The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 63

2003:05:15:21:11:43 The State B6 CALIFORNIA LOSANGELESTIMES By Rebecca Trounson Times Staff Writer SAN FRANCISCO Stepping once again into the charged arena of racial politics, University of California regents voted Thursday to formally oppose a state ballot measure sponsored by regent Ward Connerly that would stop the state from collecting most kinds of racial data. UC President Richard C. Atkinson, joined by faculty leaders, had urged the governing body to oppose the initiative, saying it could hurt the ability to conduct research, inform public policy and evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts to eliminate discrimination. The vote 15 to 3 with board Chairman John Moores abstaining followed two hours of often impassioned debate. Some regents called on the board to step back from considering such politically volatile issues and others exhorted their fellows to take a stand, at least on this one.

important to let voters know the potential effect of this said regent Monica Lozano, who urged the board to vote to oppose the measure. As the lopsided tally was announced, students who had filled the basement auditorium at the Laurel Heights campus of UC San Francisco occasionally hissing at Connerly broke into applause and cheers. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson and state schools Supt.

Jack attended the session and urged a vote against the Connerly measure. All are regents by virtue of their elective offices. should all say clearly and loudly that we are against this Bustamante said. The vote was one of the first public tests of the controversial statewide initiative, which would bar the state and other public entities, including UC, from classifying people by race, ethnicity, color or national origin. Often called the Racial Privacy Initiative, the measure will be on the March ballot.

Coming two years after the repeal of the ban on affirmative action, a decision that allowed UC officials to step back for a time from the wrenching national debate over race- based preferences, the vote Thursday marked the return to the sensitive issue of race. Connerly, who championed the anti-affirmative action initiatives of the mid-1990s and helped lead the campaign for Proposition 209, the statewide initiative that barred racial and gender preferences for all public entities, appealed to the regents to endorse what he called a colorblind California. He said his sponsorship of the measure stems in part from his experience as someone who is part black, part American Indian and part white. Connerly urged the board to make common cause of eliminating horrible legacy of and said the opponents risked with the segregationists of the past in a belief that human beings should be divided, cata- loged and by race. In response to concerns that the measure, if passed, would hurt medical research, Connerly also noted that the initiative has several exemptions.

It would permit the collection of data to comply with federal law, to establish or maintain eligibility for federal programs, to prevent the loss of federal funds, and for medical research subjects and patients. But opponents expressed fears that research on pressing medical and public health issues could be harmed nonetheless. Jeremiah Mock, an assistant research scientist at UC San Francisco, told the regents that if it passes, the initiative could halt his research into the causes of the high rate of cervical cancer among Vietnamese American women. That research is dependent on statistics collected by the state Department of Health Services, Mock said. Jessica Quindel, a UC Berkeley graduate student in education, said she feared that passage of the initiative could hamper her research on how to improve the teaching of math to underrepresented minority students.

please vote no on this information she told the regents. Gayle Binion, a UC Santa Barbara political science professor who heads systemwide faculty organization, said research indicated that the measure be injurious to UC and to the state of Regent George Marcus argued that UC should not weigh in on a political issue. Marcus tried to postpone the vote indefinitely. When that failed, however, he voted with the majority in favor of the resolution. Those voting against it were regents John Davies and Peter Preuss, along with Connerly.

Moores, who last year held a fund-raising event for the initiative at his home, abstained in vote, saying afterward that he considered it inappropriate to take a position on a political matter in his capacity as board chairman. After the vote, Connerly said he believes the regents are out of touch with the mainstream voters. may have lost touch with the regents, but win at the ballot box next he said. UC Regents Reenter Racial Politics War Associated Press OUTVOTED: UC regent Ward Connerly hears criticism of initiative he sponsored that would ban the collection of racial statistics. Associated Press ANGRY PROTEST: UC students show their opposition to a campaign to ban collection of statistics on race Thursday outside a regents meeting in San Francisco.

The board votes to oppose a measure on the March ballot that would stop California agencies from collecting most data on race. By Jane E. Allen Times Staff Writer The San Francisco attorney who sued Kraft Foods to stop it from selling and marketing Oreo cookies to children in California because they contain artery-clogging trans fats has dropped his lawsuit. But he said Thursday he would take his fight against trans fats to Washington. is not abandonment; this is a said Stephen L.

Joseph, a former lobbyist for the energy and aviation industries. He said he next plans to lobby the Food and Drug Administration on proposed trans fat labeling. Asked about the decision to withdraw the Oreo suit just days after bringing it to attention, he said the issue of trans fats had become thoroughly beginning with stories published in newspapers Monday, that he would have been unable to convince a judge that consumers remain unaware of trans fat dangers. Joseph said he had accomplished part of his mission by raising consumer awareness. He filed the suit May 1 in Marin County Superior Court on behalf of Ban TransFats.com, a nonprofit corporation that he formed.

The complaint, said to be the first in the nation to target a product containing trans fats, was filed under state consumer laws that permit suits if products are known to be by ordinary consumers. Joseph claimed that few people outside the science world were aware that Oreos, along with other cookies, crackers, fast foods and margarine, contain trans fats. Commonly listed on food labels as hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated oils, trans fats give processed foods long shelf life, but have been linked to high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes. Michael Mudd, a spokesman for Kraft Foods North America in Northfield, said the company was pleased with decision to withdraw the suit. share his concern for public health and doing our Mudd said.

were working on reducing trans fats well before this lawsuit was Reuters DETERMINED: Attorney Stephen Joseph plans to take his fight against trans fats to Washington. Suit Against Oreo Cookies Crumbles FRESNO Restrictions Said Lifted on Habitat for Snake Ajudge has lifted restrictions on some 400,000 acres in California previously designated critical habitat for the threatened Alameda whipsnake, calling the designation an unlawful land grab by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a property rights group announced Thursday. The Pacific Legal Foundation sued the agency in federal court in 2001, claiming the restrictions foiled plans to use East Bay land for affordable housing. COSO JUNCTION 3.4 Quake Hits Remote Area East of Bakersfield Aminor earthquake occurred Thursday in a remote area east of Bakersfield, near the China Lake Naval Weapons Center.

