The Modesto Bee du lieu suivant : Modesto, California • 22

The State Wilson fixes blame for growing fiscal crisis San Francisco Chronicle SACRAMENTO Faced with closing a widening budget gap without new (axes Gov Wilson blamed the financial woes on an exodus of working taxpayers and increasing demands for expensive government services by poor people and immigrants Administration insiders said the theme is one he will hammer in the coming weeks before he unveils his budget in January for the next fiscal year: The state is losing its most productive workers and becoming a haven for immigrants and indigents who are heavy users of expensive health and welfare programs are more and more a state in which the population of those who are consumers of expensive services offered by government are increasing markedly and those who are producers of taxes and jobs were increasingly leaving the state those in the 30-to-44 and 45-to-56 year age Wilson said of the wounds we have suffered have been self-inflicted imposed a job-killing burden on he said in a speech to the County Supervisors Association of California meeting in Monterey on Wednesday As Wilson spoke his Department of Finance in Sacramento said economy is showing no sign of rebounding from the recession and its fiscal health is than the forecasts of virtual ly all public and private Revenues from taxes on personal income sales and business were below the estimates by $528 million between July and October the first four months of the fiscal year Actual revenues for the quarter totaled $108 billion about 47 percent below the projected level of $113 billion The independent Commission on State Finance predicts that the state could end the current fiscal year $3 billion in the red going to have to cut services in areas where in fact we want to cut Wilson told the supervisors He conceded a much-ballyhooed plan enacted this summer to shift state programs and revenues to counties may fail because of the revenue woes In a speech Monday Wilson who supported $7 billion in tax increases to close a $143 billion budget gap last summer said he will accept no new tax levies this time truth is while tax burden is still lower than some of our competitors it has reached the highest level we can he said we work to close a budget gap in the year ahead it will be closed through spending cuts not through tax His administration is already looking at a variety of ways to cut state spending although there are no specific plans yet In Brief Changes coming in lottery Chief urges dumping most current games McClatchy News Service SACRAMENTO The state Lottery as Californians know it soon may be history- New lottery chief Sharon Sharp will go to the Lottery Commission today with her specific plan to dump virtually all existing California Lottery games and give the ailing system a fresh start my proposal will suggest Sharp confirmed Wednesday The five-member commission is expected to vote today whether or not to approve plans for new games While Sharp declined to disclose specific proposals for new games before the board has had a chance to consider them lottery officials said the current 653 Lotto and 639 Little Lotto as well as Decco and Topper would get the boot The only game that would continue is Scratchers the cards from which players rub a coating to see if they are instant winners Sharp said the Scratcher games will be expanded It is a good bet that the California Lottery will end up with games similar to those that have been successful in Illinois and other states Sharp who has been on the job a little more than a month is the former director of the Illinois Lottery where she gained a reputation for hard work aggressive marketing and positive results She was appointed by Gov Wilson to run the California gaming agency which has been in a downward spiral for two years are only basically so many lottery Sharp said is a basic menu of lottery games When you select you select generally from games that have been successful in other states You select from what you already know or used Two daily drawing games where players pick three or four numbers have been successful in Illinois are very very popular games in many states" Sharp said In Illinois daily players pay $1 for each 3- or 4-digit choice Those games result in winners every day Sharp said The top prize for the three-digit pick is $500 the four-digit pick top prize is $5000 The Associated Press Democratic Senate hopeful Dianne Feinstein hands out groceries at the Sacramento Food Bank Feinstein dishes out food criticism the Senate criticized a series of key Seymour votes including his support for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas She said she believed Anita allegations that Thomas sexually harassed her and believe claim that he had never discussed the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion lost me when he said as a judge that he had never discussed Roe Wade or the issue of a right to choose (whether to have an abortion)" Feinstein said found that She said that she was by the lack of investigation