The Tribune from San Luis Obispo, California • 11

-S 1 'H 'ia "i San Luis Obispo County (Calif) TELEGRAM-TRIBUNE SLO County Wednesday December 7 1994 B-l Diablo rate reduction plan denounced malization an advocate for residential customers rates which now average 106 cents per kilowatt hour ISO percent more than the national average will foil to 10 cents by 1999 Under the 1988 agreement those rates would have risen to 133 cents by 1999 Under the new proposal the cost per hour will be a flat rate charged all business and residential customers for all the power Diablo adds to the overall amount of energy is delivering individual customers By comparison the Sacramento Municipal Utility District charges an average of 8 cents per kilowatt hour A customer paying a $50 monthly bill will save 50 cents next year Consumer group calls agreement 'an easy giveaway' that won't go far enough SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A proposal to reduce electricity prices from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant by $21 billion does not go far enough to protect residential customers a utility watchdog group said State regulatory officials and Pacific Gas Electric Co on Tuesday announced an agreement to reduce prices from the power plant California's most expensive major energy source by 32 percent over five years The proposal submitted to the state Public Utilities Commission would reduce by $21 billion the rates was entitleid to receive under a 1988 agreement that based rates on Diablo Canyon's output rather than reasonable construction costs The productivity has exceeded forecasts pushing rates upward But a consumer group denounced the plan noting that it would make no immediate cut in rates among the highest agreement is an easy giveaway for which does not go for enough and does not protect consumers from future unreasonable said Audrie Krause executive director of Toward Utility Rate Nor and $3 by 1999 The rate drop is expected to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in the next few months and be retroactive to Jan 1 Eugene Coyle TURN'S energy analyst said: consumer is hardly going to see any change on his monthly bill And after 1999 can stmt increasing the rates just as steepty as they have Groups representing large business and government customers endorsed the settlement which was worked out by the Division of Ratepayer Advocates Attorney General Dan Lungren also backed the settlement 'This agreement is unquestionably a $2 billion step forward in reducing the excessively high rates California electric customers are required to said Ed Texeira director of the Division of Ratepayer Advocates which formally represents customer interests in PUC proceedings which has a year to go on a voluntary three-year rate freeze said the settlement would not reduce rates for several years but would help the company meet its goal of a 6 percent reduction by December 1999 That would amount to a 25 percent drop in real dollars taking a projection of inflation into account said The company said it has cut overall operating costs by $275 million since January 1993 plans reductions of $285 million next year and is reducing its work force by 6000 over two years mostly by voluntary retirement and voluntary severance Bordonaro ready to work By Steve Whitclcy Telegram-Tribune SACRAMENTO The Assembly will remain dead in the water as long as Democrat Willie Brown continues his quest for another stint as speaker according to newly elected Assembly-man Tom Bordonaro R-Paso Robles Brown is fighting off a Republican challenge to elect one of their own in the equally divided lower chamber of the state government have 40 votes and not going anywhere until we have a Republican speaker" Bordonaro said Tuesday Brown needs to face the fact that he is done (as the Assembly Bordonaro said all other state business will be put on hold until the post is filled now there is no Assembly as we know Bordonaro said have 80 members but no authority to pay bills or operate the staiT" The freshman assemblyman said election of the rules committee and other high-level positions will also wait until the speaker is chosen is the first item on our agenda this morning and it will continue to be the first item on the agenda until we get it the Paso Robles rancher and businessman said Tom Bordonaro looking forward to long days Bordonaro elected to represent San Luis Obispo County and part of Santa Barbara County in November is the first quadriplegic to serve in the Assembly Provisions to accommodate his wheelchair were started in August Bordonaro said partly in anticipation Please see Bordonaro H-4 Robert Dyer Telegram-Tribune Alicia Dinsmoor 17 has been fixing cars for a few years Now she's ready to win a few prizes County's USDA office Let's pray for silence 4 school a By Phil Dirkx Telegram-Tribune PASO ROBLES Now that the Republicans are the kings of the hill Capitol Ilill that is they say try something always believed impossible I heard they want to pass a 1 constitutional amendment to make school kids keep quiet for five minutes called a voluntaiy-school-praycr amendment The details seem sketchy but some reports have