The magnitude 3.4 temblor occurred at 10:58 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was centered near the town of Coso Junction, about 60 miles northeast of Bakersfield. There were no reports of damage or injuries, Kern County deputies said. SAN FRANCISCO Insurance Fraud Probe Targets Auto Body Shops Nineteen auto repair shops were targeted Thursday for auto insurance fraud, and several arrests were made, authorities said.

Fifty-one shopsin the San Francisco areawere visited April 2to May 6by an undercover officer. Nineteenprovided the officer with fraudulent written repair estimates ranging from $3,500 to $4,700, officials said. MODESTO Laci Peterson Autopsy Results Sealed by Judge The autopsies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son were completed by the Contra Costa County coroner and sealed Thursday by a judge in Stanislaus County Superior Court, prosecutors said. The autopsies were completed sooner than expected, but it clear whether a cause of death had been determined in the homicides. Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa sheriff, would not comment.

FREMONT Afghan Women Say They Are Scam Victims More than 300 Afghan women have complained to a state agency about a Helping pyramid scheme that scammed them of thousands of dollars, officials said. Department of Corporations officials have been told participants contributed $625 to $5,000 to the women-only scheme that targeted the Afghan community. HEALDSBURG Pesticide Firm Fined in Vineyard Spraying AHollister pesticide company has agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and spend a year on probation for violating state laws while using methyl bromide on a Healdsburg vineyard. The Sonoma County district office said it reached the settlement with Trical Inc. after an eight-month investigation into charges that the pesticide drifted into another vineyard and made people sick.

From Times Wire Reports IN BRIEF By Kenneth Reich Times Staff Writer Amagnitude 7.9 earthquake that occurred on three separate faults Nov. 3 in a sparsely populated area of Alaska may have implications for an eventual large earthquake in Southern California, seismic experts say. The Denali quake did relatively little damage, but, had it happened in a heavily populated area, the devastation probably would have been widespread. As it was, it was felt as far away as Louisiana and triggered 130 quakes in Yellowstone National Park. Donna Eberhart-Phillips of the U.S.

Geological Survey said confirmation that a quake can start on one fault, jump to another and then on to a third shows that a relatively small temblor can in seconds turn into something much bigger. She is one of the lead authors of an article in edition of the journal Science. The configuration of faults in Alaska is similar to that in Southern California, where some scientists believe a quake on the Sierra Madre fault along the San Gabriel Mountains might trigger amajor quake on the San Andreas fault, 40 miles to the northeast. Lucy Jones, a scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey, and Egill Hauksson, a Caltech seismologist, first declared months ago that the Alaskan quake had somber relevance for the Los Angeles area and, accordingly, should be studied in depth.

Although scientists have generally concluded in the past that no quake in the Los Angeles Basin would be stronger than a magnitude 7.5, it is conceivable that a magnitude 8.0 quake, several times more powerful, could occur if a jolt on one fault triggered a larger temblor on others. The 1994 Northridge quake was only a 6.7, yet it killed 57 people and caused $40 billion in damage in the Los Angeles area. Multi-Fault Quakes Pose L.A. Risk By Kenneth Reich Times Staff Writer ABay Area firm that has been selling weekly forecasts of earthquakes around the world on the Web for $9.95 a month and up has agreed to issue its California forecasts for free until it hires a geologist licensed by the state. Michael executive of geoForecaster said he has given Paul Sweeney, executive officer of the state Board of Geologists and Geophysicists, assurances that the firm will comply with all state licensing laws in the future.

He said he know how long hiring a licensed geologist would take. Sweeney has been among the state officials seeking to exert more oversight of quake prediction services that many scientists regard as unreliable. He said earlier this year that geoForecasters had to have a licensed geologist on staff to legally practice geology in California and could be fined if it In another development, Michael Reichle, a deputy secretary of the state Department of Conservation, announced this week that state geologist James Davis will convene a meeting of the recently renamed California Earthquake Potential Evaluation Council next month to judge the validity of the work done by geoForecaster and a Palo Alto firm that is doing research into earthquake prediction, QuakeFinder. The council could recommend that the state Office of Emergency Services assess the work, Reichle said. QuakeFinder, which has contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA to assist in the development of satellites, also has been doing research on low-frequency magnetic fluctuations in the Earth that its directors believe may presage large, destructive quakes.

The firm has a satellite built by Stanford University students that it plans to launch on a Russian rocket next month to measure such fluctuations. The company also has placed about 25 recording stations along the San Andreas fault to detect them. technology officer, Tom Bleier, said Thursday that ideally 200 such stations are needed, as well as a $5-million to $10-million research investment over several years to confirm that such fluctuations do, in fact, precede large quakes. He said this theory contrasts with claim that the study of how quakes are related on a global scale can lead to sound forecasts now. QuakeFinder is not making any predictions now.

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech who have long studied earthquakes are skeptical of both efforts. Firm to Drop Quake Forecasting Fee Bay Area company will not charge for its California services until it hires a state-licensed geologist. Many experts are skeptical of efforts..