Santa Maria Times from Santa Maria, California • 3

Tuttday, July 21, 1W2, Santa Maria Tlm A4 usaqlkis jits Not a chess guess I people push on Former candidate may make ballot Chevron pays $8 million fine for Santa Barbara coast dumping LOS ANGELES (AP) Chevron Corp. pleaded guilty Monday to federal pollution violations for dumping oil, grease and other waste into the ocean and agreed to pay an $8 million fine. Ufider the plea agreement, Chevron President Raymond Galvin personally appeared in a courtroom to enter the guilty plea. He handed over a check for $6.5 million, with another $1.5 million to be paid later. "It's something we wanted to get behind us," Galvin said after the hearing.

"We've solved the problem and improved our operations and training. We've learned a lot from it, but it certainly was a very expensive lesson." The $8 million fine is the nation's third-largest for an environmental crime. Exxon agreed to pay $125 million in a criminal fine and restitution for the Alaskan oil tanker spill. Rockwell International agreed to pay an $18.5 million penalty for its Rocky Flats facility. The violations against Chevron occurred around one of the company's oil drilling platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, 12 miles southwest of Ventura.

From 1982 to 1987, the company allowed the wastes to be. discharged from the platform into the water at levels above those allowed by federal regulators, prosecutors alleged. After a four-year investigation, Chevron agreed in May to plead guilty to 65 violations of the Clean Water Act. Chevron attributed the dumping to a lack of training and supervision of employees. Assistant U.S.

Attorney Gary S. Lincenberg said that having Chevron's president appear in court "sends a good message." SLO girl falls into Yosemite pool YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) A 15-year-old hiker was in critical condition after falling into a rocky pool in Yosemite National Park. Jessica Heubner of San Luis Obispo was climbing rocks near Brldalveil Falls on Monday when she fell about 60 feet and struck her head on rocks, the park service reported. She was airlifted to a Modesto hospital with a skull fracture.

Air Force implicated in scandal SAN DIEGO (AP) Pentagon investigators have asked the Air Force for a list of all officers at a Nevada base, because some of the aviators may have been involved in alleged sexual misconduct at a military convention, a newspaper reported today. The request from the Pentagon inspector general's office for the first time implicated the Air Force in a probe that previously was limited to members of the Navy and Marine Corps, The San Diego Union-Tribune said. Fliers from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada apparently attended the Las Vegas convention of the Tailhook Association in September, as did Navy and Marine Corps At least 26 women, including 14 officers, claimed they were groped and in some cases disrobed by a gantlet of drunken male officers who allegedly forced the women to walk down a hotel hallway. It was not known whether any of the Air Force officers were involved in the alleged abuses. However, Navy and Marine Corps aviators who- spoke on condition of anonymity told the newspaper that pilots from Nellis were among those who reportedly groped women during the three-day convention.

"It's time to give it back to our brothers in blue," said one Navy flier and Tailhook TimetSuian Goldman board before making his move Monday at the Luis-OASIS Senior Center in Orcutt. Carefully considering every move, George Laudenbach studies a chess English courses offered By Len Arends Times Staff Writer Despite Ross Perot's declaration that he won't be running for the presidency, many of his volunteer supporters and Perot himself have resolved to continue the campaign, without a candidate. In California, the petition drive that had been sweeping the country verifiably acquired about 170,000 signatures, exceeding the 134,781 signatures needed to qualify Perot for the November ballot. This was known long before Perot's July 16 declaration. However, the Perot team must meet a second, less-publicized requirement before his name will be placed on the ballot, and they don't see eye to eye with the California secretary of state on the issue.

Fifty-four registered voters' names appeared printed on the petitions when they circulated. These people are the electors who would actually vote for Perot if he were to win California this November. According to the California secretary of state's office, all 54 need to declare their candidacy as electors before Perot's name will be allowed on the ballot. As of now, only 38 have done so. Sacramento lawyer Earnesto Perez disputes this assertion, claiming that only one elector need be certified before the Perot ballot is valid.

"They're wrong," Perez said, citing California Election Code Sec. 6920 as his proof. The State Department was closed for the weekend and could not be contacted for its reaction to Perez's claim. Even if Perez is right, or if the remaining electors successfully submit, making the point moot, there is still no guarantee that Perot's name will remain on the ballot. Secretary of State March Fong Eu has the ability to remove names from a ballot if the persons are not "viable candidates." Such a move would be taken if, in the opinion of the secretary, the ballot was overloaded with lesser known candidates.

Perez does not consider this likely to occur, however. "While it is true that the authority exists it would be contrary to historical purpose," he said, adding, "the secretary of state's mandate has always been used for positive purposes in the past." Perez said state campaign officials were meeting with Perot to help figure out what their next step might be. What exactly is the legality of a presidential campaign whose candidate doesn't wish to run? "This is unknown territory," the office of the secretary said. "We have never had a candidate appear on a ballot against his will." What would happen should Perot's name manage to make it? It's too early to say, said the state office. "We would have to weigh the issue." Today was the last day of work for most of Perot's Dallas staff, leaving only a handful of mournful aides to shut down what was once a poll-leading presidential campaign.

