Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 9

Friday, August 17, 2001 Arizona Daily Star-AO 5 K7. News from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast WW Ground broken for $650Itt Strip project Yegss gambles on monorail Immigraiits getting fed, probe shows Claims that food was withheld 'isolated consul says WraSt mti wm jmm By Ken Ritter THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS Like the glittering megaresorts that rise above Las Vegas, Nevada's governor and project administrators are betting a Strip monorail will quickly pay for itself, even at $162.5 million a mile. Work began Thursday on the $650 million privately funded public project that officials envision will link one end of the city to the other and eliminate some of the congestion that snarls Las Vegas Boulevard. "We're connecting to almost 25,000 hotel rooms at the stations alone," said Gregory Carey, a project underwriter with Salomon Smith Barney, the New York company that sold the state-backed bonds for the four-mile project. "In other cities, you have morning and afternoon peaks at rush hours, and the rest of the time the system is underutilized," Carey said.

"Here, you have 125,000 hotel rooms and a 12-hour peak." Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said state taxpayers don't have a penny of risk in the project, because private investors bought the tax-exempt bonds. "Our name is on the bonds," Guinn said after a lavish Las Vegas groundbreaking ceremony in an air-conditioned tent featuring an Elvis impersonator, sequined showgirls, a few spins of a 70-foot drill and congratulatory speeches. "But there is no risk to the people of Nevada." "What the state gets in return," the governor said, "is help with traffic congestion in our highest-populated metropolitan area, easier access to hotels and better air quality." The monorail won't run down the middle of the famous Strip, as some early plans projected. It will run on a roughly The Associated Press Groundbreaking, Vegas-style: Nevada Gov.

Kenny Guinn (the one wearing a tie) somehow seems the outsider among showgirls, an Elvis impersonator and other supporting actors at the Sahara site. Z-shaped course just east of some of the area's biggest resorts, where will make several stops. "This project benefits the customer," said Phil Satre, chairman and chief executive at Harrah's Entertainment, who called Las Vegas unique among cities in catering to tourists. "No city we do business with understands the customer like this city," Satre said, adding that surveys show most hotel guests visit five casinos. He predicted many will use the monorail.

When completed in January 2004, passengers will pay $2.50 to take the air-conditioned trip from the MGM Grand hotel- casino north to the Sahara hotel-casino. That compares with about a three-mile walk in heat that on Thursday topped 106 degrees, a $10 taxi ride that can approach an hour, or an even longer $2 bus trip with frequent stops. The monorail will make five stops between the end stations at Bally's and Paris, the Flamingo Hilton, Harrah's, the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Las Vegas Hilton. Officials already are talking about adding two publicly funded spurs: from the northern station to downtown Las Vegas, including the Fremont Street Experience and the surrounding Glitter Gulch area and perhaps to Cashman Field stadium; and from the southern station to McCarran International Airport. The hotels teamed with contractors and investors to raise the $650 million in secured bonds issued through Salomon Smith Barney and insured by Ambac Assurance Corp.

The bond issue was by far the largest in state history and drew criticism last year as "corporate welfare." Carey said analysts forecast 19 million passengers will use the new monorail its first year. "The math gets pretty simple," he said. "That fully pays all the operating costs, debt service, renewals and replacements, and at least $10 million in operating surplus per year." By Ignaclo Ibarra ARIZONA DAILY STAR Claims by some illegal entrants that they were not fed while in Border Patrol custody have been investigated, and federal officials said the problems have been corrected. Officials began checking to see whether detained entrants were being fed when a 19-year-old Mexican woman passed out last month in federal court in Tucson and complained she had not been given anything to eat for hours while in Border Patrol custody. It was later determined, however, that the woman had been fed.

After the woman fainted, court interpreters and attorneys began asking their other immigration-case clients when they had last been fed. In a short time, they had compiled a list of 21 other people who claimed to have gone without food for periods ranging from five hours to nearly two full days while in custody. Concerned that the problem might be more widespread, the public defenders sent copies of the list to the Mexican and Sal-vadoran consulates. And in an Aug. 1 letter to consular and U.S.

officials, they outlined concerns that the apparent failure to feed all detainees violated minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners and various international treaties. They also raised the issue with the federal judges, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Border Patrol and tthe Immigration and Naturalization Service. Heather Williams, an assistant federal public defender in Tucson, said court interpreters have continued since then to ask Border Patrol and INS detainees whether they've been fed, and these days the consistent answer is yes. "I think it's been resolved by their finally feeding them, and it seems like they're feeding them consistently three meals a day.

