Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 29

METROPOLITAN Wednesday, July 6, 1988 Albuquerque Journal Page 1, Section archers Chapman Bill Proposes Total Smoking Ban iMftf 1 s. WW If I 1 ft I Show Anger Over Death Friends of Slain Student Urge Protection for Women By Ellen Marks JOURNAL STAFF WRITER By Patricia Gabbett JOURNAL STAFF WRITER W- 7 3 JpF 4xx W. if Health professionals are rallying behind a move by Councilor Richard Chapman to ban smoking in public buildings, sports arenas and even private businesses by the end of next year. Chapman is writing a bill that would launch smoking restrictions, leading to a total ban in most places of employment a year after passage of his bill. The measure would dramatically change current regulations, and Chapman said he realizes he may have to compromise on some of his ideas to get his bill passed.

A group of about a dozen supporters met with Chapman Tuesday in one of several meetings he has held on draft bills before introducing a final version July 18. "The goal is to go smoke-free, but we want to allow a sufficient interval for people to adjust," Chapman said. "The majority of people prefer not to have smoke in restaurants or where they shop. It gets back to whether the majority or minority should rule on matters of public health." Chapman's efforts have won backing from a number of health groups, including the American Lung Association of New Mexico, the New Mexico Hospital Association and the Greater Albuquerque Medical Association. The only person to express reservations Tuesday was New Mexico Grocers Association President Truett Gill, who said his members are not sure the measure is necessary.

Many store owners have noticed a sharp drop in their customers' smoking habits because of public awareness about the dangers of smoking, he said. Under the bill, some private businesses and public buildings could designate smoking areas, but those would be abolished after the one-year period. Children under 18 would not be allowed in the smoking areas. The measure would phase in a total ban by requiring employers to write a no smoking policy within 90 days of the bill's passage. The policy would prohibit smoking in private offices, meeting rooms, elevators and restrooms.

Cafeterias and lounges could have smoking areas, but they could take up no more than 25 percent of the room. Another section of the bill bans smoking in public places, including banks, government buildings, sports stadiums and retail stores other than tobacco shops. Airports, galleries and theaters could designate separate rooms for smoking. Chapman said he is still working on regulations for restaurants. The newest draft says restaurants could provide smoking areas that included no more than 25 percent of total seating capacity.

After one year, no-smoking areas would be abolished so "public places and places of employment will be smoke free," the bill says. Exceptions would include bars, private homes other than child-care facilities, and hotel conference rooms being used for private functions. Lighting up in a non-smoking area would be subject to a $100 fine. Current state law requires that public buildings have no-smoking policies that ensure at least half of all meeting areas be for non-smokers. Despite a steady rain, more than 100 people mostly women marched through Southeast Albuquerque Tuesday evening to show their anger and grief for slain University of New Mexico student Althea Oakeley.

"Having this many people here shows how deeply everyone is affected," said Jane Caputi, who helped organize the march and rally. Oakeley, 21, was stabbed to death June 22 while walking home from UNM. A small crowd, armed with umbrellas and raingear, gathered at the UNM duck pond for a march that followed the same path Oakeley took the night she was killed. Friends, university students, faculty and neighborhood residents organized the event because "it's too overwhelmingly awful that a woman doesn't have the freedom to walk down the street without her life being taken from her," said Caputi, an American Studies professor who worked with Oakeley. As police officers escorted marchers south on Yale, down Stadium and south to Buena Vista SE, where Oakeley lived, residents came out to watch.

Marchers handed them yellow fliers showing a police sketch of the stabbing suspect who remains at large. Others tacked sketches to trees and fences. At the stabbing site, organizers set up a microphone and invited marchers to speak. Caputi called for an end to "the climate of acceptance of violence against women." "We want to tell the police that we are an extremely vigilant community. We want this murder solved," Caputi said.

"We demand the university as well as the municipality take responsibility for our safety." Caputi then read the names of many women who have been slain in Albuquerque and other cities. Oakeley's parents were first to speak. "Young ladies and young men have a right to walk the streets without fear of violence," said her father, Jim Oakeley. He encouraged marchers and neighbors to call police with any information on his daughter's murder. One speaker pointed out that no city councilors attended the rally.

Mary Martinez, whose son, Brian Martinez, was slain in 1986, berated District Attorney Steve Schiff for his "failure to prosecute habitual offenders." She encouraged ralliers to vote for candidates who take a tough stance against criminals. One man said he "can't take the blame, but I have to take responsibility" for violence against women, and said he had talked with his wife about whether she should buy a gun. Marchers passed a hat to start a reward fund for information leading to the arrest of Oakeley's killer. MARK HOLM JOURNAL death. Students, friends and university faculty organized the march to symbolize mourning and rage for victims of violence.

Marchers on Yale SE follow the path that University of New Mexico student Althea Oakeley took the night she was stabbed to N.M. Seacoast Exhibit Caps 75 Million Years By Charles Moore JOURNAL STAFF WRITER m'Pfk moving floor and advanced audio-video technology, likely will become the museum's most popular attraction. In a five-minute ride through 75 million years of evolution, visitors will be given the sensation of movement and make seemingly physical encounters with prehistoric creatures. They also will come away with lessons on the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs were in eclipse and primitive mammals began to appear. Museum director Jon Callender acknowledged some people may think Seacoast is walking a fine line between amusement park and educational exhibit, The museum's primary goal is education, and the best way to reach that goal, he said, is to make learning fun.

