The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 2

Cos Angeles (Eimea 17 Wednesday, March IS, 1989 Fart I 3 4 It was a booming mining camp full of stray dogs. That's how it came by its strange Resistance to Drug Found in Tests of Some AIDS Patients jr I GloydA. (Bud)Ponta Himmmmmm. I fourth-generation Dogtowner CHARLES HILUNGER Loa Angeles Times Building foundations and a few collapsing wooden structures are just about all that remains of Dogtown. By ROBERT STEINBROOK, Times Medical Writer Scientists have detected resistance to the commonly used anti-AIDS drug AZT in blood samples drawn from a small number of AIDS patients who have received the medication for more than six months, it was announced Tuesday.

The laboratory findings of resistant strains of the AIDS virus which researchers said were not unexpected are likely to have no immediate effect on the use of AZT in AIDS patients. AZT was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1987 for many patients with either AIDS or advanced AIDS-relat-ed conditions. But the new research, from the UC San Diego Medical Center and Wellcome Research Laboratories in Britain, is likely to stimulate efforts to design AIDS treatments that combine AZT with other medicines. Previous research has suggested that AZT can prolong the lives of AIDS patients for an average of one to two years.

AZT blocks the replication of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but does not rid the body of the infection. As a result, the immunodeficiency caused by HIV continues to progress. AZT can also cause serious side effects, such as anemia, requiring discontinuation of the drug. The new findings may also cause some physicians and patients to rethink the use of AZT in the early stages of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus. Although the benefit of AZT in the early stages of HIV infection has not been established, the antiviral drug is widely prescribed in this situation.

"I feel very strongly that no change in the management of individual AIDS patients should be based on these data," Dr. Douglas Richman, a professor of pathology at UC San Diego, said. He expressed concern that misinterpretation of the findings would create inappropriate "fear or hysteria." Richman, one of three authors of the new study, said that resistance happens "with all drugs and all bugs and all tumor cells." He said it was "not surprising" in the case of HIV. A germ is considered resistant when it develops the ability to grow in the Please see DRUG, Page 20 Terrorism Expert Called In on Probe of Van Bombing By KEVIN RODERICK and JANE FRITSCH, Times Staff Writers SAN DIEGO-The FBI has summoned an expert in terrorist explosives to San Diego to help investigate last week's bombing of a van owned by Navy Capt. Will Rogers III, a federal source said Tuesday as the cruiser Vincennes sailed for the first time since the incident.

Hours before Rogers took the Vincennes to sea, a bomb threat was called in to the La Jolla private school where his wife, Sharon Rogers, is a teacher. A search found no evidence of a bomb, and San Diego Police Lt. William L. Brown said it was thought to be a crank call. Mrs.

Rogers took the week off and has been under the protection of Navy security officials since last Friday's explosion, which occurred while she was driving the family van to the school. She was unhurt. The explosives expert from the San Francisco office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will take a close look at the destroyed van hoping to pick up clues to the origin of the pipe bomb that detonated while Rogers' wife was driving to work last Friday, the source said. Another federal investigator said the San Please see BOMB, Page 21 Assembly Panel Backs 5-Cent Hike in Gas Tax By VIRGINIA ELLIS. Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO-A proposed 5-cent increase in the state's gasoline tax survived its first legislative test Tuesday, winning overwhelming approval in the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The committee endorsed the measure by Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) and Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) in an 11-1 vote, although several committee members indicated that some controversial provisions would have to be altered before they could vote for it on the Assembly floor. It now moves to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. The bill, which requires approval by a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses, calls for substantial increases in gasoline taxes and truck weight fees to finance a 10-year, program to upgrade the state's overburdened transportation system. It would hike the state gasoline tax by 5 cents and truck weight fees by 30 initially and then continue to increase the fees and the tax every two years for the next decade according to a formula based on the rate of inflation. By the year 2000, transportation analysts estimate, the state's 9-cents per gallon gas tax would rise to 24 cents per gallon.

"This $20 billion over the next 10 years is not going to solve all the problems but it will go a long way to getting us off the dime and getting us into the next century in far better shape than sitting on our duffs and doing nothing," Katz said. The committee vote on the bill generally followed party lines, although one Republican, Assemblywoman Bev Hansen (R-Santa Rosa), cast her ballot with the majority. The single vote in opposition came from Assemblyman Charles Quack -enbush (R-Saratoga). Several members who were present did not vote. Katz will need support from the ranks of the Assembly's 33 Republicans to win a two-thirds majority on the floor.

