The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 10

A10 mm The Sun WEDNESDAY, January 16. 1991 Lungren works to extend gun registrations By SANDY HARRISON Los Angeles Daily News In a related development, Lungren said he would not turn over to local police departments the names of gun owners who sought to register their weapons after the Jan. 1 deadline. Under former Democratic Attorney General John Van de Kamp, Lun-gren's predecessor, the California Department of Justice had planned to forward all applications postmarked after the Jan. 1 deadline to local police forces, which then could confiscate the weapons and cite the owners for violation of the law.

Lungren said that up to 2,000 people who tried to register guns at the last minute missed the deadline. "We're going to hold those in abeyance for a while until we see what the Legislature does," he said, refusing to said, blaming a lack of publicity on the low number of registrations. "I don't have one of these weapons. I don't know why anyone would want one," Lungren told a news conference. "But this is not about whether the law should have been enacted.

All we're saying is, let's see if we can make this law more successful." Senate Pro Tern David who co-authored the law, said last month he would oppose extending the deadline. But on Tuesday, D-Hollywood, said he would Introduce legislation giving gun owners more time to register their weapons. "The attorney general persuaded him that there has been a sufficient number of problems with implementing the bill," said Robert! aide Robert Forsyth. SACRAMENTO California Attorney General Dan Lungren has called for extending the registration deadline for assault weapons, and in a surprise move a co-author of the gun control law said he would support such an extension. Lungren said Tuesday that the law which required registration of 55 types of military-style assault weapons by Jan.

1 had failed, citing figures indicating only 18,000 of an estimated 300,000 such weapons had been registered. "The law. has not been successful if the guesstimates we have made are anywhere near accurate," Lungren War protest if EEL- 1 a II SAN DIEGO COUNTY Fire at Iraqi-owned store heightens fear EL CAJON A suspicious weekend fire that heavily damaged an El Cajon liquor store owned by an Iraqi immigrant has heightened apprehension among the San Diego region's Iraqi business community. "They have been under a lot of stress, suffering really" during the months following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, said Amir Goryoka, a National City liquor dealer. "There are a lot of bad and good people," Goryoka said.

"I believe that liquor store in El Cajon was burned on purpose, but who knows?" Fire inspectors are investigating the fire Sunday at Partytime Liquor in El Cajon, which caused $120,000 damage to the building and $250,000 damage to its contents. Firefighters saved $25,000 in contents and property valued at $50,000. Fliers warn of freeway crossings SAN DIEGO State transportation officials say they are distributing thousands of fliers as part of an effort to reduce the number of freeway deaths involving undocumented immigrants dashing across the roadways. Some 250,000 fliers alerting people to the problem will be sent out to utility customers during the next billing period, said Jesus Garcia, the San Diego district director for the state Department of Transportation. The fliers, printed in English and Spanish, ask that drivers obey the 55 mph speed limit while driving along the stretch of Interstate 5 between Las Pulgas and Basilone Roads north ofOceanside.

Pup born to otter in oil spill dies SAN DIEGO A pup born to an Alaskan otter that was rescued from the nation's worst oil spill has died at Sea World, officials at the marine park said. The 4-day-old pup died Saturday. Park officials said Monday the baby otter died after a bout of hypothermia apparently brought on by undernourishment Veterinarians separated the pup from its mother on Friday after an examination showed its body temperature to be 75 degrees, or 24 degrees below normal for the species. The pup died the next day despite efforts to warm the animal and administer fluids. Animal care specialists said it was not clear whether the pup became malnourished because it was unable to nurse properly or digest milk or whether its mother was not producing enough milk.

t. v. Vw.fii 'a-? IT" pv't' IK rrfwmm be more specific. The law, passed after five children were killed and 30 injured by a deranged drifter at a Stockton schoolyard, bans the possession, sale and manufacture of 55 types of semiautomatic weapons. But it allowed people who owned them prior to June 1, 1989 to keep them provided they registered them with the state by Jan.

