Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 4

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? 4A TH0RSDAY.MARCHfi.199J RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL8 The '97 Legislature HI B.ll Dscou. Capitch Bureau Chief 882-3553; Fax: 882-4806 John Smetana. Assistant Cm Editor: 788-6230: Fax: 788-6458 E-Mail: NeavsroomNevadaNet.Com What's the status of your bill to create Tahoe County in the Incline Village area? Assemblyman Pete Ernaut. R-Reno: "I put that in over a year ago as a request from my constituents in Incline Village, knowing full well I don't support it. How it evolves (with the Douglas County proposal this year) remains to be seen.

There's a superlong road to hoe for both." Hot line: For information about bills, call 687-5545 Outside Reno-Carson: 1-800-367-5057 Internet address: www leg state nv.us To pose questions to your legislators or suggest stones about the session, call 324-0225, punch 5627 when asked. Please leave your name and phone number so we can verify your comments and check the facts. Today, noon-1 p.m.: Nevada Alliance for the Arts lunch, location TBA: 1-5 p.m.: workshop. Legislature Building; 5-7 p.m., reception, location TBA. Monday, 8-5 p.m.: Grassroots Lobby Day at Legislature; 5-9 p.m.: Grassroots Lobby Day receptiondinner, location TBA.

Wednesday, 6-9 p.m.: Nevada Republican Central Committee dinner, location TBA. "Participation in these events is voluntary. No one has to go ride in a trail ride. No one has to enter a rodeo. If individuals are sued, they could lose everything they have.

"Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, on his bill limiting the ability to sue of people injured in horse- Bill would limit landlords Mobile home park landlords filing liens against retirees behind in their rent would first have to contact state Aging Sen ices officials, under terms of a bill debated Wednesday in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. AB 1 95. authored by 'Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las would require landlords to contact state if they are trying to enforce liens mobile or manufactured home ho are 65 or older. Humke wants statutory seduction law Hettrick riding accidents. an underage person.

"Guys are out for one thing and thegirlsareso young." Benitezsaid. "All the girls think about ishow cool it is to be with an older guy, and they're not thinking about how they're going to get hurt." Benitcz was 14 when she became pregnant and the baby's father was 1 5. According to statistics provided by the Nevada Health Division, Benitcz and her former boyfriend are not the norm. In 1994, only 28 percent of the males who fathered babies ith teen girls in the state of Nevada were themselves teenagers. A whopping 72 percent of the men who fathered babies with teen girls were 20 years of age and older.

"That tells us we have a very large percentage of teen pregnancies fathered by adult males," said Luana Ritch, the state health division's education and information Vegas, the against renters By Faith Bremner RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL A Reno law maker wants the Nevada Legislature to crack down on men who have sexual intercourse with underage girls to reduce the high rate of teen pregnancy. nder federal welfare reform, the states will be under the gun to reduce out-of-wedlock births. They'll receive federal funds to set up programs that teach abstinence and the five states that are the most successful in reducing out-of-wedlock births will get an additional $20 million a year. As part of that. Assemblyman David Humke.

R-Reno, said lawmakers and local communities should look at stricter enforcement of the state's statutory seduction laws and perhaps raising the age of consent for sex from 16 to 18. Nixed bill for parent access gets legislative second wind A "I don't have a bill to do this but I'm interested in the question and how the citizens feel about this." said Humke. who Px plans t0 raisc the -f 1 discussion in sub- Humke committee hear ings on welfare reform. "I've been told by the other legislators that I'm being prudish." The age for voting, joining the military, signing a contract and getting married is 1 8. Under Nevada's contributing to the delinquency of a minor law.

it's a misdemeanor for a 2 1 -year-old to give a 1 6-ycar-old a can of beer. But it's not a crime for that same 21 -year-old to take that 16-year-old to bed. Humke is frustrated because it doesn't appear the statutory se- 2 Yi Clark County has benefited thousands of people this way, she said. "Thousands of cases have been referred from justice courts and successfully resolved, not only relieving the courts, but also empowering people to solve their own problems," she said. Volunteer mediators are trained to teach people to work out their disputes in a peaceful manner.