"If they happen to come in late, agents have been asking them if they're hungry," Williams said. U.S. District Judge John Roll said he and other judges met last week with the Border Patrol and the INS and afterward felt the issue had been resolved. Since the initial reports last month, he is not aware of any new complaints, Roll said. The U.S.

Attorney's Office, through spokesman Mike Johns, said it, too, is satisfied that the Border Patrol is provid ing people "what they need." Border' Patrol Chief David Aguilar said that after reviewing the allegations involving the young woman who fainted in court, the agency was able to determine that she and the rest of the people with whom she was picked up had been provided food in accordance with a policy that detainees be fed once every six hours or more frequently. "By reconstructing the point of apprehension to the point of presentation to the magistrate, we were able to determine that this individual female had in fact been fed not only as policy requires, but even more so," Aguilar said. of the Border Patrol stations have detention facilities, so agents do not hold individuals for more than 10-hour periods, Aguilar said. Most are detained less than two hours, enough time to process them for voluntary deportation through the nearest port of entry. Those being held for prosecution for illegal entry and other immigration charges, and detainees from nations other than Mexico, are transported either to the Federal Correctional Center in Tucson or to INS detention facilities in Eloy to await their court appearance.

None of the Border Patrol's eight Tucson Sector stations is equipped with a kitchen, so a typical meal consists of such items as a croissant or burrito for breakfast and a hamburger or a sandwich for lunch and dinner. Sometimes, the detainees are fed prepackaged foods like those available from a grocery store. So far this fiscal year, the Border Patrol has spent $130,000 feeding illegal entrants, agency spokesman Rene Noriega said. Tucson attorney Scott McNa-mara said he was told recently by an assistant U.S. attorney that the woman he represented in July who fainted had been fed and that the Border Patrol has videotape of her eating.

When the woman, Maria Padilla-Luna of Guanajuato, Mexico, collapsed in court, Mc-Namara said he thought, "This is a girl who is just scared of then she told the court interpreter she hadn't eaten." Tucson's Mexican Consul Carlos Flores Vizcarra said he believes the complaints were isolated incidents. I Contact Ignacio Ibarra at (520) 432-2766 or at nacholmindspring.com Court upholds Ariz, juvenile justice law Prosecutors decide adult trial status By Howard Fischer CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES PHOENIX The Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected the first major challenge to the state's 5-year-old juvenile justice initiative. In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the judges upheld state laws that allow prosecutors alone without input from a trial judge to determine when to bring charges against a juvenile in adult court. Judge Ann Scott Timmer, who wrote the ruling, said it is not an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of the courts. fying that it is solely up to prosecutors whether to bring charges in juvenile or adult courts for anyone older than 14 charged with a host of crimes ranging from murder and rape to any other felony involving use of a deadly weapon.

Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley used that law to bring child molesting charges in adult court against Shea O. Andrews, 15 at the time, and a burglary charge against Justin D. Beltran, then 16. Attorneys for the pair said that interfered with the constitutional power of judges to determine sentences, as the penalties that can be imposed on juveniles are more limited. But Scott Timmer said it isn't a black-and-white situation.

She said the Legislature always Thursday's decision comes amid a nationwide debate over whether those who commit crimes as juveniles should be executed. And although neither of the two youths who challenged the law in this case were charged with capital offenses, that same statute the appellate court upheld also applies to murders committed by juveniles. Until 1996, the question of when a juvenile should be tried as an adult was solely in the hands of a judge. That year, spurred by prosecutors and then-Gov. Fife Symington, voters agreed to constitutionally limit the power of courts over juveniles and let lawmakers intercede.

