The Napa Valley Register from Napa, California • 16

18 The NAPA REGISTER Thursday, August 18, 1983 Two Key Measures legislation To Bolster Pension Funds Advances Increase from two to five years the minimum state prison term for people who deliberately place harmful substances in food, beverages, drugs or drinking water. The bill, SB40, by Torres received a 19-0 vote. The panel rejected on a 9-2 vote, but agreed to reconsider next week, a bill, SB1086, by Sen. Leroy Greene, D-Carmichael, that would allocate $50 million in 1984-85 to school districts with improved student test scores. alcohol will result in a 0.10 percent blood-alcohol level.

The bill, AB2179, by Assemblywoman Jean Moorhead, D-Sacramento, is a response to recent court challenges to the state's 0.10 percent standard in drunken driving cases. The vote was 19-0. Raise the maximum monthly medical aid level for aged, blind and disabled Medi-Cal recipients from $331 to $442 a month. The vote on the bill, AB1229, by Assemblyman Louis Papan, D-Milibrae, was 13-5. SACRAMENTO UPI Legislation designed to bolster the state's multibillion-dollar pension funds won approval Wednesday from the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Two measures, which were sent to the floor, are among several introduced this year to improve the investment capability of retirement systems for teachers and state employees. One of the bills, SB438, by Sen. Art Torres, D-Los Angeles, would allow managers of the Public Employees Retirement Fund to invest in farm, ranching or mining property. Approved on a 19-0 vote, it also would delete a limitation on PERS investments in real estate to not more than 10 percent of its assets. The other pension measure, ACR6, by Assemblyman Dave Elder, D-Long Beach, approved on a 14-0 vote, would create a task force to draft an overhaul of the State Teachers' Retirement System for nearly 400,000 public school teachers.

Elder said STRS has an unfunded liability of $14 billion, with a deficit growing by $1 billion a year. The Ways and Means Committee also sent to the floor proposals to: Allow the state controller to reduce personal income tax refunds to pay for defaulted federally subsidized student loans. Present law applies the same authority to loans from state universities. The bill, SB518, by Sen. Joseph Montoya, D-Whittier, received a 19-0 vote.

Authorizes prescription use under state supervision for dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a commercial solvent successfully used to treat health problems, that is not approved by federal and state health agencies. The bill, SB268, by Sen. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, would authorize state control of its manufacture and sale. The vote was 19-0. Require the Department of Motor Vehicles to include at least one question on blood-alcohol levels in the driver's license examination, with an explanation of how much 'V Wilderness Park Expansion Bill Passes A Test SACRAMENTO (UPI) The Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee has approved a bill to expand Sinkyone Wilderness State Park in northwestern Mendocino County and create a coastal hiking trail nearby.

The measure, AB125, by Assemblyman Dan Hauser, D-Arcata. was sent to the Finance Committee on a 5-0 vote Wednesday night despite opposition from a group of Mendocino County residents who protested that the proposal failed to provide protections against timber harvesting along the trail. The legislation authorizes an exchange of property between the state and Georgia-Pacific Corp. under which 136 acres of old growth redwood trees in the Duffy's Gulch area would be added to the southern area of the park. The company would receive 350 acres of Reynolds Wayside Campground on the east side of Highway 101 in the area.

The controversy over the bill centered on its provisions for creating a 6-mile-long hiking trail and related campgrounds on bluffs overlooking the ocean south of the wilderness park. The group of area residents, led by Richard Geinger, told the committee the provision under which Georgia-Pacific would lease the trail area to the state for $1 a year was unfair to environmentalists who want to protect the scenic redwood area along the proposed trail route. Geinger described the bill as a premature settlement to a complex issue." He said, The width of the corridor boundaries is not adequate and terms of protection (against logging) are not adequate." He called for extended negotiations with Georgia-Pacific over the trail corridor's boundaries. Geinger and other members of the group said the measure provided no guarantees that timber harvesting operations would not be conducted in the trail corridor, thus the scenic view of redwood trees could be threatened. The committee turned down his proposal lor a one-year moratorium on logging in critical" redwood areas along the corridor while negotiations are completed on the trail's route.

But the panel approved an amendment sought by the local residents and the Sierra Club to include $2 8 million in 1980 park bond money in the bill for possible state purchase of timber lands that could be exchanged with Georgia-Pacific for redwood property in the scenic area. Jere Melo of Georgia-Pacific said the firm had no intention of selling the land in the trail corridor. He said his company only was interested in a possible exchange of the land for other timber property. Melo opposed the proposed moratorium, saying it "flies in the face of our operations." He indicated Georgia-Pacific has no current plans for logging in the trail corridor. Melo said one of the reasons his firm agreed to the $1-a-year lease arrangment instead of selling the land was that it was not interested in raiding the state's treasury" for the multi-million dollar cost of the property.

Portable Computer Danger On Plane? PALO ALTO (UPI) Lap-size portable computers used by business persons and other passengers aboard airliners could interfere with the plane's complex electronic guidance and control systems, according to the computer magazine InfoWorld. i staff-written article in the weekly magazine said Wednesday that some experts believe radiation from the portable units might affect very sensitive naviagation and communication equipment aboard jet aircraft. At least one major airline, Eastern, has banned the use of portable computers, and small commuter airlines generally prohibit their use, InfoWorld said. Other major carriers are investigating the situation. Is it safe to use a portable on an airplane? Despite the proliferation of lap-size computers and their increasingly widespread use on comercial aircraft, the answer is that it may not be," InfoWorld said.

After scores of interviews with government, computer industry, and airline sources, the writers, Scott Mace and John Markoff, reported that there is not enough evidence on the effect that portable computers have on aircraft navigational and communications equipment. More testing is needed before they are judged safe, according to these sources. The article noted that 11 years ago the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule that would have specifically permitted the use of portable electronic calculators aboard airliners and then withdrew it after criticism about possible dangers. Present regulations, InfoWorld said, leave the question up to individual airlines. Some of the airlines leave it up to the plane captain, or even the cabin crew.

Alexander Raue, a private pilot and a computer software company executive, was quoted as saying that the airlines "are strong on business-class travel and therefore reluctant to restrict businessmen who want to use computers in flight. Whether or not that is a safe policy is questionable. Raue said. InfoWorld said that while each of the small computers gives off only a small amount of electronic radiation, a dozen or more of them operating aboard a plane may affect the aircraft's electronic system, which, in the newer airliners, is extremely sophisticated and delicate.