Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 9

-THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL- WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1987- 9 i Sea World suit results Butcher arraigned for murder from whale-trainer injury SAN DIEGO (AP) The chairman of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. blasted three former Sea World managers, saying their "negligence" led to the serious injury of a killer whale trainer. In a rare news conference Tuesday before reporters, William Jovanovich accused the managers of adopting a dangerous approach to whale-training, then misleading him about the extent and severity of injuries to young trainers. Jovanovich, who runs the parent company of the San Diego-based marine park chain, said a recent inhouse investigation determined that about 14 separate injuries were reported by killer whale trainers between August and Nov. 21.

"The fact-finding by our committee showed that there "was negligence," Jovanovich said. "It showed that three of the trainers in the pool had such meager training it was a wonder they could even perform the most elementary aspects of their positions," he said. The latest and most serious incident occurred on Nov. 21, when trainer John Sillick was crushed by a 6-ton whale that landed on him as he rode another whale during a show. Sillick remains hospitalized in fair condition with a broken pelvis, leg and ribs.

News reports last week reported that park president Jan Schultz, chief zoologist Lanny Cornell and chief trainer David Butcher had been fired. Sea World officials had refused to confirm the reports, saying the managers were suspended not fired. Also Tuesday, attorneys representing Schultz filed suit in Super- ior Court in San Diego against Sea World, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Jovanovich, alleging breach of contract, breach of good faith interference with a contract and defamation. Schultz, a 17-year Sea World veteran, has said the executives were the "scapegoat" for the pool incidents. His attorney, Brian Monaghan, said Jovanovich's statements "were the straw that broke the camel's back." Jovanovich said he ordered the shake-up because the executives failed to implement safety prccau lions after he expressed concern about the trainers' welfare.

"I came to this park and said to these people, 'I'm extremely worried, I'm upset. Please pay Jovanovich said. "They assured me they were. They didn't." Insurance companies seek AIDS testing again SACRAMENTO (AP) Insurance companies' want legal permission to test policy applicants for the AIDS antibody, but others say this would push more people into government health care programs. The insurance industry is seeking repeal of a 1985 law that prohibits it from using the AIDS antibody test on applicants for health or life insurance.

After a 2 -hour hearing Tuesday by the Assembly Finance and Insurance Committee, the chairman said he favored changing the law. "I would like to move to a point where the prohibition on the test is eliminated," said the chairman, Assemblyman Patrick Johnston, D-Stockton. But he said he would like some consideration of "those who fall through the crack" and would be left without insurance because of the test. The committee took no action, since the Legislature is in recess until January. California is the only state that does not allow the insurance industry to test policy applicants for the AIDS antibody.

The state allows only the T-ccll lest, which indicates immunity deficiencies that can include AIDS. But Barbara Lautzenheiser of the Society of Actuaries said the T-cell test docs not pick up AIDS infections until two or three years after a person has been infected. Thus a person who has been infected and carries the AIDS antibody, but is unaware of the infection and not yet sick, could buy life or health insurance under current law. The industry wants to be able to require applicants to take a test specifically designed to detect the AIDS antibody and to be able to refuse to cover anyone testing positive. Lautzenheiser said the industry would like to be able to ujeat AIDS like any other disease or condition with a hikh mortality rate, and be able to reject people who apply for insurance and who are already infected.

ANN LANDERS New ways to meet people Dear Readers: I frequently get letters from women who are lonely. Many are single career people, divorced or Some have moved to a new city. Others never learned how to make friends. Their letters are a cry for help. I have just read a wonderful new book that can be a boon to these women.

It is "Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to a Great Social Life" (published by Rawson Associates, Ms. Baldrige suggests dozens of ways to meet new people, how to start a conversation with strangers, and she even has sample questions guaranteed to keep a conversation lively. There is an excellent chapter on how to entertain on a low budget, whether you are having a few friends in for coffee and cookies or a sit-down supper for 20 in a small apartment. (Complete with menus!) But the real message is this: you don't need to be lonely. There are thousands of people out there who are in the same boat dying to meet you.

This book tells you how to find them how to make that vital connection. Go for it! Dear Ann Landers: Here is a firecracker for your debating society relative to the propriety of breastfeeding in public. In August I read an article in a newspaper in North Platte, about a new city ordinance in Dubuque, Iowa. This ordinance, imposing a ban on breast-feeding in public places, outlawed exposing the nipple while breast-feeding. What kind of sick mind sees eroticism in the natural and loving act of breast-feeding a baby? Whenever I see a woman breast-feeding her child I see a mother demonstrating her love for her baby.