The following year, lawmakers approved a measure speci has had some legal rights to dictate sentences, pointing to a variety of laws which specify the minimum and maximum terms that a judge can impose. She acknowledged the law effectively allows prosecutors to choose to file cases in adult court knowing that the defendants, if found guilty, would face harsher penalties. "Although this goal allows the prosecutor to effectively select the sentencmg scheme used to punish such offenders, it does not permit the prosecutor to predetermine the penalty ultimately imposed by the court," she wrote. Romley said he was pleased with the ruling. "But with this authority we must exercise restraint and good judgment on a case-by-case basis." Regional Briefing Judge quashes parties' bid to shed state regulations ness after high winds caused slinglike sacks holding the sheep to swing out of control below the helicopter, nearly causing the aircraft to crash and forcing the pilot to release them.

The five ewes dropped about 50 feet. CALIFORNIA Hotel fire kills 2 LOS ANGELES An explosion and fire tore through a 1920s-era Hollywood residential hotel early Thursday, killing two people, including a woman who lowered two children to firefighters and then plunged to her death. Fifty people were rescued from the Palomar Hotel or fled down fire ARIZONA Tougher rules urged for air tour operators Spurred by the deaths of six people in a helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Thursday urged federal agencies to require stricter safety rules and national standards for air tour operators. In a letter to the heads of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation, and released by her Washington, D.C., office, Clinton said she found it "very troubling, especially in the light of the tragic accident that happened last week," that the two agencies had failed to adopt The Associated Press Firefighters climb a ladder Thursday to rescue residents from the Palomar Hotel fire in Los Angeles.

the right to protect the integrity of the elections process and may enact "reasonable regulations." Here, she said, the statutes do not infringe on the internal working of the political parties nor how they craft their platforms. For example, she rioted, the laws do not prohibit any qualified candidate from being a party officer. "They merely require that the candidates qualify themselves by being (first) selected as precinct committeemen," the judge wrote. Berch said the restrictions make sense in protecting the state's interests. She said the party officers are entitled to receive donations from the state income tax checkoff forms and a free copy of voter registration data.

She also said these officers choose replacements for candidates for political office who die or resign before an election and appoint presidential electors both functions of the election process that the state is entitled to protect Tom Rawles, who brought the original lawsuit on behalf of the Arizona Libertarian Party, said Thursday he could not comment on the implications of the ruling until he has a chance to study it By Howard Fischer CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES PHOENIX State lawmakers are free to impose regulations on political parties without violating their rights, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The judges unanimously rejected claims by the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties that the laws unconstitutionally interfere with how party members select their leadership. These statutes range from the makeup of each party's state committee to when county committees will meet. The lawsuit stems from a dispute between two factions of the Libertarian Party. As part of the dispute, the half of the Libertarian Party that was recognized by the state along with Democrats and Republicans challenged various election laws that specify how party officers are chosen.

It argued these laws violate freedom of speech and association. Appellate Judge Rebecca White Berch acknowledged the First Amendment protects the right to join with others "to further common political beliefs." That, she said, applies to partisan political organizations. She said, though, that states have escapes. The two rescued children, a man and four firefighters were injured. Death brings calls for park ride's study VALLEJO The death last month of a woman who suffered bleeding in the brain after riding the Monkey Business, a spinning teacup-style ride, at Six Flags Marine World has officials wondering if such rides should be more closely studied.

Authorities are now investigating the death of the 42-year-old woman. The attraction was reopened after it was found to have no mechanical problems. The Associa ted Press recommendations issued in 1995 by the National Transportation Safety Board to improve safety standards. Clinton said she had become aware that "helicopter crashes in the Grand Canyon happen more often than most people realize," including four in the last three years involving Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, the tour company in the latest fatal incident. "It is time for the FAA and DOT (to) heed the warnings.

The reason is simple: Stronger safety standards can save lives," Clinton said in the letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Minetta and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. Five tourists from Brooklyn and then-pilot were killed and a sixth person was critically injured in the Aug. 10 crash. NEW MEXICO Windy helicopter mishap kills 5 bighorn sheep MORA Efforts to move 60 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep from one wilderness area to another resumed Thursday after five animals died in a windy accident during a helicopter airlift the day before. Twenty-three animals 16 lambs and seven ewes were gathered by helicopter Thursday in the Pecos Wilderness, bringing to 43 the number of bighorns transferred to the Latir Peak Wilderness north of Questa.

Five bighorns plummeted to their deaths Wednesday in the Pecos Wilder.