The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 1

200 Inland Empire workers New aihlolic director Rising coot of romanco losing manufacturing job een as throat to courtship BusinessB10 SportsC1 LlvingD1 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY TUESDAY250 FEBRUARY 14, 1989 SPORTS FINAL A LL JflftL Attack weapons targeted by Assemblymen, experts Precinct Reporter publisher dies Townsend founded San Bernardino weekly 24 years ago By PATRICK McCREEVY Sun Staff Writer 4 screen potential gun buyers for backgrounds that could block their purchases. The rare session, known as a committee of the whole, was held only to inform the Assembly about the issue of assault weapons. They've become red hot in public attention since Jan. 17 when Patrick Edward Purdy used an semi-automatic AK-47 to kill five children and injure 29 other children and a teacher in a Stockton schoolyard. No action was taken in the session.

The first committee Center, where he was admitted 21 days ago, said a hospital spokeswoman. The death upset black leaders who counted Townsend and his crusading newspaper as allies in many political struggles, including the battle for civil rights. "He's irreplaceable," said City Councilwoman Valerie Pope-Ludlam. "I almost feel unprotected, because he has been a voice on the West Side for so long." Townsend's son, Brian, said he will continue to publish the Precinct Reporter every Thursday. "The paper will definitely continue and will be out this week," said Brian Townsend, the news-See TOWNSENDBack page By JAKE HENSHAW and LAURALEE MENCUM Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO -Assault weapons came under attack Monday in the Assembly as lawmakers held an unusual session on how to control their use in the state.

In a lengthy and sometimes emotional meeting, experts showed videotapes and debated with lawmakers over proposed legislation to ban assault weapons, toughen criminal laws and SAN BERNARDINO Precinct Reporter publisher Arthur P. Townsend, 67, died Monday morning after a three-year battle with cancer. Townsend founded the weekly newspaper 24 years ago with money made from his real estate business. His advocacy as a newspaper publisher, including stinging front-page editorials, earned him a reputation as a champion of minority residents in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Townsend died of lymphoma, cancer of the lymph glands, at Loma Linda University Medical Arthur P.

Townsend Publisher shown in 1985 photo tafp. haiip involve Meagai in Con tra deals. North riefs say Charges assert former president, others made secret arrangements I Am, By MICHAEL WINES The New York Times within the executive branch of government. The charges, included in two briefs submitted to the federal judge in North's criminal trial on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair, were the first assertions that Reagan himself had been personally involved in such arrangements with Central American countries. However, the government has already admitted publicly or in secret hearings that Reagan and others sought private aid for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, from Saudi Arabia, Brunei, South Korea, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan and other nations.

Such requests for military aid by Reagan when the United States itself could not legally provide it did not violate Congress' ban on American assistance to See REAGANBack page WASHINGTON Lawyers for Oliver L. North said Monday that former President Reagan and other senior U.S. officials made "direct, personal" deals under which Central American and other nations provided secret military aid to rebels inside Nicaragua during the time when Congress had banned military aid to them. The lawyers called the arrangements "quid pro quos," indicating that the nations were promised something in return for their assistance, but those promises, if any, were not disclosed. They stated that the White House deliberately held knowledge of the arrangements within a "limited group of officials" True love celebrated many ways Valentine's Day is big day for hearts By FRANK SENNETT Sun Staff Writer Hearts mean different things to different people on Valentine's Day.

For Regina Searcy, a bus driver from Barstow, a heart is the shape of the balloon she bought for her boyfriend Monday. The paper-limbed, tuxedo-clad and helium-filled balloon had a smile on its face as she held it down. "I'm going to tie a bottle of wine in his hand," she said. "I'm going to try anyway." For Gina Bollinger of Kit Kat Krazy Kapers in Redlands, a heart is a lace-fringed costume she wears when she delivers singing telegrams and strips for parties. "It goes from our chin to our knees," she said.

Valentine's Day can be celebrated in as many ways as people find to say they love someone. Going into debt is one option. Kendra Anderson, 17, and her boyfriend, Tyree Myers, 18, spent Monday afternoon shopping for rings in San Bernardino. "I want two rings," she said. "The only reason it's two rings is he lost the ring he got me for Valentine's Day last year," she said.

