The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 3

Wednesday. May 20, 1987 Part I 3 Coo Anfleleo gflmeo Space Symposium: Soviets Do Most of Talking Dy LEE DYE, Times Science Writer The Soviet Union's exploration of the solar system in the next decade includes missions that eclipse many proposals still in the planning stages in the United States and Europe, according to top space officials from around the world who outlined their nations' programs at a symposium Tuesday in Pasadena. The Soviet missions include sending an unmanned rover to Mars in 1992 to collect and analyze samples. The Mars mission will also include balloons that will drift around the planet's atmosphere during the day and land on the surface during the cool night to collect samples from widely separated areas, according to Valeriy Barsukov of Moscow's Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. The sam the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said of the Soviets.

Allen chaired the opening session of the first International Conference of Solar System Exploration, sponsored by the American Institute of. Aeronautics and Astronautics. The three-day meet- ing is being held in the Pasadena Convention Center. The Soviets are also committed to an ambitious unmanned mission to several asteroids in the continuing search for clues to the origin and evolution of the universe another mission that is high on the wish list, but far down on the waiting list, for U.S. space scientists.

Barsukov, who frequently corrected his English translator, outlined his country's ambitious plans Please see SPACE, Page 22 ples will be returned to the rover for analysis. lie said the mission may also include small boring machines that would tunnel into the planet like mechanized moles, but Barsukov said some expectations may have to be lowered. "Our wish list is large but we don't know if we have enough weight capability to accomplish all this," Barsukov said through an interpreter. There have been landings on Mars, but never anything of the scale planned by the Soviets. The United States is in the earliest planning stages for a similar mission, but it could not be completed before the end of the century.

"They're very aggressive when it comes to exploring the solar system," Lew Allen, director of Insurance Bill Clears Hurdle in Assembly By KENNETH REICH, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO A bill much sought by consumer advocates that would give the state Insurance Department the power to say yes or no to substantial fluctuations in insurance rates won passage in an Assembly committee Tuesday by one vote. With Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) coming to the meeting room to lobby for passage, the Finance and Insurance Committee, after repeated roll calls, finally mustered the 11 votes necessary to approve what is called a "flex-rating" system. Under the bill, authored by Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento), any insurance rate increase or decrease in California of more than 10 in personal lines or 25 in commercial lines would have to receive the prior approval of the Insurance Department. Consumer Advocate In addition, an Office of Insurance Consumer Advocate would be established within the department to present a public point of view on proposed rate changes.

Under the bill's original terms, the advocate would have come from the state attorney general's office, but, to win support, Connelly amended it Tuesday to put the advocate in the Insurance Department. This was one of two insurance bills that was the subject of comments Monday by Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp at a Los Angeles press conference.

Van de Kamp had expressed fears that both would be defeated this week and had said he would be "very inclined" to support an insurance initiative on the 1988 ballot if that happened. The other bill, a measure authored by Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) that would lift the present state anti-trust exemption applying to the insurance industry, is due to be voted on today in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Please see INSURANCE, Page 23 rr! rW. 1 4i -I II II I tu I II 1 tJ nl i In :4 fcq -I I '-r 5 Associated Press Police Capt. Dean Paulson outside home where girls were rescued and murder suspect seized.

0 i Pasadena Voters OK Demolishing the Huntington for Modern Hotel By ASHLEY DUNN. Times Staff Writer The battle to save the historic Huntington Sheraton Hotel from destruction came to an end Tuesday as Pasadena voters gave their overwhelming support to a plan to demolish the main building and replace it with a modern hotel. After more than a year of debate, voters cleared the way for developer Lary Mielke to go forward with his $38 -million project by approving a controversial zoning change. With all 26 precincts reporting, the vote was 7,032 to 5,088. Nearly 19 of the city's registered voters showed up at the polls, a turnout the city clerk described as good, considering there was only one item on the ballot.

