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contractor seven years ago to buy his seaside house in Del Mar for $700,000 more than it was worth. The windfall swept the Duke into a posh, sevenand-a-half bath, $2.6 million mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, one of the ritziest enclaves in all the United States. The Del Mar place had never even been on the market. Suddenly, goosed by the Duke’s abiding influence with the Pentagon from his long tenure on the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense, business boomed at MZM Inc., the defense-related software company run by the new Del Mar homeowner, Mitchell Wade. Dostoevsky opined that we should judge a society on the way it treats its prisoners. In that case, I feel sad for Cunningham and hope that he be done no gratuitous harm. I can’t shake the image of him walking along Front Street to the federal court house on sentencing day, his suit hanging limply from his once robust frame, stumbling and falling to the sidewalk in a failed attempt to get around television cameramen who themselves had tripped while treading backward to get their shots. But Cunningham stunningly betrayed the trust we put in him — and some suggest his deals with marginal defense contractors compromised the safety of our troops in the field — and for this he’s got to pay, through prison time and back taxes both.
using the skills he honed as a high school and college teacher to help fellow inmates earn high school equivalency diplomas and expand their intellectual horizons. In the other, unearthed by freelance writer Seth Hettena, the ex-congressman complains to U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns that the IRS has put a levy on his military and congressional pensions and drained all of the more than $84,000 in a personal retirement account at a credit union. Beyond this, he wrote, the federal Bureau of Prisons intercepts his $2,000 monthly Social Security check and keeps it. “The IRS has taken nearly everything I have worked for during my nearly 70 years. They have taken over or we have paid over 2.75 million dollars in assets, cash, homes, cars, ernings (sic) and retirement,” the Duke wrote. “After 40 years teaching my wife is living hand to mouth and staying in her 2 bedroom grandmothers home.” He added, “You can only push a man so far, your honor ... yes, I’ve made mistakes, but does that include killing me and my family.” He also wrote the judge, “You have just killed one of the most highly decorated veterans in the history of this nation — Atta Boy.” So we recall anew just how shocked we were that Cunningham, a decorated jet fighter pilot in Vietnam, per- Bruce Kauffman can be reached at suaded a foundering defense scribe.oceanside@gmail.com.
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compost bin, separate cans, bottles, paper and plastic according to the recycling guidelines, and wash the container out occasionally. And, for heaven’s sake, quit with the yard waste plastic bags. You want to talk about baggies and Ziplocks? Don’t get me started. Everything ends up in the landfill, folks. Or the ocean. Creative alternatives exist for anyone who wants to live more simply and cares about how they leave the planet for the next generation. Go to www.fakeplasticfish.com for more ideas, and some laughs. We are addicted to plastic, not unlike any other habit that prevents us from living a smarter, healthier lifestyle.Ya think there’s a connection to cancer, diabetes, asthma, allergies, etc.? The latest research says autism and Alzheimer’s as well. I have three dangerous words for you ... plastic, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. I am sickened by the amount of singleuse plastic I’ve seen at all the “pink events.” And they don’t want to talk about it. What about recycling? How’s this for an analogy? If
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27
RANCHO SANTA FE NEWS
SEPT. 24, 2010
we are all cigarette smokers and we have this great idea to collect all the filters and remake them into a useful product ... aren’t we still addicted to smoking? That’s what’s happening with a few of the plastic bags and bottles. Did you see Sanja Gupta’s “Toxic America”? What he exposed cannot be denied ... toxicants from chemical factories and refineries, mostly in poor neighborhoods, fouling the water, land, and air. Many in the government have their heads “in the sand” on this and other issues. Charlie Moore at www.algalita.org will tell you that the sand is polluted with lots and lots of plastic. And, cigarette butts are some of the most common trash found on our beautiful beaches. Millions of them! Am I suggesting that we live without plastic, oil and chemicals? Of course not. But, where is it OK to dump this stuff? Unfortunately recycling is not the answer. Beware of the chemical industry and plastic manufacturers who support “bottle bills” and who defeated AB 1998 because they don’t want their profits touched by this common sense legislation. Jobs? I am all in favor of jobs, but not at any price. We all know our economy depends on having more manufacturing here in the US. Is there some reason these factories can’t retool to produce something sustainable? The scoop ... 19 billion plastic bags a year in our state ... and the poop, are both hitting the proverbial fan Comments? Clkk411@aol.com.
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exciting, yet functional wardrobe that got Hall lots of compliments. “Friends started to notice my new look and when I told them Christina had shopped for me, they said they needed her, too,” Schneider said. The response was so positive, Hall and Schneider started a style consulting business in Solana Beach in January 2010 and that’s how Lauren Brandal was born.
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them. With one or two exceptions, the people she interviews are ordinary people. “They won no prizes,” she said. “They didn’t become presidents.They had been moms and dads, many from large families. Most didn’t get the opportunity to go past elementary school, but they taught themselves and they were fearless that nothing would stop them if they wanted to do something.” The men were jacks of all trades and the women worked from sun up to sun
Lauren Brandal will be hosting a Fall Trunk Show Sept. 30 at the studio, 506 Pacific Ave. For more information, visit www.lauren brandal.com. “The name, Lauren Brandal, is from our daughters. Lauren is Christina’s daughter and Brandal is my daughter’s middle name,” Schneider said. “We met when our daughters were in kindergarten together, so it only seemed appropriate that we include them in the business.”