Another way the state is helping people access the courts is through a lawyer-instituted program to provide free or low-cost legal services to people who can't afford to pay a lawyer, she said. County bar associations have instituted programs in which lawyers donate time for divorce, child HtxW. 1 Budget Hearing: Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means subcommittees, 7:30 a.m. today, Room 1214. duction law on the books is being idely enforced.

"It's not right," Humke said. "Why should society ink at it? We all pay the cost." Mari Benitcz, ateen-agerandsin-gle mother, agrees. She said some older men might think twice about going to bed with an underage girl if they thought there was a good chance they'd go to jail. It's a felony for someone 21 and older to have sex ith a person under the age of 16. It's a gross misdemeanor for someone between the ages of 18 and 20 to have sex ith Lisa J.

ToldamehOudetie journal custody and protective orders cases, she said. In Clark County, more than 8,500 clients were served through this program in 1996 and 95 percent were domestic matters. The Volunteer Lawyers of Washoe County reported that 80 percent of the clients served through their program were victims of domestic violence, Shearing said. Low-income families experienced more legal problems than moderate-income households, a State Bar study of legal system access showed. Some families reported as many as 18 legal problems, with the mean at 2.5 in five years.

But 60 percent of the families had no legal help. 1 I 4 I ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Ann O'Connell. R-Las Vegas, joined by Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, has come up with a new version of a vetoed 1995 bill to make schools provide parents access to their children's records.

SB 168, introduced Wednesday and sent to the Human Resources and Facilities Committee for discussion, starts out with a requirement that public schools provide certain American government classes and then shifts abruptly to student records. The new bill says that when parents seek such records or want them amended, public schoolsmust comply with federal code provisions that govern the release or revision of the documents. And written consent from parents or guardians would be needed before the records could go to anvone else. O'Conncll's' 1 995 bill, sought by the religious right, was vetoed by Gov. Bob Miller on grounds it would have forced a school turn over records "in direct violation of the Federal Educational and Fam Lightning vi in i i'A THE CHIEF: Nevada Chief Justice Miriam Shearing addresses the Legislature Wednesday.

Justice: Court costs deny access to poor changed officer. "When we think about teen pregnancy, we think of two kids who had things get a little out of hand and they didn't know what they were doing. "But we're not talking about that scenario for the vast majority of teen pregnancies. We're talking about grown men who deliberately have sexual relations with a woman under the age of 18." Prosecuting a statutory sexual seduction case can be difficult if the underage girl and her parents won't cooperate, said Washoe County Deputy District Attornev Egan Walker. "Unless we get independent corroboration, like a physical exam, we end up in a tough spot," Walker said.

"Any time you talk about sexual relations between human beings, it becomes incredibly complex." ily Privacy Act." The governor's veto of the 1995 bill was upheld earlier this session as all but one of Nevada's nine Senate Democrats Joe Neal of North Las Vegas stuck with Miller. The 1995 bill needed a two-thirds majority to override the governor's veto 14senators butintheend 12 voted "yes" while nine voted against overriding the veto. Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, argued against the override by saying there's merit to the idea of access to records but that's already covered by existing state and federal laws. But she said an unintended consequence of the vetoed bill was to prohibit a tcachcrorcounsclorfrom questioning a child "when there is concern about abuse at home. A teachcrcouldn't ask about bruises." After the veto override was rejected, iller said the 1995 bill was "a misguided and confused piece of legislation that would have done harm to children in ways its authors didn't have the insight or understanding to see." Auction INCORPORATED 0 I'ovriAt' BONNI- Vll.l.l: SSKi 41 suV.ruir?ft! VT CD sunwl teaiher.