mcn- tioned allowing five minutes a day for silent prayer or meditation If true the amendment should also require everybody to pray for the teachers who get the job of 'keeping those kids quiet I This could end up like the 18th Amendment the Prohibition amend-I -ment which lasted about 14 years It the making and selling of booze Now there was an amendment that have a prayer Five minutes seems like an awfully long time to expect a room full of third-graders to keep quiet or seventh-graders And would high schoolers take it seriously? From what we hear about some schools these days a period of silence could mean a short break in the shooting But if the teachers think they could deal with five minutes of silence OK with me A period of silent prayer and meditation might actually do some good as long as silent President Clinton said a brief peri- od of silence sounded OK to him That might kill it right there If Clinton likes it millions of people will automatically hate it And some people might feel it favors Quakers read that their 1 services consist mainly of quiet medi- tation But if this amendment goes beyond silent prayer and meditation 111 get scared Religion and politics are traditionally the gasoline of conversa-) tion with explosive fumes that can be ignited by any spark Schools already are struggling to i prevent trouble between Crips and Bloods 13s and 14s and miscella-I ncous other gangs Schools need rivalries among Baptists Catho- lies Jews Muslims Buddhists and others American pupils come in many religous flavors so just about any prayer will offend some of them If you're Protestant how would you react if the majority at your child's school wants to pray to Allah or recite the rosaty It just a coincidence that the people fighting in Bosnia have different religions The Serbs are mainly Eastern Orthodox the Croatians mainly Roman Catholic and the Bosnians predominantly Muslim And in Northern Ireland two groups who have different ways of worshiping the Irince of Peace have been massacring and bombing each other for more than 20 years pray their present truce holds About ISO years ago the Mormons were driven out of Ohio Missouri and Illinois and their founder killed before they finally settled in Utah something in us humans that makes us want to convince other people that our way is the only way Alter I started drinking coffee without cream and sugar I spent several years urging other people to also drink theirs black We all know the Puritans immigrat-I ed in the 1600s to the Massachusetts I Colony so they could worship the way they wanted But we forget that once they got here they persecuted people who worship their way They burned Quakers in Boston And when Roger Williams disagreed with them they banished him in midwinter He then founded Rhode Island next door And several of the American colo- nics had religions An -established religion was the official government religion of that colony It was supported by taxes and if you ''(jjidn't belong you couldn't hold office or vote That's why the First Amendment to 1 our Constitution prevents the govern- 2 ment from establishment of religion" The men who wrote our Bill of Rights knew a government of all the people mess with their religions Well schools arc part of government and are supported by taxes from people with all kinds of beliefs and no beliefs Authorizing a little prayer in schools could be like making a little hole in a dike The hole could grow I collapse the dike and let in a flood of trouble She's happy under the hood will relocate to Paso known when the closures and consolidations will occur The Farmers Home Administration office in Arroyo Grande she said will be closed and that office's functions will be taken over by the Santa Maria office These changes are part of a nationwide overhaul of the USDA and stem from a bill President Clinton signed Oct 13 to reduce the department's payroll by 11000 people and save $36 billion over five years Brown said the department is offering early retirement bonuses and few layoffs are expected According to the Associated Press the agency will dose 1070 field offices across the nation including 21 out of 147 in California Another dozen offices in California will be relocated and housed with other USDA agencies the purpose of this is one slop shopping and improvement Please see USDA B-3 Alicia says she doesn't mind following in her brother's footsteps "My brothers were always out there working with my dad on their cars I always wished I could be out there with them but I was always stuck in the Dinsmoor said She didn't know anything about cars when she got to high school but decided to take Auto Shop I when she was a sophomore at MBIIS There were plenty of girls in the class She liked it so much she took Auto Shop II and then Auto Shop III This year she's a class assistant for instructor Gaiy Villa during one period She's studying before school for the troubleshooting competition and working after school in an auto repair shop clean up I help them on engine work I run errands for them to auto parts stores" Dinsmoor said I'm not in school they let me do work like lube and oil She also works on her own car a 1983 Nissan