Furthermore, I can't understand all the fuss about women exposing their breasts at anytime. Breasts are not sex organs. They are nothing more than fatty tissue containing milk-producing glands.W.C.L.B. Dear W.C.L.B.: We checked with Fred McCaw, the county attorney in Dubuque. He said the police department, after several complaints about women exposing themselves while breastfeeding, asked for an amendment regarding display of the female nipple.

This issue generated a great deal of controversy. Was it to include bathing in public places? What about little girls running around in the summer with no tops? The amendment was NOT passed. Your statement that the breasts are not sex organs may be true, but they are a whole lot more than fatty tissue containing milk, as any reader of Playboy magazine will testify. Dear Ann Landers: Recently I had the misfortune of going out to dinner with a nursing mother. When she took out her breast at the table I was so embarrassed I could barely eat.

While "Steamed" regards breastfeeding as a perfectly natural function, she should be reminded that there are other perfectly naiural functions that are still carried out in privacy. She should also become aquainted with breast pumps, which allow mothers to feed their children breast milk in public without baring all. No Public Cow im AmeriT ca's airy land Dear No Cow: MOOO-ooo-ve over. You had plenty of company on this one. The mail in support of your position ran 10 to 1.

Readers who want to write to Ann Landers should send their letters to: Ann Landers, Ukiah Daily Journal, P.O. Box 749, Ukiah, CA 95482. Letters received by the Journal will be forwarded, unopened, to Ann Landers. Solutions offered for pantry pests "It's disgusting to open a cereal box and find insects inside," agrees Evelyn Conklin, home advisor. To keep pantry pests from feasting on staples, Conklin suggests calling Teletip, the home and garden telephone information service of the University of California Cooperative Extension.

To reach teletip, dial 463-4477. Message is on "Pantry Pests." ARE YOU IN A HURRY? -call- AL FOSTER'S TIRE CENTER One Day Recap Service New Tires Top Quality Recaps 970 N. State 462-8644 CHINA CHEF LUNCH Specials Buffet DINNER Finest Quality Food Ordered To Go 255 N. State, Ukiah 468-0860 NO PAPER? -i The Circulation Department of the Ukiah Daily Journal is open from Bam 7pm Monday-Friday and 7am-10am Sunday Morning. If you fail to receive your paper by 5pm weekdays or by 7am Sunday please call the Circulation Depart mentat 468-0123 'We Care' Store 7 DIAMONDS Selection, Quality, ,1 Price Guarantee Offer the 7 280 S.TcTiool St.

Downtown Ukiah WISHING YOU A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON Complete Hair Care for men, women children Nail Services Wraps, tips, acrylics 175 Seminary Ukiah 462-9117 MARTINEZ. Calif. (AP) A 52-year-old San Francisco butcher was arraigned Tuesday on charges he shot and killed his former stepdaughter and tried to kill his ex-wife and a bailiff outside a family law court. George Lee was arraigned in Mt. Diablo Municipal Court on charges stemming from the Friday's fatal shooting of Jaync Romo, 39, of Concord.

He also was charged with the attempted murder of his ex-wife Laneve Lawrence, Romo's mother, who was unhurt, and the attempted murder of bailiff Cliff Davis, who shot and wounded Lee during a Shootout in the courthouse. Lee shot Romo while she waited with Lawrence for Judge William O'Mallcy's family law court to begin, according lo police. Lawrence and Lee were to appear before O'Malley for a settlement proceeding resulting from the annulment of Romo and Lee's five-year marriage in February. Lcc also was charged with possessing a weapon in a courthouse. Meanwhile, county supervisors, meeting one block away on Tuesday, heard an emotional plea from the slain woman's husband, Ronald Romo.

who straggled for composure as he asked supervisors to put a metal detector at the entrance to the courthouse and exit doors with cameras at other locations. Holding up a newspaper with .1 front-page story and photo of the killing. Romo said, "Ask yourself, if this was your wife or daughter, if it's too money more important than saving someone's life?" The supervisors asked the sheriff, judges and the county's chief administrator to review security at the courthouse. Security was light for the arraignment, where deputies used hand-held metal detectors to search people and looked through purses and other baps carried into the courtroom. Judge Douglas Cunningham denied bail for Lcc.

