Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

Monday, September 2.1,1981 121st Year No. 134 468-0123 Ukiah DoilM oumal Ukiah, Mendocino County, California 1 Section Weather By United Press International Northwestern California: Fair through Tuesday except partly cloudy at times far north. Gusty northwesterly winds along the coast today. Port Bragg 66, 49 and 68. Ukiah 82,50 and 84.

25 Cents First woman Supreme Court Justice O'Connor heads for confirmation By ED ROGERS WASHINGTON (UPI) Sandra Day O'Connor appeared headed toward unanimous Senate confirmation today as the nation's first woman Supreme Court justice. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, RS.C, told reporters that an early challenger of the nomination, conservative Jeremiah Denton, had pledged an "aye" vote on confirmation. Denton voted "present" when Thurmond's committee recommended her confirmation. Thurmond mentioned other New Right abortion foes who had come around to supporting President Reagan's nominee and added: "I'm hoping to get a unanimous vote. I think that will be the case." The evaporation of conservative opposition was cheered by Democratic orators, who matched Republicans in calling for a unanimous vote while denouncing the "single issue" (abortion) politics that had troubled some Republicans.

Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, ROhio, said he differs with Mrs. O'Connor on many issues but thinks she is qualified and should not be defeated over a single issue. "I hope that today there won't be a single vote cast against her confirmation," Metzenbaum said. "It will indicate the Senate did not yield to pressures of the New Sen.

Jesse Helms, after describing his discomfort with Mrs. O'Connor's past stands on abortion, announced that he, too, would vote to confirm her later today. Describing her record as an Arizona state legislative as the "opposite" of her testimony that she finds abortion abhorrant, Helms said he nevertheless would accept Ronald Reagan's characterization that Mrs. O'Connor's views on the volatile issue are the same as the president's. Thurmond said the committee gave her "a highly favorable recommendation" and concluded she is "extraordinarily qualified." He said he had found her "honest, uncorruptible, fair" and "a person of compassion compassion for the individual but also compassion for society." He said she had showed "great intellectual honesty" and "personal warmth a friendly and open character." Sen.

Barry M. Goldwater, who represents Mrs. O'Connor's state, alluded to one of the few issues on which, there had been any controversy by saying that Mrs. O'Connor "finds abortion personally abhorrent." The confirmation vote was expected in early evening, and if all goes as expected the 199-year-old high court will have its first woman justice. Plans already were being made to have her sworn in Friday.

Mrs. O'Connor is 51 years old, an Arizona appeals court judge, a former Arizona state legislator, a longtime Republican, the mother of three grown children and the wife of a Phoenix lawyer. In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings earlier this month, she emerged as an intelligent, hardworking jurist with conservative views and enough gumption to refuse to be pinned down on the emotional issue of abortion. Last week, the 18-member panel approved Mrs. O'Connor for confirmation on a vote of 17-0.

Sen. Jeremiah Denton, voted "present." Denton, a leading abortion foe, was disturbed by Mrs. O'Connor's refusal to state her judicial position on abortion, which she said she opposes personally. He sent Reagan a note asking for more information to help him decide how to vote on the Senate floor. In response, Denton got a call from Reagan on Thursday.

The senator would not disclose what Reagan said, and an aide declined to say how Denton would vote. During the weekend, Denton said he also received a letter from Mrs. O'Connor that provided "a little more food for thought" on her nomination. Local leaders boycott session State Indian health directors visit Ukiah to break stalemate Photo by Charles Rappleye California Indian Health Board directors met with local residents yesterday over the control of the service. Layton jury resumes deliberations By SPENCER SHERMAN SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) The jury in the conspiracy trial of former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton began its third day of deliberations today after a one day recess on Sunday spent sequestered at a nearby hotel.

