The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 91

Friday, September 20, 1985Part I 3 Californians Gird for Battle, Offer Coast Drilling Bill I- 'v. QoaAnflelea dimes mm rm By MAURA DOLAN. Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON Drawing the lines for battle with the Interior Department, 28 California congressmen and both senators Thursday introduced legislation designed to protect most of the state's coast from oil and gas drilling. The legislation, unveiled at a news conference, represents a modified version of the offshore drilling accord reached with Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel last July.

Hodel later rejected the agreement, asserting that it would yield too little oil, and asked for new negotiations; Sponsors of the legislation predicted success in the House but expressed less optimism about the bill's chances in the Republican-controlled Senate. California Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) said the bill is designed to "prod the secretary to make it clear to him that we're not backing away from this issue, and if he is interested in pursuing it, this is the starting point." 'Legislative Offensive' He declared: "What we're starting here today is a legislative offensive on this issue." Like the preliminary agreement, the legislation opens 150 tracts off the state's coast for drilling, while declaring the rest almost 98 of the coast off limits to exploration until the year 2000. However, the legislation would prohibit drilling off Newport Beach and Oceanside, sites that raised strong local opposition under the old plan, and redistribute some other tracts.

Of the 150 sites proposed, 101 would be located in the Eel River Basin in Humboldt County, 17 would be 20 miles offshore near Morro Bay, 23 would be on the outer edge of Santa Monica Bay, 4 would be off Long Beach and Seal Beach and 5 would be adjacent to Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside. "The bill is not an effort to stop discussions with the Interior Department," said Rep. Bill Lowery of San Diego, one of four Republican sponsors in the House. "Indeed, it may be a starting point. The bill can be amended." Complaint Voiced In a prepared statement, however, Interior Department officials complained that the congressmen had chosen "confrontation rather than consensus" and vowed to "vigorously oppose" the bill on the grounds that it would provide too little oil and gas.

"It's ludicrous," Hodel said. "It doesn't even come close to striking a balance or being in the national interest." Among the committees that must approve the legislation is the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where there was strong opposition to the earlier agreement between Hodel and the California congressmen. However, California Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston and Republican Sen. Pete Wilson will be pushing the bill there.

Cranston argued that those who are predicting the measure's failure in the Senate are being premature. "First, let Pete and me work that Please see OFFSHORE, Page 26 PENNl GLADSTONE Los Angeles Times PATRICK DOWNS Lot Angeles Times Angie Dickinson and George Hamilton arriving at benefit; AIDS project chairman Peter Scott with Betty Ford and Mayor Tom Bradley. Hollywood AIDS Gala High on Emotion President, Rock Hudson Send Messages to Million-Dollar Fund-Raiser Top U.S. Health Aide Declares That AIDS Is 'Difficult to Catch' State Supreme Court Voids 2 Death Verdicts ByDANMORAIN, Times Staff Writer By MARLENE CIMONS, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON Federal public health officials, decrying what they described as an epidemic of fear over the growing incidence of AIDS, said Thursday that there was no need for Americans to feel helpless against the disease and said people could take effective steps to keep from contracting it. "I can say with assurance that AIDS is not easy to catch it is an extremely difficult disease to catch," Dr.

James 0. Mason, acting assistant secretary of health and human services, said at a news conference. "It is not spread by casual contact with risk-group members or with AIDS patients. "People from all walks of life feel threatened by AIDS, and they feel helpless in the face of an almost universally fatal disease," he added, saying this feeling "is absolutely unnecessary and counterproductive. Please see AIDS, Page 23 well-known socialites who crowded the ballroom.

They included Gregory and Veronique Peck, Whoopi Goldberg, Angie Dickinson with George Hamilton, Stevie Wonder, society florist David Jones with Doris Fields, Barbara Marshall, Olive Behrendt, Gina Lollobrigida, Joan and Marco Weiss and Episcopal Suffragen Bishop Oliver Garver. On entering the ballroom to a tumultuous standing ovation, a radiant Ford said she found the "love and support and caring in the room just inspirational." "I am proud to be here," she said. Other educational and political statements were interspersed between the show biz routines. AIDS is "not just a Hollywood disease. And it is not just a gay disease.

