and Guttry said they feared for their lives. "When this guy had the gun in her (Guttry's) face, his hands were shaking so bad," Swengel said. "I felt cither one of us could have been injured at any time." Guttry said she was terrified.

"I did not know who these men were," she said. "I definitely felt my life was in danger. I was in shock." After searching the apartment for a few minutes, three of the men left, Swengel said. "The one sitting here got a funny look on his face," she said. "He said, 'What apartment is I said, 'It's I said, 'You have the wrong apartment, don't "Seconds later, two of the men came back in.

One of them said they had the wrong apartment and someone would fix the door." The men were agents of the Michael MeistorRepublic Stephanie Swengel, 24, displays a piece of molding that flew across the living room when the front door of her Scottsdale condominum was kicked in late Friday night. Mohave County's DWI conviction rate highest in state drinks, and there are no clocks. Add to that the area's 1,000 miles of shoreline, which creates a summertime party place for rapidly increasing numbers of out-of-state recreation ists, mostly southern Californians. And then add a stretch of Interstate 40, six hours out of Los "In the summertime especially, we become one hell of a recreation area," Brown says. "And then, a lot of our problems come from across the creek over there" across the Colorado River in Laughlin.

"Beer distributors do real well up here," he said. "I don't think there is another county in the state that has two major recreational communities like Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City and straddles two major highways. "I think traffic in this community probably far outdistances any other small community in Arizona." We aren't talking, however, about just the small than any other community in the United States," says Sharon Edwards, head of the county's Alcohol Safety Action Program. Kingman Police Chief Carroll Brown, though, says this: "I wouldn't be surprised to learn that we were the highest in the country in DUls." What Mohave County Attorney Bill Ekstrom calls "a 24-hour party environment" creates the background for what judicial officials regard as a startling statistical record. To the northwest is Las Vegas, Nev.

The average speed on Arizona 93, the highway to Las Vegas, is among the highest in the state. So are the numbers of drinking drivers, Highway Patrol officers say. To the west is Laughlin, an emerging gambling destination, which, if current growth trends continue, will surpass both Reno and Lake Tahoe in annual revenues within the decade. At both Laughlin and Las Vegas, gamblers get free By STEVE DANIELS Western Arizona Bureau KINGMAN On a per capita basis, Mohave County, by a wide margin, sends more drunken drivers to prison than any other county in Arizona. Which leads one to ask: Is a larger percentage of the population driving drunk in Mohave County? Or are local police lying in wait for drunken drivers? The truth probably lies somewhere in between, area authorities confess.

Most point to Bullhead City and nearby Nevada casinos as the source of the problem. Lanny Lloyd, acting Bullhead City police chief, says his department is cracking down on drunken drivers and has provoked a bumper sticker seen on the streets of the city: "Come to Bullhead City on vacation, leave on probation." "I don't think our community is any more derelict Kayenta coal strike quiet, for now New violence feared unless negotiations are resumed shortly negotiations broke down March 18 and the strike began four days later. The company has tersely refused to discuss negotiations. Rumors are circulating that Peabody, despite company denials, is secretly circulating applications for employment tliroughout. northern Jkizonincluding on the reservation of the archrival IIopis.A, be spvprfilv tested on a 'reservation about 5fi oercent and' am By MARK SHAFFER Northern Arizona Bureau KAYENTA On the surface, it looks as calm as a Sunday picnic.

Navajo men with caps and boots toss horseshoes as George Strait sings the lovesick country blues on the radio. Across the road, pinon cinders keep a coffeepot steaming. A man leisurely whittles at a wooden figurine, shaded from the afternoon sun. The first month of a strike against Peabody Coal Co. and its Kayenta and Black Mesa mines by 885 union members of the United Mine Workers of America is almost forgotten.

Time for another stroll in the park. But calm is hardly the order of the day in the reservation's rich coal belt, within eyeshot of Monument Valley's towering spires. Navajo officials, in fact, are privately expressing fear of a long, hot summer if negotiations don't resume soon between labor and management, which has continued a low-level operation by processing I coal that already had been excavated when the strike began. V--i It has, indeed, been a silent spring at, the negotiating table. But life in the trenches, highlighted by obscene gestures and taunts, is considerably noisier.

Many are getting worried. :4 To wit: J-'-j-y'ky-t One non-union member's pickiip'wag severely damaged by about 15 strikers ai, the picket line April 8. That night, a company bus swerved through safety cones and struck sign held by a striker on the opposite side of the road. Peabody and the union have had so. few words that "you can count them on one hand," as one union official said, since average, wage at thymines of'VTyn Job-starved Navajs' would 'have $vfr qualms about crossing the picket lines of other Na vaibs union members admit.

The two sides reached an impasse o'nj '-'oT MnMraWebVrietfis and; whether Jaid-off unjon workers should bes given priority in hiring. 'A Peabgay'haS Kcl- surance premiums, all of which were coveretby the company tn a routed Strike, B4't Mark ShaflorRcpublic A sign put up by a striking mine worker is displayed next to a road that leads to one of jthe Peabody CoaJ mines. The 885 ugjon workers struck the company March 22. EST 0j2iE COP?.