1, 1991. Under the law, Californians who have not registered military-style firearms by Jan. 1 are subject to $350 fines on the first offense if the weapon is found in the gun owner's home or on a shooting range. Second offenses, or first offenses at other locations, can be prosecuted as felonies punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and prison terms of up to three years. Wilson puts L.A.

prison back on track Downtown site still an obstacle By DOUG WILLIS Associated Press SACRAMENTO Gov. Pete Wilson opened the door Tuesday to reconsidering construction of a controversial prison near downtown Los Angeles for which former Gov. George Deukmejian fought for six years. "I do not, as a general policy, think that we ought to be putting prisons where people don't want them if they will be welcomed as they have been in some other parts of the state (where) they constitute an economic opportunity," the new Republican governor told the Sacramento Press Club. Wilson said the $55.7 billion proposed state budget that he submitted to the Legislature last week carries forward past authority to continue planning work on the proposed $139 million prison 2V miles south of downtown Los Angeles but "is not necessarily a commentary on that particular project." "We have simply funded the corrections program as it was presented (by Deukmejian's Department of Corrections)," Wilson said.

"Whether that one will go forward is dependent on a number of things." The proposed prison planned for a 20-acre former Crown Coach Co. site had been the subject of nearly a decade of political battles, with representatives of other regions of California objecting to the fact that Los Angeles County, which accounts for 40 percent of the state prison population, has no prisons within its borders. But the Crown Coach site has been vehemently opposed by residents of a nearby poor Hispanic neighborhood and was finally approved in a political compromise calling for two Los Angeles County prisons one downtown, where Democratic registration is greatest, and one in Lancaster, a Republican stronghold. Construction is already under way on the Lancaster site, which may be ready to accept inmates by mid-1992, but the downtown prison site has been delayed by numerous legal challenges. The latest is a supplemental environmental impact report, which a Los Angeles judge approved Monday.

But while Wilson didn't scrap Deukmejian's hard-fought victory to include a downtown Los Angeles prison in the massive expansion program of the state Department of Corrections, he made it clear he didn't necessary share Deukmejian's determination to build the downtown prison. 4 VV. rf; AP WIREPHOTO Protesters, calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Persian Gulf, carry a body bag as they join the several thousand blocking the streets around the Federal Building in San Francisco early Tuesday morning. S.F. protesters move demonstration from Federal Building to Bay Bridge ORANGE COUNTY Court rules against surrogate mom SANTA ANA A surrogate mother failed in an attempt to gain custody of a 7-month-old girl she bore for a couple now locked in a bitter divorce.

In a three-way tug-of-war, Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley on Monday cited a document Elvira Jordan signed giving up parental rights, and temporarily awarded custody to the baby's father. The father's wife, who never adopted the girl, was granted visitation rights every other weekend. Woolley also scheduled a Jan. 24 hearing to set a date for a custody trial.

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press Traffic on both decks was opened by 3:50 p.m., at the height of rush hour after about 350 demonstrators climbed ramps to the bridge, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Don Gappa. Police arrested 110 activists who surrendered on the San Francisco side, the highway patrol said. They were charged with walking on a bridge, failure to disperse, resisting arrest and delaying traffic on a bridge. The rest walked off the bridge at San Francisco or Treasure Island, midway between San Francisco and Oakland, Gappa said. Protesters climbed ramps and swarmed the bridge hours after thousands, including 40 anti-war demonstrators zipped in black body bags, blockaded the Federal Riot-clad police pulled protesters from a human chain that blocked entry to the building.

Federal authorities arrested 407 activists, most of them for blocking an entrance. Protesters carrying signs with slogans including "Suppose Broccoli was Kuwait's Largest Export" and "No Blood for Oil" swarmed the 20-story building before 6 a.m., prohibiting workers from entering. Linda Stonier, 38, a federal worker, joined the protest when she was blocked from going to work. "We may have war," she said. "I think people will stay in the streets if that happens." Arrests at the main entrance were resisted by protesters who clung fiercely to one another as federal police pulled them apart and restrained their hands.