The seven woman, five man U.S. District Court jury met on Saturday and came out of the jury room for several hours in the afternoon to review the testimony of Jackie Speier, a former aide to slain Congressman Leo Ryan, D-Calif. The jurors also requested to review several video tapes of the trip to the Guyana jungle commune of Jonestown taken by an NBC cameraman. Ms. Speier accompanied Ryan to the cult's Guyana agricultural community in November 1978 and was wounded in an attack by temple loyalists at the airstrip where Ryan and four other were slain.

The panel spent 16 hours deliberating behind closed doors before it was given its weekend break. Layton, 35, was accused of joining a plot that led to Ryan's death and the wounding of U.S. diplomat Richard Dwyer on Nov. 18,1978, at an aistrip near the Rev. Jim Jones' compound.

By CHARLES RAPPLEYE Journal Staff Writer Directors of the California Rural Indian Health Board (CRIHB) traveled to Ukiah from around the state yesterday to break a weeks-old stalemate over control of the Indian Health care program here. The ten state directors met with over 40 local Indians to find a solution to the impasse. State and federal funds have been cut from the local program but project directors have ignored a state directive to remove executive director Pat Renick. Supporters of the local board said the takeover was politically motivated, but CRIHB chairman W. D.

Timm Williams said their concern was legitimate. "We are looking at fiscal records that are in disarray, and want to know how to put those books in order," Williams said. Most of the local program's directors boycotted Sunday's session at the Manor Inn on State Street, opting instead to attend a barbecue fundraiser scheduled for the same time in Laytonville. The conflict began this spring when Mike Knight, a member of the local board of directors, sent letters to the state charging mismanagement and asking for an audit of program finances. The state responded last July with a joint review of the Mendocino County Indian Health Board (MCIHB) by state and federal agencies that substantiated charges brought by Knight and other local Indians.

The review charged "gross mismanagement of agency funds and irresponsible administration of the Reagan urges business to aid social programs By DEAN REYNOLDS WASHINGTON (UPI) President Reagan said today he wants the private sector to find ways to "take over" things "that are not being very well done" by government social programs. At a breakfast with 20 business and civic leaders, Reagan said he intends soon to make a major, address to the business community on "volunteerism," adding that he wants his guests "to find out ways volunteerism can take over the things that are not being very well done by government today." Reagan's remarks appeared to be a prelude to massive cuts in government funding for social programs Reagan will be announce later this week in a nationally televised address, perhaps Wednesday. Aides indicated he will cut the 1982 budget by another $16 billion, including $2 billion in defense cuts. "The possibilities are limitless for what we can take over from what government has been doing," Reagan said. "We intend to go forward." "All of you here have engaged in volunteerism in addition to your own work.

I have a feeling we have drifted too far away from volunteerism that has characterized our country and abdicated too much to government." Reagan, citing several examples in which he said the government had flubbed the job of helping the deprived, Reagan said private industry can run projects for the disadvantaged with less overhead expense than the government. Later today Reagan was to meet with Jose Napoleon Duarte, the president of strife-torn El Salvador, on the future American commitment to the tiny Central American nation. Over the weekend, an estimated 250,000 people attended an AFL-CIO- sponsored demonstration program," and recommended immediate termination of Renick and suspension of funds until a new director was in place. Funds were subsequently suspended by the two state agencies controlling the project. The local board of directors denied the agencies' charges and vowed to fight Renick's ouster.

CRIHB responded by sending its own director, Perry Raglin, to Ukiah to assume control of the program. Raglin was sent packing when local directors threatened to call the police and have him arrested for trespassing. Local directors and staff refuse to give in. Fiscal Officer Richard Johnson prepared a report detailing what he said are factual errors in the review. Specifically, Johnson said charges that fees from patients had been improperly spent stemmed from erroneous entries in program books that were incorrectly included in the state audit.

Johnson also said the state review had overestimated travel advances to director Renick, a main complaint in the report. State Auditor Loren Thompson, who is conducting a full audit of the program, backed Johnson, saying some of his figures had been misstated in the state review. But Raglin said Johnson's response avoids the review's main points, and the state funds remain frozen. Raglin added that the program is being evicted from their offices on 108 West Clay Street in Ukiah. He said a notice was served to the MCIHB directors September 11.