"If people don't enjoy themselves, if they don't find this exciting and fun they won't stick around to learn something," he said. The July 15 fundraiser, called Seacoast Splash, will be the first of three sneak previews of the exhibit. Tickets to the event are $50 and must be purchased before July 8. Also, anyone who buys a $2 ticket to the July 17 Borden's Ice Cream Social at the University of New Mexico arena will get to see the exhibit free during sneak previews on July 18 and 19. The Ice Cream Social also is a fund-raiser for the museum.

The exhibit opens to the general public July. 20. Museum admission is $3. Some state employees are doing just about everything they can to set the clock back 75 million years in New Mexico. On July 15, the results will be unveiled during a fund-raiser at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History when the museum's showcase $1.2 million exhibit, New Mexico Seacoast, will be essentially complete.

Workers at the state museum near Old Town have been busy building the permanent exhibit since early this spring. The museum's largest and most ambitious exhibit to date, New Mexico Seacoast incorporates amusement park high technology with hands-on educational exhibits. It will attempt to recreate the inland seacoast believed to exist in what is now New Mexico during the Cretaceous period of 60 million to 110 million years ago. As visitors enter the exhibit, they will step into a misty swamp, filled with live and fossilized plants and lifelike dinosaurs as live sharks swim in an aquarium nearby. The visitors will be able to see the world through the eyes of a dinosaur, ride a $100,000 time machine called an evolator, play a push-button extinction game and touch sea creatures from past and present.

"This is definitely on the cutting edge of the kinds of things that can be done in a museum exhibit," said museum spokesman John Arnold. Arnold said the evolator, complete with Judges Reject Higher Bonds For Hookers By Kelly Clark JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Metropolitan Court judges on Tuesday rejected a request to further increase bonds in prostitution cases, saying the courts alone can not solve the problem. City Councilors Pete Dinelli and Hess Ynetma met with the judges during the judges' weekly meeting to thank them for raising the bail bonds last week. Dinelli also encouraged them to raise bonds even further. "I applaud the bond increase, but it could be knocked up another $300 to $500," Dinelli said.

"We need to hit prostitutes in their pocketbook to let them know the city isn't an easy mark." However, the judges pointed out that bonds should guarantee appearance of offenders, not penalize them before prosecution. And presiding Judge Diane Dal Santo said the courts alone would not be able to solve the problems of the oldest profession. Last week, Metro Court increased bail bonds from $100 to $500 for first-offense prostitution or solicitation of a prostitute and up to $1,000 for a second offense. The judges on Tuesday encouraged the two councilors to strengthen areas of law enforcement to make stronger cases against hookers and the clients who give them business. The judges cited lack of fingerprinting, lack of knowledge of second offenses and poorly prepared police reports.

They also said having sting operations concentrate on the clients might help discourage the problem. Dinelli said he is concerned that citizens are considering taking the law into their own hands. More than 150 people showed up at a recent City Council committee meeting to air gripes and suggestions for cleaning up East Central, where prostitutes hail customers and several X-rated book stores remain open. The area falls into Dinelli's and Yntema's council districts. "The reaction of the citizens is that the system is not working," Dinelli said.

Judge Elizabeth Love agreed, but said prostitution and its connection to drug and alcohol abuse also" should be considered as part of the problem. Love estimated that 95 percent of the prostitutes she sees in court are drug or alcohol abusers. i ifm k. JIM IHOMHSON JOURNAL Bill Powers, aquarist for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, places sea specimens in the museum's new saltwater aquarium. Sharks 'Return' to Albuquerque's Seacoast when much of New Mexico was cover Bill Powers put on his Jiving mask Three species, horns, swell and leopard sharks, are housed in the saltwater tank, which eventually will include a variety of other fish.

A smaller saltwater tank will house sea cucumbers, starfish and other invertebrates that visitors will be allowed to touch and compare with fossilized examples of similar creatures. Sharks much like those visitors will see at the museum were swimming around off New Mexico's coast 75 million years ago, Powers said. While sharks are among the earliest of animals species of shark are believed to have existed even before the Cretaceous period Powers is hesitant to describe them as "primitive." "They've had 100 million years of evolution to develop after they got that primitive body form," he said. ed with a vast inland sea. The exhibit opens to the general public July 20.

Like Powers, the sharks in the exhibit are natives of southern California. A marine biologist and paleobiologist, Powers wasn't too worried about getting into the tank. The largest shark delivered Tuesday was about 2 feet long, and some may eventually grow as large as 4 feet. and snorkel, lowered himself into the cool Albuquerque water and began setting free about a dozen sharks. Powers, aquarist for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, was becoming acquainted with the animals that will be in his care.

The sharks arrived Tuesday and are now part of the museum's New Mexico Seacoast exhibit, a $1.3 million showcase that will recreate the Cretaceous period,.