This is the health crisis of this century," Peter Scott, the AIDS Project chairman, told the audience. "Every knowledgeable scientist will affirm that AIDS is not an easy disease to catch, and yet we continue to witness unfounded and unconscionable mistreatment of persons with AIDS and those at risk," he said. In his remarks, Bradley said, "A battle must be waged; a war must be won. Speaking for Los Angeles, this city shall not rest until this killer is defeated." In a statement from Gov. George Deukmejian honoring Ford, read by AIDS Project board member Gene La Pietra, the governor said, "The generous and compassionate support offered by your presence will provide further assistance in our shared efforts to find a cure for this disease." Taylor, in presenting the award to the former First Lady, said Ford was her "hero.

We honor her for sometimes falling down and always getting up; for speaking the often-painful truth In accepting the award, Ford said she had battled "two diseases, that for a long time nobody wanted to talk about: cancer and alcoholism. With public awareness, attitudes toward these have been changed. Attitudes can be changed about AIDS too. They are changing. In my life, being part of this is important Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to help with the understanding of another disease." Money raised by the event will help finance social services for AIDS victims and education about the disease in Los Angeles.

Ticket sales and the silent auction grossed more than $1 million, but the final figure could be much higher after a live auction of Andy Warhol paintings, the program book income and the contributions solicited in an appeal by Mario Thomas and Phil Donahue are totalled. By ARYLOUISE 0 ATES, Times Staff Writer Hollywood at its most glamorous turned out Thursday night for an emotion -laden, million-dollar fund-raiser for AIDS Project Los Angeles. Messages from two absent celebrities personified the evening's spirit and emotional impact: President Ronald Reagan, who sent out a national call to combat the disease, and the stricken Rock Hudson, who sent his love and thanks in a message read by his friend, Burt Lancaster. The charity gala was landmark in its size and in the caliber of stars who performed Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine, Cher, Linda Evans, Diahann Carroll, Carol Burnett and Sammy Davis Jr. (dueting across the Bona venture ballroom) and Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart, rocking into the night.

The entertainers were joined by philanthropists Wallis Annenberg and Sybil Brand; elected officials Mayor Tom Bradley was an honorary co-chairman and former First Lady Betty Ford, who Taylor presented with the AIDS Project's Commitment to Life award. The guests received entertainment punches and emotional pulls at a rapid pace. The show, organized by Gary Pudney, ABC Entertainment vice president, had moments seemingly too poignant to have anything to do with singing or dancing Shirley MacLaine interviewing a mother whose child died after receiving an infected blood transfusion, or Burt Reynolds saying, "I used to think 'macho' was a marvelous thing to be strong, swaggering, courageous, bold. I played all of that; our friends with AIDS are now having to live it. The real macho men are not on the screen.

They are fighting for their lives and ours at home and in hospitals." Taylor, the evening's hostess, said "Tonight is the start of my personal war on this disease, AIDS." Describing herself as "a survivor," Taylor's toast said, "We celebrate life by increasing the number of survivors and not by counting the number of victims commit to doing and learning more about the disease, and the cure can be found." She then said the Jewish toast "L'Chayim," to life. A page-long statement from Reagan, read by Reynolds, said "remarkable progress" had been made in efforts to conquer the disease, but "there is still much to be done." Scattered hissing broke out in the audience when Reynolds read a line that began: "The U.S. Public Health Service has made remarkable progress. SAN FRANCISCO The state Supreme Court Thursday reversed two death penalty verdicts and a third case where a man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering a witness to a burglary he had committed. In reversing the life sentence of David D.

Weidert, the court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, said state law allows for sentences of either death or life in prison without parole for murdering someone to prevent them from testifying in a "criminal proceeding." But by a 5-2 vote, the court pointed out that when Weidert committed the burglary, he was 17V6, thus a juvenile. Under the law, juvenile proceedings are not considered criminal proceedings. So the witness and murder victim, Michael Morganti, could not have testified at a "criminal proceeding," but merely a juvenile proceeding. According to court records, Weidert and a friend took Morganti to an isolated spot in Fresno County, told him to dig a hole with a shovel and get in. They then took turns hitting him with a bat and Weidert strangled him with a wire.

"From a policy point of view, perhaps the killing of any witnesswhether that witness' testimony was to be elicited in a proceeding denominated criminal, juvenile, traffic, quasi-criminal, probate, civil, legislative or administrativeshould be a criminal offense," Bird wrote. But she added that the court was "limited by the language" of a 1978 law passed by an initiative promoted by then-Sen. John Briggs. That initiative has been criticized by prosecutors and defense lawyers for its ambiguities and sloppy wording. "The plain fact is that the electorate enacted a provision which contains no language applicable to juvenile proceedings," Bird wrote.