Assemblyman William P. Baker (R-Danville) said there is strong support among Republicans for transportation improvements. But he predicted that a major problem will be to get lawmakers to look beyond the concerns of their own districts. "We're going to have north and south splits and urban and rural splits. We're Please see GAS, Page 18 Speaker's Plea for Easing of Tax Law Given Little Hope By DOUGLAS SHUIT.

Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday that he has asked Republican Gov. George Deukmejian to consider supporting a bill that would allow tax increases and appropriations by a simple legislative majority, rather than the two-thirds vote now required. The proposal by the San Francisco Democrat to waive the two-thirds majority vote in the Senate and Assembly was made during one of his periodic meetings with the Republican governor, Brown said. Some of the changes suggested by Brown would need voter approval because they would amend the California Constitution. The two-thirds requirement for approval of tax increases was put into the Constitution by voters in 1978 when they passed Proposition 13, the landmark property tax initiative.

Brown's proposal would substantially expand the scope of periodic budget talks the governor has been holding with legislative leaders. But a Deukmejian spokesman said there is little likelihood that it will be taken seriously. "The proposal received a chilly reception from the governor and Republican leader-Please see SPEAKER, Page 21 Gone to the Dogs Gold-Mining Town Left With Only Memories of Its Heyday Rancher Bud Ponte's greatgrandfather was one of the original Dogtown miners. He had been a ship's captain, sailing out of El Paraiso, Chile, when he got gold fever, gave up the sea and sought his fortune here. Ponte was born in Dogtown, as were his parents and grandmother.

His grandparents and father went to Dogtown School. He pointed to a collection of old news stories that document the town's share of gunfights, excitement, tragedies and unusual occurrences. When the Ross Reservoir gave way in 1899 and flooded Dogtown, it swept away a good part of the mining camp, including .1 -1 By CHARLES HILLINGER, Times Staff Writer DOGTOWN, Calif. -This 19th-century Gold Rush town, five miles up a one-lane twisting mountain road from Angels Camp, is but a memory today. Not much is left of Dogtown, and what little is left is rapidly falling apart.

In its heyday from 1849 to the turn of the century, Dogtown was one of the biggest hydraulic mining camps in California. Hundreds of men operating giant hoses equipped with rotating nozzles washed down vast mountain slopes here in search of gold. "There were Chinese, Chilean, Cornish, French, Indian, Mexican, black and Yankee miners. There Some of the town's namesakes rema vjuu Liuiu, wiiu i usaeu iu ins uauui to save his dog. in were hotels, boardinghouses, a dance hall, stores, saloons, a red-light district and hundreds of cabins and tents scattered about," recalled Gloyd A.

(Bud) Ponte. "It was a booming mining camp full of stray dogs. That's how it came by its strange name," explained Ponte, 71, a rancher, long-time president of the Calaveras Historical Society and a fourth -generation Dogtowner. And, for 20 years Dogtown was the home of Windsor A. Keefer, a suave, sophisticated promoter with dark, wavy hair who was reputed to be the best-dressed man in the Mother Lode.

He often wore ankle-length fur coats. A local reservoir bears his name. He built it. He was one of the owners of what is now Calaveras Big Trees State Park, 20 miles northeast of here. He owned several mines and water companies.

He erected one of the first electric-generating plants in the West. He was also accused of floating bogus mining stock and bilking investors in many of his enterprises. Lunt, a miner from Germany, was last seen alive holding his dog in his arms and waving from the window of his cabin as it floated away in the raging waters. One news story described the suicide of Charlie Ferants, a singer of Spanish songs in a Dogtown cabaret. He hanged himself from a tree.

Shortly after that, the tree died, too. Another story was about woodchop-per Manuel Lopez, who found $300 in $20 gold pieces in a hollow in a tree he felled. He took the money, went to town and drank himself to death, all in the same day. "All we have left is memories. Like memories of the old Dogtown schoolteachers: Lizzie Kaler, Mayme Duffy, Annie Gallagher, and Mrs.