"I'm very pleased," Mielke said late Tuesday. "We've accomplished a lot, but we still have a big job ahead of us." The vote was a bitter defeat for historical preservationists, who had waged an aggressive campaign to save one of the city's last and most beautiful hotels from its golden days as a winter resort for royalty, presidents and the barons of industry. Members of Defenders of the Huntington Hotel, the preservationist group that successfully brought the issue to a citywide vote, conceded that there was nothing they could do now to stop the demolition of the hotel. But Tim Matthews, co-chairman of the Defenders, said the group intends to become "super watchdogs" to ensure that Mielke builds the four-star luxury hotel he has promised. Possible 1990 Opening Mielke said construction of the project, which must still be reviewed by several city commissions, could begin in six to nine months arid the hotel could open as early as 1990.

Controversy over the fate of the hotel, located in the exclusive Oak Knoll neighborhood, has been one of the most intensive preservation fights in Pasadena's history. Mielke's group, Yes on the Huntington Hotel, spent at least $60,000 on the campaign and the Defenders spent about $6,000. Mielke's project involves demolishing the hotel's main building and replacing it with a similar-looking outer structure with larger and modernized rooms. The plan won the support of the city's Board of Directors, which approved the necessary zoning change in December. But the Defenders came back with a successful petition drive that forced the board to give voters the final say.

Mielke argued throughout the campaign that the age of the building and the extensive work needed to bring it up to modern seismic standards would make it an "economic quagmire" for any developer trying to restore it. He added that many of the most beautiful parts of the hotel, such as the Picture Bridge and the Viennese Ballroom, would be restored. But the Defenders argued that Mielke's plan would destroy the most important part of the hotel, its main building, and leave the city with a "phony" and "tacky" version of the real thing. The 80-year-old hotel is the last of the great resorts that gave Pasadena its reputation as a charming and almost Mediterranean-like community in the heart of Southern California's urban sprawl. The main building of the Huntington was closed in October, 1985, by its owners, Keikyu U.S.A., because of concerns that it could not withstand a major earthquake.

Sale of the hotel, which is operated by Sheraton to Mielke's Huntington Hotel Associates is in escrow. Assembly Moves to Prohibit Bias by Private Clubs By RICHARD C. PADDOCK and PAUL JACOBS, Times Staff Writers SACRAMENTO The Assembly, falling in step with the U.S. Supreme Court, the state Franchise Tax Board and some private corporations, has begun moving for the first time to end discrimination by private clubs. Legislation by Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) that would prohibit state tax deductions for business expenses at clubs that practice discrimination was approved Monday night by the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee the first time in a decade that such a bill has been approved.

There is still resistance among some lawmakers, however, as was evident Tuesday when Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Tarzana), author of a companion bill that would revoke the liquor licenses of these clubs, was forced to postpone a vote in the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. Needs More Time Friedman acknowledged that he did not have enough votes to win passage of the measure but said he hopes to round up sufficient support by the next committee hearing. The two measures are aimed at ending the exclusive membership practices of all-male, all-white clubs that often include influential business and civic leaders among their members. Versions of both proposals have languished in the Legislature since the 1970s but have been revived this year and promoted with new fervor by women and civil rights activists.

The California State Clubs representing about Please see CLUBS, Page 24 United Press International Suspect Herbert James Coddington and rescued models Monica Berge and Alecia Thoma, right. 2 Girls Rescued at Scene of Killings Chaperones Found Slain; S. Lake Tahoe Man Arrested SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. UP) FBI agents smashed through the door of a mobile home to rescue two terrified teen-age models and arrested a man who had allegedly kidnaped them and killed their chaperones, authorities said Tuesday. Herbert James Coddington, 28, who had allegedly lured the girls on the pretext of filming an anti-drug video, was booked for investigation of murder and kidnaping, FBI Agent Terry Knowles told reporters.

He said the two girls were found in a bedroom, apparently unharmed, but "scared to death." The two bodies were in green plastic bags on the floor of the adjoining master bedroom. Models Alecia Thoma, 14, of Reno, and Monica Berge, 12, of Sparks, were not tied up, and "it was a fair assumption" that they were present when the slayings took place, Knowles said. The girls vanished on Saturday in the company of Maybelle (Mabs) Martin, 69, operator of Showcase Finishing Modeling School of Reno, and her friend, Dorothy (Dottie) Walsh, 67, also of Reno. The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department confirmed that the two women were the murder victims. An autopsy was completed, but authorities did not explain the cause of death.