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Sierra Sehools Credit 2.617 Union Repo tit 331-4222 Legislative action ASSEMBLY Measure approved Wednesday AB34. Eliminates court fees for services related to small estates. To Senate. AB1 30. Requires vehicle dealers to name principal place of business in each county.

To Senate. AB1 64. Provides additional penalties for assault with a deadly weapon in hate crimes. To Senate. AJR1.

Proposes to amend Nevada Constrtution to establish a right of privacy. To Senate. AJR2. Urges Congress to amend Recreation and Public Purposes Act to facilitate use of federal land for affordable housing. To Senate.

AJR4. Urges U.S. Postal Service to consider historical nature of Genoa when determining size and location of new post office. To Senate. AJR33.

Proposes to amend Nevada Constitution to revise provisions on commission on judicial discipline. To Senate. Measures introduced Wednesday Public records: AB21 5, Hettrick. Authorizes release of personal information from the Department of Motor Vehicles. To Transportation.

Prison maintenance: AB21 6-18, AB220, Ways and Means. Appropriates $29,91 3 to Jean Conservation Camp; $445,565 to Prison Number $405,486 for Phase II of Lovelock Correctional Center and $92,655 to the Women's Correctional Center. Taxation: AB222, 223, Ways and Means. Appropriates $2 million to Department of Taxation for information services and operating costs. To Ways and Means.

Floods: AB224, Ways and Means. Establishes trust fund for proportional matches to local governments for disasters. To Ways and Means. Prisoners: AB232, Ways and Means. Appropriates J2 million for boarding prisoners out of state.

To Ways and Means. Motor pool: AB233, Ways and Means. Appropriates $864,585 to the Motor Pool Division. To Ways and Means. Carson City: AB237, Government Affairs.

Amends charter of Carson City for local sales and use tax for parks. To Government Affairs. Drug treatment AB239, Judiciary. Audits drug and alcohol abuse programs in state. To Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Elderly: AB240, Ohrenschall, others. Requires retribution payments before release of convicts who defraud the elderly. To Judiciary and Ways and Means. 7:30 a.m. Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee on Department of Human Resources welfare budget.

8 a.m. Senate Commerce and Labor on various bills pertaining to real estate sales. 8 a.m. Senate Finance and Ways and Means Subcommittee on Department of Motor Vehicles safety budget. 8 a.m.

Assembly Judiciary on grounds for vacating arbitration awards and allowing private vehicles of volunteer firemen to be designated emergency vehicles. 8:30 a.m. Senate Judiciary on provisions governing supervision of offenders by Department of Prisons. 8:30 a.m. Assembly Government Affairs on clarifying regulations for policies of executive agencies.

11 a.m. Senate, Assembly floor sessions. 1:30 p.m. Senate Transportation on Lake Tahoe Basin license plates, police and firemen on bicycles, vehicle weight limits. 1:30 p.m.

Assembly Transportation on sales, leases and registrations for cars and revising disposition of funds from rental car fees. 2 p.m. Senate Taxation on taxing medicines for domestic animals and exempting tax on equipment required to treat diabetes. 3:45 p.m. Assembly Labor on circumstances under which certain lawyers can talk to physicians or chiropractors of injured employees.

By Martha Bellisle ASSOCIATED PRESS Chief Justice Miriam Shearing told the Nevada Legislature court costs are pushing people out of the legal system so the state needs more programs to resolve disputes out of court. "We can have the best legal system in the world, but if people can't afford to use it can't afford to get their day in court it's a failure," Shearing said during her 45-minutc address Wednesday. One way to help people solve legal problems inexpensively is to divert them from the courts. The Neighborhood Justice Center in AUTO TRUCK AUCTOOIN SATURDAY March 8th 10AM Auto Preview Fri. 9AM ra 4 1W2CHKVV 1W4JKKP 12 TON I ii GRAVDl HI ROKI F.

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