WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2006
Volume 5, Issue 69
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
Watershed plan to go before council
DAILY LOTTERY SUPER LOTTO 3 9 13 27 33 Meganumber: 13 Jackpot: $7 Million
BY RYAN HYATT Daily Press Staff Writer
FANTASY 5 3 6 12 20 21
DAILY 3 Daytime: Evening:
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05 California Classic 08 Gorgeous George 03 Hot Shot
RACE TIME:
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Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the winning number information, mistakes can occur. In the event of any discrepancies, California State laws and California Lottery regulations will prevail. Complete game information and prize claiming instructions are available at California Lottery retailers. Visit the California State Lottery web site: http://www.calottery.com
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
Even with the nation at war and casualties mounting, some Pentagon officials evidently believe that one way to reduce military families’ stress is to teach them to laugh. Its “laughter instructor,” retired Army Col. James Scott, holds therapeutic sessions around the country with National Guard families that feature walking like a penguin and blurting “ha ha hee hee and ho ho,” according to a January USA Today story. Said Scott, “The guiding principle is to laugh for no reason (which is) one of the reasons it works so well for military families.”
CITY HALL — Plans are under way to determine whether residents are ready to pay for an ambitious watershed protection plan intended to clean up Santa Monica Bay. In December, the City Council approved a contract to complete a draft plan to improve water quality along Santa Monica’s coast over the next two decades. Brown and Caldwell, the firm assisting City Hall with the project, is finishing the $277,500 draft plan,
which is set to go before the council on March 14. The plan is a response to tighter regulations by the Regional Water Quality Board to reduce pollution in Southern California’s surface waters, including Santa Monica Bay. The regulations require each city to develop a plan to address how it will make its waters cleaner. The project would make Santa Monica compliant by 2020 with several environmental factors, initiating dramatic reductions in bacterial, chemical and solid waste that enter Santa Monica Bay through its stormwater system,
according to city officials. While city officials are supportive of cleaning the bay, there will be a considerable need for a new funding source for the project, they said. Capital costs alone could reach $95 million over a period of 15 years. In addition, operating and maintenance costs could at least double the current $36 annual stormwater fee homeowners pay, according to a recent staff report. To secure funding, the council authorized city staff in December to explore whether a bond could be raised so the project can move for-
ward. The cities of Santa Monica and Calabasas are set to undergo a joint polling venture in the next few weeks whereby residents will indicate if they are interested in cleaning the city’s beaches and coastal waters, and whether they’re willing to pay for it. Councilman Kevin McKeown said Santa Monica has historically led the region in responsible stormwater and other outflow issues. The kind of cleanup imagined for the bay would be a further step in this tradition, he said, and it See WATERSHED, page 5
Towing the line
TODAY IN HISTORY Today is the 32nd day of 2006. There are 333 days left in the year. On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members. In 1861, Texas voted to secede from the Union. In 1893, inventor Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world’s first motion picture studio, his “Black Maria,” in West Orange, N.J. In 1920, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police came into existence.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “Every 10 years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.”
Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Curtis Russell, 31, and his wife, Kim Russell, 31, employees of Scooter Media, drive down Rose Boulevard toward the beach while towing billboards promoting The Museum of Contemporary Arts’ new exhibition,“Ecstasy, In and About Altered States.” The exhibition will be showing through February 20th.
EDWARD STEICHEN
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER (1879-1973)
LOCAL
INDEX Horoscopes Don’t push, Aries
2
Snow & Surf Report Water temperature: 57°
3
Governor hands out student diplomas BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
Opinion The right to assisted suicide
4
State Rebound from a wipeout
8
National Alito takes his seat
11
Comics Strips tease
16
Classifieds Ad space odyssey
17-19
CITYWIDE — High school seniors with disabilities who have not passed the state’s exit exam will still receive their diplomas under legislation signed Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The temporary reprieve only applies to roughly 4,000 stuSee DIPLOMA, page 5
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Four failed safeguards led to spill By The Associated Press
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — An investigation shows multiple safeguards designed to prevent a major sewage spill at a pumping station failed on Jan. 15, causing 100,000 gallons of sewage to spill into the Pacific Ocean and foul beaches. The preliminary investigation showed all four safeguards failed. The cause had previously focused on a failure of an electrical system that prevented motors from running at the pumping station.
But the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County uncovered a larger system failure that raises questions about how well pumping stations across the region operate. “We always learn something new and important from unusual events like this,” said Joe Haworth of the county sanitation district. “Most of the time all 550 million gallons of sewage that we pump each day stays in the sewer, so it took a lot of independent circumstances to conspire to make the system go awry.”
Electrical problems caused the station to shut down and sewage to back up, an emergency backup electrical system that was supposed to turn on in the event of a power outage failed to activate, an alarm system didn’t work and a separate system designed to measure the depth and pressure inside the pumping station also didn’t work. Crews contained most of the estimated 1.7 million gallons of sewage that escaped the pumping station, but some 100,000 gallons flowed into Santa Monica Bay.
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