Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 4

Forum THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL LOCALLY OPERATED MEMBER DONREY MEDIA GROUP Donald W. Reynolds, Founder Ukiah Daily 'ournal (USPS 646-920) Dennis Wilson, Publisher Randy Foster Editor Vc Martinez Production Manager John Speck Advertising Director Elaine Groto Subscriber Services Manager Wonne Bell Office Manager Member Audit Bureau Of Circulations 1994 Member California Newspaper Publishers Association California opinions Associated Press BART labor dispute Once again, a BART strike has been called off at the 11 ill hour, preventing a chaotic commute that would have disrupted hundreds of thousands of Bay Area workers. That's good news for the quarter million people who ride BART each day to and from work. But the relief could be only temporary unless transit workers and BART officials do some tough bargaining over the next few weeks. A Wilson-appointed, fact-finding committee to review the dispute and make a recommendation in a week makes sense.

If there is no resolution to the dispute at that time, the governor can, and should, call for a cooling-off period of up to 60 days. But more than cooling off is Perhaps some changes can be made in the contract offer. But BART workers must understand that a system that is operating with an $8 million deficit cannot afford to offer much in the way of pay On the other hand, BART officials should be sensitive to making major changes in job responsibilities and should be wary of tampering with seniority Both must give more consideration to those who use the transit system and work out a compromise that prevents a strike. The Contra Costa Times Microsoft's settlement Microsoft is such a behemoth of the software industry that it makes General Motors in its heyday seem puny. With 85 percent of the market for its operating- system software worldwide there is no doubt that when Microsoft itches, computer makers the world over break out in hives.

On Friday, Bill Clinton's Justice Department, and the European Union, announced that they had taken Microsoft down a peg or two by forcing it to change the way it sells its Windows operating system to computer makers. But. industry analysts by Monday agreed that the antitrust settlement was at best a minor victory for Justice and a major triumph for Redmond, Microsoft and its founder-chairman Bill Perhaps this agreement is the best the Justice Department's antitrust division could hope to achieve, given the Clinton administration's conflicting needs to appear tough on monopolistic business practices and promote America's high-technology industries. The antitrust settlement' is hardly the triumph that Attorney General Janet Reno claimed last week. Nevertheless, it serves as evidence that antitrust issues are after a 12-year hiatus under two Republican administrations once again a matter of concern.

The San Francisco Examiner A disgraceful state budget California's budget was drawn up so as not to please anybody but to anger those who would be least likely to do anything about it in November the aged, students, the poor and immigrants. Gov. Pete Wilson said no one is pleased with the budget because it's a compromise. Actually, no one is pleased with this budget because it's a We're not so naive as to think this budget is anything more than election-year politics. Wilson was at least consistent with his message immigrants and welfare clients were always his targets.

He wouldn't dare anger powerful public employee unions by cutting the waste and inefficiency in state government. That's where this budget should have been balanced. The people who really failed us were the representatives we elected to watch put for the interests of the people. Those representatives all received pay raises. During the time they should have been acting for us, they were making sure they got theirs.

That is the ultimate disgrace of this year's budget. The Visalia Times-Delta The Auburn Dam Los Angeles area legislators, led by lame duck Sen. David Roberti, have again exacerbated north-south tensions, this time with their comments in defeating a bill to finish Auburn Dam on the American River. Sen. Ruben Ayala, D-Chino, and Sen.

Tim Leslie, R-Carnelian Bay, merely wanted to put (an) Auburn Dam bond measure on the ballot. Voters would decide whether to authorize the spending. But the Senate refused to do even that. Roberti, D-Van Nuys, complained that Northern Californians voted heavily against a bond measure to make earthquake repairs in his Los Angeles area district in June. "I would not be servicing my district at all if I voted for this megaproject in Northern California when there was no reciprocity at all in June," he sniffed.