and to allegations But she said the televised hearings sexual harassment onto the front and dramatized the lack of women in the Senate Yeargan of Sacramento as he loaded groceries into a car she really wants to help she should kick down some cash because got plenty of people volunteering at this Feinstein said she and her husband gave $3000 to $5000 last year to a San Francisco church that runs a food bank An elderly woman pulling a small grocery cart said appearance at the food bank was even recognize her said the woman who refused to give her name ought to be out in public Feinstein said she visited the food bank to of star an all volunteer-supported major food bank that is doing a tremendous Feinstein who is seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose Seymour Gov Wilson's appointed successor in By STEVE LAWRENCE The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Democratic Senate contender Dianne Feinstein handed out groceries at a food bank Wednesday to demonstrate her support for such programs then dished out some criticism of Republican Sen John Seymour Her exercise in volunteerism drew mixed reviews from some of the poor who waited in a hallway for bags filled with bread beans and other staples the (former) mayor of San Francisco is handing out one man remarked sarcastically when told who was standing behind one of the distribution windows at the Sacramento Food Bank asked a woman confusing Feinstein with the current mayor of Sacramento was a bunch of said Adrian Three slain in holdup VALLEJO Three people were killed Wednesday night in an apparent robbery at the Loomis armored car yard police said Two were killed at the scene and one died at Sutter Solano Hospital An unknown number of suspects were still at large None of the victims was identified said Police Chief Gerald Galvin Police were checking all of the armored cars and other vehicles parked in the yard A California Highway Patrol helicopter searched the area while handlers with dogs searched the streets for suspects At least two of the victims were employees of the company Fresno boy kills sister An 8-year-old Fresno boy accidentally shot and killed his younger sister Wednesday morning while playing with a handgun his mother owned to protect hei seven children police said Candy Rodriguez 6 was shot in the chest She was pronounced dead at a hospital about 30 minutes after the 7:20 am shooting The boy was looking for a television remote control when he found the gun Sgt Mike Guthrie said The boy pointed it at his sister and shot Police took the gun and Guthrie said the shooting appeared to be an accident Rapper sues police OAKLAND A member of the rap group Digital Underground has filed a $10 million claim against two police officers who allegedly brutalized him after a jaywalking incident last month Tupac Amaru Shakur 20 whose musical message centers on the plight of young black men hassled by police admitted Tuesday that he jaywalked near a downtown intersection on Oct 17 Shakur said officers Alex Boyovich and Kevin Rogers choked him threw him to the ground and slammed his head several times on the sidewalk He said he was handcuffed arrested for resisting arrest and taken to the city jail where he remained for seven hours before his release back in court SAN JOSE Thousands of women injured by the Daikon Shield are going back to court after rejecting what they say are settlement offers from a trpst set up to pay claims and end an avalanche of litigation The trust has responded by hiring lawyers that used to work for AH Robins Co the defunct maker of the intrauterine contraceptive device in a move opposing attorneys said Wednesday is meant to scare off claimants The trust has settled 130000 claims for an average of $65000 each Another 150000 claims were dropped or rejected And 45000 cases remain unsettled although the trust is hammering out agreements on about 200 a week The trust which is collecting $500000 in interest each day now stands at about $23 billion China makers respond SACRAMENTO Dish makers said Wednesday they cooperated with state authorities and had agreed to requests even before the government filed a lawsuit alleging unsafe levels of lead in dishes were shocked (at the suit) The discussions with the attorney general had been ongoing and had been proceeding to our said Gus Weill a spokesman for the ceramics manufacturers trade association we had agreed to do everything that these suits were seeking We had agreed to do everything to comply with California On Tuesday state Attorney General Dan Lungren filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court contending that some of the best-known makers of china and kitchen ceramics had failed to meet a California law requiring disclosure of potentially unsafe lead levels in ceramic glazes Bathroom ordinance SANTA MONICA Women standing in a line to use public bathrooms can now slip into the room for relief but only if three or more are queued up in a holding pattern outside the ladies room The City Council unanimously approved the ordinance the first of