Dissenting Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, joined by Justice Stanley Mosk, called the majority's result "intolerable," adding it was "highly unlikely" that voters intended that "the phrase criminal proceedings would exclude a Juvenile Court delinquency proceeding." In other cases, the court: Reversed by a 4-2 vote the death sentence of Lavell Frierson. In 1980, the court reversed Frier-son's first conviction for the 1978 robbery and murder of a Peruvian airline employee near Los Angeles International Airport, finding then that his trial lawyer had failed to investigate the possibility of pres-Please see DECISIONS, Page 26 Reynolds stopped reading and told the audience that "I don't care what your political persuasion is, if you don't want the telegram read, then go outside." There was applause and Reynolds continued to read the statement. Reagan, who spoke out publicly on acquired immune deficiency syndrome for the first time at a news conference earlier this week, said the fight against the disease is a "top priority" of his Administration but told supporters of the AIDS Project that "we recognize the need for concerted action by organizations like yours, devoted to education, support services and research." The President has "risen to his personal responsibility as a member of the show business community," said MacLaine at a marathon news conference before the dinner. There were literally hundreds of stars and Pension Fund Will Warn Some Firms on S.

Africa U.S. Judge Says UFW Can't Define Members' Standing By CARL INGRAM, Times Staff Writer By BILL RITTER, San Diego County Business Editor that will change the law before the expected appeals process begins. If the decision is upheld, California workers will fall under national labor law, which gives unions the power to deny good standing only when a union member has failed to pay his dues. The national law exempts agricultural workers but gave the states the right to establish broader regulations. California's farm labor laws are among the most liberal in the nation, and unions have expanded powers to judge the "good standing" of members beyond the question of dues.

"This is a major victory," said Robert Gore, staff attorney with the National Right to Work Defense Foundation in Washington. California agricultural workers, most of whom are Mexican-American and Hispanic, now have "the same rights as other workers in the country," he said. Union officials said they would immediately appeal the decision. "On the surface it appears to be a victory (for the other side)," said Dianna Lyons, chief appellate Please see UNION, Page 24 SACRAMENTO-The state Public Employees Retirement System, which administers $26 billion in pension funds, will soon warn certain U.S. businesses that they must improve their corporate citizenship in South Africa or risk losing the system's investment capital, a state official said Thursday.

Greta Marshall, investment manager for the state's largest pension system, said she plans to report back to her board of directors next month with a plan to withdraw the system's investments from some major corporations. This would be done on a case-by-case basis, she said, if the companies failed to promote affirmative action for blacks they employ in South Africa. Marshall said the decision to remove such investments starting Jan. 1, 1987 would be consistent with the board's legal responsibilities to protect pension funds and invest them where they would earn the best return. The board, she noted, has been studying for three months the possible withdrawal of investments SAN DIEGO In what could be a victory for the conservative right-to-work movement, a federal judge on Thursday ruled unconstitutional a state labor law giving the United Farm Workers of America the right to define the "good standing" of its members.

Under California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act, a union can ask a company to fire a worker if the employee is not in "good standing" with the union. The definition of good standing is determined by the union. U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving in San Diego ruled that the UFW violated the First Amendment rights of six UFW members who were fired from their jobs and suspended by the union after they crossed a UFW picket line in 1979.

The First Amendment guarrantees the right to free speech and association. "Mere union strength and industrial peace are insufficient goals to justify abridgement of rights which union members hold," Irving wrote in a 20-page decision. Although he declared the clause unconstitutional, Irving did not take any action from companies that do not comply with the so-called Sullivan Principles for corporate behavior in South Africa. She reported that the board adopted a divestiture policy on Wednesday, shortly after Gov. George Deukmejian announced an executive order calling on the state's pension agencies to review investments in companies doing business in South Africa, with an eye toward selling investments in those companies that do not follow the principles.

Marshall said she believed the timing of the two events was coincidental, but Deukmejian's press secretary, Larry Thomas, said the governor's office knew in advance that the independent board would be "contemplating" the issue. The order was actually signed by Deukmejian on Tuesday but made public on Wednesday. "We sought to give them (the board) the governor's opinion about the course of action they should take and they ended up passing a resolution that is close to. the same process we sug-Please see FUND, Page 30 ELLEN JASKOL Lot Angeles Timea Splitting hairs A punk rocker with spikes pointing in almost every direction takes a breather at the Magic Mountain amusement park and seems to blend in with a fountain there..