Poppycock. Voters rejected the idea of borrowing to make repairs when there were pay-as-you-go alternatives like those used after the 1989 Loma Prieta temblor in Northern California. The Stockton Record Bandy FpSten editor; 468-3519 This was news 25 years ago Thursday, July 24, 1969 Ukiah Daily Journal APOLLO MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ABOARD USS HORNET (UPI) Apollo ll's astronauts, their footprints stamped forever in history, splashed down "in excellent condition" today to make good America's commitment to walk on the moon in the 1960s. Civilian Neil A.

Armstrong, 38; Air Force Col. Edwin E. Aldrin 39; and Lt. Col. Michael Collins, 38, blazed back through the atmosphere and disappeared into the most severe medical quarantine in history.

Bedlam broke out in many American cities large and small. Car horns, city and ship sirens screamed and firecrackers crackled in San Francisco, where mayor Joseph Alioto had asked every noise-making device in the city to be turned on for five minutes. Church bells rang in New England. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins splashed down a few miles from the Hornet just at dawn, and bobbed hi the dark ocean for more than an hour while they put on quarantine garments. Then they were taken by helicopter to an aluminum trailer on the deck of the Hornet, to be sealed away from the world for 18 days to make sure they did not bring back any deadly germs from the moon.

SHERIFF WINS BATTLE OF THE BUDGET. Mendocino County soon may have a 75-man Sheriff's Reserve unit, comparable in operation to the Ukiah Police Reserves, if action taken Tuesday by the board of supervisors stands up under the crush of final budget review and adoption some weeks hence. In his annual budget battle with the supervisors Sheriff Reno Barto- Iprnie won not only approval for hiring of a new identification technician but also two more deputies. Then, thanks to the recent federal omnibus crime bill aimed at support of upgrading local law enforcement throughout the country, Bartolomie won approval of implementation of a 75-man reserve unit to further strengthen local law enforcement. CITY EMPLOYES LOSE OUT ON SALARY HIKES.

Salary increases of 5 per cent, TA per cent, and, in a few cases, of 10 per cent, retroactive to July 1, were authorized for city employes by the city council last night. Shortly after the council, at 9:55 p.m., had approved the salary increases to be put into the 1969-70 budget expected to be formally adopted in August, Attorney Tim O'Brien warned that he hoped the council knew what it was doing by its action which O'Brien felt struck at the very roots of independent employe organization within the city. The Ukiah Police Officers' Association, with O'Brien as spokesman, had asked for a 15 per cent increase this year, basing its request on the fact that Ukiah patrolmen are 9 per cent and sergeants 12 per cent below the pay scales in 21 comparable cities; and that they are 15 per cent below the salaries received for comparable work by Reader CARTOONING The Ukiah Daily Journal makes its editorial cartoon space available for local cartoon commentary. Drawings should be poignant and witty but in good taste. They must be done in pen and ink and drawn proportionally so they can be reproduced in a space no wider than 614 inches.

All submissions must be signed with the author's JODY MARTINEZ Highway Patrolmen and police in four major cities. City of Ukiah Employes' Association had asked for a 12.8 per cent salary increase, basing its request on the salaries paid for comparable work in some 32 other comparable cities and a continuing spiraling cost of living inflation. 50 years ago Monday, July 24, 1944 The Redwood Journal HIGH SCHOOLS WILL GIVE DRIVER INSTRUCTION. Six cities of Mendocino county were represented by high school staff instructors at the Teachers' Institute on Driver Training held at the Berkeley campus, University of California, July 17 to 21. The institute was arranged to provide instructors in driver education for new automobile driving instruction classes in California high schools, beginning with the coming fall term.

The statewide movement for such courses has received added impetus from the army request that pre-induction driver training courses be given high school students. Teachers successfully completing the course return to classrooms next year fully prepared to transmit this driver training instruction to high school youths. This new idea of driver training for students, already adopted by a few California high schools, is expected to become general throughout the state. Objects of such training are not only to meet military demands for trained motor vehicle operators and to fill the need for civilian drivers in essential homefront industries, but for the long-range purpose of teaching safe driving to the motor vehicle operators of tomorrow. GROUNDS READY FOR MEXICAN HELP INCOMING.