To date, the women have sold almost $19,000 worth of clothes and the business is proving to be successful and unique. “Essentially we go into people’s closets to help them identify what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “Then, we go shopping for them to find the best deals at the best prices. Once we have a good selection of clothes, the client can either come to our studio to try on the clothes and have a fun night out or we go to their
home and help pull together their existing wardrobe with their new pieces.” The duo also creates “look books” for customers, where we photograph each piece of clothing along with all of its options, so they can pull out their book each morning and “find” their outfit for the day. “The best part for us is that we simply return whatever they don’t want, so we have no inventory, thus keeping our profits high and our costs low,” Schneider said.
down. There were no conveniences and the workloads were intense. “There was no need for a gym,” she said. One of the stories memorable to Mann is a woman, 80, who had just lost her husband of 60 years a few months earlier. “She decided to share a story she had never shared before — even with her family.” She was a Jewish girl in Germany on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, 1938, when within a few hours the Nazis destroyed or damaged thousands of synagogues, Jewish homes and businesses. It became known as Kristallnacht (night of
broken glass) because of the broken glass that covered the streets. This night also marked the escalating violence against Jews and the beginning of the Holocaust. Her father was taken away that night. “When the mother stopped crying she said to the girl to come along, we are going to walk over to the mines. When her daughter asked why, her mother told her they were going to jump in and end their lives. The mother told her the reason was that the world would not be fit for Jewish people to live in.” “She was 10 and had never told the story,” Mann
said. “If I hadn’t asked, those children and grandchildren would have not known this.” This story has a happy ending, in that the whole family was reunited in the United States a few years later, but not before the girl and her brother were sent to the U.S. via Kindertransport, which transported children out of harms way. It was similar to the Underground Railroad used by American slaves. The family’s silver Shabbat candlesticks were smuggled out in her suitcase. To learn more about Lifetime History Videos, call Mann at (760) 650-6262 or visit www.lifetimehistory video.com.
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started his television career and continued to serve in the Marine Corps Reserves as a test pilot and instructor. He also earned a law degree and eventually became a judge. With a penchant for wearing boots and a hat with his suits, Anderson became known as the cowboy judge. He heard sales tax cases throughout California that included a ruling against TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart that was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Anderson eventually returned to San Diego and settled in Del Mar in 2004. In 2007, he was honored as part of the San Diego County Fair’s Salute to Heroes. The exhibit featured a giant display and video screen showing footage taken from cameras onboard F-4U Corsairs during the war, allowing visitors to watch Anderson dog-fighting against enemy planes. Banners with his image hung on street lamps in Solana Beach and Del Mar. Anderson, who was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, married Ruth Edlefsen in 1942. She passed
ON THE AIR AND IN THE AIR Before embarking on his TV career, Bob Anderson served as a fighter pilot during World War II. Courtesy photo
away in 2006. He is survived by three daughters, a brother, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. As part of his recognition by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, two of his granddaughters, North County residents Allie and Lindsey Dixon, were invited to walk the red carpet and attend this year's Emmy Awards on Aug. 29. “It’s wonderful that the work that he did so long ago is being recognized,” Allie Dixon said.
“He used to tell great stories about working in the early days of television. “He would have an idea and then he would have to figure out how to make it work,” she said. “He used to say, ‘I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I just figured it out as I went along.’” To get the weather report for “Farm and Home News,” Anderson would drive to a weather station every day on his way to the studio. “The people working at
the weather station would give him the weather data and then he would relay the forecast to the viewers,” said Dixon, who remembers her grandfather as an “ethical, hardworking person” who “laughed all the time and always had something funny to say.” “But he was very humble about all of his achievements,” Dixon said.“He never talked about himself. Even his closest friends didn’t know all that he had accomplished.”
veterans park since Fort Rosecrans was closed in the CONTINUED FROM 4 1960s. A memorial park in to the prestigious Jockey San Bernardino County has Club based in New York City been used as an alternate. and Lexington, Ky. Also on the board is Joe Harper, Del School construction Mar CEO. Jockey Club was contrast founded in 1894 and its prinRancho Santa Fe cipal mission is the improve- debuted its R. Roger Rowe ment of Thoroughbred school recently. It is equipped breeding and racing. Fravel with a state-of-the-art media joined the Surfside track in center. The works. Plus beau1990. tification of the campus and what remained of the former Miramar Memorial building. The cost? In the Park neighborhood of $4 million. Burials will begin in Contrast that to the new February adjacent to Robert F. Kennedy Miramar Marine Corps Community School in L.A. Station and will provide the with an anticipated 4,200 stufirst burials in the county at a dents from K to eighth grade
at a cost of $578 million. It’s located on the former Ambassador Hotel site where Sen. Kennedy was assassinated.
held by Nick Pavone, who retired ... Solbeach is in the process of writing a landscape ordinance to comply with state law that mandates water efficient landscaping ... Carol Childs, whose mom Wanett was a great community booster, has been seated as prexy of Solbeach Civic & Historical Society ... Del Mar Rotary Club has scheduled its fun Chile & Quackers Challenge on Oct. 9. Hasta la Vista
EYE ON THE COAST
One-liners Del Mar Union School District had to do some shuffling when 240 more students showed up on the first day of school ... The gavel will fall Tuesday, Sept. 29 on the sale of a choice Balboa Avenue parcel in the Surfside City provided the bid will cover the remaining balance on the Shores parcel in the neighborhood of $3.5 million ... Tony Michel is the new Rancho Santa Fe Fire District chief filling the spot
Bill Arballo is a retired, highly opinionated columnist in the Flower Capital of the Universe and is the father of Councilwoman Teresa Barth. E-mail barballo@coastnewsgroup.com.