SAN FRANCISCO Thousands of activists closed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, blockaded the Federal Building and snarled downtown traffic Tuesday to protest U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf. In one of the biggest anti-war demonstrations since Vietnam, authorities arrested more than 560 people in protests that began before dawn and continued as the U.N. deadline for a shooting war drew ominously near. Hundreds of demonstrators chanting "We won" and flashing the victory sign marched off the Bay Bridge two hours after bringing rush-hour traffic to a standstill in the first protest to close the span.

VENTURA COUNTY Robbers club man on skateboard VENTURA A man was beaten and robbed after unsuccessfully trying to elude the bandits by having his dog tow him on a skateboard, authorities said. Derrick Wayne Morris, 22. was treated at Ventura County Medical Center and released Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Morris told police that he was using an automated teller machine when he saw three men looking at him from the corner of the building, Ventura Police Officer Sue Monk said. Morris put his money in his pocket and hopped on his skateboard.

He held onto his dog's leash and had the dog pull him, Monk said. As Morris traveled down the street, two of the men chased him, Monk said. Morris fell off the skateboard. The men beat him with a small club and stole his wallet, she said. i7 California DMV unveils high-tech driver's license BAY AREA By BETHLASKI Los Angeles Daily News i Greyhound's cutoff request denied SAN FRANCISCO A request by Greyhound Lines to end its service from Fort Bragg in Mendocino County to Cloverdale in Sonoma County was rejected Tuesday, at least for now, by the state Public Utilities Commission.

Greyhound asked the PUC last September for permission to discontinue the 75-mile route, which runs south on state Highway 1 along the Mendocino County coast and then inland on state Highway 128 to Cloverdale on U.S. 101. YOSEMITE nually to DMV offices for renewals and duplicate cards. Drivers with good driving records could go up to 12 years without a trip to the DMV, based on the four years given with a new license and two four-year renewals by mail. DMV officials expect to be able to issue the new licenses from each DMV office in the state by March.

The card, which was three years in the making, will enable law enforcement officials to gain access to information about every card holder by using a machine to read information on the magnetic strip, Romero said. "This is definitely high-tech," said Early Albin, 18, who applied for her first California driver's license Tuesday after moving here from Las Vegas, Nev. "It seems like it will eliminate some confusion and maybe they'll even be able to catch a few more criminals with these cards." DMV spokesman Bill Genglcr said that the style of the new license is based on automated bank teller cards. However, the cards will not have any raised letters or numbers. They will cost the DMV about $23.5 million over the next five years to produce, he said.

LOS ANGELES A new version of the California driver's license has been introduced by state officials, who said that the plastic-coated card with color holograms, digitalized photos and a magnetic strip is the first of its kind. Each of the more than 25 million California residents with driver's licenses or identification cards will have to visit a Department of Motor Vehicle office and pay $10 for a new credit-card style license, said Rosie Romero, a local DMV official. She said Tuesday that drivers may wait until their cards expire to apply for a new card, but will still have to pay the $10 fee and visit a DMV office. "This new license will be almost impossible to duplicate, alter or reproduce," Romero said. She said that the card also will be more durable than the licenses used now, which are easily bent or torn.

Officials say the card will save Californians more than 1 million trips an Yosemite lodgings to be reduced LOS ANGELES Environmentalists applauded a National Park Service decision to eventually remove 17 percent of lodgings from Yosemite Valley. The plan announced by National Park Service Director James Ridenour will reduce some of the clutter and commercialism in Yosemite. "This is what we've been waiting to hear," Joan Reiss, regional director of the Wilderness Society, said this week. From Sun News Services AP WIREPHOTO Department of Motor Vehicles officials introduced the state's new driver's license Tuesday. It is plastic with a magnetic strip and a hologram..