its kind in California late Tuesday School gets probation for forfeiting game over threat probation was unfair because it has been a model program Herrera said the IAC has placed school sports programs on probation for intentionally using ineligible players and for violence against officials refusal to play Dorsey compare he said Dorsey Coach Paul Knox said decision not to play Nov 1 was an insult to his school slapped our community our school and the football team in the he said that they would favor forfeiting again should the schools meet in the playoffs safety of the kids is foremost in our said Christina Padilla whose son Robert is a senior linebacker The I ruling Tuesday places Banning on probation for the rest of this season and next season It is a warning that more serious action might be taken if additional infractions occur said IAC Commissioner Hal Harkness Banning Principal Augustine Herrera said putting the football team on dium on Nov 1 saying it feared for the safety of its players Dorsey was declared the victor by forfeit City-run Jackie Robinson Stadium which is next to Dorsey High was the site of two apparently gang-related shootings this year that left three students wounded Police Chief Daryl Gates offered to deploy hundreds of his officers at the stadium for the Dorsey-Banning game But Banning parents and school officials still decided to forfeit Banning parents said Tuesday The Associated Press LOS ANGELES High football team was placed on probation through next year for refusing to play at another school because of the threat of gang violence The Interscholastic Athletics Committee also ruled Tuesday that if Banning and Dorsey High School meet in this playoffs the game would be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium where Dorsey plays its home games Banning in suburban Wilmington refused to play archrival Dorsey at the sta- Lost hiker gives mate a call Fresno rated as real analysis think he caught a lot of Fresno's positive qualities and some of its Mayor Karen Humphrey said the kind of treatment we get in the media that might be the best we're going to The mayor felt Wills to capture the situation that a city like Fresno finds itself in which is being fastgrowing and trying to preserve the quality of Fresno was the fastest-growing major city during the 1980s according to the 1990 federal census This agribusiness center located smack in the middle of California probably looked good to Wills because housing prices are so much lower than in megalopolises The quality of home that costs a quarter of a million dollars or so in San Francisco or Los Angeles goes for around $100000 in Faesno The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Walter Roden let his fingers do the walking when he got lost on a hike in the rugged Angeles National Forest Roden pulled a cellular telephone out of his pack and called his wife think a cellular phone will ever replace a map but I would recommend he said later glad I had it with Roden 64 of Northridge went hiking Monday in the Big Tujunga Canyon region of the San Gabriel Mountains north of the Los Angeles basin hike a lot and usually am Roden said Tuesday I never hiked this area before and have a map So I brought the phone along in case I went down the wrong exactly what happened but much of the time he was walking in noservice areas places where cellular radio waves reach He finally got through to his wife Pat before dark and said he reach a prearranged point where she was to have The Associated Press FRESNO Fresno which once wound up last in a national livability survey now is proclaimed last real by Time Magazine In a special issue this week Time pretty much trashed the rest of the state leaving Fresnans a little surprised that they were singled out for praise The author Garry Wills called Fresno of the few places in the state that have not already reached a choke-off point for high prices pollution crime or the fear of those Actually Fresno has had a historically high crime rate for years which was the main reason the city was last in an eastern college livability survey back in 1984 And experts call the smog problem potentially one of the worst rBut local leaders cautiously embrace picked him up He said he would try to find a road or a US Forest Service ranger station instead His wife called the Forest Service which notified the Los Angeles County Department mountain rescue team Rescuers were just heading out and a helicopter was airborne when Roden called again this time from a phone at a ranger station he reached after catching a ride His planned 12-mile hike had covered 20 miles but he was safe Angeles National Forest spokesman Robert Brady said case was the first time he heard of a hiker taking a cellular phone along for safety but he expects it to happen more and more as the technology takes hold if this one worked for this Brady said certainly would not cost anything more to put in your The only hitch is that a lost or injured hiker would still have to be able to move around to find a spot where the radio signal blocked.