Myers was shocked that she would reveal such an embarrassing secret. Cards were on the mind of Tony Coppola, shift superintendent of mails for the San Bernardino post office. On a normal day, between 600,000 and 650,000 first-class letters are mailed in San Bernardino, he said. Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Coppola said, the office handled 700,000 to 900,000 pieces a day. "It's almost like every other piece of mail is a red envelope," See VALENTINE'SBacfc page feelings test Pakistan's new leader "Hi- 4 4 yam, tack on the American center.

No Americans were injured. Even though the book has not been distributed in Pakistan and few if any Pakistanis have seen it, there were growing indications that opponents of the prime minister were using the furor surrounding the work to undercut her politically. Opposition figures, notably those in the Islamic Democratic Alliance, have called for government action, and the Pakistani television, in an apparent response to the uproar, reported Monday night that the government had called for the banning of the book abroad. But Monday night, Bhutto backed away from the suggestion that the call for See PAKISTANBack page By BARBARA CROSSETTE The New York Times ISLAMABAD, Pakistan The attack on the American cultural center here is growing into a crisis for Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In the attack, a mob of thousands of enraged Moslems tried to enter and destroy the American center because "The Satanic Verses," a novel by Salman Rushdie, is being published in the United States.

The book appears to some to satirize and belittle figures from Muslim history, including the Prophet Mohammed. Five people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the at ALAN WARREN VALENTINE'S DAY BASKET: Wafaa C. Crapo puts the finishing touches on a Hot Air Balloon Flower Baskey on Monday at her Balloon Lady shop at 218 E. Highland in San Bernardino. UPDATE War's reality tested values of dissident Vietnam veteran By CONNIE RUTH Sun Staff Writer Sister sends letter BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Peggy Say sent a letter through the Beirut media last week to her brother Terry Anderson, the hostage held longest in Lebanon, urging him to be' strong and expressing hope that President Bush will try to obtain his freedom.

"Stay strong little brother this too will pass," Say wrote. "I have great hopes that President Bush will work for a new and better relationship between our people and our brothers in the Middle East." She hoped to get it to Anderson's captors by publishing it on her birthday Wednesday. Statehood at stake WASHINGTON (AP) Advocates of statehood for the District of Columbia "the last colony," according to their bumper stickers are taking heart from President Bush's endorsement of expanding the union to embrace another place, the island of Puerto Rico. They see a deal in the making: the simultaneous admission to the union of a Puerto Rico that would likely send Republicans to Congress (why else would Bush back the idea, they ask) and of the District of Columbia, which most certainly would elect Democrats. "I think it has the makings of a deal," said statehood activist Mark Plotkin, a member of the D.C.

Democratic State Committee. "I'm hopeful," said Walter Fauntroy, a local minister who represents the district in Congress as a non-voting delegate. WEATHER Fair Mostly clear. Slightly warmer. Details A8 INSIDE Ann LandersD3 BridgeD3 BusinessB10 ClassifiedC6-14 ComicsD7 CrosswordC13 Inland EmpireB1-6 LivingD1-8 ObituariesB6 OpinionA7 SportsC1-6 TVD6 The Sun, 1989 A Gannett Newspaper would be helping the people there.

Speaking in a series of lectures on the war, Romo painted a dim picture of the war for San Bernardino Valley College students Monday. One student asked Romo, 40, if he had killed anyone in Vietnam. He said he killed six people. "The first one I killed I felt like I was killing a deer, but I had never gone hunting." Another student asked how he felt about guns. Romo said he is no pacifist, "but the most immoral thing a human being can do is kill another human being.

It does exact a price on the person doing the killing." Romo, a former Valley College student, said war is far from a glorious experience. "You waited for them to ambush you. You waited for your See VETERANBack page Peggy Say SAN BERNARDINO The Vietnam War taught Barry Romo the value governments place on a child's life. The United States paid South Vietnam $60 for every child killed in the war, $90 for every mother and $120 for every father, he said, but Michelin plantation owners received $600 for every rubber tree destroyed by gunfire. Romo found himself wondering "why the sap of a tree was worth 10 times the life of a child.

We weren't there for the child, we were there so the people in the U.S. could have cheap radials." Romo, who Is co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, volunteered to fight in Vietnam because he believed he 12 quakes rattle Bay Area region; no damage reported The succession of quakes occurred between Sunday and Monday morning and included 11 temblors along the San Andreas fault, said officials of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Twelve earthquakes that rumbled through the Bay Area jolted residents from Marin to Hayward, but were not an unusual occurrence, earthquake officials said..