Scntra "I do some regular work on it to keep it running I haven't had too many problems with she said The school classes were fun but working in the auto repair shop has convinced her to seek a less stressful career Like medicine seeing how the guys are at the shop 1 know They're under so much she said check the computer to sec how much time you think the job is going to take you and then a lot of times it takes a lot longer And if you do one thing wrong the whole car won't work You really have to be on your toes" She wants to be a assistant a specialized fonn of nursing requiring extra education want to start there and work my way up" she said In the meantime she's happy to work on cars More girls ought to take auto shop Please see Mechanic B-4 By Ann Fairbanks Telegram-Tribune PASO ROBLES A reorganization of federal agricultural services announced Tuesday will result in a centralized Paso Robles office Currently agencies dealing with agribusiness in San Luis Obispo County have offices in Atascadero Paso Robles Morro Bay and Arroyo Grande Anita Brown state information officer for the Natural Resources Agency formerly called the Soil Conservation Service said the Atascadero office of what was formerly called the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service will be consolidated with the Morro Bay and Paso Robles branches of what was the Soil Conservation Office The county's new US Department of Agriculture service center will be located somewhere in Paso Robles she said No specific location has been chosen yet she said and not And she hopes to be school's first girl to qualify for auto mechanic contest By Teresa Mariani Telegram-Tribune MORRO BAY Alicia Dinsmoor is 17 cute a good student and a top-notch auto mechanic the first girl at Morro Bay High School to have a shot at qualifying for the annual Ford-Triple A National Troubleshooting competition held in Washington DC It's a title that Morro Bay High School has won twice in the past four years Her brother Mike Dinsmoor won the competition in 1993 for Morro Bay High along with teammate Shannon Lawless KSBY in transition with more changes on horizon he was offered the job in Washington Most former employees who talked about the station did not want their names used because they said they feared retribution people are millionaires" said one have a lot of power and I Ilanim 24 and Murdoch 25 are now running the station They took over from former General Manager Murk Libby one month ago Libby who was the station manager for two years was promoted to general manager by Pianim and Murdoch in August But just two months later he was gone Pianim said Libby's departure was a mutual decision that was as much Please see KSBY B-4 in Salinas for an estimated $30 million to $40 million Jeanette Trompctcr left to become an anchor in the Midwest Richard Gearhart has bccome an Atascadero teacher reporter Angcline Correa went to work in Los Angeles and psychologist Steve Brody was let go three weeks ago and was snapped up by KCOY The most recent to go was longtime sports anchor Milch Massey who said goodbye to viewers of Friday's 11 pm newscast Massey is heading off to a bigger market in Spokane Wash and said he was very fortunate to get the job when he did Massey who spent 11 years at KSBY said he learned in early November that his contract would not be renewed The very next day the change as a business decision fact is no affiliate in the he said there were no ABC affiliate there would be rumors of KSBY going with ABC" Fox executives have reportedly visited the station twice in the past few months Pianim said there are no plans to switch networks but did not rule it out consider all our options all the he said Elisabeth Murdoch did not return telephone calls for comment In addition to the possible change to Fox five familiar faces from the station's news broadcasts have disappeared since March when Pianim and Murdoch bought both KSBY and its sister station KSBW SAN LUIS OBISPO The only television station may soon say goodbye to NBC and become a Fox network affiliate Insiders say switching networks is just one of a host of changes that are planned or already have been made byKSBY-TV Word leaking from the station has it that Rick Martel a fixture on the local airwaves might not have his contract renewed Hard to believe that the station's new owners could let the popular silver-haired baritone go Fortunately for Martel fans one of the owners termed such a move Hie new owners who purchased the station earlier this year but officially took over in September are Elkin Ilanim and his wife Elisabeth Murdoch the daughter of media mogul and owner Rupert Murdoch That familial connection is the reason for the possible change of network affiliation said one former employee you're Rupert daughter it's tough not to go with the network your father But another former employee said Elisabeth Murdoch would only make No decision on council member A-1 Cal Poly's new business dean A-8 City money frozen in fund A-1 Paso offers bucks for new jobs A-1 Pismo sharpens budget pencil B-3 Grover: Casa Solana potluck D-1 fl New Morro council installed B-3 Ranch project won't be In CSD B-4.