Bottle bill fraud probe may spread SACRAMENTO (AP) Officials say an investigation of whether a Southern California beverage distributor is defrauding the "bottle bill" program may spread to other wholesalers. The officials also said Tuesday that a separate probe into suspected boxcar bootleggers may lead to a scrap processor who is allegedly shredding out-of-state cans to cheat the state program out of pcnny-a-containcr refunds. "It's a chain You have to follow that chain," said Mercedes Azar, spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation rccyling division, which oversees the new redemption. program. State auditors recently inspected a warehouse that contained 10,000 to cases of soft drinks on which ihc fee of I cent per container hadn't been paid.

In the separate probe, officials disclosed that they arc investigating whether millions of empty cans that do not display the mandated "California Redemption Value" label arc being bootlegged into California by railroad. If the cans were sold for their scrap value and an additional 1-ccnt per can refund, they would be worth more than $15,000 per boxcar. In both cases, officials said, the state's estimated $120 million beverage container redemption fund may have been lapped illegally because no 1-ccnt deposit was paid by beverage distributors before the soda or beer containers reached the rclail market. said Ihc distributor who sold ihc beverages lo convenience slorcs in Ihc Santa Barbara, Oxnard and Ventura areas al cut rales may have bought them from oihcr wholesalers. "Right now, it's just a handful" of distributors suspected of fraud, she said.

The department is withholding Ihc name of the warehouse until Ihc probe is complete and a recommendation is made to the slate attorney general about prosecution, possibly within two lo three weeks. The probe into suspected use ol railroad cars to transport aluminum cans from other states into California to collect redemption fees is expected to last another month or more. Search for contaminated ice milk turns up 20 instead of 4,000 gallons SANTA ANA, Calif. recall of 4,900 half gallons of potentially contaminated ice milk mix turned up only 20, and a distributor's spokesman says the rest were apparently consumed. But neither the distributor nor state officials had any report Tuesday of illness traced to Ihc mix.

State health and agriculture officials announced Tuesday that Listcria monocytogcncs, a bacteria that can cause serious illness and stillbirths, had been found in a sampling of Adohr Milk Farms' vanilla ice milk mix. Adohr began a recall last Friday of all of the mix with the code number Dec 02, but was able to find only 20 half gallons, Gary San Filippo, division manager of Adohr's Santa Ana plant, told The Orange County Register. "Unfortunately most of the product was already consumed (but) there's no notification from anyone of any illness," he said. San Filippo said the recall was delayed because il takes nine lo 14 days after a Icsl lo get results. The mix was sold lo restaurants lo make soft-serve ice cream and milk shakes, the slate Department of Health Services said.

Most of the restaurants that received the mix arc in Southern California, bul a small amounl was dislributcd oul of the company's San Leandro facility near Oakland, the department said. Listcria monpcylogcncs can cause lislcriosis, a serious and sometimes fatal infection that can be manifested in several ways, including meningitis, encephalitis, infection of ihc blood, miscarriages and stillbirths, state officials said. Il poses a serious risk to pregnant women and their fetuses, small children, frail elderly people and people with weak immune systems. Man shot in back while watching movie LOS ANGELES (AP) Police arrested a man Tuesday in he shooling of a moviegoer wounded while watching "Running Man," only lo have his assailant escape by running into another thcalcr showing the film "Nuts." Police said they arrested Simon Tseng, 32, of Venice, and booked him for investigation of attempted murder, said Ll. Russ Mocn.

The shooting victim, Freddie Johns, 32, of Los Angeles, was listed Tuesday in satisfaclory con- diton at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Johns was wounded in ihc back of his neck at about 12:15 a.m. Monday by a man who dashed into the United Artists Ihcalcr in the Via Marina Shopping Ccnler as Johns watched the Arnold Schwarzeneg- ger movie. Tseng is a Taiwan native who has lived in the United Slalcs for ihc past seven years and has an expired visa, Mocn said. Winter Clearance SELECTED STYLES Boots Shoes Slippers DEXTER FRYE UNISA 9-WEST REEBOK ROMIKA BASS REDWING CHEROKEE JAZZ Bush WOMEN'S Soft Spots CHILDREN'S Peaks OFF OFF Don't Miss Sale Ends Great Great Prices Vz OFF Wayne Shces Lakeport Willow Tree Plaia YOUR FAMILY SHOE STORE Ukiah Clearlake Pear Free Center Burns Valley Center.