Neighbors said Coddington kept to himself and had little social contact with people living around him. Authorities said they did not know what Coddington's occupation was, saying he apparently was unemployed for several years. Neighbor Beatrice JeuDeVin said she heard screams about an hour before the raid on the mobile home. "When I took my dogs out, I heard some screams," she said. "It sounded like women." The two girls and their chaperones were reported missing by their families after they failed to return home in Reno, 60 miles away, Saturday night.

The search involving as many as 50 officers centered on the Lake Tahoe area, where eight law enforcement agencies assisted the FBI. Knowles, in charge of the Sacramento FBI office, said other teen-agers told investigators that a man believed to have been Coddington had approached them over the last two weeks, interviewing them for a video on drug rehabilitation. He said their description of the man's car led agents to the mobile home, where officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, then burst in when the lights went out. Knowles said Coddington was overpowered immediately. He declined to say whether Coddington was armed at the time of his arrest, but said weapons were found in the mobile home.

Paraplegic Model 'Makes Statement' Scientists Unearth Dinosaur Skeleton in San Diego County SAN DIEGO (UPI) Scientists in northern San Diego County have found what they believe is the largest deposit of dinosaur bones ever discovered in Southern California, an official at the San Diego Natural History Museum said Tuesday. "It's the most complete dinosaur skeleton in Southern California," said Tom Demere, assistant curator for paleontology. "This will be the only partial skeleton found in the state in 50 years," he said. Paleontologist Brad Riney said he found the liver -colored bones embedded in an eight-foot area of sandstone while surveying a construction site in Carlsbad. The fossils included ribs, teeth and possibly armor plates.

According to Demere, there are only four other instances of dinosaur bones being found in Southern California, three of them in the San Diego area and one in the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County. Riney said it is not yet known what kind of dinosaur was entombed in the sandstone. He estimated that the bones are about 70 million years old. The Carlsbad area was submerged beneath a shallow sea 70 million years ago. Riney said the fossil could be that of a sea creature or a beast that died on land and was swept out to sea by a flood.

He said it will be a few weeks before bones can be chipped out of the rock and examined. The sandstone is being broken up into 100-pound blocks and shipped to the museum, where the bones will be removed. "From experience, we know that we don't want to mess around with it in the field," Demere said. "That sandstone has protected them for 70 million years, and we want to protect them a little longer." From Times Wire Services A paraplegic California State University, Fuller-ton, student who has posed for a pictorial spread in Playboy magazine says the focus is on who she is, not that she is disabled. Ellen Stohl, 23, is the subject of a planned eight-page layout in the July issue, said Playboy spokesman Bill Paige.

Stohl is partially clad in all of the photos except for one, which has her sitting fully clothed in her wheelchair. The magazine is to go on sale in June. Stohl was studying acting when she broke five neck vertebrae in a 1983 automobile accident; her legs have been paralyzed since. "For a while, I tried to sublimate my desire to act and model by going to art school, but I came to terms with myself and decided I wanted to make a statement that I was a total woman," she said in an interview Monday. "I realized sexuality is very essential to who we are," she said.

"America is so focused on not dealing with sex that we're obsessed with it. I went to Playboy because they handle sex very well. It makes a statement people will listen to. "I didn't want to be treated specially when I approached Playboy, and I was happy when the first thing they asked me was, 'What do you look like? Are you Playboy I think I am. The focus is on who I am, not the fact that I'm disabled." "She wrote to the magazine, suggesting the article, and part of her letter is reproduced as part of the feature," Paige said.

"She wanted to show that her sexuality was still part of her." Stohl's views were echoed by Speed Davis, a spokesman for the National Spinal Cord Injury Assn. of Newton, Mass. "She has the same right to pose for Playboy as any other woman who thinks she has the qualifications," Davis said. "It's a step forward for a disabled woman, and I see no reason to feel different about it because it is in a magazine like Playboy." Davis said he thought the layout is a good opportunity to educate the general public about sexuality among the disabled. "Two centuries ago, the disabled were hidden so other people couldn't see them, and only seven or eight years ago the Easter Seal Foundation received a lot of negative-comment when it skipped their usual 'little girl on crutches' poster and showed a young man in a wheelchair sitting in a park with his girlfriend in his lap," he said.

r- 4.11 i il Associated Press Ellen Stohl as she will appear in magazine..