Mulgrew," Ponte mused. "Justice in Dogtown was quick in my great-grandfather's time. If somebody did something wrong robbed somebody, stole a horse or assaulted a woman he was strung up before sundown. That was the way it was when Dogtown was in its prime." On March 24, 1897, he vanished, never again to be seen. "Was He Murdered?" "Did He Flee to Avoid the Wrath of His Victims?" headlined the newspapers.

Stories about the mysterious disappearance of Dogtown's best-known resident filled California newspapers for weeks. Eight years later, it was reported that Keefer was seen in Paris, living the life of luxury. But there is no proof that the story was true. Today, all that remains of old Dogtown are scattered building foundations and half a dozen wooden structures on the verge of collapse. Surrounding ranches and three homes of relatively recent vintage along French Gulch Creek occupy what once was a riotous mining camp.

"There's still gold in these hills. Those old-time miners didn't get it all," insisted Lenny Owen, 33, one of three prospectors living in Dogtown. Bernie Dorsey, 43, and his wife Carolyn, 33, are the other two who hope to strike it rich in the old Dogtown diggings. Stephen Bechtel, Head of Global Construction Firm, Dies at 88 State Hopes to Buy Yuba River Water to Help Relieve Drought By JACK JONES, Times Staff Writer Stephen Davison Bechtel, builder of dams, bridges, pipelines, refineries, factories, ships, nuclear reactors and other industrial hardware throughout the world, died Tuesday in Oakland. He was 88.

A spokesman for the Bechtel Group Inc. said in San Francisco that Bechtel died at Merritt Peralta Medical Center of an undisclosed illness. As head of one of the world's largest construction and engineering firms, which helped build Hoover Dam, Bechtel's philosophy was, "We'll build anything for anybody, no matter what the location, type or size." Even though he headed a large organization with an impressive array of supervisors, engineers and workers, Bechtel was described by Fortune magazine in the early 1950s as "a practical contractor who knows the work in the field as well as any man in the crew." One of his customers was quoted by the magazine as saying, "For a run-of-the-mill From United Press International SACRAMENTO-The state hopes to buy up to 250,000 acre -feet of water from overflowing Yuba County and use part of it to help the San Francisco Bay Area in the drought, state Water Resources Director David Kennedy said Tuesday. He said part of the water bought from the Yuba River region would be resold to the Hetch Hetchy Project, which serves San Francisco and other Bay Area communities, and to Santa Clara and Marin counties. The East Bay Municipal Utilities District, which serves Berkeley and Oakland, and the city of Napa already have made their own deals for water supplies from the Yuba River.

However, the East Bay utilities district deal was questioned by the state Department of Fish and Game, whose spokesmen said the Yuba County Water Agency should be required to release additional water to protect fisheries if the sale is made. Donn Wilson, administrator of the Yuba job, I'll give it to the lowest bidder. But for something that requires dreaming and imagination, Bechtel's my man." Born Sept. 24, 1900, in Aurora, he was the son of builder Warren A. Bechtel.

The family moved to Oakland, but Stephen Bechtel spent much of his youth in construction camps, living with his parents in a railroad car at railroad job sites. Stephen Bechtel was a motorcycle dispatch rider with the 20th Army Engineers in France during World War then attended UC Berkeley. He quit school at 19 and joined the family business with his brothers, Warren Jr. and Kenneth. "Dad needed us in the business," he explained later.

In 1925, his father formed the W. A. Bechtel one of the largest construction firms in the West. Stephen became a vice president, supervising railroad, building and pipeline construction. His father died in 1933, leaving Stephen Bechtel to take over a major role in the agency, said negotiations are under way to try to meet the state agency's objections.

The issue may have to be settled by the state Water Resources Control Board, which has the final say over emergency diversions of water in drought years. "We are still in a drought, but as a result of the early March rains it is a selective drought," Kennedy told reporters after testifying before the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee. "The San Francisco Bay Area is the hardest hit. We're trying to help them." Kennedy said the state may relax the 40 cutback in water deliveries it decreed in December for agricultural customers of the State Water Project. "We're looking at it on a week -to -week basis," he said.

"We now think 40 is the worst possible case." He declined to guess when the policy might be changed. He said that besides the Bay Area, Monterey County is suffering from the Please see YUBA, Page 21 Associated Press Stephen Davison Bechtel in 1984 building of Hoover Dam, for which the Bechtel firm had allied itself with five other companies. In 1935, he took over presidency of the $20-million construction business, building it into one worth $250 million. Please see BECHTEL, Page 22.