Debate at the Manor Inn Sunday focused on how to replace the present project administration without disrupting health care delivery to Mendocino County Indians. "Our first concern is to avoid interrupting health care service," said Williams. Local Indians told Williams they wanted to see CRIHB deal swiftly with the program's administrative problems. They said Renick's refusal to leave the program had split Mendocino's Indian community, and that they could not bring pressjire to bear on the local board. 7 Williams responded that local problems should he handled at the local level.

"It's your responsibility to straighten things out. "It Was a matter of compassion that CRIHB held back when these problems first started becoming apparent over a year ago. "It's up to us as Indian people to take the bull by the horns, run our own show, and deliver our own health care," Williams said. An ad hoc committee was set up to supervise a special election to replace the current board of directors. The membership of the committee is being held open to allow participation by the group that met in Laytonville.

Program funding for the next fiscal year will be considered at the end of October, lending pressure for a quick resolution of the project. The health care program provides low-cost dental and clinical services to thousands of Indians here. Mendocino County has the state's second largest Indian population, following Sonoma County. More Diablo arrests By ROGER BENNETT AVILA BEACH, Calif. (UPI) Protesters tried again Monday to "blockade" the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor, while federal officials met in Washington to authorize the startup that a week of demonstrations failed to prevent.

Some 220 were arrested, driving the total arrests to more than 1,320, said Sheriff's Sgt. Leon Cole. The protesters were strengthened by scores of reinforcements, who rolled in during the weekend to replace the 1,108 demonstrators arrested last week. The first group of 16 appeared before dawn, lining up before the main gate in the fishing town of Avila Beach, seven miles south of the reactor. By the time busloads of construction workers rolled up to the gate, demonstrators were sitting in the road to the gate, singing "God Bless A group of about 15 climbed the fence and sat on the other side of the gate.

NRC votes today on Diablo Canyon nuke plant license By EDWARD ROB WASHINGTON (UPJ) Action in the Diablo Canyon atomic plant drama shifted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington today after a week of protests at the California plant produced about 1,000 arrests. The NRC had slated an afternoon vote on whether to issue a low-power license for the first of two new Pacific Gas 6 Electric Co. reactors tp be completed at Diablo Canyon near Avila Beach, Calif. The Potomac Alliance, a group allied to the anti-nuclear protestors in California, promised to picket NRC headquarters as they did last Friday. Representatives from the California demonstration slated a news conference before the licensing vote took place." Although the NRC is expected to approve the qualified license, Mark Paster of the Potomac Alliance said "optimism has to be a political principle." Another one of Friday's NRC Jan Philips of Women's Pentagon Action, said "nuclear power is a menace to society, whether it's in California, whether it's Seabrook, N.H.

anywhere." A ballyhooed anti-nuclear blockade of Diablo Canyon got oft to a tepid start 10 days ago when an NRC ap-' peals board cleared the way for licensing by approving the site's sabotage prevention and security plan. Hundreds of California state and local police were pressed into service when demonstrators began to test th plan, swimming ashore in wet suits and assaulting overland in mass formations. At least 900 persons, including six media representatives covering the protest, had been arrested by Friday. Anticipating a favorable NRC vote, the utility has said it could begin low- power testing of the first reactor in two weeks with commercial operations by January 1982. Construction on the second new reactor is expected to be completed next month.

The two Westinghouse reactors, which have come to symbolize industry frustration over regulatory delay, are rated at more than 1,000 megawatts. Years of hearings, appeals, litigation followed the utility application tor a license in 1973. The company says the licensing delays are costing them $1 million a day in replacement power and interest costs. On June 16, the licensing board issued a unanimous 180-page decision finding the plant can withstand any earthquake that could be dished up by the nearby Hosgri Fault. "Diablo Canyon is the most thoroughly studied plant in the nation's history from a safety standpoint and4t is the most needed power plant in the history of Northern and Central California," said a statement from the utility, the country's largest private electric company..