Perot's headquarters took on the appearance of a wake, staff lamenting the loss of the campaign, volunteers still hoping for a resurrection, and celebrating what was once a bright and shining campaign. PIANO Rent a piano from $15 per month. Special this week: Free moving -Save 540.001 MAXFIELD'S Happy Piano 925-167 iM, Mm Fire season off to destructive start A string of Southern California blazes in recent days could signal an especially destructive fire season, firefighters said. Spring rains that offset a six-year drought also fed grass, brush and shrubbery that dried to tinder in the summer heat. Firefighters continued to battle a fire early today in the Los Angeles National Forest that charred 1,430 acres of brush north of Los Angeles.

fire dispatcher who declined to give her name said containment was expected by 6 p.m. tonight and full control by 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. The fire began early Monday when dry chaparral was ignited by a car that ran off Interstate 5 near Templin Highway. Four people were injured in that accident, authorities said.

Two lanes north- and southbound on Interstate 5 remained closed early today because of blowing embers, authorities said. The blaze, about 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, was 80 percent contained Monday evening, said Steve Weston, a dispatcher for the Los Angeles County fire department. Emergency teams had dubbed it the "Devil Fire" after nearby Devil Canyon, said Denise Rains, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Forest Service, About 500 firefighters battled the blaze with 36 engines, six heliCQpters and five air tankers, Ms. Rains said.

By Timet Staff Hancock College is offering free English As A Second Language classes in Santa Maria, Guadalupe and Santa Ynez. Registration, is from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 3 and 4 at the college cafeteria in Santa Maria. Registration at the Guadalupe Main Street Shopping Center and Santa Ynez Valley High School will be on Aug.

3 only. Classes begin Aug. 17. Free childcare is available for low-income families. For more information call 922-6966, Ext.

3209. The Children's House Montes-sori School will offer a tumbling class for children ages 3-10 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., July 20-31. Call 937-0991 to enroll. la 4 igu School briefs The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District will be administering the district-required wrftten competency test to all 10th, 11th and 12th grade students July 28 at both high schools.

Current summer school students as well as district students not enrolled in summer school may take the test. Students wishing to register to take the test should sign up at Righetti or Santa Maria high schools. Independent study stu- dents may sign up and take the test at either high school. For more information, contact Joe Yates, summer school administrator, at 937-2051, Ext. 304.

id 5 SM mystery to appear on TV show By Times Staff The "Unsolved Mysteries" television show at 8 p.m. Wednesday will re-broadcast a special feature about the slaying of two young Swedish women whose bodies were found east of Santa Maria on Aug. 18, 1983. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department is continuing to investigate the double murder. The homicides have been blamed on a possible serial killer.

Sgt. Bruce Correll, sheriff's North County detective bureau, appeared on the television show, which was first broadcast on April 4. Correll said this week that several leads were generated by the first broadcast. About 200 telephone calls from the United States and Canada resulted from the first broadcast. One of these leads took Correll to Canada.

The two Swedish women, Maria Wahlen, 23, and Marie Littenberg, 25, were last seen alive on July 22, 1983, hitchhiking beside the Bayshore Freeway in the Redwood City area. Call for an appontmani (805) 928-2225 iooliwtfr.8mtt l-W, ill 7'PTaffTTT PI (fDr. David Lohman, D.C. Star Wars laser test cancelled NEW YORK (AP) New limits on nuclear testing have resulted in the cancellation of the last scheduled test for the X-ray laser component of the "Star Wars" anti-missile defense, a newspaper reported today. The Energy Department last week quietly canceled the test of the nuclear-powered X-ray laser under a new policy that limits nuclear tests to the safety and reliability of weapons.

The New York Times reported. Tens of millions of dollars had already been spent for the test, which was planned for years and was to have been carried out in September. Some $27 billion has been spent on the Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as "Star Wars," since it was first proposed in 1983. Former President Ronald Reagan was among its most staunch supporters. As envisioned by Edward Teller and others at the Livermore National Laboratory in California where it was designed, the X-ray laser device would be launched into space in the event of a nuclear attack by the former Soviet Union.

It would intercept attacking missiles with laser beams. The X-ray laser had become a lower priority in recent years, though a senior Pentagon official said he would have liked to see it continue to be tested as part of long-term research, the newspaper reported. IB SAVE UP TO 50 We now 13 We can make it happen for you. With interest rata SiU lov; now the golden opportunity to arrange financing for first homes, first mortgages, retirement homes, or construction. La Cumbrc Savings Bank Open MO Mend Thundqt MC ui face pja.

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