MOBILE DINING ROOM ACCOMMODATES 100; BEDS FOR 235. A kitchen and dining building, 20 by 110 feet, was erected at the Twelfth District Fair grounds during the past week in readiness for the coming of Mexican nationals, the harvest workers who are to be housed and fed there. This sectionalized building is of pine and redwood, with a good wood floor, and has table accommodations for 100 persons. Meals will be served cafeteria style which will permit a steady flow of diners. The building is located just west of the grandstand and required six men three days to put it together.

Sleeping accommodations have been provided for 235 persons, which is about the number that are to be cared for at the fair grounds. Another hundred will find accommodations on the ranches where they are to be employed. POTTER IRRIGATION DIST. SANS DELINQUENCIES. For the second year in succession there will be no delinquent tax list published for Potter Valley Irrigation District.

Charles Kasch, attorney for the district, has reported that all current taxes have been paid and that there are no unpaid back taxes. This is a very unusual record for an irrigation district in California. FOR SALE '37 Chev. coupe, five good tires. Write Box 466, Willits, or inq.

Sunset Lodge, Willits. FOR SALE Old newspapers, 100 per bundle. Redwood Journal. 100 years ago Friday, July 27, 1894 Mendocino Dispatch-Democrat A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. A man named Hubbard, who lives on the Round Valley road, north of Potter Valley, met with a painful accident at Frasier's mill in Potter Valley last Monday evening about 5 o'clock.

He was working on the edger, with his back to the large circular saw, and while stooping over to pick up a board he backed up to the circular which struck him in the back of die leg near the hip, and cut put a piece of flesh about eight inches long, five inches wide, and about as thick as a man's hand. Fortunately, no blood vessels were severed, and Mr. Frasier, proprietor of the mill, dressed the wound, and on Saturday morning, with Mr. Marsh, an employee of the mill, brought the unfortunate man down to the County Hospital. Hubbard had only been working in the mill for half a day, having been engaged at logging in the woods prior to Friday.

GRANTED A NEW TRIAL. Attorneys J. A. Cooper and J. Q.

White received a telegram on Wednesday evening stating that the Supreme Court had granted J. D. Sherman a new trial. It will be remembered that Sherman shot and killed G. W.

Parker in this place a year ago last June. He was tried in the Superior Court here in January last, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to six years in San Quentin. His attorneys moved for a new trial, which Judge McGarvey refused to grant. Messrs. Cooper and White then appealed to the Supreme Court, with the result above stated.

George C. Duncan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Duncan, died at his parents residence in this place last Sunday, after a lingering illness. Deceased was 25 years of age, and was highly respected in this vicinity where most of his life was passed.

His health began to fail several years ago, and he went to Riverside, returning home from that place this Spring. Funeral of the deceased took place from the Methodist Church on Tuesday, and was largely attended. name, address and telephone number, although only the name will be printed. Unsigned, or anonymous drawings will be rejected. Drawings and cartoons can be submitted in care of the Editor, P.O.

Box 749, or 590 S. School Ukiah. READER OBSERVER PROGRAM: The Ukiah Daily Journal has a once monthly Reader Observer Program that allows members of the community to spend a morning at the paper watching the news department at work. People interested in watching how stories and photographs are assigned, written, edited and put into the paper, are invited to telephone the editor at 468-0123 for information. tetters Don't scrap good law" To The Editor: Don't scrap the nation's best crime law.

Crime victims who have suffered at the hands of criminals have been advocating tougher laws to deal with them over the last decade. The current "Three strikes, you're out law," AB 971 (Jones-Costa), is the pinnacle of our work. A lot has been said in the media, based on the media's perceptions of "news" about the recently enacted three-strikes law. The perception has resulted in slanted reporting of hand wringing by liberals who bemoan the new law. There is a reason for passage of the law beyond the "hysteria" often attributed to it by opponents.

Most recently those opponents have attempted to put forth a "trojan horse" (SB 864, Kopp), which offered several enhancement "carrots" to the present law: for example, life without the possibility of parole for violent third strikes and a further reduction in sentence credits from the present 20 percent to 15 percent for behavior. Crime victims organizations welcome these enhancements, as long as they are crafted in a manner not to conflict with the current three strikes law. But our opponents went well beyond a few "carrots" to the target of their true efforts, the unraveling of the essence of the three strikes law: the "any felony trigger" for a third strike prosecution. Why is this? The opposition asserts it is inequitable (and costly) for any non-violent, non-serious felony (such as petty theft with a prior, fraud, receiving stolen property, possession of drugs, etc.) to trigger a 25-to-life sentence. But is it really? We think you will find this discussion interesting.

Take a walk back hi history and consider one of the most notorious criminals in the 20th Century. Consider Al Capone. You should remember that Al Capone was finally convicted of, guess a non-violent felony: tax evasion. Based on that conviction, he was sent to prison and the scales of justice worked in favor of public safety. Why should we give away this option after only three months of operation? Crime victim advocates, in a hearing on SB 864 (Kopp) before the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 21, challenged all district attorneys in the state to be honest about the next question.

If notorious sex offender Melvin Carter, who was released according to the determinate sentencing law, had been paroled in your county, which one of you would not prosecute him for a third strike (carrying the 25-to-life sentence) for any felony you could get your hands on? We maintain that the "wider net" provided by the current law is exactly what the public demands in terms of taking known habitual criminals off the street. The wider net afforded under the current law provides the public assurance that a criminal not deterred by previous prison sentences is brought back to prison as soon as they reaffirm their proclivity to their life of crime. We believe that two convictions for serious or violent felonies is enough. Two victims are enough. Why wait until another victim is created? Some district attorneys believe the wide net is too heavy handed and they are forced to pursue a third strike prosecution for bad check writers and bicycle thieves.

This is not true. Take note: District attorneys have the flexibility to exercise discretion as to whether or not a two-time felon caught in any new felony should be charged with a "third strike." We find it interesting that while some county district attorneys may be charging everything for third strike prosecutions, other counties, such as Sacramento, have exercised the "dismissal" provision of the law, which none of the opponents ever mention. The current law and the Reynolds initiative that it reflects state that a district attorney may move to dismiss a prior felony strike in the interest of justice, relegating the matter to second strike status. Sacramento County's district attorneys have already made this motion and courts have granted it. Their prosecutors determine whether to charge a felon with a third strike prosecution by the merits of the case, the pattern of criminal behavior, the age of the offender, and the length of time transpired between the present charge and the one for which the criminal was previously convicted.

In short, they use their heads. They try to make it work. For example, a person with a record of residential burglary and later convicted of assault (two strikes), if clean for 15 years and later charged with a DUI, may not be facing a third strike prosecution. But this is exactly the disingenuous argument by opponents who whine about the terrible costs associated with the heavy handed law, when the fact of the matter is they just don't want to implement it in the manner it was intended. Any district attorney who does not want to implement a law correctly can easily set it up for failure.

We fear some may be doing exactly that, much to the detriment of public safety. Is there room for clarification and improvement to the present law and the Reynolds initiative? Of course. All law, especially law involving a large scope of governmental activity, whether it be workers' compensation reform, health care reform or in this case, public safety, requires traditional "clean up" bills. Our victims organizations, as well as the public pronouncements of the governor and no doubt others, are clearly in favor of continuing to work to create a stronger, cleaner three strikes law next year. But AB 971 and the Reynolds initiative are magnificent first steps.

We would like to keep it on the books and give it a fair trial before condemning it. Jan Miller, chairperson and Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau.